Based on mouseling
- 1. Please introduce yourself.
- My name's Ben, I run bensect.space and I like bugs, biology, art, selfhosting, and digital media preservation.
- 2. How long have you been making websites?
- I first started this website on Neocities sometime in late 2021/early 2022 in the middle of my freshman year of college.
- 3. And what got you into the hobby?
- It was a bunch of different factors but I think one of the more impactful ones was a post that Bogleech made on Tumblr about how making a website is really easy including a simple HTML template based on how he designs the pages on his own site. The first draft of the main page of my site was based on that template.
- 4. What kind of website are you most interested in?
- I like it when people make websites that are dedicated to one specific niche thing they're interested in and put a lot of effort into including everything they possibly can about that thing. I also really like visual maximalism in web design and "cluttered" layouts that are somewhat collage-like.
- 5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?
- I have a set of templates that I've made for the basics of how different kinds of pages are structured but I often make significant visual changes to make each page unique as I go along as part of the creative process.
- 6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
- I don't know if I could name any specific sites as being inspirational over others but there are aspects that I like on a lot of sites that I often emulate. I'm always looking for inspiration.
- 7. What's your favourite part about making websites?
- Looking at a finished page that I'm proud of and thinking "I made this and it's online for everyone to see my work".
- 8. And the thing you struggle with the most?
- Figuring out how to execute my ideas for how a page should visually look through trial and error with HTML/CSS, especially when it's more complicated.
- 9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
- I have a few different layouts for different types of pages but within pages of the same type there's not a lot of significant changes in layout. I feel like this keeps things visually consistent and not too confusing to navigate. All the "core" pages on my site have the same layout with the same sidebars and everything. That's all manually copied over and has to be updated whenever I change something because I haven't figured out a better way to do it.
- 10. How confident are you with CSS?
- Ehh... decently? I have a few things that I definitely know how to do but I still have to look stuff up a lot.
- 11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
- I've literally never seen it before this list template.
- 12. What is your favourite HTML element?
- div.
- 13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
- Decide what kind of page it is and what skeleton it should use.
- 14. Do you know JavaScript?
- Nope. All the JS on my site is copied from some kind of tutorial.
- 15. How about PHP?
- Never used it.
- 16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
- Bugs!
- 17. Are you more focused on content or design?
- Probably content but not by a very wide margin.
- 18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
- Yes.
- 19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
- Depends on what you mean by "retro". If you mean static HTML sites that end up looking like they're from the 90s just by consequence of being static HTML they're great. I'm not that much of a fan of deliberate nostalgia trying to call to mind a specific era through a site's content though.
- 20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
- I don't actually even know what that means.
- 21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
- Love them and love collecting them.
- 22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
- It's a compact way of presenting a lot of links to other people's sites but I prefer to provide at least a sentence of context for why I'm linking a site so I don't personally have one. I do have blinkie and stamp and userbox walls though.
- 23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
- Probably somewhat similar because my interests wouldn't have changed.
- 24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
- I am envious mostly of people who have successfully achieved a maximalist collage look because that's what I would like to do.
- 25. What text editor do you use?
- VSCodium for the actual files on the server and Obsidian for writing the content of my articles before I paste it onto the HTML file.
- 26. Why do you use that one?
- I was using VSCode before I switched to Linux and then I wanted to go with the open source version.
- 27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
- On my web server because I like having control over the files and knowing that they won't go down.
- 28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
- I have no idea what that is.
- 29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
- I self host so I know it's exactly 133.5 MB as of writing this.
- 30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
- The site itself is local. It runs on a 2013 PC tower on the floor of my bedroom. I should probably have another backup though.
- 31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
- Definitely highly visual.
- 32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
- Lots of green. It's on purpose because I like green.
- 33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
- No, I don't know why I would. I go through periods of not feeling inspired so I don't do much with it but I would never just take the site down.
- 34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
- Some, yeah.
- 35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
- A few people.
- 36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
- At least a few times a month. But honestly I feel like it's fine for a website to not be "updated" because this is not social media and a website can be considered to be a complete work whenever the person running it chooses.
- 37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
- Not really because I both don't want to and am lazy and that would be a lot of work with little benefit.
- 38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
- Me-focused and hobby-focused.
- 39. Do you do web design professionally?
- No, I have no coding background and no formal education in it.
- 40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?
- No, this is just a hobby for me. I have a specialized art degree but right now I work retail (as of March 2026).
- 41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
- Not really but it would be cool.
- 42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
- I do.
- 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 and Matrix.
- 44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
- I listen to music almost all the time I'm on the computer and a lot of different artists and genres.
- 45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
- Just one website.
- 46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
- It's meant to be a reflection of all my interests so it's a lot of different topics.
- 47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
- I dunno man I just use it to express myself.
- 48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
- Not strictly just due to the website itself but I have bonded with people over it.
