100 Questions for Webmasters

Webmaster - 100 Webmaster Questions | To About

Link to a blank copy: mouseling.net

Old Version (from about Nov. 2025)

Other Webmaster Links 1. Music Page | About my music preferences and tastes, as well as reccomendations.
2. 100 Webmaster Questions | My answers to the 100 Questions for Webmasters quiz.
3. StatusCafe Logs | My past statuses, as logged on Status.Cafe.
4. Button Wall | Other inspirations, mutual neighbors, or people I'd love to share.
5. Mini-webcliques | Webcliques I made that are free to join with no register.

1. Please introduce yourself.: My name is Cobie, I'm a gothic webmaster who speaks too much like a goth for my own tastes. I write stories that I adore, I code when I'm bored, and I'm terrified of the night. In reality, though, I'm very cool and a shy little nerd who always has some sort of complex at times.
2. How long have you been making websites?: The first website I made was a neocities site which I won't name... I deleted the index anyway and I'm gonna repurpose it into some different site once I get a good idea. My leading idea is a maidgirl site or something themed after either Tohru or Virgo.
(Fun fact... when I was younger, I adored Virgo for every reason lol)
3. And what got you into the hobby?: Toyhou.se got me into all this. I specifically remember being in class in like... early high school probably and taking a toyhouse html layout and trying to see how it fits into real life coding. For better or for worse, that's how I learned how to use Bootstrap. I don't think I'd be able to return to bootstrap, though.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: I said mine as a joke last time I filled it out, but honestly just mine.. whatever I make is good and I love it, and I also like helping others and seeing how they grow with me and my site. I sound like a narcisist or something, I think lol
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: My workflow is I get going and just continue to improve what I make. It's all linear, really. Or I get inspired by someone else's work or their aesthetic and I'll do a little touching up on my end or experimenting. That's how the site got to the kind of glassy, faux-frutiger it is now, because my site was too... informal, if that makes sense? Not that frutiger is any more formal, but what it is is CLEAN.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: I don't keep any inspos, but I guess I can make an exception now that I've been here for a while. People whose sites I actually am inspired by and don't just follow are nyscyra, nekrosyni, v0idspace, and reigen.moe. Don't tell anyone but I want to be friends with nyscyra webmaster since they I think were my first inspiration.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: Adding things that benefit no one but me. Stupid things that only I will like or care about in full, but that might mean something to someone in some roundabout way. I never know until I know, so why not do it until someone notices?
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Coming up with something to top what someone else did. It's not that serious but I think it's fun to pit myself against other people who don't care about me in the slightest. Right now, I'm pretty solid and a handful of people list me as an inspo, so I'm happy to think about it. But I want friends, not fans lmao
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: I use the same base layout by now. But I try to break it up a little so that everything has the same theme while being completely different. Once I master that, I'll be an indieweb master or something, I don't know. I just don't want it to look stupid when other peoples' on my level look pretty cool.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Very confident, although I always want to do more. I figured out you can semi-run JS-esque things out of CSS and that almost killed me. The things that people do with just CSS and target selectors is insane... I will never even want to touch it because I feel like if I can do all that with CSS before I know more than basic baby JS then I lost the plot.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: No.... or at least I could know it if I look it up, but I don't know what you do with it. My first go around this quiz, I looked it up, and it seems to be description stuff? But I'm not sure when you'd use it for anything or if people even use it that much. Like why are we using it right now, for example?
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: The div... all my homies hate semantics.
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Make a html/css pair and then make the fixed width container, as well as make a class called .row and then put display: flex and gap: 3px on it.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: I know a little bit of JS, enough to edit and chop scripts apart and put it back together, but not enough to write anything more advanced than an API fetch script. If JS was like Scratch though (something I think would help everyone), I'd be a god at JS... or maybe everyone else would be better than me atp because the masters would have like master builder lego skills and high level scripting would be the norm?
