100 Questions for Webmasters

A very lengthy survey by Mouseling

1. Please introduce yourself.
I'm Nat. Nonbinary imp on the web, illustrator, mediocre rhythm gamer, in eternal self-reflection

2. How long have you been making websites?
Since 2021, that's when the first version of the site went up

3. And what got you into the hobby?
I've been aware of indie websites for a while, and I wanted to take my site from being just a portfolio site into more of a digital home for myself.

4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
Other artists' 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?
Usually as I go along with a loose idea of what I want in mind. Though as of right now I mostly do smaller sessions in-between other projects and interests

6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
Honestly this one's hard to highlight. But I'd say one inspiration is David Revoy's blog & art archive. For both the long-term commitment to a non-social media platform & open source software (and also a cute fantasy comic strip in my feed reader every week!)

for other inspirations... kinda scattered. I'd say I take design notes from both retro and modern web aesthetics.

7. What's your favorite part about making websites?
The satisfaction of having a place on the internet to call your own

8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
Trying to get javascript & nunjucks templates to behave

9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
Several;

• The main 2 column one (with a slightly wider version for the art galleries)
• The Blog layout
• Simple 1 column page (it's like a stripped back version of the blog's layout)
• OC page layout
• Various ones for the labs

10. How confident are you with CSS?
Mostly confident, but there's still things I haven't done much with yet.

11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
Somewhat, but I haven't found a usecase for it yet that wasn't covered by other elements

12. What is your favourite HTML element?
<section>. It's semantic & functions the same a div, but it keeps my code nice and tidy

13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
Assuming completely from scratch / no template, paste a boilerplate & add my stylings

14. Do you know JavaScript?
Everything I've learned about JS goes in one ear and out the other

15. How about PHP?
Thought about learning, but I think I'm happy with static sites for now so... nope

16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
Aesthetically, sharp corners with a pink/purple/grey color scheme. Content-wise it's mostly art related, but I've been doing more personal blogging & side pages too.

17. Are you more focused on content or design?
Right now, content. Expecting myself to pump out new layouts & gimmicks for pages would get exhausting. And while I enjoy coding, I'd rather save most of my creative energy for drawing & other art things.

18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
Yep!

19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
Mixed. I feel like there's a decent amount of them that do something unique or pay homage, but there's also some I feel just slap together a bunch of aesthetics in hopes of looking 2000's/late 90's without considering use-ability.

20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
I don't know & I'm too scared to ask

21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
I think more places should have them. Right now it's mostly web-revival sites & indie webcomics that have them, but I think they're a fun, decorative way to bookmark & share pages.

22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
they're fun

23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
Somewhat different. I'd probably put more focus on my blog.

24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
A little bit... I went simple with my layout to keep things easy to update & less overwhelming. But I can't help but envy some of the more fancy designs out there. I also envy blog pages with comments, but to be fair I'm going the route of static site & I don't have the mental energy for moderation.

25. What text editor do you use?
Kate

26. Why do you use that one?
It's the default one on Kubuntu + I refuse to touch VScode with a 10ft pole. For my needs it just works.

27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
Own site if I can. This means the site is chonky & I have to optimize everything. But I don't want to wake up one day & find 1/2 my art archives broken because I was using a 3rd party host. Offsite images also don't work with the Lightbox JS I use for my galleries.

28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
They're both valid webhosts, so I think it's up to you & your hosting needs. That being said I prefer Neocities since I've been here long enough + enjoy the social media-hybrid part of it. Plus based on lurking Nekoweb feels like it skews younger? While I don't mind younger generations picking up the indie web & know Neocities has its fair share of younger users I feel more comfortable interacting with other adults.

29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
Breached half a gig last year. It's a chonker

30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
Absolutely. You never know when you'll need to roll back

31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
I think both are good in their own ways.

32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
Pinks, purples, and some nice purple-ish greys. It's the main site's theme. I was planning on having a darker palette, but I got attached to the lighter look when I was prototyping layouts. So light colors it is. I might bring back a dark theme if I add a theme switcher though.

33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
A few times. Mainly because the less-than-ideal direction the web is going has made me wary of starting new web-based projects and I've been worried about how things like the rise of censorship & the tech price crisis will affect small websites. But ultimately I want to keep jadeeverstone.com up as long as I feasibly (and mentally) can

34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
I know & keep up with a few other people in the hobby, but we're mostly just web neighbors & I do my coding solo.

