GOD, I DID NOT THINK THIS WAS GONNA BE THE FIRST RAMBLE I'D PUT HERE. I HAD SHIT *READY* FOR ROBLOX HORROR IS DOOMED, BUT... THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS CAME FIRST. MOVING ON...

SO, NEOCITIES, AMIRIGHT? *CROWD FALLS COMPLETELY SILENT.*

SO I'VE BEEN HERE FOR ABOUT FIVE MONTHS NOW, GIVE OR TAKE. I'VE BEEN AWARE OF THE INDIE WEB SINCE 2021, HAVE HAD AN INTEREST IN HTML/CSS SINCE 2022 AND AM A REFORMED CARRDER. I'LL SHUT UP ABOUT THAT BECAUSE YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD THE SPIEL IN THE ABOUT SECTION OF MY HOMEPAGE ALREADY. I'D CONSIDER MYSELF AT LEAST SOMEWHAT WELL VERSED IN BOTH LANGUAGES, GIVEN THAT I CAN WRITE AN HTML DOCUMENT JUST FINE AND KNOW HOW TO APPLY CSS. OF COURSE THERE ARE STILL THINGS I'VE YET TO LEARN; THAT'S, LIKE, THE MOST WELL-KNOWN FACT ABOUT ANY HOBBY, INTEREST, WHATEVER. BUT, I'VE GOT THE FUNDEMENTALS DOWN, PLUS A FEW EXTRA TIDBITS OF KNOWLEDGE UP IN MY NOGGIN.

POINT IS, I USUALLY KNOW WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING. IN THE NICEST WAY POSSIBLE, SOME OF THE OTHER FOLK ON HERE DO NOT.

IF I HAD A QUARTER FOR EVERY TIME I CAME ACROSS A SITE ON HERE THAT WAS IMMEDIATELY BROKEN WHEN I OPENED IT (IMAGES FLYING OUT OF PLACE, HEADINGS COMPLETELY OFF THE SIDE OF THE SCREEN, OTHER RANDOM ARTIFACTS) BECAUSE I HAVE A DIFFERENTLY SIZED MONITOR, I'D HAVE LIKE TWENTY DOLLARS BY NOW. AND IT MANAGES TO MAKE ME ROLL MY EYES EVERY SINGLE TIME.

AND, I HAVE TO ADMIT, IT IS A LITTLE FRUSTRATING AFTER A WHILE. I UNDERSTAND BEING A BEGINNER, I ABSOLUTELY DO!!! BUT I CAN'T HELP BUT JUDGE A LITTLE WHEN I SEE IT AGAIN... AND AGAIN... AND AGAIN... WHEN MOST OF THESE ISSUES ARE SO, SO, SO EASILY FIXED BY SIMPLY READING THROUGH W3SCHOOLS AND RELEARNING HTML AND CSS. BECAUSE I CAN'T HELP THAT FEEL IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT IF THE CONTENT ISN'T STAYING IN THE BOX IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN WHEN YOU ZOOM OUT BY, LIKE, 10%. "ZOOM IN UNTIL THINGS LOOK CORRECT!" SAYS THE WARNING AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN. AND OH, I'D LOVE TO! EXCEPT THE SITE WAS BUILT ON YOUR MONITOR. WHICH I'M WILLING TO BET A LOT OF OTHERS DON'T SHARE A RESOLUTION WITH.

SO, WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?

MY ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS LONG-WINDED AND COMPLICATED. IN SHORT: NEOCITIES' GROWING POPULARITY. WITH THE RISE OF 'WEBCORE' AND 'CYBERCORE' AND 'SCENECORE' (PUKES IN MY MOUTH) COMES THE RISE OF THOSE WANTING THEIR OWN 2000S MYSPACE INSPIRED, GLITTER GRAPHICS RIDDLED, SUPER-COOL PERSONAL WEBSITE. AND, OF COURSE, MY MIND JUMPS TO "DO WE NEED SEVEN GAZILLION SITES THAT ALL LOOK LIKE AN EARLY 2000S HOT TOPIC THREW UP ON SOMEONE'S KINSTA CARRD?" ...WHICH IS A TOPIC I WILL NOT BE ANSWERING RIGHT NOW. I CAN, HOWEVER, RECCOMEND YOU TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON CREATIVITY ON NEOCITIES THAT EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA'S DOG HAVE READ BY NOW (ON THE RARE OFF-CHANCE THAT YOU HAVEN'T).

