WEBMASTER QUESTIONS

Questions

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These are the answers that exist as of 7/25/2026!

1. Please introduce yourself.: Hello! My name is COBIEDOLL. I am a cool goth nerd who loves Skyrim, worldbuilding, drawing, stupid goth music, and panicking over things no one will ever see. I am admittedly very interesting, but I suck at describing myself, so I will just give you this and say trust me bro: c(^-^)b
2. How long have you been making websites?: Since 2022 as far as I know. That's when my first website was launched, so that's all I have to go off of.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: I edited Toyhou.se layouts and got addicted to Bootstrap subconsciously. Eventually I got tired of Toyhouse and my circle of people who cared almost too much about each other and dipped. Then because I knew Bootstrap, I USED Bootstrap, and my site was awesome and cool. I want to say it was fun, but it wasn't me... and I think it gave me migraines lol
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Pretty ones with custom parts or entire custom framing made with pngs that look like something entirely new. When I was trying to get Arcanum to work off my pristine inherited PC game discs, I saw arcanumclub.org, and before that was my childhood friend uesp.net which always had the paper-theme going well (makes sense). So many websites that I can remember just had the BEST skeuomorphism, both relating to irl items or making it look like the game itself. And not to mention the cute Japanese sites that would take after magazines and so... All of that is so far gone that I can't even cough up a good example anymore, but you get the idea.
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 ask my mind what we need to be doing and it answers me and we discuss it over coffee. Then I have a shoddy reskin page up for a while before I make it entirely unique. This fog aesthetic I have up now will be pretty nice once I really use it to its potential.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: My biggest inspo is the game Calling for the Wii because I played it one time and all of a sudden this place popped off looking like this so (?) Also if you have a profile please request an achievement for this set for my personal gain: Calling @ RetroAchievements (NO set, can you believe it?)
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: Making CSS and then looking at someone else's site and telling them I love their style and someday adopting that to my own and going back and telling them I did so... People love to hear it & I love some level of parallel interactions.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: My Javascript.. It's getting harder actually, in this age of AI & being someone who doesn't know a lot about Javascript, I'm about to go learn it myself so my webpage isn't poisoned more than I only recently realized it has been. So many of my past avenues from like 2020-2023 just turned on their heads and became AI under my nose. It's dangerous to not be aware, so I'm doing my part! (And then I'll rewrite all my JS as a test)
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: Inbetween the two, leaning heavily towards same layout for all pages. I'm trying to spice it up, but it's okay.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: I am so good at CSS. I could be an expert if I cared to use the advanced CSS parts, but I don't care and I just want my site to look as cool as possible at every turn. And my man MDN has me when I need help.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: I do now. This thing taught me about it when I first saw it, and I never used it again.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: <body> when it WORKS and lets me apply ::after and ::before
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Inspiration-wise, I go and think about what kind of website I want and then go to image search for cool layout ideas + snag some images and the like. Action-wise, I decide either my background elements or I decide what fixed-width I want my container to be.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: I know how to make arrays, fetch and parse data from an api, and I have a little folder of snippets from different people that I abuse to death.
15. How about PHP?: I don't know PHP but sometimes I think about it...
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: YES, the current theme is a very light application of skeuo and a fog effect. Literally might be final layout worthy.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Does the content come before the design or does the design come from the content? In my case, I have no idea.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: I don't own a domain name but I would die to have a very specific one sooner or later. I doubt anyone would claim something like cobie.site or something, so I'll keep it in mind. But I like the URL not matching the site's title. Also isn't it cool how the site title has always been COBIESITE from day one?
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: The bulk of them are uninspired (in a neutral sense) but there are so many cool ideas just around the corner if we can just fly away from 98 & 7 & random Vista pieces and all that and we go to true Windows Vista. I've seen such cool things come from people who stuck to the Vista look with a little 7 mixed in... You might read this and be like 'you are stupid, this is all the indieweb sites' but NO. They go off of frutiger aero without any kind of style other than everything the same style of glossy. But Vista goes hard in the way of ABSTRACT that blanket FA misses entirely. And also I think an underrated piece of the puzzle I only saw once was SCREENSAVERS.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I do not check and I know it's not valid because when I try to load it on my phone it takes like 50s sometimes.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: We should make them! Spread them forever onward.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: I like button walls but then I sometimes find out people who I trade buttons with are not people I like at all secretly. It's the nature of the internet, I know, but god some of you are very ... interesting.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: I would likely make a page like what I spoke about in Question 4.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: Not actively. And if I am, it's because they are doing the kind of thing I could never do without straight up stealing their shit. I like being original, though.
