Checkpoint 1: Kick-off

[nepenthee]

With slight delay, this DW community is now open!

As mentioned on the event site, the challenge will be accompanied by regular checkpoints where you can share your plans and progress, ask for help and discuss anything regarding site-making. These checkpoints will be posted in approximately biweekly intervals by me, your host, and sometimes by larissa. :)

Some questions to start with: What are you making and why, how long has the shrine been on your wishlist, and where are you starting from?

Feel free to chat about anything, no need to answer any of these questions!

Comments

[lexicalcrow]

Hihi! I've been making websites in some form or another since like 1996 or thereabouts. I had a couple of angelfire sites back in 2004, one of which has evolved from angelfire to wordpress to neocities. It's somehow still up on angelfire, which astounds me tbh, but that's the old web for you, ig.

I've known about shrines and such for a long time, but never actually got around to making one, so I was excited to see this come up on my reading page. I'm excited to have a go at making one, and hopefully it'll lead to me making even more. :D

The shrine I want to work on is from the UK series Taskmaster. There's a lot of headcanons that myself and others have written about Greg Davies being some kind of god/spirit/fae/shadow creature and I want to make a shrine for that. It's one of those things that has some visual canon support, shall we say lol. But it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the prompt 'ghost of you'. I want to explore these headcanons and fanworks that support that, and the lore/canon that inspired them.

I do have other ideas that I want to do apart from that though, but this is the one I'm going to focus on first. I'm hoping it'll give me some inspiration for the mini shrines I want to make for my fic archive for each of my fandom pages, so I can move those along too. They're only going to be one page shrines, but I like the idea of introducing my tiny fandoms to other ppl before dumping all the fic I've written about them on the page, so. That's the goal, to get my brain back into making websites and continuing to work on the ones I have.

[velvetdusk]

I love the sound of this — what a brilliant premise for a shrine! The “divine Taskmaster” interpretation genuinely made me smile; there’s something so fitting about turning that kind of recurring, uncanny humor into mythic shape. I’m not deeply familiar with the series beyond the clips I’ve seen, but I can already imagine how fun it’ll be to weave that lore and absurdity together into something atmospheric. I’m really excited to see how it comes to life — it sounds like the perfect spark to rekindle that old-web rhythm again.

[lexicalcrow]

It's so interesting, because you can see the Taskmaster house like a church. The Taskmaster's portraits are everywhere. There's a large enthroned statue of him in the yard. He's always watching you even if he's never there. In s8, the two round windows in the front of the house had eyes in them, the ones from the Taskmaster's portrait for that series, as if the house was the Taskmaster itself keeping an eye on the contestants. Everything is done For Him, as Alex often points out. It's such interesting lore to play around with.

Also, in all the Taskmaster books (and also on social media posts), Alex capitalises all of Greg's pronouns, which I think it's fair to say can be read as either religious or kinky, depending on your viewpoint. It just adds to the divine Taskmaster headcanons, and/or sacred kink, depending on your flavour. Devotion and worship can go both ways, and Alex gives so much material for both, the fucker lol.

I will admit I'm very good at basic 2004 web and graphic design lol, but I'm going to work to improve my coding and design skills, because I have a Vision and I want to be able to make it happen. :D Also looking at some of the shrine examples gave me some srs inspiration and I want to be able to make something more than just a basic-looking site.

[velvetdusk]

This is such a fascinating lens to view the series through — the imagery you describe makes it sound almost ritualistic in its own right. The idea of a “living house” watching from its portrait-eyes and this playful line between reverence and kink… it’s deliciously strange in the best way. It’s such a reminder of how much fun it is to take something familiar and lean into its mythic edges.

And oh, I relate so much — I haven’t really coded or created anything since 2016, so I’ve been brushing up on my skills lately too 😭 That 2004 web energy is so real though; it’s like muscle memory, dusty but still alive under the fingertips. I can’t wait to see what you build — I have a feeling it’ll capture that nostalgia perfectly, but with the spark of someone rediscovering their craft.

[lexicalcrow]

It's such a fascinating show! Because on one level, yeah, it's comedians doing stupid things and making fools of themselves. It's comedy. It's hilarious. But then you add in all the other layers and it gets deep and so so interesting. It is a show that didn't need 'Lore', but the Lore adds so much to how it works, and the relationship between Greg and Alex that plays out over the course of each series.

