Small Web September: Kick-Off & Goals!

[enchantedsleeper]

Our kick-off for Small Web September is already upon us, and that means it’s time to set some goals! What would you like to work on during the month?

These can be as vague or as granular as you like; a lot can change as you’re working on a project, so it’s completely fine to change them up as needed (or do away with them entirely xD), but it can still be nice to set some ~aspirations!

There’s no set format for this post (anything goes!), but for anyone who’d like to use it, here’s a little pre-formatted set of prompts you can fill in – just overwrite the placeholders with your own info:

<strong>Name:</strong> (Username, nickname, whatever you like to go by)
<strong>Project(s):</strong> (Share a link to your project(s) if you’d like to, and/or describe what you’re making or would like to make!)
<strong>What are you hoping to work on for SWS?</strong> (This can be as general as “add to my site”, or as specific as “archive X fanworks” or “implement a responsive layout”. You could even include ‘bonus’ or extra goals you’d like to get to if you have time!)

I normally include a ‘discussion starter’ or two at the end of each post as well for anyone who’d like to answer it, so here are a couple of questions you can answer if you fancy: What inspired you to make (or start making) your small web project(s), and what is it that appeals to you about the small web?

I look forward to learning about everyone’s goals and projects! 💜 Our next check-in point for the challenge will be Sunday, 7th September (you can check the full schedule and list of themes here!), but if you want to share something to the comm before then, feel free to make a post!

Reminder that we have these amazing banners for the challenge made by javert that you can save to use on your site, your blog or anywhere you'd like to show you're taking part!

Comments

[enchantedsleeper]

Name: enchantedsleeper
Project(s): My personal fanworks archive, enchantedsleeper.space!
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Let’s see, there are a few things I’d like to tick off during SWS if I can:

• Minify the file size of any images I have hosted on my domain, and transfer the ones I currently have hosted on SquidgeWorld Images onto my domain (while making them more lightweight)
• Add my remaining meta essays to Meta
• Rearrange my fic and fan poetry so that any 1-work fandoms are categorised under ‘Other’, and archive a few of these works, since they should be relatively chill to tick off
• Finish archiving my Rurouni Kenshin fanworks
• Make a start on at least one new fandom, which can also be a ‘catch-all’ fandom like Yuletide (which I’m planning to treat effectively as a fandom for categorising purposes) or my small fandoms drabbles
• Overhaul my Fanart page (currently I’m looking at this page as a potential model/format to copy)

Some "nice-to-have" goals would be:

• Clean up and make consistent my use of <strong> and <em> versus <b> and <i> across the site, because I know they’re all over the shop (this will probably involve a lot of find & replace)
• Archive my fandom manifesto/pimp posts as a section on my Meta page
• Make a resources page with handy links (or maybe archive this list that I have already)
• Design and implement a ‘dark mode’ colour scheme for my fic and meta pages
• Start my Fanvids page
• Get some cute blinkies, buttons, dividers and other graphics to jazz up my site, especially the front page (any recs for where might be good to get these?)

If I have enough goals, I’ll at least hit some of them! xD

[kalloway]

If I have enough goals, I’ll at least hit some of them! xD

Ha! I love it. (That's my to-do list this weekend, though. Even if I don't do everything, I at least did a bunch of things!)

Get some cute blinkies, buttons, dividers and other graphics to jazz up my site

I'll have to dig through my bookmarks. I miss the days of plentiful Japanese "free materials" sites; I got so many cute and fun elements from those.

[matsushima]

Name: Meep (e/em)
Project(s): pine island
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I don't have any specific plans but I've been thinking that the main page could use an overhaul? and I definitely want to get around to actually designing and updating Pine Island Public Library, which has been on hiatus since last December because I couldn't figure out a layout and format that I liked.

[e_k_braveman]

I said this on your guestbook as well, but your site is just soooo freakin' cool! I love how you use a variety of layouts for the various sections, the fact that the main page also has separate themes, and that haunted house tour is such a fun little thing. You went above and beyond for it, major props!

