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How to Write Statements

Technical guide to adding OP compatible statements to your page.

Last modified 2025-08-03

Table of content
  1. Add recognizable markup to your page
  2. You don't have to understand harmonizers to use Octothorpes
  3. Default Markup for using Octothorpes
  4. Octothorpes ie hashtags
  5. Option 1: Add a <link> tag in the head of your page
  6. Option 2: Anchor link on page
  7. Option 3: Web Component on page
  8. Include the Component Script
  9. Links
  10. Backlinks
  11. Bookmarks
  12. Endorsement
  13. Webrings
  14. Self-moderated

Add recognizable markup to your page

OP Servers use [[Harmonizers]] to know what to look for on your page. If you don't want to change the markup of your page, you can use a custom harmonizer by writing your own. If that is of interest to you, refer to the [[Harmonizers]] documentation.

v1 will include a set of harmonizers for common site structures, such as wordpress, WebMentions, Tumblr, and more. Experimental versions of some of these already exist

You don't have to understand harmonizers to use Octothorpes

OP has a default method of looking for relationships on your page that requires minimal additional HTML. The following shows how to use that method.

Default Markup for using Octothorpes

Octothorpes ie hashtags

Option 1: Add a <link> tag in the head of your page

You can octothorpe a page by adding a <link> tag to your pages <head>. This method lets you use octothorpes without them showing up in the rendered page.

<link
  rel="octo:octothorpes"
  href="hummingbirds" >

rel=: Defines the link as an Octothorpe.

href=: References a Tag on an OP server.

This <link> will tag the page with the octothorpe #hummingbirds.

Note: This is the only default method that will accept a non-url value as the "href." This is a shorthand method that will get turned into a valid link to the URL for that term on the server.

Option 2: Anchor link on page

If you want a link to be an octothorpe in the content of your page rather than just metadata, you can use an <a> tag.

<a
  rel="octo:octothorpes"
  href="https://OP-SERVER/~/hummingbirds">
  Use any link text you choose
</a>

OP-SERVER: the server you are posting to

rel=: Defines the link as an Octothorpe.

href=: References a Tag on an Octothorpes Ring as well as a URL on your website.

This <a> will tag the page with the octothorpe hummingbirds

Option 3: Web Component on page

The Octothorpes Web Component is a Custom Element that sends your page's tag to an OP Server, and displays all other pages that are connected that tag.

Include the Component Script

Add the Web Component script to your page, making sure to add the data-register attribute to connect to any Community Server's your domain is verified with.

<script
  async="" defer="" type="module"
  data-register="OP-SERVER"
  src="OP-SERVER/tag.js"></script>;

OP-SERVER: the server you are posting to

Once you've loaded the component, you can use it by adding <octo-thorpe>termYouWantToUse</octo-thorpe> to your page and it will look like this:

hummingbirds

It's as simple as adding rel=octo:octothorpes to any link that is not a link to an term url on an OP.

So you can use methods #1 or #2 above, with any well-formed url.

Link: literally-any.website

Octothorpe: `https://octothorp.es/~/term

Your link will be turned into a backlink in the following circumstances:

  • the domain or page you link to explicitly endorses your domain or page
  • the exact URL that you link to also has a link to the exact url you have linked to

Bookmarks

To label a link as a bookmark you can use the subtype in the rel such as rel="octo:bookmarks"

Endorsement

You can endorse a domain or page by adding the following to the <head> of your web page:

<link rel="octo:endorses" href=URL-TO-ENDORSE>

Domains or pages that you endorse will be able to backlink to you. If your page is a webring host, an endorsement will allow domains to join your webring.

v1 will extend endorses with a web-of-trust method of registering sites

Webrings

OP makes it easy to host and manage your own webring.

Any url can be a webring. To tell an OP server to treat your url as a webring add:

<meta property="octo:type" content="Webring> to the head of your document.

Then, on that page, octothorpe some links to the domains that you want to add to your ring. If they octothorpe a link back to you, their domain will be added as members to your ring.

Self-moderated

You can manage your ring simply by adding or removing links on your ring's homepage. Members can remove themselves by removing their link to your webring's homepage.

Note: OP only indexes the same URL every 5 minutes. Webrings are pretty new to OP, and so far it seems to take a little while for the full set of links and backlinks to kick in to create actual membership. Some patience may be required!

Here's an example webring: https://demo.ideastore.dev/demo-webring

Once you have a webring, you can do fun things with the API like get all the pages posted by all the members of the ring as RSS.

Next steps: