Interview With Elsie

Q: When and how did you first discover the personal / indie web?
A: I heard about Neocities (I think it was through social media during summer 2025?) before I discovered the indieweb. I think at the time I was just bored and was looking for fun website builders and came across Neocities, and subsequently the indieweb community! 

Q: What inspired you to make a website of your own?
A: Since at the time I just graduated high school and about to go into university, I had way too much time and too little to do (doesn’t help the break was 4 month long due to the different educational systems of my hs and uni). i’ve always liked the idea of having my own webpage, not really for any purpose other than to showcase my personality and style. I’ve used a few commercial site builders like Wix or Carrd before; I didn’t particularly like any of them as they felt either too commercial or limiting. So, when I discovered Neocities and had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to give it a go. Even though it’s a lot of effort and I had to learn coding from scratch, I really enjoy customizing it! 

Q: How did you come up with the name for your website?
A: It was really just an aha moment. My name is Elsie, which can be shortened to Els, and it’s my own space on the internet, so els-where. elswhere. you know? It just occurred to me one day and I stuck with it. 

Q: I noticed you have some cool coding projects on your website! Do you have more creative coding projects in the works?
A: I’m considering it! I do have a few I wanna try and do in mind, but since I’m in university right now and exams are approaching, I don’t have much time for creative work. This is especially true because I’d have to learn while doing since I’m still kind of beginner on coding. Maybe I’ll get to work during the summer! (p.s. I recently added this Page to my website! I’m not exactly sure what I’m gonna do with it yet but if I am to have more fun projects they’d probably go there!) 

Q: What inspired you to start coding?
A: I literally learned coding just to make a Neocities website. I took coding lessons when I was around 10-11, but stopped to focus on academics and also cause I don’t see coding to be a part of my future development and stuff like that. I remember the basic coding logic of HTML, JS and CSS from back then, but I had to relearn most of the specifics. 

Q: What does having your own online space mean to you personally?
A: My ‘tagline’ for my website is ‘elsie’s internet closet’ and I think it pretty much embodies the view I have to having my own online space. It’s a place where I can quite literally do whatever I want, decorate it however I want, and I find that to be in a sense kind of freeing. I think growing up I always find a sense of happiness in having something that’s mine or belongs to me, and my own online space provides me with just that. 

Q: Do you have a personal philosophy when it comes to building a personal website?
A: Not really? I mean, again, it’s just a personal space for me to curate and do whatever I want. I kind of just go with the flow in terms of adding stuff to the website, instead of having a set manifesto or philosophy on what it should look like. 

Q: What does ownership on the web mean to you? 
A: I’m assuming this question is about intellectual property? Under the law probably everything we put onto our Neocities site are protected by copyrights and we legally ‘own’, but I think while there are stuff that I clearly own on my website (eg my artworks, graphic designs, etc) there are also a lot of stuff that I technically made but are inspired or borrowed from elsewhere (code and stuff). For me, while clear ownership for the former is important, defining ownership for the latter component is not only difficult but also kind of meaningless. I think indieweb is a place where people mutually inspire each other, and having rigid ownership on certain things just makes it a bit difficult. It is good etiquette to credit inspirations and such though. 

Q: Do you feel more like yourself on your site than you do on social media platforms?
A: I think it’s more like I display different aspects of myself on my site versus on social media. My social media are private and mainly for people I know irl, so in a sense I can be myself on there through being relatable, sharing my life and stuff like that. But on my site I get to show a different part of myself that’s more creative and artistic. I don’t think there’s a single platform where I’m entirely myself; rather, I display different aspects of myself on each. 

Q: Has having a personal website changed the social dynamic of how you interact with people online?
A: Not really? I guess I have more confidence reaching out to others whereas on traditional social media I’m a bit more reserved, but other than that I really can’t see clear differences. 

Q: Is your website more for others, or more for yourself?
A: Myself, but I also want others to like the stuff I create cause, you know, validation is fun. 

Q: What inspired your site’s aesthetic/theme?
A: I honestly kind of forgot. I think at the time the stuff I had in mind for my theme was just purple/periwinkle/lavender, pixels, and cool-looking. I think back then I was also quite into the 90s-2000s aesthetic, which was more evident through my old site banner but I just updated it. I really like my theme now still but even if I don’t I’d lowkey be too lazy to change it. 

Q: Do you have any creative inspirations that influenced the direction of your site? If so, who?
A: I can’t name a single one, as most of my inspirations just come from browsing random sites on Neocities. Though recently a site I really like and want to take inspirations from is this. Its aesthetic differs quite a lot from my site, but I really like how the structure is presented and the creative details on each page.

Q: Is your site handcoded, built from a template, a combination or something else? What inspired you to go this route?
A: I started by using sadgrl’s template builder and gradually modifying it to be more like my own over time. I chose this route because when I just started I really just didn’t know anything about coding, so I need a structure for me to build off of. But over time, I began adding my own flare to not only the graphics of the website but also the structure, and it’s beginning to feel truly my own. 