- 49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
- Yeah it's fine.
- 50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
- The biggest gripe I have with other people's web design is eyestrainy/bad contrast between text and backgrounds.
- 51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
- I think there should be greater awareness of web accessibility practices in the indie web scene.
- 52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
- I have no idea what this means.
- 53. Do you consider different browsers?
- I guess? I'm not really aware of any common elements that would present issues on different browsers but maybe that's just my ignorance.
- 54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
- Firefox. It's the least bad.
- 55. And what OS are you on?
- Linux Mint.
- 56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
- Yes, I love Linux. I like bothering my friends to try to get them to switch.
- 57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
- Not really.
- 58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
- Ugh. I'm not really a fan. I don't like being jumpscared by random music or what have you.
- 59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
- They're fun, I'm in a few because I feel like it helps people with similar interests to find my site which they might enjoy based on those interests.
- 60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
- Yes, I have several. I like when people make shrines for topics, media, or characters that they really like, the more niche the better. I also like when the web design for that page is themed for the topic.
- 61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
- I don't know what would be considered cliche in terms of indie websites.
- 62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
- The website is a living document that will by its nature change over its life and I don't think I'll ever consider my website complete. I don't know if I could say there's a thing that I want it to be at the end of some process because the process will never end.
- 63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
- Yes, a good number of the assets on my site are handmade by me. This includes the title banner, the navigation buttons, and the social icons.
- 64. What are your favourite resource sites?
- I like to go through lots of people's resource pages but I don't know if I would say I have any specific favorites.
- 65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
- I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.
- 66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
- Just do whatever you want and express yourself. Your personal style will coalesce over time, don't stress about it.
- 67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
- The main stuff that will get reused frequently is in CSS but I will add style segments to small pieces when it's a one-off or only on a single page and/or I'm feeling lazy.
- 68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
- I don't know what that is.
- 69. How about table-based layouts?
- I don't know what that is either. My opinions on layouts are entirely dependent on how the website looks as a whole in terms of design and whether it works or doesn't depending on that.
- 70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
- My main pages have a three column layout. I think different layouts have utilities for different purposes or design ideas.
- 71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
- Definitely the HTML. My CSS is kind of "set it and forget it".
- 72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
- Yes at the beginning but I didn't like how it looked.
- 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 really only make layouts when necessary.
- 74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
- I'm really not sure because I don't have any education in web design and all my knowledge is a mix of trial and error and frankensteined bits of tutorials, templates, and other people's sites. I guess somewhere in the middle, probably.
- 75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
- Sometimes if I want to know how they did something that I want to implement on my own site. Not all the time.
- 76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
- Playing around with HTML and doing a lot of googling until it looked good, and then doing it again.
- 77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
- Sometimes...
- 78. Thoughts on floating elements?
- I'm not sure if this is what this question is asking but I like making virtual collages with images pasted all over the place.
- 79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
- Usually px but that's probably a habit I should get out of because it means the layout is very specific to my monitor.
- 80. Do you have a favourite font?
- I like the main font my site uses but I forgot what it's called and I think it's from a template I was using at some point.
- 81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
- Sure, but I'm not really sure how that would work either. I guess maybe with some kind of git commit- esque system where people could make edits on their own copies that can then be pushed to the server?
- 82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
- Yes, very often.
- 83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
- Not in my browser bookmarks but I keep a list of links to other people's sites I think are cool on a dedicated links page and I like being in other people's link lists.
- 84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
- Probably my writing in my articles and the site's general visual style.
- 85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
- Yes, I like playing with old computers and doing weird things with them/watching videos of other people doing things like that.
- 86. How often and for how long are you online?
- Very often and very long.
- 87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
- Gay nerds.
- 88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
- I don't know what that is.
- 89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
- No, I don't really do any programming other than amateur webdev.
- 90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
- They seem cool for the purpose of making simple websites with a clean look where the main focus is the content but I've not used one because I feel like they're not really suited for what I'm trying to do with my site.
- 91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
- No because I can't be assed and also don't want to add any kind of metrics to my site because I know I would get fixated on it in an unhealthy way.
- 92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
- No but I should.
- 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?
- Article text content gets written in Obsidian and then pasted into the HTML but other page stuff gets written directly into the HTML file on the server.
- 94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?
- Man I don't know. Maybe.
- 95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
- No but the site has gone through at least one major redesign.
- 96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
- Definitely leave it up because I have no idea why I would want to take it down.
- 97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
- In terms of my interests yes but in terms of my personal life no mainly because of internet safety privacy reasons.
- 98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
- They don't but I've been trying to get them to make one. And we met in real life first as teenagers.
- 99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
- No because it's my server and I don't care. I'll optimize them if I need to at some point but considering the server also has an entire Jellyfin library on it I'm not concerned.
- 100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
- I like talking about myself so I enjoyed this.
