Blog Post

1. Please introduce yourself.: Hiya, I'm Arrow, frequently known as internet user aroceu.
2. How long have you been making websites?: I cite my Geocities as my first one, which was in 2006 (2005 if we want to be accurate), so 19 years? But in terms of coding and designing websites, since 2008. So 17 years.
3. And what got you into the hobby?: My middle school bestie; I go into more depth here. Her and Quizilla custom profiles, really.
4. What kind of website are you most interested in?: Personal websites, particularly if there's a fannish and pseudonymous element. I like scoping around personal IRL websites too, but it can feel a little bit doxxy to my tastes - I want people to stay safe! Plus, there's a bit of an added challenge of being yourself without the IRL portion. That's what interests me the most. Content-wise I'm not picky, I just like to see people's individual uniqueness come through the things they make, share, and design.
5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?: Generally speaking, I like having a plan before working since without one, I can get lost in the sauce easily. I feel better when I have at least a semblance of an idea beforehand, so I can feel proud of myself when I bring it to life.
6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.: Back in the day my biggest inspiration was Georgie, but these days I'm really inspired by Mei and Rosemary. Through trawling Neocities sites recently, I've also fallen in love with Aid's and Joro's sites.
7. What's your favourite part about making websites?: The design and customization aspect, particularly when it comes to planning and writing CSS. I used to not have any aesthetic sense when I was younger, but now that I've significantly improved it's my favorite.
8. And the thing you struggle with the most?: Images and writing, funnily enough. I know what I write on my personal websites isn't necessarily to be forever, but my mentality has always kind of been that way. Plus my short attention span, so needing to write a lot of text for websites is one of my least favorite things. (But I do it anyway.) With images, I prefer using them functionally more than aesthetically, so ultimately I use them pretty sparingly. When it comes to blending and editing images there are way too many possibilities for my obsessive brain, so I feel more confident with the less images I depend on than more.
9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?: I notoriously love making each page different - hence my favorite part of making websites being designing them. I love making each page to look different, or at least reminiscent of an adjacent page. It also gives the visitor a different experience each time, and a different experience with me.
10. How confident are you with CSS?: Very.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?: I learned how to while doing this questionnaire :)
12. What is your favourite HTML element?: <p>. Paragraph breaks make things easier to read, despite my penchance for run-on sentences.
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?: Figure out its organizational layout, in terms of sidebar, main content, and navigation. Yesterday before redesigning my index page, I spent about thirty minutes staring into space thinking about layouts before deciding on the one I did, even if it is incredibly basic.
14. Do you know JavaScript?: I know how to read it, less so how to write it. But I know how the logic works, and I'm a pro-Googler.
15. How about PHP?: I'm better with PHP than Javascript, actually.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?: Yes and no (also, depending on what "stick to" means in this situation.) I like having a unified theme across all pages of a website - most of the time in my case, that theme being me. More specifically, I use the color blue a lot for sites/pages relevant to my online persona, with occasional exceptions to indicate something different, like my use of the color pink regarding things I like, not just attributed to me as a person. Red is my IRL color.
17. Are you more focused on content or design?: Design for sure, but I've always told myself that there's no point in a website without some content, whatever it is.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?: Yes, I own several haha
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?: They're cool! They're usually run by people passionate about that specific time period and aesthetic, and it's always neat to hear their perspective.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?: I don't check, and probably not. I often instinctively use depreciated code because it still technically works, and I don't really keep up with updates. One day I'll fix everything. Probably.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?: I love a button, as one may guess. To me, it's always been the first impression of a website before you even check it out. Same goes for banners.
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?: Take a wild guess.
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?: This is a weird question for me, because I actually already have a few times. I currently really like what I'm doing now with a lot more confidence than I ever have before, so I suppose i'll say something similar.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?: Yes and no. I envy other people's abilities, but not so much the outcome because I make my websites for me, and that's something only I know how to do. At worst or best I get inspired, but I don't really get jealous because I still like my own abilities and interests :)
25. What text editor do you use?: I switched to Visual Studio Code last year. I also use the cPanel text editor and Github when I'm at work (lol).