25. What text editor do you use?: I use Phoenix Code editor and Notepad++/the default Fedora text editor (depending if I'm on PC or the laptop)
26. Why do you use that one?: I use it because it has dials that I love and can't live without. Although I have VSCodium on my laptop for Ren'Py and I have been known to occasionally boot it up in there. With the combo I have there, you can roll the mouse button/trackpad to make a variable scale up and down. But now PHCode works on the latest Fedora again so I threw that to the wolves.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: On my website + a few select things that are sharable go on File Garden and Catbox. And things I bulk-paste like the FR buttons that are already on imgur don't get uploaded on here (yet)
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: I have no opinion on it that matters, but I have my jewel of a 2022 Neocities account and my Nekoweb account here... Although I do like Neocities a bit more where it comes to the sharing of information freely rather than the community being built out of D*scord. With my UTAU project, I only recently realized that the resource I used and knew of all this time was built on Neocities. And then on similar sites you could follow to the guestbook/comments and ctrl-f and find cool advice and such that was just out in the open.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: I do not know.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: My local backup is the main version of the file. My PC and my laptop are essentially my own Git, if not just me hoarding things I'll never push to the website.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: It depends first off if I can read it. I saw a website recently that was gorgeous when I used Dark Reader to turn down the colors and up the contrast, but it is entirely unreadable and almost actively hostile to the simple curious stranger as is. Some simple websites are really cool because they use backgrounds and cool text effects to their advantage or host cool texts! And some visual websites are so visual that it is overstimulating and nonsensical. You should make more like this.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: I choose dark colors that I can look at forever and ever without getting a migraine when I'm sitting here for hours. And surprisingly I forgot to set the mode to a dark mode for browsers, so now I can't do it at all without elements getting fucked up.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: Not when I'm feeling okay. Every so often I get into a mood and wonder who I do it for, but the answer is me! So I get happy to work again.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: I want to say I have mutuals as far as Nekoweb's follow function is concerned. I met a few nice people, but I don't think they go anywhere. It's a solitary hobby, but I don't want it to be! I want to work with people on projects and contribute to jams and get in the know on where such things take place. But I don't think anyone wants to talk outside of IM so I don't get many friends who stay after the fad of a website is over in their eyes.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Sometimes I show it to new people I meet, but I never let them remember the URL. So technically no? Maybe...?
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: I try to update it daily/weekly. I don't ever plan on being busy enough to where I can't update at least once a week. Maybe within two weeks if I was really out of it. After all, I like COBIESITE.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: I did change it a lot, but I think this version is what I like the most. It's a mix of my very favorite layout but given more stability + going back to my roots of my name and being Cobalt. (Yes my full name is Cobalt Doll, it's nice to meet you.)
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Everything is about me here! Almost overwhelmingly so.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: I do it unprofessionally.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: I would die if I had to do it professionally. I would literally just pull up the W3Schools page on Bootstrap and make this super smooth gliding layout with drop in photos and collect my measly $100 I got on commission or whatever webdevs get lol
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: Email me right now, cobiedoll at proton dot me or cobiesaga at gmail dot com.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: I... tried to? I went into it being like 'oh, I won't delete Tumblr this time!' only to now be considering it. It's not for me anymore, although it used to be the place I felt the most at home. I think that means I officially matured, although maybe that's me growing up and realizing I don't care about others THAT much to go through what they do. Plus the drama I get to see every once in a while that comes with trying to engage with your faves makes me nauseous. The flavor of toxic feminism and anti-racism that doesn't feel authentic combined with the way everyone posts it like they have a gun to their heads. I want a free Palestine too, but god I witnessed someone get the worst ask ever because they didn't reblog something in time...
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: I don't use IM. There's no point in something like that for me, especially when I have no online friends and am very lonely. I email the people I care about to make sure they're okay, but I suspect that I will never grow close to them because of this decision. But people come and sign my guestbook and will comment on my art and be happy when I make them things, so I traded in a sadness for a different kind of happiness.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Sometimes. I like to listen to idle music and Depeche Mode when I do things, but a lot of the time I have on something droning like the latest Moist video or (formerly because I watched every last one) Defunctland. Or I'll put on Pandora or Youtube Music and just shuffle for a wide net of goth music.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I own three websites. This one / its neocities mirror, Satanas in Solitudine (relating to one of my mini biblical themed projects + anything directly about Lucifer), and maid-online which will be a maid-themed website when I finally get time to decide how I want to play that role.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: I keep to what I call the topic of the day, in that it cycles between what I decide to write about, what I watched, mental health/blogging, or my stories/talking about how I want to write.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: I present my real self as best as I can. My thoughts are empty and quiet in my head when I type, so I assume you get exactly what is coming to me in the moment.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: I want to... people are so weird though, the absolute kind of people I hate hide behind cute avatars and spaces. And then people with edgy sites like mine are the nicest people ever... who knows.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Yes but I think there should be a way to target plain text without <span> and similar tags
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: Do not make your page illegible.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: I'm not sure that I know of any, but I love using align in html even though it is extremely bad practice. Someone out there should use more bad practices so we can have a prototype for what happens when support is dropped.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: :eyes:
53. Do you consider different browsers?: I use Firefox/Gecko and Chromium based browsers interchangeably. On my PC I use Helium right now, and for my laptop I use Floorp because it has a certain silly little thing that only Floorp does that I like.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I use Floorp because it is silly sounding and fun and also Firefox in a trench coat and painted purple. I also use Helium because I only meant to try it out as a test and ended up squatting in it for a long time.