15. How about PHP?: Nope! Never even touched it, but I heard its not that hard once you get it going the first go around. I also heard that people avoid it like the plague, so the truth is within those two sentiments, naturally.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Yes, my core will always be gothic, silver, and black. At first I wasn't sure what I didn't like about it, and then next thing I knew, black was the dominant color instead of the silver.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Content on the days I'm writing new things like my stories and blogs, but obviously I tinker with the design. The site is made of me trying to make it appealing to visitors while also making a domain of my own. I think it makes up for any shortcomings that people might see in me or my work here.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: I don't own one, but I've been considering using something like cobie.site, since I found that it was available. I don't know if there'd ever be a time I could afford to keep it, though, since I don't have any income and no one else would pay for it. And I also wouldn't accept such a thing from people online, so I'm more than happy where I am now.
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: It's very common. If it's not personalized or having some unique elements, it comes off as a cliche or almost tacky today if the only thing it has going for it is being a retro website. Of course, I adore faithful and dedicated tributes to an era or aesthetic, so I'm not gonna be all like a hater or anything. A lot of love goes into the community, and I just have an eye for certain things.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I'm not even going to check, the fact that I use javascript tabs and have italics as tab headers because I was too lazy to make it otherwise means it's not. Plus a lot of things are purposefully missing alt text and I have at least 2 marquees mixed in with css marquees. And! when this site was a baby it wasn't valid even then, so I know it's not now.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: We need all of them. They're not even hard to make, even if they come out looking horrible. That just means more will be in the world and it'll be something unique that you made on your own.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: I love button walls. I've been seeing button marquees, too, and I love them wholeheartedly. Since I have such a cute little website, I've gotten to exchange buttons with others and be featured on quite a few walls, myself. When people tell me they put my button on their wall, I put theirs on mine, too.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: If I started over from scratch, I'd probably make like a maid website or a celestial/occult goth website to focus on my more spiritual side. I don't do the latter though because I am a self-practicing medium and I don't want to piss off (or be pissed off by) someone who says I'm giving out misinformation or pretending or something... If you want to know, it has happened before... and it's as stupid as it sounds.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: No, or at least not anymore. I make precisely what I want to make, and if someone else has something cooler than me, I can just make my version of it. There's no reason for me to be envious in this community.
25. What text editor do you use?: Phoenix Code and Notepad++
26. Why do you use that one?: They work too well to give up even if they're sub-par or non-standard. Anything works, really, and I could probably just use the default code editor plus some web tools if I wanted to. When I was just starting out and had to code on a horrible school ipad, I used html-css-js.com lol (although that site is goated so im not even going to lie, all it doesn't do is save when you go out of the tab...)
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: I host images on my web server and then host hi-res versions elsewhere so as to not clog up my space. I only use external hosts for things I 100% can live without but can't store on my server due to limits, which is most likely best practice.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: It doesn't matter, I obviously at any point could nuke my old site and rebrand, but I want to be on nekoweb. I need my widgets!
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: I have no idea.... Am I supposed to be able to know? Surely it can't be that much...
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: I build my site in my code editor on my computer and then upload each file manually so that I don't miss anything. The 'backup' is my main version lol.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: Visual! But the pastel girls have me in a chokehold with the simple lace and simple one pattern background if im being honest. I built something similar for my princess peach shrine.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: I do... not like named colors like I used to, but sort of like a similar gray color and then some black. Transparency is what v3 is all about, though, and the backgrounds bring most of the stuff in.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: It would be tragic if this site, which isn't even a solid 100 days old, was already quit just for no reason. If the site goes down, assume I did the cliche goth thing and killed myself or had a mental break so badly I just never came back. Those are both VERY unlikely though, almost impossible, though, since I blog every day and am living my truth in my life.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I kind of do now!! Someone on discord found my site and messaged me, and Julian has been emailing me. I don't know if Julian considers me a friend yet, but I think it's close enough to count lol. I want a lot more, though, or even to be in or build some kind of little community someday.. I have a hard time making friends on my own accord, so I always become desirable to others so I can have an easier time of it.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: No... and I don't try to share it. (I count knowing about it being different than just knowing that I have one.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: So far I haven't gone a week without a significant update, although who knows how long that'll last. Even now, I'm only doing minor visual changes and writing blogs, so it seems I'm finally settling into a final aesthetic. Once that's done, we'll see.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: I just changed it! I have screenshots I keep taking of how the site used to look, too. At some point, I'll make a page for all that.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: My website is and will always be me-focused. Even though it has a dedicated blog, the entire site is made to be a kind of free-form blog of authenticity. I'm half concerned on whether it'll be a security concern, but then I look at the state of social media and I'm more than okay.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: I do not and I will not.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: Nooo
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: With other people casually, no. I adore emails and love sending them though, and I type fast so I respond quickly if it's sent when I have free time to read them. I want so much to have a bunch of pen pals, so feel free to write me!
