100 webmaster questions

Shellsharks did it and I think it was fun. So here we go:

1. Please introduce yourself.: I am Markus. As you might expect the owner of this site.
2. How long have you been making websites?: This website runs since 2001. But I can't really remember my first steps into setting up a website.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: I saw early weblogs like Schockwellenreiter, Dogfood from Kai Pahl and Jason Kottkes blog and I thought this is genuine use for a website.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Actually all that deliver information I am searching for. Well, as logn as they are open and free from ads
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: For my personal stuff I don not do any planning. It comes as it comes.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: There is no dedicated source of inspiration. Sometimes I try to search for sites which might resemble the idea I got on my mind. But I prefer to do it on my own. Even if it less thought-out.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: Every part. I enjoy creating a layout and doing backend stuff as well.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Javascript is the nastiest part of web development. For me at least.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: For this site there is are base templates which define head and feet including navigation and stuff. But inside the <main>-Tag things might be different from page to page.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Enough to do web development.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: Actually this is a definition list. Its this template.; And I am aware a <dt> might be followed by multiple <dd> :)
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: Oh, it's the fucking <details>-Tag. And <summary> of cause. I love it:)
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Look for a suitable domain. Even I know I wont finish most site I create. At the moment I have a pile of domains, I never really used and I forget to cancel, because maybe one day …
14. Do you know JavaScript?: Somewhat less than CSS.
15. How about PHP?: It’s part of my job. So yes, quite well.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: I tend to keep it minimal in design. The younger me used more graphics on this site. But I stopped doing so.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: On photos :)
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: Quite a few, as I already mentioned.; Depending on the TLD a domain is quite cheap to get. And there should be no hesitation to get one, if your desired name is still free.
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: Love them. I am following Classic Web on Mastodon (Cybercultural) to get my daily dose.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: Sometimes. From time to time I validate some pages. But later I do some change and it’s probably not validating any more.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: I don not care too much about.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Well, the same…
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: Starting all over with new content. I guess, I would prefer a real static site generator. And I guess, I would like to write the code in Rust. At the Moment I am using an on demand generator written in PHP. It serves the purpose but that does not count. Always move on to another thing. It’s part of the fun.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: I like other people’s websites. But why should I be envious?
25. What text editor do you use?: That strongly depends on the type of text I write. For PHP project it is mostly PHPStorm. For Rust and other code I torn between neovim and ZED.
26. Why do you use that one?: During a terminal session I quickly use neovim. For my small Rust projects I really enjoy using ZED. And PHPStorm is the best I could ever find for PHP project of any kind.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: Yes.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: I totally do not care.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: Well, no idea. Might be some space, because of photos.; I got curious and I looked it up: 17.360,00 MB. Less than expected.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: I work on local files, which are from a github repository. But no dedicated backup. I even deleted exported Jpeg images from Lightroom exports after they are uploaded.
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: Depends on the style. I like minimal sites but also enjoy visually stunning sites. As long as it is well done. But I dislike graphics without meaning. I don not see a reason for unrelated images in blogpost just to fill space.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: White and black/dark background and orange and green for accents are my current likings.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: No really. I took a break a coupl e of times. But always returned.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: You get to know people of cause. Especially in the early days when attending a few mailing lists. Today it’s more like getting to know other blogger. But these are by no means serious friendships.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Sure. The site is not a secret it is public.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: Almost daily, which is not uncommon for a blog.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: Rarely in the years. The design may receive some alignments here and there. But that’s all. I like it. It is clean and simple. And I have no idea in which way to change. I would rather create a whole new site with a different style.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: In the past it got more and more focussed on photography. There might be some anecdotes from my life, but strictly no personal stuff.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: It’s more about backend, but in a broader view, actually yes.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: Do not ever do web design or web development. It is a job straight out of hell. No, just joking. It’s even fun sometimes.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: Yes. I guess, I am still from a generation which is more used to writing longer emails with a real computer than writing short texts via instant messaging on a mobile device.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: Rarely these days. I aggregate my blog posts to mastodon. Sometimes I post photos on flickr and scrobble the music I am listening to last.fm.
43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?: I am actively using Telegram, Signal and iMessage. But sometimes I even ignore messages. I still prefer email as mentioned above.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: Yes, no way I am doing anything without music.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: There a more than this one.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: Although photos have a lot of space, there are other topics like music, tea or anything else.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: Yes.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: No. But I stay in touch with good and old friends.
