The Bone Folder | 100 Questions for Web Wierdos

100 Questions for Web Weaving Weirdos

My Indie website would not be complete without filling out this questionnaire, which I got from Mouseling.net. It was originally entitled "100 Questions for Webmasters" but I cannot be trusted to leave well enough alone. Thank you, Sorbier, for the encouragement, and also to MOUSEcky for providing the HTML.

1. Please introduce yourself.: Hi I'm Emily Nick, writer of The Bone Folder.
2. How long have you been making websites?: I made websites from about 2000-2004, then took a break and started again in 2024. By this I mean hand-coding websites. During that 20 year gap I made a lot of sites using Wordpress and other CMSes.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: I honestly can't remember why I started, it was too long ago. At that time, if you wanted to make a site, you had to code it by hand. So I probably saw cool sites that other people were making ("cool sites" in this case meaning Vegeta shrines or something) and wanted to try for myself.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Websites where people post their writing or art, or where the art is the web design itself.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: I sketch out a design on paper and then start coding. Usually I have an idea of what I want and then see if I can make it happen. I might also keep a Notepad file where I record fonts, colors, etc. as I go along. Nowadays, I frequently use the inspect feature of my browser to see what the screen looks like on different screen sizes as I go. Nothing sucks more than to build a beautiful site for full screen and then realize there's no good way to make it work on mobile.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: My biggest inspiration for the ethos of a web presence is Kening Zhu. I also take a lot of inspiration from browsing the Indie Web, either looking at sites on Neocities or at directories like Gossip's Web and Dial-a-Site at the Internet Phone Book.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: I can get into a flow state working with CSS oftentimes. I even like making mistakes and fixing things through trial and error. But the real value of making a website to me is that I have complete control over how everything looks and is arranged.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: I am fluent in CSS and I have to look a lot of stuff up. When I come up against the limit of my knowledge, it can be hard to motivate myself to learn a new skill.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: I use the same layout across most or all pages, the exception being on pages like Adjusts Itself to Midnight, where the design is part of the content. While it can be cute to have a different designs across one's site, it's just not my style.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Somewhat. I can do the basics with it, but stuff like formulas and variables are currently beyond my ken.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: Nope.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: I can't say I have a favorite. I feel pretty emotionless about HTML.
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Again, sketch out on paper what I want it to look like.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: Nope.
15. How about PHP?: Nope.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Are we talking a visual theme or content theme? I wouldn't say my site is strongly theme-y either way.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: The content is the reason why the website exists, but the design is what motivates me to share it.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: Yes.
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: Most of the sites I've seen that are "retro" are made by people who were too young to be making websites during, let's say, 1995-2005. So it's really their interpretation of what they think old websites looked like. People in my cohort, who actually coded during that time, more often have sites that aren't based on nostalgia. Our code has grown up with us and we are interested in keeping up with current HTML and CSS standards rather than chasing a particular aesthetic. Websites looked the way they did in the past because HTML and CSS were significantly less developed. I think if we'd had better tools back then we would have used them.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I can't say my HTML is flawless but I do try to make it valid and as free of errors as I can.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: They can be fun but it's not my thing.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: I don't seek them out. Again, I see why they're fun for a lot of people but I'm just not into them.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: Probably something similar.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: Sometimes I am, especially if I feel that someone has a lot more coding skill than me. But at the end of the day I am happy with my site.
25. What text editor do you use?: For editing text, I use Notepad. For coding I use VS Code.
26. Why do you use that one?: I really like having a bare bones text editor, although Notepad now includes stuff like spell check and formatting, which I'm not crazy about. VS Code is easy to use and helps with some of the more tedious aspects of coding. It also helps me find mistakes, which are muuuuch harder to spot in a plain .txt file.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: On mine. My images are so small that storage space is not an issue.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: No opinion.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: 92MB, according to Neocities.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: Yes, because everything is generated on my computer and then pushed to the web.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: It really depends on the site. I don't need much visual complexity for sites that have good content, and sometimes I enjoy very visual sites that are in themselves art. But I will click away from a really visual website with little or uninspired content.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: I may be in the minority, but I do not like dark mode. It hurts my eyes. I do want to implement a CSS-only way of switching to dark mode for my site, but until then my site is in my preference, which is dark text on a light background. I also tend to like bright colors, especially yellows, oranges, and greens, so you see a lot of those on my site.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: Nope, although I will go long stretches without updating if I don't feel like it.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I have made a few friends through Neocities and that's nice.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Some of them do. It depends on if I think they will be interested in my writing.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: Anywhere from once a week to every 2 months.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: I change it less than I thought I would. Once I found something I was happy with, I have not been in a hurry to change it.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Probably more me-focused with the other two categories included.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: No.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: Although I was into web design as a young person, I was never interested in pursuing it as a career path. I took an academic path that led into nonprofit work instead.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: For work? All the time. For fun? Sometimes, but I have a preference for snail mail.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: Not really. I started detaching myself from social media over a decade ago. But I also don't use my site as a replacement for it.