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: I, too, reject social media.. Reddit is the last one I tolerate because it's less social media and more just a social media-fied forum. And it's not even that bad ever, I have no idea how it got the reputation it did unless majority of people only go to the top subreddits and never go any deeper? But even then... why would you do that?? (Fun fact, if the subreddit of your interest is too big, just go to a smaller sub.)
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, but not as much. I don't do group IMs or group texting dynamics, I prefer forum type things and emails and so on. What do you even do in random groups of strangers, stumble around a topic and talk in internet talk and memes until you become one with the community?
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Sometimes. I'm more of a video watcher or someone who just listens to what I'm working with. Plus this browser I use doesn't have permissions to play from certain places lol.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: Just the one. But it has a neocities mirror and I wanna revamp my old creative and full of potential and sparkle to one to deal with maid girls, as I said.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: Many topics. It's a site for me, not for aesthetics or a wiki.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: My real self with a little drama. I love myself just a little too much, I fear.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: Not any good friends like talking about it... but I'm working on it and hoping to meet nice people and be around others. So many people stop by but I'm going to sign guestbooks and more to try to get the numbers up.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: I don't know how to process this question... Yes..(?)
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: Please try to make things at least bare minimum mobile friendly... It's not that hard considering you have to be doing SOMETHING to get your boxes to sit next to each other in the first place. Just add a simple media condition for mobile screens and in there, undo whatever makes them stay next to each other. Bare minimum, but some people hate it so much...
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Make dark modes.. I beg you, I'm so sensitive to artificial light it's unreal.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: If everything was up to code, how would anyone have any fun around here?
53. Do you consider different browsers?: I use Brave browser and Helium browser. I meant to just test Helium but it was actually kind of a thing and now it's my main... maybe just because Chrome is so good and Ungoogled just makes it better?
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I have no idea now.. I have Edge, Brave, Chrome, and Helium. Helium, I guess, but I need to download a Firefox for max. compatibility testing, so I'll probably get Zen, too.
55. And what OS are you on?: Windows Spyware edition... on the family computer.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: No opinion.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Yes, I specifically try to make it have a mobile friendly breakpoint. Back when I used Bootstrap, I could easily make mobile and tablet friendly, but now I just do the one.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: I don't mind the ambient sounds kind, but why are we listening to your favorite song... accessibility jumpscare
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: I love them and when I see one I REALLY like, I join it! (If it's not join xyz and ping me there and hope I respond.. why not email bro.)
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: I made one for Princess Peach that just... holds my Peach-isms, and another for UTAU. The maid girl thing I've been talking about will probably be another one, I guess.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Not to my knowledge! I specifically just chase pure aestheticism based on the previous versions of my work, so I would be shocked if something like mine turned up everywhere immediately.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: Mine... a website jungle where everything links to everything and it's fun to explore.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: I'm an artist who designs my own things when I feel like it. Otherwise, it comes from games and Pinterest screenshots or free to use places. Or just graphics sharing in general.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: I have a list of them here!
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Not really, and if there is it's not negative.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Girl I don't know... just go to w3schools or ask someone for help... I would also use templates!
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: I like to mix it up, keep myself on my toes when it would be wiser to just make two CSS files instead of each page having specific styles in the head tag.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I don't know what that is.
69. How about table-based layouts?: I don't know but I remember both making one on Toyhouse and also seeing someone on nekoweb had table based layouts.. I didn't even know they were still around until I was shocked by the news.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: My site uses each when it's appropriate. I mean, it has to be at least one of those, it's not like a thing to 'subscribe' to...