35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
Yes. I presented it a few times in college as part of a few assignments. Though those were older versions of the page. (In the event my graphic design 1 professor or anyone from my Illustration Business practices class is reading this, I'm terribly sorry you had to see my early spaghetti code)

36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
For the most part yeah. But I've slowed down recently due to slowing down on art as well.

37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
I feel like the last drastic change was in 2022 when I added a proper sidebar. And after that it's mostly been the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix and all

38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
Out of these, more 'me' and 'hobby' focused, at least that's the direction I've been taking it

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?
I'm open to the idea, but as of right now no. It'd require me learning a ton of new standards, workflows, and design languages that I'm not as enthused about (I have a strong distaste for material you & liquid glass). Plus I think if I have to interact with the vibe coding crowd for more than 5 minutes I'll have a crashout so big it'd cause a Y2K-level event

41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
I wish. My current emails are a mess... I did set-up a new email for contact purposes because combing through my main one is way too overwhelming, but I've mostly been using it for IRL-related chatter vs online friends.

42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
Yes, but very stripped back. Social media's been on the decline for a while now to the point I mainly use Bluesky. Most of my other pages are abandoned & I keep them around for username squatting.

43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?
Currently none. I've been distancing myself from Discord since they announced the global age verification BS, but attempts to move to another place flopped (it's hard to convince multiple communities & friend groups to drop the biggest IM for something that may not stick around longterm). I just hope whereever I end up next has a bigger backbone against techno-fascism.

44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
Sometimes. Recently I've been gravitating towards hyperpop & dariacore, as well as tuning into Soma.FM I sometimes prefer to work in silence. It's easier think & type that way

45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
Right now it's my main site & my portfolio site. Really the only reason my portfolio exists is so I can use it for applying to stuff like zines.

46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
Been branching out. It's mostly related to my art, but I've been having fun writing personal blogs lately

47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
I try to present my real self. Not my raw thoughts, I give them time to get them organized.

48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
unsure

49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
I think so. If it ain't broke, don't fix

50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
Heavy use of tiny scroll-boxes, and scroll-boxes in scroll-boxes. It makes the layout feel claustrophobic & difficult to read.

51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
Semantic HTML. It makes things easier for accessibility tools to hook into, but it also makes your code way more easy to navigate when you're working on it than just a bunch of unlabeled divs

52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
Speaking of; Use it a lot. My code would get messy & stressful to navigate for me without them

53. Do you consider different browsers?
I try... I only use Firefox, and don't have a Mac to test Safari, but I try my best to avoid severe breakages when I catch them

54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
Firefox. It's showing signs of wear and I should probably look into a fork like Librewolf or Waterfox. But I'm lazy, and at least it's not Chrome.

55. And what OS are you on?
Kubuntu because I couldn't stand Windows 11 anymore

56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
Windows 11 took the parts we hated abt 10 and made it worse. I feel like the longer I stay on it the more annoyed I'd be with forced AI, pop-up ads, and less control over my OS (back in the 2000's this was called 'malware')

Kubuntu is a Linux distro that just works for me & also has a nice-looking desktop environment. Unfortunately Ubuntu isn't free of the AI stench, but the bar is so low these days I'm willing to accept "ignorable". I just want an OS that works & leaves me alone, but incase it doesn't stay ignoreable I'll keep a Debian live CD on standby.

57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
Yeah. I direct people to it a lot so I'm expecting a decent chunk of visitors to be on mobile. So I try to keep it as responsive as possible

58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
I feel like as long as there's a warning/notice + it isn't filled with screamers I don't mind it that much. Though I guess my browser disables it by default so I haven't had any major jump scares.

59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
they're cool, but I've been too shy to join any...

60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
One for Nix, my favorite IIDX character. And one for Zinnia, my former LPS mascot. I want to add more at some point

61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
I'm not sure. I honestly don't think about that when making my site, I just build

62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
My ideal site is a main hub for my creative works off of regular social media, that way if I need to migrate I can just direct people here. It's not a total social media replacement, but it's easier to send people here than trying to convince everyone to move from terrible social media to slightly-less-terrible social media

63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
Yes! Art is the main reason this site exists afterall

64. What are your favourite resource sites?
w3schools for getting started in HTML. The guides here are worded a lot more beginner-friendly & have interactive examples. Though I'll also recommend MDN webdocs for more in-depth examples and guides

65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
misinputs, misinputs everywhere. So many times I accidentally break my code & then waste time trying to fix the issue only to find out it's a bracket I accidentally typed.

