When did you start making shrines/do you think you will stop

[Juhi]

However, I don't think one needs to "quit" a hobby. Rather, I find the way you express and engage in a hobby changes with time. So, my involvement in the community may change, this being a hobby won't.

I think this is an interesting point you made, Juhi. :D I'm sure that there are hobbies that have kind of dwindled out of one's interest. I don't think that people usually make a conscious decision to quit a hobby, sometimes it just happens. So why would making fansites be any different?

I think I might've worded it a little poorly. Hobbies definitely do come and go, and it can be a conscious decision to stop. I find that certain hobbies get "shelved", or put away for an indefinite period of time. That time period may be quantifiable, or it simply becomes a "never going to happen again" sort of affair.

So I feel like I will eventually "shelve" site making. Whether I come back to it or leave it alone on the imaginative bookshelf is entirely up in the air. My interests and current circumstance are major factors in the decision.

[Todd]

I started making sites in like 1999 or 2000 as well. My first major site was a fansite to a book series I was really into. A girl in that community made character tributes, and I thought they were cool, so I eventually made my own.

I'm not as active as I once was with sites, but I can't see myself giving them up anytime soon. Much like others, my hobby just evolves to suit my lifestyle. Now, for example, I make sites that don't need updating, and if I never touched them again after uploading them, they'd be fine, and I'd be proud of them.

There are times in the year (like now) where I won't touch sites at all, and others like the dead summer, where I feel creative and have a lot of time, and I may revamp a site or make a new one. The way I handle my sites works for me.

[Sarah]

I started around 2001. Well, that is when I made my first website using HTML (a general series fansite for Invade Zim), as opposed to a pagebuilder. So, sometime around the new millennium, I guess. Heh.

As for when I will stop? I don't know. I do know that I want to keep making websites as long as I am able. I wish people looked at it like they do other hobbies, eg. knitting, baking, fantasy football, etc. You know, as "normal". I think the stigma attached to making sites is one thing I worry about, especially as I get older. But it's not like it's actually a bad thing, and you don't have to tell other people about it, so.. I just really enjoy it, and I figure as long as I have the time and the desire is still there, I will keep making sites.

[dubiousdisc]

I think the stigma attached to making sites is one thing I worry about, especially as I get older. But it's not like it's actually a bad thing, and you don't have to tell other people about it, so.. I just really enjoy it, and I figure as long as I have the time and the desire is still there, I will keep making sites.

You know what, though...I think that if something, hobbies like ours will become normalized sooner than later. Just see how people's perception of the Internet has started to change. Fifteen years ago or so everyone was sure that the Internet was some crazy den of pedophiles! Also, as things are now being on the Internet is no longer a thing for big nerds - everyone has something to do with it, even when it's just Facebook. It's just that people are scared of new things, and start to accept them only when they're not new and novel anymore. Think of movies - when they were a new thing, people were saying that movies were some sort of shitty entertainment that would have never got anywhere!...

[Sarah]

Ah, you make some really good points, dubs. I never took any of that into consideration. (Now you mention it, I do remember the negative associations with the internet when it was just beginning.) It's a good thing to keep in mind; hopefully shrining does become more normalized. As long as we keep at it. :)

[Mikari]

I miss the nerdy internet. XD

I agree that practically everyone has some form of "presence" online these days. Though sadly it's often just a profile on some social site. Though I haven't been shrining lately, I don't see myself without a site any time soon. I'll still have my little site for all the things that an archive profile can't give me, the freedom in design, things that I can only achieve if I code them myself, etc.

[dubiousdisc]

Mikari, I think that's a big part of why I keep coming back for more and why I can't just surrender to having some sort of profile on some other site. It's just...I want to make things and I want to have fun making things. It's no fun when it's just, press a couple buttons, done XD

[Camy]

I actually made a Yue fansite before my Sesshoumaru site. It was....it was bad XD I think it was sometime in 2003 since I remember printing out his images and put it in the binder I had. Wish it was still up but freewebs (now known as Webs) deleted it since I never logged back in again ;; For my first site though, it wasn't that bad at that time xD

I used to be extremely active but I've just gotten so terribly lazy what with playing games, writing, games, college, GAMES, plot bunnies, and, uh, games |D

I won't stop though since it's great practice and a joy at the same time to make them :3

[Kibumie]

I started working on one late 2009. Right now, I don't have anything in mind to shrine about. I'm not so sure if I would continue, but I still prefer to have my stuffs online. If I shut them down, I feel like all the work and time I put on those shrines and the fun I had would all be worthless. Right now, I just don't know.. maybe someday I would have something to work on.

[Destinie]

@Kibumie It may come back to you (and I will be happy if it does! I really enjoy your work.), I am glad that you're keeping your shrines up for now! :D