The beginning of blogging and web designing
I’ve always wanted to write an entry dedicated to when I started blogging and web designing. I never got around to that until now. I first began my blogging hobby when I signed up for a Livejournal account sophomore year in high school. I found out about Livejournal from a friend. On my first few entries, I typed informally, with no capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and I used shorthand writing sometimes.
I hadn’t started messing around with HTML and CSS until I got myself a Xanga. I found out about xanga my Junior year via a friend’s buddy info on aim. She posted a link to her Xanga there. I saw the link “skins” at the bottom of her page and I clicked on it out of curiosity. I immediately became interested in how skins were made. The process of teaching myself HTML and CSS took a while though. I didn’t read tutorials, and most of my learning came from copying and pasting pre-made codes for customizing the look and feel of my site. It was when I started using Xanga that I used correct capitalizations, and no shorthanded writing.
After blogging on both Xanga and Livejournal, I was still unsatisfied. I started looking at tutorials more and viewing the source of other people’s web sites. I learned how to view source in my computer class Junior year. It wasn’t until the beginning of my Senior year that I created my first web site called Periscopic Dome hosted by 50webs.com. This site contained poems, quotes, codes and riddles, and an image gallery. It used iframes which was great for creating a template, but which also made it hard for people to bookmark certain pages. Also, iframes seem unprofessional to me.
During my freshman year at college, I was determined to use PHP instead of HTML. I had a lot to learn about PHP. When I found a link to Wordpress on someone’s blog, I became interested in using this powerful blog generating tool. I immediately decided to use Wordpress to help generate my web site. The problem was, the web host I was using has PHP scripting disabled for free accounts. I searched long and hard on Google to find freehostia, the host I’m currently using.
Creating a theme was difficult for me at first. I wanted a theme that would last such that I can always be proud of its appearance, and the appearance never grows old. It was also hard for me to come up with a title for the site (Solace). My blog has been through three different hosts until I finally decided to just use freehostia. I also decided to purchase a name for my site. This took a while before I reasoned the most unique, personable, and professional name I can give my site is my own name. Not only is it easy for others to remember, but it also goes well with my favico which is my Chinese name.
Now that I’ve told you about my blogging and web designing experiences, I’d like to hear from you guys. When did you first start blogging? When did you learn coding languages such as HTML? Have you been through many hosts before settling on the one you’re using now? What made you choose the name for your site?
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My current blog is my first site, and I don’t have any embarrassing reminders of how amateurish I was in the past. Even though I didn’t have a site, I still browsed a lot and taught myself a lot of HTML and CSS. I think I may have started about 3 years ago…
I started learning HTML when I was 12, so about four years ago. CSS came way later as I was messing around with Frontpage (yes, I know, the shame). Only recently have I begun to learn PHP and I’m still a newbie at it. I’m currently hosted at paint-the-silence.net and I plan on staying there or get hosted somewhere else as I don’t think I’m ready to have my own domain.
I started getting into webdesign when I had to do this site for french class. Before I started out as a help/graphic site, but then my design program messed up my computer, so now I’m a blog site, hosted by wordpress and I prefer it much more!
I just sort of randomly chose my name :). I just wanted something unique for my sitename, that expressed me, so I decided to blend my name (Yara) and the name of an animal (Aardvark) and finally it came up to the name Yaardvark!
It’s always fun to look back at the journey that brought your site to where it is today. My memory isn’t so good so I can’t remember exactly how it all began. But I started off with MSN groups pages I believe back in high school. Also in high school I had a computer class where I learned a little bit of html. One day my site was deleted and since that was very frustrating I decided to start a new site on freewebs. Somehow I had learned html and css at this time by reading tutorials and viewing other people’s coding. I use iframes for my site which had turned into two sites I believe. After a while I wanted to start using some scripts which required php so I looked around for a host and found cuddle-bug.net. I was hosted there for probably a year with a site called Deanna Land. Then one night her site went down. Thankfully I had most of my files backed up on my computer. I looked around for hosting and since I had a credit card by this time (second or third year of university) I bought my own domain and hosting for the first time. I had made a list of site names and when I was checking out hosting I just put in one of the names that I had thought of not really thinking of using the name but I was so excited to have my own site that I just left the name in and Fantasy Nerd was born.
