susamWander – A tiny, decentralised tool to explore the small web
Hello HN!
This tool is inspired by Kagi Small Web (recent thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47410542). A common concern raised here is that Kagi Small Web currently accepts only blogs, comics and YouTube channels. It does not accept arbitrary small websites. That limitation motivated me to build Wander.
Wander is fully decentralised. Anyone can host it on their own website. It consists of just two files: an `index.html` for the Wander console and a `wander.js` where you link to other Wander consoles. It is a bit like a webring, but more flexible. Each console can link to any number of sites and other consoles.
There is no server-side code, no database, nothing to install. If you have a website, you can set it up by uploading just two files. In fact, you can host it on GitHub Pages or Codeberg Pages too.
If you like the idea, please join the network. I would love to see it grow.
More details about how it works and how to set it up here: https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#readme
This is so delightful! I'll be deploying this and sharing a link on the issue.
One issue I see: If I get you to include a link to my console but I don't link to any others, I can trap wanderers within my recommendations until they refresh.
If that's not desirable, it could be avoided by having the client keep a running list of all the consoles it has discovered this session and choosing from that list at random.
> If that's not desirable, it could be avoided by having the client keep a running list of all the consoles it has discovered this session and choosing from that list at random.
Implemented in <https://codeberg.org/susam/wander/commit/f4d95fa>. Thanks again for the discussion!
It would be nice if it wasn’t so framed in. How about a simpler “wander” overlay button that stays fixed (a bit like google recaptcha in the bottom corner) and pops up the console with links?
To add to this fine suggestion, I'd like to highlight that Wander supports customising the appearance of the user interface.
The section https://codeberg.org/susam/wander#customise-your-console describes how someone setting their own /wander URL can customise how their console looks and behaves. I have seen a few consoles already using this feature to change their theme.
So while I will keep my console as it is, because that is how I prefer it, with large buttons occupying the full header width, others who prefer a different layout can do so by adding custom CSS as described in the link above.