26. Why do you use that one?: VSCode helps me navigate, create, and organize files/folders directly in the project without me needing to switch screens/windows/applications, which had been an annoyance until I switched to it.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?: Both, depending. I don't really want to depend on other hosts, but at the same time I currently have shared hosting. Maybe one day when I can host myself I'll host all my images ever.
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?: People can use whatever they want based on what's important to them.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?: Well, I know this one haha. aroceu.com takes up 1.3gb, mostly because I have two WordPress sections (fic and projects) and two other image-heavy ones (splatoon and gifts).
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?: Yes, most of the time my files exist locally before I upload them online (with a few exceptions.)
31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?: Highly visual ones. I think of webdesign artistically, so I suppose it's no wonder.
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?: Yes, for sure. Blue, red/pink, white, grey, and black are my go-tos; I talk about my relationship with colors at length here. Blue represents my interior while red/pink represents my exterior, and white/grey/black will always be a good choice, IMO, no matter what; colors are more of a challenge to me. If I need a light colorful accent, I favor yellows/creams/oranges. I use green and purple less often, relatively speaking, but if my vision calls for it then I won't hesitate.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?: When I was less secure about my presence and identity online back in the late 2010s, I did think about quitting. It was the "content" element that was messing with my head - I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to share, much less make a website out of back then.; But really what I needed was inspiration, and in the past 14 months I've gotten a lot of it. So I don't think I'll be quitting anytime soon :)
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?: Both, again. I've been actively trying to encourage people to make websites, and I try to make friends with webmasters I respect/admire. At the same time, it's always been a really solitary hobby for me because it's ultimately self-indulgent, and I don't really have a lot of webmaster friends, I feel. But I do have more these days than I did before.
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?: Yes and no...? Haha. My family knows I like making websites, but they aren't curious and I don't really link it to them (except for my Duke shrine; my mom asked me to make a shrine for my brother's dog as well.) My real life friends do, but mostly because my real life friends are largely also internet friends.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?: This one is hard to answer, because I got back into the hobby about a year ago, and I've been updating them very frequently since then, at least once a month for the past 14 months. My biggest gap so far is actually my most recent one, since the middle of September, but, uh, I was doing other website stuff still. Before this hyperfixation re-emergence, I updated really sparingly, only if I felt like there was something to update. But I also didn't have much to work with before. I'm kinda curious to see how my habits will change, following this hyperfixation (which is only kind of weaning off...)
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?: I used to change my designs way too frequently (once every month or few months), so I've been making an active effort to make designs that are so functional dependent and aesethetically simple (and pleasing) that I don't want to change them. I think it's been working. I recently changed my index page, but that's after almost two years.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?: Me and my hobbies-focused. See my answer to #4.
39. Do you do web design professionally?: No, but I did make a professional website/resume in lieu of a LinkedIn.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?: No, though I considered it at one point. I discarded the thought once I intellectualized that it's something that I want to do for fun, at my own pace, and without the expectations of anyone other than myself. I do data entry and accounting for work.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?: Not frequently, though I can.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?: Well, I did just write a blog post about this.
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 whatever my friends (and family) are on.
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?: With the design portion, yes. I like listening to pop and anything I can sing along to while I work.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?: I have many. To name a few.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?: I like each site being "focused," though what that means is how my brain feels about what is on what site. My Pokémon site, of course, is completely centralized to my entire relationship with Pokémon. Both aroceu.com and kingdra.net are personal in a way, but aroceu.com is a more accessible presentation of myself, whereas kingdra.net is more like an internet me-dump, aka my brain. My other sites operate similarly in terms of having a specific function for me, as the webmaster.
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?: I suppose I'd describe myself online as a persona of my real self, but mostly in the sense that there would be no way to truly capture the totality of my human being in website-form. Arrow/"aroceu" as a username is a persona in my mind that I do try to be relatively consistent with, but at the same time, is still me.; I can talk about this more philosophically, but then I'd just start yapping about perceiving and being perceived, the idea of celebrity and authenticity, and RPF.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?: I've made a few decent friends recently through bonding over websites. I would say they have been good friends :)
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?: Yes, because it's what I learned when I was younger and I haven't really had to learn anything new systematically.