[tarlanx]

Name: Tarlan

Project(s): David Hewlett Archive

What are you hoping to work on for SWS?

1. Reduce the overall number of files: I have plenty of space BUT I am running out of inodes (directory/file markers) and as I simply cannot afford to buy more webspace just to get more inodes I have decided to reduce the file count by putting 8 screencaps per file. I made a valiant start on David Hewlett Archive and now have only (huh! ONLY!!!!) the three big TV shows to go. Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis and Traders

The smallest of these is Stargate SG1 (6 episodes) so I want to see if I can do this one for SWS and reduce the file count from 1336 screencaps to around 170 files saving approx 1150 inodes :)

2. Add items to empty albums: With more inodes freed up I will have space to add more content to the empty albums on the gallery :)
 

[enchantedsleeper]

Sounds like nice, light work, then! 😂 Best of luck with the screencap reduction - that will be no mean feat, but it sounds regrettably necessary xD And enjoy adding the new items in once you have more space!

[rionaleonhart]

Name: Riona
Project(s): My fansites for Final Fantasy VIII, Silent Hill 2 and Death Note.
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'm mainly just hoping to add a little more to each of my websites! There are a few specific things I should really get around to for the FFVIII site in particular: I'd like to add a page for my thoughts on FFXII, upload more of the embarrassing fancomic I drew as a teenager and make some progress on my 'noting my thoughts on every track on the OST' project.

[althea_valara]

The FFVIII OST is SO GOOD. One of my favorites of Uematsu-san's. I would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts about the tracks!

[kalloway]

Name: kalloway/Kalli
Project(s): The Lemonade Cafe (fanfiction and original fiction, inc. explicit works) and its mirror lemonadecafe
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'd like to get some archiving done! I don't want to put a hard number on it, so some. Seriously, just archive some fic. There's a lot of it...

[enchantedsleeper]

I can highly relate to the goal of "just archiving more fic" (if I do only that for SWS I'd call it a success, but of course I had to go and add a bunch more to-do items xD). Wishing you energy and motivation!

[larissa]

Name: Larissa
Project(s): Some additions to crystarium.net and my fanlisting collective!
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? The primary goal is to launch my FF14 fic archive, which will be postmortems and extended author's notes for my fics rather than hosting them directly on the site. I have it half done; I just need to finish writing and put it in the layout I've made.

The other thing I'd really like to do is a long-overdue revamp of my fanlisting collective. I know exactly what I want to do with it, but I haven't been able to find the time to work on it. Hopefully as my obligations clear up in the next week I'll be able to dedicate time to it.

[althea_valara]

yes another Final Fantasy project! Cheering you on!

[althea_valara]

OH GODS THE CAT BANNER DEAD OF CUTE!

Name: Althea Valara. Just calling me Althea is fine.
Project(s): https://altheavalara.neocities.org - my Final Fantasy fanscripts site.
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'd like to finish porting over FFBE Season 1 and my FFXIV stuff I have so far. The former currently resides at ffbe_script and the latter is posted in my journal under this tag: https://althea-valara.dreamwidth.org/tag/ffxiv+msq+summaries

If time allows, I'd like to play through Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia on my documentation alt and get that posted as well. But communal_creators starts in mid-month and while I can use smallweb stuff for that as well, I'm also hoping to get some fiber arts done during Communal Creators, so that might slow me down. We'll see!

