how do you not feel discouraged by like other ppls sites

[JINSBEK]

To be honest, this is something I struggle with daily, and why it's taken me so long to even get my own website site to the point it's at now l--I actually started it three years ago and then abandoned it at that same time, and have only recently resumed work on it in the past week. I see other people's websites, even the very simple ones, and like them so much, that I wonder if I'm doing something wrong with mine: seeing my own doesn't give me the same feelings as seeing everyone else's. Well, my site is still under heavy construction, so of course it's not going to give me the intended feelings...

I've found that when I'm doubting myself, it’s best to remember what I want to share so badly that I made an entire website just to share it! Its own dedicated page, and space, and formatting. When you focus on that, it becomes easy to worry about the "proper" design later, and touch up the CSS as you go. I've started to leave my perfectionism behind and just started pushing things live and just leaving messes in public because at least it's out there. Slowly, but surely, the design is coming together.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Yeah no, that's a dangerous thought that will only bring you down.

This is not a competition, and if you want to make your website "pretty" you have all the time of the world to figure that out.

Remember, you can make a lot of nifty stuff with humble HTML. Learn that (and CSS), figure out how to apply what you know to what you want to make.

For me, what matters the most is the content, to have whatever you want to say or show out there. It's a PERSONAL site, remember that.

Also, this is Neocities/Nekoweb/The Old Web, not social media. There's no numbers to chase, no trends to follow, no people or algorythms to please. You're creating a site for the things you like and the things you create, and the only person you have to answer to is yourself. This is a very powerful thing. To be able to create something just for you.

I'll link you up to a list of web resources I've been collecting lately, to help you (and anybody reading this  ) with code things. I'm bad at code things too.

[Pippa_the_Prius]

I feel like a total beginner when it comes to coding and making websites- but it makes me happy each time I learned something new because it means I'm one step closer to making something amazing like all these people! Never give up and go at your own pace- you got this!   

[hikatamika]

Sometimes I feel kinda insecure amongst other small-webbers, because, like, despite me having for-the-most-part-ungoverned internet access for the later wave of the early web (early 2000s in my case), the websites I currently build don't pay much homage to that early-web, geocities, angelfire aesthetic.

My first HTML sites were Neopet pages, I ate Sailor Moon fansites like bread and butter, heck, I'd even say that in the past (the early 2010s), I've made sites that fit what I've currently convinced myself a small-web site "should look like". But it was around the Tumblr-Custom-Theme era that I really got a stronger grasp of HTML/CSS/JS and their possibilities. This was a time when the web and web design were more obviously sanitized, streamlined, and affected by venture capital and the idea of websites as products instead of self-expression, and,  I feel like that's reflected in the design of the current iteration of my website.

To answer the question of how I not feel discouraged about it, I just think of site-making like, "ok so what kinds of things do I want to share and express to other netizens": including,

• aspects of myself
• art and media—types and formats
• things I love

and basically, as long as I do that in a way I consider effective, and in an aesthetic I like (emphasis on I, I try to make sure I'm considering what I actually like, and not what I think I should/shouldn't like or strive for), then I'm "winning" and am making a good site. Even if I think others look better.

In my case, a lot of my web attitude is like "wow I wish social media was a lot more personal and less limited/frustrating/annoying", so my site very clearly and obviously takes notes from social media platforms, even though if I think too hard about what other netizens are doing with their personal sites I feel kinda weird about it.

Uh… in short, I guess my contribution is… don't think! Express! Have fun! Be silly!   

[fairyrune]

Uh… in short, I guess my contribution is… don't think! Express! Have fun! Be silly! 

exactly!!

i think i've been stuck with my site for some time because of this kind of thinking. and then i remember the artist's adage: "make it exist first, you can make it perfect later".

many people's sites are in a state of perpetual development. as we learn and grow, so do our sites. there's also no right way to build a site, like there's no right way to make art (because this IS art!); having a clean aesthetic for your site doesn't make it not indieweb, anyway.

i don't think it's a stupid way to think, i must disagree with paprika there. we all feel like this from time to time and it's very understandable. but there are ways around it. it'll take time to weed out the feeling of inadequacy and replace it with a drive to learn and express yourself instead, but it can be done; it's a sort of gardening task you have to do in your psyche hence "weed out". 

[rolypolyphonic]

I think the things I put on my website are unique and me-poisoned enough that the lack of technical quality they can have is just easy for me to dismiss. I have a decent enough idea what I want my website to be about/to have, and my website serves those ideas, so what more is there to ask for? I can always add anything else later.

I've only had my website for a year (and it's also my first website): when I think about what it was like the first day I made it to how it is now that it just recently celebrated its first anniversary, I just think that it's become closer to how I envisioned it being and so I can look forward to how much better it could become in the future.