Let's take a stroll down memory lane...!
It all started in 2005. I was an user on an online chat site, which allowed its members to make their own "homepage" when they'd been active enough. I was extremely into roleplaying wolves (which was a niche, but surprisingly big community on said chat site) and that was how it all began!
You only had one page to begin with, where you'd put all of your CSS or HTML codes. It was kind of difficult and messy, because its editor registered every line break as... well, a line break. And it wouldn't take every kind of code that you would try, so it was rather frustrating to create a page for yourself. At one point, I was very satisfied with what I'd created. It was a site about the character I roleplayed with some music playing in the background and some very edgy pictures. I wish I still had some screenshots of that site...
In 2007, one of my friends and I planned to create a roleplaying forum, focussing around stray dogs in Quebec, Canada. We eventually abandoned the project, but I still have some screenshots of it.
Coming November 2007, my ass!
That's how I wanted the website's layout to look like
Then, in spring 2009, I made a personal website. It was inspired by many websites that I was obsessed with during that time. The title was a reference to my fursona at that time, the blue canine which can be seen in the screenshot.
I remember that I regularly took photos of the view from my bedroom window and uploaded them. They only showed the neighbors garden...
Where I live today, you'd at least see a paddock and probably some horses.
The last time I really took time to code a website was in spring 2012. I think this was when I tried to make the site easy to navigate and to read. It was nothing special, but still, it was mine.
I am so confused who took this picture, because the screenshot indicates that it could have been me, but as far as I remember, the site was far better aligned on my bigger(?) screen.
Cue today!
It took me 11 years to finally make another website from scratch, but seeing my (almost finished) website makes me very satisfied.
I discovered neocities because I was bored, and learnt about an old web revival. When I realized, there are actual places/communities for old-school websites, like on neocities, I began to long for a new personal website, on which I can just express myself- especially by coding an entire online presence to my liking and on my own. I've never been a big fan of social media, and because they've proofed to be surprisingly unstable, I'm happy to finally own a new little refuge on the web now.
I took much inspiration from some websites that I was obsessed with in the mid '00s. Both of them were (more or less) reseda green websites which were - in my opinion - very pleasing to the eye and easy enough to read. This is very important for me, because my eyes aren't too good and I think, being able to read everything is an important part of making a website. :P
The first website that inspired me was about somebody's OCs and, as far as I know, vast background story/plot. I can't speak the language of the website and that's why I can only guess some things about the site. For some reason that I can't remember or understand, I was obsessed with it. The second website was about the life of somebody's dog, that has long since died. I think you can't even access internet archives of the latter's page anymore, because it made use of lots of Flash.