Smallweb Chatter Post

[kalloway]

Well February just raced on by, didn't it? How are things going for you, smallweb?

Comments

[althea_valara]

I launched my Neocities site in January, and updated it some in February! Don't think I had mentioned it here yet, so here it is: https://altheavalara.neocities.org

I'm using Jekyll as my static site page manager. Jekyll allows you to break the repetitive pieces of your website out into "includes" files, so you don't have to write the same code over and over in places. Example: my flyover menus are an "includes" - as they are quite lengthy, it'd be a pain to put that on EVERY page manually, and that'd be prone to errors!

Another nice thing about Jekyll is that it accepts markup languages besides HTML. I'm still using HTML for most of my stuff, but the menus are in YAML (Yet Another Markup Language).

When I launched my site, I intended to make a post here in smallweb with a tutorial on how to do so, but had some issues with formatting it so the code would appear properly here. So the tutorial is hosted on my site: https://altheavalara.neocities.org/jekyll_tutorial

I hope that helps others building static sites or blogs!

[axolotls]

Sounds similar to Astro, which I've been using and quite happy with!

My update is (I'll just do it here so it's fewer comments hah)... I've not really had time to do webdev stuff, even though I so desperately want to cause it's so fun. I updated Astro, tweaked some CSS on a page, but that's it really. I have been thinking about how I could give myself a form to add posts to forum-like pages I want to have for liveblogging, without other people being able to a) see the form b) submit any data through it (or rather, they could, but it wouldn't do anything). While still having a static site rather than dynamic. I've got an idea, since I already have a VPN set up to connect to the LAN where my server is, I just need to get some input from people who know stuff about security or could point me in the right direction with regards to what software already exists... but the main idea is to have a separate little service that receives the form contents, then updates some files on the server and runs a rebuild of the site through Astro. We'll see how it goes once I have time to work on this!

[pebbleinalake]

Congrats on launching your site! I've never heard of Jekyll before, but it sounds interesting, will definitely look into it!

[kalloway]

Oh, interesting! Many many years ago I used "includes" as part of PHP which I've had to yeet as part of my move to Neocities. I don't have any use for the same style menus right now, but I ever make some of the other sites I'd like to one day build, I'll absolutely remember this!

[larissa]

Not much from me this month, though I did make some progress on content writing for a new website. I wrote about it a little here but the concept is that it's a site about all the things I like that I don't want to make individual websites for. Kind of a little collection of all my favorite things. Unfortunately I am TOTALLY stuck on the layout, but the content is going well — I have 9 pages written and will probably add a few more before I open it.

[quailmail]

What's a good place to start with the small web? I've been interested for a while but I'm having trouble getting involved.

I've attempted making a few sites so far but none really came to fruition. I know how to code, so it's more along the lines of not knowing what to make. Since I work in web development I'm finding it hard to get out of the website as a brand headspace, but I want to rekindle some of the joy I had building for and exploring the web when I was younger.

[tempural]

I've found looking at other people's pages really helps get the inspiration going!

Here's a good list of sites you can browse related to indieweb/smallweb: https://shellsharks.com/indieweb

Here's a community with a lot of active members: https://32bit.cafe/

Here's a list of pages you can make on your site: https://slashpages.net/

And finally, I think the easiest way to get into making a fun site is making a fan site for something you know a lot about or can talk a lot about! https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fansite

[quailmail]

Thank-you so much for all the links! I've been pouring over them this morning, 32-Bit Cafe especially has given me a lot to chew on.

I used to visit fansites exclusively back in the day! One of the sites I tried making before was a fansite, so maybe I'll look over what I made and try again.

[matsushima]

I saw a link to this list of 100 things you can do on your personal website just before reading your comment, so maybe it will help?

My favorite indie web sites to browse are collections and OCs. Could you start with something like that? My first retro web site was my about my doll collection and I expanded from there!

[quailmail]

It definitely gave me a lot to think about! Especially looking at the website as a space to be nurtured and not just a tool for showing content on the internet.

I don't really have any OCs except my fursona, but I'm sure I'll make a page for him at some point. Thinking about it some more and looking at the other links that have been recommended, I'll probably start by setting up my domain as a profile page and then branch out from there. Originally I bought it as a hub for other projects (which never happened) so it seems a shame for it to sit there collecting dust.

Also, I really enjoyed seeing your doll collection! Especially Nanami and Minami, they're so cute!

[supermario128]

I made a Neocities website and have been working on it a fair amount recently: https://supermario128.neocities.org/

I’m a beginner with regards to HTML and especially CSS—most of what I knew about HTML coming in was from writing Dreamwidth posts in casual HTML, and I knew nothing about CSS—so it’s been a learning experience. Still, it’s been fun.

Some to dos I have is adding more of my writing to the site, figuring out how to do CSS so that the site doesn’t look bad on phone and figuring out how to do dropdown menus such that they work with the sidebar navigation I have.

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks for the link to HTML For People in the sticky. It really helped with starting my website.

[tempural]

Looks really great so far! I'm a big fan of easy to read pages like yours, with headings and lists and such.

[supermario128]

Thank you!

[kalloway]

You're welcome! I'm so happy you got some use out of HTML For People. (I am also thrilled that sites like that exist!)

[tarlanx]

I've not made time to get anything done!

