reader's guide:

does the computer still have a soul?

or how to fight brain rot by making your own website NOW!!

written by me (nyx) as research for my wdka graduation project

introduction

many people have asked me: nyx, how are you so funny?. or, alternatively, nyx, why are you so socially awkward?. the answer is simple: i had unrestricted internet access since before i could read. growing up, the computer was my friend. whether i was playing games or chatting with friends, i always had fun on the computer, but that hasn't been the case in a long time. corporate greed has replaced authenticity on the internet, and with the emergence of generative ai, social media is faker than ever. because of this, a new movement has started, encouraging people to reconnect with an offline existence, to ditch their phones in favour of “analog” hobbies (Mac Donnell). as much as i am in favour of this idea, i simply can't abandon my old friend, the computer.


c0unt3ss_online is a hand-coded point-and-click/ visual storytelling website about a vampire mouse that lives in a computer. by making this website i hoped to rekindle my relationship with the computer, as well as explore the non-commercial web and integrate myself into a (hopefully) likeminded community.

code as a medium

the computer has always been my preferred tool in making art. during my study i kept my time on the film set to a minimum, instead resorting to the desk part of the job: at first editing and then animation. even the initial idea for this project was an animation film about computers, but my trajectory changed when i chose my minor, creative programming for non-it students. although it seemed like an unconventional choice for an audiovisual design student, i knew that for me it was a promising opportunity. learning code gave me the means to build a website, but it also helped me feel more connected to my computer, since i can now speak to it in its own language. during the minor i built my first website, princess of the digital tower, which served as a prototype for c0unt3ss_online.

screencaps from princess of the digital tower (initial load can take a few minutes, should work smoothly afterwards)

the attention economy

social media is the online equivalent of cigarettes. we all know it's unhealthy and addictive, but most people continue to consume it in abundance regardless. social media is a surveillance state powered by profit. it analyses every move/click/lingering glance to feed us more content, to make us spend more time online, to make us buy more.


in 1971 herbert a. simon wrote:

In an information-rich world, most of the cost of information is the cost incurred by the recipient. It is not enough to know how much it costs to produce and transmit information; we must also know how much it costs, in terms of scarce attention, to receive it. (Simon 41)


in present day, the term attention economy is more relevant than ever. why do i spend so much time on apps i don't even enjoy? to put more money in meta's pocket? with the widespread availability of generative ai, the internet has become borderline unusable. all websites are carbon copies of each other, designed to be as sterile and inoffensive as possible, to push as many ads as the screen can fit. we, as consumers, have to tolerate this, just to access ai-generated text and ai-generated images and even more sponsored content.


i am sick of participating in the attention economy, yet i find it hard to renounce the digital life. i love being online, but the online space has turned hostile. i love my computer, but in a digital landscape cannibalised by artificial intelligence and algorithms, can my computer still love me back? does the computer still hold in its cybernetic heart a place for fun, community and enrichment, a place for humans?

internet, for the people

while doing research for my minor, i discovered a spark of hope in a mass of digital doom.

So the human web, the people net, the your-net. Whatever it is called, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that it is yours, if you want it. If you're tired of the conglomerate-net, disgusted by the commercialised web, sick of being the product, allergic to The Algorithm, then you can have something else. Something of your own. (fyr.io)

as the Indieweb Vs Indie Web article says, there are many words for the non-commercial side of the internet, some of them used as umbrella terms, others describing specific niches of the community. nevertheless, they all share a determination to rehumanize the web, by rejecting corporate, profit-driven design and ai-generated content. within the wide indie web spectrum, i chose to focus on two notable platforms: neocities and nekoweb. these two websites are very similar in scope, only differing slightly in technical specifications, and they are both descendants of geocities. geocities was a free web-hosting service and the first place on the internet where people could make personal websites. geocities was shut down by yahoo in 2009, but its legacy lives on, proving that there is still an interest for the art of webmastery three decades after its inception (Lialina)


