Lockheart Love ♡

Blog Post 12: MAKE THAT WEBSITE!!!

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Hello hello! I posted this on Tumblr, but I wanted to add it here to my website, since it's super long and it feels pretty relevant. I hope you enjoy!

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I feel like this might be a controversial take but I feel like everyone should have a website. Not the most controversial take on its own, but specifically, I feel like everyone should have a website REGARDLESS OF WHERE IT'S HOSTED OR IF THEY USED SITE BUILDERS. I see so many people putting the emphasis on coding it yourself, and while I agree in part, it's a pretty big barrier for people who are still new to the idea; I do NOT want that barrier stopping them from having their own spot on the internet!!

Now, don't get me wrong, I love hand-coded sites. I can ALWAYS see the love put into them and I know they'll last as long as the webmaster wants, regardless of how many social media platforms fall in that time. My own site is hand-coded, so of course I love them! Coding it yourself is great for preserving your site and avoiding censorship! I also think it gives the maximum amount of control and creative freedom, and it's really fun once you get the hang of it. I will ALWAYS encourage people to code their own sites, and I'll point them in the direction of layout builders, free coding courses, and pre-built layouts if they're having trouble. It's worth the time and effort to get past that learning curve.

However. Not everyone has the time or the willingness to learn that skill, not yet... But they can probably start somewhere else, somewhere simpler, and to them, I say DO IT.

If you have a carrd/strawpage/rentry, I will GLADLY look at it! In fact, I hope you have an 88x31 button available because if I like it, I will absolutely link it with all the other cool websites in my button wall, I DO NOT CARE THAT IT'S NOT ON NEOCITIES. I even anonymously gifted one of my mutuals a button for their strawpage because I desperately wanted to link it in my button wall, THAT'S how serious I am about this. I want to see YOUR site made how YOU want; if I'm looking at your art in a carrd gallery, I'm still looking at your art! I feel like making a website for yourself is something everyone should get to do, regardless of skill level.

I'll happily explore your wix/wordpress/blogger website! I'll enjoy my time looking at your google site/canva site/mmmpage! And by the way, I will LOVE looking around your custom tumblr theme, especially if there are custom pages! I want to see what you make!

Yes, most site-builders are very limited compared to what could be accomplished by coding it yourself, but they're also easier. I know there's the saying that inconvenience is counter-culture, but in a way, I don't want having a website to be counter-culture. I kind of want it to be... Culture? If culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, and behaviors that define a group of people, and everyone having their own website could genuinely make the internet good again, then why wouldn't we want that?

I'm begging you to make a website, and beggars can't be choosers. I'm not asking you to hand-code a perfect website that's professional and responsive and filled with complex animations, I'm just asking you to make a website.

Don't wanna code? Then don't! There are tons of website builders you could use and I've actually linked to a bunch of them in this post. Wanna code but don't know where to start? w3schools and MDN Web docs are great, and Mimo and Coddy are good if you want something more structured! Wanna code and know how to, but don't wanna deal with the initial layout? The sadgrl and petrapixel layout makers are both good, heavy on petrapixel if you want a repeatable layout. There are SO many ways to make a website, and I encourage you to do it in whatever way you want - the best way to do something is the way that you'll actually do, and that's never more true than it is with creative personal projects.

On a related note, I DO NOT care where you host your site, ESPECIALLY not if you hand-coded it. Neocities is popular, and I tend to talk about it most, but Nekoweb is cool too! Netlify is great if you want multiple sites, and Github Pages is good for projects! Leprd.space, pages.gay, yay.boo, ichi.city, they all have different purposes and they're all valid choices! (And notably, they're free to use!) Hell, if you decided to throw the zip for your site on itch.io, that's actually really cool and show me IMMEDIATELY. (I mean it, my asks are open.)

Frankly, the only time I'm gonna care is if I know FOR A FACT that your webhost is ripping you off, in which case, it's more about me warning you than judging you.

I'm not gonna force someone who has no interest in making a website to make one, and similarly, I'm not gonna force someone who wants to make a website to do it "the right way". I want as many people as possible to have websites, both because I enjoy it and think it would make the internet a better place, and because I know SO many people would love it if they gave it a shot.

If you're on the fence about whether or not to make a website, try surfing the web to see the possibilities, or messing around in a simple site-builder and seeing if it's something you'd like. If you're not all that interested, I'm surprised you've read this far, but I'd ask you to reconsider - Do you hate censorship? Want more customization for your social profiles? Want something with more pizzazz than a linktree? A website can be a solution to all of those issues.

Most of all, if you want to make a website, do it. I don't care much about how, just do it. Make that website you've been wanting to make. It'll be worth it ♡

- Bailey Lockheart (1/25/2025)