Webmaster Questionnaire

Posted: 2025-11-23

Inspired by Asuraid!

  1. Please introduce yourself.

Tofutush.

  1. How long have you been making websites?

I… can't remember. For my main TIR site specifically, it's a little more than one year.

  1. And what got you into the hobby?

Okay this is going to sound really long-winded like everything about me, but hear me out. So I liked Scratch as a kid, alright. And then for some reason I found out about BYOB, which is like another Scratch that let you build your own blocks. And then, I was trying to find this BYOB thing again when I found out that it's changed to SNAP! BYOB, and it's written in JavaScript and open-sourced on Github. So I downloaded the code (without even knowing what Git was; I just downloaded the ZIP file) and played around with it. It's mostly JS (I lied it's all JS), so I learned JS, and somehow found Eloquent JavaScript which is a really good book it's online for free. I read the 3rd edition but it has a 4th edition now. I once even emailed the author once asking a really stupid question, and they emailed back answering it, and I still cringe at that. And then if you learned JS, it's only natural that you start making websites. I… I just realized I didn't really answer the question. Sorry.

Oh and there's MSPFA which, like, allows a lot of HTML stuff and I guess the TIR site started when I tried making a mirror of my comic.

  1. What kind of website are you most interested in?

Personal OC / Worldbuilding sites!

  1. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?

Nah I do the webmaster version of "no beta we die like men."

  1. Please link to your biggest inspirations.

Oh my… here's this question that's always like "I'd have a lot of stuff to say but not off the top of my head." Numbers Story definitely is among the top. And BNT's site. There are many more sites that I love but I discovered them a lot later so they don't really count as inspiration.

  1. What's your favourite part about making websites?

Making everything automated LOL, I love it when I just update one thing and multiple things on different parts of the website update accordingly. Like I add an entry to gallery imgs.json and the picture appears in the gallery and character galleries, etc.

  1. And the thing you struggle with the most?

I think… layouts? Because, well, if you look at all three of my sites, they're all just vertical stuff going downwards LOL. I think the biggest problem was that I just have to make my font gigantic, and that makes columns really hard to do, because there isn't enough space left when the font's that big. And I just suck at design in general. Really scary considering designing is like a part of my major right now LOL I'm so cooked.

  1. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?

Mostly the same. Some have sub-layouts. Like world pages with their categories display and stuff. But the main layout is the same.

  1. How confident are you with CSS?

Very.

  1. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?

Whelp, never heard of it. (Actually I heard it when reading Aid's response to this questionnaire but that doesn't count.)

  1. What is your favourite HTML element?

<legend>. Girl's a legend.

  1. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?

<html><head></head><body></body>.

  1. Do you know JavaScript?

Yes.

  1. How about PHP?

A little.

  1. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?

For TIR, most things are gray to emphasize the characters' soul colors. This website's color scheme is taken from Cohost.

  1. Are you more focused on content or design?

Content, probably.

  1. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?

No. I'd like to but I just can't commit. The domain I can purchase right now (tofutush.cn) wouldn't be useful in any professional capacity; what I'd like most is one whose apex domain I can use professionally someday in the future, and I can shove my TIR stuff into subdomains. Plus, I'm not sure whether the cheapest TLD for me (.cn) would be "professional" looking anywhere outside China — or inside China for that matter. Maybe when I'm actually there and less stingy I would buy something.

  1. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?

Eh, I'm not fond of them. They don't bring me any nostalgia because I'm young and had been on the internet for even less time.

  1. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?

It should be. I don't check but it should be.

  1. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?

I love buttons! Banners not so much, but I love some neat and tidy 88x31 buttons.

  1. What do you think of button walls in particular?

When they get too big without some sort of categorizing I feel like they lose their point, but I do own a small button wall.

  1. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?

Very specific answer — I'd use Vento instead of Liquid, and it's going to be pretty different in terms of templating but not a whole ton of change in site structure and appearance.

  1. Are you envious of other people's websites?

Well yes, sometimes. Especially when they're very full of content (glances at Numbers Story…)

  1. What text editor do you use?

VS Code.

  1. Why do you use that one?

Atom died and everyone told me to switch to that. There was an Atom plugin that I loved though, it's called Pentagons or something and it literally just puts a bunch of floating pentagons in the background. For a while after the switch, I missed the pentagons so much I couldn't focus on any coding and tried using the dead Atom for a bit before it really became unusable.

  1. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?

On the server.

  1. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?

I don't care. I still prefer Neocities for the social aspect, and I don't need to fetch anything really.

  1. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?

Neocities tells you that exactly, it's 112.74 MB.

  1. Do you keep local backups of your files?

Just one copy, which is the cloned Github repo, which doesn't really count as a "backup" LOL.

  1. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?

It depends on how the webmaster executed it. But I tend to the more simpler side.

  1. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?

Grayscale, because I suck at colors. Other than that, Cohost color scheme. If you really force me to make my own color scheme, I'd go for blues, because I like blue.

  1. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?

No. Sunk cost fallacy.

  1. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?

Well, if they consider me friends?

  1. Do people in your real life know about your website?

Yes.

  1. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?

It auto-updates every day LOL. But other than that, I do update it quite often, especially when I'm procrastinating on real-life tasks.

