MOUSELING.net

What's in a good site?

A week ago I wrote an article on things I think people should avoid if they want to create and share websites, Hyper Text Muck-up Language. But what should you do, then, if all of those things aren't ideal? What's in a good site?

My number one answer is passion. Passion for whatever you're sharing and passion for working on the site itself. Of course, that's a little vague; it's like saying if you want to write a book, you need something to write about; sure it's true, but it doesn't help the advice-seeker, does it? All it does is cause frustration!

So, I'd like to filter through what "passion" actually means, and what it might result in. It's easier to know what you are capable of when the options are distilled to their simplest forms.

Let's define passion, between you and me and this Web page, as a love for something and the drive to share it. In the context of making websites, we'll take "sharing it" to specifically refer to putting it on your own website.

Now, what does someone do with their desire to share something? There are plenty of people who have a thousand ideas in their heads but can't do a thing about it. I'm one of these people. It's hard to verbalise thoughts, ideas even more so, pictures even less. Even when you manage to write or draw whatever you're thinking of... what do you do with it? How do you make it approachable to others?

I don't blame anyone for being intimidated. I hope my ideas might help just a little.

Passion for what?

You certainly have passion for something. What for?

Pick your topic. You can have multiple on one website, but as with anything, you should take it one at a time. When I started MOUSELING.net, my focus and passion was the (now-defunct!) blog. I would talk about things I did in my daily and not-so-daily life. That's what I wanted to share.

Your topic might be your favourite character or movie, or an opinion you have. It might be something you have extensive knowledge on. It might be your own art or your own writing. It might be something in the world that you find interesting, or you might have an urge to teach people something. Maybe you want to chronicle your own life.

Despite my disdain for extensive "about me" websites that pretend to be something else, I think it's perfectly fine for your passion to be yourself. The only shortcoming that comes with sharing your own life, as I have said before, is keeping empty lists and no real words. A list of your favourite anime is fine; a list of your favourite anime plus what makes them good and special to you is great.

Once you have a topic, I think there are a minimum of three things you can do with it, and many ways to go about doing those three things.

Teach people something

If you have a lot of knowledge on something or just have something to say, why not put it out there for others to see? There are always going to be people who will read it. You can share your own knowledge in a variety of different ways. How about some examples?

Lived experience

If you love something very much, or at least have dedicated a part of your life to learning about it, you certainly have some "lived experience" with it—either through directly interacting with that thing, the actions and reactions that come as a result of learning about that thing, or maybe the very act of learning.

How about you share your own experiences and the things you've learned from them? Or the exact moment that made you love your favourite character?

I feel like suboptimalism's learning japanese: the suboptimalist perspective is a stunning example of commenting on the act of learning in a way that might help others. While learning, he saw common failings and things that not many people have commented on, and moved to comment on them himself while adding his own opinions.

Likewise, if you've noticed something while living your life, why don't you write it down and share it if you think it could help someone? It almost certainly could, or it would be interesting at the very least.

Obscure facts

You know a lot about your favourite thing. Maybe you know some super stupid stuff about your favourite game's development, stuff only crazy fans would know. Maybe you have a collection of amazing facts about a certain type of snail. What do you do? You share them!

My Muchi Muchi Anago fansite is nothing but a collection of obscure facts on an obscure topic. People still seem to be very interested in it despite knowing nothing about the band prior.

You could share a list of facts. You could share a list of facts and their details. You could share how all these facts intermingle or how they relate to whatever you're talking about at large. You could point all these facts to why your take on your favourite character is THE one to believe in, even.

Your opinions

You're a person. You have thoughts on the world, don't you? You have something you really like (or dislike!), don't you?

You're no doubt bursting to tell people. On a website, you could tell people exactly what you think and why, in any format you please. Do you have a strong view of what lolita fashion really is? Or maybe you're politically inclined? You could even write some sort of persuasive text, if just you'd stop all that itching from thinking about that term in the context of your high school.

This text, and the last one, are also my own opinions: I'm telling you what I like to see and don't like to see. Are they persuasive? That's up to you to decide. (^^)

As I write this, I currently share my opinions on the show Kamen Rider Zeztz as new episodes come out weekly in a "liveblog" format. It's all still my own opinions.

Introduction to a hobby or interest

If you like something very much, maybe you would want other people to like that thing too. What's the most direct way to do that? Convert people! Tell (or show) them exactly what it is, how it's done, things you like.