1 adopting this term from fyr.io from now on to refer specifically to neocities and nekoweb, as these are the only indie web platforms that i interacted with and studied for this research.

the human web1 is a place where people hand-code their own websites, not for profit or fame, but for the sheer love of the (web)craft. this results in a very diverse and inspiring collection of pages, which feels like a refreshing change of scenery in the mass of mainstream minimalist web templates.

how to make a website (no glue no borax)2

after completing the website for my minor, i wrote down some self-advice:

2 for the millennials (and beyond) in the chat, this is gen z slime humour

from the beginning of c0unt3ss_online, i tried to keep my development environment tidy, starting from the file structure.

besides the official vscode stuff, i have a separate folder where i dump all assets while they are still in the process of being c0unt3ssified.

file naming legend:
p ⇝ photoshopped; c ⇝ cropped; d ⇝ dithered

like any wdka student trying to prove that they have organisational skills, i keep track of my whole project on a board. hereby, a breakdown of my figjam:


building a page

my design process is intuitive, spontaneous and based on trial and error. i very rarely plan the layout of the pages before i start coding, i just open my html skeleton with the general theme in mind and from there i start picking the elements one by one and figure out what works and what doesn't as i go. i have something that youtube icon jenna marbles called “too much gene”, which is where i always fall down the slope of adding more and more stuff, and before i know it my blank page turns into a concoction that warrants a seizure warning.

making assets

although she lives in a digital world, the c0unt3ss was born out of very physical wire and tape.

moodboard
special thanks to my friend su for bringing color to the c0unt3ss

the introduction is the only segment of the website that i heavily sketched out in advance. i put together a moodboard and mock-up of the scene, wrote the script and made a storyboard with pictures of myself to map out the c0unt3ss' poses. afterwards i:

taking assets

as much as i would love to handcraft each little thing on my website, i would be the c0unt3ss' age by the time i finish, so most of the assets are carefully gathered from across the internet (mostly pinterest). the borrowed images rarely end up on the website in their virgin form. they get cropped, warped, dithered and combined with each other, until they are worthy of decorating the c0unt3ss' house.


assembling the dialogue borders:

entrance side table:

lair tv:

some technical aspects

mobile view of index page

im sorry to bore the art academy reader, but i can't talk about how i made a website without explaining the code. firstly, neocities and nekoweb are static web hosts. the static part essentially means that it doesn't adapt the content based on the user, and it doesn't receive or process data. how you code the page is exactly how everyone sees it (“What is a static website?”).both platforms are free to use, with the possibility to upgrade to a paid plan. c0unt3ss_online is programmed in html, css and javascript, and is currently hosted for free on neocities. it is meant to be a computer based experience, so it is not mobile friendly.


even though responsiveness isn't a priority, i don't want the site to crash on any screen other than mine, which is why i use viewport width as a universal measuring unit. this allows the elements to stay in their place and adapt to any window width.3

3 even mobile. so if you bypass the special mobile landing page, you can actually see all the other pages as you would on desktop except super tiny. i hope nobody does that though.

testing responsiveness with pixel layout. entire crash out about changing units at friendship ended with pixels

storyline

a mouse lives in a computer. the mouse is a vampire and the computer is her house. she is the c0unt3ss, and you're invited to spend the night/day at her computer house. come on, make yourself at home, but don't wander too far. oh, and don't worry about the vampire thing, the c0unt3ss is not interested in human blood.


after the c0unt3ss' introduction you are left on your own to explore the house, starting from a hallway with three doors.

at the end of the journey you end up back in this hallway, now with the ability to enter c0unt3ss' room. there it is revealed that everything was a ploy to keep you distracted, while the c0unt3ss was extracting your data and uploading you to her server. it is too late to stop her, you will be online forever.

documenting

i <3 blogging. i was heartbroken when they killed the blog section of mywdka in this very last and most important year of my studying career, so i took the matter in my own hands. from day one i kept track of my process with semi regular updates on my nekoweb blog, which is available online for the whole world/internet to see at nyx-is-graduating.nekoweb.org.

in the spirit of making public and opening up to feedback, on april 10th (right before the midterms) i published a demo of c0unt3ss_online on neocities.

understanding the human web through its community

the human web is meant to be explored, not searched. this became clear to me while trying to get in contact with the creators of the websites that most inspired c0unt3ss_online. in the beginning of my process, i shaped my view of the human web by reading essays and articles or browsing through the sites, but after publishing the c0unt3ss_online demo i wanted to deepen my understanding of the community by interacting directly with its members.

