Small Web September Kick-Off/Check-In 1: Goals!

[enchantedsleeper]

Somehow it's September already and the kick-off point for Small Web September has arrived! \o/

As a reminder, this is the first of five ‘check-in’/comment points that will be published during the event – you can check out the schedule and dates of these posts over on the event intro. There’s no cut-off point for commenting on these, so you can add something at any time – you also don’t need to comment on them all or do them in order! The themes are a loose guide, but all discussion is welcome.

This first post will be for introducing yourself and your project(s) and talking about what you’re planning to do during the month. Of course, there’s no obligation to stick to what you’ve set down and no-one will be checking up xD But it can be a nice thought exercise! You’re free to make the goal(s) as broad or as specific as you like – it’s totally up to you.

There’s no set format for this check-in, but here’s one you can use if you’d like (just copy-paste and replace the placeholders with your own answers in the comments):

<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 goals’ – more ambitious things you’d like to get to if you have time!)

Also, if anyone would like to answer it, here’s a discussion starter: What interests you about the small/indie web, and how did you learn about or get into it?

Comments

[alaterdate]

Name: alaterdate, Joey

Project(s): My personal site

What are you hoping to work on for SWS?
I recently started working on a "big update" I've been wanting to do which is mainly changing the way I upload my book reviews, some cosmetic changes to the main pages, changing the file organization so the urls look better to me, and adding some new pages like different collections. Specifically for SWS I wanna use it as motivation to actually get all the book reviews formatted because that's the most tedious part.

What interests you about the small/indie web, and how did you learn about or get into it?
When I got a Dreamwidth account I started messing with markdown and HTML which led to me downloading a markdown text editor that had different styles you could use within it which I later learned were made with CSS. I started thematically formatting the fic I was writing in it and when I showed my friend and she said "you should make a website." It was an intimidating, but intriguing thought! I had no idea how to put a website on the internet. Looking into it led me to the neocities web revival movement which seemed the easiest way to start and so I jumped in. I'm grateful to the people who were out there making tutorials for neocites/html/css.

What has really gripped me about the small web is how creative it is. I've always loved themes, and customization has steadily been taken away from us on major platforms. I find it really fun to design pages despite the frustrations I come up against while being a newbie. I like having a little space for myself to use as I please and a pleasant home for stuff that tends to get put up all over different places (goodreads, ao3, notion, dreamwidth).

[enchantedsleeper]

Your site looks great (I like the header image!) and the cat image fetcher is excellent XD I rolled a bunny a few clicks in and felt extremely special xD Good luck with the formatting legwork - I know what you mean, I often get drawn into fiddling with code instead of the actual bread and butter of my site, which is archiving. xD Then I wish I had more archiving to show for myself.

I'm grateful to the people who were out there making tutorials for neocites/html/css.

Incredibly so! I wouldn't have a site if not for those resources!

I've always loved themes, and customization has steadily been taken away from us on major platforms. I find it really fun to design pages despite the frustrations I come up against while being a newbie.

Fully agree - it's so strange to compare my memories of the web ~20 years ago to now and remember when personalisation and customising was just a given. And I agree on having fun despite the teething issues XD The challenge makes the pay-off all the better.

I'm doing similar with my site and collecting together fanworks and thoughts/WIPs that have been scattered across a bunch of different places - it's good to have a central hub for everything, and then you'll always be able to retrieve it and also have a backup just in case something should happen to the original post.

[alaterdate]

Thank you! I started learning JavaScript so I wanted to make something fun for my website with it thus the image fetcher was born. I'm glad you liked it! I put one picture of my friend's cat in there too and she was so excited when she rolled the pic lol. So I'm counting it as a big hit xD

"it's good to have a central hub for everything, and then you'll always be able to retrieve it and also have a backup just in case something should happen to the original post.

Absolutely true! I regularly download my whole site from Neocities too and save it to an external hard drive. I kind of wanted to make a page too that shows the old designs I had. My first attempt was so basic, it's nice to see how I've learned and how my site has grown.