![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enchantedsleeper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
smallwebOur second Small Web September check-in point is here!
How is everyone getting on so far with their SWS-ing (hat tip tolovesgaze for making SWS into a verb 😂). Is the code (or blogging, modding, documentation, etc.) behaving as it should? Have you discovered any cool new tricks or come across any great sites you’d like to share?
The theme of this check-in is recs and resources! There are lots of great guides, tutorials and examples out there to help with our small webbing. So, I thought we could share some of our favourites in the comments - along with what you’ve been up to since our last check-in, if you feel like sharing it!
Here’s some examples of things you could share:
A bonus discussion-starter (optional, so no pressure to answer this!): What has been the most useful small web resource you’ve found so far? Or, is there a resource that you really wish existed, but doesn’t?
As a reminder, this is the second of five ‘check-in’/comment points that will be published during the event – you can check out the schedule and dates for these posts in the event intro post. There’s no cut-off point for leaving comments on these, so you can add something at any time – you also don’t need to comment on every one or do them in order! The themes are a loose guide, but all discussion is welcome.
For the previous check-in/goals post, check out: Small Web September Kick-Off/Check-In 1: Goals
How is everyone getting on so far with their SWS-ing (hat tip to
lovesgaze for making SWS into a verb 😂). Is the code (or blogging, modding, documentation, etc.) behaving as it should? Have you discovered any cool new tricks or come across any great sites you’d like to share?The theme of this check-in is recs and resources! There are lots of great guides, tutorials and examples out there to help with our small webbing. So, I thought we could share some of our favourites in the comments - along with what you’ve been up to since our last check-in, if you feel like sharing it!
Here’s some examples of things you could share:
- ‘How to code X feature/design element’ tutorials
- Cool templates or layouts
- Gif, blinkie, button or banner-maker tools or websites
- Directories, webrings or blogrolls for anything small web-related
- Communities (like this one! – but they can be anywhere, not just on Dreamwidth) for small web support, resources or discussion
- Inspiring examples of sites, blogs, or other small web projects that you’ve come across
- Any round-ups of links like these or anything else you’ve found helpful!
A bonus discussion-starter (optional, so no pressure to answer this!): What has been the most useful small web resource you’ve found so far? Or, is there a resource that you really wish existed, but doesn’t?
As a reminder, this is the second of five ‘check-in’/comment points that will be published during the event – you can check out the schedule and dates for these posts in the event intro post. There’s no cut-off point for leaving comments on these, so you can add something at any time – you also don’t need to comment on every one or do them in order! The themes are a loose guide, but all discussion is welcome.
For the previous check-in/goals post, check out: Small Web September Kick-Off/Check-In 1: Goals
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 12:43 am (UTC)I also revamped my fic 'metadata' on the same page to make it more consistent and streamlined, and added a 'key'! I've also archived two new works under Rurouni Kenshin, so now, I just have my two multichap fics to add and then I'm done with RK!
For resources - during the 2024 Snowflake Challenge I made a list of fic archive/indie web resources for challenge #7, and I've updated and added to that with some more guides I've found since then, along with some great stuff that other participants of this challenge have recommended! It's slanted towards fanwork archiving but has plenty of general small web stuff to check out.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 03:33 am (UTC)Nice. I love
<details>/<summary. I feel like I abuse it sometimes, but it's so useful!(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 12:53 am (UTC)For resources, I really love resources list for the personal web by 32bitcafe! It's a really organized and extensive list full of all sorts of resources. From web accessibility, HTML guides, layouts, and a lot more. It's totally worth checking out and bookmarking. I also really like webring list which has a list of active webrings! There's also a page on the history of webrings too, which is really cool.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-13 03:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 12:55 am (UTC)I would like to take this opportunity to recommend zonelets, a simple and free way of structuring a website to use for blogging, but also just a good framework for setting up a simple site in general. I'm making great use of zonelets in my site
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 01:54 am (UTC)SWSing progress: I found a new (responsive) template for my homepage after being reminded that 60% of web traffic is mobile but I think it's too code-heavy (the CSS file is huge and I'm not in love with how it looks so I'll probably go find another new template or tweak it somehow…
I also started a personal canon that I'm calling an "artistic lineage" because I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a "canon" (I would not stand by all of the books on that page but it would also be a lie to pretend they weren't personally important to me and I want to sit with that tension!)… but, as you can see, it is on Notion, which I don't like (see above).
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 03:57 am (UTC)"Lineage" makes more sense to me as a term for that than "canon." If I adopt that kind of page I'd also use "lineage", thank you for that. Btw, I also love Electra heart 💙.
