Bookmark Shelf
This is a personal collection with a focus on curation over size. All resources are freeware and any paid features are optional. Any site that succumbs to ads, paywalls, or general boobery is removed. Any site that hosts torrents or abandonware is excluded as a matter of principle. The same goes for any discussion, endorsement or promotion.
Behold, my bookshelf of webbed sites. For best effect, read these in a candlelit chamber with a blanket and a warm drink. I find these links through hours of link-hopping, crawling, scuttling, and being a bit of a Fraidycat. I give further credit to Lutzbug for taking some of the excess off my paws.
Section Menu
Flee!
This is my microblog. I update it weekly on Sundays. It has no pictures, just walls of text. I don't actually type much for these entries, I record via dictation and then edit it down into the posts you see tonight.
This is an experimental mirror that I'm currently ignoring to death. The rapid-fire editing of this site is the main reason why.
This is the site of my best friend! I do most of the coding for it, which they're always excited to see more of.
Articles
Blurbs
A Guide to Web Curation
A guide on how to sort your link pages, with a few good examples to give you an idea of what to do.
Design Tenets of my Website
If I had to summarise why a lot of old sites feel that way, it would be this article. There’s real weight to this text too, Tom himself has been online since 1996.
Linkrot, or Website Existentialism
A very heartfelt essay on the mortality of websites, and how to make the most of their losses. It uses a lot of metaphors about bones and fertiliser, which makes it an easier read for anyone new to data-hoarding.
The Slow Web
My personal favourite. A call to a simpler online experience of periodic checking; as opposed to the chaos we see tonight.
This Page is Designed to Last
A guide on how to make your webpages last for years. This seems like a no-brainer at first, but Huang points out lots of the little ways information slips through the cracks.
YOU are the Dead Internet
If it’s not the robots, it’s us! We’re the reason why the internet can be so dull in places! Eek!
Art Reference Tools
Blurbs
AdorkaStock
The famous deviantART-era pose supplier herself. Her portfolio contains a wide array of models, and is all around LGBTQ+ and disability-friendly.
Animal Photo Art Reference
I mainly use this for the skulls, which it lets you pose and swivel at your own leisure.
Animal Photo Reference Repository
A personal gallery of zoo animals, photographed for artistic reference.
Dwellings
A procedural generator of tiny homes and their floor-plans.
Progen Mansion
A procedural generator of not so tiny homes and their floor-plans.
Unsplash
Another site in the graphic design holy trinity that I somehow didn’t get shown in design class. It’s a stock image site with a massive gallery of poses; like using Google minus the pain and suffering.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedia’s image-hosting project and another pose source. I first found it through various exhibitionists uploading photos of their own penises, but there’s far more to do than just that. If you can navigate a less visual menu and oddly specific sections, you should be able to make it work.
Browser Games
Blurbs
How to Raise a Dragon
Play as a captured dragon that breaks free and turns the tables on its humans, or doesn’t, because you can decide!
KittyToy
Run a virtual cat shelter and give stray cats a loving home.
Monster Breeder
A choose-your-own-adventure (with some small pixel graphics) where you capture and breed monsters to make grisly hybrid things.
Monster Match
A Space-Invaders clone where you match monsters to blast them.
Powder
A childhood favourite simulation game where you play with various chemicals, liquids, and powders.
Party Cemetery
A Space Funeral-like game where you attend a monster party and collect autographs of its more famous guests. A good-spirited bit of halloween cosiness.
Space Funeral
The famous horror-surrealist game where you, a man in pyjamas, set off with your horse made of legs to save the world.
Coding Tools
Blurbs
Kalechips Layouts
A variety of accessible, mobile-friendly layouts with a web 2.0 touch. I’m currently using its Fun with Flexbox layout, but I’ve also enjoyed its Classless CSS and 3-Column layouts.
John Doe Layout
A layout that uses old CSS trickery to create a one-page website. I used this on a previous version of my Dungeon Keeper 2 Shrine.
Limegreen Wikitable
A wiki layout for your character listing needs. I use this for Dancing with the Dead’s wiki pages.
Petrapixel's Layout Generator
A layout generator with lots of things to customise. I used this on a previous version of my Dungeon Keeper 2 Shrine.
Rarebit
A JavaScript display for all your webcomics. It works by plucking pages from a comic folder you make and displaying those like little anchor-links. I don’t know how much it can handle for long-term projects like mine, but it can definitely handle all your little comics.
W3Schools
Where I go to get my HTML and CSS snippets. Its tutorials are simple, easy to read, and let you play in virtual sandboxes in case you want a more tactile way of learning.
98.css
A stylesheet modelled off Windows 98’s UI.
Downloadables
Blurbs
Adventuron
A simple text-adventure program that works in browsers. It’s friendly to newcomers and has generous amounts of documentation. I used it to create the Dancing with the Dead spin-off, Foxtrot: Gone Away.
Bitsy
A simple game engine that works in browsers. With an emphasis on the “bit”, it’s tiny! As a result, most Bitsy games are simple but make up for it with cute twinkling visuals and moving stories. I used it to create the Dancing with the Dead spin-off, Hiareth.
Dracula Theme
A theme for all sorts of programs, and the scheme that’s inspiring this site’s colours. It has several other themes, all appropriately named.
Fraidycat
A browser extension and software that lets you follow people from afar. It’s like using social media without the pain and suffering.
Notepad++
A simple coding program that offers a bit more than doing everything in Notepad.
PETSCII Fireplace
A screensaver that’s a virtual fireplace. It also comes with music and a few toggles. I’ve used this for a few festive seasons and find it very relaxing.
Waterfox
A fork of Firefox and my main desktop browser. I still have a soft spot for Pale Moon, but this is the practical route…
Fan Wikis
Blurbs
Ardalambion
A 90s-style site with plenty of guides on J.R.R. Tolkien’s conlangs. It specialises in his Elvish Quenya.
Blood Wiki
A wiki for the 1997 first-person shooter and its sequel.
Diablo Wiki
A wiki for the progenitor action-fantasy title and its first sequel.
Interactive Fiction Wiki
A wiki for the Interactive Fiction genre, the “GET LAMP” sorts.
Petz Wiki
A wiki for the PFMagic Petz titles and their modding scenes.
Tolkien Gateway
A wiki for J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic and the rest of its world.
General Fun
Horror and Spooky Kitsch
Blurbs
Bogleech
A monster review site with a biting tone and an abundance of articles. It also has reviews for Halloween decorations, its very own monster bestiary, and lots more.
Classic Horror
The remains of a horror film review site, kept online as a useful archive. It has a lean for the oldest films and presents its finds in a casual, but educated tone.
Dinosaur Dracula
A site that reviews 80s to 90s media. It has a playful style and a spooky lean, hence the name.
Halloween Collector
A collector of vintage Halloween decorations discusses his decades-long journey through the hobby.
Halloween Retrospect
A 600+ and still-growing collection of vintage Halloween ephemera.
Scooby Museum
A collection of Scooby-Doo things, from the expected to the oddly specific.
The Gallery of Monster Toys
A 90s-style site for midcentury monster toys.