How do you do, fellow kids ?

[Paprika]

Hello there !

I am Paprika, a french person ! I've been using internet since the early days and started with Lycos and Caramail. Altavista was my favorite search engine and I've discovered the world through Encarta in 1996. Yes, I do feel like a dinosaur all the time sometimes...
When Facebook was created I've registered on it and became an avid user but soon it morphed into something I didn't liked much.

My main hobby is comic-books. Either Marvel, DC, IDW, Awa Upshot or any editor as long as the content is good. For many years I tried to make a blog about comic-book reviews but it never lasted more than six months. I always felt guilty or bad that it wouldn't make money or it wouldn't be trendy, or literally anything. Years kept going fast forward and my frustration grew bigger and bigger. During COVID I installed Tik-Tok and tried for a bit but I got severely hooked. Within a few months I almost stopped reading comics, all that mattered was "Just one more video, I might miss something important !"

See where it's going ? Yeah, I was deeply engulfed by social media and stuff. In late 2021 I decided to stop and tried to find a way to spark my love for comics again, in hope to live the pleasure I had for a long time. Tried many many sites and everything but I was never satisfied. Early 2023 I learned about NeoCities but I was super scared because I've never done a single bit of HTML in my life and yet everyone there had such nice sites and all ! So i rolled up my sleeves and went to work in April 2023. I did a lot of "die and retry" with the pages, made a lot of mistakes and errors but I kept learning.

Today I am a mere mortal trying my best with my ugly HTML but the content is mine and I'm finally happy to be the owner of a poorly built website with all my hobbies I can talk about. It's been a needed oxygen bubble in my personal life because I'm rather timid IRL and I don't have many people to share my passion about my hobbies, the site is a very nice outlet to put my heart and energy in.

Now I feel more aligned with my use of internet and while it's not perfect, I'm rather proud of myself. It helped a lot to stop using Twitter, Tik Tok and other big sites. I've got a tiny bit of support from NeoCities users and it warmed my heart. It's nice to see a side of internet that isn't invaded by AI or robots. There's a really "early internet" vibe that I absolutely love to see when I open my computer.

I wanted to register on a forum for a long time because I missed being able to wait between replies in an era of Discord and Amazon where everything is always very fast ! MelonLand seemed to be an interesting place, I've lurked a bit before and now I'm setting my suitcases here in hope to perhaps gain a couple of friends and have a good time on the internets !

I'm honestly amazed by all MelonLand's work and I wonder how many clone he has to be monitoring such a large thing as MelonLand, the FOrum, TamaNOTchis and everything else. Incredible you know ?

That's all for now, if you have questions or anything, feel free to ask. Also my sincere apologies for my rather average-to-poor english, wirting will help me practice ! 

EDIT : Here's my website but be warned, it's in french !!!
MatchaPrika Club

[J. Soda]

I'm definitely in that journey now, learning HTML and trying to let go of using social media. It's hard not being in the loop with some people who I, while not close to, want to see how they're doing. I'm a product of the times I suppose. Your site looks really good, I'm learning french and I have bilingual cousins so I'm getting a vague understanding haha.I also love how your persona is a doll! So so cool :) 

[DiffydaDude]

It's good to see you here! Hope you enjoy melonland! Ive been in the web revival for a couple months now, after being introduced to it when i was looking through neocities sites.

[krish]

Excited to see a site in French! I minored in French during my undergrad and hope to become proficient enough in the language to become a medical translator for it someday. I'll definitely be keeping up with your site, if for nothing else, reading practice!

[Paprika]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome ! 

I'm pleased to have registered here, I spent a lot of time browsing the forums, finally I'm part of it hehe... The decision to make the website in french was a tough one, there was a long struggle between "I should write it in english to be read by more people" VS "I should write in French because I will be able to convey my thoughts with more efficiency". In the end I chose French because there's not a lot of French comic-book readers and not all of them are fluent or even comfortable with English. I figured that seeing a review or a post that would talk to them would be nice and English has a lot of stuff about comics. If it can make some people practice their French, then it's a win-win !

Again, thanks for the welcome ! Take care and don't forget to drink water 

[xero333]

Cool site, I really need to get back to working on my personal site. I just haven't had any time recently. Welcome!