[enchantedsleeper]

Isn't it great? I love it so much - and the web one is so good too 😄

Gosh, communal_creators looks great, I really like the fact that that community exists! While I'm not sure if I could do the full round, I see they've run some mini-rounds and that might be easier for me to jump into. Will try to keep it on my radar :D Wishing you the best of luck for your dual creating! There's always so many cool things to do, so little time 😆

[nanslice]

Name: Nan!
Project(s): I would like to finally set up a site for my OCs from various canons (WH40k and ESO, mostly)
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Mostly just get the skeletons of a site built! I plan on using neocities and going from there. I've been scrolling through the websites hosted there and just really getting inspired by the quality! <3

[enchantedsleeper]

I love that! Good luck with starting your site, and of course feel free to post any questions you have along the way <3 I really like browsing other sites for inspiration and seeing what people can do with layout, design, graphics, or just the things they make pages for. It makes me want to get creative ;D

[sleepyquail]

Name: Quail
Project(s): CASTRUM LACUS LITORE, my personal site.
What are you hoping to work on for SWS?
- I want to figure out how I want my ffxiv gpose screenshots gallery to be laid out (figure out a lightbox style if I can) and then make a good start on uploading screenshots to it. There's A Lot, so I'm expecting this to take forever. If anyone has any favourite image gallery setups, please drop links!
- Continue adding new stylesheet onto my existing fics, then at a push start uploading more fics in other fandoms. Another long-term goal though, so any progress on this will work!
- Add some more stuff to my Sartauvoir shrine, including the FR translation of his field note my friend did, and maybe make a start on the ship manifesto for Sart/Basch. Add lore images and text and just generally start filling in the other tabs on the shrine.

[enchantedsleeper]

Good luck with the gallery - finding a nice layout for imagery (in my case, fanart) is one of my goals for SWS, as well! I've been eyeing up this page as a design I'd really like to emulate in part because of the section dividers - I want to split up my fanart by fandom, and that would be a nice-looking way to do it. The original gallery template is by Kaylee Rowena and that page has links to several other sites using the same base code, which might also be of interest?

Best of luck with this and with all your short and long-term goals! 🍀

[e_k_braveman]

Name: E.K.

Project(s): sivis - an archive for my fiction, worldbuilding and, to a lesser extent, drawings.

What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Well, right after I post this I'm going to change the homepage text to have an explanation of what the site is for + update the character bios so they're shorter and don't jsut spell out a huge chunk of the main story I'm working on, lol.

As for the rest of the month, IDK, honestly! I've been slowly making changes for like a year and finally posted a big layout update yesterday... and now I want to redo it again because it feels kinda boring. >_< Other than that, it might be good to work on the Lore section since it uses a totally different layout I just copy and pasted from someone else, and I haven't written any pages for it yet.

I'll be developing the aforementioned story for sure, but IDK how much I can get done in a month.

A bonus goal is to not burn myself out by constantly going "ok yea but if I just finish this one little thing" :')

[enchantedsleeper]

A bonus goal is to not burn myself out by constantly going "ok yea but if I just finish this
one little thing" :')

An absolute mood xD I'm forever setting out to do one thing that's theoretically simple and then getting distracted with a Side Quest xD Which usually spawns its own nested sidequest and then before I know it it's been 2 hours and I haven't really accomplished anything?? Though I will say that all working-on-the-thing is good working-on-the-thing even if it's not what you originally set out to do, but it's good to pace yourself, too 😅

I wish you energy and inspiration while adding to and updating your site! I really like what you're doing with it :D

[overmore]

Name: Blue
Project(s): Garden of eden - personal website & Blue Garden - fanfic archive
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Work on more writing for the main site, archive all of my Bungou Stray Dogs fics, archive more of my identity v fics, possibly more smaller things to consider.

[enchantedsleeper]

Can I say that I love your Cinnamoroll cursor on the Garden of eden site? :D (I'm pretty sure that's Cinna although please correct me if I'm wrong! 😂) Both sites are really nicely laid-out and easy to navigate! Also, I like your writing bingo card and I might try to do something like that myself next year! Have bookmarked for inspiration ;D

[thatjustwontbreak]

Name: thatjustwontbreak
Project(s): My ambition is to set up a personal site on neocities, similar to what I did twenty years ago, that addressed my fandom interests.
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Deciding on and executing a layout, publishing a landing page.

[kalloway]

Best of luck! I swear picking a layout and colors and everything can be the hardest part. (But also the most fun part!)