55. And what OS are you on?: I'm typing this from a Windows gaming PC right now, but I use an HP mid-range 2-in-1 laptop from 2018 with only about 40gb free at any point in time that I forced Fedora onto as my main computer. I would have been a distro hopper if my laptop wasn't extremely specific in what it needs to function to where it had a Fedora sized hole in its heart. So yes, Fedora + Firefox + uBlock with custom scripts & an entire install of DAO.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: Oh I just use it. I forget sometimes about the difference between the two until I remember my environment has no way to make new files outside of touch and I have to run like 10 commands to get it to give me something. But at that point I make shorthands anyway.. I have one for YT-DLP so I'm happy about it.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Yes!! I make it that way on purpose. Mobile friendly is so much fun to make, idk why people get so up in arms about it.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: Why are we listening to your favorite band's 100 gecs sounding song or the latest 2009 special... And then I go on some sites and they use lobby music and cute little quiet songs or ocean sounds. I love the soundscapes but I'm still scarred from when I went to a website and got like lightning flash style epileptic light patterns with this nightcore break song. SOME people overdo it, but it's nice with a proper warning beforehand. And the people in this age who say I will NOT be undoing autoplay and they have a site like I described are the living agents of the Antichrist.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: I love webrings... I'm in a lot and I want to be in a lot more. I don't know how many are 'appropriate' to be in, but I like being in some at all. It's the same thing with my fanlistings.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: I have one for Princess Peach, one for my Animal Crossing family, one UTAU shrine that's in progress, and one I may or may not make for my OTPs. I like to see the proof that you care, whether that be through text, images, craftsmanship, or just curating a cool vibe. If I can't get that you don't care, is it really a shrine? Like even just pages of heart-shaped cutouts with your faves and oshis!! Yeah!!!
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: The ideas on here are mine, and as long as that is true, I have to say no. The aesthetic? Maybe. But not my mind (unless I'm being my traditional ironic self and doing it on purpose)
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: My ideal website is both mine and what I answered here.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: I am an artist, but I don't design my own assets. A few are mine, but the majority are not.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: Glitter Graphics, Betty's, gifcity.carrd.co, Gifcities, EzGif.com, Pixel Safari, TextureTown, PixelSea
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Using the same layout for everything here.. but on the other hand it makes editing my website super easy lol
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: You should start even if you have no idea wtf you're doing. The way to do it is to keep backups, USE AN EDITOR YOU DOWNLOAD ON YOUR PC, and save often. Most modern editors now have some level of functionality to sort of give you classes if you type in a word that might mean what you're trying to do, so you can coast if you can learn even the basics. Also try to memorize what you use often so you can type it like a second language or write it down.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: I do both, especially for one-off things unique to a page. I'll use inline CSS via a style tag, then if it gets too long I make a new CSS sheet.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I don't know what it is ;-;
69. How about table-based layouts?: I used to use them on Toyhouse when I found some html codes that used it, then as I got more knowledgeable I was like "why are we making table layouts AND making them bend with bootstrap classes, this is stupid." But it is nostalgic to me.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: I blink at you lovingly with my three column homepage and my two column subpages with relevant links on the side.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: The CSS!
