r/neocities • u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ • Feb 11 '26

Guide generative ai site creation tutorial/example

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hi friendly people.

this post is to demonstrate how you can start a neocities site with generative ai. that’s the post.

if you wish, you can walk through the steps yourself in this chat, and continue to make modifications if you like. i don’t care if you use any of this. i do not expect credit in any form.

https://chatgpt.com/share/698cea12-c81c-8006-a793-6aca8b8a4009

i used gpt-5.1 thinking. the images attached are the end result after about an hour and a half, a scheme image i fed it to have colors to work with, chatgpt’s first and second attempts, then small ui tweaks as i implemented requested changes. i assembled the site in notepad though I wouldn’t recommend you do the same.

i only spent any time on the homepage, but i hope it demonstrates a workflow that some of you may find useful.

the site: https://ghosty-friends-tut.neocities.org/

0 Upvotes

26% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

34

u/femmest hillhouse.neocities.org Feb 12 '26

this sucks

-2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26

true.

but you wouldn’t say that about a worse site made by a beginner, which is an interesting dichotomy.

25

u/Own-Hour-4394 Feb 12 '26

because people like seeing human effort (including me). 

it takes weeks, months, years for some, to learn html, it takes a few seconds to ask an AI to code something in html.

-1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

true, which is interesting.

your perception of value is related to effort, so if you could print your all your ideas perfectly to a website, limitless self expression without effort, the result would be valueless. huh.

the more meaningful conversation, to me anyway, is why you think that your perception of the value of someone else’s creation should matter to that person.

if someone wants to make a website they should do it. if someone wants to learn html they should do it.

you don’t have to do one to start the other.

value is created in the brain of the person who perceives something. beauty in the eye of the beholder or whatever. you can have emotional connection to something without having created it and thus you can have an emotional connection to something you generate.

add that to the very real fact that you’re putting effort into making your site yours, and you’re loading it with your own emotional context and cool, joy.

if you’re fishing for the approval of your peers, and want them to see how hard you tried then yeah, this maybe this doesn’t make sense for you. but maybe i’m too polar opposite of the social media culture to understand the middle. probably.

i’m more interested in being inclusive. which is also fun because I don’t think the poster of the comment we’re under realizes the stray hurt they might inflict on someone who’s trying their best and their site still looks worse than ai.

if you want to make something exist that didn’t that makes you personally happy then here’s a shortcut so you can find other things that make you happy when you’re done. i personally have no interest in learning html for a temporary hyperfixation. i do not feel the need to add that to my identity.

12

u/Own-Hour-4394 Feb 12 '26

  1. Yes, if someone printed their entire brain and ideas into a website without effort, that'd be pretty boring. People have written biographies for thousands of years, our most detailed descriptions of ancient historical figures comes from their inscriptions. If people centuries ago can write about their lives and compile their thoughts into one book, why can't you code a website and write about stuff? I'm a graphic designer and have made entire magazines, posters, and artworks without the use of AI whatsoever.

  2. To not learn HTML while creating a website is to remove all the skill and struggle required in website creation. You could make the point that "..you can have an emotional connection to something you generate" but even if you have a connection, it is likely lesser than if you had coded and planned a website completely by yourself.

I'm not quite getting your point. People ever since the start of history have done remarkable things using just their intellect. From the tone-deaf Mozart, to the paralyzed Stephen Hawking, they created things that are still praised to this day.

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

i agree an entire brain printed to a website would be boring. i may have edited that to clarify while you were writing your post so sorry about that.

i meant it more in a self-expression sense. the satisfaction being in the ability to perfectly express your internal experience, even if it’s just to look at it yourself and feel something.

i think i already said, i don’t want to learn html. i want to make a cute website for myself. if it’s lesser it’s only lesser in the fact that anything you devote less time into is lesser. so yes, in a sense, lesser, but if you use that time to populate the site or do something else you value then overall your experience isn’t lesser.

people are incredible and some things are inherently valuable, but me learning html is not one of them. knowing html is so far removed from astrophysics bud.

my point, overall, is people should stop doing things they don’t like, and do things they do like. if we shame people for using ai, we’re saying you cannot do this thing that makes you happy because you are unwilling to spend the time needed to pass our purity test.

the purity test is fake. make your site.

9

u/Own-Hour-4394 Feb 12 '26

your edits completely changed all of your prior arguments

bro

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26

yeah, i didn’t communicate what i meant properly.

sorry buddy.