[javert]

Name: Samifer (but you can call me Sam!)

Project(s):

• Lysandre Labs, my Pokémon fansite
• Quid Pro Quo, my fanlisting for my OTP (under Coquelicot, my collective)
• SSSH, my personal site

What are you hoping to work on for SWS?

• Finish my creepypasta page (third time's the charm; this has been on my to-do list since July LOL.)
• Finish my fanlisting (probably next week; I have two weeks left to do it but it's almost done!)
• Update Lysandre Labs at least once (because I keep meaning to and not doing it...)
• Get my personal site to a good enough state that I can show it off (ideally: have an about page ready, have some placeholder art & fic pages, have a 404 page.)
• Keep working on the website prototype for my partner (no clear goal for that one; I'd like to have something I can show before September ends, though, if I can...)

[enchantedsleeper]

I love the designs for both the sites you've linked here! 🥰 They look so nice! Also, the flying Lysandre is hilarious xD

I wish you luck with all of your goals! <3🍀 Hmm, I should make a 404 page for my site, too...

[le_gaosaure]

Name: Gao (LeGaosaure or variations on most platforms)

Projects: *ticking on my fingers* so I have my fanfic archive (up to date, I just have to add fics as I post them elsewhere), my craft archive (I'm adding new projects as I share them, but more on it below), the site I made for the fan event I'll be launching in 10ish days (the Project Moon Anniversary Exchange, keep an eye on it if you happen to be interested ;) ) (complete, will just need updates as the event progresses), and the fan archives directory that lists small/personal fanfic archives, come apply if you have one ♥

Yeah, I'm not one to make one big general site with tons of categories and pages, so I end up with lots of different URLs x'D

What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'm not committing to much given I already have writing and crafting plans, but the thing that needs working on is my craft archive: while I've been posting every new project on it since I launched it, I have... 15ish years of backlog to add to it? Most of it has been tackled already (I say "already" but I'm pretty sure I was already working on that for last year's event lol), I'm currently only missing some crochet projects. Around 60 x') So if I could make any progress on that, it'd be neat! It's so much more comfortable having one central place to link to people when I mention my craft, be it to show a specific piece, to showcase what I do more generally, or to immediately dig out a pattern!



As for today's questions... Honestly, I don't recognize myself in most posts about what the "small web" or "indie web" is even supposed to be. I just code websites because it's practical. Though I do have a specific event that kicked my butt into finding something I wanted to code (after 15ish years of having the knowledge but not doing anything with it because I didn't see the use): July 2023 DDoS attack on AO3. It was bad, on top of an already cursed month (both twitter and reddit were in utter chaos with ripples all over the other platforms...), and it shook me into realizing I could leverage my coding knowledge for something I cared about, actually: having my fic available elsewhere just in case. (I since learned that it's not only useful when AO3 is down, but also for people for whom AO3 is blocked. For example the whole of China. For some reason last time I discussed it with a Chinese reader neocities was perfectly accessible from China.) Then I realized I could also solve my quest for a unique platform to display my craft that I had been poking at for years. And now here I am, this tool back at the front of my mind, asking myself if it can help automatically instead of forgetting about it =)

[althea_valara]

Oh hey, I'm a crafter too, and except for a very small neocities site I threw together to show off some of my portfolio for a knitting/crochet instructor job, I have not archived my projects anywhere except Ravelry. I do like Ravelry a lot, but I've been considering making my own smallweb craft site just for fun/as a backup should Ravelry ever go kaput. I took a look at yours and it looks great! Nice layout and well-photographed projects. Who knows, you might inspire me to build my own craft site!

Good luck with your web projects! They all sound wonderful.

[linky]

Name: Linky
Project(s): My personal website
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'd like to (hopefully) start work on my Kamen Rider Gotchard shrine, and buy a domain and implement it to my site finally! Also some more archiving and fixing up my art gallery too.