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?: I don't really have an answer for this one, because I think people should try whatever works for them. And I'm hardly one to give advice against bad practice.
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?: Design unique pages to display your content in a functional and dynamic way, but this is a very me thing. Get inspiration from other people that you may feel like you're copying their initial idea, but transforming it to fit your needs and preferences instead. Browse through people's button walls, and then browse through those people's button walls, and click on every link, discover something new. And write in guestbooks. But that's mostly as a reminder to myself.
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?: A mix of both; I try to favor semantic HTML, but I grew up on <div>s, so I suppose it's my safe space.
53. Do you consider different browsers?: Yes, because I use all of the main browsers across my personal and work life.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.: I'm not here to convince anyone to do anything, because I kind of know the downsides of most of them. The big four are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge/IE. But Chrome is owned by Google and tracks your data across browsers/YouTube/other Google devices, Firefox is slow and janky in the back, Edge/IE is...what it is, and Safari isn't as customizable, though it does have nice developer tools. I think Chrome and Safari are best for speed, but I use Firefox the most on principle despite its jankiness.
55. And what OS are you on?: My personal computer is a Mac.
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?: Macs suit me best; I've known this since I was incredibly young, because my elementary school had both Macs and PCs and I knew I preferred Macs a lot more. I'm a minimalist, what can I say. My very first computer was a PC, and every computer afterward has been a Mac.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?: For the most part, yes, with a few deliberate exceptions.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?: I don't like it, and I avoid linking to sites with it. My bestie who initially got me into website-making had it all the time, and it annoyed the shit out of me every time I visited her site. I had to put my computer on mute to browse. I don't care if other people use it because I can't tell them what to do, but I personally would rather not get jumpscared (or jumpscare others) with unexpected sounds when visiting a site.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?: Webrings are so old school that I thought I missed the trend, but with the indie web resurgence now I know I haven't! I've joined a few (some separate across my sites, depending on the purpose of the webring), and I even maintain one.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?: Generally speaking, yes, though my beef with web shrines has always circled back to my personal issue with not liking writing a lot of longform text about my personal feelings or interpretations; I'd rather that come out through my fanfiction. Instead, I want my "shrines" are to have some use to me; for example, my Duke shrine is a summary of things about him that I could easily forget if I didn't write it all down, and my South Park "shrine" is an organization of episodes I can return to when I feel like rewatching for whatever reason. I like browsing other people's web shrines, but mostly for the designs - I don't really read them in the same way I don't like writing them.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?: Definitely not, I think. My entire motivation to make websites is to be somewhat original (while taking inspiration from others, of course) so I intentionally try to make them not cliche.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?: My ideal website is a sprawling network of webpages that all tie back to the webmaster in some way. And I strived for it - I feel like I've achieved it, though it's not like I'm done. But I'm a humanist at heart, and that leaks into what I value about websites.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?: Not really, though these days I technically can. But that's a skill I have to practice more.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?: I usually use resource sites for backgrounds; eggnored and this list of backgrounds are my go-tos. Salvaged.nu also has a lot of old-school resources from sites I used to browse back in the day, namely skylineillusions.net and 99mockingbirds.
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?: Updating and refreshing incrementally directly online, instead of testing locally first. This used to be a lot worse, so I'm technically better at it now. But it's certainly still a habit I have.
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?: Don't be afraid to do things wrong and make mistakes; learn at your own pace and in the way you do best. I know my initial method of learning is generally frowned upon, but I don't really care because I wasn't learning in order to be a good person, I was learning to learn. We're all different people who need to start somewhere, particularly when we're young.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?: I keep most of my styling in CSS. If I hard code any of it, it has to be for a specific reason. I'm not opposed, but it is easier keeping track of all the rules in one place.