I mean, there's a portrait of Greg that greets you as soon as you walk in the front door of the house, but he's not looking at you, he's looking off to one side. Indifferent. Imperial. Imposing. For a long time, and I don't know if it's still like this because I haven't noticed it, but they had small portraits of the champions on the wall beside that entrance portrait too. Fascinating show. So much visual language to play with.

That's such a mood lol. I can barely remember how to do CSS, but I can remember basic HTML 4 woooo. XD But yeah I wanna up my game a bit, make it worthy of a Taskmaster shrine. Not too fancy, ofc, but just fancy enough. :D

[larissa]

I have never watched Taskmaster and only have a passing familiarity with it, but the concept for your site is so fascinating to me! In this corner of the web, any sites to live-action subjects have long been few and far between, and I'm genuinely so thrilled that you'll be working to add something new to the table.

Also, your plans for your fic archive are super neat! I just made a fandom-specific fic archive recently, and this is making me consider whether I want to add more introductory material to it, hmm. I appreciate the food for thought!

[lexicalcrow]

Ahh, thank you! :D I've definitely not been much in touch with the greater shrine-making community, but just going from the examples that were offered, yeah, I can see the lack of live action stuff going on, and I'm happy to be contributing to that. Maybe I can coax some others into making more shrines too. :D I'm excited to start on mine, it's such an interesting idea that I don't think really gets as much coverage as other aspects of the show do.

Oh neat! :D I've written in many small fandoms and fandoms-of-one over the years, so I felt it was a nice idea to have a little page introducing my boys to people so they're not diving into the fic without knowing who they are. It feels like a more customised kind of archive. Not just a list of fics, but here are all the idiots I've written about and why I'm insane about them. I think it would add a nice touch to it. And hey, if it inspires you to do something similar, that's awesome!

[nepenthee]

This takes me back: Back when everything was new on the web, there was this huge German platform (Animexx) for all fandom needs where everyone had an account (with customized profiles that included blurbs, comment sections, fanwork overview, purchasable trinkets etc.), could post fanart, fanfic, comics and reviews and comment on other people's, participate in discussion boards etc. (I assume DeviantArt comes closest to it on an international scale?) Every single fic had its own "homepage" on the platform with a chapter overview, but also a summary/blurb AND the option to add a cover image and character profiles, images included. People could use that space to introduce the series to anyone not familiar with it or not familiar with the latest developments, or highlight their aesthetic/visuals for the characters (graphics! fanart by the writer or lifted from around the web!); more importantly, that space was used veryyyy creatively in the case of AUs, crossovers and OC involvements. (Any comments and fanart to the fic would be linked there too.) Here's an example (click on "Charaktere"; I linked the first thing I found so no judging).

I haven't seen anything similar on any platform since, so I love seeing you talk about how to design self-hosted fic archives or fic overviews to draw out their max potential!

On a related note, I only read fics of things I know, but am aware that others may check out fics of subjects they're unfamiliar with, for example if they like an author's works very much. Being devoted to shrines myself, I think of them also as starting points to familiarize oneself with the work in question – and/or to get to know someone, as a webmaster, writer, designer, fan or person; it follows that I dislike the thought of only checking out shrines to things one already knows. I'd say fics are slightly different (as they aren't specifically meant to introduce, which is an element of many shrines), but the kind of introduction you're planning for your fic archive can change that!

Do you guys know whether live action shrines were really that rare in the web of old or whether it's a case of communities not being aware of each other? I once stumbled upon someone's site in the past few year or so, and the webmaster expressed nostalgia for the stylish layouts of old that featured characters from live action series, musicians and other celebrities. Was that limited to journals, self-hosted blogs, personal sites, graphics sites and such?

[nepenthee]

Can I just say, going from Angelfire to Wordpress directly sounds like such a big and odd jump to me (self-hosted or not), I don't think I've talked to anyone in the fansite sphere (or personal sites, sans blogging) who went that path lol. (I assume it's not uncommon, since there has to be something between getting shared hosting by a company or by people in the scene, and not making sites until, say, discovering Neocities.)

You know my thoughts on your choice of subjects already. I like your ambition and step-by-step plans, and am eager to see how things will turn out for you, especially as I started making shrines late too, despite having known them for a long time! If there's anything you're curious about or would like help with, do feel free to make use of this community.

By the way, I saw your mention of HTML 4 in a comment. If you feel up to it, you may want to look into the semantic elements introduced by HTML 5, which are key to accessibility but also save you a little bit of typing and make your code more readable to yourself (e.g. <header>, <footer>, <nav>, <section> instead of having divs with separate IDs like <div id="header">). If not, you can always pick it up later.