100 Questions for Webmasters.
One of those online questionnaires. Courtesy of MOUSEling.net.
- 1. Please introduce yourself.
- I'm Toji. よろしく。
- 2. How long have you been making websites?
- Since 1999.
- 3. And what got you into the hobby?
- A combination of a friend talking about making his own website, and many anime fans back in the day had their own website, which was the style at the time.
- 4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
- The kind that features females with big yabbos. In all seriousness though, anything Gundam or mecha related.
- 5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?
- Combination of planning out the site map and navigation structure and making a mockup of the kind of layout that I want.
- 6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
- There wasn't any specific site that inspired Toji's World in its initial state, and the site that inspired me to turn Toji's World into a personal/combo site no longer exists.
- 7. What's your favourite part about making websites?
- Freedom to express my interests.
- 8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
- Coming up with a version 10 for this site and making time for it. That, and working on Return of the Magi
- 9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
- Same layout.
- 10. How confident are you with CSS?
- Enough to make a website. I have to brush up on it occassionally, but it's not a problem.
- 11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
- No.
- 12. What is your favourite HTML element?
- The iframe. I will die on this hill.
- 13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
- Draw up the layout with pen/pencil and paper
- 14. Do you know JavaScript?
- I know enough to tinker with it, but not to make from scratch with it.
- 15. How about PHP?
- I know of it, but never used it.
- 16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
- Yes.
- 17. Are you more focused on content or design?
- Yes.
- 18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
- No. I'm not wealthy, or internet famous enough for that.
- 19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
- I came close to madness trying to find them here on the internet, but they just can't get the spices right.
- 20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
- I don't know, the last time I checked was... 2008?
- 21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
- I know linking with buttons is still a thing, but do people still even use banners for linking these days? Thought that died out at the turn of the millenium.
- 22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
- They're fine, I guess. I think it's better than the "affiliates" sections back in the day where so many sites flooded their index/home page with buttons
- 23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
- Same. But different. But still same.
- 24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
- Yeah.
- 25. What text editor do you use?
- Notepad.
- 26. Why do you use that one?
- A simple tool for a simple man.
- 27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
- I host them in the same place as my website.
- 28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
- I don't care honestly. As long as it's a webhost that is free, stable, and doesn't needlessly clamp down on what content I put on my site, that's all I really need.
- 29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
- Last I checked, it was over 200 MB in total.
- 30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
- Yep. Except when I don't.
- 31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
- I prefer something in the middle.
- 32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
- I tend to limit myself to three or four colours where possible to make my sites easy to read.
- 33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
- Not really. Considering this website has reached the 25 year milestone, I've put a lot of time and effort to get it to where it is now.
- 34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
- I would say acquaintances at best these days, but I haven't had any webmaster friends in years
- 35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
- No, and I'd like to keep it that way.
- 36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
- The blog every few weeks; the main site once or twice a year. Return of Magi? Oof, it's long overdue for an update.
- 37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
- Back in the day, I changed it every few months before it became every few years. The fact that I launched version 9 back in 2012 speaks for itself.
- 38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
- Yes.
- 39. Do you do web design professionally?
- Nope.
- 40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?
- Not anymore. As for what I do for work, I'm just a simple サラリーマン.
- 41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
- Monday to Fridays. It's part of my job.
- 42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
- Yes, but I don't use it that often.
- 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 Line, because Japan.
- 44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
- Sometimes. Mostly stuff from Overclocked Remix.
- 45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
- More than one.
- 46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
- Many.
- 47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
- A little bit of both.
- 48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
- I did over 20 years ago (you might notice a pattern), and then we all grew up and I lost contact with everyone.
- 49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
- Yeah.
- 50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
- Splash pages, and auto playing background music. I thought we got over all that back in the early 2000s.
- 51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
- The option to not play background music automatically, and more sites that use iframes.
- 52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
- Generic structure. Sue me.
- 53. Do you consider different browsers?
- Kind of, but this site is so old that I think it works on all the main browsers at least.
- 54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
- Currently I use Brave, but I have no problem using Edge or Firefox either. I ain't going to sit here and convince you, kids need to make their own decisions based on their own experiences.
- 55. And what OS are you on?
- Windows.
- 56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
- I've used it all my life, why change now?
- 57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
- My blog is; my main and Evangelion sites are viewable on mobile, but I wouldn't call them "mobile-friendly."
- 58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
- I don't like autoplaying videos.
- 59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
- I used to be a part of an Evangelion webring.... over 25 years ago. Glad to hear that webrings are still alive and kicking.
- 60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
- I used to have Akuma and Rose web shrines.... 20 years ago.
- 61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
- No.
- 62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
- I don't have an ideal website. I just do a little better each time.
- 63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
- I em urtist. I dro bobs n vagene 4 moni. Nah, I can't draw for shit.
- 64. What are your favourite resource sites?
- W3Schools.
- 65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
- Sticking with one type of navigation. Good ol'
iframes drop down menus.
- 66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
- Have some content on your site first before you show it off to the world.
- 67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
- Mostly CSS.
- 68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
- Goddamn, I miss frames.
- 69. How about table-based layouts?
- They do what I need them to do.
- 70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
- I haven't used them personally. Maybe for a future layout.
- 71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
- Yes.
- 72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
- Yeah, my old Evangelion site back in '99-'01, and the first 4 layouts of this site.
- 73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?
- I used to whip up layouts for no reason in the early 2000s. Now I'm hard pressed to find a reason to make a new layout.
- 74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
- By today's standards? Somewhere in the middle.
- 75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
- Sometimes, if there is a certain feature that I like, or if I want to get around something that the front end doesn't allow - like downloading an image or video.
- 76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
- Initially used Geocities' WYSIWYG interface, then I learned some HTML basics from a friend. After high school, I went to a technical school for a year where I learned a lot of useful stuff about website development.
- 77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
- No
- 78. Thoughts on floating elements?
- I'm indifferent.
- 79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
- Depends what it's for. I use a combination of px and %.
- 80. Do you have a favourite font?
- Nope.
- 81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
- I tried a few times in the past, but the ideas never got off the ground. Now, I can only imagine what could have been...
- 82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
- Sometimes.
- 83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
- I add them to my links page, I guess that's kind of bookmarking; flattered.
- 84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
- There isn't really anything I want them to be impressed about. Toji's World is just one more personal/combo site on the internet.
- 85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
- No.
- 86. How often and for how long are you online?
- At least from 9am-7pm Monday to Friday because work.
- 87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
- No one in particular. I generally welcome anybody who is anybody.
- 88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
- Nope.
- 89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
- I wrote programs back in uni, but that's about it.
- 90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
- I've never used one personally.
- 91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
- I used to.... over 25 years ago. As for why I don't anymore, my site ain't popular enough for a hit counter.
- 92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
- Not anymore.
- 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?
- Prep it in a text document, save it as an html file.
- 94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?
- I have transcended such juvenile nonsense, and by that I mean I'm too fucking old to worry about that anymore.
- 95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
- Nope
- 96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
- I would leave it as an archive, just so people know I was here, long after I die.
- 97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
- I try to watch what I share about myself these days.
- 98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
- The online life for me is rather solitary these days. If you asked me in the early 2000s (or even late 90s), my answer would have been different.
- 99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
- Yep.
- 100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
- I feel fine.
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