Concept

Let's get started.

There is one universally-accepted first step to joining the IndieWeb: acquiring a domain name. On the IndieWeb, your domain is your identity. You control every aspect of it. If you own mycooldomain.com, then the content and functionality of anything at that address is yours and yours alone.

Challenge

Acquire a domain name. Use a "domain registrar" like NameCheap, AWS Route53, or Porkbun to select and purchase a domain name. Be sure to enable domain privacy to prevent your personal contact information from being made public; all of the above registrars support it for free.

Validation

In order for IndieWeb.Quest to confirm that you actually own your domain (before you set up a more robust authentication mechanism, at least), you need to do one more thing: once you register your domain name, add a DNS TXT record to prove that you truly own it. Most registrars (including those listed above) support this through their management consoles.

Note: this approach isn't really an IndieWeb concept. It's a temporary shortcut we're taking to ensure that sites entered below are actually participating in IndieWeb.Quest. Once we add basic authentication in a later challenge, we'll remove this.

Copy the below Verification String and register a DNS TXT subdomain on your domain. You can pick any subdomain you want, so long as it resolves to the Verification String.

IndieWeb Quest Rocks!

Then, enter your chosen subdomain into the validation form, click "Submit", and view the result!