This is a short appendix to a workshop I facilitated with @0ddhost on how to make websites. It’s one of the most common questions I get, and one of the hardest questions to answer. Here are some of the resources that helped me in my journey.

Check in on this site in the future, I will add to it as I find more resources.

Workshop Content

For the workshop, we’re using Neocities. It is a spiritual successor to the Web 1.0 platform, geocities (which today is accessible through an archive). Alternatives to Neocities are countless; but for just one, I’d recommend Bear Blog as an ideologically infused minimalist alternative.

My Journey

If you’re curious about how I’ve progressed through the internet, here’s some of my old sites.

• The Shpot
  • The Shpot was my first website, made on neocities.
• My old portfolio
  • This is my portfolio circa 2024
  • Source Code
• My portfolio
  • My current portfolio
  • Source Code

Advanced

What makes the web exciting is also what makes it so frustrating. The web is always moving. The most common metaphor for the web is an ecosystem. This means whatever tool or service or tutorial I recommend will quickly become out of date. If you are new to the web development, please learn the basic building blocks of a website: HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

If you are feeling like you have a more advanced, here are some of the tools I use. Most of my websites are hosted on Netlify. I use Astro as a static site generator, and I use Svelte for interactivity. I prefer the Svelte API immensely, but I also use Vue because it has better component libraries. I use Tailwind for CSS.

I’d recommend learning Typescript as soon as you have a handle on JavaScript. I mainly use Typescript for backend stuff, but I’ve also used Python for convenience and Rust because it’s fun. Pick your poison.

Guides

• Full Stack Open

  • If you are enjoying web stuff, this is a really great free course in ‘Full Stack’ web development, which means development that encapsulates the Front End, the Back End, and everything in between. It was my introduction to the world of web dev, and I think it still holds up.

• Astro Blog Template

  • Astro is a really great resource if you want to take the next step from basic HTML. Their blog template guide is really good.

• MDN Docs

  • I constantly find myself consulting the MDN docs. They are well written and well maintained.

Inspiration

Here are some things I’ve found in my travels.

Articles

• Jeff Huang – This Page is Designed to Last
• Frank Chimero – What Screens Want
• Welcome to the Post-Naive Internet Era
• The Monospace Web
• Guidelines for Brutalist Web Design

Oddities

• Marginalia Search
• last.computer
• MUUMUU HOUSE
• nownownow.com
• seththompson.com