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: Don't separate them, they're siblings!! :(
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I would never do that. Plus it would kill me because it would be just a white page and I get migraines..
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: That's about how Cobiesite was made, I hadn't coded a thing in like 2-3 years and just randomly thought about it. Here's the link to the photo of the ugliness I made initially to stop being rusty. It's actually kind of fire ngl when you look at it the right way.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: I'm probably advanced at html/css, but I am a baby beginner when it comes to JS. I have no Talent, Mr Tentacles has All the Talent.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: I take a peek sometimes, and if it's good enough I steal it for a moment or find the source code. Then I disssect it until I know what it is, and then proceed to never touch it ever again. That's about 30% of webdev stories.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: I absorbed the knowledge subconsciously through years of Toyhou.se. One day I just up and realized that I knew how to make html codes for the site and just... did that. I even joined the Coder Challenge club thing or whatever it's called and got quite a few compliments. Also a few bad moments, but.. you know... I half want to make something like that around here, but I know it already exists outside of my radar and I'd just be wasting time...
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: You'll never take my negative margins and position absolute from me.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: Me and float were besties pre 2022, now I'm friends with display: flex;margin: 5% auto 5% auto;
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Phoenix Code has little sliders and dials I love to use... when I wanted to switch to VSCode I literally had it for an hour before I realized I can't live without those things. Otherwise, I find a good balance for vertical margins of container content to have some good space on the screen if 5%. Like margin: 5% auto is a good code.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: I like Times New Roman. On Toyhouse, I think my former go-to was Helvetica, though, but I don't remember why.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: NO you need your space and I need mine. Plus you couldn't keep up with me if you tried, I'm not even going to lie.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Yes! I find so many things, and I love peeking and seeing people I know from elsewhere on statuscafe and otherwise. That's why I use statuscafe to begin with, actually.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: I wouldn't be surprised at a bookmark, especially if I get to a point where I'm constantly putting out new writing. I am an author and critic after all, first and foremost.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: My vision for my site and my works... I get so happy when people acknowledge and compliment my work, more than anything else.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: I like UTAU.... I made a UTAU shrine where I'm planning to rant and vent or teach or whatever.. UTAU spaces are very slowly getting their UTAU names taken over by Vocaloid (which is not an umbrella term btw Vocal Synth/VSynth is the umbrella term, that's just YOU telling other people who already existed in the community it's an umbrella term now.. we didn't have this issue until teto tiktok brains)
I can also talk about how modern Teto just up and erased everything Teto used to be, but I'm not going to rant here anymore because I miss my girl... she was a rock singer, she was a fairy, she had family and friends.. that was my GIRL bro and i miss her every day of my life..
86. How often and for how long are you online?: Too online, but to be completely fair, I'm being productive and healthy by messing with the site and writing blog posts and socializing..
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: Me, people who think I'm cool, and people who want to know more about me or like my aesthetic. Everything I do here is both for me and a reflection of myself.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: Not really. Well, a little, if we're being honest.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Nope.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I wanna use SSGs... I don't need to yet though since I adore manual work. But some pages, I could really benefit.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: No, I don't need one and it would be too late to set one up, I think.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: No forums as of now. Forums, in my opinion, are something you have to be in a community that has one or grow up around, and I have done neither of those things. And I never need help or play forum games now, so that's that. On Toyhouse I tried the forums and had a lot of fun, but people on Toyhouse are so mean and uppity for no reason so I stopped lol
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?: In the editor for stuff like this, in an editor for my stories and similar things.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I probably don't appear cool, or maybe I do. People always tell me I'm cool though, and so I know that I am... idk what you call that, probably just introvert problems
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: I deleted my old website recently because all the images were broken since I was one of those people who used Discord as a file host. We all learned that day, I fear... especially on Toyhouse which has no limits to uploading images to characters...?
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I'd just leave it to be honest. No reason to close it unless I just don't want my code sniped or think its in danger...
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal near everything in my life that isn't identifiable information. And even then it's still a lot of personal things...
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: I... don't have an online best friend I fear... I'd like to make one though lol.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: Yes! I'm working on half jpeg and half webp with the rest being simple pngs.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Not exhausted, lol. Good list.

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