My Site Manifesto
Here is my site's manifesto, essentially a short reflection of my history and what I aim to accomplish with my personal website.
The History and Why Indieweb
A brief history of my history with HTML and my motivation to continue existing on the indieweb.
The Why and How I got to Neocities 🐈
I first joined Neocites.org back when I wanted to have a site dedicated to my webcomics so I could utilize the Press Start 2P font for everything. I'm pretty sure it aligned with the time DeviantART took away page decorating and was in a general decline. I liked decorating things with my essence and I wanted it back. Coding was like playing a dress up game or decorating my secret base to me.
In 2021 - 2022, my Toyhous.e account was banned due to me drawing taboo art offline. At this point of my Toyhous.e account, most of my work was hidden and I was mostly inactive on site after confessing that I draw babyfur, feral and dark art. I kicked myself out of the community because I genuinely felt doing so was respectful to others who did not like it. I lost all my art posted without warning due to offline activity I already was pretty open about and wasn't associating with the site out of respect. This made me realize that well, any site could uproot everything I put into it whether time, financially or in a community sense, so I wanted to have a site where I could still showcase my OCs and keep track of them in my own means, which was power to me. And well, I needed a break from social media for my sanity as moral polarity and aggression seemed to peak online - either it was always there and I just stopped sipping the kool-aid, or there was an actual shift in content tolerance online due to the political climate as the internet rapidly grew (which both, I believe, are major players in why it happened).
What are my goals for continuing to exist on indieweb? 🐾
The primary goal of this site is to express myself wholly without unnecessary restriction, whilst developing a voice I am proud to speak in because its one of my own. Given the time I'm writing, this site being this is incredibly important as attempts at censorship seem to be at an all time high when the web is being enshittified.
One of the main reasons why I keep working to update this site is due to the fact that its existence is solely in my control - there is no force outside of myself that compels me to update this site. The reason I do it is from my own decision and drive to, and it gives me a sense of control and predictability for where I am in life. I'm doing it for me, which is something I can't say for much of what else I do, and that is incredibly anchoring and a good place to foster it.
This is a space I have oppurtunity to uproot poor thinking patterns developed over the course of my time online.
My Duties as Webmaster
Here are the things we aim to encompass as we continue to develop helianthus-fields.neocities.org as of August 2025.
- This site will remain on the internet unless taken down by other parties. I will refrain from purging art or writing unless its necessary to remove it.
- This site will not sacrifice its authenticity in response to external pressures. It will be weird and not everyone cup of tea, and that will be okay.
- This site will be mindful and provide content warnings for the websurfer's experience, but also trust in the websurfer's ability to curate a healthy online experience without hand holding.
- This site will be not only a positive safe place for myself, but for others who may find its contents familar. The site should encourage growth and healing for both the websurfers and webmaster.
- This site will not be a replacement for the need of socialization (excuse to never engage with others), but rather a way to foster connections across the web-o-sphere. This site will be a part of actively keeping the internet alive and weird.
In terms of functionality...
- This site will always be accessible across devices and still maintain visual quality even if on mobile. I will aim to make pages responsive as not everyone has access to standard screen resolution or good internet that can handle excessive scripts or assets.
- This site will never use autoplay - it personally pisses me off I don't like it
- This site will aim to include image descriptions in some form or fashion when possible.
- This site will aim for good coding practices and continued learning instead of reliance on sloppy shortcuts.
And with this, I hope each time I come back and re-read this page, it helps re-align me and encourages me to keep updating, even if the world is crashing down on me! If anything happens to me, may this site be a pawprint left in the vast playground of the internet.
Some Manifestos I read that inspired me to write my own and refocus myself in this way.