4 a webmaster is someone who runs a website (Jackson)

to read the full email that i sent to the webmasters4 see appendix a. in the next section i will go through the questions that i asked, why i asked them, and some outtakes of the answers. but first, a huge thanks to the participants:

1. why did you decide to join the indie web?

2. did you have any previous coding experience when you started?

5 mind you, although this was made as an assignment for my programming minor, it was before formally being taught any html

so what does it take to start building on the human web? for reference, these are some screenshots of the first website i ever coded, in october-november 2025.5

multiple replies mentioned that it's surprising that i call myself a beginner, but my first contact with html was truly just half a year ago. among the inquired webmasters, the responses varied: some started from absolute scratch like myself, others had previously tried making their own tumblr themes with css, and one person actually studied computer science. learning how to code is not as high of an entrance barrier as it seems, and in exchange for breaching it you unlock a uniquely gratifying method of engaging with an online community. by joining the human web i wanted to experiment with the use of code as a medium for art, and discovered that, once you get comfortable with the programming languages, the range of creative possibilities is endless. however, webmastery is a long game, and, like any hobby, practice makes perfect. you can grasp the basics of html within a few days, but it takes years to polish and shape your website until it matches your vision. so what drives other people to commit to this journey?

hello-room.neocities.org I saw so many cool creative people making these websites, not necessarily for clicks or engagement farming, but as a creative expression

garfriend.me: I think it was the first time that I was really determined to finish a large project in years. I don't think I have ever felt so motivated since art school.

coffeeplant.neocities.org: Over the years I just got so tired of traditional social media platforms, especially ones that have particularly heinous algorithms that push inflammatory content at you or restrict your ability to express yourself (really, Twitter was the worst offender for me). I was sick of it!!! And so so so so sick of AI! Even when I curate my social media presence to the best of my ability, the indie web offers much more by way of putting what YOU want on your site the way YOU want it! It's freeing, and it's fun!

arlecooch-ie.nekoweb.org: It's because mainstream social media couldn't give me what I wanted

22yk01.neocities.org: I want my creations and writings to be displayed through a visual layout that is most similar to how they are displayed in my mind.

3. where do you find inspiration for designing your website?

an almost unanimous response: other websites. the human web culture is always eating itself. even the hosting platforms, as mentioned earlier, are copies of geocities. each website is unique and free creative expression is encouraged, but if you browse through the human web you will find plenty of recurring tropes, reimagined and interpreted by each maker. as someone who is essentially making a website about websites, i am heavily and deliberately guilty of this practice. in c0unt3ss_online i tried to include plenty of cliche elements:


4. what motivates you to keep updating your website?

coding is a laborious process that can easily be monetized, but on the human web no profit is involved. no ads and no sponsors, people use code like a painter uses a brush, just as a tool for art. the human web helps you discover new pages and follow other users, but that is where the social media commonalities end. there are no likes, shares or comments (unless you go out of your way to implement them yourself), so i was curious what motivates the webmasters to keep working on their websites, despite the lack of instant gratification.


some webmasters reported that they do it for their self satisfaction and enjoyment of the art (as you would expect people to justify doing any hobby), others are sadly struggling to find the motivation at the moment. an interesting and unexpected view on this matter came from webmaster josh of joo.sh:

I used to get a lot of motivation from my friends in the indie web community. This is a double edged sword. On one hand it's nice to hear real feedback from real people, on the other hand, you can easily fall into that exact same dopamine cycle as any traditional social media.

