Webmentions are a modern standard for notifications across websites. When someone links to your content, you can receive a notification automatically - similar to @mentions on social media but decentralized.

How Webmentions Work

1. Someone publishes content linking to your site
2. Their server sends a webmention to your endpoint
3. Your server verifies the link exists
4. You can display the mention as a comment, like, or reply

Setting Up Webmentions

Static Sites

For static sites like this one, you'll need:

1. A webmention endpoint service (like webmention.io)
2. Your site configured with the endpoint in HTML:

<link rel="webmention" href="https://webmention.io/example.com/webmention">

3. JavaScript to fetch and display mentions

Processing Mentions

When you receive webmentions, they can be:

• Likes - When someone bookmarks or likes your content
• Reposts - When someone shares your content
• Replies - When someone responds to your content
• Mentions - General references to your content

Benefits

• No platform lock-in
• Works across any website supporting the standard
• Builds a decentralized conversation network
• Preserves mentions even if other sites disappear

Webmentions are a key part of the IndieWeb infrastructure, working alongside Microformats to create a connected, independent web.