100 webmaster questions.

this questionnaire was made by mouseling! you can find the original version and template here.

1. Please introduce yourself.
hi, i run clearglass.
2. How long have you been making websites?
i attempted in 2021, got overwhelmed and quit, and returned in 2023 and have maintained clearglass ever since (but not without months going by with little to no updates).
3. And what got you into the hobby?
like many people with neocities accounts, a nostalgic yearning for old webmastery and the aesthetics of old sites. also because twitter exploded for real and i knew i needed other tech escapades to keep me entertained so i wouldn't be interested in returning to those spaces.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
usually personal sites with mixtures of blogging, writings, and things to share, especially about relatively niche topics. bonus points for art of the webmaster's own making.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?
clearglass has a very very minimal layout. this is because i got tired of getting bored with how the site looked after spending 8 hours trying to make it align with my current aesthetic inclinations. i want to maintain clearglass indefinitely and i don't want my site's design to interfere with that ability, so i stripped everything back out of necessity. everything follows this very simple easy-to-navigate layout so i can focus on adding onto it or changing things easily when the time arises. so i guess everything is planned out, but only because it's such a 'boring' design lol.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
i will be speaking largely from a site design standpoint. like many people on neocities, cinni was a huge source of inspo for me especially when i got started. then when i got overwhelmed i discovered michael's site at the time he had obliterated his site of any and all CSS styling and i was like ":O wait...i just like how this looks so much more." i think michael's typing and writing style are very special as well so it was a good reminder that i could just let the content speak for itself instead of borrowing old aesthetics and getting annoyed at myself for feeling like i was making the site feel 'dead' or 'stagnant.' other large sources of inspiration for me are coils and princess online.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?
updating them, i guess. i especially like list-making so it's easier to keep that info on me when i'm out...i always go to my own site to look at my physical music collection list if i'm going to a CD store lol. i think a website is the perfect way to journal online and keep track of your self-expression over the span of multiple years because you delete and add pages and update certain ones and stop updating others.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
the code lol
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
more or less the same one. i introduced a new css file for my microblog. the scans and photos pages have their own css too. all are very minimal. the broken code zone has its own as well.
10. How confident are you with CSS?
not at all.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
nnnope i was surprised when i copied and pasted this text file 'cuz i hadn't recognized the field. would have been nice to have when i did the 100 egl questionnaire lol.
12. What is your favourite HTML element?
good ol a href i think
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
copy and paste all the code from a small page of mine like /about or something so i have the template lol
14. Do you know JavaScript?
no and i generally try to keep the site JS-less now
15. How about PHP?
no and i honestly don't know what that is supposed to do
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
the theme is meeeeee ♡
17. Are you more focused on content or design?
content for sure.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
i tried to move everything over off of neocities some time ago but i got confused and gave up. i did have a domain name but i don't want to pay for that while the site is hosted on neocities anyways. anyway yes but i let it expire lol
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
if all you've got going for you is nostalgia you're probably not a very interesting person. there's so many things you can talk about that aren't regurgitated variants of 'the internet used to be so awesome!' cuz like, yeah, but do you not do anything else with your life? i think there is value in overly theming your site on the past if your site's trying to document something from that era, like 90s bands or old video games or retro anime or something--but also it's annoying that people use katakana and hiragana-filled buttons as shorthand for something looking 'webcore' and 'retro'...i notice this less on neocities in 2025 but in 2023 it was a real problem.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
i don't check because i use enough depreciated html to know where i stand...lol
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
cute cute cute but i wish people wouldn't prioritize them.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
i really like them but that said i didn't have a button for the span of multiple months because--like my issues with my site design--i got tired of having one that then didn't feel 'representative' of me months later. so i got rid of one for a while. and most people wouldn't link to me because i didn't have a button. i like button walls but be sure to link to sites that don't have buttons too if you think they're cool!
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
similar i'm sure. clearglass is a small encapsulation of me and what i think is interesting so it would inevitably end up being kind of like this.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
sometimes i get jealous of other people's abilities to keep things so in line with their aesthetic sensibilities and the coding abilities to do all that but i'm never jealous of the actual site itself, which is to say, the content.
25. What text editor do you use?
phoenix code but also notepad++ sometimes.
