Hello, I'm Webber!
I'm the one who put together the website that you're currently visiting.
I'm a native New Yorker, living in New York City.
I enjoy birdwatching (a COVID lockdown pastime that grew into a hobby), photography, electronic music, reading, and graphic design.
Webbersite is the name of my little slice of Neocities. The name came from when I first found out about Neocities a few years ago but didn't yet have an account.
I remember spending several hours browsing through people's personal sites and being impressed by the individuality of each one. Even the sites that clearly weren't finished amused me with their silly placeholder texts and images. However, one thing that stuck out to me was the terminology Neocities used describe these places: “websites”.
To me, the term “website” felt utilitarian. Like a modern webapp, designed to be frictionless and fit in with Web 3.0's modern design, a style that seems to be in vogue.
Flat. Excessively minimal. Most importantly, lacking in humanity.
So, when it came time to create my account, I gave my subdomain name some thought. I didn't want my website — the digital vessel where I would pour my heart and soul into for years to come — to fall prey to this ideology. So, I decided to take the term “website”, and make it a bit more fun.
Imperfect. Unique. More nonsensical, like names in a Dr. Seuss book.
Thus, Webbersite was born.
A screenshot of the oldest intact copy of Webbersite I have archived. If you remember this, you're a true fan!
Like many creative works, the design for Webbersite came from many different sources. The color scheme, for example, came from a screenshot of someone's riced Linux setup. My logo, however, is totally original: I made it from scratch in Inkscape over the course of about a week.
Fun fact: When I was in the process of creating the logo for Webbersite, I tried to align the letters “WEB” (the ones you see on the top of the page) on a horizontal line. However, I inadvertently placed them on top of each other! A strange mistake, but the resulting mess of shapes stuck out to me, and so I decided to keep it and use it as my personal icon.
My first ideas on how the logo of Webbersite should look. Lots of experimentation with color, layout, and perspective!
The scene of the crime, so to speak, where I made that rather fortunate mistake. You can see the pile of letters on the right.