ribo.zone Homepage en-US https://ribo.zone Updates from the lab... https://ribo.zone/img/favicon.png ribo.zone https://ribo.zone blue hyperlinks ribozone005 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:44:00 EST i made some changes to how links are styled around the site. unvisited links are now blue, and visited links are teal/aqua (the color that all most links were before today). also, internal links have been given a dotted underline, while external links keep the normal solid underline (with 2px emphasis on hover). it's a subtle change, but one that hopefuly makes all these links more fun/informative/easy to navigate.

P.S. adding a:visited to the main stylesheet overwrote the link colors in 100+ other stylesheets, so i spent some time this morning visiting all of my pages and correcting contrast issues. i think i caught them all! if things look strange, you may need to do a hard refresh.

]]> one billion questions for webmasters https://ribo.zone/blog/100q https://ribo.zone/blog/100q Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:21:00 EST { questionnaire from mouseling.net }

01. Please introduce yourself.
i'm loren! hi
02. How long have you been making websites?
i feel like i got started when i made this site (september 2022), but that's not actually true. i made my first site almost nine years ago (april 2017). i didn't do much with it, so i sometimes forget about it. it's been a while!
03. And what got you into the hobby?
well, my first site was kind of boring! all it had was a list of biographical details, a list of interests, and a list of links to my accounts on social media sites. it existed to be the "link in bio" of those accounts, not to stand on it's own. i don't remember what motivated me to start over and get more silly with it, but i had fun when i did, so i kept going.
04. What kind of website are you most interested in?
i like to learn new things. i like art. i like variety.
05. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites out thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?
ad hoc. little to no planning. i used to keep a to-do list, but looking at it made me feel bored and guilty, so i got rid of it. i have more fun messing around and seeing what sticks.
06. Please link to your biggest inspirations.
the biggest and most direct influence on me was fernhouse.neocities.org. it was the first site that made me think "wow... i want to make a site like that!"
a few more major sources of inspiration:
07. What's your favourite part about making websites?
there's no final version that has to be "perfect" or even "done". i worry less about making mistakes than i do when creating/distributing something on paper (like a zine), because it's so easy to make fixes and improvements. many of my favorite pages to work on started small and have grown slowly over time.
responsive webpages are fun and satisfying to me. i like to resize my browser window and watch all the elements shift around. on paper, you have to decide exactly where each thing should go. on a website, i feel free from that burden. i can just set some margins and padding and see what happens.
i also love the potential for nonlinearity... branching paths... hypertext! i love that i can put a link anywhere on a page and have it go anywhere on the web.
...okay one more: i love the :hover pseudo-class.
08. And the thing you struggle with the most?
replying to emails and comments...
09. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?
there was a time when every single page on this site had a different layout, but recently i've applied a standard layout and navigation bar to certain groups of pages (the info hub and webcrafting supplies). there's been a default blog post layout since i first split each post from a single page, but sometimes i find myself in the mood to make a bespoke layout for a post.
this is the first post with blog-v2.css, a combination of the first layout and the one i used for blaugust. i'm going to leave the old posts with the same layouts they had when they were published, because i think it's fun to have an archive (and it's less work for me).
10. How confident are you with CSS?
i love CSS! i'm pretty comfortable with it. i don't get stuck very often, and when i do, i know how to phrase a search to find the answers i'm looking for.
11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?
yes. (note for those who haven't seen this questionnaire's source code: it's a <dl>)
12. What is your favourite HTML element?
for a long time, my answer would have been <details>, but lately i've been really into using <input> with the :checked pseudo-class to make interactive stuff.
wait, no... it's gotta be <a>. links are what make this whole thing work.
13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?
copy the <head> from a page i've already made and paste it into the new file.
14. Do you know JavaScript?
