100 questions for the webmaster

These questions are from mousling.net and I was inspired to answer them by ribo.zone.

1. Please introduce yourself.: Helllllooooooooo, I'm billy. How are you?
2. How long have you been making websites?: Hmm. This feels kind of insane to write, but I think I made my first site 15 years ago. I started learning how to write HTML and CSS in a legitimate way in 2012, I think. But I've been pretty off and on with it since then.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: It was school, actually. I learned how to do it in class and then continued on my own after.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Personal sites and blogs. I love seeing the creative ways people express themselves and their interests.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: With this site, I don't really plan it at all. Whatever I feel like doing at the moment I pick it up is what I explore next.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: [coming soon. I want to add a whole /links page to my site]
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: I find the whole thing to be very meditative. I really love hand-writing the code and feeling each piece of the site come toghether one character at a time.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Javascript. Learning how to execute the ideas in my head efficiently.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: Right now I generally use the same layout. But I think I want to experiment with some different ones. Why not?
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Quite confident. Every since flexbox arrived, all of my issues have been solved. I love it.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: Okay, I'm not going to lie, I've literally never used it until this questionaitte.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: Wow. I mean the <div> is a beautiful thing. Who knew you could make so many things with boxes in other boxes?
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Hello world and then generally I'll make the skeletons of a few pages I know I'm planning on using.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: Just a bit.
15. How about PHP?: Barely.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Sort of. I like this corner thing that I have going on right now. Still trying to find its identity though.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Uhm, probably content at this point.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: I do! I own way too many domain names. A friend of mine taught me the importance of just buying a domain name if its good. You'll figure out what to put on it later. I owned this domain name before I even started using it for music.
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: I think it's great. I don't really like thinking about it as nostalgia-focused or retro though. Instead it feels like an alternative to the mainstream internet. I love how people of all ages, whether it is nostalgic for them are not, make personal websites.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: It's okay! I comb through it from time to time and clean dramatically. Most of the time I'm just playing around and not too worried about it in the moment.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: Are we talkin' buttons as links to other sites or like <button> buttons?
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Ah, buttons as links. I think they're cool! I prefer when people have little descriptions about why they are sharing a button on their site tho.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: I'm enjoying this right now!
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: I wouldn't say envious but instead inspired by!
25. What text editor do you use?: Visual Studio Code
26. Why do you use that one?: Had some developer friends recommend it to me a few years ago and I never had a reason to switch.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: Right on NeoCities for now.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: I found the indie web through Neocities so that's been my go-to. I don't know Nekoweb yet.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: Oh, like nothing. The only thing that's of any weight are the few songs and images I have up. This thing is bare right now!
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: No, lol. Probably should.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: For personal websites, I like dense and visual stuff. It makes each feel more like a crafty art project.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: All color choices have been pretty of-the-moment decisions currently.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: Nah, I always find myself coming back to little websites. It's been years already so I don't see myself stopping.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I'm the only one of my IRL friends who does this.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Hmm, maybe a few? I don't share it.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: Yes. I've updated it most days since I started. Multiple times a week, for sure.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: Not yet. Still finding my style.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Hobby-focused, but I find more and more that I'm skewing it to be "me"-focused.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: Yes, kind of. I do UX design for software. I don't code at all though for work.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: Yeah, I would. Idk if I have enough skills to really be paid for the coding aspect tho.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: No, not really.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: Yes, I have social media but I update them less and less. Unforunately, I still look at them daily because I am addicted.
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.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Recently, no, actually. I've been working on my site in bed on my laptop kind of like reading a book before going to sleep.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I have more than one.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: Uhhh, it's a few topics I guess: my music project, but also indie-web stuff too.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: It's my real self for sure. But also, I enjoy a level of anonymity. It helps me feel more connected to making my art and letting it speak for itself.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: Not yet!