Just because updating your site isn't an incrementing like counter on an Instagram post doesn't mean it's different. I've found that Nekoweb is sort of a social media in and of itself. It has followers, a following feed, it has a global RSS feed, it tracks your site view count, and latest site updates are pushed to the top of a global list. For the longest time, I was updating my site because I wanted my follower count to increase. It's nice to have people view your site just as it's nice to get a lot of views on a YouTube video.

josh used to be a mod on the nekoweb discord server and his blog is one of the most followed on the platform. this quote as well as his other answers challenged my idealised view of the community. as a new member still finding my place, i don't know yet what to make of josh's claims, except keep them in the back of my head and proceed with caution. josh said that the community is quite toxic, people are overly sensitive and they forget that your site is YOUR site, not theirs. in any (online) space you will find people that don't resonate with your content and vice versa, and the general advice is always to ignore the haters and keep going (as long as you aren't harming anyone). after many years on different parts of the internet, i don't believe that any community is just peace, love and friendship. still, i can understand josh's point of view, and it goes to show that even in a small and niche community the top creators are faced with increased scrutiny.

5. do you also use mainstream social media platforms (e.g. instagram, tiktok, facebook)?

the human web is often presented as an escape from social media, and from the beginning i had also seen it as such. i discovered the human web in a moment of frustration with the state of the digital landscape, and for me it is a vessel for distancing myself from algorithm and profit based social platforms, while staying connected to the internet culture.

mypillowfort.net: nowadays yes! back in the day when i was in my first year in the indieweb no not really. the smallweb was enough for me and honestly i miss that.

garfriend.me: I do, but mainly to get my artwork out there. The following on my site is more fulfilling, but mainstream social media is still good for discovery (unfortunately).

arlecooch-ie.nekoweb.org: What people often overlook is that indieweb can be a little isolating, you need to go out of your way to interact with someone unlike mainstream platforms which are made by design to compel interaction with one another.

nyani58.nekoweb.org: i still keep a few private accounts to follow artists i enjoy the work of, although i'd like to fully detach myself from social media sometimes.

some webmasters have managed to fully renounce the corporate social devil, but most of them struggle to fully commit to this step. when i started working on my website i felt like i had a better, healthier way of being online, so i deleted instagram and tiktok from my phone. for the first few days it was rewarding to break the chains and reclaim my time, but later it became isolating. i missed out on news and events, i had no clue what was happening in the world around me. one day i played a random youtube video that started with unless you live in a cave you have seen this and i realised that i do, apparently, live in a cave. a lot of people who aren't chronically online take pride in not keeping up with trends, but that's not me. i was always aware of all the current memes and pop culture moments, so this was a new and unnatural position for me. to this point i haven't found a solution to this problem. i am still searching for a way to be connected to both the online and offline world without falling back into the attention economy and the dopamine cycle.

6. what is your favourite thing about the indie web?

some of my favourite answers to this question are quoted in appendix b. to sum it up, what the webmasters appreciate most about the human web is the community and the creative freedom. i agree that these are the biggest perks that welcome you into this online space. coding a website is, as nyani58.nekoweb.org says, one of the most extensive art forms. there are endless and unrestricted opportunities for creation, all while being among people who share the same passion, who encourage and help each other.


expanding on the community aspect, i believe that the most valuable part of the human web is the sharing culture. every site needs a links page, according to well-established webmaster melonking (“Every site needs a Links Page / Why linking matters”). the article mainly refers to creating networks by linking other people's sites on your own. this way you help your peers grow, but also encourage your site visitor to keep exploring, thus keeping the web alive. besides promoting your digital neighbours, it is common practice for websites on the human web to also link to their resources, meaning any tool that author used to create their website. most of my own tools for making c0unt3ss_online were found not by searching on google, but by lurking on my favourite sites' resource pages. code in general is a difficult medium to gatekeep. anywhere on the internet you can click right + inspect and see exactly how the page was built. since i started making my website i often find myself inspecting pages that i find interesting, so i can learn how to implement similar features. i plan on following the link page tradition and also sharing on my website all the materials that have helped c0unt3ss_online come to life.

