100 webmaster questions

1. Please introduce yourself.: Hi I'm twitfortwat, I make webpages for fun (obvs) :)
2. How long have you been making websites?: Since year 8/9, so for like 6 years now. (Obviously not every day for the full 6 years lmao).
3. And what got you into the hobby?: Lessons on html in computer science class.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: I wanna say 2000s websites, but more like the really interactive ones that people would constantly come back to (think myspace in its heyday).
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: I plan meticulously.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: Well MySpace is defunct so I can't really link to it, and Quinn's website from Daria, I'll link to pictures instead. I could link to SpaceHey but I don't think it really did its job as a real MySpace Revivalist Project, in my honest opinion.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: Coming up with ideas for things to add, and wondering wtf I did wrong with my css.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Out of everything, probably css (especially in the beginning lol). Actually no technically it would be javascript since I don't know any lmao.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: Nah different layout for every page. Unless maybe I'm lazy though I don't think I've ever kept a consistent pattern.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Pretty confident now but I wouldn't do someone else's project for them and guarantee 100% satisfaction lol. Plus responsive web design is still a big killer for me :)
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: I never knew what those were until today ^_^;
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: definitely <marquee>. I don't give a shit if it's deprecated lol
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: I plan the look meticulously in MS Paint.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: Nope.
15. How about PHP?: Nope.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Nope. Actually, sometimes I try to go for something dark, but if I were to add another webpage to this, I might make it look different. Idkkk mannnn sometimes I'm consistent sometimes I'm not so I guess all in all I'm inconsistently inconsistent T_T.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Definitely design, though lately I've been focusing on content a lot more than I did in the past.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: No. Not really, but I would like to move on from Neocities once I ever decide to make a project that requires a backend with persistent data.
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: They are very nice but speaking from a web surfer perspective I always personally prefer retro websites that have stuff to like read and interactive with, but even websites that are just stuffed with graphics and not much else are very enjoyable to me :3
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I used to care about that rubbish back when I was like 14 but now I don't even know lmao. tbh I'm not really doing anything adventurous with my html so it's probably valid.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: I love them both. Though my website has fewer of them right now - I used to have lots in ALL of my webpages but I'm trying to switch things up a bit now.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Yeah I like them too, in fact where would I be without them???
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: Definitely different, I hate doing the same thing twice even if I really liked it.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: Nope! There is no reason why my website should be the best or most creative. They are sources of inspiration :(
25. What text editor do you use?: Visual Studio Code.
26. Why do you use that one?: Well it's better than notepad that's for sure. And for some reason, I much preferred it to Notepad++
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: I host them on Neocities.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: Uhhh I don't really care lowkey but I'm pretty sure Neocities came first, and I found Neocities first, and I've always preffered Neocities, and the community and stuff.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: Estimation (uneducated guess): 4mb. My account says 5.68mb.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: Yeah.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: Uhhhhhh aesthetic wise highly visual but I'd always prefer a simple website with lots of interactive content over a highly visual website that was mostly empty.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: Subconsciously, I almost always manage to drift into beigeish and red if I'm not careful enough e.g my old spacehey account which I lost the login to lmao - sasquatch (wicketmaster) is the username. So I actively try to avoid it lol.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: 'Quit' implies it's something I do constantly. Making webpages is just something I do on a whim so I've 'quit' plenty of times. In terms of like, never doing it ever again well not really because as far as I'm able to tell it is my passion :(
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: No, not many people in my social circle are as enthusiastic haha and idk the internet has always felt a bit empty even though I know it's not haha but I'm always open to webmaster friends!
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Uh I accidentally told one of my friends but I'd prefer for it to stay private.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: Pretty often. Like almost everyday, but I don't push the updates to Neocities very often.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: Not really, that would require me to redo everything because I'm an all-or-nothing person so I don't really do small tweaks lmao. I'm currently in the process of doing that though.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Me-focused I'd say.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: Nope.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: Nope. I'd probably not end up doing the things I want to do. I'm a student.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: I don't communicate with people often but if I do it is most definitely by email or WhatsApp.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: No I don't have any social media besides YouTube and WhatsApp if that counts. Oh, and Pinterest.
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: I used to use Discord. I've never used Matrix I might try that. I used to use IRC quite a bit. But besides from Neocities I'm not really online much at all.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Sometimes. Lately I found out about Unwound. Sometimes I listen to Sonic Youth, or mychem, Tally Hall is quite common. Sometimes Smashing Pumpkins. Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd is something I listen to a lot, used to listen to Remain in Light by Talking Heads a lot. More often nowadays I don't listen to music while working on anything. I prefer to listen to music when I'm doing nothing.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I have more than one but the others are all abandoned so I'm trying to adopt the former method now.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: No my website is filled with fuck all really.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: Real self only. The way I am on my websites is probably the realest I ever am.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: Nah.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Uh yeah but I kinda wish someone would bring the <blink> tag back. I'm sure there was a good reason why they got rid of it I don't remember now but I still wish it was brought back :<
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: the css float property and relying completely on absolute positioning unless it's a quirk of your website or you know what you're doing. Beginners and absolute positioning is a recipie for tears, hatred and frustration.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Flexbox clears always. Grid too but I still haven't gotten round to learning it T_T.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: Unfortunately I'm a divvy kind of girl. :)
53. Do you consider different browsers?: Yeah actually if I see a solution that only works for certain browsers and stuff I tend to just drop the issue it's not a real solution if it only works on like, chrome for example lol. Sometimes I think, it's unavoidable, like you'll have a solution where you'll have to target browsers individually for full inclusivity but I try to avoid that wherever I can...
