art by david mattingly, the legend behind the animorphs covers!

my current forum avatar is bugsy, the bug-type gym leader from the johto region, so it shouldn't come as a surprise when i say that i would be BUG   
choosing a secondary type for myself is a little more challenging, but it would probably be ground. my favorite pokémon are trapinch -> vibrava -> flygon, which are all ground type (but they're honorary bugs to me!)

hello and welcome! i just finished shadowbringers last night, so i'm delighted by your emet-selch avatar 

got my first custom domain! ribose.neocities.org is now ribo.zone   
i like it because it sounds like ribosome

i voted no, but mostly for my own convenience. i usually only log in if i am going to reply to something, otherwise i'm lurking in guest mode 

unless the community here wants to get strict about who can be a member (i do not think we should), there's not really a difference between someone without an account reading posts and a member who has never posted reading posts. right now about a quarter of melonland forum members have zero posts. keeping it locked may increase the number of these postless members, as anonymous lurkers would be forced to make an account or leave. those stats don't matter to me very much, but it's something i wanted to throw into the discussion anyway.


if you decide to keep things locked, right now there are still ways to read posts in guest mode:

• everything on the recent posts page is visible, and it's easy to get to from the home page
• user post pages (for example, here's mine) are also visible. not as directly accessible, but users concerned about privacy may not like that this is available for anyone to see

to keep things more private, these pages should probably be restricted to members as well. one compromise that may be work for both sides is having topics free to read by anyone, but individual user post pages are restricted to members only.

thank you all! these are exactly the kinds of suggestions i was looking for.

i really like webkeeper and think that's what i'll go with for now. like Melon mentioned, the similarity to lighthouse keeper is really appealing. it makes me want to make a lighthouse-inspired page for my site...