7. do you have any advice or tips for a webmastery beginner such as myself?

all answers to this question are attached in appendix c. i was pleasantly surprised by the results of sending these emails. besides the insightful answers to my questions, i also received useful and encouraging feedback on my website, as well as sources that could be useful to my research, such as other websites, articles or videos. funnily enough, multiple webmasters actually referenced each other, which to me reflects exactly how tight-knit the community is.

born to create. ai is a fuck.

art by rob cham. i added this in every project presentation since the grad plan.

in his email, webmaster em of burgernet.online also added:

I completely agree and relate heavily to your motives for joining the indie web. I hate generative AI and everything it is doing to not just the web, but to society and to humankind. For me, I have always seen technology (especially the social aspects of the internet) as a tool and vessel to send things into the world that we as individuals enjoy, are passionate about, create with our own minds, etc. and the fact that the internet has been taken over by AI-generated slop, and that we as humans have found it to be such a "fantastic innovation" or "wonderful tool" when it's truly an excuse to not put our complex minds to use makes me sick to my stomach. I remember when I was younger how different the internet was compared to now, and I honestly find myself mourning it. I think that's another reason why I love the smallweb: it's a community of people who share things they love and their wonderful creations just like how things used to be.

i couldn't have said it better myself. the case of generative ai and its implications is a highly disputed topic at the moment, and the discourse is still developing in each direction. hank green mentions in his video What is "Slop" (and why it gives me hope) that the use of ai in programming seems less frowned upon because code is used for utility, not art. like many people in the comments, i disagree with this, and i think the human web is a perfect example of code as art. capitalism already shaped the internet to be a billboard, a game of min-maxing profits and engagement farming. with ai slop added into the mix, genuine human content feels like a rare gem, and i have lost the motivation to dig through the dirt to find it. however, like hank, i hold some hope. as i said, the human web is an example of code as art, but also of how the flood of garbage media motivates people to be creative in defiance. the rise of ai slop accelerated the desire for human-made art, art that takes true effort and time. this cultural shift, albeit still small and fractured, is seen as the beginning of a new renaissance (“Why I Was Wrong About The 2030s Renaissance”; “How Ai Slop will Spark the Next Human Renaissance”). we dreamed of a future where ai does the dishes and humans are free to make art, but instead we got a present where ai makes fruit love island, people with questionable amounts of limbs and animals jumping on trampolines, while humans stand behind and… watch? that doesn't sound right. now is the time to make art, lots of it, even if it sucks. unless you want a clanker to spit out some nonsense for you instead.


but enough with the chit chat. does the computer still have a soul? can it feel my love? if i touch it will it shiver? will its wires coil up in anticipation? a computer is, actually, a pile of sand, plastic and metal. if soul was a computer component im sure a bunch of those pc builder guys on youtube would've already tried to hook you up with the biggest ram version of it by now. shaping all its chips and drives into tender flesh helps fuel my parasocial relationship. maybe the machine does love me back, right? wrong! if i want love in my computer i have to put it there myself. it is the human duty to bring soul into these cold machines, lest they shrivel up and die under the weight of late-stage capitalism and commercial greed. the human web is a community set to do just that, reclaim the online space for human self expression. by building my website, c0unt3ss_online, i found a way to escape the attention economy and instead focus on slow, deliberate and authentic internet consumption.

works cited




websites mentioned

for any inquires (such as requests to remove your work from this page) reach me at nyx.contact@yahoo.com




appendix a


hello! i’m nyx and as part of my BA graduation project i am researching the indie web community, as well as creating a website of my own. i am sending you this email because i love your website and would like to gain some insight into its creation. if you don’t mind, i have a few questions about your experience on the indie web:


why did you decide to join the indie web?

did you have any previous coding experience when you started?

where do you find inspiration for designing your website?

what motivates you to keep updating your website?

