Getting Started With Your Own Personal Website

[Maypews]

The intention of this thread will to be to help newcomers who are interested in making a website with resources and tips. The thread will also be malleable; if you want to add a resource to the list, please post it as a reply and I will edit it into the OP!

A lot of people who have websites now started from nothing; this is a camp I would fall under. Though I did have a dinky Wordpress blog back in 2012, it was mostly just a bunch of images thrown together without any real coherency. Having always been interested in having a site thanks to the inspiration of browsing fansites back in the day, I tried again in 2021 starting from scratch with no HTML knowledge and I was able to get a pretty presentable look out in just a few days' time.


An early version of my site

HTML is not hard to learn, and I would suggest starting out with a table layout because they're pretty easy to work with. But I think it's also important to remember that your site doesn't need to be some 10/10 flashbang art project or whatever with the goal of appearing on the Neocities front page. Your personal site should always be for yourself, don't worry about what others think of it; this is something I struggled with early on.

If you don't feel comfortable diving straight into HTML you can also use templates and modify them. If you have an issue with your code that you can't figure out, looking up a search query and then appending "stack overflow" to it will often heed results. On to the resources now.

CODING HELP/RESOURCES
W3Schools

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A great website for learning, includes simple and easy to understand articles on almost anything HTML. If you're just starting out and are set on making your own design, reading through all of the articles here is a great starting point.

Interneting Is Hard

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I admittedly have not looked through this one a ton, but it seems to have web design tutorials. Focuses a lot on the "why" of how things work, as opposed to W3 which is kind of more of a wiki.

StackOverflow

This is sort of like Yahoo Answers but for programming. HTML questions are just one of the many things it covers. As mentioned earlier, if you can't figure something out appending "stackoverflow" to your search query is a nice trick to use.

HOSTS
This section will mostly focus on smaller/more indie hosts. If you want to selfhost VPSes are the most popular option, with Vultr, Hetzner and Digital Ocean being among some of the most common ones. For registrars, Porkbun and Namecheap are decent options that don't require a lot of verification, though I've heard the latter has engaged in some pricehikes recently.

Neocities

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Neocities is the most popular free webhost out there. It's a spiritual successor to Geocities that launched way back in 2013. The site is primarily aimed at static HTML/CSS websites, though it does have support for Javascript at well. It lacks backends, so if you are wanting to work with PHP this probably isn't what you want; I would not recommend messing with that stuff right out of the gate though. Generally has a good track record of not engaging in censorship, though it did recently come under fire for a few questionable incidents on this front over the last year or two.

Nekoweb

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Nekoweb is a sort of competitor to Neocities that was made by Neocities users. I don't know much about this one, but it has a nice look to it and I know that some have moved to it after experiencing issues with Neocities. Also a free, static webhost.

Leprd.Space

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Free webhost that offers premium features such as backend/php support and a nice, comfortable CPanel interface for those who are not as technically inclined. Amazing if you're looking to move from a static website to working with backends and PHP, allows you to focus straight on that instead of having to fuck with a server configuration. Well-known for hosting lots of fanlisting collectives that run on the Enthusiast script, and has been doing so for a decade now. The only catch is that if you want to get on, you have to catch the stock when it's available, and rest assured it's usually out of stock.

Teacake

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Teacake is another webhost aimed specifically at smaller websites that offers a free option, though it has paid options as well. Though I have no experience with it at the moment, it seems to work similarly to Leprd. Also has a stock system, though the paid plans tend to have much more availability than Leprd's from what I remember. A good option if you want a nice, simple setup with all of the bells and whistles such as Softaculous.

Resources by Deluoode members!
@capstasher's 88x31 Button Archive
@Amlux's HTML Tutorial

Other resources -
Sadgrl Layout Builder
Celestial Star (use internet archive to view and download the layouts/other assets)
Gifcities
Hekate (includes many things, such as an 88x31 button maker and layout builder)
Accessible Net Directory
The Cozy Cat's Resources Page
Status.Cafe (can be embedded into your website)
iMood (can be embedded into your site)
Web Badges World
Onion Ring (simple webring script)
Zonelets (simple static HTML blogs)
Brisrays' Webring List
Linklane (Web directory for small websites)
Fanatically (new fanlisting script)
Atabook - free guestbook host
PhpBB.com (Great support forums if you're troubleshooting something on your forum)
Bravenet Forms (useful alternative to php for hosting a fanlisting)
CBox (free chat widget)
Komments (free comment widget)


Conclusion
Hopefully all of this can help get you started on making a personal website if you're interested in doing so. If you have any questions or the like, feel free to ask in this thread. Don't worry if it's a "stupid" question or not, we all had to start somewhere.

[Amlux]

Not to shill but I made a very rudimentary intro to HTML on my site, assuming that the reader is a complete beginner to this sort of thing: https://pantsuprophet.xyz/technology/ma ... bsite.html

Of course, I know very little compared to many others. My meager tutorial is nothing you can't get which is 1000x better on W3Schools, but sometimes hearing it from someone you already follow makes it easier to get invested in. So I just want to teach some very basics.

I'm going to make ones about basic command line/Unix fluency and then using Vim eventually to follow it.

I want everyone to make a site even if it's dirty.

[Maypews]

Not to shill but I made a very rudimentary intro to HTML on my site, assuming that the reader is a complete beginner to this sort of thing: https://pantsuprophet.xyz/technology/ma ... bsite.html

Of course, I know very little compared to many others. My meager tutorial is nothing you can't get which is 1000x better on W3Schools, but sometimes hearing it from someone you already follow makes it easier to get invested in. So I just want to teach some very basics.

I'm going to make ones about basic command line/Unix fluency and then using Vim eventually to follow it.

I want everyone to make a site even if it's dirty.

Added this to the OP, thank you! Figured it'd be cool to have a category specifically for resources made by forum members.