read me

WHO: Just a guy living in Minneapolis. Farnaby is a name i have used online for decades at this point and its one I answer to in real life sometimes. Cyclist, urbanist, interested in open source technology, reading, and other offline activities.

In general though I am just some dude.

WHAT: This is just a site that I am using to corral all of my social media and other internet presence into a single unified space. A personal home page of sorts, where you can find links to anything that I run or manage on a personal level. At the moment that is primarily comprised of bluesky & pixelfed accounts, although I do have a mastodon account that I don’t really use. Also a link t steam if you want to see me play the same game over and over again. I might add in a link to a blog (if I start blogging again), a storygraph if I start that, and possibly an open source strava clone of some sort. Who knows what else could get added, the sky is the limit.

WHY: This is the trickier one. I have had websites for decades at this point along with various social platforms at one point or another: twitter, livejournal, steam, I am sure there are others that I am forgetting. In that time it has always been important to, where possible, own my shit. In the age of walled gardens online that’s difficult but with the destruction of twitter and conversion to X it has inspired a number of people to start down the path of trying to extricate themselves from those walled gardens. With people fleeing facebook, x, insta etc. in search of something that won’t profit billionaires, having your own website is one way to do that. You own the content, you decide what goes where and what the rules are (within reason). It also allows you to control your own idenity online to some extent which is always worthwhile. I highly recommend a website if possible.

nora.zone has a manifesto about it that i do agree with and frankly says it better than I do. I might use different tools and resources but the general message of “Own your own data and don’t rely on others platforms” is true.

Also you can use it as your handle on bluesky and that’s kind of fun.

HOW: This website is built using hugo which is a pretty great framework for putting together a lightweight static website. I know some people use it for regular blogging or as a portfolio builder, etc. but I have only every really used it to make lightweight static sites that don’t see a lot of updates. If you’re, for some reason, interested in knowing more you can either follow the link or ask me on bluesky I guess.

WHEN & WHERE: right here, right now.