Checkpoint 2: Ambitions and challenges

[nepenthee]

The challenge has garnered a good amount of webmasters, from familiar to new faces, yay! To anyone reading this while still debating whether to sign up: Do consider joining us even if you might not finish your shrine by the deadline. You are invited to make use of this space if it motivates you and drives the completion of your shrine along!

My questions this week: Do you have any specific plans for your shrine aside from the challenge theme, e.g. is there anything specific you want to achieve, something new you want to try out, a skill you want to pick up? Where do you foresee your biggest challenges?

Again, feel free to chat about anything, no need to answer any of these questions. Also note that any previous checkpoint posts will stay open and you are more than welcome to reply and continue conversations there!

Comments

[evenstar]

I'll admit it: I haven't even thought about what I want the layout to look like, because I've been so heavily working on the written work, which is...unusual for me. I don't ever just make a layout and think, "oh cool, I'll make this a shrine to [featured chara]", but when I'm sure I want to do so, after a couple of weeks of pondering I'll usually have at least the bones of the layout started -- not this time! It's the furthest thing from my mind. This is probably what I specifically want to achieve -- lots of good stuff to read. I used to be able to babble on about fandom opinions for hours & hours, but since getting unfortunately a bit too tangled up with fanlistings, I feel I've let that skill rot badly (no shade against fanlistings, but the most important part of them is the layout -- nobody can really argue that), so that's what I want to achieve AND will be my biggest challenge: the heart of the shrine, reading material.

Layout-wise...I'd like to learn a new skill, if I could, but I'm plum out of ideas as to what I want to learn. Maybe something fun with dropdown menus I haven't tried yet, or suchlike. I'll poke around tutorial sites until something jumps out at me! ♥

[velvetdusk]

I adore how you framed this—that you're focusing on the writing first. It feels like the truest essence of shrinecraft: the heart before the vessel. There's something really refreshing about remembering that a shrine is, at its core, an act of storytelling.

And you're right—fanlistings and shrines occupy such different energies. Fanlistings orbit aesthetics; shrines invite confession. Even a minimal structure can feel devotional if the words are alive inside it. Dropdowns could be a beautiful touch though—like scripture margins or hidden footnotes the reader uncovers slowly. I'm really looking forward to seeing how your text determines the architecture.

[evenstar]

It's so funny because that used to be the essence of how I worked when I made actual shrines more often, without fail -- content first, always! And I think it applies even moreso these days -- back in the day, sure, you used to go to a shrine for information about [X], but now, what with wikis aplenty, there's not usually that need anymore. So (imho only!) therefore a shrine filled with personal thoughts about all aspects about [X] and how the shrinemaker sees them? That's bliss, true fandom. ♥

Fanlistings orbit aesthetics; shrines invite confession.
Oh, beautifully and accurately put! I'm not going to write off fanlistings as a whole or anything (and negl, they are fantastic for building up a design portfolio!), and my disappointment with how the network is run aside...I'd rather spend time at something that's been carefully crafted both outside (layout) and in (content).

[velvetdusk]

Yes! That's exactly it—wikis have claimed the informational territory, which actually liberates shrines to be what they always wanted to be: devotional rather than encyclopedic. The personal lens, the careful curation of what resonates, the confession of why something matters to you specifically—that's what makes a shrine feel alive rather than archival.

And same here about fanlistings. I used to make them, or at least start them, with the intention that they'd eventually become shrines... but they never quite made that leap. In hindsight, I think fanlistings became a kind of creative crutch for me—a way to express fondness without confronting the deeper articulation of why. Which is why I'm steering clear of them this time. I want to build things that demand that sustained attention you described, where you have to sit with a character or work long enough to understand what it truly means to you, not just what it is 🖤