I don't know of anything quite like Notion, but I recently started using Obsidian as my notes/journal space. It's free to use locally, but you have to pay to sync across mobile and desktop (I just upload/download files myself, but I'm a bit of a sucker for tedious labor) and you also have to pay for their web publishing service. You can do a lot of cool stuff with the community plugins, but it's not as aesthetically pleasing as Notion. So it's not as convenient and I definitely haven't stopped using Notion in addition, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 02:39 am (UTC)SWS-ing progress...Well, I may have made my goals too short (or got a little bit too focused on them) because I already...finished them ^^; Granted, they're nothing fancy, but it's still nice to have accomplished something! So, I'll share some resources I've got stored away instead:
I will say that, personally, I find the Mozilla Developer Web Docs to be a really good resource to have on hand if you're trying to code something and your mind goes totally blank on you (can you guess how many times it's happened to me? xD).
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 06:07 am (UTC)Also, thank you so much for these resources, especially the simple button creator and the image compressor links, these are fabulously useful. All these links are super cool!
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 02:54 am (UTC)(My update is a resource, kind of, in that i finally polished up (enough) my website for listing metadata terms and how i use them, which was the first of a few prerequisites for what i actually hoped to accomplish this month.)
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 04:00 pm (UTC)This is such an interesting website—I absolutely love this idea, and your execution of it is so wonderfully neat and organized! Wow!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 03:32 am (UTC)Interestingly, I've been getting things done that weren't even on my goals list. The event generally has me thinking about things I could put on the site, so I've added a site directory and a Garden Square page modelled after the in-universe online messageboard, on which I talk about my thoughts on popular fan theories. I'm particularly excited about the Garden Square addition, because, come to think of it, I could use the same format to talk about a lot of different topics.
I've also added a page for my thoughts on Final Fantasy VII, so I haven't neglected my 'create sections for other games in the series' goal completely!
On the subject of resources: W3Schools has an HTML previewer that I found really useful when setting up the Garden Square page, as the text block element made it slightly more fiddly than the rest of the site.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 04:03 am (UTC)The Garden Square page is really fun, love it!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 03:53 am (UTC)Also here are some adoptable moth graphics, because mofs. I keep meaning to sprinkle a few here and there on my site but then I forget. ^^;;
As for how I'm doing, ahahahaa, I am about halfway to where I was hoping to be at this point but I'm not ready to lower my goal. I feel like I should have a little more to say about what I'm working on, but not at the moment.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 12:38 pm (UTC)Oh, Readable CSS looks so neat! Definitely keeping it in mind for future sites as well. Thanks for linking it! (And those cute adoptable moths! ^^)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 04:36 am (UTC)I just finished up all my reviews! It went a lot faster than I imagined because I pushed myself to do just one more whenever I was starting to get tired of it so that I could have a good progress report for SWS lol.
The next thing on my list is to fix all the broken links I made by moving folders and files around.
As for some resources:
I have fallen deeply in love with CSS Grids. Here's two youtube videos/channels that I recommend (for more than just grids too):
Responsive CSS Grid — Angela Design
Learn CSS Grid - A 13 Minute Deep Dive — Slaying the Dragon
And of course CSS Tricks, CSS Grid Layout Guide — Chris House
I'll also share this too since it's something I've been fiddling with lately.
Guide on how to make your website printable with CSS — Peter Molnar
Since I love saving webpages I think it's a good idea for my site too.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 12:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 07:54 am (UTC)As for resources I really like this fic hub layout by hellaonwheels! I've been using it on the fandom pages for the fic archive parts of my site and been pretty pleased with it! (Just be warned that the example page has some explicit text)
(Side note: looking at the other resources people have been linking really has me metaphorically using one of those water spray bottles on myself lol. I keep looking at the layout resources and thinking of what I could do to give some extra ~wow~ to my pages but I GOTTA STAY FOCUSED... Get the goals I set done first and get at least some actual content on the site, THEN we can think about being more ~aesthetic~, brain! D:< Ignore the temptation of "oooooh shiny!")
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 03:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 08:29 am (UTC)Man, Astro's tagging STILL doesn't support /\|? (and probably others) so I'm having to get creative with this...
Small call for others here; does anyone know a listing of sites where people host fanfics? I know about ficring but have been talking with ppl who are interested in a listing style thing.
Anyway, my usual recs:
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 09:16 am (UTC)ayyy lmao NICE UPDATES!!! Astro seems to be looking good for the tagging system you got going on.
Haven't seen a listing of site hostings, but would like to see that too. I prefer listings over rings cuz I like to open 50 tabs of links at once rather than browse one by one lol.
