100 Questions for Webmasters

I stumbled across this on Mouseling.net and thought it would be fun to answer.

1. Please introduce yourself.: I'm Natalie! I'm a computer programmer, accordionist, open source nerd, weird music enjoyer, lucid dreamer, gamer, and overall dork.
2. How long have you been making websites?: I started learning the basics of HTML back in like... 2005 or maybe even a few years earlier? I started taking it a bit more seriously in 2008.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: I loved browsing the early web as a kid, exploring sites like TRsRockin, but what really drew me in was the feature on Neopets that let you make web pages for your various neopets.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: I love deep, explorable, and personal websites. Sites I can get lost in, sites that have fascinating content that I can revisit and still be entertained, sites that are not shy in sharing passions to the world.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: A lot of "high level" stuff for my site has been or is being planned out thoroughly in advance; the overall page design of my site was done before the contents. I'm keeping track of new big things I want to do in an agile tracker so that I can pick up tasks when I'm able to. However it's also fun to do smaller bits of content more spontaneously. This page wasn't planned out at all but is fun to do randomly.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: I've linked them elsewhere on my site but TRsRockin, Flying Omelette's Video Game Oddities, Hardcore Gaming 101, and Mark Prindle's Record Reviews among many many others are some sites that have made an impact on me and I kind of want to strive to be like them in some way or another.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: I love how freeing it is. You get to make all the decisions, there are no ads, and you can do a lot with the presentation of your content to make it even better than other formats (books, video, podcasts, etc). It's so fun!
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Smaller, more frequent updates. I tend to get distracted by larger projects that end up taking forever to finish.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: In general all pages on my main site use the same layout, though I have different "sub-sites" and shrines that get to have their own layouts.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Very confident, I think I have like 90% of the MDN etched into my brain permanently.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: You bet your sweet bippy I do.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: I think that the <details> + <summary> combo is one of the best additions in HTML5. Shoutout to the HTML custom elements standard too.
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Copy over the code from another page and just erase out all the contents lol
14. Do you know JavaScript?: Yes!
15. How about PHP?: Yeah! I don't really use it anymore!
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: The overall presentation is "retro-computery" I guess. I actually prefer to keep the content itself rather simplistic, generally opting for what I call the "professor website" aesthetic (referring to ancient Web 1.0 pages you tend to see hosted from a .edu domain, with a tilde ~ in the URL implying that you're just viewing an HTML file on some university's shared UNIX system).
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Generally content since that's what I come to the web for, though I've been putting a lot of effort into a site redesign lately.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: Yep, I've owned my domain since 2009!
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: I think they're fine! I'm not the biggest fan of ones that just focus on nostalgic aesthetics without any kind of content because I like getting lost exploring websites and not just staring at single cool-looking page. But we all have to start somewhere, so I can't be too harsh!
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: Every time I deploy my website I have a script that yells at me and refuses to deploy unless my HTML is valid. Ever since I learned that there was "valid" (and therefore INVALID) HTML as like a 12 year old I have strived to be valid.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: They're fun! Especially nowadays they feel extra personal since as far as I know no brands are still making these things these days.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Also fun! They can be a bit slow to load and might be overstimulating to some, but I think as long as care is taken in building them there's no harm here. And a well-linked web is a happy web.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: The content of my site would mostly be the same, but I'm sure some design details would be different.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: Probably a little bit, but I think it's good to feel that way so I can direct energy towards my own site!
25. What text editor do you use?: I currently use the open source release of VS Code for personal web development.
26. Why do you use that one?: Back in the mid-2010s I picked up the Atom editor and loved it. It was such a nice hybrid between a more "normal" text editor and a more robust programming IDE. Unfortunately it got killed so I switched over to the next similar thing, VS Code.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: I try to host all images along with my site. For Neocities that means uploading those images to Neocities. But they're also uploaded on my own server as well. For heavy media like big audio/video archives I use on my Residents shrine, I tend to just upload those to my own server and hotlink to them on the Neocities version of the site.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: I don't care, I found Neocities first and I'm fine with it.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: My site's shockingly small, so I'd say idk... like under 100 MB total including the media?