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: I am happy with HTML and CSS and I enjoy any progress in both. But I dislike they way Javascript is used nowadays.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: Just avoid being a dick to others and the web.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Find you own topics. Do not jump on any train passing Kleinbloggistan.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: I know about the benefits and I try to use.
53. Do you consider different browsers?: I have Safari and Firefox. If web development with Safari would be more enjoyable I would probably skip Firefox. At least for my own stuff.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I mainly use Safari, because it is preinstalled and looks nice. But I won’t attend any religious war on which software to use. I would rather convince you to turn off your computer and go out and enjoy nature or people. Whatever you might prefer.
55. And what OS are you on?: macos
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: No, for me it is just the least painful option.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: Somehow I think. Although there a by far more mobile visitor, I sill consider mobile visitors and second class visitors. This is a photoblog. Use a fucking large screen! Seriously!
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: Depends on the context.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: Might be nice. Formerly I have been and I am still my other blog. In Germany these may evolve quickly to some type of association and then sometimes stupidity takes over.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: Well, no, I guess.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Not really.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: It should be unique. Not just in a visual way. I think content and design should go hand in hand. On my site I try to remove the design from the equation by keeping it minimal. And hopefully my mix of content is somewhat unique. If it is not, at least I like it:)
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: No.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: Maybe there are some in my bookmarks.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Sure. From time to time I attends some funny and rather long questionnaires. And I press the shutter too fast without thinking.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Apart from Selfhtml? Just do it, don’t overthink. I will probably say this about all aspects of life.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: Inline Style are a total no go. And I love it.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: Are we talking about archaeology now?
69. How about table-based layouts?: Seriously! That’s where the dinosaurs lived.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: When minimalism counts, one column is king.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: On CSS. Writing down HTML is quickly done. Keep in mind which elements will be displays and create the structure in a more or less semantic way. But styling takes a while.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: Not on purpose. But probably a few plain text files. And markdown of cause.
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?: Earlier when I started ,I tried out things. But that’s gone by today.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but after a good thirty years, “advanced” is probably the right word.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: Sometimes. But today I case less about the HTML and stuff. But about the backend which might be used. Especially on e-commerce sites.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: Selfhtml, mailinglists like I-Worker or Netzschule. Which both do not exists anymore.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: Talking of HTML elements? Actually not, I guess.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: I rarely use these days. When having flex and grid.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: Mostly I stay with to rem. Rarely % on font sizes.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: For website? No. On my editors and shell it is Hasklig.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: If it makes sense. But I would require the other person to use a versioning system.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Yes.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: Either bookmarking or preferably subscribing to an RSS feed if one exists. Every site should have some sort of feed to reflect the latest changes or show the latest content. If I follow the site over a longer period of time, I like to add the site to my blogroll.; Show me a person who doest not like to be linked or referenced. :)
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: The photography of cause. And the site, CMS and templates are handmade.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: Sure. I have always been in technological stuff. No matter if computers and peripherals, nice photography equipment or small and large Hifi gear.
86. How often and for how long are you online?: In a broader sense we are always online when having a mobile phone. But when talking about sitting in front of a computer screen. Too long and too often, stealing to much of my sleep.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: All people who are happy to see a new photo or smile about the silly stuff I write.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: When it came up, I enjoyed the strictness. Today nobody cares about it anymore.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Yes.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I like them. As I earlier explained: If i would stark over with this site I would surely write on for my personal use. I know, there are quite a few feature rich generators. But writing my own is part of the fun for this site.; I played around with Hugo. But never used it in a live-way.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: No.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: Not any more.
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?: Most of my text content is rather short and I use my CMS. But I tend to write longer ones with a dedicated editor. For this HTML text I use TextMate for example. I would use IA Writer if it would be markdown instead of HTML. And then copy&paste it to the CMS.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I am an adult person, I do not care about cool.
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: Not embarrassed, but sometimes strongly amused.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: I guess, it would exists as an archive.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: Not too much. I do not tend to post things about relatives and friend and to no extend about people very close to me.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: No
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: Some are converted to WebP. But not all. My CMS can automatically post to Flickr, but Flickr does not handle WebP. So there a quite a few high quality Jpeg on this site. Nobody cares about bandwidth anymore, when your device is connected with hundreds of Mbps.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Was done more quickly than I though in forehand.