- 1. Please introduce yourself.
- hello! my name is mx. crow corvidae. i'm an artist with my main medium being games. i'm (going to be) a second year games design student. i'm nigerian-scottish however about two years ago my gender was taken from me and a year ago i was turned into a crow :>
- 2. How long have you been making websites?
- this nest is my first site and it was created on 25/11/25 although i didn't start working on it until sometime near the end of december. actually, i'm a liar. i made an underdogs fan site for my s6 computer science project in december of '24. i want to make it public but neocities doesn't support php so the game on it won't work. maybe i could modify it and just have the player keep score themselves.
- 3. And what got you into the hobby?
- my uni friends were making personal websites and joined in :D
- 4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
- i love reading people's blogs/journals! it kinda feels like i'm crawling around in their brain :]. i also love shrines.
- 5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?
- the nest is kinda one big ship of theseus that i add onto whenever i get ideas.
- 6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
- i don't think i'd be anywhere near as interested in games as i am if it weren't for masahiro sakurai and his youtube show! joshua hamilton's music and outlook on life has kept me going through rough times. i've rewatched derrek and leon massey's stuff a concerning amount of times and i want to get into blender because of them.
- 7. What's your favourite part about making websites?
- yapping. no but seriously, i love having a place where i can outwardly express myself without (as much) anxiety. i also think being able to have small projects all around the site is really good for motivation and such!
- 8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
- i think my site looks a bit bland, i guess? i'm not too worried because i can always change it up whenever inspiration hits. it's also a tad anxiety inducing the fact that neocities shows every change you make on people's feed but I've stopped caring recently.
- 9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
- i only have the one page. are different pages called pages. i guess they are. uh... i thought it meant sites. yes, i do keep the same layout across all pages.
- 10. How confident are you with CSS?
- moderately. i understand everything that's on my site but it takes me a while to adjust every time i want to do something new css wise. my style sheet is also a mess, i'll clean it up eventually.
- 11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
- who's asking? (the answer is no)
- 12. What is your favourite HTML element?
- i like <span>s. they're never necessary so they're always cool if that makes sense.
- 13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
- probably draw what i want it to look like or type out what i want to write.
- 14. Do you know JavaScript?
- sadly no, but i want to learn!
- 15. How about PHP?
- yes, but it's been a while.
- 16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
- i guess. i don't really have like a named theme or anything but it's all visually consistent.
- 17. Are you more focused on content or design?
- content i guess but i'd say a mix of both.
- 18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
- i don't currently own one. i like the idea of linking the nest to people who would want to see my portfolio so i think having a cool looking domain would be cool. for now i'm happy to rep neocities :D. also apparently switching domains is pretty bad so maybe i'm stuck, who knows.
- 19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
- i like them generally! i'm a big sucker for anything 4:3. i will say though, some of them are really messy for better or for worse (usually better :>).
- 20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
- valid? i think so? ohh. i just checked what that meant. i checked like two months ago and i haven't done anything about it. could be better, could be worse. all of the issues on the checker are poor code but i'm all good on the accessibility front (although i could probably be doing more).
- 21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
- i like them!
- 22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
- i like them too although i generally skim them until i see something cool, think about how i should have one, and then leave or smth idk.
- 23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
- similar probably
- 24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
- somewhat. people have such cool aesthetics and i don't really have one. i'm hoping to start drawing crows for the nest soon enough :>
- 25. What text editor do you use?
- the neocities one although I've been using notepad a bit recently (including typing this).
- 26. Why do you use that one?
- i started off using vscode but neocities has it's own way of internal linking so when you have to do a bit of work to upload a local site to neocities and i cba. as for why i use notepad. i guess i just like being able to save halfway through smth and not have neocities put an unfinished page on people's feeds.
- 27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
- i tried out catbox but i think it was having issues when i tried so for now i just slap my shit on neocities. i'll cross the bridge when i come to it.
- 28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
- i'm a neocities'er because that's what my friends used and i don't care to know about how nekoweb may be better because what you don't know can't hurt you :). (also ngl, i fear that i'd be anxious about sounding like a weeb if i told someone my website was on nekoweb)
- 29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
- by my intense calculations (looking on neocities) 3.96 mb which is surprisingly low.