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I have not... it is scary because I can't even change the colors.. no dark mode at all & the white of a new page is toxic.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: Surprisingly the answer is neither, I create a layout to house the text, meaning it just simply gets posted. Since I use similar/identical layouts for each page, pages automatically evolve, just like this one is now. I already think this is the kind of page I'm going to use for my Library books.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: Probably in the middle. For CSS, probably advanced because I actively learn the tricks of the trade and all. HTML is easy by itself, so I'm just going along with it, and JS I am a noob in.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Sometimes. That's why I hate when they lock it down from right click.. half the time I'm trying to see the website on a smaller frame or just look at an image closer up to see what it looks like. I understand it's anti-theft, but it is such a pain for someone like me who knows how to just open F12 and get inside anyway. But then I'm just annoyed at that point.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: I learned by doing... I didn't have anyone to ask for help and I had no community, so I had to get into the trenches and just go to W3Schools and pray I got to the right info. I ended up for the first round just scraping someone else's <head> and figuring out how everything worked, then dolling up the meta tags, doing this and that... My website was very cool back then, but I lost passion in it in an entire year. Probably because it wasn't me and I was just making whatever cool thing was at the tips of my fingers to create. Although as a bonus, I will note it wasn't retro or cliche and was actually really OC-focused. Unfortunately since I wasn't in any webrings or anything, the URL was never really shared at all, so the wayback machine never grabbed it. I also recently erased every last bit of it because I made the sin of using Discord for image hosting. Someone out there has an OC on Toyhou.se that I made an interactive closet for with cute elements that were really fucking cool that's now lost media because of that btw.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: There is nothing you can't do without the trinity of flex, flex:1, and display: block
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: Tie them down and slap flex or grid on those things, we don't have all day.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: I use px for singular elements/things that set the stage for width of the row or container. I use 100% for everything I don't care about. This makes me wrangle things constantly, but I get it in the end.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: The font I use right now is called Crimson Text that I downloaded from Google Fonts. I love it because it's not quite Cardo but not as standard looking as Times, yet you wouldn't get jumpscared if my font failed to load for some reason and used Times instead. This sentence is written in Times New Roman by the way, and you'll only see it if you have it downloaded. If you do, you will see how nice Crimson Text settles compared to Times. Also to even get them to be comparable, I had to size down Times by one pixel's worth, otherwise it looks almost alien lol.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: No, but I want friends to collab with at least!
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Sometimes. It's too hard to manually search Neocities, but Nekoweb is small enough that it's not hard to sift through a list of users. Siteboxes make it even easier. That being said, I would go and look if I could.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: I don't bookmark, I use Nekoweb & Neocities follows as a visual bookmark if anything else.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: My aesthetic and my writing and my art. Two of those things are non-existent here as of writing this, but my voice is EVERYWHERE here and I'm so happy.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: I like jailbreaking things and homebrewing devices. I did it with my switch since it was just the easiest thing ever for the highest reward, but I also temporarily did it with my iPad. I was VERY disappointed with the iOS jailbreaking scene, however, and pretty much immediately went back once I realized just how much everything was for profit rather than for passion. I like donating to devs and all, but there's a whole store there with things for up to $20... I think it was just me being too spoiled though, if everyone is paying, there must be a reason.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: Too long online and not enough of it is in our indieweb. I don't want to be uninformed, but I spend too much time rotting around Reddit. I could be in a REAL forum, which I'm hoping I can get into Melonland's forum posting more and leave Reddit forever one day. (Cope on my part, I still have to be relatively informed.)
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: Freaks, but specifically those who have taste, class, and nuance and preferably aren't babies. I think when I get to finally posting my fiction again, that will sort itself out.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: No BUT kind of yes too.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: I have not... I want to though, like to make an actually functional and good scratchpad that uses local storage. That will be my beginner project when I start studying JS.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I tried to use one, but ultimately nothing is better than hand-updating every last thing on your site. Especially when I have to be the person that goes folder to folder checking off boxes and editing broken html that I left out by accident. I know that this is solved with the whole template thing, but what does an SSG do that I can't do on my own? Especially when I start to learn more JS?
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: I don't keep one by myself, no. Nekoweb has something like a hitcounter that just counts what I assume are semi-unique visits and not just refreshes. I ASSUME anyway. Who knows how much is bots, if that even is what that is.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: None yet!! But soon I will. I have a good handful in mind that I can use my website for...
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 type it into the editor so that all the typos come out when you read them. I never re-read anything I write that isn't fiction.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I am cool to other people, people say that I'm cool, and I know that I am. The things I do are objectively cool, but my delivery of me talking about myself and what I do is HORRIBLE lol. Thank god that actions speak louder than words and all that.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: Sometimes. Other times I nuke things for my safety because I have to be a little oversharer when I'm in a mood swing. But the mood swings have been easing themselves back down to my level, so that's good too.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: If I thought it would break, I would let a crawler go through my page and then leave a link to the snapshot. Otherwise, I would just bite and leave it up until I found it however many years later and shut it down.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal as little of myself as possible where it comes to identifiable information, but I let my heart out on the website. I hope it doesn't sound like one of those vent blogs, but I also have something like that too, my Sedimentary zone.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: I don't have any online friends... I want to have them at some point, but I have no idea how to make them lol
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: Yes, actually! New images that are sizeable enough get booted to ezgif dot com and get ported to being a .webp over anything else. It saves so much space and I don't ever have to compress a thing!
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: It is almost 3:00am right now... I'm sleepy, but happy that I got to answer these again. This is fun.