What's your opinion on works in progress/unfinished pages?

[gloomystudent]

I think it's better to publish an unfinished page than nothing at all. Empty websites that are perpetually under construction are disappointing but it shows that someone at some point wanted to create something there, even if it was never made. Broken links are annoying but they can happen even if the page is finished due to simple human error, but yes I personally find links that lead to empty pages or don't actually work (though they appear to be functional links) kind of annoying. But webpages with minimal content (e.g. blog with only one post or galleries with only a few images) is still something, and I don't find it annoying or disappointing at all. Even unfinished projects can be interesting to browse through.
For my website, I don't have a lot of time to update/add content to it so it's pretty barebones. I don't publish placeholder pages or empty links, so all my links work and each page has at least a little bit of actual content contained in it, but it's nowhere near finished. I think if I waited until it felt "finished" to publish it, I would just never end up uploading anything at all. From the other responses here I think this is pretty typical.

[Skykristal]

So here's my personal take on that:
Wips are fine! I even like them quite a lot. Seeing the process and different states is very interesting to see.

But I highly prefer that if a lot of things on a page, such as links, are incomplete, that they're designed in a way that tells me that nothing is behind it. Clicking through the entire menu to find a 404 is frustrating. PLEASE style those differently, make them none clickable or cross out. I'm not going to check if maybe one works and just close the site. I used to do that, and always found actual page in between 10 empty links.

Personally:
I almost never share WIPs. At least not very big ones. I love publishing the final product most. It's just a preference. I want to show it off in all it's glory for people to see. And not finishing it later when maybe one person stumbles across it, and everyone else saw the meh state. it's just bothering me lol

[Memory]

imo the best time to publish a page is when

1. the basic css is finished
2. everything is working fine
3. and most important of all when you feel satisfied/ready too

[Rosaria Delacroix]

I generally consider my personal website to be a perpetual work in progress. I tend not to update my changelog or links across the sidebar/site map until they've at least a little content on them, though- even if it's only a post or so, though.

Most of my shrines are meant more to be mini journals themed around a particular game, mixed with a playthrough reel of stills from gameplay, and since at least one of them is a very open ended game (Stardew Valley, which never really has an end game outside of shooting for perfection, and even then you could keep farming, or pick up any one of the community made challenges, or dive into the exciting world of mods), there's not really a finished state unless I get totally bored and stop updating it.

Similarly, with things like my yearly mood tracker, I'll probably just archive it and add a fresh copy of it when the year ends, but that's in continual state of updating as well- I note down my general mood in my paper diary, but don't always update the digital tracker immediately. Or with my library to note down books I've read for that year, I'll just collapse it all beneath a details page, or set up a new one for another year.

My tabletop roleplay campaign game (TTRPG) pages are a bit different, since they're reliant on other people and more open ended in terms of a finale. Most playthroughs of the gamebook have taken about a year, so that's what I'm roughly eyeballing, but there's no real expiry date on my blogging of sessions, the living reference document, or drabbles, until a vague ambient time in the future- and since I tend to reuse TTRPG characters, I can always just lift suitable chunks of lore or information as needed in the future.

The slow accumulation of the personal bric-a-brac of my life is interesting for me to see, so my website reflects that haphazard messiness. It's not really polished, and just sort of scribbled onto whenever I feel like I have the spoons or desire to, so nothing's really 'finished.'

[drmollytov]

Little imperfections like typos, unfinished pages, or even missing pages or broken links prove that a website is operated by a human being. They're to be embraced.

Came here to say this, exactly.

When a page is launched with only enough to tell what it's going to be, that tells me that (a) there is a person here who is (b) so excited about what they're doing they just couldn't wait to start sharing and who is (c) very likely to keep coming back to add, refine, and so on.

Which in turn keeps me coming back, because I want to see the progress. I want to see the plan take shape. I want to enjoy your process along with you.

Also, often I learn from seeing other people's processes! I see someone change or fix something, read their changelog, and go "oh, that's how you fix that." Or I see a background go from a plain solid color to an image and think about whether I would want a similar image, or maybe I'd change the color, or I wonder if I could draw a similar repeating pattern as pixel art, or....

I love unfinished pages. They inspire me.

[patchworkghoul]

Oh I love this question! if it's clearly a brand new website and they just got the layout going but zero pages, I'll probably never go back unless I'm really really into the design. I'm looking for at least an about page or something about their interests, something that will hook me and make me want to come back. for example, they have no other content yet but they do have a Monster Hunter shrine and I love Monster Hunter so I am curious enough to go back and find out more about what they like. I do really love to read people's site to-do lists and for the people that I link and keep track of, I love watching their progress over time.

for myself, I like to get things to a good stopping point. I originally developed almost my whole site on my computer before I uploaded it to Neocities, there were just a few pages that I hadn't created yet because it would take more time or I had to learn something first, etc. generally I don't even link to the pages unless there's something on there, I'm not making people go through and click a bunch of stuff for no reason.

having an under construction page on my site live gives me more motivation to finish it than if it's just an idea that's on my computer so sometimes I even use this to help with my process. then again, sometimes I forget about it entirely... My website is an art project, and experiment in expression, not a static idea that will ever be "done." in my heart it's always under construction, even if I don't have a page that says that.