IN THE MIDST OF DRAFTING THIS, I REMEMBERED THIS SOMEWHAT RELEVANT ARTICLE BY MOONVIEW. I'D SAY IT'S MORE ABOUT CARRD COPY-PASTING AND AN UNWELCOME RISE IN SITES THAT ARE NOTHING BUT FANCIER CARRDS (WHICH I SHARE SIMILAR OPINIONS ON), THOUGH I'D LIKE TO HIGHLIGHT THE FOLLOWING: 'ALL WE ASK IS THAT YOU ACTUALLY LEARN TO CODE BEFORE COMING HERE'. BECAUSE IT RINGS TRUE, ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDST OF SEEING SO MANY SITES THAT ARE COMPLETELY BROKEN ALL BECAUSE OF ONE FACTOR: THE WEBMASTER COULDN'T SIT DOWN AND TAKE THREE OR FOUR EXTRA HOURS TO LEARN HOW TO COHERENTLY CREATE A SITE; SOMETHING THEY'RE SUPPOSEDLY INTERESTED IN.

AM I SHITTING ON TEMPLATES? A LITTLE. JUST A SMIDGE. NO, I COULD NOT POSSIBLY CARE LESS IF YOU USE A TEMPLATE. IF YOU'RE USING ONE TO LEARN, THAT'S A DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCE TO ME... BECAUSE YOU'RE STILL LEARNING. LEARNING IMPLIES THAT YOU WANNA WORK YOUR WAY UP TO BUILDING YOUR OWN SITE FROM THE GROUND UP. AND I 100% SUPPORT YOU. IF YOU'RE USING A TEMPLATE AND DON'T HAVE ANY PLANS TO COMPLETELY BUILD A SITE YOURSELF WITHOUT EXTRA CODE, THEN I'M STILL NOT GONNA BARK AT YOU. IT'S JUST NOT SOMETHING THAT I CAN PERSONALLY SEE MYSELF DOING. BUT, IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO MODIFY SAID TEMPLATE DRASTICALLY... OR IMPLEMENT BRAND NEW ELEMENTS, PAGES, WHATEVER THAT DO NOT FOLLOW SAID TEMPLATE... THE ABSOLUTE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS BEGIN TO LEARN THE COMPLETE BASICS OF THE VERY BUILDING BLOCKS THAT YOU PLAN TO USE.

"OH, SHUT UP, HOONIS. YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN HERE A YEAR YET AND YOU'RE WRITING ELITIST ARTICLES ABOUT HOW ALL NEWBS SHOULD FUCK OFF." I MEAN... YEAH. I HAVEN'T BEEN HERE FOR SIX MONTHS, LET ALONE AN ENTIRE YEAR. I DEFINITELY HAVEN'T EARNED MY ELITISM BADGE YET (READ JOKE). THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT WHAT I'M SAYING, AND I HOPE THAT'S NOT HOW IT'S COME ACROSS SO FAR. I'M TACKING THIS ON HERE TO MAKE SURE THAT IT ISN'T VIEWED THAT WAY.

