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05/08/2024: New Website 2: The Bettering

(Warning: Nothing major beside me ranting on how hard was it to transfer files from one webpage to another and on people stealing codes.)

Hi everyone, I’m back from upgrading my website to Website 3.0! I never thought this would even happen as I thought I’ll stick with the website that I made from Sadgrl’s Layout Builder, a layout builder where it already has the website coded for you. Of course if you went to my new Archive page and saw my original website (named Website 1.0) that I posted when I first came here, you can see the huge difference between that and Website 2.0 (the pervious website, which is now in the Archive page).

But overtime, I grew tired of Website 2.0 for 3 reasons. The first reason is because some of my pages (my 4th About Me page and my 2nd main Blog page) weren’t mobile friendly. No matter how much I tried to tinker the code, it won’t work. The second reason is as I looked at different websites here, I fell in love with the websites that are rounded and have everything inside of them. I don’t know if there’s a term for this, but some might know what I’m talking about. That then lead to the third and final reason why I grew bored of my 2nd website is because at least a quarter (I think) of the websites here, uses that layout builder too as its very beginner friendly. Because of that, it made some of the websites looked nearly identical to each other!

It was thanks to that and wanting my site to not only have the rounded look, but make it cute and mobile friendly, it was when I decide: it’s time. Time for me to make my own website, with my own TWO HANDS!!! I’ll finally be like those who tend to put in the either their landing or Home page, that they made their website by scratch and are very proud about it! By making my own website, I can show everyone how far long I made in progress in coding my website and hope that some people can get inspired by my design. I was going to be that person who is proud of their work by doing it on their own!

But then, I realized something. Something that I dread doing; in which cause some people to quit because of it. That’s right, not only I have to make my own website, but I also have to see what works and what doesn’t. Where I get annoyed on why one section looks too big and why it won’t move. Then when you have the site look right and you decided to add a code or get rid of it, it mess it up and you’re forced to figure out what you did wrong without having your brain explode! Same thing with images, text and lists as well. Then adding my autism and executive dysfunction into the mix which as the result, I tend to tinker the website for hours and hours at end before getting frustrated and force myself to leave in order to rest!

I remember on my rough draft, my Home page took the longest to make as I want the pink banners around the boxes, like some of websites that I follow have them. But for the longest time, I didn’t know how to put the banners on the boxes until a few weeks ago! Same thing with my About Me page too as I wanted the boxes to go side by side in the main section and not mess it up when I went to mobile view (which you can actually do on your browser). Then at the same time, I also wanted my website to be mobile friendly as not everyone has a computer (or have the energy to walk to one) and it took me the longest to figure out how to make my site not only be mobile friendly, but also make it look good and work functionally too. As for the rest of the rough draft (which I made on Notepad++), it wasn’t that hard once I knew what to do.

Then right before I “closed” my website in order to transfer the files, the guest book that I originally used on my site, 123Guestbook.com, announced that they were shutting down in July! When I saw the news, it was on Status.cafe of all things! So I had to look at my guestbook link to see myself and it was true! I don’t know why the owners decided to shut it down, but it made me sad and that I’ll miss the site. Now, I had to find a replacement for it and SOON! Thankfully I saw that one of the people I followed on Neocities, said they suggest using Ultraguest, as it has actual customization, compared to 123Guestbook.com! So at the end, I made an Ultraguest guestbook account, in which I’ll use when I update my website to 3.0. For me, I feel like replacing my guest book, was a sign from the universe, that it was time to update my site.

Once I was ready to make Website 3.0, I made a new file on Neocities, copy the code from Notepad++ and then paste it on Neocities. Because of that, it didn’t take that long to make the new pages. But I did have to move the old pages to the old site folder, which means broken links when you try to click on said older sites on my Neocities profile page. Along with that, when I transfer codes from my old site to the new site, I have to align the codes to make them organized and for some of the pages (such as the Stamps page on the Misc. page as it has over 600 stamps), it took a long time to line the code to make it look nice. I think it gave me a headache, which is why it took me almost all night to transfer the files from the old Misc. page to the new Misc. page!

Same thing to the new Blog page as well since I originally use the Zonelets code for my blog, as whenever I publish a new blog on the system, I put the .html file on the script and it automatically shows up! Like with the layout builder, it great for beginners, but I too grew bored of the post layout that Zonelets used and that some people used it too, which means it looked the same to me. Instead, I want to have my post layout look like a diary/book layout (but make it mobile friendly at the same time). As the result, I decided to make 2 different main Blog pages for each year and even the posts are not on the Zonelets code anymore, I linked them in order I publish the blog post. But that means copying and pasting said blog post, lining them up neatly and filling in the currently section, even though I don’t remember what the weather is when I publish said post on the new blog post pages.

Then there was the Home page, which not only the last page I touched, but it also took the longest time to get done as not only I have to transfer the image codes (such as the Hello Kitty blinkies, buttons and the "ads"), but also the update list where it had a bunch of dead links from the original webpages that I transferred to the old site folder. So I had to painfully get rid of the dead links one by one and make them in a neat line. I remember this taking at least almost two hours and that I had to take a break after a while, due to how much there is to fix! Then I had to get rid of the original banner code for the chat box as it didn’t work right and it made me sad.

But despite the hard work of copying and pasting and lining up the codes, I think I did a great job on my new website and I think everyone like it too, which made me feel confidence in my site! But one day before I was finished with my update, I accidently forgot to delete the updated status that shows up on your Neocities profile page every 24 hours whenever you add or change a webpage. So now, there are people who were looking at my stuff before it was done and one person even up voted it! For the person who did up vote my now deleted status, sorry about that, it’s just it wasn’t done yet and I didn’t want to ruin the fun for everyone!

And while I'm happy that my new website is finally done, now I have a new fear going forward: that people are going to steal my code and publish it as they tell everyone that “they made this”. It’s one of the biggest problems here as there are people who make good and cute looking website and then someone use Inspector tool that is on their browser, where they copy and paste it on their site and then tell everyone that it’s “theirs”!

Look I get it, making a website is hard and tedious. Just use the layout builder that I mention on the top instead. You don’t need to do anything besides putting down the stuff you want on your website. Of course, you can tinker it in the builder style tag for your own likings. And the best part: it’s free. Yeah, your website will look the same like everyone else who used the layout builder. But it’s better than stealing someone’s site.

Like really, don’t steal people’s site please. They spend hours and hours working on their site just for someone to steal for their own. It sucks and it brings their mood down as now they think their hard work is now wasted. You don’t want that to happen to you, don’t you?

I know some won’t listen to some old woman ranting on the website about what people are doing these days, but I know some will. If you do listen and decided to stop stealing someone’s website: thank you. Thank you for taking your responsibly for your actions and deciding that you’ll use the builder instead. Heck, you might even get inspired to make your website on your own and decided to make it your own! Like it might be hard and time consuming, but I promise it’ll be worth it at the end.

As for my new website, I’m still thinking about adding or changing things to my new website as I write this blog. This is never going to end! Not as long I’m still updating and running this website that is!

I hope that I can be continued to be inspired by others and hope that I can continue to improve my coding skill. And for those who are coding their websites with their own hands: just keep doing a great job and hope that your codes work.