This one is my personal bread and butter. I like bands in a rather obscure scene, so I do my best to introduce people to the scene. This page is nothing but a simple rundown on the subject, but it gives people some pointers (songs to listen to), and it might even brainwash a person or two with some effort.

With a little more drive and time, you might even make a comprehensive guide for getting into XYZ. Wouldn't that be amazing to show off? Hell, something simple would be amazing too. I know that the potential to win someone over is very attractive to many people.

Offer something useful

You probably have something you can give, even if you don't realise it. Do you love to play with CSS, but you don't know how to use all those layouts you keep making? Do you see other people struggling with something you find rather trivial? In these cases and many more, you have the potential to help.

Resources

This is a simple one: if you have knowledge, like in the above section, you could use it to help people. If you don't have the expertise or items to give away, but you know where to locate that expertise, you could create a directory linking to resources you like and trust.

If somebody else has a resource page too, think to yourself: how can I do this, but better? The answer might surprise you. There are plenty of ways to improve on other people's work.

Free stuff

If you have something to offer, the best thing you can do is not only offer it but make it free. Do you make a lot of decorative graphics or layouts that you just don't know what to do with? Have you written a little program that you find just a bit helpful? Other people might want to use these things, too.

I'm not telling you to give up your services for free—I waive no copyright on my own art and people still pay me for it on occasion. But if you have no use for something, or infinite copies can be made, and it's not intrinsically tied to your identity, why not put it out there for others?

One of my favourite websites, Patterns for Personal Web Sites, calls this sort of thing a gift to the community. I personally offer layouts for free, when I feel like making them without putting them to use.

Guides & tutorials

If you have the passion for something, you might be able to help others with their woes. Maybe you have something unique you've made, and you want to show other people how they can make one for themselves. Maybe you just feel like it.

Is there a secret route in a video game that people have trouble getting, but you've memorised every step in the routine? Maybe you haven't memorised it, entirely, but the other guides for it are overly confusing? Maybe you have what it takes to make a better guide. It would at least make sense to you.

Are you releasing a sewing pattern but want to show people how to put it together? Can you explain how HTML works with simple, beginner-friendly language? These things might make for good tutorials, too.

Showcase a personal pursuit

You have hobbies and goals, right? Whether it's collecting, a sport, fashion, watching movies or creating things, you surely do something to fill your time each day. If you don't, you might start learning how to make a website to fill your time. Why don't you show it all off and keep a journal of your progress? I know you want to.

Blogs

A blog is a very simple thing to make. There are many definitions people use, but here we will deconstruct "web-log" this way: you are writing a captain's log of sorts about something in your life. Your daily life (no matter how mundane) could be expressed, or maybe what you have done recently with your exercise routine, or maybe you have added new things to your collection which you can then speak about.

Keeping a log of things related to your personal pursuit, and maybe how far you are to your goal, can both help you keep track of where you are and your visitors keep up with you. People are interested in websites that change and have new things to look at; blogs fill this niche extremely well. A visitor can almost always look forward to the next update.

Not to mention: everyone loves to hear a story, and you certainly have stories to tell. One HTML page with headings to separate entries and paragraphs for those entries is all it takes.

Galleries

Are you an artist, or do you take photos, or maybe you have a bunch of that thing you collect? You can show this off without much help. There are many gallery tools you could use, or you could make your own.

What's more interesting than a simple gallery, although a gallery is already amazing, is a gallery with captions. In this way, one both gets to see your image and get some additional context! Combined with your unique perspective on the world or your works or whatever you are talking about, people will certainly want to see what you have.

Information

Simply put, you're always learning about your own personal pursuit, aren't you? Why not chew on what you learn and share it in a more digestible (or at least centralised) form?

Even information about the way you interact with that pursuit is interesting to somebody. If all you do is collect information, the way you put things together, choose what to include, what to leave out, and how to format it all results in something uniquely "you". If you seriously have the passion I keep talking about, people will want to see it.

So... what's in a good site?

In my opinion, everyone has something unique to display. There are many ways to do it—these are barely ideas!

A good site is a site that the webmaster is proud of. Moreover, I think a good site is an interesting site, and an interesting site is a reflection of its owner's own interests and passions.

If someone can feel you while on your site, I think that's what makes it good.