I WRITE SO PASSIONATELY ABOUT JUST... SITTING DOWN AND LEARNING WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN TO CREATE YOUR VERY OWN CORNER OF THE WEB, BECAUSE I HAD TO. I WAS ONE OF THE DUDES WHO WAS GONNA GET ON HERE AND CREATE A SITE, ONLY FOR THAT SITE TO BE BARELY FUNCTIONAL AT ALL, ONLY LOOK CORRECT ON A SPECIFIC RESOLUTION AND BE MADE UP ENTIRELY OF RANDOM SHITTY CARRD SNIPPETS. I WAS ALMOST A CARRD COPY-PASTER. YOU CAN THANK WHATEVER WENT WRONG WITH MY STYLESHEET THAT I'M NOT. NOT THAT YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, BUT I CAN PROVE IT. HERE'S THE ORIGINAL DRAFT I CODED FOR WHAT WAS GOING TO BE MY NEOCITIES SITE AT THE TIME, CASKETKID (RELOAD IF BLANK). IT'S PRETTY FUCKING BAD, RIGHT?

I WAS DETERRED AFTER REALIZING THAT MY 'SITE' WAS... ASS, TO PUT IT FRANKLY. YEAH. OF COURSE I WAS. IT SEEMED SOOOO DAUNTING TO LEARN HOW TO FIX IT AND I FELT LIKE I COULD NEVER EVER EVEN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I WAS DOING. BUT I WAS WRONG, WASN'T I? YEAH HTML AND CSS LOOK SCARY, BUT SO DOES LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE THAT YOU'VE NEVER TRIED BEFORE. KINDERGARTEN PROBABLY LOOKED TERRIFYING TO A YOUNG YOU. BUT, AFTER A WHILE, I CAME BACK TO IT. AND I WAS SURPRISED JUST HOW EASY IT GOT AFTER I FIGURED OUT THE COMPLETE AND UTTER BASICS. BECAUSE I PUT IN THE EFFORT, AND THEN IT GOT EASIER. IS THIS NOT A MORAL IN AT LEAST HALF OF THE EPISODE-BY-EPISODE CHILDREN'S CARTOONS OF THE 2000S?

SHORTCUTS EXIST, BUT YOU WILL FIND THEM AFTER YOU LEARN THE LONG, TEDIOUS WAY TO YOUR DESTINATION. SOMETHING SOMETHING, IT'S HARD TO CUT CORNERS WHEN YOU'RE WEARING A BLINDFOLD. IF YOU FIND YOURSELF LOOKING BACK ON WHAT I'VE SAID AND THEN LOOKING AT YOUR SITE, WHETHER HALF OF THE IMAGES ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF PLACE AND BREAK ON ZOOM OR YOU'RE MODIFYING A TEMPLATE WITHOUT THE FIRST CLUE WHAT YOU'RE DOING, I REALLY CAN'T MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS THAT YOU SHOULD START LEARNING FROM THE BEGINNING AND RECODE YOUR SITE. (WOAH, SHE SAID THE THING!)

LEARN THE VERY, ABSOLUTE BASICS. LEARN DOM AND SEMANTIC HTML TOO, IF YOU CAN HELP IT. HELL, I'M STILL LEARNING ABOUT SEMANTIC HTML. EVENTUALLY, YOU WILL FIGURE OUT THE REASON WHY HALF OF YOUR TEXT IS OUT OF LINE WITH ITS CONTAINER ON BIGGER/SMALLER/WHATEVER SCREENS, AND IT'LL BE A REMARKABLY EASY FIX. AND IT'LL FEEL GOOD, BECAUSE YOU'RE LEARNING!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

MY POINT? IF YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT WEB DEV, THE INDIE WEB, PUTTING YOUR OWN CONTENT OUT THERE, WHATEVER... YOU WILL LEARN TO CODE, AND YOU WILL FIX UP YOUR FORMATTING, ORGANIZE YOUR TAGS AND COMPREHEND WHAT YOU ARE DOING. IF YOU DON'T CARE AND NEOCITIES IS JUST A COOL SOCIAL MEDIA ALTERNATIVE THAT YOU WANNA HOST A 'SITE' (GLORIFIED ABOUT ME) ON.... THEN I DIRECT YOU BACK TO CARRD. I DOUBT THAT THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU.