somnacanth's Bulletins
For starters, I am taking an indefinite hiatus from Toyhouse HTML. I think a combination of a lot of layouts here, having done a ton of coding for my own website(s), and keeping up with college has left me pretty fatigued in terms of new layout ideas (tbh by the end of last year I was relying on CQ prompts to give me new ideas lol). So I'm taking time away from toyhouse codes to focus on other hobbies & life stuff. Plus my next big HTML project is gonna be giving my main website a layout change and I want to save my coding energy for when I get to that.
Though while I'm on break, I'm working on migrating my codes off pastebin and onto toyhouse. Going forward I feel having everything onsite (and properly archived offsite ofc) would be better for organization. I've noticed through lurking around the site some people have had trouble getting onto it + it seems that site is starting to have some issues with missflagging (while moving some codes onsite, i noticed a snippet got taken down for being 'potentially harmful'... despite it being a bootstrap collapse example). So having everything available on toyhouse will keep things easier to get to in the long run.
I'm only moving a handful of codes at a time as to not overwhelm myself. Any codes that have been moved here are being put in tabs & I swapped out the links to pastebin for ones to said tabs. I'm temporarily tagging the ones I've already done 'onsite' until I've moved them all.
As of posting this bulletin, the one's I've moved include:
Within the next few months or so, I'll need to do some maintenance on my code previews to swap hosting for some of the images
For refrence, Discord is changing the way links work so that hotlinking (aka hosting an image on discord to embed elsewhere) won't work & any links to said images will break. The files themselves will remain up, but any links to them going forward won't last more than a day aka. not long enough for long-term page decor
(post with more info + some alternatives)
While there's fewer images here than on my main that need replacing, I want to spread some awareness of this since discord for better or worse, is one of the main ways ik a lot of people on here host assets so I suggest switching them over sooner than later
Added to the "you may" section:
(you may) Use offsite as long as credits are kept (ie: neocities pages)
The reason I wanted to add this is because I've been spending time coding my own site on Neocities lately (Here's the link to it if you're interested👀). And with more people looking to build their own sites and detach from mainstream social media, I figured I'd start allowing people to use my codes offsite for people who want to make offsite character pages.
If you are going to use my codes offsite, keep in mind that you may need to do heavy modifications otherwise they will break So here's a breif "offsite mods survival kit":
My codes here rely on Toyhouse's Dependancies: Bootstrap 4 & FA pro icons.
- On Bootstrap 4 - I don't recommend using these on a non-bootstrap site. With the amount of mods you'd need to do at that point you'd be better off coding from scratch. But for Bootstrap users, keep in mind BS4 & BS5 don't always use the same classes (ex: BS5 doesn't have 'btn-block'). It's always good to check the documentation for any changes.
- On FontAwesome Pro - FA Pro is expensive for the average user (as of posting, $99usd a year. Feasable for Toyhouse, a bit excessive for personal sites). So I suggest either switching over to their free sets of Icons, or finding alternative icon sets if you still want to keep the icons.
- For example, I use the Bootstrap Icon Set for my own site. I'll also point you to Iconify if you're indecisive on what to use, the site hosts multiple FOSS iconsets so you can mix-and-match as needed
- CodePen (web)
- Notepad++ (windows only)
- Visual Studio Code (windows, mac, Linux, Web)
- Kate (windows, mac, Linux)
And for a final note, please keep in mind that not everyone wants their codes to be used offsite. This includes Frankensteining (hence why I added it in my TOS). I put out the above guide in case people want/need to modify my codes, so I ask to please respect people who don't want their codes used off toyhouse.
(and please, don't pressure people into letting you use codes offsite. It's ok to ask, but pestering & begging is not ok)
Basically, toyhouse now has better support for non-character profiles & added new listings for those. I think it's a step in the right direction, esp since it's a feature people wanted for years It's nice to see there's still some development going on here. Just went through and updated the listings for my HTML
and for other things, Admittedly i've burnt myself out on HTML this year. Part of it is because I redid my portfolio website this year & I want to put more attention into illustration than coding rn. I'll still try to put things out whenever the HTML mood strikes again though 👍
A thing I've wanted to do for a while, dropping a list of free software i've used and/or heard about. Not sure if one of these already exists on TH, I mostly wanted to make one as a passion-project thingy
Many of the programs given the spotlight are paid, some far beyond the average joe's price range, others adopting predatory subscription models Coughcough Adobe.
With how advanced and fleshed out free and/or open source programs have gotten, I think they deserve way more time in the limelight. Infact, several of the programs listed here are considered professional-level!
So reguardless if you're looking for a place to start or just want to try something new, I hope this list becomes handy for people who stumble across it
This list is meant to be updated overtime. I'm keeping it unlisted for now because it's technically not a character/is a list of off-site resources.
Btw, I am open to suggestions for more programs to feature, even if I haven't tried or can't try said program! The main criterias for suggestions is:
- Has to be art-related in some way.
- Examples: Drawing/painting, & Animation. Writing, Music & Video editing also count.
- It has to be free or have a free non-trial version
- It can't be a default/pre-installed program (so no programs like MSpaint or Notepad)
- Can't be a piracy link. The focus here is what's already available for free
Popping in: recently TH updated to FA 6! Though it seems as of right now duotone icons aren't displaying properly across all devices or due to the updates the look of them on codes ended up changing (rip DT heart you will be missed).
I suggest doing either a cache reset or a hard refresh (Ctrl + f5 on PC, or Cmd +Shift + R on Mac).
My thoughts on FA 6, I don't mind it & I do want to mess with the new Icons in future layouts (+ FA 6's site isn't as laggy as FA 5's) though I'm not sure why it got rolled out on TH so soon? Or without any announcement or fanfare. Especially when TH has other issues a la lack of staff presence, there could've at least have been an announcement to let people know the site hasn't been abandoned. (+ FA6 is in beta iirc)