A new hobby

I've recently taken up a new hobby. I spent the past week building a
web page. It was a lot harder than I had expected and the page
isn't all that good. But I wanted to have some sort of a platform for
the upcoming elections. I will work on it between now and summer to
get it more attractive. It has been fun so far. I can't decide the
direction to take. I'm using a free site to see if I want to keep it
up.

My friend Randy N, or "Nick" as he is better known, has a page just
like mine .

Islander...

The basics of HTML are pretty simple and can be used to produce a
credible job. I used to have a half hour tutorial that I used to
introduce people to building web sites and most people could master the
basics in one session. Now, there are very good tools available
including standard outputs from familiar desktop word processors. I
often use M$ Word to produce a quick page and then tweak the HTML if I
need to.

One of the nice things about HTML is that you can "view source" in most
browsers to see how someone else has coded something. Things get a bit
more complex with Frames and Tables, but there is really not much to
force a page into exactly the format that you want. It is also a good
idea to look at the page in a couple of different browsers. They do not
all interpret the HTML the same way. Explorer, in particular, will
often make assumptions that don't hold true in other browsers.

It is not necessary to get into Java or other languages unless you
really want to do something special. If you want to get into writing
CGI scripts on the server (if your ISP will allow you to do that) things
get as complex as you want (or don't want as the case may be). You ISP
may also provide you with canned CGI scripts to handle things like forms.

Finally, what is "good?" Personally, I prefer elegant simplicity to
complex backgrounds, blinking text, and extensive graphics.

Good luck and enjoy your new hobby. It is fun!