Small Web September Check-In 3: Halfway Point!

[enchantedsleeper]

Wooooah, we’re halfway there,
Wooo-ooah! (Lemon on a pe-ear!)

*ahem* We’re at the halfway point for Small Web September already!

If you’re wondering where the heck last two weeks went, you’re not alone – but don’t despair. There’s still loads of time for small webbing!

This is our ‘How’s it going?’ halfway point check-in, where you can share your SWS progress if you’d like to and compare notes with your goals at the beginning of the challenge. Has anything unexpected come up as you’ve worked on your small web project(s)? Are you focusing on the things you thought you would, or have you found some new side quests to go on?

Here are a couple of question prompts you can use for this check-in:

• What have you been working on so far for SWS?
• Are you focused on the same things you outlined in your goals, or have you found yourself doing something different?
• What are you looking to work on next?

As a reminder, this is the third 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.

To find our last check-in post and browse through all of the awesome resources and recs, go here: Small Web September Check-In 2: Recs and Resources

Comments

[muttthecowcat]

• What have you been working on so far for SWS?
I've actually completed most of what I set out to do!! This week I updated the CSS for my fashion site. Unfortunately, it's the first site I ever made, so the css is an absolute mess. I've fixed what I consider fixable for the main pages that I update often, but I've decided not to update the semantics for this site.

I also made a lace border img that can be used instead of the multiple outdated divs borders that I've been using for this site; however, it's going to take forever to actually update it on my site. So I've decided just to leave it as is and have made the border img and css available on my links page instead.

• Are you focused on the same things you outlined in your goals, or have you found yourself doing something different?
Same things - see above. and I've added things to the list. I think I was more hopeful about what I could do with my fashion site css to fix it than what I'm planning now though

• What are you looking to work on next?
My last goal for my fashion site is to update the image on the splash page so it loads correctly. I also want to update the semantics on my bookbinding site.

[lumiosecity]

Oh, thank you!

[sleepyquail]

I like how the personal site is looking, the layout is so pleasing and I love the splash of colour! The doll gallery is sooo cute as well, I really love the little links sections underneath each one?

[sleepyquail]

Oh boy, I started a new job on Monday so I've not done anything else since my last check in, blehh.

What have you been working on so far for SWS?
Updating various parts of my personal site, CASTRUM LACUS LITORE! Mostly focused on my Sartauvoir shrine which I'm super happy with, but now the rest of the work for that is a lot of collecting links and writing things up.

I've also done some work on adding sidebars to each page and alphabetising them, adding a credits page and few other bits and bats.

Are you focused on the same things you outlined in your goals, or have you found yourself doing something different?
My main focus was supposed to be working on a stylesheet for my fic pages, but I got totally eaten by Sart Shrine lol. I still want to do that, but I'm not sure I'll get to it. I'm not too fussed though, because I've made good progress.

What are you looking to work on next?
I want to add a splash page for my OCs and then decide on a page layout for them, and make a start on a page for Neroe, my ffxiv WoL! I want to add all the art I have for her at the very least. I also want to investigate the viability of putting a little music player on my Sart shrine, because the idea of having his fight theme (Thunderer) playing on the page makes me giddy. Prayer circle I don't get DMCAed by Square Enix LOL.

[sleepyquail]

I'm in love with the wardrobe splash page, that's SUCH a cute idea!!

[picori]

I was working on a landing page and a page to detail things about a silly AU I made, both of which I finished, but now that I'm finished with them I keep tinkering with their styles!

I've found myself doing something different in the sense that now I'm working on a small fanfiction archive for the AU itself, so...extra goal for me? xD

Next, I'm looking to work on another little fanshrine and maybe a fanfiction archive for all the other fics I've written, which'll be interesting because I'm considering doing a thing with iframes instead of just laying out all the massive chapters on one page. ^^;

[sleepyquail]

Oh my god, is the layout for your Junjou Romantica etc. pages inspired by AarinFantasy?! I would recognise those collectible profile cards anywhere, holy shit. I love it.

[marinehaddock]

The layout wasn't originally inspired by aarinfantasy but I LOVED those cards and ended up adding them this year (both cough stealing some from aarinfantasy and making my own from their templates) because they just offer so much personality

[sleepyquail]

I really love your writing page, the details sections at the top of each individual page is really nice!

[sleepyquail]

Yes, they're so cute, I loved them so much!! I basically lived on that site during my uni days so it was a real blast from the past to see them, especially paired with JR stuff! I really love your site, it's so cute.

[muttthecowcat]

Thank you!!

[tempural]

Thank you! AO3 makes it really easy to download your own pieces as unstyled HTML, so it's fun to play around with styling those :D

[tempural]

Ayyy glad you found my page on Mastodon :D Especially cuz I found this event via the #smallweb tag too 😊 Really happy you could find the page of use, please show me if you or your friends do any edits to it!

(and ditto on DW HTML being hard to wrangle!! I don't know what works, and the CSS is hard to edit..)

