I peeked at the code and saw a Webmention endpoint hiding in there and nearly fell over. Webmention is a web standard that allows any website to talk directly to any other website as if they were social media peers on the same platform.
I immediately fired up my new-to-me 1959 Olympia SM3 which also has a Professional Elite No. 41 typeface to dash off a note to Tom and his typewriter. I posted it to my website as a typecast reply. But most importantly, my website sent a webmention (think @mention/notification) to Tom that I had replied to his post. Voila! My reply was in his comments section just moments later, as if by magic. I’ve only done this a few times as there aren’t many typewriter collector/typecasting bloggers out there who’ve added the technology to their sites yet, but this certainly opens up a new space for typewriter social networking by way of the web rather than just via post.
The careful observer will also notice that because Tom syndicated his original post to Reddit and included a syndication link, he’s getting replies from Reddit back into his website via Webmention using a service called Brid.gy. So if you want to type up a reply to his post, or even this one, and post it to the Reddit thread you can participate that way (if your website doesn’t have the capability yet.)
Who else in the typosphere has a website that supports webmention? Let’s start a chat.
If you’d like to go deeper into the subject of Webmention, try this article in A List Apart: “Webmentions: Enabling Better Communication on the Internet“.
In reply to Chris’s take on Webmention.
Chris, a hello back from my brown SM3 and an additional note from my Hermes 3000.
I’d love to connect with typospherians who have added this feature to their blogs. Great fun!
A reply to Chris Aldrich’s Hermes 3000 post
Sounds fascinating. All you lovely people who are into this, I believe this is really cool.
Ollrighty, I installed the WP Plugin for Indieweb and Webmentions. Not sure what else to do, but it’s up. I remember you mentioning this on TypePals, but their webserver was broken, so I couldn’t look at it then.
A message to Ted Munk via Webmention
I tried sending it to Munk’s blog, but I don’t think it worked. So I posted it here.
Yuh, not sure how it’s supposed to work, but I did a reply post..
In reference to:
Chris’s Post
and
Tom’s Post
Thanks for your reply Ted I’m putting some text here in the case that your site filters out img tags the way most WordPress comment sections do. Clicking through to my site will provide the photo of the typed response if this is the case. Tom has a snippet of code which may help this if you need it. Once you’ve got some kinks worked out, it’s not half bad… It might require even more intention that sitting down at a typewriter though?!
For those interested in watching, it’s not all being syndicated here to Reddit, but the typed conversation is slowly continuing from Tom Fasano and Ted Munk who have got portions of the set up working on their own websites. You can see it unfolding in my own comments section or the copies on their websites respectively at:
– https://boffosocko.com/2026/09/25/okay-typosphere-who-else-is-using-their-typewriter-to-converse-with-others-via-web-and-webmention/#thoughts%20on
– https://typecast.munk.org/2026/09/26/so-whats-all-this-indieweb-and-webmentions-stuff/
– https://tomfasano.com/stories/a-note-to-ted-munk/
Ted, your Webmention came through fine on my site, but mine to you keeps failing. When I sent it manually using CURL in Mac Terminal, your server rejected it with “Spamming or your Javascript is disabled !!” That’s an anti-spam plugin that expects a browser to fill in a hidden field on the comment form. Webmentions come server to server with no JavaScript, so they get blocked every time, including Chris’s. If that plugin has a setting to exclude REST requests or the “webmention” comment type, that should fix it. If not, Antispam Bee or Akismet handle webmentions properly.
Ok, That was probably the honeypot trapper. I’ve disabled that. try now (:
Well…I’m working on it. I’ll have to do a test post to make sure everything is working correctly. My site is self-hosted WordPress with Elementor Pro, so there was some additional backend stuff to do, not to mention creating a brand new Reddit account so that everything is kosher. Ugh. What a morning. But, I guess I’ve officially joined the typosphere with my new site.
An idea about threaded comments
It’s been a while since I’ve done it, but I did some work on threaded comments via webmention: https://boffosocko.com/2017/12/15/threaded-replies-with-webmentions-in-wordpress/
Chris,
I don’t see the ping. Not sure where it is. One thing I need to mention: I’m now sending Webmentions as “Stories.” You can select STORIES from the main menu.
A threaded comment
I guess not.
Just discovered if I send the same Webmention to another person, the first one drops off.
https://boffosocko.com/2026/09/25/okay-typosphere-who-else-is-using-their-typewriter-to-converse-with-others-via-web-and-webmention/?replytocom=551871#respond
Hey Chris — sent you a reply just now using your ?replytocom= number, hoping it’d nest under comment 551871. It posted, but landed flat instead of threaded. Any chance nested comments are switched off on your end, or does 551871 show a parent in your moderation queue? Trying to figure out if it’s my end or a site setting.
No, threaded comments are on. I would guess that the pattern you used should work. Perhaps a better question for GWG (aka Dave Shankse in the IndieWeb chat channel for either Dev or WordPress. https://indieweb.org/discuss
Perhaps you need to add a class=”u-in-reply-to” microformat to your replies? See the example at: https://indieweb.org/reply In most cases where my replies are happening, my theme is automating this part for me.
In watching the back-and-forth, I’m noticing that I’m getting most/all of your responses, but not necessarily all of Ted’s. I’ll try to spend some time this weekend looking at what might be happening.
I’m also not sure how many of my replies may be stuck in either yours or Ted’s moderation or spam queues as the webmentions show as having been sent properly.
Maybe try resending it without the
#respondfragment on the end of the URL?OK then this should show up as a rely to TOM’s comment on CHRIS’s post on his blog, when sent from a post on TED’s blog comments.?!?
In reply to: So What’s all this Indieweb and Webmentions stuff?
In reply to: Okay Typosphere, Who else is using their typewriter to converse with others via web and Webmention?
In reply to: A Webmention Note to Ted Munk
ROFL!
Should we be sending you a typewriter? You could always draw the same way James Cook does…