The Smallweb Subway

The Smallweb Subway is an experimental project that attempts to bring a feeling of space to the indie web by using a subway system as a metaphor for connections between hobby websites!

This is a work in progress, so right now the Smallweb Subway is only made up of a few small lines (webrings), but I'm slowly adding more interest-based lines. Once each line reaches a point where it can be visualized nicely, I'll add it to the Smallweb Subway Map to show a visualization of all the lines and how they're connected!

The Smallweb Subway is an open community project and people can request to join the growing network!

Instructions to join

If you have a page of your website that is relevant to a line of the Smallweb Subway and you'd like to have your site added, there are three things you'll need to do:

  1. Identify which line of the Smallweb Subway is most relevant for you to join. Each line has a specific KEYWORD which is important for the following steps. Right now there are three keywords:

    • poetry (Red Line) : Websites showcasing original poetry.
    • comics (Orange Line) : Websites showcasing original comics.
    • creativesclub (Yellow Line) : Websites belonging to member of Creatives Club.
    • doodlecrew (Green Line) : Websites belonging to members of the Doodle Crew Discord server.
    • zines (Blue Line) : Websites with zines and zine resources.
    • scifi (Silver Line) : Websites with original science fiction work.
  2. Substituting KEYWORD with one of the keywords above, add the following lines of code to the <body> of your page's .html file where you'd like the widget to appear:

    <script src="https://gusbus.space/smallweb-subway.js/KEYWORD.js"></script>
    <smallweb-subway-KEYWORD></smallweb-subway-KEYWORD>
  3. Once you see the widget appear on your site, the buttons won't work until your site's info is added to the right list. Have this info (URL of page with widget, title of page, author name/alias) added to the corresponding JSON file in one of the following ways:

    • Send Gus a DM with your info (@GusBusDraws on most sites), or
    • Email smallwebsubway at gmail dot com, or
    • Submit a pull request on GitHub editing the corresponding JSON directly.

If there are no relevant lines for you, you're welcome to suggest a new line by reaching out to Gus!

Developer Instructions

To install the p5 types with Node.js, first check that Node is installed:

node --version

If Node returns the version, make sure you have navigated to the project directory and initialize a new Node package:

npm init -y

Then, download & install the p5 package:

npm install @types/p5

Change Log

2024-08-07

  • Add force URL and force new tab options to poetry line
  • Add "flower in binary" to poetry line

2024-08-06

  • Add force URL option to scifi lines
  • Add force new tab option to creativesclub and scifi lines

2024-08-05

  • Add "window.top" to creativesclub.js test iframe exiting
  • Add force URL option to creativesclub line
  • Add The Fuzzy Slug to the comics line
  • Make more space on comics line

2024-08-04

  • Add candycaneeater07 to doodlecrew line
  • Make the main station bigger
  • Update legend to bubbles at the top (including scifi)
  • Move stations declarations in map.js into addStations
  • Stretch width of scifi line
  • Shorten poetry line
  • Make section of comics and doodlecrew lines co-linear
  • Adjust top of doodlecrew line to have two levels

2024-08-03

  • Add force new tab option to comics line
  • Add force URL option to comics line
  • Add logic to doodlecrew.js to test ability to force a URL from the HTML

2024-07-30

  • Add granmichi to CC line
  • Rearrange CC line to match map

2024-07-23

  • Add DiabloAfterDark to Comics Line

2024-07-19

  • Add Gus's Scifi Gallery to Doodle Crew Line
  • Add Keeping Time to Comics Line
  • Add Gus's Scifi Gallery to Scifi Line

2024-07-18

  • Reroute Scifi Line through Yuki's station
  • Add Yuki to Comics Line
  • Add Neat Hobby! to map
  • Add Neat Hobby! to Comics Line

2024-07-17

  • Add Scifi Line to map
  • Add Ether to Zines Line
  • Update map.js with current state on GusBus.Space
  • Copy map.js from subway-map
  • Add map-wip.js where JSONs will be loaded

2024-07-09

  • Add Dion Ra to Scifi Line

2024-07-08

  • Add Varve to Scifi Line
  • Add Clockwork to Scifi Line
  • Add files for new Scifi Line

2024-07-02

  • Add Ultraviolents to Comics Line

2024-07-01

  • Add MyDogStoleThisWebsite to the Zines Line

2024-06-27

  • Prefix Yuki's site URL with "www." to handle redirect
  • Add yukiclarke.com to CC & Comics Lines
  • Add custom/creativesclub-yuki.js
  • Add custom/comics-yuki.js
  • Add dead.garden/zines to Zines Line
  • Add dead.garden/poetry to Poetry Line

2024-06-26

  • Simplify instructions

2024-06-25

  • Reorder Doodle Crew line to match map
  • Reorder CC line to match map
  • Swap colors of poetry and zines lines

2024-06-24

  • Add Mythical Type to zines line
  • Add custom/zines-bumblechub.js as workaround for Google Sites
  • Add bumblechub to zines line
  • Add DoodleBot to CC line

2024-06-23

  • Add the zines line

2024-06-21

  • Update the README with instructions to join a line
  • Add the poetry line with corresponding files!

2024-06-18

  • Remove background and border style from widgets

2024-06-17

2024-02-13

2023-12-05

  • Add Yama to the Doodle Crew ring
  • Use concatenated hostname + pathname to find ring data JSON

2023-12-01

  • Add Meg to the Doodle Crew ring
  • Update widget text to exclude Doodle Crew link

2023-11-17

  • Rename webring data loading functions to have separate names from DoodleBot data loading
  • Update the loadJSON() function to take a URL as an argument
  • Add change log