Webmasters! what do you do when ur out of motivation for your website?

[FinleyIsHere]

for context ive been making my site since 2024 and it feels like im going nowhere  my website is alright
but my gallery and blog pages are like shitty asf and my homepage feels empty as FUCK! again, it feels like im running in circles and i wanna know what ya'll did to persevere this valley

[sunnyp4rk]

I just don't update if I don't feel up for it. No point in forcing myself to change something for no reason. I'll work on it again when I have that motivation.

[smileyhogwash]

I struggle with this myself (and posted a slightly embarrassing call for help on this forum a while ago that I'd rather not go back and read.) I've had my website since 2022 and I feel that it is similarly lacking in substance. I love the act of creating and maintaining a website, but my life is fairly uneventful and only started not too long ago, so I don't have as many experiences or as much perspective as I'd like, and as a result not a lot to offer through a webpage. that is how I feel at the moment. I think it is easy for people such as myself who fell in love with Neocities first and foremost to become comfortable in a formula of website contents - when I picture a Neocities site, a certain "look" comes to my mind, which I'm not sure how to describe, or what exactly causes it. What I do know is that these sites can be lacking in content, an 'about me' page, a links page, and that's about it... like these sites are created just for the sake of being created. Which, to clarify, is perfectly fine! In fact, it is exactly what I did, because I saw all these inspiring websites and wanted to create my own, but I was more focused on making it look pretty than giving it substance. Aesthetics with out a strong foundation to be aestheticised probably won't last you very long, and it left me seeking meaning in cyberspace.

O.K. NOW AN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION: To feel motivated, it helps me to think outside of my perspective and ponder what a website is for objectively - I like to imagine myself as someone discovering the world wide web in its early days of existence, wondering of the possibilities that it holds. There are plenty of wonderful, creative websites now, of course, but when I look at old websites from the 2000s I see something that I don't see as much in recent sites... it could be a million things. perhaps a lack of nostalgia goggles is a contributing factor? But those sites that I have seen, they feel even more individual and personal, unique in their presentation and confident in their concepts / missions. Perhaps that's easy for me to say as I wasn't around for that period of the internet, but who knows? When ever I write I just go on and on without consideration so I hope this makes sense, but I suppose my advice as a fellow #struggler would be to consider what you want to offer with your site, what its goal is, and build the presentation and aesthetics upon that foundation. Seek inspiration in places you might not have explored - I think finding inspiration for web design outside of the internet is a good idea, for myself at least... and of course, most importantly, be entirely authentic and honest. Do what feels true to your heart. Again, is this basic common knowledge or good advice, I am not sure, but I have written this much, so here it is. I hope it helps you some.

Good luck to you, peace and love!

[beebz]

What I do know is that these sites can be lacking in content, an 'about me' page, a links page, and that's about it... like these sites are created just for the sake of being created. Which, to clarify, is perfectly fine! In fact, it is exactly what I did, because I saw all these inspiring websites and wanted to create my own, but I was more focused on making it look pretty than giving it substance. Aesthetics with out a strong foundation to be aestheticised probably won't last you very long, and it left me seeking meaning in cyberspace.

This was very insightful. My website is currently at that stage and I finally feel like its in its true infancy. An about page, guestbook, etc, but I definitely was preoccupied with making it look nice. I'm currently looking for ways I want to repurpose my old content, and if I feel discouraged I try to remember the angel fire websites I'd visit on my DSi that were largely vertical or the design was consistent.

Tangent: I know since playing Rune Factory 3 again I've been being nostalgic over the old Harvest Moon fansites I used to visit. The days where I'd look up guides to games on GameFAQs and the walkthrough would have the person's personal voice still involved as they described things... That's what I'd like to do. But the problem there is I think me being as completionist as these guys tend to be wouldnt be fun for me. And sometimes I worry about inaccurate redundancy compared to the knowledge people can get just from data mining games.

Ha! It's funny, I went on to read the rest of your post and its kinda related to what you talked about. The feeling of purpose and meaning. It's difficult as someone with extremely low self esteem (and of many marginalized identities) to think that my voice matters at all to even try to put something out there. I'm frequently seesawing back and forth between that being the very reason I need to be seen and whether the effort is worth the fatigue.

I have pinterest pinned because its actually got a decent algorithm for the things I like and I dont have to go searching as hard as I would just with google.

It's also difficult to have motivation on your website as an island. But then "sitting with the big kids" could also make you feel small and insignificant. It's challenging to navigate.

I know eventually I want to make shrines for my favorite things, but I keep preoccupying myself with how the css will work rather than just...writing stuff lol. I guess I should also remind myself that the aesthetics arent as important to me when looking at other peoples websites, so I shouldnt sweat it too much.

This was very rambly I apologize, but the topic was somthing I've been musing about for a while, and just voicing my thoughts ended up helping a little as well.

[Cele]

Pick a specific topic to focus on. Read my website and see if I can think of something to add. Look for ideas to be inspired by from other people's websites.