Should Your Indieweb Site Be Mobile Friendly?
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 6:21 am
Earlier yesterday, I was shown a post by someone who resides on Nekoweb (I won't get into how flippant and annoying the devs at Nekoweb have been toward me), talking about this ... apparent growing movement in certain sections of the "indie web." The specific movement who design their websites to mirror what they believe it must have been like to be on Geocities in 1996, and this coincides with whether your site should display on mobile or not.
Now, like I said, a lot of this movement is dominated by people who weren't alive during the era of Geocities, so, a lot of the things they're doing are guesses, or inspiration gathered from hobbled together archives.
But I was there. I was on Geocities.
Back then, when we made our little sites, sure, people were out there trying to be cute, trying to have little gifs to represent their interests, but we were using what tools were available to us at the time. What little bits of HTML worked with the way things were designed, again, at that point in time.
We didn't use mobile viewport CSS styling to offer mobile users a more friendly and accessible experience, because there were no mobile phones that could view websites.
Now, in 2025, it's a bit different. You'll notice here, on my website, if you scrunch your browser down to the size of a mobile screen, the whole page shrinks, adjusts, the sidebars vanish, and the navigation menu button goes to the top of the screen.
Easy, right?
Yeah!
You can still make your website look like a 30 year old Geocities page, and then hide elements that wouldn't make sense on mobile using simple CSS.
To actively shun mobile users, or even serve them pages that say things like, "Fuck off" is just asinine.
Not everyone can afford a PC or a laptop, and not everyone even wants one.
We live in an age now where your phone is just as good, or in some cases, better than a lot of PCs out there. So why wouldn't someone want to use a smartphone as their main computing device?
Also, who said the indie web had to be mobile-hostile?
Like, sure, you can make your flashy, seizure inducing website and call it a day, but why go to the lengths of including CSS that detects whether someone is on mobile, and then go out of your way to tell them to eat some shit? Come on.
Anti-corporate doesn't and shouldn't mean anti-mobile-users.
And yeah, my website isn't 100% a Geocities clone. It's a mixture of old and new, and that's how I like to have it. Because I already went through that whole Geocities phase. I had an account on Melonland, until Melon banned me for telling an AI-slop-enjoyer that he deserves to be shunned, and to fuck off. But that's besides the point.
To expand on this further, I want to take a look at the top comment on Jb's post, by the user "joosh."
"This is why mobile hostility is getting worse," is a statement that just doesn't make any sense?
The idea of using some CSS to strip away some elements from your site specifically for a mobile viewport is that much of a pain to you? You don't even have to change the desktop version of your site!
But, Joosh, you're right. There are millions of other indie websites out there to see, and that's how potential mobile visitors are going to think, if they visit your website and it's got a huge message across the page that says "Mobile users eat my balls."
I just find it really strange that somehow the fun of web development is suddenly gone, when you're faced with typing ...
If you find yourself saying, "Wait is it that simple?"
Then my answer to you, is,
Yes.
In fact, you could expand on this, and use it to hide all sorts of things for mobile users that wouldn't work right. Like, if you've got the bulk of your content on the main div, then just show them that! If they want to see the whole site, they can just ... turn their phone sideways (unless you're using CSS to style this orientation as well).
I think, though, that a lot of this is just excuses, and those excuses are coming from a lot of very young adults, and maybe even teenagers. Because, in my time on Melonland (before I was banned for being anti-AI) I found myself feeling kind of out-of-place, in a space that was about building back the oldweb, as someone from the oldweb, because most of the users there were teenagers using code to express themselves. To express themselves, regardless of who else comes along.
Which is fine!
But you've gotta remember, the internet isn't a solitary expanse where only you exist, and if you want people to view your website for any reason, and in 2025, maybe, at least, don't make your site actively hostile to people using phones.
Because, believe it or not, most people are viewing your website on a phone.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/webdev/2025/08/ ... ly-oldweb/
Via jb's post.If you’re browsing the indie web on a phone, chances are that 8 of 10 indie sites isn’t designed to be responsive, and 2 or 3 of them are actively shunning mobile users. I get it, mobile responsiveness is not a priority, and it can be hard, but I still think it’s worth it.
Now, like I said, a lot of this movement is dominated by people who weren't alive during the era of Geocities, so, a lot of the things they're doing are guesses, or inspiration gathered from hobbled together archives.
But I was there. I was on Geocities.