- 30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
- somewhat. i don't make it a point to backup but i do always have a latest backup saved.
- 31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
- simple but highly visual is a treat at times :>.
- 32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
- ourple
- 33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
- surpassingly i haven't i don't think. the closest is giving up on ideas because i'm too bad at html but even though i don't think i've done that all too often.
- 34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
- i do but i don't really talk to them because... (i really need to talk to my friends again <)
- 35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
- i think i brought it up to my brother but i don't wanna show any of my family because i'm gay asf on here. they know i'm trans but i'm sure they won't like the reminder. also if i ever show them, i'm hiding the url.
- 36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
- i'd say decently often four blog posts in about half a month and i change/add something once every few days-ish. i'll probably slow down at some point but for now i still have ideas in the to-do list!
- 37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
- i'm still figuring stuff out so for now uh idk.
- 38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
- fuck the outside world. this nest is for me and my art :>
- 39. Do you do web design professionally?
- no, however, i would never reject payement for how awesome this nest is :)).
- 40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?
- i honestly think it'd be fun to do for work but i'm not all too good but also i could learn. currently i'm looking for basic summer work.
- 41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
- nope. idk if i should make a new email for the nest or smth. that's for later me to look back and hate now me for not. that sentence didn't make no damn sense.
- 42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
- i've pretty much quit social media outside of neocities and youtube. i think most would agree that it's pretty beneficial. i fear that like it'd probably do me good to use social media for advertising and such sometime in the future if i wanted to advertise a game or smth but also i don't wanna add to the poison that i don't take. oh well.
- 43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?
- discord for friends. whatsapp for family.
- 44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
- i'm currently listening to derrek's Damn Slunk. it certainly is one of the collections of music of all times (in the best way possible :>).
- 45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
- the one site for me however, i would love to integrate the underdogs fan-site i was talking about earlier
- 46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
- it's all art whether it be me talking about the stuff i like or my projects. with a dash of life on my blog.
- 47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
- mx. crow is kinda a midway point between persona and me. like, i do (try to) go by crow irl and my preferred honorific is 'mx.' so in that regard that is my "real self" but also idk. i feel like the idea of "wearing a mask" is a motif of my life somewhat. my surname (sadly) isn't corvidae irl so ig that's something. idfk.
- 48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
- not yet. but i guess neocities is kinda the last point of connection between me and my glasgow friends :>.
- 49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
- i guess?
- 50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
- bigotry's not fun idk.
- 51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
- i think we should all add target="_blank" to all links that link externally so that they open in a new tab. also i like being able to navigate sites in full screen :>.
- 52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
- i've never really thought about it too much. i like the idea of being super semantic. seems cool.
- 53. Do you consider different browsers?
- not really. every so often i'll open my site up on a different browser and nothings broken yet. i'll take on any issues when they come.
- 54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
- chrome. it looks simple and clean. i every so often i decide to be different but i always find myself crawling back.
- 55. And what OS are you on?
- windows 11 *loud booing*. i tried to change to linux (ubuntu) last week but i couldn't get it working :<.
- 56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
- fuck windows. fuck microsoft.
- 57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
- nope. hopefully i'll get around to it eventually :>.
- 58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
- i don't mind although sometimes i open a page and the music is ambient and i don't realise it's on until a few minutes have passed and i feel like i've gone insane.
- 59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
- i like them! i'm in one officially (gfdikris) and I've applied to two others (transing the internet and wiiring) sadly transing the internet seems to be on an indefinite hiatus so that sucks :> i hope the webmasters are doing ok :>.
- 60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
- not yet. i love when they fully embody the look of what they're going for to the point of looking ripped straight out of the ip.
- 61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
- i guess? i don't care though
- 62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
- easy to navigate while not being too boring. blog. and music i guess. and yes i hope to get there.
- 63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
- i am an artist although i don't draw any of my assets. i would love to though by i don't have a drawing tablet (also my art is a bit ass).
- 64. What are your favourite resource sites?
- w3schools is a classic but one that helped me a bunch was this page on css-tricks.com.