i've written a little bit of it, but never studied the fundamentals. when i look up how to do something, it always seems like there are 1,000 different ways to do it. i don't know enough to feel confident picking one over another.
15. How about PHP?
i've written less PHP than javascript, but the syntax feels way more intuitive to me. it has a lot of the straightforwardness of HTML.
16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?
"stuff i'm interested in" which should be broad enough to cover everything, but even then i haven't managed to stick to it. there are a few pages on this site that i made because i felt like i should, instead of making them because i was interested in them. (/now and /uses..... snooze...)
17. Are you more focused on content or design?
false dichotomies everywhere... i don't think about it like that.
18. Do you own a domain name? If not, would you ever want to?
yeah, check out your browser's address bar! unless you're reading this from an RSS feed reader, or some site that syndicates blog posts, or someone copied this page exactly and uploaded it to their own site...
(my domain's ribo.zone, if you're reading this from somewhere that hasn't made that clear...)
19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?
"nostalgia-focused" sounds boring and retro sounds fun. it really depends.
20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?
i'm sure there are a few errors here and there. i used the W3C validator more often when i was getting started, but now i'm like.. eh. if it works it works. however, if someone emailed me to say "hey there's an error preventing your page from rendering in [MY FAVORITE OBSCURE BROSWER]", i would try to fix it.
21. What are your opinion on buttons and banners?
yes... haha ha... yes! (button by sweetfish)
22. What do you think of button walls in particular?
i like them! i can remember pretty much all of the buttons i've seen already, so it's easy for me to look at a wall, pick out the buttons that are new to me, and visit them all. finding one made of mostly unfamiliar buttons is such a treat.
i do also like the more spread-out version of a button wall, where each button is accompanied by a description of the site. it's nice to read what people have to say about each other and their work. i have both kinds on my site: dense wall on the links page, expanded version in the neighborhood.
what i don't like is when a bunch of buttons are crammed into a tiny little box hidden behind a (sometimes invisible) scrollbar, or worse, a marquee... please let me see the links and click on them...
23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?
i might organize my site's files differently or give folders different names, but the end result for you as a visitor would probably not change much.
24. Are you envious of other people's websites?
no way. when i see a website i like, i feel inspired!
25. What text editor do you use?
i'm writing this in notepad++
26. Why do you use that one?
after i started this questionnaire, notepad++ announced that they were hacked. i haven't updated my copy since 2022, so i'm safe, but this does have me questioning my choice of text editor...
i do like it though! i like how simple it is. i've also tried vscodium, but it runs slower, has too many panels and menus, and the auto-closing tag thing drives me nuts (maybe i can turn it off?)... i don't need all that.
27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?
it's not my web server (the machines belong to my host, nearlyfreespeech.net), but yeah, all my image files live in the same folder as my HTML files.
there are many advantages to doing it this way:
  • i can view and work on my site without connecting to the internet
  • i can name my files whatever i want, and organize them in folders
  • i don't have to worry about the other host going down, or blocking visitors from certain countries, or adding watermarks, or deleting things...
28. This might not be relevant to you, but what's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?
seems like it's mostly teens debating. none of my business.
29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?
why should anyone estimate? are there web hosts that don't tell you how much space you're using? my answer: this site was 171,786,240 bytes (including logs) a few minutes ago. after uploading this post, it's 48,775 bytes more.
30. Do you keep local backups of your files?
the local version of my site feels like the "real" version. the files that live on the web server are the backup copies. if my host goes down, i'd still have my site right here on my computer.
on version control

lots of people swear by git, but i've tried it and it's too much fuss for me. i work alone, so i don't need to worry about merging conflicts, and it feels excessive to keep a record of every little typo fix.

loren's method (SIMPLE, NO FUSS): every couple of months, or before any dramatic changes, i download my whole site from the web server and put it in a folder with the date on it. my most recent snapshot is from november.