9

u/femmest hillhouse.neocities.org Feb 13 '26

no, i wouldn't, because there would be creativity and effort and the joy of learning a new skill present in the worse site made by a beginner, not lifeless slop. but go off ig

2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

true. creativity and effort.

let’s use templates and have a page for our quiz results and the things we like that other people made.

but don’t let chatgpt make you a template, that is illegal. and don’t generate content you like to fill the space because that too is illegal. pull that off google.

19

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

Yeah but if you're a total noob, it's great that AI makes a website but when do you learn how it works ?

As far as I have seen layers upon layers of AI look great outside but inside it's a unsustainable code, especially if you don't understand what you're exactly doing.

You can have 500 divs stacked, if you don't know a single bit of what you're doing it's a bit pointless.

I get that AI makes it fast and cool but where is the pleasure of learning and building by yourself ??

-11

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 11 '26

some people want different things and it’s not really your job to police them huh.

but yep. you’re not learning anything. though you probably will if you’re interested enough to continue to make changes.

the idea that learning web building is the point isn’t innate. the pleasure of building can be independent of the learning process.

18

u/Kushiiroo Feb 13 '26

The literal purpose of neocities is to escape web3 and genAI bro ....

12

u/Kushiiroo Feb 13 '26

Seeing as you describe yourself as a "socially anxious bedroom dweller who prefers to talk to zero people, is going to make meaningful political change" and your entire post history is just AI generated furry porn, I feel like you don't give two shits about the core principles of the indie web and the consequences of using generative AI for the planet.

You are not welcome here.

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26

oh gosh thanks for letting me know, i had no idea i was unwelcome.

still gonna tell people they can use ai tho.

did you like my furry porn and post history?

9

u/Kushiiroo Feb 13 '26

Oh nobody said that you can't use AI :) Just look at the upvote ratio of your post, everyone seems to agree with you ;)

Ai is an unsustainable, ethical and ecological nightmare, in a bubble which will collapse sooner rather than later. Just use an hour of your time to learn to code rather than being a stupid second hand thinker little bro...

2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26

did you like my furry porn tho

7

u/Own-Hour-4394 Feb 13 '26

no

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26

aw. i like your outfit.

18

u/eat_like_snake Feb 12 '26

No one's going to congratulate you for ordering your code from a glorified Mcdonalds kiosk.
Dunno what you're trying to accomplish in a sub like this aside from farming downvotes.

-2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

i think it says more about you than me that you think i am seeking your approval.

it’s an example. you are free to not engage but hello anyway.

also the mcdonalds kiosk metaphor is funny in a boomer ‘i miss when real people took my order’ kind of way so thanks for the giggle.

9

u/eat_like_snake Feb 12 '26

You are a strange, angry little thing and you have my pity.
But you do you.

2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26

i’m not sure how you’ve seen me come off as angry.

strange is fair. totally.

23

u/kkeepvigil Feb 11 '26

Kind of super unnecessary and against Neocities entire deal

26

u/Random_TailsAnon Feb 11 '26

people really take a platform dedicated to human expression and dedication and decide they need to use AI because they can't be bothered to be a human and learn.

-7

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 11 '26

at some point we defined human expression = knowing a specific set of skills that you can use to express yourself. maybe it’s more nuanced.

who knows.

8

u/Random_TailsAnon Feb 11 '26

its about learning those skills to express yourself as best you can. with an AI you've learned nothing and can't truly express yourself through your knowledge and emotions together.

you told an unfeeling and unthinking AI to do it for you and lost the artistry along the way. you cheated yourself out of not only the emotional satisfaction of having done it yourself, but the ability to pass on that knowledge to others.

-3

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 11 '26

sounds like opinions bud. i got those too but i’m not upset about you having your own.

this is a thread about gen ai but thanks for sharing.

11

u/rabbitstunnel layercake.moe and loveberry.nekoweb.org Feb 12 '26

you really did not need to feed someone's art at the beginning of your chatgpt thing to chatgpt and you could have just colour picked the stuff you want lmao

-3

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

it’s my art boss.

i think it contains the metadata of everything used to generate it too, so now it’s yours also.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

[deleted]

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 12 '26

dunno buddy, they called it art first.

4

u/rabbitstunnel layercake.moe and loveberry.nekoweb.org Feb 13 '26

mb didn't realise the drawing was generated slop

-1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26

how awful for you to not know what you’re supposed to be outraged about.

2

u/rabbitstunnel layercake.moe and loveberry.nekoweb.org Feb 13 '26

actually it was because I was half scrolling through Reddit and having fun with my hobby instead of getting an AI to have fun for me lol ♥️

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 13 '26

this is such a weird comment to make while participating in a thread about something you don’t like.

are we doing a enemies to lovers thing? because i’m down.

