this felt a bit like filling out a survey for some research i will forget to look at the results of…
100 Questions for the Webmaster
1. Please introduce yourself.
hello! i’m em, the webmaster of this site [altalenae]
2. How long have you been making websites?
since 2024!
3. And what got you into the hobby?
i was inspired by noodledesk and clorofolle who i follow on tumblr and introduced me to neocities
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
personal websites mostly
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 have a dedicated obsidian file, i mainly use it to remember what i want to do next and to jot down design ideas, i also have some pinterest boards for inspiration
7. What’s your favourite part about making websites?
being able to express my interests in the exact way i like + the neocities community
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
messy coding, i’m so excited about finishing pages that i avoid learning good coding practices
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
only for some, i generally make different layouts for all pages but keep similar elements/vibes
10. How confident are you with CSS?
i would say medium confident
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
pretty sure i did when i studied computational linguistics but i forgor
12. What is your favourite HTML element?
<details> + <summary>, i love toggles!!
13. If you’re making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
i usually start with the content and then focus on the design, but the opposite has also happened
14. Do you know JavaScript?
a bit!
15. How about PHP?
nope
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
besides my homepage which is entirely system 6 themed, the other pages either have some elements of it or follow different themes
17. Are you more focused on content or design?
both!
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
not particularly
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
i have an old os theme so i guess my website counts as retro ? way too out of the discourse to have an opinion...
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
not really... maybe i should start? i’ll look into it
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
love ’em! they’re like little webpage stickers
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
great way to find new cool websites
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
definitely similar
24. Are you envious of other people’s websites?
oh yeah, i mean, i started this because of it in a way
25. What text editor do you use?
as insane as it may sound i use adobe dreamweaver...
26. Why do you use that one?
i use indesign for work so i’m used to the layout.... in actuality i have no excuses, even adobe has stopped updating it but i like it.... i tried visual studio code but found it way too overwhelming lol
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
mostly web server, just started using file garden as well
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what’s your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
neutral, i don’t really know much about nekoweb
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
104.76 MB according to neocities
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
yes on my ’puter + backup drive when i remember to do it
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
cannot decide, i like both! it usually depends on the content as well
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
black, white and gray for system 6 vibes + greens, blues and purple bc i like them
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
nope, it’s the longest creative hobby i’ve been able to keep
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
convinced my bestie to do it but otherwise i’m the only one in my friend group
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
aforementioned best friend and any irls who follow me on tumblr
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is “very often”?
at least once a week usually, if not more when i have the time
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
i have only changed a few pages layouts, if i land on something i like i tend to stick to it
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
i guess me/hobby-focused, though i don’t really keep a very personal blog (got my journal for that!), i mostly focus on my interests
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?
no!!! that would ruin the fun… i’m a freelance editorial collaborator, hence the adobe albatross around my neck
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
sometimes! (not counting work emails which are of course evil) i do snail mail as well :)
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
i do but only passively, the idea of posting on instagram actually scares me. i’m mostly on tumblr which is barely a social media (it could’ve been the next pdf!), and regrettably twitter, i just can’t quit it’s like cigarettes uugh
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?
i only use discord with my friends bc they killed skype (rip). as a european i use whatsapp by default for messages
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
sometimes, it’s usually the music i’m listening at the moment, no specific playlists. i also watch youtube videos or, when very focused, i just listen to my frenetic thoughts
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
only the one
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
many, it’s for anything i’m interested about
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
pretty real i think, within reason
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
yess
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
i’m not savvy enough to respond to this, for my purposes they work well
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
making carbon copies of other people’s websites and pretending they’re yours… i’ve seen it happen to some people i follow on neocities, like what is the point of that
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
nooo idea
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
i use divs a lot sigh.......
53. Do you consider different browsers?
when i remember
54. Speaking of, what’s your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
firefox, they got a fox on the logo and everything and it’s not chrome
55. And what OS are you on?
mac os
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
i’ve always used it, linux intrigues me but i’m not sure i’m tech savvy enough to use it, i’m also partial to mac aesthetic
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
some pages are, slowly working on it
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
it can be a fun surprise when entering a new website, otherwise i’m neutral about it
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
i like them, though some of the ones i’d like to join are no longer active....
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
oh yes i do! love making them. ideally i would like to see shrines of the same things i like, but it’s also a great way to find about new stuff. i especially like the really niche ones
61. Are your websites “cliche”, in your opinion?
probably? mine is a pretty standard personal website, i don’t mind it though
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
somewhere fun to explore and aesthetically pleasing
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
i do draw, not as much as i’d like (i have website-related plans to solve this). i made a few assets here and there for the site
65. Is there a habit you just can’t get away from no matter how hard you try?
not making separate files for css, i’m too lazy
66. What’s your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
start with a free to use template and have fun
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
stuck in the vicious cycle of hard-coding something and then having to change it because it breaks everything on mobile, i try not to do it but it happens
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
no idea what they are
69. How about table-based layouts?
once again, sorry to this man, i don’t know who that is
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of “one-column”, “two-column” and “three-column” layouts? Do you use any of these?
i use all of them i think depending on the page
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
definitely CSS
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It’s useful for your thoughts.
nope, html and css should be together always
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?
not really, i’m not very creative from scratch
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
middle
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
sure, when i want to understand how they did something or when i can’t click on some links for whatever reason
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
obligatory uni course and then i picked up everything else as i built the website
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they’re not supposed to?
not consciously
78. Thoughts on floating elements?
not thoughts head floating
79. When you’re sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
i don’t know the difference between rem and em and at this point i’m too afraid to ask. i use rem though
80. Do you have a favourite font?
i like monospace fonts
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
maybe! i guess we would brainstorm and divide tasks?
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
oh yesss have you tried the neocities search option? because i sure have
83. Do you bookmark other people’s websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
i bookmark the ones that don’t have a neocities profile i can follow. as a serial bookmarker i would feel great to be bookmarked, especially if i was tucked in a dedicated folder with other personal websites, so organized!
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
my dedication to lists and collections
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
only abstractly, i do want to ready more books about technology, recommendations are welcome! no tech collections to speak of
86. How often and for how long are you online?
almost always unless sleeping
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
don’t really think about my website as a product, i make it for personal enjoyment so i guess anyone who has similar tastes as me
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
as of 2 minutes ago, yes
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
i learned some python for computational linguistics but nothing website-related
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
no… i think maybe at work? unclear
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
nope, i’ve never considered it, might look up how that works sometime
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
not really
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?
on obsidian if it’s a lot of content, for simple updates directly into the editor
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you’re cool?
i don’t knooow, ask them!
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
i think my website is too new for this, but i don’t usually do this, i keep most things for archive purposes
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn’t update it, or would you leave an archive?
archive of course
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
giving the mic to anyone who’s reading this because i can’t decide…
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
cicchi please come back to neocities i miss youu [cicchispoffi]
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
i dither images but mainly for aesthetic purposes
100. We’re out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
