MOUSELING'S 100
10/29/2025

1. Please introduce yourself.

hi, my name is benny

2. How long have you been making websites?

i dunno, maybe late 2023, early 2024, 'though i've been writing for websites for longer. i've had a frankly dysphoric past life, when i was younger, much younger. i'm in my early-mid 20s now. i started really paying even more attention to coding this year (2025)

3. And what got you into the hobby?

i was on Spacehey for a while, and making layouts for my profile taught me a lot -- it is, after all, a classic-Myspace clone, and i'm still on it, i'm just less active -- but even that had limits, restrictions, around things you could add or remove, and i had a very specific vision of what i wanted to make. i used a lot of pre-mades, at firs,t and i almost gave up entirely. i was bad at it, at first, i still am, i've changed my website around a lot, but eventually i settled on a version of that vision that i could make. that was important. i was tired of copying-and-pasting something that looked better than what i could make at the time, but that i had no idea how it was done so i couldn't change it for shit, and i was tired of feeling like i couldn't code. the truth is, although you may not be any good at it, at all, you can code. coding is something anyone can do. coding is something i can do. i've learned how to style some things. i've learned what divs are. i want to keep learning more

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

personal websites, and archival/educational websites. i dislike portfolios or websites that feel like extensions of corporate infrastructure, i know that they do have a purpose, but i just don't fuck with them because i don't fuck with expression being tempered or influenced by capitalist ideals and/or the urge to show your potential or current bosses how branded you are. i'm unemployed because i'm disabled, but if or when i get a dayjob again, because i frankly need the money, i'll have a shit, mundane dayjob like everyone else, thank you, those potential or current bosses are not touching my expression, my art, etc., because they are not touching me. sorry, that turned into a bit of a political tirade. i fuck with personal websites because i like people, and i like seeing into people's lives a bit, however much they're willing to show me, i like meeting people. i fuck with archival/educational websites because i like learning, and i find it sexy when people are extremely devoted to one or a few topics with knowledge or resources to show for it

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

i come up with the designs as i go along, and right now, everything stems from practicality. the gimmick of my website is that there is no gimmick and i really do live in a shithole with shitty people, and i really am trying to move out. i don't want to be particularly attractive to anyone, and i'm lazy, so i'm going to put the bare minimum of effort into my website for as long as i can get away with it, even after i move out. or, sorry, if i do, i am reminded every day that nothing is guaranteed

6. Please link to your biggest inspirations.

this is gonna sound batshit egotistical, but i don't think i have any. i mean, i have a lot of inspirations in general -- Shaun Tan, the original team who created Disco Elysium, etc. -- but i don't have any inspirations for coding or web design. there are definitely people doing cool things with both, i'm lucky to be online friends or online ships passing in the online night with a few (lakes) (devhank) (alienheadshitkid), but there's nobody out there that i want to look like or code like. i want to look and code like myself. and i'm not trying to brag about how good i am, i'm awful. this is more a radicool, demand-avoidant thing, i hate being told what to do

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

i like being able to have a space that i can truly consider mine

8. And the thing you struggle with the most?

there's just a lot i don't know. i'll try to implement something, and it doesn't work, because i typed it wrong, or i'm using the wrong term entirely

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

i mostly keep the same layout (because again, lazy), but there are a few one-off pages i've done that use other layouts, ones from like 2005 that i've modded decently heavily, because it frees me up to work less on the mechanics of those pages and more on the design itself, and the writing

10. How confident are you with CSS?

not very. only decently. most of what i've learned, i've learned from copying-and-pasting, and then butchering what i've just pasted until it belongs to me

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

because of these 100 questions and the blank i was given, i do now

12. What is your favourite HTML element?

<p> -- i'm a writer, first and foremost, after all

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

so far, my process consists mostly of the butchering. i guess if i had to rely on nothing but my knowledge of the terms and what they do, i'd sketch out what i wanted it to look like in a notebook or something, and then match the appearance to the terms needed, and then i'd set that up first; the basic html & css, and then i'd write, or add photographs, etc., and there you go

14. Do you know JavaScript?

hahahahahahahhahahhahaahahhaahaha...who the fuck do you think i am?? some kind of...smart guy?

