#website resources

[lotus-loves-you]

Templates for text, drawings, pictures, etc! Ft. Mayura! <3

F2u, no credit necessary!! :3

[aroceu]

in my continued quest to help people in fandom make their own personal independently hosted websites, i've created a list of website resources specifically catered for fannish & creative hobbyists!

link: https://kingdra.net/fan/resources

this isn't just a list of resources, but specifically consists of FUN things you could add to your website, in addition to tried and tested options for necessary resources.

this list is made specifically for you if you want to:

a) enjoy your time on the internet beyond social media

b) explore the smaller, non-corporate web like in the old days, before social media

c) or just craft your own personalized website (FOR FREE!!!!), which i promise is much more accessible than it may seem

this page will be continuously updated, but my standards for what goes on it are very specific and limited, so don't expect to need to keep up with it regularly. everything on here is a great starting point no matter how much knowledge/experience you have. AND it consists of additional toys and resources for people already with websites.

be free and have fun!

(and remember, sharing is caring ♥️)

[sugarheartd]

pink blinkies dump ! ❤︎

all from this site! ❤︎

[the-starflower]

You should have your own website

As an Internet Veteran* and a web developer, I have a lot of strong opinions about the Internet and the direction it's going in.

Now I'm gonna allow myself a rant and hopefully convert at least one of you, and then I'll go back to obsessing over imaginary people. Ok? Ok. *I've been online in one way or other since the late 90s/early 2000s.

Yes, much of the Internet sucks now...

In the beginning, everyone had their own site. Fansites. Art portfolios. Online journals (the word "blog" wasn't invented yet). Lots of weird places you'd stumble upon by link-hopping from site to site.

But of course, as soon as the technology took off, the market noticed. Social media came along and made it easier to create an account on their sites than make something for yourself, so that's what everyone did. And here we are now.

Instead of a million little houses built by passionate individuals and all having streets and pathways linking to each other, we have these massive walled gardens of rented flats built by commercial interest. They're keeping their users like animals in a zoo where everything is an account and a subscription and an ALGORITHM (gods I hate algorithms almost as much as I hate AI) and monetized by taking our data* and using it to show us ever-increasing amounts of ads. *Collecting more data is all this age verification/chat control nonsense is about btw. I don't believe for a second they're actually interested in "protecting children" or anything of the sort.

...but there's still hope

Good news is, the personal non-monetized Internet is still out there. It's just been buried under a fuckton of ad-infested garbage and can be tricky to find.

There are still entire communities of people taking pride in making their own personal websites instead of relying solely on social media.

The main reason is of course because it's plain ol' fun, but another big point is to break out of the zoo. To take back some semblance of control over your digital life and contribute to an Internet that is still made by and for regular people, not for corporations. If we can make websites ourselves, we negate some of the power they hold over us. No need to get quite so devastated when Tumblr/AO3/Meta/etc yet again changes something for the worse if you always have your own site to fall back on.

As neat as it is to have everyone on social media, I wish more people would set aside the time to make their own sites.

We all live online, might as well have your own house. A house you can build however you want and can be taken down and moved somewhere else should the need arise.

"But but but my audience..?"

Yeah, sure, the zoos are useful for meeting people and getting your work seen. I'm here too, aren't I? I understand you want to be where most of the eyes are. What I'm getting at is: YOU SHOULD HAVE BOTH!

Use whatever to network and find your friends and fans - but don't put all your digital eggs in one corporate basket. Just like you sync your phone to the cloud and back up your hard drive (you are backing up your hard drive, right? Right?!) you should back up your creations and post them somewhere where you have control over them. Somewhere people can see your things without having to sign up for another bloody account.

While I realise I make webweaving sound like some activism thing, it really is a cool hobby.

I can't overstate how fun and rewarding it is to have your own place on the Internet! ❣️ Poking around with the layout and content and learning how it all works under the hood. ❣️ The thrill when you wrangle the browser into submission and get it to work exactly how you want it ❣️ Making friends and trading knowledge with other web-weavers ❣️ Not to mention the pride of showing the link to people like "yeah, I made this. And I made the website it is on too 😎"

It's beyond worth it for the skills you learn and the people you meet! At least think about it, please.

"But I can't code or design, how would I even make a website? It's too much work"

Can you take a prewritten text document and edit it? That's all you need to start. Can you edit your Tumblr theme? Shit, you're halfway there already.

Creating a simple personal site really doesn't have to be that complicated.

There are boatloads of free ready-made layouts and templates you can edit and free graphics so you don't have to start from scratch. Many websites don't even have graphics at all. There are also free content management systems that, once set up, allows you to edit most things without any coding at all. Installing, say, WordPress takes 5 minutes if even that.