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: I use Discord mostly for groups and Signal for personal messaging.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: No, it's too much for me to listen to something and code at the same time.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I currently have two, and one of them has a mirror.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: My main site is just about my writing, but since I can write on a number of topics there is some variety there.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: Back in the early 2010s, I took the advice to stop being anonymous online and to present myself as a "brand." I do no think that I am a brand anymore, but I have not gone back to an anonymous persona either.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: As I said above, I've made some web friends, and that's always been the case with web communities I've been part of. But I don't think I have made good friends with someone who just found my site outside of that context.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: I wouldn't know enough to criticize, but honestly I think it's amazing how far they've come. CSS can do some stuff now that's absolutely magical and I hope that the development continues.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: Making websites without any thought for responsiveness or accessibility. Again, I see a lot of younger people do this out of nostalgia but it's really misguided. Websites are about community and communication. If responsive design and accessibility standards had existed in the year 2000, I think we would have used them.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Custom HTML elements! I have just started to use these and I love them.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: When I was coding as a teenager, nobody was talking about semantic HTML but now it's basic. If there's a semantic tag for something, I will use it. I am moving away from div and section tags as much as I can. Even if you don't care about accessibility, having a bunch of div and section tags nested inside of each other makes coding a headache.
53. Do you consider different browsers?: I try to stay away from code that isn't supported widely across browsers. I will usually test on a few just to see how the site works.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: Firefox. I dunno? It's better for privacy, it's not Google, and I like how the Inspect features are laid out.
55. And what OS are you on?: Currently Windows 11. I am probably moving to some sort of Linux at some point.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: It's just what's installed on the computer. I don't like the invasiveness of Microsoft which is why I plan to switch at some point.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Yes.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: Hate it. Please allow me to opt in to audio and video experiences.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: I was part of a number of them in the early days. I do like them, but am not a part of any because they usually require putting JavaScript on your site and for some reason I am an HTML and CSS purist.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: Yes, for Steven Universe Future. Mine isn't that great of a shrine at the moment, though. I like to see resources like images and links, plus a lot of information about the topic in question.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: I don't think so? My sites are not perfect but do feel sui generis to me.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: I don't know if I have one ideal. I like many different kinds of sites, but my site can only be what it is.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: No.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: CSS Tricks is one of my favorites. I also enjoy 32-Bit Cafe.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Not that I can think of.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Start small. It's easier to built a simple site and add on to it as you need to, rather than scaffolding a huge, complex website and struggling to maintain it later.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: It's all in CSS. HTML is for structure in my opinion, not style. I usually look at my pages in plain HTML to make sure they are as straightforward as possible for a screen reader to comprehend.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I loved them back in the early 2000s. What I loved even more was using popups as part of the layout—or even frames within a popup! But as far as I know frames are unsupported now and there are better ways of doing things.
69. How about table-based layouts?: Table-based layouts were already going out of style by the time I started coding in 2000! A table is for presenting information in a table format, not for designing a website.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: Because my website is very text-heavy, I stick to one column for text pieces. I will use two columns for smaller things like links.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: CSS by far.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I did once because it linked to pages where I was learning different CSS skills.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: Nope, the page is there to serve the content, not the other way around.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: Maybe an advanced beginner or beginning intermediate?
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: I do if they have done something cool and I want to figure out how they did it.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: I'm mostly self-taught through books (yes), reference websites, and videos. Back when I was young I would rip off other people's code and modify it, but I don't really do that anymore.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: Not that I'm aware of.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: I have not used them in a very long time. I think I can mostly do what I want with grid or flexbox in CSS.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Nowadays I try to use relative measures such as rem or percentages. Only in a few cases will I use a fixed px.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: Futura and Josefin Sans are two of my favorites.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: It could be fun! I would be open to trying, depending on what the website was about.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Probably every couple of months I'll just search through the Indie Web to see what's out there.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: I'm bad with bookmarking but sometimes I do. I would be happy to know that someone bookmarked mine.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: My writing.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: Not really. In the rest of my life I've a pretty analog person.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: Depends. Anywhere from no time to several hours a day. I have plenty of non-web hobbies that I do.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: People who like poetry and literary nonfiction, or who are writers.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: Nope. Honestly XHTML has been a complete mystery to me.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: No.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I have never used one. I can see how they would be timesavers (once you figure out how to use them) but I like coding by hand.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: Nope. They were fun back in the day, but I don't need to know how many hits a site gets. Every once in a while I check my stats on Neocities and I have no idea how much traffic my domain gets. It's just not something I'm really interested in.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: I look at the Postcrossing forum, which has kept a pretty old school feeling about it, but that's about it.
93. Do you write your page content directly into the editor, or do you prepare it elsewhere, like a text document or a Word document?: I hate writing directly into VS Code. I use Proton docs or Notepad when I am writing on the computer.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I have no idea and don't care.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: I would love to see some of my very old websites and wonder sometimes if any of them survived. I am sure I would be embarrassed by the content but I don't think I would be ashamed of it.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: Leave it up.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal a lot about my mind, less about my personal life.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: I have two: Skep and Sorbier, who are also penpals in real life.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: I use Dither Me This, mostly for aesthetics but also to keep the site's footprint small.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Energized, actually. Thanks!