31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?
i don't think simple and visual are necessarily at odds with each other. i'm happy as long as the page loads quickly. (i have no patience for preloader screens...)
32. Do you stick to certain colours? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?
i like greens and blues and greys, so i use them the most. i don't have any rules against using other colors.
33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?
yes, but it hasn't been an issue since moving my site off neocities.
34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?
offline, i've run a few workshops to try to get my artists friends into it, and i think i'm slowly convincing a few...
online, there's no shortage of people to talk about websites with. i like to participate in community events. :-)
35. Do people in your real life know about your website?
yeah! i've been thinking about carrying a little NFC charm that leads to my site (like spencer and ragman do), to make it easier and more fun to show people.
36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often"?
my changelog has at least one entry per month since november 2022, but i don't keep track of every little typo fix, CSS adjustment, and broken link replacement, so the real answer is more often than that. i don't try to stick to a schedule, unless it's october.
37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?
in 2023, i changed the sitewide font from Ti Pro to DOS/V re. ANK24 and in 2025, i went from mostly using 3px outset borders to a pixel border from broider. other than that, i don't feel like my site has much of an overall design to change. i use different layouts on most pages, and that variety keeps me from getting too bored of any particular design. only in the past few months have i felt like changing up some of the pages i put together in late 2022 and early 2023.
38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?
unfocused! *thumbs up*
39. Do you do web design professionally?
no.
40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?
no. i'm a molecular biologist.
41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?
i recieve many emails, but i'm not very good at replying to them.
42. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?
i've been in the personal website space for long enough to notice that the people who are loudest about making a website to replace social media are usually the ones who give up on it because they feel lonely... i think this framing sets people up with unrealistic expectations.
you can find me online in a few places. i disabled my neocities profile, but i still look at my following feed and the global activity page pretty often. i post site updates on status.cafe sometimes, but i try to avoid looking at the main page at all. i'm on bluesky, for better or worse. i've tried and given up on the fediverse a couple of times. i'm not on instagram, but my partner lets me know when local events are announced there. any accounts i'm comfortable sharing with visitors to my site are linked on my contact page.
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 enjoy instant messaging. too fast. let me think for a little while...
44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?
not usually. right now, i'm listening to meewillis playing a link to the past.
45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?
on subdomains, there's notes.ribo.zone, spore.ribo.zone, and fan.ribo.zone.
on other domains, i've got drawingsformusic.org, apothecary.marigold.town, bug.nekoweb.org, and litter.leaflet.pub.
46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?
many! the other sites weren't made to keep topics separate, i just wanted to play with different hosting options, different styles, subdomains, PHP, SSGs...
47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?
see question one.
48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?
it feels mean to say no, but no. how could i, when i dislike emailing and instant messaging so much? my good friends are offline!
49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?
for the most part, yeah! i'm happy to write them.
my biggest complaint: i think CSS would be easier for beginners if border-box was the default behavior for box-sizing. why would i want the inner box to overflow (and be misaligned with!) the outer box, ever? content-box is unintuitive...
50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?
linking to non-existent pages. (especially in a navigation menu)
51. What about under-utilised practices, or things you think people should do more?
checking pages for dead links. (i like deadlinkchecker.com)
52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?
i don't think anyone should feel guilty about using a <div>. it's not that serious. that said, i prefer to use semantic elements when possible, because i think it's easier to write and read. <main> is simpler than <div class="main">.
53. Do you consider different browsers?
i test new pages in firefox and vivaldi (which is chromium-based). i don't own any apple devices, so i don't test in safari.
54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser? Convince your readers why they should use it.
i use firefox the most, but recent updates have annoyed me. vivaldi takes forever to open. i don't care enough to convince you of anything.
55. And what OS are you on?
windows 10...
56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?
i'm sick of windows and don't want to upgrade to 11. i was planning to switch before support for 10 ended last year, but then i got free extended security updates, so i keep putting it off. i'll probably go with linux mint, eventually.
57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?
my index page is arguably the least friendly, but i don't think it's that bad. everything fits on the screen, and each link is still big enough for me to tap with my thumb. without being able to hover or tab focus, a visitor might not know exactly where they're going, but the intro text suggests that poking around will take them somewhere... and the sitemap link is right there at the top for those who'd prefer more straightforward navigation. i try! the rest of my pages are well-behaved on mobile.
58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?
i have my devices muted all the time. your autoplay cannot reach me.
59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?
it's complicated... i like the idea of webrings, but in practice they are such a pain to navigate. so many broken links... and even when you can reach the next site, usually the widget is tucked away on some page other than the one you landed on. like with question 22 on button walls, i'm frustrated by sites that cram a bunch of webring widgets into a little scrollbox. i wanna see the links!
despite my complaints, i'm in a few rings. i manage the nature camp webring, and i'm a member of the CSS joy webring, gamedev webring, and code collective.
additional webring-like memberships

i'm also a member of the merveilles webring and melonland surf club webring, but they're just directories without an actual "ring" to navigate. i recently joined the milkmedicine webchain, which i think is a fun new shape for this kind of thing.