(i gotta remind myself to replace the link to vscode in my neocities deployment thingy with VScodium heehe)
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 10:42 am (UTC)- added a page with my tips for crochet intarsia to my craft site (was on the todolist)
- began preparing the images for my crochet gallery (was on the todolist)
- exhumed my notes on a crochet pattern I plan to upload at some point (was on the todolist)
- added a dark mode to the fics site and a light mode to the craft site, toggled based on system/browser preference (was NOT on the todolist)
As for resources, I mostly use the w3schools HTML and CSS sections to look up specific things I need, but something I've found really useful to help with accessibility is this contrast checker that let you know which standard(s) you're validating with the contrast between background and text color. (They also have a version to check links color against background and text, but it's mostly important for links that have no other identifier than contrast. Still nice to get an idea.)
no subject
Date: 2024-09-16 08:16 am (UTC)I really want to implement this! Though, ideally it'll be as a toggle on fic (and meta) pages that people can switch back and forth independent of browser preference. Question, did you have to set an alternate colour scheme for your site to act as a dark/light mode for it to work? I had a go at implementing the one-line CSS/HTML that's meant to accomplish this but it didn't work, and I'm wondering if that's why...
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 02:06 pm (UTC)juggling between making sure longer journal entries for neocities are covered under (details)(summary) (in brackets, not parentheses) and trying to find a good template for a gallery page. The fanfiction portion has been me looking through old flash drives and email chains and mostly just finding drafts and outlines so I’ve got a lot I need to work on with that department. Plus there’s the factor of finding stuff from high school and going “wow, I’m not even in that fandom anymore, that’s a throwback.”
In terms of actual coding I tend to stick to templates because a lot of my actual HTML coding skills are more or less just me googling to get what I want and using w3schools when it goes wrong. I’m attempting to ensure most of the templates I use are responsive mostly because I code with whatever I have available which is between my phone which I used for the first site or computer. These ones I had bookmarked.
Web resource for a lot of templates and tutorials.
Another site with templates.
-Repth is another good one in terms of responsive layouts.
-https://nenrikido.neocities.org/code/
-Site with nice templates and a tutorial on pushing the website through the neocities CLI, which I’m hoping to do before I link my site because right now on neocities it’s kind of a mess.
-https://goblin-heart.net/sadgrl/projects/layout-builder/
This site is the one I initially built my site on pre revamp when I was into another fandom, but the site itself offers more than just the layout builder.
If I find more I’ll add to this comment.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 04:21 pm (UTC)For resources: I felt like the semantics page on W3Schools was really lacking so here are a few articles on semantics which basically all go over the same thing:
1) freecodecamp.org
2) web.dev
3) codecademy.com
I wish there was a source that went over common div names that are apparently not semantic but that web devs are taught to use - like wrapper for instance. It's probably out there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. I feel like it's one of those things you really miss out on if you're self taught
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 05:54 pm (UTC)"common div names" -- oh lol, my first reaction was that I'm like 99% sure these are not taught anywhere, just something that everyone learns by osmosis... but then I was like "wait, this is programmers we're talking about, someone must have already made a collection!" And I was right. Behold: https://shramko.dev/snippets/common-css-classes
Also, it's nice to look through one of those basic "how to name things" posts, like this one: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/css-naming-conventions-that-will-save-you-hours-of-debugging-35cea737d849/. Like, I often don't use strict BEM for personal projects (this is for fun, don't make me think...), but it is a useful concept to know about.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 08:20 pm (UTC)Despite that, I do have some updates:
1. I finally settled on a name for my site, spiralbound! I carry around a spiral-bound notebook everywhere I go to scribble ideas in on the fly, and I’d like my website to be a digital equivalent; something full of projects and ideas that’s constantly being added to and evolving.
2. It’s nothing fancy because it was done from mobile, but I nixed the Welcome to Neocities page and added my own “check back soon” statement to the index.
As for resources, I’d like to recommend Photopea for making graphics— it’s a Photoshop clone that runs entirely in browser and is very useful for all kinds of editing projects.
If you want something that isn’t dependent on a browser to run, Krita is free, open source, and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux— very helpful, considering that I’m running a Linux machine!
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 02:34 am (UTC)(Also, there's an unofficial Linux wrapper for Photopea on Flathub if you want it to be usable without a web browser open (though it's still Electron) https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.vikdevelop.photopea_app .)
Spiralbound is a really cute name too, good luck!!
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 10:14 pm (UTC)As far as resources:
- https://coolors.co/ and https://paletton.com/ for color schemes
- https://thenounproject.com/ for icons
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-13 08:06 am (UTC)I'm glad to hear your day job stuff is settling down! Good luck with hopefully finding time to do small web stuff, but also make sure you take some breathers, too ^^
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 03:40 am (UTC)Favorite resources:
-Web Design Museum: For inspiration. I love looking at old web design trends here.
