Contact
Like many other people on the internet nowadays, I have email! You can email me at k [at] kalechips [dot] net, and here's my PGP key (more information on PGP keys). Alternatively, you can publish a comment in the guestbook below.
If you want your own guestbook like this, my code is available for public use!
hey! you suggested teacake hosting for a good hosting service, but signups for every plan seem to be closed/out of stock, are there any other hosts youd recommend?
Thanks for letting me know - I had no idea! I'm pleased to see it so successful - reseller plans are expensive as hell and the owner is paying it out of pocket, so it's good to see they're recovering some of those costs. I hesitate to recommend things I haven't used (mainly so I don't wake up to pitchforks if something I mentioned ends up being shitty), but I put together a list on the web hosts page for you and anyone else who's looking.
thank you for the thoughtful reply! i really appreciate it. i've de-anonymized myself and i'll likely email for any further advice - i just thought it'd be nice to send a follow up for anyone else who might be curious abt the topic.
you were right, i'm using neocities; i was really attracted to its social aspect & casual, hobbyist feel. it's sad to know i won't be able to achieve the efficiency i'd like here, but i think i'll take your suggestion and use my account to redirect to a main site hosted elsewhere. i also embarked on a hugo crash course in the day between my question & your response, so we'll see where that goes.
i have one last big question: what exactly is up with iframes? i've used them but disliked how i couldn't figure out how they worked. like i get the concept, but i don't know what it is they're doing in the code/server/??? to achieve that, or why experienced web designers tend to dislike them.
I'll be sure to keep tabs on your progress, and for sure feel free to email if you'd like to pick my brain for any reason.
On the topic of iframes, they're a tool, and there's nothing inherently wrong with them. On a base level, what they do is load a webpage inside of another webpage. There's nothing else happening on your end at that point - the iframe basically just tells the browser to load another webpage in the space that you've designated. There are perfectly good reasons to use iframes. If you want to put, say, a chatbox or a weather widget on your website, it makes much more sense to embed a website that already does those things onto yours (unless you really want to code those by yourself, which I doubt).
They're also not necessarily bad if you build your website around them. It's not ideal, but if you're stuck with plain HTML, I would prefer a lightweight website built with iframes to the Javascript hell that I mentioned in my previous response. The main reason most web designers don't like them for that purpose is because it's not what they were made for, and they make your website kind of clunky to use (especially if you end up in a nested scrollbar situation). Overuse of iframes is also an accessibility nightmare because they're cumbersome for screen readers to navigate, and you're also just forcing your browser to load a bunch of pages in one.
I've read your blog posts about indie web (and the posts that you link, like "Nostalgiamining vs Forging the Future") and they gave me a lot to think about and worded some feelings I've had for a while but haven't seen anyone talk about.
I hate social media but I'm also weary of this obsession with going back in time ("retro web", "yesterweb" etc.) instead of forward, and of the complete oblivion to the fact that in a lot of ways Neocities is exactly like social media - it's slower atm because there are fewer users but the dopamine mechanics of likes, follower counts etc. are all there. I saw someone in your guestbook talk about "weird twitter like popularity contest" and I'm wondering what that's referring to because I would love to hear your thoughts on it!
Hi! Thanks for writing! "Obsession with going back in time" is how I feel about the current state of discourse as well, and I think it's a shame that people aren't more invested in building something better instead of uncritically worshipping the past. There are good things about what the internet used to be like, but a lot of it was complete garbage that should be nuked into oblivion.
As for the "popularity contest" thing, I have no idea what's being referred to specifically. I live under a rock and never look at Neocities outside of updating my mirror and occasionally checking up on acquaintances!
Philosophically, I think the desire for followers and fake internet popularity points in general has definitely saddled Neocities with the same problems that most of its users say they're trying to get away from. The way the interface emphasizes followers, pageviews, likes, etc reads pretty disingenuous, considering its entire marketing identity is that it's not like other girls websites.
hello! i've casually admired your site from afar for a while and finally got around to trying to make one myself - i'd like to ask, how do you go about stuff like adding new sheets to your styleswitcher div/changing your navigation div, and having that change apply to all your pages without using iframes or going insane (manually pasting it across all pages)?
this feels like one of those super basic questions but nobody on the internet is answering it for me besides making me feel like i should look into static site generators, which ii'd rather not do if possible
Hello and congratulations on your new web project! I had to write an entire separate post about this because my answer got comically long-winded. Keep me posted!
I love your new guestbook, it's so sleek and I love that you reply to messages! I was wondering how you're hosting it since neocities are static - are you using an external provider?
P.S. Your themes are so inspirational!
Thank you very much, I'm flattered! So, this answer might be a little disappointing, but this website actually isn't hosted by Neocities - I maintain a mirror there for Exposure™, but all it does is redirect here, which is hosted on a server that supports PHP. However, what I did prior to implementing the PHP stuff was use an external provider (Formspree) to beam the form input to my email, then I would add them to the page manually. It's tedious, but if you really want full control over your guestbook presentation on a static webpage, it's pretty hard to beat.
Testing new gb! Using the solanum theme now
Thanks for always being my new feature guinea pig!
hi, i appreciate your mobile accessibility post so much! this reluctance to make pages usable on mobile was one of the first things i noticed in this space, and where i knew i disagreed from the start. i'm a ux designer and i know just how many people don't have access to a desktop computer anymore.
Thank you for the message! I really hope a lot of the attitude boils down to ignorance and not malice, but maybe I'm being too optimistic? In any case, I do feel like I've seen a modest increase in people at least putting mobile compatibility on their to-do list (entirely anecdotal, but maybe it is a sign of a larger trend. I hope so!)
Thanks for your little microblog mentioning camel crickets; I've spent a good chunk of time thinking all these little guys that hang out in my basement wander in by mistake and then get trapped there (and then subsequently feeling bad that I'm not dexterous enough to catch and let them go outside). Nice to know they're actually just hanging out!
I'm happy to hear I could help with your cricket guilt! They're just little guys hanging out.
i love how readable ur web layout is + your art is amazing!!!! farah is absolutely adorable. i love her isopod form <3 i also borrowed the little grid snippet from ur snippet page... it's so helpful... thank u for putting that one up ;_;
Farah will be thrilled to find out she has fans. I love your art too!
You're absolutely right about the weird twitter like popularity contest thing in regards to the neocities community. I've been thinking of leaving the platform because of that as well honestly, I feel like I'm too old to be there. And also to have an actual back-end lol. I've added your rss feed and I'm looking forwards to your updates as always!
Yay, someone's using my RSS feed! I definitely recommend checking out another host if you feel constrained by Neocities. There are a lot of good free options out there if you're willing to do some weeding.