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: My site is backed up on Git!
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: I do like the confidence in simplicity because it means the content has to be good, but of course I also like websites to look cool. I try to compromise on my site by having an interesting design frame more simple/plain content.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: There are a few colors I like picking more than others. There are certain shades of red, pink, and purple that I just love. I also love the simplicity of white text on a black background; websites with that color scheme were always fascinating to me as a kid for some reason.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: Nope! I'm just getting started!
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I'm mainly solitary though I always try to encourage my friends to do more presonal website stuff.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: A few people know, mainly friends. I've talked about my personal website with coworkers before, but only in vague terms.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: Nope I tend to move glacially slow to update...
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: I haven't changed the overall design since the 2022 launch... though that will be changing eventually! I made my design to be versatile so while the overall look and feel is pretty static, each page can have its own kind of theming that I can play around with. Also shrines can have their own designs independant of the main site's theme so there's plenty of room to experiment.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: I'd say it's probably hobby-focused I guess? I don't really like writing about myself (despite the fact that I'm doing it right now) but I do like writing about interesting things I've found.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: I used to! I prefer doing it as a hobby!
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: I currently work in game development, and I've found doing game dev professionally and web dev as a hobby is a much better fit for me than the other way around.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: Sometimes? It depends on the people.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: I do, but I try to be active on the Fediverse which feels like just a bunch of websites itself.
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: I use Discord but one of these days I'm going to switch over to Matrix.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: I do. There's too much to count here but eventually I'll put a music section on my site.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I have one main website, but there are also "sub-sites" on it. That whole thing is kind of confusing. It's just one site I guess.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: Many different topics.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: I try to be as genuine as possible here because well, that's the fun of personal websites!
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: Nope! Not that I know of.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Yeah it's pretty good for now. There are definitely worse standards in computing for sure.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: I highly recommend avoiding pixel-perfect layouts. I know that's how you can make some really nifty websites, but it's going to be hell navigating that site on a phone.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Make your sites accessible! Make your site accessible to mobile users! Make your site color-contrast friendly! Make your site screenreader friendly! Make it so anyone who could possibly be interested in your website no matter what the circumstances are can actually access your website easily!
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: I love me some semantic HTML!
53. Do you consider different browsers?: I tend to not experiment too much with wacky effects that might show up differently between browsers, but whenever I'm doing anything major I will test it in separate browsers.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I prefer Firefox and it's because Google is evil.
55. And what OS are you on?: Linux (i run arch btw)
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: ...I'm a Linux user. Of course I have a strong opinion on it.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: I try my hardest to make my website responsive!
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: Don't like it and I'm glad browsers have safeguards against some autoplay events.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: I think they're neat, but I've found that modern web rings don't often entice me to explore as much as older ones did. I have no idea why.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: Yep! Although only one really exists right now. My shrines are more like full mini fan-sites that strive to be quite comprehensive. ...I should probably scale back their scope but that's what I love to see.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Idk what a "cliche" website even is and I don't care.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: My ideal website is something that's so fun to browse that it competes with more attention-grabbing forms of media. I love me a website that's as gripping as a quality Youtube channel binge. I'd love my site to get there eventually but we'll see if I ever do.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: I'm not an artist. I tend to "borrow" older assets that are basically in "internet public domain" at this point. I do write all my own code.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: I loved sadgrl.online's free tiled backgrounds. I think those cozy web 1.0 backgrounds are some of my faves. GIFCities from the Internet Archive is also good.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Getting way too ambitious with my silly little website.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: You do not have to be an expert! Your website doesn't even have to look good! What's important is just being yourself!
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: Generally it's all in CSS. I do include some inline styles for page-specific variations. I guess technically I use Sass but whatever...
