Test Post - This is a web page. B

There's not much here. Just words.

And you're reading them.

We've become obsessed with fancy designs, responsive layouts, and scripts that do magical things.

But the most powerful tool on the web is still words.

I wrote these words, and you're reading them: that's magical.

I'm in a little city in British Columbia; you're probably somewhere else. I wrote this early in the morning, June 20th, 2013; you're reading it at a different time. I wrote this on my laptop; you could be reading this on your phone, a tablet or a desktop.

You and I have been able to connect because I wrote this and you're reading it. That's the web. Despite our different locations, devices, and time-zones we can connect here, on a simple HTML page.

I wrote this in a text editor. It's 6 kB. I didn't need a Content Management System, a graphic designer, or a software developer. There's not much code on this page at all: just simple markup for paragraphs, hierarchy, and emphasis.

I remember teaching my daughter to code HTML when she was 8. The first thing she wrote was a story about a squirrel.

=> http://bizbox.ca/kidlet

She wasn't "writing HTML"; she was sharing something with the world. She couldn't believe that she could write a story on our home computer, and then publish it for the world to see. She didn't care about HTML; she cared about sharing her stories.

You are still reading.

Think about all the things you could communicate with a simple page like this. If you're a businessperson, you could sell something. If you're a teacher, you could teach something. If you're an artist, you could show something you've made. And if your words are good, people will read them.

If you're a web designer, I challenge you to think about the words first. Instead of starting with a style guide or a Photoshop mockup, start with words on a page.

What do you have to say? If you don't know, there's not much use in adding all that other cruft. Just start with one page, with a single focus. Write it and publish it, and then iterate on that. Every time you're about to add something, ask yourself: does this help me communicate better? Will that additional styling, image, or hyperlink give my audience more understanding? If the answer is "no," don't add it.

At its heart, web design should be about words. Words don't come after the design is done. Words are the beginning, the core, the focus.

Start with words.

Cheers,
Justin Jackson
=> http://twitter.com/mijustin

Do you like to make stuff on the web? Subscribe to my newsletter.
=> https://justinjackson.ca/newsletter

Translations

Slovenian - thanks to Leon Škrilec
=> https://justinjackson.ca/words_sl.html
=> https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-%C5%A1krilec-67317792/

Catalan - thanks to Jordi Nebot
=> https://justinjackson.ca/words_ca.html
=> http://jordinebot.me/

Afrikaans – thanks to Leo Gopal
=> https://justinjackson.ca/words_af.html
=> https://twitter.com/LeoGopal

Brazilian Portuguese – thanks to Heitor Belloni
=> https://justinjackson.ca/words_pt-BR.html
=> https://twitter.com/heitorbelloni

Chinese – thanks to Zhuangda Zhu
=> https://justinjackson.ca/words_zh.html
=> https://twitter.com/ZhuangdaZhu

Original:

=> https://justinjackson.ca/words.html

This test post meant to test rewriting the original into Gemtext, instead of HTML. Justin used simple, basic, minimal HTML markup to craft his post, which is great, but it's still a tag-based markup.

I prefer something closer to raw, plain text that can be converted with a utility. But on Gemini, no conversion is needed. Gemini browsers process Gemtext, which is a subset of an unofficial Markdown spec called CommonMark. Gemtext supports blockquote, unordered lists, code blocks, and headings 1 through 3.

Justin used bolding and italicizing within his post, but Gemtext supports neither. I have learned that I don't need to italicize content. It would be nice if Gemtext supported bolding, but if I need to emphasize in a BOLD manner, I capitalize the text, which on the internet means shouting. Shouting is emphasizing.

Obviously, this page is the HTML version of what I typed. Here's the text version.

=> http://sora.soupmode.com/2021/04/03/test-post-this-is-a-web-page.json

And the JSON version, using my own JSON key-value setup.

=> http://sora.soupmode.com/2021/04/03/test-post-this-is-a-web-page.json

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