15. How about PHP?

ahahahahahahahhahahaaha, no, the answer is no

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

i guess? the theme is vaguely green, because green is my favorite color, and practical and simple and whatever i need it to be. more broadly, the theme is nothing, because the theme is whatever i need it to be, and that can & will change, it already has, my website and i are transient like water, motherfucker

17. Are you more focused on content or design?

content. but i hate using that word for it, it reminds me of marketing & social media jargon

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

uh, via N*ocities, i think so, but if i stopped using N*ocities, i would have to. i think that costs money, though, and i'm broke. it's a bummer

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

oh, i love them, as long as they're personal or archival/educational. in general, yes, i love retro shit, i love just inundating myself with nostalgia, i played Poptropica the other night, via Flashpoint, thank you Flashpoint, right? right. but here's the thing, or, my thing; nostalgia cannot be stronger than creativity. i don't like to make clones of old things, or to use old things just for the aesthetic, i like to do away with oldness & newness, both, entirely, and just make, just use, because it is genuinely more useful or more fun or allows for more freedom. if you do something just for the aesthetic, my personal, deeply subjective opinion on that is that it makes what you are doing hollow & lacking in depth

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

some of it is, some of it isn't. i mean, according to N*ocities, some of it is, some of it isn't. but it all works

21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?

i love them. i think they're adorable, and fun, and genuinely useful

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

put that shit in a scrollbox or something. i love your many, many buttons, but seeing them all at once is like getting punched in the face by visual noise. if you're into punching with visual noise, good for you, don't let me hold you back, but if you intend to be gentle with your design, hold yourself back

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

this is kind of a moot question, because i have started over, multiple times, already, and i never know what i'm going to do until i'm doing it

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

no, not really. i used to be, back when i thought i couldn't code, but not anymore. the people i linked earlier that are adjacent to inspirations for me, those people implement things i wish i knew how to do, but i know i'll learn, in time, accidentally, or i can pull up in my virtual truck and ask them for a tutorial

25. What text editor do you use?

the N*ocities text editor

26. Why do you use that one?

again, for a third time reminding you, no gimmick, shit, lazy. but i do have back-ups elsewhere, and thank fucking god for that

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

i use Catbox. thank fucking god for Catbox. i would host my files on the web server, but, uh, i don't want to do a mass conversion/edit like that right now, because, for a fourth time, lazy

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

i'd rather use N*koweb or self-host entirely, because N*ocities allows AI slash data scraping, but i don't understand the N*koweb code editor, as silly as that is. there's something highly specific they've got going on there that i don't understand. and as for self-hosting, i'm stupid and i don't have money, and my computer is awful, i don't really think that would work out well for me

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

i don't know, and i don't care

30. Do you keep local backups of your files?

yes. you must always back up your work. i have done this since my...past life, i learned it that early. if you don't back up your work, something will inevitably happen to your precious whatever you're using to edit slash publish it, and your work will be violently killed to death

31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?

uh, both, but for different purposes/moods. simple websites, i prefer them when i have a headache/migraine, or the person is a writer and i am trying to fucking read. highly visual websites, i prefer them when my head feels good, my eyes feel good, i am not trying to read, and i am trying to see how people express themselves as openly & colorfully as possible with very little limitations

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

green, subconscious

33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?

yes. i get disillusioned with things somewhat easily. i thought about quitting the other day, because i was overwhelmed by how easy it was for strangers to comment on my website, but instead of quitting, i turned off my website's 'profile,' thinking, 'if these fuckers want to say anything, they will have to use my guestbook or email me like God intended'

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

i have a few friends who master their web online, sure, but none in person. i don't have that many friends in person to begin with

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

no, and thank fucking god they don't, i'd have to do something drastic

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

i update my website as often as i want to

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

...i change my website whenever i want to, but i think -- don't hold me to this -- that as i said at the beginning of this survey, i've settled on something. i like how this version of my website feels

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

all of that. my website is whatever i need, whatever i want, but it's not any more me-focused than it has to be, because that would feel really -- simultaneously -- egotistical, vulnerable and easy to co-opt. my website is both hobby-focused and outside world-focused because that's what photography, especially, is

