Week of Mon 28th Apr 2025

I spend quite a chunk of time online interacting with people through various small communities I’m a member of. Some I organise myself, but all reflect a subset of my varied interests.

During lockdown, when looking for things to do online, I idly asked on LinkedIn one day whether any artists wanted to get together and do an online expo of their work. Overnight, I was bombarded by replies and so The Artocalypse was born.

I quickly cobbled together a discord server and sent instructions to those who were interested. The energy and collaboration was instant between the artists. They started to hang out, do art together, share work and experiences and prepare for the exhibitions ahead. We held two ticketed events, over weekends in October and November 2020. Each was attended by over 200 people, and on the second we even had live opera on the opening night!

But more importantly, friendships were formed and people began to see the power of global interaction through digital platforms. We are still going strong today and currently have a poetry expo, to which anyone can submit an entry.

A couple of years ago, I also set up another, very different, community in the town where I live. This is Dursley Green, where people interested in the environment, sustainability and related issues can meet and network. We hold a drinks event once a month, but found that we needed an online place where we could leave information and dive into topics a bit deeper. So, I created an online hub, which is very low traffic, but an important place for people to leave information.

For this hub, I found a very nice forum software called Flarum which was very simple to install and configure, and has pretty much sat there doing it’s job with practically zero maintenance from me.

Another engaging community I joined recently is the Interactive Investor community, exclusively open to people who use that investing platform. This is a great place to connect with like-minded people and get inspiration and information on different ways to improve financial outcomes.

But in addition to the app, I have created a “community within a community” by hosting a fortnightly Zoom call on retirement with a subset of members. This usually has around 20 people on it – some regulars and some new each time. This is another example of a small web community created out of thin air with just some standard tools.

And last, but certainly not least, there is the blogging community on the Indie Web which is very small and connected by dozens of invisible wires. I’ve only been writing this blog for a year, but I have taken part in challenges, carnivals, reply posts and Zoom calls. I leave entries in guestbooks, send emails to other bloggers and occasionally receive emails from readers.

These human protocols emerge organically to create a welcoming and engaging community that is not hosted on a central platform. It’s remarkable that it exists.

So I was excited a year ago to see a blog carnival host spot available for May 2025. I signed up without hesitation, and look forward to reading what this incredible small web community creates.

This post is my submission for the May 2025 IndieWeb Blog Carnival, hosted this month by me! If you have a blog, why not make a post on this topic and join in?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this topic.

I’m thrilled to be hosting the May 2025 IndieWeb Blog Carnival on a topic really close to my heart:

Small Web Communities

Everyone is welcome to participate. To enter, write a post on your blog and email me the link to chris@uncountable.uk. Write in any language you choose.

Submissions are now in, which you can read in the round up post. If you have a piece to include, it’s not too late! Just email me and I’ll add it in.

What is a small web community?

A community is a group of people who share a common interest or characteristic, and interact with each other in specific places, either geographical and/or online. They have cultural, social and other bonds which bind them together, resulting in participation that allows the community to thrive.

A web community is a one where some, or all, the of the interaction between members takes place online. There are many tools used to build web communities: forum software, WhatsApp groups, Discord, Zoom, blog networks and many, many more.

I believe strongly that small web communities are where the most engaging and fulfilling of all online interactions happen.

I’d love to hear your experiences of them, why and how you participate and what you think are the key ingredients for a successful small web community.

My own submission for this month’s carnival explores the different small communities I participate in, and how they enhance my life.

I really can’t wait to read your submissions. I’ll update the list below as they come in, so keep checking back during the month!

Submissions received

• Small Web Communities by Chris of Uncountable Thoughts
• 30 Years of Web Communities by Lou of Living Out Loud
• From AOL to Artocalypse by Kimberly of I AM Kimberly
• The Curious Case of Disappearing Small Web Communities by Andrei
• Co-organisers help me make events happen by James of James’ Coffee Blog
• Looking back on small web communities by Ruslan Osipov
• Small Web Communities – from a distance by Sigi
• When a community graduates by Juhis of Juha-Matti Santala
• The Small Web Made Me by ww0cj
• We Need Small Web Communities by Britt of BrittHub
• A case for smaller online communities by Jeppe of winther blog
• The Virtual Gang That Felt Like Home by Yordi
• RIP glitch by Loren of ribo.zone
• Good old online communities by V.H. Belvadi
• On the importance of communities by Stefan of Stefan Bohacek
• Small Web Communities by Sara of Sara Jakša
• More Easily Joining Small Web Communities by Reilly of Reilly Spitzfaden
• Small Online Communities by John of John’s World Wide Wall Display
• Small Web Communities by Daryl Sun of Daryl Sun’s Journal
• Working on the plumbing in a small web community by Sacha of Sacha Chua

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The 2025 programme for the Stroud Wildlife Survey Group is now published and we kicked the season off today with an evening nature walk around Box Wood and Stuart Fawkes grassland.

I organised the route and logistics, but Jen was leading the wildlife side. There were 13 members who turned out in the warm evening sun, and we really just took an informal amble through the woods, with plenty of stops and lots of things identified.

The most stunning thing on first entering the woods was the snow carpet of wild garlic – this wasn’t out at all when I was there two weeks ago for the recce.