[enchantedsleeper]

Best of luck with your SWS goals! 🍀 I visited the Mayalock Zone on your site and read the Harlock x Maya shrine, and now I'm curious about watching Arcadia of My Youth! :D It's never been on my radar before, but I love the passion you have for this pairing <3

[finch]

Name: Jack
Project(s): Skyhold
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Following your "If I have enough goals, surely I'll fill some of them" philosophy:

• probably find a webhost that's not just uploading shit to my email provider?
  
• put my original universe stuff together literally at all
  
• reformat the character reference pages and get them up
  
• putting the art up would also be nice
  
• fanfic archive could use updating/incorporating
  
• so could some random other pages like my Flight Rising lore
  

[enchantedsleeper]

Following your "If I have enough goals, surely I'll fill some of them" philosophy

Ehehe, excellent! :D Best of luck to both of us in Getting Things Done 🤝 I really like your Link Garden page, by the way - I've bookmarked it to read through in more detail later, but I also had a revelation about the importance of link curation and linking on the small web earlier this year, which is why the theme of the Week 1 check-in is links! It's nice to see someone else following the same thought process ^^ And it all looks like super interesting reading.

[cennydd]

Name: Teagan Starfarer (recent name change until recently I went by Cennydd and Tallulah)

Project(s): Living Poetry personal website 18+

What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Primarily I want to add a links page, get some of my non-spiritual/non-fannish poetry on my site, make a section for my fan poetry, and (if I have time) work on my Worldbuilding/Original Characters project. I also want to get all of my social media organized under the Teagan Starfarer name so I don't feel spread out so thin.

[enchantedsleeper]

I love your site design, it's really lovely! 💜 The Book of Shadows section design is so pretty as well 😍 I wish you the best of luck with your goals for SWS, and the social media reorganisation!

[caramarie]

Name: Cara
Project(s): Cara Marie’s distressingly coloured fansite
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I want to expand the kdramas section of my site in particular, and get more vids posted. I have a bunch more things on my to-do list that I could add, but let's stick with that :D

What appeals to me is getting to explore people's sites and see what they come up with outside of the structure of social media or other big websites! Also in terms of my own site, I work in web and sometimes I just want to have fun playing in a way that doesn't comply with UX best practice etc.

[enchantedsleeper]

I laughed at "distressingly coloured" XD As someone who has big blocks of bright purple and cyan on my own site, I support your design choices :D I also love seeing how different small web sites are arranged and how people display their passions, and what aspects of themself they put into the site 😊 Also I agree that it's nice to just approach something as a fun little hobby project (with bright, clashing colours!) and not worry about what's "optimal".

Have fun and good luck with your SWS goals!

[elyusion]

Name: Chris elyusion

Project(s): Adding to my website, Chris World :-]

What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I want to make at least two shrines, but ideally 4. One every week, with the last week being for final fixes or maybe working on my fansite too. Here is one shrine I started months ago and never finished. It's going to look much better by the end of this month, I swear... As for my fansite, I refuse to link to it until I've done everything I have planned for it. It seems this month might be pretty busy for me, so I hope I can finish my goals!

[enchantedsleeper]

I like your URL! :D Best of luck with all the shrines that you have planned, and your fansite as well! I'm with you on the "lots of goals" front 🤝 but hey, even if we don't finish, progress will still be made ^^

[ravensilversea]

Name: Raven
Project(s): Raven's Pen - a personal fandom site, includes some 18+ fics
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? The main project goal is to make more progress on archiving my fics (I think I'm around halfway done, but there's still more than a few left lol). Bonus points if I get my stats and recommendations pages up. And it's probably a given I'll get distracted by making more graphics at some point XD

I started making my site because honestly, it seemed kind of fun! The main thing that had been holding me back was the fact I didn't know how to code or where to start, and starting from the absolute basics seemed like a lot of boring work to get to where I could start having fun with it. Then I realized, there's nothing stopping me from jumping straight to working on a project and figuring it out as I go along XD