39. Do you do web design professionally?

oh, fuck no. get away from me with that. i am not for hire, not for this. hire to me to file your paperwork, vaccuum your house, babysit your child, or do something awful and painful. if you're seeing this, you are not allowed to pay me for anything, unless you're paying me to live and/or move out of the shithole. you do not own me

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

i am not comfortable answering this question, motherfucker

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

as often as i can. i really fuck with email

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

i really try not to. the only social media i keep is Spacehey, and i'm not even that active anymore, because i keep waiting for something that may never happen; i keep waiting for Spacehey to replace all the other social media that way i genuinely use it to connect with people where i fucking live. and yes, i am one of those that rejects social media. those companies are evil, and spyware. i trust no nation when it comes down to brass tacks, but i would trust Russia or China more than i do amerikkka or its silicon valley

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

i don't use D*scord anymore, but i used to. i only really use Matrix and my phone's native texting app to text now

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

oh, fuck yeah. i love music, i love listening to music and making shitty music that i will never, ever share with you, i love everything to do with music. music is sacred. i listen to it as often as possible. right now, i'm really fucking with the soundtrack to the video game Harold Halibut, the soundtrack's by Olat Hekimoglu

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

i only have one website, because i do not need more than one

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

this is a moot question. i do whatever i need to, whatever i want to...right now, it's just my blog & photography, but that can & will change, i'm adding more every day -- or every week, whatever, like right now, with this survey

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

i try to present a self as 'real' as possible, but i don't know if i'm succeeding or not, because i don't know who i am or what i am like. this is fine, and it's what having a dissociative disorder will do to you

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

i guess? i don't know, it depends, i don't really want to talk about good friends because i don't have many. (i am chronically ill, not an asshole. no, wait, i'm kinda both.) there's sam, but we met on Spacehey

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

uhhh, sure. i have no urgent issues or complaints

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

i am not the authority on anything important, and you should not ask me questions like these

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

i think everyone should be passionate, and stubborn

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

i am not sure what these distinctions connote. i am going to look it up....okay, i've looked it up. i think i fuck more with semantic, on principle, but i am stupid, so i actually use generic more

53. Do you consider different browsers?

i do not consider any other browser other than the one i use

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

i used to use Chr*me, as a teenager, but then i grew up. i used S*fari when i was very young, as a child, i mean, and i have some nostalgia for it, but it's lost its value to me. now, i use F*refox, but that's after going through config and doing my best to kill the AI in it, i also use a lot of extensions, like Old Reddit Redirect, Reddit Enhancement Suite, a few for implementing scripts; a script for Spacehey, an extension for implementing lazy loading on every website, a few cosmetic ones. i like F*refox, i guess, but it's a corporation, so i don't love it. you cannot love corporations or the things they make

55. And what OS are you on?

funny story, actually. i am on Windows 10, on a Windows 11. this happened almost by accident, because i downloaded something that did work but also required a life for a life, and i lost a lot of files. the pain of that has faded, but i'm still somewhat embarrassed, and now my whole computer, pretty much, all the important parts of it, are stored on a hard drive that way i can't lose it again

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

now that the pain of what it took from me has faded, i actually like Windows 10 more, even though it's a little bit hard to navigate because some of me is still used to the Windows 11 internals i had before. i like Windows 10 because the parts that most of me used to are simpler -- Windows 10, i think, is simpler overall -- and it is easier on my head and eyes

57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?

a little, but not very. my website is responsive, but i don't try super hard to make it look good on a phone. this is because i don't care about people with smartphones, and i wouldn't browse the internet using a dumbphone anyway

58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?

i don't like it much, mostly because i'm usually already listening to music when i browse the web, and i have to pause or mute one thing or the other to not feel fucked up and end up flinging my headphones across the room

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

i like webrings, and i think there should be more. i just haven't joined many because i don't want to be found that easily

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

i don't have any web shrines myself, yet. i like web shrines for their unabashed devotion, and they're usually cute, too, well-designed, i mean, but with quirkiness and originality. i feel like web shrines that are about fandom or a part of fandom, specifically, are more tolerable to me than someone just talking about fandom with nothing contributed, or them having a social media account for that kind of thing, because then at least you made something. i am not in any fandoms myself, and i find them mostly annoying, because a lot of them are solely existent for consumption. when you show me a fan of something that has worked it into what they create, or the way they live, i can like that. and listen, i'm not telling you to feel guilty for consumption, i consume lots of things, and i like it, too, i just don't tend to make myself or my work or my relationships about that, at all, ever

