Somewhat Similar
Somewhat of an incoherent ramble but After joining Neocities and working on Prumano, I realized there is a Surprising amount of Sites that are similar to mine. Not that similar but aesthetically, yes.
I’d say it’s because of Swirl.neocities.org, a now defunct website. I can’t say for certain but it does feel like a lot of People were Directly or Indirectly influenced by Celine (Swirl Celine) (It was Very Confusing for me also, Since I Am also a Celine.), even me.
I do mention this on my Site, but I am somewhat inspired by the way she Made her Layouts. The big Headers, the Blocky Navigation Bars, the Rainbow Text & backgrounds (Which, I Think it looks fine for her Site, I think it would look overstimulating and Eyestraining for mine. And Tacky.), and many other charming things I Really loved about her Site. But something I want to say is She is not my Main Inspiration, and that I Was more Inspired by Patchwork & Scrapbooking when making my Sites. I also do not want to “revive the old web” and “Relive Geocities & Early 2000s Sites”. I Just wanted to Make Something
This is isn’t like. Me trying to Be Shady but you can tell when Someone liked SWIRL’s work and Got somewhat inspired by it VS Someone who stole parts of the site and Their site looks like a Baby Of Swirl. I’ve seen it before it’s rather interesting. I just think it’s crazy how just one website can start a Whole Trend.
Some people even argue that SWIRL wasn’t even all that Unique, since her site was heavily influenced by early 2000s Japanese personal blogs. Many of the elements that she uses are emulating that feel and style of web. Nothing wrong with that of course; I think SWIRL brought a type of Site on the Neocities Platform that wasn’t there before, which I guess is why so Many People flocked to it (and Copied it as Well). It filled a Niche nobody thought existed on there before. Or something.
I Hope this all makes sense. The Reason why I’m talking about this, is Because I guess you could Consider my Website to be apart of the “SwirlHoard” sites, and I Wanted to talk about how I Didn’t want to be a Copycat——I Wanted to be Myself!——I Get guilty about Taking Inspiration from Others for some reason. Ok. Sorry
Also while looking at Some of SWIRLs pages on Pinterest I ended up in a Battlefield of a Comment Section where People were talking about how “You Can’t just Keep Someone from Taking Inspiration from your Site” which is why the section about how SWIRL “isn’t that unique” is here. I Think You can Tell Someone to not Rip and Steal parts of their Code and Let them take Light Inspiration from you.
Like Two things can be True. You can Take Inspiration from Others and Also not Steal Code when someone has Expressed how uncomfortable it makes them feel.