Starting a Webpage

Sorry if the title was misleading, but this is actually about why I have not started a webpage yet, given all the time that I put into making a blog. A lot of people have asked me why I don't make one, and I tell them that I have tried to start one many times, but I just can't seem to follow through with it. I guess the main reason is that I don't have much of a purpose to do it. I mean, it's not like I own a business or lead an organization which would need any sort of website. That's the biggest factor.

Another big reason is the bad taste left in my mouth from high school years, when everyone and their momma built themselves a makeshift AOL page. All these lame sites really did was make me want to vomit. Basically, each page was exactly the same layout: get a cheesy background, include some clipped images from other sites, find a MIDI of the Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games With My Heart," add a bunch of pictures with captions (usually full-size, scrolling vertically down the page), and there you have it. Links to all your friends' awful pages is a must as well. Be sure to also add a guestbook and harass visitors like crazy to sign it too. "Don't forget to sign my guestbook!!" is probably the most used sentence to end those pages. In extreme cases, I'll occasionally get a little pop-up box that tells me to "Please Sign The Guestbook! OK/CANCEL," and inevitably I'll always click CANCEL. I wish there was a "Get the #^($ out of my face button." It's all a lot like that girl from Can't Hardly Wait, "Sign my yearbook? Sign my yearbook?" except it annoys unsuspecting folk all over the internet and you can't shove her into a pool. So after seeing how terrible a personal page can become, I decided that I must tread very carefully should I ever try to make one myself.

Now, even people who have made pretty good personal webpages probably have found that it is hard to keep it up to date. And, if it's not regularly updated, people won't visit it after a while and your page will quickly lose its usefulness. The same could go for blogs, if you go months without updating, what's the point of having one? So basically, you spend a couple hours, days, weeks, or whatever it is, working to build a page which people will come, browse for a few minutes, and that's about it. This is why you need a good purpose to make a page.

There's plenty of good reasons to make one, I know. It's a good chance to learn and practice HTML, Dreamweaver, Flash, Java, or whatever it is. You can post your resume in the hopes that an employer will find it and like you, or post your picture in the hopes that a fine Asian hottie will stumble upon it and come chasing after your hot body across the country. It could be a good way to express yourself, your interests, etc. like cars, religion, or mullets. My point is, you gotta have some strong motivation to build a webpage, otherwise it will either turn out like half-assed crap or it will not get done at all. Personally, like I already said, I don't have much of a reason to make a page and I tend to prefer the not doing, rather the posting of of crap (this blog is an exception).

See, in this blog, I actually write more for my own benefit than for other people. I like the opportunity to clear my mind and write down all my scattered thoughts, which will hopefully be recorded for a long time such that I can come back in a few years and see what a freak I was back then. Honestly, even though it's definitely nice that people do read and respond to my blogs, I would probably still write in it if not a single person ever read it.

Before I wrap up yet another pointless, random entry, let me make a few more comments on good vs. bad personal webpages that might hopefully stem the tide of poorly made pages:

1. If your webpage has only one actual page, it is not a good webpage. I would hesitate to even consider it a real webpage. Every page should have a front page that at least links to some smaller sub-pages, instead of just lumping everything in random order onto one gigantic heap of confusion.

2. For pictures, using thumbnails is always a plus. There are fancy programs which will actually do this for you these days so there is almost no excuse not to use them. If you don't use thumbnails, try to organize it in some easy to view manner. At least if you have like 30 pictures, don't just pile all of them in full-screen size one below the next to form a crazy long string of images/captions, shrink them or something and put them so you can see 4 or 5 pictures within one window. I guess in this day of cable modem or whatever fast connection there is, it might not matter as much, but still.

3. Guestbooks are good - for guests. So it's pretty dumb to beg all your friends to sign your guestbook, who you probably see every day anyways. It's a nice place for people to leave comments if they randomly browsed onto your page and had some thoughts to share.

4. Almost any type of sound does not belong in your webpage. Especially MIDI's, they are extremely tacky and in many cases downright gay. Maybe in a few years, when computers and the Web as a whole are actually more multimedia and interactive, then sounds will be appropriate. For now, the only thing website sound does is annoy me like nothing else, make the site less professional, and at times scare the living crap out of me when I forget I have the volume turned up on my speakers.

I may think of more, but keep those tips in mind for now. Time for me to go again.