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: Probably firefox. Though I don't use it. Comes with built in ad-block I think. Not that it matters bc you can get ad-block extensions easily. Actually I think that was Brave. Waiiiiitt, Firefox had a built-in VPN which is why I was considering moving to it at a time. They are far better on privacy than Chrome. More lightweight. Better pdf reader with more features apparently. Chrome is a bit like Windows in the sense that the more you learn about it, the more you realise how shit it is but if you're just using it to fulfill your needs, you most likely won't notice any issues, and it will all be the same to you. With that all being said: I use Chrome. And Windows. lmao. Don't be like me. Get firefox.
55. And what OS are you on?: Oh lmao yeah I just said above I use Windows.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: I actually do have a lot of strong opinions. A lot of people online will tell you to use Linux but I think most of the benefits that Linux has over Windows will only really matter if you're a programmer or some sort of superuser. At least, that's what I used to think when I was younger. Windows collects a lot of unnecessary information about its users and if not for anything else, I think that is a BIG reason why I'd tell people to use something else if they could. Only issue is that Windows holds a monopoly and it's hard to transition when your school work, or workplace relies heavily on MS products. Now of course you can just use the online version but that just makes things complicated. If you don't need the Desktop version of Teams, Word, Powerpoint, Excel or anything related just get Linux or something else. It also takes up so much storage, I mean it's not very noticeable when you have good specs but my laptop has 64gb of storage and like half of it was gone as soon as I started using it so yeh...
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Fuck no T_T.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: People don't like it. I love it. But I get how it can be annoying, I think for like the sort of websites people on Neocities make it's not an issue but if every website could automatically start playing music when you clicked on it I get how it would be a nuisance. Personally I just press mute immediately if I'm not in the mood. It is a solution that has always worked.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: Who doesn't like webrings like serious question. I've started one. https://badgerinablender.neocities.org/webring/. I think I might join another one later on.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: None. Collections of the things that are important to them. I love collections.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Yeah, 3 column layout. Blinkies, etc etc. The new one is fairly different, though.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: Can't really do it without a backend but I'd like to make a website where people can log in, make an account and interact with each other, participate in polls, create submissions and stuff. That is more of a long-term thing. In terms of right now I don't really have a goal I'm striving towards, I just do what I like <3.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: Not really anymore, I don't draw as much as I used to. Rarely.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Staying in the shower for 40+mins, singing.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: ctrl+shift+c.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: CSS, unless it's like, I'm styling like one word or something insignificant where inline would waste less time.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I have no idea what those are, but after doing a search I don't think people use them anymore anyways.
69. How about table-based layouts?: The one table-based layout I had was the only one that looked even vaguely good on my phone!! I should perhaps try it again.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: Lowkey I think most websites I see conform to either of those. But yeah I use three-column a lot, subconsciously, like the beige and red thing. I think I'll jazz it up a bit one day.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: CSS definitely I can get the HTML done very quickly.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: Yeah a lot actually, when I was younger. But if I wanna just get my thoughts down that's what my journal/MS Word is for lol. For me, the appeal of web design is the design.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: The first, quite often actually. I used to think it was an issue, until I realised there is merit in the design aspect, and I genuinely enjoy designing layouts for no reason. Nobody questions people who make art without having something to say.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: Probably somewhere in the middle. There was a time where I cared about being "good". Now I only care about being able to do what I want, which leads to improvement over time anyways.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Yeah.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: The above actually.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: No.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: There's probably a situation where it's necessary. I've never come across one before. In my opinion, it should be avoided. Always led to issues, at least for me.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Depends. A mixture of px and % where the situation calls for it.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: MS UI Gothic. Second is Times New Roman. So, the default.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: Yeah. We'd probably discuss with each other about what we'd want to do before executing it, and keep a log of changes somewhere in case there's miscommunication somewhere.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Yeah, practically daily.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: Yeah, I'd be flattered :)
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: I'm not there yet but I'd like to people to think of it as a fun place to keep coming back to, with lots of different things to do.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: Yeah, I program in Python rarely. Not really, because physical technology is expensive, and I don't like to ccollect expensive things.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: Maybe like 3 hours daily.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: Nobody tbh. I don't have a target per se. Not even in terms of age. I'd like anyone to see! Mostly open minded people (though there's nothing outlandish mostly here, still that is my preference.)
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: I had no idea what that was until now. I'm not very interested.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Yes I program from time to time. Mostly basic network programming. I do not currently write programs for my websites.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I've never used one so I don't know what they are but there is no law that states you have to build your website from scratch so if people find it daunting and prefer to use something like an SSG more power to them!
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: Yeah sometimes. It's fun.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: https://thestudentroom.co.uk/
93. Do you write your page content directly into the editor, or do you prepare it elsewhere, like a text document or a Word document?: Word.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I'd call myself a nerd, which is only a cool thing if you are a nerd. So other people do call me cool sometimes, but they are usually also nerds lol
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: No. I find it quaint.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I would abandon it and forget it ever existed.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal more than I realise from time to time.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: No.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: No.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: I just had a driving lesson today and I've realised that I'm so shit at driving lmaoooo that's all I'm thinking about rn anyways byeeeeeeeeeee :33333333