Blogust #5: Unfinished but not unpublished: the drafts of Neocities

13 Aug 2026

One thing that I find really interesting about webdev is that most people post publicly. Obviously, there’s not really a “done” when it comes to most people’s websites. Everyone’s always working on them further. But there’s thousands of neocities websites where someone followed a tutorial for two hours, got bored, and then left it abandoned. Whatever plans they had for the site never came to fruition.

It’s a unique environment. I have dozens of unfinished fanfictions sitting on my hard drive, but nobody can stumble across them the way they do unfinished websites. Maybe they should be able to?

It’s nice to be able to see that kind of thing. Here’s all the effort we’re putting into trying out new things, even if most of us then abandoned it. I like seeing half-finished layouts and blogs where the posts are all lore ipsum. I know my website is mostly place-holders at the moment too. If I waited until I was done the way I do with fiction, I’d never actually have one up! … That might be why I don’t have much fiction up!

I’ve been appreciating that “post now, worry about it later” aspect for Blogust too. It feels a lot less like blogging, and more like posting. The “blogust” in the title signals to the reader that they’re less polished. I don’t have to worry about everything being perfect.

Not everything needs to be polished and perfect! I’d love it if people came back and worked on their websites more, but I’m glad they decided to leave up what they did do rather than keep it privated, forever unfinished. Make stuff! Post stuff! Share your heart with the world!!!!!!