  1. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?

No. Lazy; and aforementioned lack of design skills.

  1. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?

Hobby, I suppose. It's revolved around TIR I mean. This blog is me-focused; it's literally a blog.

  1. Do you do web design professionally?

No.

  1. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?

I don't know.

  1. Do you communicate with people by email very much?

There's school; and I usually contact the OC Webring people with email if that's what they left as their contact method.

  1. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?

Yes.

  1. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?

Yes.

  1. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?

Yes. Random stuff. Every MLP song. Many Homestuck songs. And — sigh — Hazbin Hotel songs. And random stuff I come across that I download and horde in my offline music library 3GB large.

  1. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?

Three. TIR, blog, OC webring. Sometimes I talk about TIR meta on this blog.

  1. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?

Blog covers anything I want to write about.

  1. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?

Refer to this post — I don't know what my real self looks like. But I don't try to construct a persona, so I suppose this is my real self.

  1. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?

Still, it depends on whether they think I'm their friend LOL. It's not like I actively reach out and talk to them. Well.

  1. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?

Yes, most of the time.

  1. What are practices that you think people should avoid?

Iframes containing content of the same site (they're for embedding other sites' contents!). Too much client JS. Fancy fonts (but now that I override fonts it doesn't matter that much — except those iframes, ugh!) Using vw and vh on literally everything.

  1. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?

Fluid typography.

  1. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?

Well, I do use a lot of <div>s LOL.

  1. Do you consider different browsers?

Not really, eh.

  1. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.

Chrome. Don't use it. Use Firefox. Thank you.

  1. And what OS are you on?

Windows 11, ugh.

  1. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?

I just happen to. It sucks. Use Linux. Thank you.

  1. Are your websites mobile-friendly?

Yeah!

  1. What are your thoughts on autoplay?

I hate them hate them hate them

  1. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?

I like them! Though I think I'm now in enough of them that I don't actively join more. I also have one myself!

  1. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?

No.

  1. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?

I don't know? It certainly looks kinda generic and "corporate," I guess. Refer to my non-existent design skills LOL.

  1. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?

So full of content. It answers every question you raise. It gets you immersed in my world, turns into a fan of TIR and a fan of me, and eventually you will worship me as your god —

  1. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?

I draw!

  1. What are your favourite resource sites?

Eh, I don't really know any.

  1. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?

Itching to change layout, add new stuff, etc; only to give up because of this huge-ass font I'm adamant on not changing and my terrible design skills and my high standards.

  1. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?

Don't be afraid to use templates, don't be afraid to copy code, and utilize the DevTools!

  1. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?

Well, the hard-coded styles are still CSS! But yeah most of them are in CSS files. If there's a small thing I need a style for and I don't want to create a class just for that, I code it into the style property.

  1. What do you think of frameset layouts?

Archaic.

  1. How about table-based layouts?

Archaic.

  1. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?

Mine is one-column. I don't know how they are "ideas" you "subscribe" to… They're just layouts?

  1. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?

CSS.

  1. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.

Nah.

  1. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?

Nope.

  1. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?

I'd say somewhere between middle and advanced.

  1. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?

Yes.

  1. How did YOU learn how to make websites?

I forgot LOL. Refer to question 3.

  1. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?

Maybe that had happened. I don't know.

  1. Thoughts on floating elements?

Only for images.

  1. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?

Either em or %, depending on situation.

  1. Do you have a favourite font?

Lexend Lexend Lexend Lexend Lexend Lexend —

  1. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?

I would probably not.

  1. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?

At first yes; but now I'm following a lot of people on Neocities I find my local feed enough to satiate me.

  1. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?

I don't really bookmark sites. I follow them on Neocities, or add their button.

  1. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?

My OCs and world and their stories!

  1. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?

Kind of? I don't collect.

  1. How often and for how long are you online?

I'm chronically online.

  1. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?

Myself, and whoever's out there I guess.

  1. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?

It's HTML's half-sister born with a stepfather (XML) that HTML hates, and said half-sister manages to throw more tantrums than HTML ever could in her life and she's an annoying, spoiled wreck.

  1. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?

Well, if AP CSA counts then Java LOL. Tried making some games so there's C# and GDScript.

  1. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?

Eleventy Eleventy Eleventy Eleventy Eleventy Eleventy —

  1. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?

No. I'd say I don't care but I do a little LOL; but Neocities's view count was good enough.

  1. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?

32-bit Cafe, lurking.

  1. Do you write your page content directly into the editor, or do you prepare it elsewhere, like a text document or a Word document?

For Markdown files I use Obsidian. For the character pages, they're generated by an obnoxious .json data file that I edit using a program I wrote myself and it's kinda neat and kinda hell.

  1. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?

Uh, no.

  1. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?

Yeah, the Hillslope comics.

  1. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?

I would definitely leave an archive.

  1. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?

I think I overshare LOL.

  1. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?

I don't have an online bestie, I don't think. (Subtext: nominations open.)

  1. And do you optimise the images on your website?

Yes, I turn most of them into .webps to torture y'all. The refsheets are available in .png though. And you can easily find all .pngs on the Github repo.

  1. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ….other than exhausted.

Well, my fingers feel numb.

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