[ghislaine]

• What have you been working on so far for SWS?
I have been focusing on working with the code on my homepage, fixing small problems and learning about CSS. I had to ditch the WYSIWYG editor because it kept adding code that didn't make sense, so I've gone back in with BBEdit and changed what was superfluous or confusing and made additional edits by hand. I want the homepage to be in good shape before I make any other pages.

• Are you focused on the same things you outlined in your goals, or have you found yourself doing something different?
I have mostly focused on the code, but I also spent an afternoon writing out the text for my dolls' main page.

• What are you looking to work on next?
I'm going to have to decide what I want to do with my top right menu. It needs some kind of design, because I think it's too plain, but I don't want it to be too fussy because I want to keep it in balance with the layout graphics.

[le_gaosaure]

I've done absolutely nothing on the site front since the last check-in, but I progressed on other things so that's OK. (September seems to have all the "work on stuff you already started/planned" events, seriously x') )

I'm also angsting quite a bit over the fact that apparently no listing for personal fic archives exists (or at least is known enough that I can find it) and that the fandom rule of "be the change you want to see in the world" is hanging above my head. I really, *really* don't want to be the one to do this T_T But my brain refuses to just drop the topic and I hate it thanks brain.

[le_gaosaure]

OK I'm totally new to the world of fanlistings but is it a normal thing to ask for the country of the applicants? I was good-surprised to see my current fandom had a listing, then confused-surprised at the "tell us where you live" rule x')

[aikoto]

It is! You can always lie tho haha
The purpose fanlistings had was to be able to find other people who like the same things as you to form friendships, and since social media wasn't a thing back then making a list of fans was the best solution.
That's why only a e-mail is required (so you can talk to the person), the country is most likely so you both speak the same language/can meet up and such.

[le_gaosaure]

Alright... Still seems weird to me to make country a requirement (when email is absolutely not on the few listings I opened). If you're filling an application on a site I'd assume you speak enough of the language the site is written in... and I mean, asking which language(s) you speak would still be more efficient for that goal. Meeting IRL is nice and all but not everyone wants that right out of the bat so offering it as an optional field would make more sense for me... but OK. People are not me, I'm not people, it is like it is.

Thanks for explaining =)

[aikoto]

Well, the internet was very different back then. Sometimes people prefer to befriend people who are closer and all, I actually wish I knew more people into my fandoms who live over there.
You would get surprised on the language thing, I used to navigate thru eng sites knowing 3 words + a dictionary/machine translations lmao.

I'm surprised email isn't obligatory on the ones you've checked! They're usually a request for cliques, fanlisting and webrings so the owner can tell you when you have been added to it.
That said I have seen the country thing being optional in some newly-made listings, I guess it depends on the owner/scrip they use.

[le_gaosaure]

Well, the internet was very different back then.

Hence my confusion because the listings I looked were all super recent. And yeah I was navigating Japanese sites back when I was 16 and couldn't differentiate a hiragana and a kanji if it bit me in the face, but I wasn't filling application forms lol.

Anyway, fanlistings are very much not what I imagined but I got cultured /shrugs/

[aikoto]

Yeah I meant that was originally added back then since that's how things ran & it's just something that stuck, don't fix what isn't broken ig.
Maybe webrings are more of your liking since they focus on the website/webmaster themselves, so they're a list of sites with a common theme (sites run by writters, focused on a theme/game, etc)

[le_gaosaure]

Oh no I was looking at listings because I hate the structure of webrings xD (Why would I ever want to send people to random sites when I have perfectly functional hyperlinks to tell them what they'll find if they click through?) (I mean some people love randomness and that's fine, to each their own, but that's very much not for me ^^) I'll just go craft in a corner and digest the fact "small web" as a culture is not for me, I'll live ^^

[linky]

What have you been working on so far for SWS?

I've mainly worked on my events page since I've been meaning to update it for some time. I've also been crossposting fics on there too.

Are you focused on the same things you outlined in your goals, or have you found yourself doing something different?

For the most part I've ended up focusing on what I first outlined in my goals! I ended up doing some things I didn't expect, such as crossposting a piece of meta I recently made, and updating my tokusatsu watchlist.

What are you looking to work on next?

I hope I can start working on the 2024 section of my events page, but my spoons have been limited for the past few days so I'll just see what I can do for my site in general.

[annathecrow]

Hm. I think I should have set some goals after all. Not that I haven't worked on my site, progress has been made, but I've been distracted by other things because I don't have specific next steps to take.

So, for the rest of SWS, I want to:

• import all fanfic from 2023
• Add three things on my /nope page
• Add three more fanfic recs
• Turn the three meta posts I have on AO3 into pages of some sort - one I think will branch out from the /yep page, and the other two will become a "resources" section.

That sounds doable!

[stepnix]

uhhh I started my website, I have a home page and blog page and don't know CSS but I'm using it anyway. I think the comment box is broken but don't know what to do about it
https://stepnix.neocities.org/