Back then, when we made our little sites, sure, people were out there trying to be cute, trying to have little gifs to represent their interests, but we were using what tools were available to us at the time. What little bits of HTML worked with the way things were designed, again, at that point in time.
We didn't use mobile viewport CSS styling to offer mobile users a more friendly and accessible experience, because there were no mobile phones that could view websites.
Now, in 2025, it's a bit different. You'll notice here, on my website, if you scrunch your browser down to the size of a mobile screen, the whole page shrinks, adjusts, the sidebars vanish, and the navigation menu button goes to the top of the screen.
Easy, right?
Yeah!
You can still make your website look like a 30 year old Geocities page, and then hide elements that wouldn't make sense on mobile using simple CSS.
To actively shun mobile users, or even serve them pages that say things like, "Fuck off" is just asinine.
Not everyone can afford a PC or a laptop, and not everyone even wants one.
We live in an age now where your phone is just as good, or in some cases, better than a lot of PCs out there. So why wouldn't someone want to use a smartphone as their main computing device?
Also, who said the indie web had to be mobile-hostile?
Like, sure, you can make your flashy, seizure inducing website and call it a day, but why go to the lengths of including CSS that detects whether someone is on mobile, and then go out of your way to tell them to eat some shit? Come on.
Anti-corporate doesn't and shouldn't mean anti-mobile-users.
And yeah, my website isn't 100% a Geocities clone. It's a mixture of old and new, and that's how I like to have it. Because I already went through that whole Geocities phase. I had an account on Melonland, until Melon banned me for telling an AI-slop-enjoyer that he deserves to be shunned, and to fuck off. But that's besides the point.
To expand on this further, I want to take a look at the top comment on Jb's post, by the user "joosh."
Firstly, if you're designing a website that you expect people to read, and/or a site that you want people to visit, and enjoy, you aren't making a website that's just for yourself. It's not elitist to say this, and in fact, it's kind of selfish to think that nobody matters but you, when it comes to designing something that other people are going to see. It's, in fact, kind of a reactionary way to approach web design. And that's not a slope we wanna go down.Can we stop with this debate? Yes, accessibility is good. Nobody has ever disagreed with you, but a PERSONAL site is not for catering towards the viewer. It's for the webdev to creatively express themselves. It's the webdev's own personal space free of rules. It is NOT about you. Some webdevs such as yourself prefer to cater towards the audience. There's nothing wrong with that until you start soapboxing as an elitist to webdevs who do not follow the same design philosophy. This is why the mobile hostility is only getting worse. Some people want to have fun on their website and have an occasional visit or interaction. Having rules shoved down their throat is only going to make them more hostile. Oh no you're going to miss out on a brightly colored site where half the links are broken or to unfinished pages, what a tragedy. Luckily for you there are millions of other indie websites for you to visit and drool over.
"This is why mobile hostility is getting worse," is a statement that just doesn't make any sense?
The idea of using some CSS to strip away some elements from your site specifically for a mobile viewport is that much of a pain to you? You don't even have to change the desktop version of your site!
But, Joosh, you're right. There are millions of other indie websites out there to see, and that's how potential mobile visitors are going to think, if they visit your website and it's got a huge message across the page that says "Mobile users eat my balls."
I just find it really strange that somehow the fun of web development is suddenly gone, when you're faced with typing ...
@media only screen and (max-width: 480px) {
.side-bar {
display: none;
}
}
If you find yourself saying, "Wait is it that simple?"
Then my answer to you, is,
Yes.
In fact, you could expand on this, and use it to hide all sorts of things for mobile users that wouldn't work right. Like, if you've got the bulk of your content on the main div, then just show them that! If they want to see the whole site, they can just ... turn their phone sideways (unless you're using CSS to style this orientation as well).
I think, though, that a lot of this is just excuses, and those excuses are coming from a lot of very young adults, and maybe even teenagers. Because, in my time on Melonland (before I was banned for being anti-AI) I found myself feeling kind of out-of-place, in a space that was about building back the oldweb, as someone from the oldweb, because most of the users there were teenagers using code to express themselves. To express themselves, regardless of who else comes along.
Which is fine!
But you've gotta remember, the internet isn't a solitary expanse where only you exist, and if you want people to view your website for any reason, and in 2025, maybe, at least, don't make your site actively hostile to people using phones.
Because, believe it or not, most people are viewing your website on a phone.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/webdev/2025/08/ ... ly-oldweb/