small web september 2026

this event is organised by smallweb.dreamwidth.org for which i have registered. (they forced me to create a LiveJournal thingy that i don't even want!) anyway, i'll primarily be posting my notes here.

kick-off

Welcome, kick-off and goals: What project(s) will you be working on during the month? Come and tell us all about them, and what you’d like to focus on!

for small web september this year im going to be continuing (as always) the development of my personal neocities web site, Shen's World!

i don't especially want to over-burden my fragile brain with too-specific or ambitious goals (this site pretty much grows organically if and when the inspiration strikes.) however, this is a casual event and i already have a long (and rapidly growing) todo list, so let me pick out some general aims for the month:

add (existing) light/dark switcher to all pages (and tidy-up how it works!)
change base CSS to use variables (somehow i've never used a CSS variable!)
introduce different fonts somewhere, somehow. maybe a global font chooser? or maybe just use different fonts on some (new?) pages.
create one of the shrines i'm scared of creating...
do my big update to the credits page (can be combined with progress on the links page)
improve MY button collection, using different background options etc. (can be combined with some sort of consolation of the gallery, which ive neglected)
add a proper blogroll (or whatever im going to call it), and/or links to my favourite sites (separate from my button wall) (maybe finally add my opml reader)
start actually displaying webmentions (on some pages if not all)
start adding the microformats (or whatever you need) to send webmentions
implement at least two well-known slash pages
add at least one new feature to my pocketmarkup project

check-in one

Site structure & navigation: How do you tackle structuring your project/page/site? What about if you want to reorganise the structure of your in-progress project – what’s the best way to go about it? Share your tips, tools, and techniques!

my web site is intentionally missing any site-wide navigation. because i wanted it to grow organically. and i have (so far) not used any sort of fixed template. i update my sitemap at least once a month with (hopefully) all of my new pages (if any) and point everything back to that. i do have some pretty navigation buttons on the homepage which could form the basis of a navigation system but, to be frank, i really like the unstructuredness of everything and using in-page links to lead the way.

i try to avoid renaming files if at possible because Cool URIs don't change. that means my sitemap shows my *logical* structure of the site rather than its physical structure. i don't consider this a problem because no one actually cares what directory a page is located in, as long as the story makes sense.

/slashes

my next vaguely navigation-related topic is slash pages: well-known URLs under the root of your web site.

i've been aware of this concept for a while, but it was Brennan who made me realise it was a real thing people are (still) doing. so for small web september i am aiming to implement (at least) two slash pages, but which ones?

well, imagine my surprise when i consulted this list and discovered i actually already have a few slash pages!

perhaps i should make a list of them, but where should i put it? turns out there's a slash pages for slash pages: /slashes

sitemap

oh yeah navigation... i've also done my (almost-monthly) update to my sitemap. the site's way bigger than i thought it was (i hope it's actually got something on it!)

check-in two

Accessibility/Halfway point! Making sites accessible to different types of device, modes of usage, and needs – whether that’s screenreaders, keyboard-only navigation, reducing vertigo or nausea triggers, easy readability, or anything in between – is really important. But it can also be difficult to know where to start, or how to check if your site is covering its bases with accessibility. This check-in will be a place for people to trade information, guides, and suggestions about accessibility to help out others who want to improve their projects.

accessibility

i'm not gonna lie, i got a bit head-spinny and panicky thinking about this one. i thought i knew a lot about accessibility (i once read Joe Clark and everything!) and while i guess the principles are the same, the techniques seem to have moved on beyond my experience.

(at least it must have done, because when i ran my homepage through one of those accessibility checking products i only scored like 9% and i didn't understand what they wanted me to do. i updated a few alt="" tags, but i won't be paying for the full report.)

(it always irked me that everyone insisted on called them "alt tags" when they are blatantly attributes, but the small amount of energy i have for resistance is better directed elsewhere. you win this one, alt tag people!)

back when i was in the web design business (dontcha know) i remember, many many years ago, trying to explain to a client about contrasts and colour-blindness. the guy literally laughed in my face. "i don't think any of my customers would be colour blind or disabled, guffaw guffaw!" (ok pal, but watch out for that red button)

anyway, for now (for my sanity and to get this topic answered) i'm just going to mention two things about my web site that might be considered "accessibility considerations" if not just "nice to haves:"

responsiveness - the site is generally viewable on either mobile or desktop. that is: the layout adapts to fit your screen. hopefully this works on most screen resolutions and orientations. it's necessarily mobile-first because i do most of my work on mobile at the moment. i'm not saying it's good, but there are a few CSS media queries around to help it look ok-ish on bigger devices. i'm sort of gradually trying to improve this the more i see it from different perspectives.
dark/light mode - yeah yeah, the site is built in dark mode first because i like it that way. i always knew i should have an option to change the theme, but i didn't really take it seriously until someone actually said (i think it was on reddit) that they wouldn't be visiting me again becuase it was "just too dark." ok ok, so now i have a theme switcher (i don't really like it, but i understand it.) it's not standardised, but look at the top of most pages for a button that says "light switch" or something. it doesn't follow your device theme (because i want dark as the default and it's my web site,) but it will save your preference in localStorage and use it everywhere-ish.