We started with the birdsong and noted Robin, Blackbird, Common Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Wren, Song Thrush, Great Tit and Greenfinch.

There were many woodland plants identified, including a very species rich part of open canopy near the disused quarry.

We finished by 8.30pm, when it was just starting to go dark. A really great start to the survey season.

The pond planting task with Stroud Valleys Project at Fromebridge is coming to an end this week. A huge number of people turned out this morning to help with the final push, and I was pleased to see four people from three other groups I’m involved with around the Cotswolds.

It was a baking hot day, so sun screen and floppy hat required from the start, as well as regular water breaks. I decided to focus on planting around one of the islands with Suzi.

The water level was still relatively low, but care was needed to cross with baskets of vegetation.

But once over, it was relatively easy to push the plants into the soft sand just below the waterline. We just had to make regular trips back to the bank team to collect more plants.

There was delicious cake and flapjacks provided by Mike and Mary in the morning break, and we stopped for lunch around 1pm. After lunch, we took a stroll down to the smaller pond to check how the plants were doing that we first put in a couple of weeks back.

They looked amazingly healthy. All still in place, and growing quite a bit taller. This was very encouraging because it won’t be long before they sprout new leaves and really thicken up.

So last push when we return on Friday and then let nature take it’s course.

I sat down this evening to write up my pond adventure today, when I noticed that this was the 500th entry in the diary.

This feels like a bit of a milestone. I started keeping a regular diary in 2023, and I’ve not missed a day of significant activity (there were also plenty of other days where nothing major happened, which I also enjoy very much).

The main reason for starting a diary was to make sense of all the things I do and not let them somehow all blend into one forgettable mass. Writing up a day at the point it happens allows you to include details that become important in the future.

I found a great way to surface that previous content too. At the end of every post are some entry summaries for that same week, but in a previous year. This means that when I’m proof reading today’s entry, I can scroll down and see a few old posts that I had forgotten about in 2023, or 2024.

Because it’s week based, when I make my diary entries next week, I’ll be reminded of a whole different set of previous days.

So, assuming I keep up the same pace of active lifestyle that I currently lead, I should be passing 1,000 entries sometime mid-2027.

Kathy is running a series of botanical surveys on Stinchcombe Hill to collect evidence for how the management and grazing techniques will improve things over the next few years. Today was the first session of the season and a few of us gathered at 10am in the hot sun to make a start.

There were quite a few of us from various local organisations, including Dursley Green Drinks, so it was good to meet a few new people and catch up with others.

Kathy set out the basic methodology of surveying 10m grid squares. We had 4 red flags that would be placed on the corners located with GPS, and then went through the same process inside each square.

We surveyed a previously unmapped area along from the clubhouse, not far from the woodland edge which is known to have orchids and other species.

The first question in each grid square was about cowslip cover. This is a good indicator species for the area, and we used the DAFOR scale (Dominant, Abundant, Frequent, Occasional, Rare).

After that, it was all about getting on hands and knees and shouting as many species as we could see. It was much more species rich on close inspection than a casual glance would show. Yellow rattle, Lady’s bedstraw, bird’s foot trefoil, ribwort plantain, St John’s Wort were some early spots. But we then added knapweed, yarrow, milk wort, common vetch, mouse ear chickweed and many others. And a couple of orchids – common spotted and what we think is a green winged or fragrant orchid (but that needs confirmation afterwards by Kathy).

It was a baking day. We stopped half way through for water and a chit chat and then completed the remaining squares by 1pm. Altogether 10 were recorded, so a good start.

In the afternoon, Rene dropped by to get his website gallery fixed, and afterwards I just chilled out indoors watching snooker.

The final day for the pond planting project at the Fromebridge reserve with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. It’s taken most of April, and been a huge volunteer effort, but the results are already starting to show.

The smaller pond was completed a couple of weeks ago, and has been left undisturbed. The planted vegetation has shot up already, giving a glimpse as to what this habitat might look like in a few months.

We focused today on filling in gaps around the big pond. We spent the first 15 minutes walking with Pete and identifying which were the main areas of focus. The technique was the same – to dig into the silt piles on the bank and retrieve plants buried underneath.

It proved a bit harder today, firstly because the baking heat of the last week made the silt harden. But also because a lot of the plants have been recovered already. We still found enough though to get a good number planted out.

The pond level was very low, but the good news is that the leak has been identified. This will be fixed next week, and the pond filled back to the required level.

At break, we had delicious cake from Susie and wild garlic scones from Caroline. These tasted amazing, so will try baking some myself.

Met up first thing with Maran and Graham to do the regular monthly riverfly count at the ocean. It’s been a long while since we saw any mayfly here, and given we are now in May, I was hoping to see them today.

The river was very low – as low as I’ve seen it here. It’s not rained for a while, and I don’t think we’re due very much in the near future either. I took the kick sample and was able to safely go across to a nice habitat in the middle of the river.

There were a lot of fish caught up in the sample which we had to release before getting on with the count. You could see at first glance that the bucket was teeming with life.

But sadly, no mayfly. We did have most other species though, and a large number of blue-winged olives which took the overall site score to 9 – one of the highest we’ve recorded in this spot.