You found a letter from Katie...

Hey, thanks for visiting my website! My name is Katie and I'm the webmaster of KatiePla.net! I hope while you're here you can learn something new, see something fun, or feel inspired by the wonder of the world wide web. (...Maybe even to make your own website?)

With how uncommon personal websites are nowadays, and how likley it is that the person reading this hasn't ventured into the Indie Web before, I wanted to begin my introduction by explaining why I'm here and what the Indie Web means to me.

I love the indie web. I get to meet people from all around the world just by putting myself out there and making digital expressions of the things I love and care about. Some of the most creative and genuine people I've met online have come from the Indie Web, and I'm very proud to keep this side of the internet alive.

Unlike the rapid fire pace of content creation and consumption found in social media, the Indie Web calls for us to take things slow. To not only express ourselves in an authentic, realistically paced, and though-out way - it also asks us to do the same when exploring the sites of others. To visit each site with the open-mindedness of meeting another person, taking the time to watch their personalities and interests unfold as you explore what they've decided was most important to share with the world.

Oftentimes I can spend hours on just a single site, and can I spend just as many tending to my own. The indie web is a place of quality over quantity, a breath of fresh air on the internet where I can be fully human. Its a place that allows me to express myself fully without having to cram my whole identity into a character limit, worrying more about getting strangers to care about my posts instead of finding true friends who genuinely like me.

Having a website can mean a lot of things for a lot of people, but for me, I view my website as a personal collage, a letter, a rebellion, an art gallery and an art piece all rolled in to one - a complete digital reflection of the self. It is absolutely an artistic medium for me, and I hope in exploring my page you can feel that too.

If this is your first time on the Indie Web, welcome! I hope you find joy and inspiration in the space I've created here, and I hope it inspires you to keep exploring the vibrant world of the Indie Web.

Remember: The internet was not created just to end up as a service for corporate sponsored media. It was a technological creation made by humans, for humans, in an effort to better connect us to one another. We have the right to make the internet whatever we want it to be! It is a beautiful, human-made collaborative art piece of history and friendship, and I hope one day you can take part in sharing this joy.

See you around the web one day,

Your new friend,

Katie