When did you first start blogging?
when i first had my blogspot account in 2001.
When did you learn coding languages such as HTML?
Also in 2001
Have you been through many hosts before settling on the one you’re using now?
Just o be on the safe side, I go to multiple hosts because I fear downtimes because of the 10 other hosts I’ve got, at least one got a DDoS attack =/
What made you choose the name for your site?
It’s my name in pinyin. ^^
Wow, haha. I was just thinking about this today, because I’m applying for internships in web designing companies.
I first started blogging in 2002, I think. My friend lent me a copy of Photoshop 7 and I started fiddling around with it along with Paint Shop Pro. I decided I liked PS7 more and stuck to it.
I had been interested in web design since I was 12, and self-taught myself HTML while viewing the sources of web sites I liked. I first started out on Geocities, and then was offered hosting by a nice girl. During then, I submitted my site to review sites for critique and was then introduced to CSS, which I got the hang off as easily as HTML. This year I started self-teaching myself PHP because I liked Wordpress and installed it on my domain which I got in July.
I was introduced to MJZ Hosting by a friend, saying it was cheap and good so I bought my domain from Namecheap for a year to by hosted by them.
My site is called Undivided Honesty after one of my all-time favourite Anberlin song. You can read about it on my site.
I started webdesign when I was in P5, quite a long time ago, in Piczo. Really retarded, yeah. Then I moved onto Freewebs, got hosted, won a domain name, end of story xP Still haven’t learnt much PHP yet though… how sad.
I tried Wordpress before and failed miserably. I might again in the holidays, when time doesn’t escape me. But for now, I’ll stick with the oh-so-immature Cutenews.
Good luck (:
I started my blog in 2001 at diaryland. that’s when i started learning html. i moved it to freewebs for a while and then i moved back. same name. how borrrring
I’ve been trying to make websites with coding since I was about 11, i did try with those stupid pagebuilders at first but then I realised that I should try and learn how to do myself. I made a few fan sites on sites like freewebs, and had blogs on places like lj and xanga. My current site second one I’ve had with wordpress on, I’m still a newb with PHP though lol
My current sites name was randomly chosen…i spent days trying to think of one, when suddenly I just decided on my current one. Choosing a blog name is hard
My blog has been through a lot as well but I tend to look back at my older ones from free host such as livejournal and brave journal. Now I’m in wordpress as well. I wonder where it will all go from here.
I first started blogging when I was 11 or 12-I was big into geocities and their pagebuilder made it a ton easy.
I didnt really look hard at HTML and CSS because they did it all for me but eventually I started noticing other sites prettier than mine.
I fiddled with geocities for a long time-then I discovered neopets-which is where I actually started learning css and html to a higher level.My skills really came from that site as well as my graphical knowledge..I started using freewebs for my own little mini sites but I was still faithful to geocities and uploaded my own coding-HTML into sites.
I was hosted the first time on a domain of Black-Orchid,I think I was about 15 or 16..I stayed there for awhile,still using edit and notepad until I got the nerve to try wordpress-I moved hosts to be hosted at misteryosa.org-another subdomain.And found wordpress-I liked it’s simplicity-I hated it’s compliated ways of customizing.It was then I heard of cutenews..and wanted to give it a shot-So I moved hosts-AGAIN to oh-so-crispy where I am now and have found the wonderful world of PHP.I like cutenews and will proably go with it-due to it’s customability and it’s not as easy but not as hard.
I am to be hosted on my own domain soon-buut that’s all in my blog I just posted up so I dont feel like typing it all up
When did you first start blogging? 2002. And then I stopped blogging to open a design site. And came back to blogging in Dec 2006.
When did you learn coding languages such as HTML? Started learning it around 2002 or 2003 I would say. From Neopets and Microsoft Frontpage. Ergh.