do you also use mainstream social media platforms (e.g. instagram, tiktok, facebook)?

what is your favourite thing about the indie web?

do you have any advice or tips for a webmastery beginner such as myself?


personally, as a film student who never really found their place on the film set, i feel like i finally found a medium that gets my creative juices flowing and where i actually feel motivated to make stuff. i also relate to what seems to be the general consensus of the community that the current internet sucks and i don’t want ai slop to eat my brain. i am very curious to hear you point of view. feel free to skip any questions, all input is appreciated (and would help a stressed student approaching the deadline).


now for a shameless self plug: you can find the demo version of my website at https://c0unt3ss.neocities.org/ would be super awesome if you could give it a look and maybe some feedback. no pressure though.


one last thing, if you reply i will probably use your answer in my research paper which will eventually be linked on my website. please mention if you want to stay anonymous. however, if you decide not to reply at all, i still want you to know that, although i am sending this exact same email to multiple people, i genuinely appreciate you and your page is an inspiration to me. keep up the good work! 🫡


wish you all the best,

nyx


email template sent to inspiring webmasters




appendix b

dumby.neocities.org: here are no rules or expectations to uphold, everyone can do what they want. [...] a frequent sentiment i hear is that not getting enough views/likes/shares means that your content failed, and i hate that mindset. i think platforms like neocities and nekoweb have helped people to focus more on their own goals and interests instead of trying to appeal too hard to the crowd.

nyani58.nekoweb.org: 2things actually,,,, coding a website is probably one of the most extensive art form as in you can do almost everything in there,,,, you can have photography, drawings/paintings, videography, video games to some extent, comics, music, graphic design, and of course coding as an art form of itself, you can make it as static or as interactive as you want,,,,,, my other point is the way the indie web community is growing and shaping itself without the constraints of some big tech oligarch or government's say in it. although some people especially people new to this tend to constrain themselves into some website template with 1about me page, a blog, a gallery for their art if they have any, and i see people starting their about me page with "i hate writing about myself" then dont do it!! no one is forcing you!! the beauty of the indie web is that its your playground and you can be as mysterious as you want on it.

coffeeplant.neocities.org: I really adore the sense of community the indie web can foster, especially with the way we curate our own networks. We put little buttons of our “neighbors” on our websites, we check in on them, we leave encouraging comments in each other's guestbooks. The indie web forces you to slow down and really be intentional about what websites you check back in on. There is a lot of love here!

burgernet.online: My favorite thing about the smallweb is the fact that it's all your own. I can do whatever I want with my website, literally anything I could ever dream up, and people will find it and enjoy it. It makes me happy to think that my website is kind of like a little treasure within the bigger treasure of all indie websites and the smallweb as a whole.


parts of some answers to the “what is your favourite thing about the indie web?” question.




appendix c

dumby.neocities.org: never compare your website to anyone else's, and focus on whatever excites you most!

mypillowfort.net: COMMUNITY IS KEY!!! talk to people, study people's sites / coding… dont be shy to ask for help in discord servers! this helped me a lot and i recommend it for you and anyone else who's just getting started :) it can be irritating at first but its worth it in my opinion.

joo.sh: Stop comparing your site to others. It's good to take inspiration yes, but going “man my site will never be that good” is only going to stunt your self confidence and desire to work on your site. Your site can and will be “that good” if you stick with it and keep working on it and yourself to improve.

If you need help, don't ask to ask, and also don't expect people to do it all for you. The biggest thing that can help a new webmaster is just figuring things out. In fact, this is a life skill that extents well beyond being a webmaster and is a welcome skill in real life. Open up webtools and look at what your CSS is doing. Ask yourself, “what is this for? What is this doing? Why does it do this? What do other properties do?” This will build a deeper understanding of why your CSS is doing what it is doing.

Use a proper coding environment. This one is a no-brainer, but some people genuinely still use notepad for this. I recommend VSCode or the FOSS version VSCodium (hey that's what I use!).