Not to mention the myriad of very beginner-friendly tutorials and even real live people to ask.

Us personal web enthusiasts are THRILLED whenever someone new wants to join our ranks and most will fall over themselves trying to help. We're here for you. Hell, I'm here for you. My DMs are always open, don't hesitate to give me a shout if you wanna talk websites 🤝 (or previously mentioned imaginary people, I'm not fussy haha)

A few links to get you started:

32bit.cafe is a community of personal web enthusiasts and a great place to start. They have a massive list of resources and you can join the forum or discord if you want to chat with people.

Sadgrl has a lot of guides and resources too.

Pixel Shannon's guide to making your own website

Neocities is a free host and also has some community features

check out the web revival tag right here on Tumblr

More about the personal web movement:

Intro to the web revival by Melon

The IndieWeb community

Hello, world, I have a solution to the Internet problem

Visit MelonLand's Surf Club for loads of examples of personal websites

Now, go build your house. And then send me the link. I'm not joking, I really do want to see what you come up with!

[bumb13-be3]

it seems like website building is about to have a boom, let me share my favorite resource of all time!!

sadgrl.online

sadgrl.online

this is a website packed to the brim with website building goodies , including a website layout maker that is the easiest and most user friendly maker i’ve encountered! perfect for creating your own neocities (it’s free!!) , the code even has helpful tips in it for those new to html/css!

i also recommend w3schools.com for quick and easy to follow chunks of html/css tutorials! gifcities is a goldmine for old neocities era gifs, and blinkies cafe is perfect for making your own blinkies!

i can’t wait to see everyone’s websites in the coming weeks and months! remember, it’s fine to take it slow and let it look silly, that’s always been the point of websites like this :]

ps check out our neocities and feel free to drop yours in the replies :]

[robotalien]

🧩 Websites to buy puzzles on:

★ woodtrick ☆ lego puzzle board games ★ the jelly blox ☆ ravensburger jigsaw puzzles ★ puzzlemerchant ☆ puzzle warehouse ★ ravensburger 3d puzzles ☆ kubiyagames wooden puzzles ★ fatbraintoys puzzles ☆ oddpieces puzzles ★ i spy puzzles on ebay ☆ smallest bundle of 8 random games ★ micropuzzles ☆ puzzledly ★ kubiyagames brain teasers ☆ piccolo mondo toys ★ uncommon goods toys ☆ i spy book ★ puzzometry ☆ puzzle suggestions ★ rokronline puzzles ☆ puzzle bright ★ handheld puzzles at walmart ☆ diy sticker scenes ★ funandfunction fidgets ☆ funinmotiontoys ★ brilliantpuzzles ☆ kubiyagames puzzle labyrinths ★ puzzlemaster maze puzzles ☆ puzzlemaster

🕹️ Websites to play puzzle games online:

★ slidingtoys ☆ i spy mystery ★ thejigsawpuzzles ☆ puzzlegarage ★ crazygames puzzle ☆ mindgames ★ brainbashers ☆ puzzler ★ coolmathgames puzzles ☆ coolmathgames stacking games ★ toytheater puzzles ☆ maze: path of light ★ puzzles with friends

🎡 DIY puzzles:

★ make a jigsaw puzzle ☆ make your own puzzle ★ 12 diy puzzles ☆ cardboard puzzle ★ how to draw a maze ☆ diy marble maze ★ how to make a puzzle game (video) ☆ diy resin water ring toss game p1 (video) ★ diy resin water ring toss game p2 (video) ☆ easy diy fidgets ★ cardboard rubik's cube ☆ puzzles and toys to make ★ bricklink builder (app) ☆ i spy free printables

[omegajor]

software for writers

okay many people are tired of google docs and their fucked up privacy policies so i went into my own search for alternatives but most of them are online with a subscription plan and i refuse to spend my money on that. also, most of the alternatives out there have ai plugged in in one way or another, so i've decided to curate my own list of recomendations. this is the criteria:

has to be free, possibly offline as i don't fully trust clouds

has to be free of ai, or, in the worst case, it doesn't have to be one of the main features

made for writers

Ellipsus

free

online, web based

clear anti-ai stance

direct export to ao3

lots of templates to choose from, very clearly catered towards fic writers

has a feature to include collaborators so you can share it with beta readers and they can comment on the doc

plenty of customization options

cons:

the only big downside i see (for now) is that it's still in beta so we don't really know how the monetization will work yet. they stated that the current free features will stay free, so it's a matter of trust i guess.

