you've seen them. people who want to retvrn to the days where the web was young, wild and free, but don't want to be any of those things. at a maximum they have a strawpage with graphics stolen from windows xp, but no real creative vision. don't wanna be like them?
the main steps to putting your zine/fandom/poetry/life/excuses on the internet:find something interesting
are you part of a niche fandom? a cosplay group? a commune? the free internet is a great place for it. anything to avoid the dregs of facebook.find a place for it
neocities is the most popular, but kyle drake has recently learned to stop worrying and love the llm, so if you're principled, try to avoid it.nekoweb is an indie alternative that sprung up around neocities' heyday, but you still have to work through a graphical interface to use it, and that's not the webmaster's way i don't think.if you're cheap, find a pubnix near you. they're free, have theoretically unlimited space (as long as the webmaster puts another ssd in), a way to learn *nix, and an instant sense of community due to you sharing one box. the tildeverse has lots of great options.the holy grail, of course, is your own server. most people will be content with a vps, but if you don't want to be at the whims of whatever data center you're located in, i recommend making your own. if you have a spare computer, great. if you have (or can afford) a low-power sbc like a raspberry pi, even better. what's important is being able to get into the guts (digital of physical) of whatever you're working with and fix whatever niche bug you find.make some web pages
start locally. don't publish until you feel ready. but don't be a perfectionist, either. don't get an html editor. just don't.any text editor will work. i like vim. others might prefer emacs. most people are fine with nano. some people just say fuck it and use notepad. the fancee softwarez might help you in the short term but they'll be a crutch once you start to get better.just open your html file in your browser. don't save and quit with every marginal change. if something looks wrong, come back, edit some text, and ctrl-f5.learn html. just the basics for now.learn css, too. without it, your source might be sleek and easy to understand, but it won't look any better. raw html only gets you so far in terms of style.get some god damn graphics. it's not 1991 anymore, everyone has a desktop environment and can look at pictures online. 88x31 buttons. userbars. stamps.or just make your own.try to be easy on the eyes, though. you don't know if your readers are prone to epilepsy or wear glasses or just don't want to look at the 500 pictures of dogs you have laid out on your page.learn to search things you don't understand. if you want to do something, search "how to [do x thing] in [html or css or js or whatever you use]". or better yet...find a geek buddy
there's one in every discord server someone in your time zone (or with a bad sleep schedule) who'll let you call at odd hours of the night and help you figure out how to uplink a 21 pin SGA cable to your mainframe tachometeror just how to make your page work. the human element is the most important in a hobby such as this. the american flavor of individualism has instilled into people that help is the last thing you should be asking for, which is complete bullshit and will lead to the eventual downfall of the planet. people learn more at the side of another person than they do with a stack of books, fifty browser tabs and an underlying sense of dread.
put it on the web
for the gui hosting sites, it's easy. press upload. most of them have editors built in, so you could have made that whole thing in the site itself, but i caution against it for reasons i've already brought up.for the pubnixes and the servers, scp is your friend. read the manual, or ask your geek buddy to summarize.if you're actively working on the site, i highly suggest directly interfacing with your server through ssh. make the place home.in the command line, you won't have notepad or any of your gooey text editors, so familiarize yourself with the ones i mentioned.if your server doesn't have anything installed, then just do it yourself. sudo apt install [name of your program]. if your system is arch-based, you've already memorized the command by heart and i don't have to tell you what it is.the golden rule
drumroll please....keep your site updated with new and interesting things, and let people know about them
if you have nothing new to add, no one will revisit. if you have no one to tell about your site, no one will visit in the first place.neocities and nekoweb already have the telling covered with their proto-social medias. pubnixes have irc channels and discord servers where you can advertise your site. if you have a server, well, you do have friends, don't you? and those friends have friends too.i'm sure you can tell how this can spiral from here.