when i join a webring, i sign up with the exact URL that i'm going to put the widget on, so anyone visiting through the ring knows how to get back to it when they're ready to visit the next site. for topic-based rings, i add the widget to the page on my site that's most relevant to that topic. for example, someone browsing the gamedev webring is probably interested in games, right? so i send them straight to the page where i share my games. likewise, someone who clicks on my games page is probably interested in visiting other gamedev sites, so i put the widget right there to make it easy for them. i feel like an asshole for stating the obvious and repeating myself, but so few sites do this and i can't figure out why! webrings could be so good!
imagine a webring on [YOUR FAVORITE TOPIC], where clicking the next and previous buttons on the widget took you to pages about [YOUR FAVORITE TOPIC]. i've been to most of the rings on brisray's list, and the only ones i can remember that work like that are the toybox ring, pet pages ring, and carnivorous plants webring. more webrings could work like that with a little effort. i think it'd be fun.
60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?
i feel like the distinction between shrine and non-shrine pages on a personal website is arbitrary and kind of silly. on some sites, a shrine seems to be any page made about something the webmaster likes, but most of my pages are about things that i like... on other sites, a shrine seems to be any page that has a different layout or style than the rest of the site, but i give most of my pages different layouts and styles... so i dunno. the term has too much of a spiritual connotation for me, so i wouldn't use it on my site anyway.
when visiting shrine pages on other sites, i like to see earnestness.
61. Are your websites "cliche", in your opinion?
sometimes i feel that way when i see a site that copies mine too exactly, but i try not to dwell on it. the feeling passes.
62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?
an ideal website helps me understand something. an idea, a technique, a feeling, a place, a person... there are as many kinds of ideal website as there are things to understand about the world.
63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?
i draw sometimes! you can find my drawings on the sketchbook and doodle gallery pages. the background images across the site are my own photos.
64. What are your favourite resource sites?
mdn web docs, wikimedia commons, css-tricks, dithermark. thank u everybody ♥
65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?
no. why is this question so defeatist?
66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?
focus on what's important to you, and don't worry about the rest. any other advice i have might not be relevant, depending on what's important to you.
67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?
i know this is pedantic, sorry, but unless you're following HTML 4 spec, all your styling is in CSS. and hard-coding means something else in programming.
i'm pretty sure what this question means to ask is how/if i use external stylesheets, internal stylesheets, or inline styles. i have one external sheet for sitewide stuff like the font, link colors, and that border i use all over the place. other external stylesheets are kind of rare, but i'll make them whenever i have a group of pages with a shared layout. most of the CSS i write ends up in internal stylesheets, because most of my pages have their own layout. if a style is only meant to be used on one page, why bother moving it to a separate file?
i'll use inline CSS to style images that have absolute positioning, like on my index page or 2024 in review post. why bother making a class if i'm only going to use it once? (i would bother with classes if i wanted to adjust them with a media query, but i don't on those pages, so it's not a problem for me.)
68. What do you think of frameset layouts?
frames make it really easy to put the same navigation on multiple pages, but they also make linking more difficult. almost every link needs a target, which is extra work (and a major annoyance when set up incorrectly...). there's also the issue of linking to your site, because of how frames mess with the address bar. if you have a frame-based layout, i recommend using melon's frame link fix, so you (and others, like me!) can share links to your pages more easily.
69. How about table-based layouts?
some of the first pages i made were table-based, because i didn't follow any tutorials and it seemed like a reasonable way to stick two things next to each other. if you're writing the HTML by hand, i find that it quickly becomes a pain to keep track of what should go where... we have better options now! if you're planning a big elaborate "table" layout, you might have a better time with a CSS grid generator tool like this simple one, or this one with more options.