-This Google Drive of old computer graphics has been very fun and useful.
-Horror Gif Necronomicon, a bunch of horror/halloween gifs
-Code to have a custom image fall over your site
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-13 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 11:24 am (UTC)Inspiring examples of sites, blogs, or other small web projects that you’ve come across
http://www.matermetis.com/
This site serves as a muse for me in how it combines the author's original art, photography, writing, and dolls, in a very individualistic way, which is much along the lines of what I want to do.
What has been the most useful small web resource you’ve found so far?
The struggle for me has been finding a good WYSIWYG editor for my Mac. The two I have liked the most are Sea Monkey and BBEdit. I really like BBEdit a lot, but the features I like are part of the subscription package. Sea Monkey allows me to easily flip back and forth between the browser preview and the code, so I can easily add my own code or make adjustments to what it's generating. Sea Monkey is free, too.
Or, is there a resource that you really wish existed, but doesn’t? Sigh... Moyra's Web Jewels! Does anyone else remember or know of that graphics site, and the many beautiful sites like it, from the late 90's-early 00's? I have manage to glean some of her layouts from old sites still using them and have been thinking of creating a link list or gallery to compile the sites where her work still exists.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 12:02 pm (UTC)Many Faces of Michael Biehn
no subject
Date: 2024-09-10 07:32 am (UTC)OMG that site is so cool! I love being able to see every character he's played, and click on the page for the media - and even that page is customized with colors and links and information! Very inspirational for me, I wanna do a similar page for the faces of Willem Dafoe :D It didn't take that long for me to load either.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 07:54 pm (UTC)My girl's birthday is tomorrow and I make a special page dedicated to her to celebrate it every year. This year I wanted to make a little gane, so I made a dress-up where you decorate her birthday party. I finally got the drag-drop to work so I have been drawing the assets the last few days.
About coding recs, I like CSSLayout (page gor down but Internet Archive got our backs), they're simple snippets to add to your page. Then Tiny Tools is pretty good as well, it mostly focuses on game dev but has useful codes for webpages as well.
I will also link to Celestial Star, Buruma and Lovely Designs, while I find most of them hard to read, old web's layouts and graphics always inspire me ^^
no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 10:09 pm (UTC)I decided to try out a new layout for my shrine pages and when I realised how awesome it looked, I just ended up getting eaten by filling in so much information!! So my shrine for Sartauvoir quo Soranus is now well underway! I need to transfer my manifesto over from dw, and then populate the second row of links, but I'm SO obsessed with how it's turned out so far!!
I also added a chatbox to the landing page, and added the navbar to all other pages, as well as alphabetising it and adding a separate page for code credits and things.
Resource-wise, I've been enjoying using dw rper codes for various things! A few faves are 10billionghosts and efryndiel.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-10 07:22 am (UTC)Looking good! I like how indepth the layout for your shrine can get :D And ooh I didn't even think about using DW codes for regular websites :O The rp codes are cool especially if they fit the game for your fanshrine!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2024-09-10 07:05 am (UTC)Instead of working on the Fujofans web listing like I said I would, I started making a /uses page instead. It's in progress - currently basic hardware and art software, but I hope to add other programs and IRL art supplies I use!
Inspirations: - Cory Dransfeldt use page - 7p drawing tablet documentation - David Revoy's tablets history
I love to see what people use and recommend! Especially for computer programs, IDK what people use for like.. lightweight video editing, or font management y'know? Especially cuz so many apps are phone-only now haha.
I want to add the details/summary function to my list of uses, so that people can quickly read through the page, and choose to click for my wordy opinion on what I use. Cuz what I use isn't necessarily the best, but I have MY REASONS lol. Also need to add CSP brushes, will be useful for me if I ever have to redownload everything I know and love. Also useful for others if they want to use the same brushes as me :P
Next small project before I get the gumption to fix Fujofans, is to edit my fic pages to have MUCH simpler styling. Probably copy the ao3 layout, and add a neutral background color that obeys light/dark preferences rather than my bulky color scheme picker. Make the writing page much slimmer too, I kinda would prefer it to be a small list rather than large over-styled cards.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-11 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-12 09:19 am (UTC)I have made... a little progress! I've written a handful of pages for my upcoming Sailor Uranus site. None of which are substantial, but at least it's something. I have the next volume of the manga ready to reread, I just haven't had the brainpower to sit down and take notes, etc.
For resources, I offer these: