Aaron Crowder avatar

Aaron Crowder

Hi, I'm Aaron Crowder. Or—if you know me online—CrowderSoup.

Father of two, Software developer, and lover of the open web. I like to take things apart (and sometimes even put them back together). I can frequently be found tinkering with some bit of code in my spare time.

Pronouns: He/Him, They/Them

I’m building something similar to the original Aaron of IndieWeb as IndieNews and I’m really excited about it. Hoping to have something to share in a couple weeks!

  1. screenshot of quill interface showing syndicate buttons

Spent an hour this morning doing some work on Webstead. Was able to finish implementation of the IndieAuth server, and then for fun updated the syndication targets so I have more control over where each post goes.

  1. screenshot of comment form
    You can leave a comment
  2. screenshot of webmention send form
    You can send a webmention too!
  3. screenshot of webmention login notice
    After you log in with your website first of course

I keep sharing links to my blog, so I figured I’d update my blog to let you leave comments on it too. Now theres native commenting, with a real data model, clean front-end forms, and a simple moderation flow in the admin. Spam is filtered early with Akismet and Turnstile, so my comments aren’t flooded with AI bots.

Crosing all my fingers and toes that this works! I'm really wanting to be able to participate in these communities while keeping my blog as the source of truth for my content.

(if you're wondering what I'm doing, I'm using Brid.gy to take this from my blog and share here)

Looking Forward to 2026

I’m sitting here writing this on the couch of the in-law suite at my girlfriend’s parents’ house in St. George, Utah. Now that is a sentence I never would have guessed I’d be writing last year. Honestly, it’s not even a sentence I think I could have guessed I’d be writing back in April. But here I am. That feels like as good a place as any to pause, look forward, and write down a few goals for 2026. I’m a firm believer that growth without goals is mostly accidental, and I’d like to be a litt...

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