70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column", "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?
what do you mean by "subscribe to the ideas"? this page has two columns, some have one column, others have three or more columns. do columns have an ideology?
71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?
depends. if a page has a lot of writing on it, then probably the HTML. if not, maaaybe the CSS? i go back and forth between the two so much when making a new page that it's hard to say which one i spend more time on.
72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.
i don't see how unlinking my stylesheet would make a page more useful to me.
if you want to see a webpage without CSS, you can easily toggle it off in firefox. enable the menu bar, then select View > Page Style > No Style.
• related idea: CSS Naked Day
73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when the need arises?
not very often, and not in a while, whenever that mood strikes, i share the results on my free layouts page for others to use.
i find it easier and more satisfying to build a layout around the stuff i want to share, instead of sticking the stuff i want to share into a preexisting layout.
74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Or advanced? Somewhere in the middle?
i consider myself a hobbyist and don't worry too much about skill level.
75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?
YES! view source now! (button by me)
i do it all the time! the developer tools built into the browser are so awesome and fun to play around with. i love to inspect an element. the devtools even let you change elements (temporarily, just for you). if i'm interested in a site's layout, often the first thing i'll do is add * { border: 1px red solid; } to the inspector so i can see all the invisible elements that make up the page's structure. if a site's uncomfortable for me to read, i'll change the font, adjust the colors, set a max width, etc. if i'm looking for something specific on a page, sometimes i'll go the the source code and Ctrl+F there instead.
on mobile (in firefox), you can view the source code of a page by typing view-source: before the https:// in the address bar. i'll often do this on sites that are hard to read or navigate from a phone. those "come back on a real computer" messages cannot deter me.
76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?
i tried things, then looked stuff up when those things didn't turn out how i expected them to. they usually didn't, at first. i prefer mdn web docs now, but i looked at w3schools a LOT when i was getting started. i read a lot of conversations on stackoverflow. i viewed the source code of any site that did something i didn't know how to do. i still learn new things all the time.
77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?
in the first version of my blog page, i wrote <div class="list"> and filled it with <p> elements, instead of using <ul> and <li>. i think i did that because i didn't know i could style or remove the ::marker? not a huge deal, but i don't think i'd do it again. still makes me laugh though.
i've seen people say you aren't supposed to use the checkbox hack, but i love the checkbox hack. i will do it again.
78. Thoughts on floating elements?
float:left; and float:right;? very useful. there are so many situations where i just want to put an image or a textbox over to the side without having to make a whole column that leaves a bunch of blank space under it. speaking of blank space, if you're floating a non-rectangular element, give shape-outside a try.
i've also seen people refer to elements with position:fixed; or position:absolute; as "floating" if they overlap other elements. if an image gets in the way of me clicking a link, i'll be annoyed. slap pointer-events: none; on that thing. another thing i keep seeing lately is "scroll to top" buttons fixed to the bottom of the viewport where they block some (or all) of a site's footer links.
79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first? Do you use px, em, %, or something else?
it depends on the layout, and it depends on whether the stuff in question is text or an image or a border or a container. usually rem for font stuff... px for borders and padding. for containers and images, i usually set a max-width instead of a width (so they'll shrink automatically on smaller screens), sometimes in px, sometimes in %. i often get emails asking me how i get certain things to scale with screen size: that's vw.
when i'm really having fun, i like to combine different units with calc(). >:)
do you want to see the CSS i wrote to make the door on my greenhouse page stay aligned with the background image on any screen resolution? 
@media (max-aspect-ratio: 4/3) {
    .door {
        top: 52svh;
        left: calc(61vw - 10svh);
        width: 10.6svh;
    }
}
@media (min-aspect-ratio: 4/3) {
    .door {
        top: calc(52.5svh - 1vw);
        left: 53vw;
        width: 8vw;
    }
}

