diff --git a/scripts/active_users.sh b/scripts/active_users.sh
index d44874d..efe4fbb 100755
--- a/scripts/active_users.sh
+++ b/scripts/active_users.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort -u | wc -l
+who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort -u | wc -l | xargs echo "active_user_count=" | sed 's/ //'
diff --git a/scripts/generate_home_page.sh b/scripts/generate_home_page.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1a591cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/generate_home_page.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
+
+source /var/local/venvs/tildetown/bin/activate
+
+stats=/usr/local/bin/generate_stats
+template=/var/www/tilde.town/template.index.html
+mustache=/var/local/tildetown/scripts/mustache.hy
+output_path=/var/www/tilde.town/index.html
+
+# hello from datagrok
+#
+# generate_stats was breaking and outputting no lines. i dunno how to fix that,
+# but i can un-disaappear the homepage by saying "output empty json if broken"
+#
+# generate_stats | hy $mustache $template > $output_path
+($stats || echo '{}') | hy $mustache $template > $output_path
diff --git a/scripts/mustache.hy b/scripts/mustache.hy
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..187bdcb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/mustache.hy
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+(import [json [loads]])
+(import [sys [argv stdin]])
+(import [pystache [render]])
+
+(defn slurp [filename]
+  (try
+    (.read (apply open [filename "r"] {"encoding" "utf-8"}))
+  (catch [e Exception]
+    "")))
+
+(if (= __name__ "__main__")
+  (let [[template (-> (get argv 1)
+                      slurp)]
+        [data (-> (.read stdin)
+                   loads)]]
+    (print (render template data))))
diff --git a/scripts/userlist.hy b/scripts/town_stats.hy
similarity index 51%
rename from scripts/userlist.hy
rename to scripts/town_stats.hy
index d2af811..b640ce7 100644
--- a/scripts/userlist.hy
+++ b/scripts/town_stats.hy
@@ -1,14 +1,13 @@
+(import [json [dumps]])
 (import [os [listdir]])
 (import [os.path [getmtime]])
 (import [datetime [datetime]])
 
-(import [sh [find]])
+(import [sh [find facter]])
 
-;; this script emits HTML on standard out that constitutes a user
-;; list. It denotes who has not updated their page from the
-;; default. It also reports the time this script was run.
-
-(def timestamp (.strftime (.now datetime) "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))
+;; this script emits json on standard out that has information about tilde.town
+;; users. It denotes who has not updated their page from the default. It also
+;; reports the time this script was run. The user list is sorted by public_html update time.
 
 (defn slurp [filename]
   (try
@@ -18,13 +17,8 @@
 
 (def default-html (slurp "/etc/skel/public_html/index.html"))
 
-(defn dir->html [username]
-  (let [[default (= default-html (slurp (.format "/home/{}/public_html/index.html" username)))]]
-    (.format "<li><a href=\"http://tilde.town/~{}\">{}</a> {}</li>"
-             username username
-             (if default
-               "(default :3)"
-               ""))))
+(defn default? [username]
+  (= default-html (slurp (.format "/home/{}/public_html/index.html" username))))
 
 (defn bounded-find [path]
   ;; find might return 1 but still have worked fine (because of dirs it can't
@@ -51,13 +45,17 @@
 (defn user-generator [] (->> (listdir "/home")
                              (filter (fn [f] (and (not (= f "ubuntu")) (not (= f "poetry")))))))
 
-(def user-list (->> (user-generator)
+(if (= __name__ "__main__")
+  (let [[users (->> (user-generator)
                     sort-user-list
                     reversed
-                    (map dir->html)
-                    (.join "\n")))
-
-(print (.format "our esteemed users ({})<br> <sub>generated at {}</sub><br><ul>{}</ul>"
-                (len (list (user-generator)))
-                timestamp
-                user-list))
+                    (map (fn [un] {"username" un
+                                   "default" (default? un)}))
+                    list)]
+        [data {"users" users
+               "active_user_count" (-> (. (facter "active_user_count") stdout)
+                                       .strip
+                                       int)
+               "generated_at" (.strftime (.now datetime) "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
+               "num_users" (len users)}]]
+    (print (dumps data))))