Also forgetting to close out of Kate/11ty after I'm done coding. I haven't run into any major issues, but it leaves a weird bug on KDE where the desktop it was open on stops playing desktop animations if I put the computer to sleep while it's running.

66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
Maybe my current site's not the best example as I went the minimal approach, but mobile friendly / responsive doesn't have to mean boring-corporate-site. You'll have to add tweaks to get things to display right on different screen sizes, but you can still achieve some fancy layouts that are responsive (a lot of toyhouse coders are really good at this!)

67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
Mostly in separate stylesheets w/inline for special elements or one-off stylings.

68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
Most of them are pretty clunky & difficult to link to if I want to feature a specific page.

69. How about table-based layouts?
Eh, I prefer flexbox & flex properties. HTML tables scare me

70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
Each have their place, but I bias one column and two column for my own layouts.

71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
HTML. Getting a layout down right & responsive can take a while.

72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
I'm not strong enough. Maybe as throw-away placeholders but even for those I add a little bit of CSS so I'm not staring at pure white

73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?
When the need arises. I got burnt out on new layouts after trying to do coding challenges & work on my site, so I think doing them as needed will mitigate some of that

74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
Intermediate? There's plenty of things I'm missing, but I think I'm beyond the beginner point

75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
Usually if I'm really struggling with an element for examples on how other people handled it.

76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
I started HTML by learning how to code character profiles for my Toyhouse pages & then took those skills to build my site. The only problem is I had to unlearn a ton of habits due to the way you have to code profiles on TH (heavily inline-css dependent).

77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
Not as much anymore. Path of least resistance I guess

78. Thoughts on floating elements?
They can be fun but more often than not they end up blocking text.

79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
px for most things, % for responsive elements, em for text

80. Do you have a favourite font?
Roboto & Komika. And for coding I've been enjoying Inconsolata. I don't have any of these on site right now though, but I use the roboto & komika families a lot in my art.

81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
I'm open to the idea, but as a collaborative project stand-alone from our personal sites

82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
Yeah, I frequent Neocities' discovery pages as well as personal sites people link on their socials

83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
I forget to... I usually either follow on Neocities or via RSS. Bookmarking is cool, but if you subscribe to my RSS feed know I think you're extra cool

84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
My art maybe? but like, idk I'm just some guy who codes things sometimes.

85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
One of my long-term interests is tech. Retro tech & tech history, some power-user stuff. I want to start tinkering more with old computers too. I don't collect any device specifically though and with the current state of tech pricing... yeah that's all but a pipe dream.

86. How often and for how long are you online?
Long enough to have multiple accounts that are over a decade old

87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
Mainly people looking to keep up with my art & creative endevors.

88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
Not that much. Regular HTML works fine in most cases so, if it ain't broke, don't fix I use XML for my RSS feed, but that's just about it

89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
Programming scares me

90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
My site's built with 11ty! Honestly this was a good move on my part. Makes things far easier to update, especially with how many pages I have up

91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
Nah, I don't see the point for me.

92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
I should frequent more. Due to unfortunate circumstances I am a Toyhouse forum regular, and that swings from chill to "what the fuck is going on". I sometimes browse the Flight Rising forums, but I feel it's a little too younger-oriented for me to be a regular there.

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?
Mostly directly in the editor, but I write my blog posts in obsidian first. Since I swapped over to 11ty, turning them into pages is as easy as copy the markdown file into the right folder & run

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 know...

95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
I try not to be anymore. That's a part of my history afterall. But also my older site layouts were hot spagetti-code garbage that I'm happy I don't have to look at anymore.

96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
I'd try to leave an archive somewhere. I worked hard on this place, having to take it down would be difficult for me...

97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
Some things. I like talking about experiences, but I don't feel comfortable dropping my entire life story. Gotta maintain some level of privacy after all (as increasingly hard as that may be these days)

98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
I have yet to convince most of my friends into personal websites

99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
It's image heavy by nature, so I have too. There's still more I need to do, especially if I want to continue using it as my main archive. Right now I resize my pics to be smaller & run them through an image compressor.

100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
that was a lot of questions... There was a 5-6(?) month gap between starting and finishing I think