hahahahehehehehe.... i ♥ CSS

80. Do you have a favourite font?
i am obsessed with the font used on the restroom/concessions/other signs in this venue i only went to once. i don't know what it's called, i forgot to take a picture, and i can't find any online, so you'll just have to believe me when i say it was interesting. it was sort of normal but kind of weird? uncanny.
81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?
meewillis and i have recently started collaborating on web projects! one of us comes up with an idea, we discuss the vision, then i write the code and he creates the art. so far we've made computer user maker and plant grid together.
82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?
yes! i'm clicking links all the time. here's a recent favorite: geokash.com
83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?
i don't keep many broswer bookmarks. right now, it's just my RSS feed reader (yarr), my random link button, and a folder with a few bookmarklets. no personal sites in there. i use my site's links page as my bookmarks list.
84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?
i don't want people to be impressed. i'd rather someone think "oh cool anybody can put anything they want on a website. i'll give it a try too."
85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?
on our first date, meewillis asked me if i was a ham radio operator, because it "seemed like something [i'd] be into." i'm not (a ham), but that memory comes back to me whenever i wonder how people perceive me. anyway, yes, i'm interested in technology. i'm particularly interested in lab equiptment (because i work in a lab) and public infrastructure (because i live in a society). i'd like to do lots of little electronics projects (like this synth!), but i haven't found the time.
also... i like computer (button source unknown)
• recommended videos: technology connections (youtube)
• recommended audios: our friend the computer (podcast)
i sometimes intercept old tech on its way to the dump (i have a microscope from a lab that was going to be demolished and a CRT that i found on the curb), but i have no interest in buying things for the sake of collecting them.
• recommended reading: lowtech manifesto
86. How often and for how long are you online?
i don't keep track of the time very well, and i don't care to guess.
87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?
the idea of having an audience is so scary to me... (ó﹏ò｡)
88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?
interested enough to look it up, but not interested in using it. a more strict version of HTML, to make pages easier for robots to read? no thanks.
89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?
i write and use R sometimes at work, but generally no. for my site, i've written some regular expressions to generate repetitive HTML/CSS, but no programs.
90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators (SSGs)? Have you ever used one?
they're useful if you want to make a site where every page has the same layout, style, and navigation. i use quartz to generate my notes site from my obsidian vault, and it's great at what it does, but i really prefer my main site and writing things by hand. i don't like having to deal with someone else's code, external dependencies, etc. too much complexity.
91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?
i do not. popularity metrics stress me out. i hide view and follower counts on neocities profile pages too.
how to hide metrics on neocities

you can tell your browser to add CSS declarations to any site you visit. i do this in firefox by adding the code directly to the userContent.css file. here's a guide to setting this up on reddit, but note that they focus more on userChrome.css. another option is the stylus browser extension.

anyway here's my CSS for hiding views and traffic and follower counts:

this next bit limits the new followers section on profile pages to two lines. i don't want to hide it completely because it's a good way to find new sites, but i don't care to know the relative size of the thing. it's not my business if someone got a lot of followers recently; i'm there to see site updates...

p.s. check out userstyles.world if you're interested in website theme options!

access logs

since moving to nearlyfreespeech, i've been able to look at my site's access logs, which i guess are like a private hitcounter. i don't care so much about the raw numbers, but some of it is interesting. it's not exact (neocities stats aren't either), but i can see which pages are viewed the most, identify and block bots, and figure out where some of the traffic is coming from. (use rel="noreferrer" if you're linking to me and don't want me to know, ahah)