I don't really have a small web manifesto. I thought it looked fun, and it is! I love shopping for stamps and buttons to put on my site, and I love the fact it has me making my own graphics since my main fandoms are either too old/obscure or too new to have many to find. And it's also just quieter. There's no pressure to cater to anyone but myself which is honestly really nice

[enchantedsleeper]

The main thing that had been holding me back was the fact I didn't know how to code or where to start, and starting from the absolute basics seemed like a lot of boring work to get to where I could start having fun with it. Then I realized, there's nothing stopping me from jumping straight to working on a project and figuring it out as I go along XD

Yessssss. When I set out to make my personal fanworks archive in 2023, I hadn't done anything site code-y in about 8, 9 years and sure I could remember how to format text in HTML, but other than that? 😅 But luckily there's lots of resources around to get stuck in, and I kept reminding myself that it didn't matter if it was basic or a work in progress as long as I was having fun :D

And it's also just quieter. There's no pressure to cater to anyone but myself which is honestly really nice

1000% this. I think that was the biggest appeal for me: "hey, I can make this exactly the way I want it! And if I decide to change things around later, I can!" And it's so nice to get a break from the... performative-ness of the rest of the internet. 😅

Best of luck with your fic archiving and the pages you want to work on! I love the Stamp Book section of your site - that's such an impressive collection! And so many great stamps 🤩

[biteshelter]

Name: bites
Project(s): My static site generator and personal site!
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Most of my current goals are related to the site generator, but I'd like to break up work on that by adding more to my site.

Site generator goals:

• Fix broken links
• Improve the sitemap (let subdirectories have index pages)
• Make pages to list fics, essays, blog posts, etc.
• Support styling project pages in the gallery

Personal site goals:

• Update the site style
• Add more resource links
• Add projects
• Add about page
• Site button

[aleteoryx]

omg i love how your site looks!! super cool styling :D

[annathecrow]

Name: annathecrow
Project(s): directory pages, one for my online/fannish identity and one for my day job/career stuff
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? This is gonna be such a dumb mix of extremely low-tech and extremely high-tech :D Each "directory page" (think Carrd) will literally be just a single hand-coded HTML file (I might even do it in a plain text editor for peak retro), but I want to host them on my home server and for that I need to figure out a Docker/Composer setup that won't be too ~unique~/time-consuming/over-complicated but also won't be a complete overkill (e.g. a whole damn Ubuntu just to serve a single HTML file). Either way, it sounds fun and that's the important part. :D

[enchantedsleeper]

I love a good plain text editor :D Notepad is not to be under-estimated! (Or insert your plain text editor of choice here, that's just mine xD) The high-tech part of that sounds complicated but fun is exactly what we do this for :D Good luck and I hope it works well!

[smilingslightly]

Name: Isa
Project(s): horticulture blog
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? try out a static site setup with Hugo, having bounced off of WP's block editing and realizing I don't need all that anyway

[enchantedsleeper]

I'm also not a fan of WP's block editor, it needs to be said xD Good luck with your static site setting-up! A horticulture blog sounds excellent and I'd love to check it out if you have something you want to share later on ^^

[faitsu]

Name: Faitsu or Litda
Project(s): Personal Site and upload my separate Portfolio Page
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? Do two sets of art each for my Halloween, Winter and Christmas art and background for landing page and blog.

Stretch goals would be to upload my whole Portfolio of work by the end of the month on Nekoweb and stop making a huge deal of it.

[honse]

The ACNH background on your About page is so cute! That sounds like a lot of art for the holidays, but there's something sooo satisfying about having seasonally-themed things as the year goes around. You got this! :D

[innumerablewounds]

Name: Kip
Project(s): My Tales of the Rays fan site!
What are you hoping to work on for SWS? I'd like to knock out the rest of the story masterlist! Good god I underestimated the amount of data entry this would involve.

I've got a whole text file of other plans for the site, and I hope I'll be able to at least start a second thing.

[kalloway]

Oooh, best of luck to you and thank you for your work. ^_^