Don't get hung up on pleasing people with your site. Please yourself first. It's your site! If you want the text to be hard to read, make it hard to read. If somebody hates your site they should simply click off and find something else to look at. There are people out there who like weird design choices.

Your site will SUCK at first AND THAT IS GOOD. This is the beauty of sticking with webdev. My first site looked very bad. Now I am very confident and happy with it! Stick with your site and your skills will increase as time goes on.

Don't use AI to make your website. I know it's easy. It works. You'll feel no deep personal connection to it. You won't really care about your site. It's the same thing with having other people do all the work for you.

Look through the Mozilla Web Docs and the W3Schools for information of HTML and CSS. Both of these sites are treasure troves of knowledge.

Ask people for coding tips. Not to code your site, but tips. I needed help on how to format my CSS classes and ids. My old way was a mess with no real reasoning behind it. I found a site I really liked, reduxflakes.nekoweb.org, and asked the webmaster for tips on how they did their CSS. I use their method to this day!

nyani58.nekoweb.org: i am quite bad at advice,,,, as mentioned as before id say to not limit yourself to one vision of what a website or a personal website should even be, and not care that much about what the people who see your website think.

hello-room.neocities.org: Just to create what brings you joy and don't feel like you have to make your space in the same way as someone else, if you think it looks good then go for it! Also, don't feel lost if you don't understand how something works, these web technologies have been around for a long time so there are endless resources to help and guide. Remember, you cannot centre a <div>, you can only centre yourself.

garfriend.me: I guess my advice to others that are truly just starting out is to be persistent. It's a daunting thing to start, but with time, it does get easier and easier. You start to think about how other sites wrote their code, and you can apply that to your own site. It is a skill that takes practice, and it will test your patience.

coffeeplant.neocities.org: Honestly, I was going to say “don't be scared to let it look 'bad' at first,” since it's such a huge learning curve. Upon taking a look at your website, though, I don't think it was ever close to bad, hahaha!! Keep up the great work, have fun, and be yourself! <3

arlecooch-ie.nekoweb.org: just keep on trying. When something breaks or doesn't work, take a breather and keep trying. It's fine to be frustrated but don't give up, take a break, and try again. Don't be too hard on yourself, better start with something terrible then not start, you can always improve along the way.

burgernet.online: Hmmm.... Some advice would be that no idea for your website is stupid or too big. You can truly do anything you set your mind to with your own website. You just have to believe in yourself and your skills and continue to learn.

22yk01.neocities.org: An advice for people that I would give to beginners as a "beginner" myself (and as such, it is directed to me as well): be mindful of what you publish online, but never doubt your positive impact on others. There will be times where you're going to be ashamed of yourself, you'll want to delete and tear everything apart. There will be times where you'll feel invincible, a friend to all. Whether you're highly ambitious or hateful towards your own creations, your contributions are precious no matter what stage you're at with your web designing/developing skills.

howsoonisnow.org: I think primarily you should always make pages that mean something to you, anything that makes you feel inspired to create something for. it can be anything , even a blog. no one wants to see something bare or just full of links. it's also always helpful to be patient and understanding your abilities, and being willing to tinker around to improve on those abilities. practice makes perfect and nothing gets you better at code or design than executing an idea in your head. ultimately your site should reflect you, that's really all it comes down to.

responses to the question “do you have any advice or tips for a webmastery beginner such as myself?”




statement of originality

This document was written by me and in my own words, except for quotations from published and unpublished sources which are clearly indicated and acknowledged as such. I am conscious that the incorporation of material from other works or a paraphrase of such material without acknowledgement will be treated as plagiarism, subject to the custom and usage of the subject, according to the Hogeschool Rotterdam / WdKA regulations. The source of any media (picture, map, or illustration, AI bot such as Chat GPT) is also indicated, as is the source, published or unpublished, of any material not resulting from my own experimentation or observation.

signed by me, nyx!


[if you're a wdka assessor reading this, for privacy reasons the official signature (and title page) are in the uploaded pdf. also the word count is 4680 💋]

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