92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?
i lurk frequently. i used to post more often on the 32-bit cafe and melonland forums, but i haven't in a while.
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?
directly in the editor. i write in HTML; i don't convert my writing to HTML. that's an important distinction for me.
94. Do you think you appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?
sorry this does not matter once you turn [AGE REDACTED].
95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?
this is something i struggled with a lot as a teen. i wasn't really sharing things online back then, so it was analog deletion: ripping pages out of notebooks and throwing them away. by the time i started making websites, i had relaxed a bit.
i recently remade the index page for my blog. there are a few posts i feel a little embarrassed by, and others that i think are really boring. i don't think they're so horrible that they should be wiped from the internet, but i wouldn't want any of them to be someone's first impression of what i write about. so, i decided to unlink them from the main page without deleting them. they're still accessible through the "next" and "previous" links on their neighboring posts, so anyone who wants to read everything (even the boring ones) can still do so. it feels like a nice middle ground between deleting and archiving.
• recommended reading: sweetfish's i will not delete my games
96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?
scary to imagine a scenario where i couldn't update my site... am i dead? in a coma? lost at sea? in any of those cases, there's not much i'd be able to do to close it down, so i guess it'd stay up until my domain expires or my hosting account runs out of funds.
if i didn't want to update it anymore (also kind of scary to imagine), or if i wanted to take a long break from having to think about it (less scary), i would scrap the contact page, remove the comment sections from blog posts, and leave the rest up as it is.
97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?
more than some, less than others.
98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?
i don't have a best online friend, for reasons explained above.
my best offline friend is meewillis!
99. And do you optimise the images on your website?
yes! dithering reduces the file size considerably, and i do another round of compression after that with pinga. i like when pages load quickly.
• recommended reading: neonaut's Become a Compression Sorcerer
100. We're out of time! How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ....other than exhausted.
out of time? i can come back and edit this file whenever i want. right now, i don't want to answer a question ever again, but who knows how i'll feel tomorrow?
]]> new layouts for old pages https://ribo.zone ribozone004 Sun, 07 Dec 2025 18:31:00 EST this week, some renovations!

media recommendations

  • old layout: mostly unchanged since i first made it, back before i knew much css. it was all tables!
  • new layout: more condensed and shelf-like. it has sorting and filtering now :-)

games

  • old layout: boxes of different sizes smushed into the center of the page
  • new layout: more detailed + organized game sections, new column for navigation + external links, more pleasing to my eye

free stuff* → webcraft supplies

  • old: all over the place idk
  • new: graphics/layouts/snippets pages all have a standard layout with a nav bar linking them together

*a little silly that i called this section free stuff for so long. my whole site is free stuff?

]]> new gallery page: bug grid https://ribo.zone/bugs/grid/ https://ribo.zone/bugs/grid/ Tue, 25 Nov 2025 22:24:00 EST the photos from my abandoned insect photography account on instagram have a new home on my site! check out the bug grid to see some bugs.

]]> oops i forgot to make an RSS update for weird web october and now we're halfway through november https://ribo.zone/weirdweb/ https://ribo.zone/weirdweb/#2025 Sat, 15 Nov 2025 12:46:00 EST erm here are my weirdwebtoberpages 👍

lots of little changes to other areas of the site too

]]> goodbye blaugust https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/bye https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/bye Sun, 31 Aug 2025 15:32:00 EDT in the first half of august, i wrote 4,825 words.

graph of my word count per day. most were around 250, until the second half of the month, where i wrote nothing.

my biggest takeaway from the experience is that i don't enjoy blogging very much.

that's it. farewell!

]]> free time https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/free-time https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/free-time Fri, 15 Aug 2025 18:59:00 EDT we're halfway through blaugust and i've posted something every day, somehow. i feel a mix of satisfaction and relief. we're halfway through, so it's possible for me to write. we're halfway through, so i might as well keep going... even though it leaves me with very little time to do anything else.

many of the other blaugust participants run gaming blogs, and i look at them with a little bit of envy. i miss playing games! that's how i like to spend my free time after work during the week. but here i am, spending at least an hour or two every day trying to smash my brain into a shape that can produce words. before blaugust, i was playing xenogears. i love it; i'm very invested in the story and i'm excited to see what happens next, but i haven't found the time to play at all in the last two weeks. i've been planning a post to highlight some games from the queer games bundle, but again, i'm struggling to find the time to play them!

i suppose my options here are...

  • stop blogging every day, game instead
  • write faster! no editing! game after
  • stay up really late and wake up really early
  • surgically remove my gamer gland, freeing me from my desire to play games
  • be patient, run wild and free in september
  • quit my job

(not looking for advice! just dreaming about computer games.)