Have you been through many hosts before settling on the one you’re using now? Yup. Heaps and heaps and heaps.
What made you choose the name for your site? Learning Italian through music.
I’ve always hated Xanga. I got into LJ for a while though. But Xanga kills…
I started making webpages with ZyWeb, a WYSIWYG online site maker on Bravepages (now known as Bravenet). I was 15 at the time.
I stumbled upon Magitek-Designs.net then and I learned my HTML and CSS through her and many other popular web designers during the day (ha, I’m not that old).
I went through three free hosts and one paid host before settling down with my current host. Compared to other people I think I was lucky enough to find a good paid host as early as I did.
hmm good choice. php is quite robust, though there are some neat features in JSP. too bad it is nigh on impossible to find someone willing to host JSPs. your trip from periscopic from now is quite astonishing
iframes huh? i still remember back in the day when frames were still the new technology that few browsers support… how things change - the majority here script.
I think I started blogging in ‘98, with the site I have now. I’m still not to good with HTML, I have such a suck memory that I’ve been looking up cheat sheets for years. Lot’s of host before this one, as for the name — Laota’s Gallery — Laota is me, and the gallery part was actually because I was a big Haunted Mansion fanatic at the time, (still am) and it was a referene to the ride spiel.
my blogging history is very long because i always change my host, my blogging tool and my url. but since i had been hosted, my passion for blogging started. then after a month or two, someone nice enough gave me a domain for free! she also hosted my site. since i really wanted to have a .com, i’ve decided to register my current domain name
It’s always interesting to read how others started blogging. That’s why I usually read the “Domain” section on websites first to learn stuff about the domain itself rather than go to the “Owner” page and read about the owner.
Anyways, I’m currently in the process of adding such information in my “Domain” page but since That will be a little long, I’ll sum it up here.
I started making websites when I was 12. I downloaded lots of free layouts with coding from other sites and studied the HTML and CSS files. I learned from there. I taught myself Photoshop too and a year after, I applied for a free subdomain hosting and got accepted. Since then, I’ve been through lots of hosts as a hostee. I started using Wordpress on my 3rd host, which was about when I was 14. Now that I’m 18, my Dad bought me a domain and hosting for one year as his gift.
And the name? Weak-man is a favorite song by Shinhwa (신화) from their 8th album, State of the Art.
Interesting topic. I started my blogging at Livejournal.Com in 1999. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Then I switched over to Deadjournal.com for about a year, and eventually migrated back over to Livejournal. I am still a Livejournal user to this very day. (Yes, I have a livejournal AND a website. Kinda dumb, I know.) Anyways, I got interested in html back around the same time, as I started learning about the overrides in livejournal and using css to change the “look” of it. In the beginning of 02 I had a friend offer me a subdomain off her website, and then I immediately wanted a site of my own. I’ve been through several site names, but in Feb of 03 I purchased “coveted.net”, which I still use to this very day, and then this year I purchased “unsexy.net”. I chose the name coveted.net because it’s cute, and unsexy because that’s just simply how I feel most of the time. LOL (Later I found that there is a song called so unsexy, and everyone asked if that was the reason for my website name, but it’s not). I started off with basic HTML, and very minimal CSS. I made the ugliest website you could imagine, LOL. My first blogging tool was GreyMatter. Then I started using B2, and then finally wordpress. I love wordpress, I’ll stick with it probably for the rest of my blogging days. I also love my website name and I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon. Sorry for this long as hell comment, BUT YOU WANTED TO KNOW<3
You know what? I’m still using my LiveJournal account to this day as well. I post the more personal entries pertaining to my life there, and I set it to friends only so I don’t feel so awkward or embarrassed so that people I don’t want to show can’t read it. I post most of my dream entries there as well.
Mm, I never really got into blogging till quite recently, but I started learning HTML a few years ago … on Neopets. *ashamed* I only knew a little CSS and tried my hand at Freewebs. It was probably the crappiest site on the net haha. Later [a year?] I studied CSS seriously and eventually got the hang of it. As of now, I’m learning PHP.