9/11 anniversary

the 25th anniversary of September 11th passed during this year's small web september. and i got me thinking a lot about where i was and the people i knew (it happened very early in my web dev career, and shaped a lot of what came next). so here is a little page i'm working on: the Web on 9/11.

check-in three

Recs & resources: On top of those already shared in previous check-ins, this is a point for everyone to trade the great resources they’ve come across – or created! – along their small webbing journey. Awesome knowledge abounds!

resources

ok, i guess the main resource i use is Neocities to host my website. i pay for Neocities as a supporter because the Namecheap outage earlier in the year made me realise i need my own domain. as long as i keep hold of the domain, i can host the site anywhere, should i ever need to. not that i really want to at the moment. a perk and irony of Neocities is that it does have social networking features, even though we're ostensibly all on there to ditch social media. the Neocities feed notifies you of edits from your friends and helps us discover new stuff. and while that's not really necessary, it's fun and i like it.

ive also mirrored my whole web site to nekoweb because one of my friends was struggling to reach it on Neocities. Nekoweb doesn't have the same level of developer interaction as Neocities, but i could technically re-point my domain to that host without much downtime if i ever needed to.

(oh well, as i was writing this section, Neocities had a planned outage. i tried to switch my A record to Nekoweb but it just muttered something about Cloudflare and wouldn't let me do it. might be time for a rethink..)

my next favourite resource is MDN, my go-to coding reference for anything web related. unfortunately im going to buck the trend here and say i don't really recommend W3schools, i don't like the format of it all and some of it's really outdated.

and here are two handy browser-based image editors i use a lot: photoresizer.com and photopea

check-in four

Graphics, design & themes/Wrap-up: This check-in point will be a place to share all the fun badges, buttons, blinkies and other visual creations you’ve made or come across, as well as themes and templates for your project as a whole! Plus, a look back over what you’ve worked on during SWS. How did it go?

odd

uhh, i got a bit distracted this week answering the excellent 100 odd questions i found on Sam's Solar System. i pulled a bit of an all-nighter, but it was good fun.

graphics

here are some of my little 88x31 buttons campaigns i created for fun:

my other buttons live on my buttons page (seemed appropriate)

themes/templates

i intentionally don't use a fixed template, i just start with a blank page and a basic stylesheet. my homepage is probably the most complete in terms of layout. everything else just evolves as much or as little as needed.

progress

i get a bit lost talking about updates and "what's changed" on my web site because i tend to dip into different pages and make small tweaks whenever i get the urge. everything is developing slowly at the same time and i nothing ever seems finished enough to "announce". it's not really that sort of web site. im thinking of doing those "weekly notes" type updates when i don't have anything major to talk about.

so what, if anything, did i a get done from my original list?

add (existing) light/dark switcher to all pages (and tidy-up how it works!): added to most pages so i guess im calling that done
change base CSS to use variables (somehow i've never used a CSS variable!): nope
introduce different fonts somewhere, somehow. maybe a global font chooser? or maybe just use different fonts on some (new?) pages.: well my new Babylon 5 page and todo list use different fonts, so that'll do for now. done.
create one of the shrines i'm scared of creating...: started but haven't finished a shrine to Babylon 5. so i guess that's done(ish).
do my big update to the credits page (can be combined with progress on the links page): no, too scary
improve MY button collection, using different background options etc. (can be combined with some sort of consolation of the gallery, which ive neglected): didn't do it, but i created a little button for one of our online communities Ctrl+Shift+3

also updated my main button page to include my campaign buttons
add a proper blogroll (or whatever im going to call it), and/or links to my favourite sites (separate from my button wall) (maybe finally add my opml reader): still haven't done it. it will probably end up as /friends. however, i have added a "hot" box on my homepage to call out new stuff im reading.
start actually displaying webmentions (on some pages if not all): done! still not 100% sure im happy with it, but it works.
start adding the microformats (or whatever you need) to send webmentions: not done
implement at least two well-known slash pages: it turned out i already had a few, so i added /slashes to list them all. done!
add at least one new feature to my pocketmarkup project: haven't touched it this month at all.

ok my aims were a little bit too ambitious, but i intentionally chose a fairly broad range of "nice to have" stuff. i was never going to manage all of it. i'm pretty satisfied with the stuff i did achieve, and everything else can be done another day.

feedback

Share your feedback about the month to help improve future events!

i love the idea of small web september. but while it's been fun getting involved, i got a bit lost in the goal-setting area. this site is just supposed to be a fun project to tinker with without those kind of pressures. i guess i kept reminding myself that it's only a casual event and none of it really matters. im happy with how my site is progressing even if im not "achieving" anything to speak of.

the end.

well i guess that's goodbye to September for another year! to read everyone else's notes, pop over to the official site: smallweb.dreamwidth.org.