Just finished my first indie web personal site and I'm really happy with it!

[batgal]

It is here! 

I spent about 2 months total working on it (with a month off in between for the holidays, haha). Working on this really made me feel very nostalgic for my young internet days messing with Neopets and Myspace.

The only thing not working right now is my Guestbook because the Chattable web servers apparently began being DDOS'd literally the day before I put my site fully public, which is... unfortunate, but I'm just biding my time for now since I already had it all set up, hoping it gets worked out sooner than later...

If anyone has any recommendations on alternatives for guestbooks that I can plug directly into my site and customize to the same degree as Chattable, I'd be appreciative!

I'm also looking for similar sites/creators to link trade with and active webrings to join--I sent a bunch of applications, but it seemed like a lot of rings my page fit into may be inactive--so if you have any leads there, please let me know!

Up next on my webdev to do list: the homepage for my indie game in development... 

[BB_ROOK]

It is very nice! Love the way you coded it and the feel. What tools did you use?

[HisVirusness]

You have Bio Freaks for the N64?  Nice.

[batgal]

It is very nice! Love the way you coded it and the feel. What tools did you use?

Thank you!! 

I designed the initial layout and assets for the BG/content boxes/header buttons/etc in Photoshop first. The 3D assets (like the cartridges on my retro game collection) I made using free 3D models of the base cartridges I found on Sketchfab, then edited the textures to have the labels of the games I physically owned, using scans from The Cover Project. I animated/lit the 3D assets myself and exported them into gif form.

Then I used a free basic 3 column layout I found online to build my base up and then just progressively kept plugging things in until it behaved how I wanted it to. The blog section of my site is based on Zonelets, but I heavily modified it so that the CSS matches my site perfectly and took out things I didn't want/need for my site specifically.

My approach to coding anything has always been "bruteforce things until they work," so the site code is literally a mishmash of me googling things, finding free code other people provided that I could modify, watching/reading tutorials, observing how the code on other sites functioned and just messing around with things until it worked the way I wanted. It took me two months of a LOT of trial and error to get it how I wanted but I think all in all it was worth it!

I built the site its' self just on NeoCities--I wanted to get something like Dreamweaver like I used to make my homepage back in my teens but it doesn't seem like there's a modern alternative...? Or maybe there is and I just didn't look hard enough haha.

You have Bio Freaks for the N64?  Nice.

YESSS I was so stoked when I found it haha! It's such a fever dream of a game but I played it sooooo much as a kid so when I saw it I knew I had to have it.

[CosmicRot]

Your website is super awesome! I really love the vibe. I'm in the process of completely breaking my website down from the ground up cause I wanna entirely restyle it 😭😭 in the sake of being as accessibility friendly as I can I ended up making mine a bit too clean I think.. I dunno'.

but yeah love your site's vibe and the art! <3 Really cool.

also for site building yeah idk the best way to go about it, I personally just use VScodium so I can see live updates as I'm editing code, but other than being able to see more tabs at once once and the life update/easy preview options it's not much different than editing in a thing like neocities I think.. I want to one day figure out how 11ty and other static site generator things work cause editing those in vscodium would be a life saver so I wouldn't have to edit and re-paste code that's used repeatedly, but man I'm a bit too dense for all of that I think xD I have a similar brute force way about coding but even after a year on and off trying 11ty fries my brain so I did an annoying alternative of javascript which, I'd like a lot, if not for the fact it then forces me to upload all the code-snippets as if they are there own individual pages and those then pop up on neocities profiles as if they are individual pages and auuggh it's so frustrating.

Anyway, keep up the great work on your site :))

[batgal]

Your website is super awesome! I really love the vibe. I'm in the process of completely breaking my website down from the ground up cause I wanna entirely restyle it 😭😭 in the sake of being as accessibility friendly as I can I ended up making mine a bit too clean I think.. I dunno'.

Thank you so much!!

I was as indulgent with the design as possible because I've been looking at a lot of authentic old internet stuff for research purposes lately and I wanted to channel some of that chaotic energy into my own homepage LOL I didn't think too much about accessibility at all in favor of aesthetics which, in retrospect, probably was a blind spot I should have paid more attention to... 

FWIW, I think what you have on your website now looks really cool too, not plain at all! Eager to see how you decide to redesign it! 

I'll also check out 11ty and see if that's something that will work better for me as I add more pages to the site in the future! Although a part of me wants to just see if I can get an old copy of Dreamweaver to work on my PC at this point... 

(Also I swiped your Mouthwashing stamp because I didn't have one yet  )

[CosmicRot]

Thank you so much!![...]

(Also I swiped your Mouthwashing stamp because I didn't have one yet  )

Yeah no problem! And yeah my first few attempts at a website I just fully ignored accessibility, but I've gone so far with my current as to make sure things are different for people who have "reduced motion/animations" on their computers, since a lot of folks using those settings have photo sensitivities. I even edited the mouthwashing stamp to make it less likely to cause epilepsy episodes, AS WELL as all my animated gif stamps in my marquee [and the marquee itself!] are edited to move slower and be less jarring for those who do have reduced motion on.

