itches
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Itches, in the context of the indieweb, are individuals's personal sources of annoyances using the web or in particular their own website, that they use to itemize and prioritize what to create, design, build, and improve on their own website, often by first listing such "itches" on a section in their User: page or on their own website.
Why
“The best way to complain is to make things.” — James Murphy
Because you should focus on scratching your own itches, instead of being distracted by other people's drama about and on sites and software you don't control.
The focus on scratching your own itches was one of the motivations for founding IndieWebCamp.
Listing itches on your User: page is a key step in wikifying and keeping yourself focused on creating what you care about, rather than being distracted by the latest Twitter drama.
Creating is self-empowering, and the follow-up, deploying on your own website and selfdogfooding your creations, doubly so.
How
Write down your itches
Collect Itches on your User: page in an == Itches == section.
== Itches == * something you want on your own site * something else that annoys you about the web you use * ... etc.
Prioritize your itches
When you start collecting lots of itches, you may want to start prioritizing them, perhaps by which are the most annoying, or which annoy you the most frequently.
Start a "Working on" section for that, and put what you're currently working on at the top. Even just one or two at a time:
== Working On == * the next thing I'm working on * the next next thing I'm working on * ... etc.
Create and ship
Then start doing and creating the first thing on your working on list, and deploy it to your site, no matter how small, no matter how partial a solution.
Ship early and ship often.
Use what you create
Selfdogfood what you create, even small things, because only then will you feel what really annoys you the most and what you should work on next.
Then repeat writing down those itches, and iterate openly.
IndieWeb Examples
Examples of IndieWeb community members's itches documentation (feel free to add your own)
- Aaron Parecki
- Tantek's More use-case for Falcon (formerly "itches" for Falcon)
- Ben Werdmüller's itches
- David Shanske's itches
- Colin Tedford's wants ("wants" b/c thinking of them as "itches" makes me itchy)
Kartik Prabhu's itches: on own site [1] and on the wiki User:Kartikprabhu.com#Itch
Chris Aldrich as of 2018-06-27 supports a custom post type of itch to keep track of his itches on his website.- Add yourself here… (see this for more details)
Alternatives
If you the term and metaphor of "itches" does not appeal to you, consider using an alternative term (or suggest another one, including a link to your User: page demonstrating its use, eating your own cooking as it were):
- wants — used by
Colin Tedford, see: User:Colintedford.com#Wants - interests — used by
gRegor Morrill, see: User:Gregorlove.com#Interests - more use-cases — used by
Tantek Çelik, see: User:Tantek.com#more_use-cases - ...