Q: What part of website building do you find the most frustrating or challenging?
A: CSS. Specifically flexbox. Early on I also had a lot of frustrations in trying to incorporate widgets onto my site (which is on Neocities free plan), but I’ve since then gotten the hang of it. 

Q: What’s one thing you’ve learned from building your personal website that you wish you knew starting out?
A: Don’t be afraid to add random stuff here or there, even if you think it’s going to conflict with the ‘aesthetics’ or ‘organization’ of the website! Also if a widget doesn’t work just host it somewhere else and iframe it. 

Q: What’s your favorite page or area of your website, and why?
A: I think it’s the Extra page! It’s basically a menu page for all the other subpages of the site. The layout here is distinct from the other main pages and I really like the item menus at the top of the page. I also tried incorporating a scenario dialogue element at the top of the page which I also think is really cool! It’s just a page I made when I decided to experiment a bit more and I ended up really liking it  

Q: What’s something on your site that feels deeply personal or meaningful to you? 
A: Probably my artworks page and my Blog. The former is just a collection of artworks I’ve done throughout the years, and as someone who’s been drawing as a hobby since childhood, seeing my artworks always reminds me of my progress over time. As for my blog, it’s just a place where I feel that I can express the most of my personality through my writing. 

Q: Do you have any hidden details or ‘easter eggs’ on your website?
A: Not yet, but I’m thinking it’d be very cool to have some! Feel free to give me some suggestions lol. 

Q: When visiting other people’s websites, what are your favorite things to see?
A: Creative layouts and designs! I just really love looking at pretty and aesthetically pleasing things. I love it when the designs feel very intentional, polished, and full of detail. 

Q: What do you wish you saw more of across the personal web?
A: Oddly specific but I really like the idea of having interactive features on a website, like polls or even little web games! This is also something I wish to incorporate into my site as well, if I ever find the time haha. 

Q: Have you been able to connect with many others across the personal web? What has your experience been like with that so far?
A: I think obviously the quantity of connection is limited across the personal web because there’s no algorithm or ways to push your content out (there’s webrings and stuff but that’s about it), so you kinda have to wait for people to discover your website. But I feel like the quality of connection is definitely good. Everyone I’ve interacted with from the indieweb are all so creative and nice, and overall a pleasure to be around! I also love to linger on some of the forums like Melonland, or even the Neocities Reddit sometimes. 

Q: What do you think would make social interactions easier on the personal web?
A: As I mentioned above, forums are pretty cool. Also what you (aevisia) is doing with this member feature is another cool way for webmasters to discover each other and connect. However, I think making social interactions too easy on the personal web would kind of take away some quality of connection as it becomes something more like social media. 

Q: How do you discover other independent websites?
A: The ‘website’ tab on Neocities, webrings, forums, or looking through others’ button page! There’s no definitive way of discovering websites and that’s what I like the most about the indieweb as you may be able to find cool things/websites anywhere. 

Q: Is there a point you think your website will ever be finished, or do you see it more as a living breathing project that continuously evolves over time?
A: Definitely not, at least from the way I look at it. There’s still a lot of things I want to improve and add to my website, and those aren’t gonna be finished anytime soon due to my lack of free time and lowkey dedication also. But even if I get those all done, I feel like I’m always going to find more things to add or improve. 

Q: What’s a feature or idea you have for your website that you’re excited to add in the future?
A: I’ve always wanted to add interactive web-games on my website, and now I’m eyeing a choose your own adventure game! One thing about me is I also love to make up stories so this will be so fun to make. I have found a game framework that might work but I haven’t tried it out yet nor do I know if it’ll work on Neocities, but I’ll maybe test it out soon

Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own personal website?
A: There’s no need to make sure your website is ‘perfect’ before starting, we all need to start somewhere! Also don’t be afraid to experiment and try out new styles; explore other personal websites for inspiration; you can always look into their source code to see how they do certain cool features.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share in closing? It can be about anything – something about or on your website, advice, resources, whatever comes to mind!
A: One more advice — write your website files using a text editing software (I use VSCode) before pushing them to Neocities instead of editing the files directly there. It makes the process much easier. 

Conclusion

Thank you so much Elsie for sharing your website! It’s been a pleasure to do this interview with you, and it was so much fun to go through and see the different pages and projects you’re working on throughout this feature. I think you will inspire many people who are either discovering personal web building for the first time, or perhaps have been grappling with the idea for awhile but haven’t quite taken the leap yet. Building a personal website is such a fun, personal, and creative experience.

And to our readers, if you’ve enjoyed exploring Elsie’s website, which part did you enjoy exploring the most? Was there anything she shared that has helped you on your personal web building journey? Leave a comment here and/or in her guestbook and spread the love!