if you're the type that needs boards and timelines and such you will need something else to do that

also the spellchecker is still a work in progress

Wavemaker

free and open-source

online, web based, although it works locally so it doesn't hoard any of your data

has an option to sync with google drive

many planning features if that's your jam, boards and sticky notes and such

cons:

i'm not sure if it works properly offline

not many customizations options if that's a must for you

it has an ai option, tho it's optional and you have to sign up for that

novelWriter

free and open-source

offline, but you can easily set up your own sync

plenty of options to export

very customizable

many tools for planning and managing bigger stories

it's the one i'm currently using it and i think it's severely underrated!!!

cons:

the ui might not be the prettiest for your likes, tho, again, is highly customizable

if you're the kind of person who gets overwhelmed when there are too much options this might not be for you

you might have to download your own spellcheckers if you write in anything else than english

similar to word or google docs

LibreOffice

free and open source

offline, available for any os

as it is offline none of your data is stored or used to train ai

you can easily set it with your own cloud service

cons:

some people don't really like the ui, but i think it's gotten a lot better and user friendly

the spellcheckers aren't as good as microsoft words for what i've seen, at least if you write in something else than english

OnlyOffice

free and open source

offiline, the same as before tho many people prefer it over LibreOffice in regards to the ui

it has a paid cloud service but also easy to set up with your own or selfhost

cons:

has ai integration, i don't know how invasive it is

markdown based

if you're more inclined to markdown editors but also would like to avoid notion due to privacy or anti-ai reasons, these are some options

Obsidian

very useful for worldbuilding, plotting and planning in general

offline first, available for any os. you can either pay for obsidian sync or set up your own sync system.

truly customizable, with the right set of plugins you can turn it into your own personal writing suite. the most used by authors i've seen are Longform, Readability Score, LanguageTool and KeepTheRhything, and there are plenty of videos of authors sharing their own set ups

cons:

if you're the kind of person who procrastinates by customizing things and trying to find the perfect set of tools before even starting, you'll probably have to be careful of falling into the rabbit hole of obsidian vids.

it isn't really made for long writing so you might feel some friction with that even with the right amount of plugins

it's easy to get overwhelmed by the variety of tools that it offers and that maybe serve not purpose to your writer needs

Ghostwriter

free and open source

offline, but as any other can be easily synced by your own means

minimalistic but it has some writer oriented features like stats and outlines

cons:

it's mostly for linux, with a portable app for windows and on mac you gotta do your own compiling

i think it doesn't come with it's own spellchecker

Joplin

free and open source

offline, with a paid cloud plan and plenty of resources to sync it by yourself

similar to obsidian, very customizable and a jack of all trades

plenty of plugins too!

cons:

it might have a steeper learning curve as the ui isn't as friendly as obsidian

again, you might get lost in the rabbithole of endless customization

for the techies out there…

VisualStudio Code

free and open source

has plenty of easily accesible extensions

i've seen someone say it has a really neat export to markdown tool, big if true

there are some tutorials out there for you freaks

cons:

it's owned by microsoft so expect your usual telemetry and ai integration

i don't know just because you can it doesn't mean you should

Emacs

free, open source

endless customization options

if you wanted an excuse to dig your nails into emacs this is your chance

there are many tutorials of people helping you set up your writing enviroment

cons:

if you're not into tinkering and getting your hands on the mud for your software then this might be actually scary

i don't know i tried one tutorial and failed ok

Vim

free and open source

the same, the possibilities are endless

big if you hate to use the mouse

cons:

i don't know i haven't even tried but i've seen people use it so. it can be done ig

ALTERNATIVES FOR THE CLOUD

if you refuse to pay for another cloud service, many people use the ones they already have, or selfhost if they're more tech savvy. i personally use Syncthing which works end-to-end on my local network, synchronizing my desktop pc with my laptop. it only works when they're both online, so if you need immediate access to changes this might not work for you, but on my side i only use it to have a backup. if you are still using Google Drive for some reason or another, you can as well install it on your computer and use it as a backup for any of the offline apps. i think Dropbox works the same. Proton Drive also has been gaining popularity between the privacy enthusiasts, and it has 5GB free it seems. other people use iCloud, tho i don't own any apple products so idk about that. whichever of these you choose, you're still dependant of those companies to keep your files safe, so always have a local backup if possible. lastly, i've seen many people (mostly the one's that use obsidian or something from the techie section) use git and upload it to a private github repository or another service for git management. you always have the choice to host your own server, tho i can't really guide you on that there are plenty of tutorials and documentation online, and the only downside if that maybe you don't have the same safety net as the Big Companies tm in case your server breaks