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Sure, I'm down with it.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: Jeez, I don't know. I think the joy of personal sites are that they are a bit messy. Just have fun with it.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Nah, just make your stuff.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: I try to use semantic html for sure. I think I need to get better with sections and asides rather than just using divs for everything but we'll get there.
53. Do you consider different browsers?: Not really.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I've been using ARC for the last few years. Unfortunately, the team has stopped supporting it and I'm starting to feel it. I'm looking for an alternative.
55. And what OS are you on?: Mac OS Sequoia mostly. I work from a Windows PC from time to time too.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: Not really. I've been a Mac user for most of my adult life and they have been good to me.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Mostly.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: I kind of wish it was more of a thing.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: They seem nice! I'm not in any yet but am hoping to get into some in the future.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: No but I always think they've fun to browse. It's just nice seeing people caring about things.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Uhhhhhhhh, I don't know. It's not really that unique right now.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: A place that feels like a treasure trove of personality. A place that is deep and dense and weird and unique.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: Yes. I do.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: I don't really use many right now. dithermark has been useful for making images look cool.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Nothing website related at least
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Keep it breezy and just have fun with it.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: When I build a new layout I tend to use in-line styling until I figure out exactly what I'm going for. Then, I'll move it all over to a CSS file.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I don't know what this is!
69. How about table-based layouts?: Oh yeah, wow. I haven't done a table based layout in years. I don't think it's for me.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: I use both one and two column layouts right now!
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: Hmm right now the content is a bit more important to me than the style but they're so interconnected!
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I have not. I always style it at least a tiny bit.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: No not yet. Right now I make layouts when I feel like the content needs something new.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: I think I'm technically pretty good at HTML and CSS. What I want to get better at is figuring out how to really make the content shine. So from a technical level, I'm pretty good. And from like an art-direction-on-personal-website level, I feel like a beginner.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Sometimes if I want to see how someone pulled something off.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: Mostly W3 schools, lots of stack overlow questions, the css-tricks flexbox explainer, looking at other peoples' sites, and lots of trial and error.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: Not so much anymore.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: My god, floating elements are so confusing to me. It's how I used to position everything many moons ago and I wish to never go back.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Almost always use px on my personal sites.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: I do. Helvetica. I think it is a thing of beauty and I love its divisiveness.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: I think that'd be really, really fun actually. It'd probably be useful to use something like Git to keep it all organized. Otherwise it'd be really fun to work out in the open. What I mean is like, use the site itself to track the things you are working on and want to do and then just do it.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Yes. Since I've started this site, I've been surfing other personal sites constantly. Almost every day.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: I do! I often bookmark sties when I feel particularly connected to something that I want to use as inspiration for my own site. I would find it incredible if anyone else bookmarked mine!
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: The music. At the end of the day I hope that it makes them feel something.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: The web is my favorite thing about technology, probably. I have video games and stuff. I collect physical media of movies, books, and music.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: I'm online every day for hours and hours. Lots of them are for work but even personal time is pretty high. If I'm not hanging out with friends IRL, I'm probably online solo.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: People who like guitar-based alternative music and others interested in the merit of personal websites.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: No. I don't know the benefit of it.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Nothing beyond a few small school projects.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: They seem really great. I've made some small blogs that I've never published live with them. I'd like to try again sometime.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: No. I think it'd make me anxious wanting to see the number go up. I'll remain in ignorant bliss.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: No, but I kind of wish. I'd love any recommendations!
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?: All 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?: Lol, I don't know. I don't want to know.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: Not with this site. All old work contributes to new better work so I'm pretty at peace with it these days.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I don't think so. I kind of love the idea of a little website existing in the vastness of cyberspace forever. This is my little corner and you can visit it whenever you want.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: Not that much has been revealed so far but I'm not all that secretive.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: I used to have many online friends years ago however I do not really have any any more. I'd love to make some again.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: When I'm not being lazy.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Good! I kind of want to do one of these but specifically about music. I'm going to make one some day! I think that'd be fun!