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?: I don't use them. But I could :thinking:
69. How about table-based layouts?: We're in 2025, so we should be using table-based layouts sparingly. However, I do think they can have their uses.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?: Yes and no? I think column layouts are the most intuitive way for visitors to read and comprehend content, and I favor them because they're just easier to navigationally understand. Still, I'm a fan of breaking the rules, especially on purpose.
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?: HTML because it gets updated the most frequently, technically. I wish I could spend most of my time in CSS, but even on static sites I spend a lot more time working on the content, while writing the CSS is more of a reward to me because I have so much fun that it breezes by.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.: I did for a brief stint in 2024 (prior to the resurgence of my hyperfixation), and I agree that it's useful for my thoughts. However, at this point in time I've become an aesthetic bitch.
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 do this a lot, actually; this is how I got into webdesign in the first place. However, I don't really do it anymore and I don't want to, because these days I prefer the challenge of coming up with web content so I can make a layout for it.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?: Well, it's been 17 years, so I'd say advanced. But that's mostly in terms of my resourcefulness and quickness at picking up new concepts, because it's not like I know everything. I mean, I just learned about flexboxes last year.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?: For sure. Sometimes I entertain myself thinking about the specific webmaster typing out all the things in the code.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?: Stealing code, trial and error, my addiction to design more than coding, and a general stubbornness of my desires over my attention span and capabilities.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?: Not really anymore. If I have, it's usually a mistake.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?: I used to use floating elements a lot before I learned about flexboxes. I still do, actually, though I'm trying to be logistically smarter. But, like I always say, they have their uses.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?: px if the image is part of the body content, em if the image is relative to the design/screen, % if its size is relative to its container or other content.
80. Do you have a favourite font?: My technical favorite font is Never Let Go, or anything similarly cursive-handwriting, like Cookie and Rochester, which are Google Fonts I use on my sites. I have a favorite font of every font style so I can default to them if I don't have another one in mind. Century Gothic is my favorite sans-serif, Georgia/Playfair Display is my favorite serif, and Inconsolata is my favorite monospace.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?: I wouldn't say no, but it depends. I've rattled the idea around with a few people, but neither of us cared enough to consistently follow up (or pressure the other into caring more.)
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?: Not super often because it sucks up my time, but every once in a while I dedicate a day or a weekend to. I hyperfixate on it, as I do with most things.
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?: Yes, and my button wall also serves as a list of bookmarks in this sense. I'd be flattered if someone bookmarked mine.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?: My creativity with pages/content, vast breadth of interests, and general personalization. It's why I do this, after all.
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?: Yes, I'm very tech-brained. I don't really collect, but I am on my devices all the time.
86. How often and for how long are you online?
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?: Me! And people with similar interests or values as me.
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?: For a moment in time, but I lost interest and HTML5 is much more efficient.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?: Yes, I studied Computer Science for a bit and I know some C/C++/C#/Java. I started teaching myself Python at one point, but I got lazy. When I was studying CS, my favorite project was building a library database in C++.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?: I think they're cool, but not for me. My brain is too raw code pilled, but I've watched some tutorials and played around a little bit to write a guide on NPM.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?: No, I have anxiety.
92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?: I'm on 32bitcafe and Melonland, but I don't frequent them. Mostly because I periodically forget they exist. I'm also in the Fancoders Discord server, but I have the same issue there, too.
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?: Directly into the editor, always.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?: I don't think I appear cool, but I've been told I am before, so!
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?: Yes, and yes. This was early/mid 2010s me, haha.
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?: No, I like having a part of me - even in website format - to exist for other people to perhaps stumble upon one day. We all die once, there's no shame in evidence of my existence.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?: I reveal a lot about the inner workings of my brain, but I try to keep concrete details to a minimum so my material day-to-day life isn't affected. Ultimately, everything I share online/on my websites is voluntary, so I choose carefully what parts of me I want to reveal and contribute to the wider picture of who I am.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?: My best online friend is i.; we've been yapping nearly every day to each other for the past 9 years.
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?: Sometimes, but usually no.
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.: Pretty good, if I do say so myself! I wanted to finish this before leaving work, and, well, I have, even though I've alrady clocked out.