26. Why do you use that one?
live preview feature lol
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
on my web server. i have a few files here and there kept on catbox and file garden but i think most of them have been moved over by now.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
i like nekoweb and in terms of the features being offered i think nekoweb is superior but i will be staying on neocities for the very shallow reason of i prefer 'clearglass dot neocities dot org' over 'dot nekoweb dot org.' otherwise i don't really care...i think the fact that this is a debate just shows how ingrained social media behavior is in people's brains, that there has to be a 'superior site'. like idk just pick the one you think is best for your use case.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
11.38 MB, apparently.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
yep
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
simple. if your site takes longer than 5 seconds to load anything on any of its pages, at least if it's a personal site and not a web novel or art project or something, i am clicking away tbh.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
i like the frutiger aero blue palette stylization and generally lean towards soft and desaturated blues--but i swapped my color scheme around too much and got annoyed about changing it so often so i decided to just stick with a classic terminal palette for my fonts: solarized.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
nope.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
i would say ivy (loneliwish), michael (michaelmas), and sonya (angelsaremathematical) are some people i've corresponded with enough to consider friends. generally webmastery is something for me though and i largely keep to myself for better or for worse.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
yeah a few!
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
it depends, i typically update at least once every few weeks just because i've usually finished or started a book or a game or something or i have an album i want to share. larger updates are more sporadic--right now i'm in the mood to be updating a lot.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
i do not for reasons i've already explained.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
some combo of me and hobby, i guess. i try to keep large amounts of personal thoughts limited to the microblog so the list-making process can be uncluttered when i need to reference it.
39. Do you do web design professionally?
el oh el
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?
absolutely not. annnd i just wfh. so emails.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
excluding the hell that is work emails: not as much as i'd like to!
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
i have a personal tumblr, that's about it these days, and i often forget about it. i also use tumblr for rp though.
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 discord.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
i usually listen to music, yeah. when i type a lot and need to think deeply about what i'm typing or need to use my brain to understand code i usually listen to ambient music, downtempo, trance, or dnb type stuff.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
i have two neocities accounts because i played with the idea of keeping my blog on a separate site for a while and then decided not to do that so now i have two usernames. i have a nekoweb too but it's just got a splash page.
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?
the blending of the two is inevitable. i'm not interested in putting on appearances for this tiny site but i also have to pick and choose what i'm saying about myself and what i'm putting on my site which inevitably generates a persona.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
not sure about a 'good' friend yet but i'm happy with the people i've met and have corresponded with thanks to clearglass!
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
i'm sure there are improvements about how they could be done but i like the separation and stuff. i'm not a coder so i don't have any other languages to compare it to.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
please have mercy on people who don't have computers from the past 5 years...
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
make a page with no css (except maybe for a max-width rule because of widescreen). then see what you can do without any styling at all.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
tbh i have no idea what this means.
53. Do you consider different browsers?
no. my site is generic enough it shouldn't be a problem i think?? i hope???
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
firefox. it's fine. i'd like to use a privacy-enhanced fork but many of them are often difficult to use with many modern sites or straight up won't let you...just shows how dead privacy is i guess.
55. And what OS are you on?
windows 11 :( i have linux mint on some other laptops i play around with and a chunky thinkpad i wish had vista on it but came with w10 for some reason.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
w11 sucks majorly and i hate it but i need it for work on my main laptop and also for my gaming pc so stuff doesn't break when i want to game. i drastically prefer linux overall but it's just not feasible to use in my daily life rn.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
yes but mostly because my site is so bare-bones. i do have a very simple screen size rule in place.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
i really hate that people have just jumped back to using autoplay or think that a landing page warning 'some pages might have autoplay!!!' is a suitable replacement for actually warning when autoplay is going to be used. this links back to my annoyances about asset-heavy personal sites that take forever to load. that said, on an earlier rendition of my site i had a few pages with autoplay but i always had those pages marked so people could mute the tab. i also think certain webpages are enhanced by autoplay, but that's primarily in the instance of online projects and art pages. so i guess my complaint is limited to people running a certain kind of personal site.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
i like them but i don't think they're really necessary on neocities or really even in the current indie web environment. it's such a small community the same 20 people are often in the same 5 webrings. i often feel like: why not just make a links page to show off all the sites you think are cool? finding sites isn't as hard as it used to be. counterpoint: maybe i just don't branch out enough when looking at personal sites and that's why i feel like the webrings are so small? anyway, no, i am not in any webrings! i've thought about joining some fanlistings and cliques but i always end up changing my mind.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
i have a few yeah! to be honest i don't feel like they're as indulgent as i really want them to be. i'd like to add more art and things to them, personalize them a little more, make them more reminiscent of the thing they are paying homage to in overall style. the sonic one especially could use an update. i love to see other people's shrines and see how people honor things that particularly resonate with them, especially sharing hard-to-find stuff that can be difficult to find even if you are already a fan of the thing, or shrines that focus on the personal relationship of the subject to the person's life instead of just explaining what it is. shrines are usually some of my favorite pages on other people's sites.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
probably
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
i'm not sure. if you asked me when i started on neocities i would have said i want my site to feel like serebii circa 2007 or the windows vista interface or the sonic riders menu screen. mostly now i just want my site to properly reflect 'me' i guess and hopefully also introduce some people to some cool not-so-popular things, like perfume oils, or certain fountain pen inks, or a hidden album or game.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
i do draw but i've been really bad about it in 2025. none of my assets are made by me.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?
i try to keep my resources somewhat minimal as i lately find myself more inspired by text-design and ascii-design that can be loaded on pretty much any browser and by any machine due to their universal nature. that said, i like mousecky's sozai directory and i especially like neck-doll.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
using float and center instead of flexbox or a div...