I think photosensitivity issues [particularly when it comes to flashing colors or rapidly moving images] are the biggest thing I Really Do NOT Miss from the old web. I used to enjoy them but the older I get the worse migraines they give me, and I've had a few friends over the years who have seizures from stuff like that so if absolutely nothing else the two things I try to do are having alt-text on all of my images, and trying to keep my website photo-sensitivity friendly!

I usually tell people, if they really want and love the flashing stuff [more power to them <3] the simplest easiest thing they could do is just have a landing page warning folks so anything that isn't minimized or turned off with the @ media tag for reduced motion in the code, can just be avoided entirely and someone isn't gonna risk getting hurt for wandering the small web, ya know?? [and it's a lot nicer/kinder to have a warning, than the asshole who told me to kms when I asked if they'd consider putting a warning on their site cause it gave my friend a seizure cause I just assumed they were unaware as a lot of folks are]

but anyway I am an Ultimate Yapper and love to ramble about anything big or small <3 so I once again say amazing website! and I hope both of us will continue to make really cool websites. Also thank you for the compliments 🥺💖
 

[batgal]

Yeah no problem! And yeah my first few attempts at a website I just fully ignored accessibility, but I've gone so far with my current as to make sure things are different for people who have "reduced motion/animations" on their computers, since a lot of folks using those settings have photo sensitivities. I even edited the mouthwashing stamp to make it less likely to cause epilepsy episodes, AS WELL as all my animated gif stamps in my marquee [and the marquee itself!] are edited to move slower and be less jarring for those who do have reduced motion on.

That's all stuff I had never really considered! I'm sure I can make some simple adjustments to my site to be more friendly towards those with those sensitivities. I don't have too many flashing things on my site I think--maybe the rainbow wave-y text headers...? But next time I update I'll implement your advice re: the marquee especially, seems like a very simple change I can make to make my site more accessible!

Also genuinely--anyone who tells people to "kys" in any context online is usually a giant walking red flag to me, regardless of the context. So sorry you had to deal with that. 

I am ALSO the ultimate yapper so thank you for being a chatty batty with me, and thanks again for the compliments and insights! Hopefully we'll get the chance to chat more around here soon as I make a more proactive effort to be a good forum-going netizen in the new year.

[ValyceNegative]

What a cute site! I can definitely feel the Neopet petpage design influences. It really sparks "classic personal web design" with the three column layout mixed in with modern twists (the 3D assets sprinkled in are such a neat idea!). Also your art ROCKS! Love the gallery, love to see more! X3
Aaaand, very happy to see another retro collector! I'm a Game Boy girl and I focus on that, but I also have so many memories on the N64. If you haven't yet I would reccomend checking out Snowboard Kids, it was one of my favourites growing up and I even recently replayed it renewing my love for it xP
If you are looking for people to "affiliate" with as we all said in the old days, I would be very happy to exchange banners with you! Let me know :3

[batgal]

What a cute site! I can definitely feel the Neopet petpage design influences. It really sparks "classic personal web design" with the three column layout mixed in with modern twists (the 3D assets sprinkled in are such a neat idea!). Also your art ROCKS! Love the gallery, love to see more! X3
Aaaand, very happy to see another retro collector! I'm a Game Boy girl and I focus on that, but I also have so many memories on the N64. If you haven't yet I would reccomend checking out Snowboard Kids, it was one of my favourites growing up and I even recently replayed it renewing my love for it xP
If you are looking for people to "affiliate" with as we all said in the old days, I would be very happy to exchange banners with you! Let me know :3

Thank you!! I'm glad my roots shine through so strongly haha!

Also that's super cool!! I didn't play too many games on the Gameboy but I bet it's an awesome collection you have going! After I finish grabbing what I want for the N64 and SNES, I'm planning on moving onto the Wii and GBA/DS. My collecting is more in the style of "retro games that have personal meaning or value to me in some way" rather than a completionist collection, which makes my collecting goals somewhat more achievable... except for finding space for all these carts, haha!

Also I never even heard of Snowboard Kids but a quick google makes me think it looks like a fun little romp--I'll be going to my retro game store this weekend as usual so I'll grab it if they have a copy laying around and report back! 

And sure, we can exchange banners! I'll throw your banner in my links out right now, thank you! <3

[ValyceNegative]

@batgal Thank you! <3 I've added your banner too!
Ouff as of now I'm being kinda priced out of my hobby so I've definitely slowed down, but I did manage to get around 200 cartridges over the years. Other than getting my faves from my childhood or stuff I've always wanted to try I love to look at labels, see what inspires me then research for the game's development and history, it helps me build up connection also for titles I've never heard.

The DS is indeed another jewel of a console and home to many all time favourites! You're going to have an awesome collection! ^^