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

no, or, i don't think so, and i don't care

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

there is no ideal website, there is only what exists in the now and how far i can take it in every direction possible

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

i am an artist, i don't know what you mean by 'assets,' i don't have a logo or anything like that, i'm not a brand

64. What are your favourite resource sites?

the Frutiger Aero Archive is my single favorite resouce site

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

no, not yet; most habits i haven't even tried to get away from them because i need them to cope with...shit

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

making things is more important than making things look good

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

most of it's in CSS, some of it's hard-coded, it depends on page- or element-specific it is

68. What do you think of frameset layouts?

i don't know what you mean

69. How about table-based layouts?

i like those

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

my website is a three-column layout

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

html. that's where the blog goes, and the photography, and the everything else

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

no, but i have made pages with bare minimum css, i do that all the time

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

i only make layouts when i need to, and i do that because why the hell would i do it the other way around

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

i am definitely, absolutely a beginner, and probably wrong about a lot of things

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

not usually, because most of the time, i forget it's possible to do that. thank you for the reminder

76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?

Spacehey, the N*ocities tutorial, w3schools, and looking terms up one at a time when i needed them, basically

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

i haven't had the opportunity yet, but i look forward to it

78. Thoughts on floating elements?

i like them, i think they are fine elements to use, i don't have any strong opinions about them

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

i use px. or, very rarely, %

80. Do you have a favourite font?

the default one

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

i tried to, with sam, but sam's a busy guy. i guess i could do that sort of thing again, but i wouldn't want to be credited for it because i don't like too many people knowing about me, and i would want to make it an archival/educational website, or a magazine

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

yes, i do, it's one of my favorite hobbies

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

i don't bookmark websites, i just click on the people in my little web-neighbors scrollbox in my index every so often to see how they're doing. i think it's fine if nobody's bookmarked mine, i also think it's fine if somebody has, and strangely flattering, too

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

nothing. i have no desire to impress people

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

yes, i guess, i'm interested in dumbphones, old computers, and the like, and i haven't collected as much as i've just not thrown stuff away

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

very

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

nobody. uh, except for my friends. i don't care what strangers think of me, or what type of person i am or what type of website i ended up with

88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?

i don't know what that is, and it doesn't sound important

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

i am not a programmer, but i wish i could do that. i've realized i can code, sure, but i still can't program, and i'm very far away from being able to

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

i haven't used an ssg in this life, no. i did, in my past life. it was not a good time. it's gone now

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

no, because i don't care

92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?

yes. i frequent the Frutiger Aero Archive's forum, i also try and frequent mine, but i've stopped linking to it because it's very badly designed, and the Melonland forums, and i like Reddit, too

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

i write directly into the editor, which gives me smoother 'flow' of thought, but then i pretty much immediately back it up

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

i don't know if i appear cool to others, and i don't think anyone's described me as cool. in those words. i do keep a document of all the feedback, compliments, insults, i've ever received, and i reference it, i could reference it here, which i know is very weird of me, and batshit egotistical. i think someone's called me epicsauce once, a few people have called me kind. but i don't think anyone's ever used the word 'cool'

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

yes. i have deleted things out of shame, and general obsoleteness. you will not find them

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

i'd probably leave an archive, and link it to it wherever i went next

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

i do both. a few people have picked up on my city, which i don't mention by name, and things like that, i'm generally an open guy, but at the same time, i hide myself, and i hide my website, or at least i format it and describe it in a way where it is less loudly obvious, because i don't want to be seen by people i can't see and don't know. it would feel awful to have no control over who's looking, and what they can look at. the fact that i am in control -- or, as in control as i can be -- is a balm to me

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

sam. they do have a website, i link to it in my web-neighbors scrollbox. like i said at some point earlier, though, they're a busy guy, and they don't update their website very often. that's okay, i like it anyway

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

i don't know what that means

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

i feel dehydrated, and i'm going to go drink water