- 65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
- opening and closing brackets and then having to go inside them to type in them. hardcoding css and never changing it and in general having a messy stylesheet twt
- 66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
- idfk. draw your webpages maybe.
- 67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
- hardcoding? me? yes.
- 68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
- i look like i have a frameset but i don't. i probably should, huh? oh well.
- 69. How about table-based layouts?
- they sound not great but idfk.
- 70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
- i think i have a two-column. i like two and three.
- 71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
- css i guess but i think of them as one.
- 72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
- kinda. i have a hidden page that has css but the layout stuff hasn't been changed in a long time. maybe i should remove it's css
- 73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?
- making layouts with nothing to put on them sounds cool as hell but yeah, no, only when the need arises for me.
- 74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
- i think of myself a beginner but i have to remember that there are people who come to neocities with no webdev experience or software dev experience at all so i guess i'm mid-level.
- 75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
- yup. i don't even take it either, i'm just pretty curious i guess.
- 76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
- i got my foundation from computer science in secondary school and now it's just a case of searching stuff up as i go. w3schools is the goat.
- 77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
- i always get consent.
- 78. Thoughts on floating elements?
- dogshit unless they aren't :>.
- 79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
- mostly px with a bit of vh and vw
- 80. Do you have a favourite font?
- i use courier new but i might change it, idk.
- 81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
- sounds cool but also commitment is scary. i'd have to be close to the person.
- 82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
- i do! mostly neocities though.
- 83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
- i follow people on neocities and try to add people's buttons if i want to go back (although i'm a bit behind). i also made a button for a non neocities site (maddy makes games) but i doubt i'll continue that because it looks a bit shit. to my knowledge, i'm mutuals with everyone who uses my button. it'd be an honour to be bookmarked by someone unknowingly :>
- 84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
- my games probably. the page i'm the most proud of is the shinies page. the sideways dates was such a good idea and i think the page as a whole is decently unique :>.
- 85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
- i'm fond of single use electronics. i love handheld consoles and i want to get into physical music (particularly cassettes).
- 86. How often and for how long are you online?
- although i'm on my laptop a lot, ever since i got back into game dev, i'm not online too often. i want to cut down a bit on youtube but aside from that i'm decently happy with how much i'm online.
- 87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
- artists and art enjoyers. game devs and game enjoyers. crows and crow enjoyers :).
- 88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
- who? looks cool. i think opt-in standardisation is cool.
- 89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
- i previously studied software engineering and i make games so i have done a fair bit of programming. i haven't programmed anything for the site but i'd love to :D.
- 90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
- if it gets someone to make a site who wouldn't've otherwise then i'm for it. but personally i'll stick to raw coding :).
- 91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
- i've considered it but i think i'll stick to the neocities one that's attatched to your account for now (ig technically neocities is views not hits but ykwim)
- 92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
- i don't. maybe i should. would be cool.
- 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've recently started typing up blog posts in text documents first but generally everything is done in editor.
- 94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?
- holy tone shift. idk. i try to be pretty authentic and not filter anything. i hope people like what they see. idfk. irl though, i am constantly tormented by social anxiety and my social ineptitude. i fear that i'm too strange for anyone but idk. i just try not listen to those thoughts. if you're anxious, simply don't be :>
- 95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
- i guess i haven't really been creating for long enough to be embarrassed about old stuff. i guess a better way to put that would just be that i don't have old stuff to be embarrassed about. i do have a layer of embarrassment that lays over all of my art but i'm slowly shaking it.
- 96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
- leave an archive probably. i'm a big archiver whether it be archiving old work or journaling. looking back at old shit is so fun. it's basically time travel :D.
- 97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
- i try to keep personal information to a minimum so as not to doxx myself. when it comes to certain things like my deadname for example, i could see myself putting them into art but not like directly speaking about it. idk.
- 98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
- "i really need to talk to my friends again <" - mx. crow a few minutes ago
- 99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
- the image i used for mii brawler on my favourites page was super big initially so i did optimise that one but other than that, nah. i had to upscale the Pokémon pixel art.
- 100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
- idk. i learnt a few new things!