[a_natural_beauty]

So far good overall. I've been reading a-lot and getting back into working on my postal stamp collection. :)

[kalloway]

Absolutely nothing in this last $timeperiod, but I look forward to getting back to things. ^_^

[aleteoryx]

not bad! I added more buttons to my site, and have been slowly adding more to the free-form section I added recently. I think making that has been one of my best recent decisions, cause it gives me a place for more miscellaneous things. my current project is to put up an archive of all the documentation I can find for the IrDA consumer infrared standards.

I also setup a proper backup system for the contents of my site, which was long overdue. it even does snapshots so I can see what it was like in the past!

[kalloway]

I also setup a proper backup system for the contents of my site, which was long overdue. it even does snapshots so I can see what it was like in the past!

Oh nice!

[requiems]

I've actually done a lot this month! Mixture of inspiration and having to listen to a lot of continuous, 24/7 roadworks noise and the only distraction thing my brain had going for it was layout design and graphics making. I made many, many functional layouts for upcoming projects; now I just have to slowly work on writing them.

As for visible, uploaded stuff, I rehauled my primary domain after nine years into a button wall for quick exits out across my network, gave my joined fanlistings page a new look and went through all of them for dead links/those that had moved, and spent a week making over a hundred different images for Beloved, a visual list of characters that mean something to me (plus some bonus pages where I talk about when I got attached and why it is I like them so much - I'm hoping to add more slowly over time).

I'm almost done with a very wordy tribute for one of my favourite characters; I finished writing it in early February and have been working on edits intermittently since then. I'm planning to open Deadlock Rebel very soon.

[nepenthee]

I stumbled upon Beloved a few days after you had uploaded it, and it was a joy to browse and read! Something about the design, your own format and specifically the way you positioned the quotes and headings made it evident how much fun this must have been to make.

Excited to see your new site and layouts! (Sorry to hear about the noise.)

[requiems]

Ah!! Thank you so much, Lethe! 💜 it's got me thinking about other lists of favourite things I might like to do, but for this it was indeed really fun to pour my love for so many different things all into one place.

[fred_mouse]

I managed zero progress, despite having put a ridiculously small goal on the wishlist. I think I need to revisit the way I'm remembering goals, because I managed to completely forget.

[enchantedsleeper]

That's a mood for me too ^^; Sometimes I remember! Sometimes not so much.

[fred_mouse]

Sympathies. It occurs to me that I now have a wall (new desk location!) I could put post it notes on. ... and that this desk has a white board built in. I could leave obvious notes to myself!

[nepenthee]

I started the year with a revamp of my guestbook, which completes the revamp of my main site from the end of 2024. It feels SO good to have such long-standing plans out of the way that I have resolved to get site projects that have been in the works for years ready for launch as soon as possible (i.e. they should be presentable and substantial, but not necessarily complete), to finally get them out of the system.

To follow through, I spent much of January and February working on Vanishing Moon, a small shrine and media gallery to the character Irisviel from Fate/Zero. It's a leftover shrine project from 2016, which had been so close to completion that it would have been a pity not to finish it so as to share it. To motivate myself, I aimed for launch on Valentine's/during Femslash February, and ultimately managed to finish the essentials (1–2 pages left to do). The merchandise collection page was particularly fun to make.

For long-term project organization, I finally consolidated all of my oooold notes from a vast amount of Evernote pages into a Notion database, with projects sorted by priority and progress/status. I think it'll help me focus on what to work on next, rather than juggling so many site projects and not getting anything done for lack of focus.

Now, I'm taking it easy without self-set deadlines, and playing an old video game for fun (while taking notes for a future shrine...).

[enchantedsleeper]

I really want to get back on the archiving bandwagon this month, maybe with some teeny-tiny achievable goals. I just finished writing a bunch of drabbles for the February Small Fandoms Drabblethon, so, maybe drabble archiving would be a good starting point.

It's marchmetamatterschallenge again, which last year was really good for getting me to add to my site, but I don't produce a lot of new meta, so I've mostly run out of meta to archive now. I think there's one new thing for me to archive since last March.

I also learned about a new personal fanworks archive directory that has just started up, made by le_gaosaure! https://fan-archives-directory.nekoweb.org/

[kalloway]

Oh, I love the idea of that directory!

I want to get back to archiving too. Best of luck!

[le_gaosaure]

I was coming here to post about the directory, but you beat me to it, thank you so much for sharing it ♥ (I spent most of Small Web September complaining about something like it not existing, it feels like, so coming back here to say that I had finally solved my own problem seemed a logical move lol)

[enchantedsleeper]

Not at all!! (And sorry I pipped you to the post with linking your archive 😂) I was originally going to go to Small Web September comments and be like "hey, person who was looking for a fan archive directory, guess what-" and then I remembered that the person who asked that question was you 😆

[le_gaosaure]

Aha yeah that was me xD But I also remember other persons being like "uh that would be neat" so maybe someone else will be happy to see this x')

... "pipped"? Is that Dreamwidth's speak for "linked"? I seriously don't know how this site works, it's honestly a miracle I found how to post here at all ='D

[enchantedsleeper]

😂 No, just a Briticism: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pip+at+the+post It means to get in just ahead of someone or to cut them off at the last minute.

I'm not a huge DWer myself, despite having run an event in this comm (which was my first and I basically made it up as I went along xD), so if there's DW lingo I'm as much in the dark as you are.

[le_gaosaure]

Oooooh I see! Thanks for the explanation, I'll try to remember this one, sounds like a useful expression ^^b