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
embrace the ease of simple html and CSS, very few oldweb sites looked as nice as you think they did. most of them featured simple center styling on a starry gif background with white highlight on black font to make the text readable. make it ugly, make it yours, keep it easy to update until you feel comfortable branching out--wouldn't it suck to never want to update your site because you can't remember what a div does?
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
some is hard-coded.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
i like them but i don't care about learning how to use iframes.
69. How about table-based layouts?
flexbox and grids are better aren't they?
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
my ideal is probably navbar on the left and content in the middle. however i prefer one-column and keeping all my links on a separate page so i don't have to update my navbar on every page every time i change it. yes i know there's workarounds for that but i would rather spend that time updating my site than learning how to do that.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
html
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
yes but i basically always end up adding a max-width rule and centering the content container at the very least.
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'm not nearly good enough at that to make layouts. but the broken code zone is supposed to be the space on my site for messing around with that sort of thing.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
beginner
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
i did at first when i had to learn how divs worked. now? basically not at all.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
most of the help came from sadgrl's resources as well as inspecting people's sites.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
probably??
78. Thoughts on floating elements?
i like them if i can still read the content...otherwise they're kind of annoying. i do miss page dolls though.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
usually em
80. Do you have a favourite font?
probably times new roman. it's a classic!
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
maybe if we had a very specific similar niche interest? i think a joint jfashion site ran by two people with two very different styles--say, a gal and someone who wears EGA--could be fun. that said i do all my jfashion stuff on this site already sooo it might just be redundant for me. but idk, now that i've said that i kind of want to do it...
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
since i don't use social media beyond tumblr, yep
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
i try to remember to put sites i want to visit again in /cool because i usually forget my bookmarks exist. i would be honored if someone bookmarked mine though!
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
my capacity to shill for umineko. jk. or am i. i want people to like my writing style the most i think. it's a skill i'm always trying to develop in some capacity even if i'm just rambling on my site.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
yeah, at the end of the day i love tech despite the direction it's going. i have quite a bit of tech for various purposes but the ones i use most beyond my daily driver laptop are my steam deck, my kobo ereader, and my lgv30 which i use as a music player. i have two other laptops for fun, my faves being a panasonic let's note and a T61 thinkpad, but they don't see much use.
86. How often and for how long are you online?
i wfh so basically all day until i clock out.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
people who i can bully into reading umineko. jk. i don't have a target audience. i'm positive most of my views are from me looking at my own site.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
no idea what this is tbh
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
nnnnnnope
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
11ty seems convenient but i don't feel compelled to learn how to use it. again, simple design makes html + css suitable for my needs.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
nnnnnnnnnnope they're usually inaccurate anyway + again most of my views are probably me.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
i love forums and wish they would become popular again. i go on a few for rp purposes but it's been a while since i felt compelled to check them. most forums i grew up visiting are gone by now.
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 usually do it directly in the editor but i've liked using the markdown plugin in notepad++ because it can export to HTML. i'm doing this one directly in the editor because mousecky provided an easy to use template.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?
at risk of sounding pretentious, i'm often told i'm cool, yeah. irl i have a quite deadpan disposition that tends to make me seem more closed-off and bored than i am, so i think people think i'm very individualistic and good at getting shit done without needing to rely on other people. thus, cool. i think i'm a little cool :-). not to the degree or for the reasons people often give me when i ask why they think i'm cool though lol
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
yeah; i almost never read old microblog posts. but i'd like to keep a running archive.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
i'd probably just delete it because i would have the local files so i could always make a new one and revisit it on my computer. that said i like reading old abandoned websites from the early days of the internet, i like how it feels like a digital haunting. so maybe i'd leave it up and just make a new site.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
i'm not really sure. i wouldn't say i particularly try to hide a lot but i try not to be too overshare-y. that said i often feel like i've said too much. regardless, a site is a good place for me to put things, as i don't particularly feel 'seen' (or ignored either).
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
neither of my best online friends have sites.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
i usually resize them at minimum; i'm getting better about using squoosh to compress images though.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
mostly hungry...i drank some houjicha for this and now i want a proper meal.