The people who make the internet feel like home

I've always been a bit of an outsider, mostly by choice. I like watching people and seeing what they make and write, but joining in never came naturally to me. Every now and then, though, I come across someone I can't help admiring. This post is about a few of them.

These are my impressions, from what I've seen and from the conversations I've had. The people I mean make the world a little better, bring others together, or make something generous because they care.

I'd had an account on omg.lol for seven or eight months without talking to anyone, and I was fine just lurking. Then one day I decided to say hello, and I'm glad I did.

One of the first people I got to know was Adam Newbold, the person behind omg.lol. He built something I didn't know I was missing: a place on the internet where people seemed happy to see each other. The tools are delightful, but what impressed me most was the care behind them. Adam pays attention to the people who use what he built, and I've seen that care reach the wider community too, beyond the website.

The other people I met there seemed to share that instinct to help, make things and encourage each other, and some of them became friends. Maybe for the first time in a long while, I found a place online where I wanted to be, mostly listening and learning, and now and then contributing something of my own.

There were some coincidences too. Earlier that year I had come across MacManX, the website of James Huff. I spent a good while on his photographs and posts, and his personality comes through all over the site. It feels like his actual home on the web, and finding a personal site like that is a particular pleasure. So when I found James on omg.lol, I got excited. It was like bumping into a writer you'd been reading quietly for months.

Something similar happened with Robb Knight. I was already following his work and enjoying his ideas and little experiments. Robb keeps making things that remind you why the small web is worth exploring, playful projects with careful details, built because curiosity is reason enough to build something. I finally ran into him on omg.lol, and I didn't waste time telling him how long I'd been following his stuff.

Then there's Brennan. He's a generous person. I admire the way he puts time and energy into creating spaces and sharing resources so other people can have a place of their own online, and his writing and his many projects show real affection for a more welcoming, independent web. He keeps building things for the community he writes about, and I'm grateful I got to know him there.

Many more people at omg.lol have been kind to me, inspired me or made my days online better, and maybe I'll write about them another time. Here I picked the few I've talked to the most, at least in the short windows when my antisocial side allowed it.

And a special mention for Blake Watson. I knew his work before I knew him, so finding him in the same community was another nice surprise. He wrote HTML for People, a free online book for people who have never built a website. It takes something a lot of people find intimidating and makes it feel doable, even fun. I love the spirit of that project: the web shouldn't belong only to experts, and anyone should be able to make a little corner of it their own.

Maybe that's what these people have in common, for me. They make things, share what they know and leave the door open for the next person to come in. I went to omg.lol expecting another website to browse, and I found people I wanted to stop watching from a distance and actually talk to.

So, to Adam, James, Robb, Brennan, Blake and everyone else I didn't mention: thank you for your work and your kindness. You made the internet feel a little more like somewhere I belong.