]]> science is for everyone https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/science-is-for-everyone https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/science-is-for-everyone Thu, 14 Aug 2025 20:36:00 EDT

Q: Hi, i'm someone that is struggling with a learning disorder and i was wondering if you think it is possible for someone like me to finish a biology degree in university? do you have any tips?

yes! of course it's possible! you can do it!!!

a cardboard sign that says 'science is for everyone!!!' in big bubble letters, with drawings of DNA, an atom, and a flask
sign by my friend and labmate

i don't have any tips for getting through classes, because i struggled a lot with mine and never quite figured out how to struggle less. one of the ways i dealt with it was getting involved in research! it didn't make my classes easier, but it helped me realize that there are more important things than getting good grades.

getting a degree is not a race or a competition. i took longer than everyone i work with to finish my degree, and i'm okay! no one makes a big deal about it. no one asks about my grades. try your best, of course, but remember that your best doesn't have to look like anyone else's. it really is okay to take things slower. you don't have to ace everything and be a superstar student to be a good scientist. it's not about memorizing the most facts or recalling them the fastest, but about being curious about the world and willing to try again when experiments don't work out. whether you want to do wet lab work or field work or some other kind of work after graduating, they're all very different experiences than being an undergrad, and they engage your brain in different ways. struggling now doesn't mean you'll struggle forever. you can get through this!

]]> dithering https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/dithering https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/dithering Wed, 13 Aug 2025 19:25:00 EDT

Q: Sorry if you've already answered this somewhere - but how / why do you dither all the images on your site? Do you do them all manually, or do you have some cool pipeline? And was the dithering an aesthetic choice, or also to do with image sizes? I like it btw!

how

i use dithermark! it's linked in the credits section of my site info page, the webweaving resources section of my links page (under image tools), and most recently, the first section of my contact page, which i hoped would reduce the number of times1 i get asked about it.

no cool pipeline. i'm a drag and dropper, not a programmer.

  1. resize each image to whatever dimensions i plan to display it at
    • usually with photopea
    • rarely, if i want multiple images to be the same size, with birme
  2. drag and drop into dithermark
    • usually i use the default settings
    • occasionally i'll change it up and use a different dithering algorithm or color palette (like the 2-3 color palettes i've been using for blaugust)
  3. drag and drop into my site's local folder
  4. rename files
  5. drag and drop into pinga if i remember
  6. drag and drop the images (and the html files that reference them) into the neocities dashboard when they're done (or done enough)

dithermark doesn't do gifs, so the few dithered gifs on my site were made with photoshop's export for web function. i don't have access to photoshop anymore, so i'll have to find another option eventually.

why

i guess i've never publicly explained why i like to dither images, but the answers are right there in your question: it's both. i like the way it looks, and i like when things load fast.

superficial reasons

i prefer crunchy to smooth, square to round, pulp to pulp-free... i like to dither images for the same reason i use pixel fonts and don't use border-radius in my css: i like the look of sharp, blocky edges. dithering has that crunchy texture i like.

it's also a really simple way to make images from different sources look like they go together. the shared color palette and texture do a lot to make photos with wildly different lighting and perspective still feel like part of a cohesive whole.

practical reasons

small files load faster than large files. making the images on my site tiny means i can use more of them without my pages taking forever to load. there are something like 1500+ images2 on my site but the whole thing only takes up 0.3% (152.04 MB)3 of the 50 GB storage i get from neocities. if my site keeps growing at a constant rate, it will take 997 years to run out of space.

  1. enough times that i have started to dread checking my personal email inbox.
  2. searching for .png within my site's folder in file explorer yields 1,627 results right now.
  3. these numbers are from my neocities dashboard. (also, almost a quarter of that space is used up by a single page with a few videos on it. videos are big! each image barely makes a dent!)
]]> what is a blog? https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/what-is-a-blog https://ribo.zone/blog/blaugust-2025/what-is-a-blog Tue, 12 Aug 2025 20:02:00 EDT is this a post?

]]>