When did you start making shrines/do you think you will stop

[Emma]

I started around the late nineties sometime? Early 00s? I can't remember exactly. I let domains expire and sites die when I travelled and suchlike. When I got home, I couldn't find work immediately, so I had the time to get my sites back online. But since I've returned to college (with the view of getting into university next year), I'm so busy that I don't have the time (and motivation tbh) to work on shrines, so I could see myself giving it up if things get more hectic than they are now. That said, I'm looking forward to my Christmas break so I can finish my Paperback shrine, so who knows?

[Crystal]

My first shrine opened in March 2004, which is actually still online today and is currently my oldest site (of course it has been poorly neglected all these years but I am working to fix that). I can't see myself quitting any time soon. I just love working on them. <3 I'll likely quit fanlistings before I quit making shrines.

[Juhi]

My absolute first site was a crappy BSSM site on Geocities and Freeweb. The first "actual" site I made was my Lina Inverse one - Boiling Point, known as Inverse of L back in the day. I got into site-making because it seemed pretty cool to have a whole site jam-packed with content and goodies on your subject of choice.

Over the years, my interest in sites has come and gone. It has been consistently dwindling recently. However, I don't think one needs to "quit" a hobby. Rather, I find the way you express and engage in a hobby changes with time. So, my involvement in the community may change, this being a hobby won't.

[Destinie]

However, I don't think one needs to "quit" a hobby. Rather, I find the way you express and engage in a hobby changes with time. So, my involvement in the community may change, this being a hobby won't.

I think this is an interesting point you made, Juhi. :D I'm sure that there are hobbies that have kind of dwindled out of one's interest. I don't think that people usually make a conscious decision to quit a hobby, sometimes it just happens. So why would making fansites be any different?

For me, I've thought about it, and it's probably due to social implications. Example: When you tell people you have hobbies like cooking, exercising, or reading they don't think much of it, but when telling people [in my experience] I work on websites it's sometimes odd. I think it's because it's not a common hobby. It's really rare for me to find people who make websites in their spare time, even developers I work with. Maybe that's why thinking about stopping fansites is a more conscious decision.

I'm just sort of thinking about it here. Hmm~

[anon]

For me, it is and it isn't. A lot of social factors have consciously made me stop, but since the way personal sites are run on the Internet has led me to stop too. So I guess it's a combination of social factors and technological factors.

[Emma]

For me, I've thought about it, and it's probably due to social implications. Example: When you tell people you have hobbies like cooking, exercising, or reading they don't think much of it, but when telling people [in my experience] I work on websites it's sometimes odd. I think it's because it's not a common hobby. It's really rare for me to find people who make websites in their spare time, even developers I work with. Maybe that's why thinking about stopping fansites is a more conscious decision.

This is changing, I think. A lot of people have blogs, or even just have Facebook/Twitter and are used to blogs and people having websites and an online presence. I know people IRL that have Pinterest or Tumblr who I never expected to ever embrace that kind of thing. Fandom is more mainstream, I guess, in a way. That said, I do think shrines and fansites are still considered...odd, by a lot of people. Like it's still a weird corner of the internet, but I could talk about, say, ohnotheydidnt and how I comment there and people wouldn't bat an eyelid because celebrities are acceptable.

[Juhi]

However, I don't think one needs to "quit" a hobby. Rather, I find the way you express and engage in a hobby changes with time. So, my involvement in the community may change, this being a hobby won't.

I think this is an interesting point you made, Juhi. :D I'm sure that there are hobbies that have kind of dwindled out of one's interest. I don't think that people usually make a conscious decision to quit a hobby, sometimes it just happens. So why would making fansites be any different?

I think I might've worded it a little poorly. Hobbies definitely do come and go, and it can be a conscious decision to stop. I find that certain hobbies get "shelved", or put away for an indefinite period of time. That time period may be quantifiable, or it simply becomes a "never going to happen again" sort of affair.

So I feel like I will eventually "shelve" site making. Whether I come back to it or leave it alone on the imaginative bookshelf is entirely up in the air. My interests and current circumstance are major factors in the decision.

[Todd]

I started making sites in like 1999 or 2000 as well. My first major site was a fansite to a book series I was really into. A girl in that community made character tributes, and I thought they were cool, so I eventually made my own.

I'm not as active as I once was with sites, but I can't see myself giving them up anytime soon. Much like others, my hobby just evolves to suit my lifestyle. Now, for example, I make sites that don't need updating, and if I never touched them again after uploading them, they'd be fine, and I'd be proud of them.

There are times in the year (like now) where I won't touch sites at all, and others like the dead summer, where I feel creative and have a lot of time, and I may revamp a site or make a new one. The way I handle my sites works for me.

[Sarah]

I started around 2001. Well, that is when I made my first website using HTML (a general series fansite for Invade Zim), as opposed to a pagebuilder. So, sometime around the new millennium, I guess. Heh.

As for when I will stop? I don't know. I do know that I want to keep making websites as long as I am able. I wish people looked at it like they do other hobbies, eg. knitting, baking, fantasy football, etc. You know, as "normal". I think the stigma attached to making sites is one thing I worry about, especially as I get older. But it's not like it's actually a bad thing, and you don't have to tell other people about it, so.. I just really enjoy it, and I figure as long as I have the time and the desire is still there, I will keep making sites.

[dubiousdisc]

I think the stigma attached to making sites is one thing I worry about, especially as I get older. But it's not like it's actually a bad thing, and you don't have to tell other people about it, so.. I just really enjoy it, and I figure as long as I have the time and the desire is still there, I will keep making sites.

You know what, though...I think that if something, hobbies like ours will become normalized sooner than later. Just see how people's perception of the Internet has started to change. Fifteen years ago or so everyone was sure that the Internet was some crazy den of pedophiles! Also, as things are now being on the Internet is no longer a thing for big nerds - everyone has something to do with it, even when it's just Facebook. It's just that people are scared of new things, and start to accept them only when they're not new and novel anymore. Think of movies - when they were a new thing, people were saying that movies were some sort of shitty entertainment that would have never got anywhere!...