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I think they're outdated (derogatory). I do get that some people like it, I can kind of see the charm, but I just think we've kind of outgrown frames.
69. How about table-based layouts?: I remember when "Table-Based Layouts Considered Harmful" was pretty new discourse on the web, so I've always stayed away. These days you could use divs with the display:table rules to essentially do a table-based layout but with divs but... we have flexbox now. Why would you do that.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: Idk I don't really think about this stuff. I guess I kind of do a one-column layout for a lot of my main content? I mainly just like simplicity.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: Probably HTML these days. CSS requires a lot of tinkering but it's mostly in place now so I'm generally just working on content.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: Yep!
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: I used to do this early on. I stopped since I mainly got enough practice doing it professionally and stuff.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: I'd consider myself advanced. I mean... I've been doing this for like over half of my life, and have done it professionally for years. I sure hope I'm not a beginner!
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Yep, especially more personal websites. Even if a website's done by a beginner it's always nice to see when you can tell someone's putting effort into it.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: Neopets HTML tutorial! It only taught a little bit and it was super outdated. Then I learned from W3Schools.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: Not much these days since I'm a semantic web freak.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: Don't often use them but I think they can maybe be charming sometimes? Idk.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: I tend to use em first since that feels like a more "responsive" unit. Px is usually my last resort.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: Aliased Times New Roman. I think anti-aliasing it robs it of its soul.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: Maybe? I've considered it in the past but not sure if I'd be up for it these days.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Sometimes? I could probably do more deep dives as casual surfing tends to be pretty shallow ("oh that looks like a cool website, I'll check it out later") rather than hours-long sessions.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: I prefer to follow through RSS, Neocities, ActivityPub, etc, but I do add some sites to bookmarks. Idk how I'd react to my site being in bookmarks... flattered I guess?
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: My mad web dev skillz. Or my accordion collection. Idk.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: Yeee! I like game dev and open source tech and linux and lots of other stuff. I don't really collect hardware tho.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: A better question is if I'm ever offline?...
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: ... I dunno. Extremely online weirdos who are probably some kind of neurodivergent?
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: Back when XHTML was popular, yes! I mainly tried writing in XHTML. These days I'm pretty sure the HTML5 and XHTML standards are at least a bit incompatible with each other, so I mainly stick to writing HTML5. That being said XHTML has affected how I write HTML5, as I always use self-closing tags (it feels weird and freaky to not do it!) even though they're not necessary in HTML5. I'm glad I don't have to wrap my styles and scripts in CDATA annotations these days.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Yep! I've been a professional programmer for years now!
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I think they're fine, though I personally don't use one. I guess I've made a few simple scripts that act like a static site generator but idk if that really counts.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: Nope. My servers have some basic form of analytics, but in general I don't want the numbers to consume my head too much.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: I do, they're linked to on my Links page!
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?: I write it directly in my editor, so I can see the content take shape on the actual HTML document. That doesn't help with typos and grammar errors but I'm just more comfortable with it.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: My friends say I'm cool and while I do have my doubts I think I'd be a bad friend if I didn't believe them.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: Not anymore. I did clear out my site long ago because it was ~embarrassing~ but I've learned to live with the cringe. I guess I'm old enough now to realize that actually that old shameful stuff is actually precious and awesome and amazing.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I'd leave an archive and try to keep it preserved in some way or another.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: Huh... I'm not sure. I think I'm a bit more open now after years of being secretive on the web? But I'm not a full open book.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: That would probably be my partner. She does not have a website... yet.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: I tend to use JPGs and manually set their quality level in an image editor to maximize quality while minimizing size. However, I could be doing more to optimize, since I could add automated image optimization to my deployment process. Though something tells me that such an overengineered solution is probably not what this question is about...
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: I kind of feel like some kind of celebrity that's being interviewed lol. 100 questions is A LOT tho.