    .n.          
    /___\          \_/
    [ |0]         --(_)--
    [___]          / \
    }-=-{          
    |-" |
    |.-"|        <|
~~~~~~~|_.-|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|\~~~~~~~~
  .=.| _.|__       /| \
  /:. \" _|_/\      /_|__\  
.-/::. |  |""|-._    ~~~~
 `===-'-----'""` '-.        
         __.-'    

some other favorites:

• site stitcher (alliteration is always fun)
• Dreamweaver™
• page worm (reminds me of worm online ~~~)
• archivist
• gardener

+ a few i thought of just now: code guardian, digital guide, site founder, webpage artisan

honestly i may rotate between all of these terms every time i update the page. i (and my site) don't have to stick to any one thing! i think switching it up will reflect my ever evolving relationship with web crafting.

someone who keeps bonsai trees becomes a Bonsai Master - the word master does not refer to domination of the media, it refers to your mastery of the skill. You might not feel you have that mastery yet (or maybe you do!) but claiming the title of webmaster is very much an act of rebellion, we say it because we are proclaiming that we have the right to develop the skill of web mastery (something that social media and generic site builders takes away!)

thank you for saying this! it definitely frames the term in a way that feels better to me. right now i prefer the alternatives (they're fun!), but maybe one day i'll join other webmasters in that act of rebellion.

i was reworking my site's info page recently and i decided to split things into two tabs, one for site info and one "about the webmaster." in doing so, i realized that i don't really like referring to myself as a webmaster. i know a lot of people here do, and i'm not trying to argue that you shouldn't, but it just isn't for me.

googling "webmaster alternate title" leads to professional sounding terms like web admin, web developer, SEO specialist (eek), web designer and server administrator, which is a step in the opposite direction of where i'm trying to go with this. i'm looking for alternatatives that are LESS professional sounding.

to elaborate on my feelings a bit, i don't quite feel like the "master" of my site. it feels more like a space that i maintain, tend to, and care for. however, web maintainer and web tender don't sound very good to me. i'm thinking more along the lines of something like web crafter or web weaver.

so, does anyone have any unique ways they like to refer to themselves with regards to running their site?

Thanks for stopping by to say hi on my topic!! What's your favourite sci-fi media?

hello again! ooh i have lots of favorites but i will narrow it down to a few:

• the work of fiction that has moved and shaped me the most and that i recommend to everyone is the left hand of darkness by ursula k le guin. i want to reread it soon, but i've been waiting for it to snow so i can really feel immersed in that world.
• as a child i was reaaaaally into godzilla (and i've retained a fondness for giant monster movies of all degrees of quality, haha). then i saw pacific rim, loved it, and had a shift in interest from giant monsters to giant robots. i'm working on a webpage that chronicles my thoughts on every mecha show/game/movie/etc i've liked over the past decade but it's slow going. what i will say here is that the original mobile suit gundam series from 1979 is very good. the story is very special to me and the color palettes from that era are unmatched.
• over the past few years, i read the first four dune books and i love them despite my many complaints about them. a lot of the ideas in it are nuts, and for me to enjoy it i have to go back and forth between taking it seriously and making a joke of it. it's a wild ride but it keeps me thinking about it!

edit. I also love your website, esp the bio aspect.

thank you, i'm so happy to hear that! my original plan was to use my site to cultivate my other hobbies outside of work-related ones, but i couldn't help myself. i was drawn to biology for a reason! having fun with bio-related pages has reminded me of how much i love it and has really helped me feel less burnt out.

two songs come to mind right now!

senses working overtime by xtc

xtc is really hit or miss for me. i used to think this one was a miss, because i liked parts of it but thought other parts felt "off". i think it was something about the timing, but i couldn't point out the exact moments i had issues with because i've forgotten what they were. as i've heard the song more, i've gotten used to whatever it was that bugged me and now i think the song as a whole is pretty good.

temporary secretary by paul mccartney

this is a wild one. the first time i heard it i was shocked that anyone would make a song like this, let alone one of the guys from the beatles (note: i know next to nothing about the beatles. maybe it makes sense). it's a bit abrasive and annoying, but i thought it was funny to send it to my friends so i kept listening to it. i guess i was drawn to it in a "so bad it's good" sort of way. then somehow i went from thinking the lyrics are hilariously bad to just thinking they are hilarious. now i think it's catchy and fun.

a fellow molecular biologist! welcome!

ooh i have a few examples! here are the ones my friends left on my steam profile in 2016:


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It's COOL to be gay!
Post this on the wall of a homosexual friend and tell them how COOL they are


YOU JUST GOT HIT BY

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▄██THE YURI TANK███▅▄▃▂
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║░▒║hi loren
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*i remember this one going around with a more standard "put this knife on your profile if you are ____" but this is the example i have :omg:k:


PSYRRY BUT I'M DELETING YOU FROM MY GANGNAM! (clicks delete!) LOADING... ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 99%................................ OPPA! It is impossible to delete our friendship.You mean so much to me. Post this to 1O sexy ladies walls who you never want to lose. If you get 3 back, you're an amazing style.

i've worked as a teaching assistant before so i can provide a little context about what it's like receiving student emails. obviously i can't speak to every teacher's etiquette preferences but these are things i have discussed with other teachers and TAs.

i'm way too straight-forward about it

straight-forwardness is generally appreciated! the worst student emails are the really long ones where it's unclear what's being asked for. keeping it short and direct makes it quicker to read and understand.

As someone who writes these regularly, honestly I'd write it somewhat like this:

i think this is a great example. three sentences: an explanation, the request, and a short apology with well wishes. i think it's best to keep the "xyz reason" pretty short and vague. reasonable teachers will not require you to give you an elaborate story explaining why the assignment is late, and if they do for whatever reason, they can ask for it in their reply.

I used to always pay special attention to make sure their prefix was correct (Prof, Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs etc) and then Id use their last name (Dear Dr Balloon etc) - usually you can get this info by checking how they have signed off past formal emails or on their staff listing online.

this is a really great point! at the start of every semester, i tell my students how i'd like to be referred to (just by first name), but i realize that not every teacher does this. i am nonbinary, so i find being referred to as ms. or mr. lastname a bit irritating. if they don't mention it, it's possible that they don't care that much what you call them. like Melon said, checking how they signed past emails and referring to them that way is the best way to get it right on the first try.

all that being said, don't worry about it too much! a nice email can help things go more smoothly, but it doesn't have to be perfect. especially in the case of teachers, it's their job to help you. as long as you aren't demanding that they drop everything they're doing and grade your assignment right now, i think it'll be okay.

If you where to look back at any post that is at least a month old, you can see a couple of these accounts that you might have not seen on any "modern" post.

maybe it's just me, but i don't think a month is that old. what i appreciate most about forums forums is the ability to have discussions at a slower pace. i personally treat it like a public version of letter writing, where there's some expected time between responses. i like to sit and think about what i'm going to say before i say it.

i joined the forum exactly a month ago, made fewer than 10 posts, and haven't said anything for a few weeks, but i don't necessarily consider my account to be inactive. i read new posts pretty regularly, but i haven't made any myself because i have been a bit busier than usual _{and i am a little shy.} i don't think it's too much of an issue if people if people take long breaks from the forum; old threads are still accessible and people can come back later to reply if they want to.

I think that this could be a good thing. It is natural for users to be more or less interested in a site, and the lack of addiction/feedback loop features means that those who are on the site are on it entirely of their own free will, and because they are interested in the site or what someone has to say.

i strongly agree with this!

i've seen people mention this a few times, but i always ended up there at the wrong time and forgot to go back. finally experienced it today and wow. thank you for making a thread about it. i really recommend that everyone here experience it too. i don't want to give away too much, but i think it may be the most hopeful and kind expression of what it means to "be online" that i've ever seen.

i love the background and the stamp detail! the only thing i can think to add is a link back to your home page.

EDIT: i just went to your site from the index and noticed that it uses frames so the navigation sidebar is always there! my suggestion is totally unnecessary!

but seeing in that context gave me another suggestion. with the sidebar added, the stamp in the upper right gets almost totally cut off on my (kind of small) laptop screen. if you want, you could scoot it to the left a bit or set its position relative to the window size. i looked at your code and you could do that pretty easily by removing the width from this:

Code

#all{
width: 1100px;
position: relative;
left: 0%;
}

the header and the blog posts would stay in the same spot, but the stamp and the marquee would start on the right edge of the page, no matter what size it is. i like making pages responsive because i use a lot of different sized screens (and because i think it's fun to resize windows and watch everything move around), but it's your site and it's fine to keep things stationary if you prefer them that way!