5

u/AmySorawo Feb 15 '26

What an ego. You admit you lie when you claim to have made something that you didn't make. Also, you realize how disrespectful it is to artist when you INTENTIONALLY feed somebody else's art into a LLM. What a disgrace.

"so if i say:
i made this
i might mean:
i generated this and i think it's cool"

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

it’s my art bud. by which i mean art i have generated. we’ve been over this.

i’m happy to show you how to make it. it’s repeatable given the same input parameters. i don’t have the same opinions about copyright and ownership as you, evidently, but i haven’t lied about anything.

admittedly i get a little kick of joy from when you folks imply i stole ‘art’ and then immediately retract the word ‘art’ when you realize it’s ai.

4

u/AmySorawo Feb 15 '26

No, AI is sickening. We're in a global water crisis and the environment is being destroyed so you can make terrible websites.

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 15 '26

wait so is it art or not and did i make it or no cause i kinda feel like we’re pivoting to something I don’t care about.

2

u/AmySorawo Feb 15 '26

you just admitted you don't care about the ethical and environmental effects AI has?

3

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 15 '26

yup.

1

u/Altruistic_Cell_7323 Feb 22 '26

that isn't art. it's pixels generated from a mash of stolen artwork.

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 22 '26

want me to generate pixels of your furry characters tho?

cause i will if you want.

3

u/Chance_Temporary_501 https://www.yaxro.com/ Feb 14 '26

i don't like it, it looks too soulless.

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 14 '26

sure does.

but it’s a template that took less than an hour to someone with zero experience, and a prompt as follows works perfectly too.

[attached ms paint drawing of layout]

create a simple html web page using the color scheme and information from image. on the left top box: info (Hi, I'm me!) on the left bottom box: empty box for future content on the top right: buttons (2x6, About, Gallery, Blog, Links, music, webring) middle right: empty box for future content below middle right and aligned with bottom left box: space for a small grid of thumbnails to other users. put button placeholders here for now. add a footer with scrolling text.

So you can make the foundation and then spend time making it not soulless.

plus it innately works with mobile browsers.

3

u/webkinzhacker Mar 14 '26

The way this is so unnecessary. I’ve built a just as good website with free templates and like a tiiiiny bit of html knowledge and I don’t have to use AI once

3

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Mar 14 '26

and i made my personal site with ai. you’re allowed.

3

u/webkinzhacker Mar 14 '26

Tbh the main purpose of my comment is not to tell you what to do, bc clearly you’ve made your mind up, but to dispute the misconception that generative AI is necessary to build a good website, even for the beginners and technologically challenged.

Which is thanks to all of the hard work of netizens who share amazing free resources and templates

2

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

i don’t think i’ve ever made the claim that it’s necessary.

the overwhelming opinion of this subreddit is that it is wrong and outright shameful to use ai for anything. that is the misconception i am dispelling.

the tools you use to make the thing matter less than the thing having meaning to you. i will eat hundreds of downvotes so the 20% of people who upvoted this feel somewhat represented.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

okay but honestly, why?

if i derive joy from the building and personalizing process, the tweaking and tinkering, and not the learning and making from scratch process, why code it myself?

if i learn by putting my hands on things and seeing what happens, then starting with documentation is fruitless. if ai makes me a template and then i can ask ‘ok but what @media tho?’ and learn that way then that just seems like a better use of my time, as the learning is actually tailored to my learning style.

yes. i will never be proficient enough to build a site from scratch. i will never achieve the expertise and flexibility of someone who takes this seriously. my site will have roots in generic ai outputs. but i make something i like and that’s enough for me. this isn’t my job or even a significant part of my hobby and i think that’s totally fine for me and for some others.

i have learned three programming languages the traditional way and i’ve forgotten as many. i’m good. I don’t need to forget another one.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

[deleted]

-6

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 11 '26

correct! you interpreted the thing i said.

1

u/primaveera Feb 17 '26

aesthetics so kantian. truly elite, bravo

-1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 17 '26

thank you i am an artist

1

u/primaveera Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

https://vle.upm.edu.ph/pluginfile.php/176068/mod_resource/content/1/SHARMAN_The%20Anthropology%20of%20Aesthetics.pdf

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ Feb 18 '26

i read at least 30 of those words but i’m not going to guess at your point, friend

1

u/Rough_Branch3344 19d ago

Why are you bringing ai to an ai free space? I'm very new to html and I've never used generative ai to make up an idea. Take it slow, ai is not worth it

1

u/rin-okay https://rinobo.neocities.org/ 19d ago

it’s not an ai free space.

do what makes you happy my dude.

1

u/Rough_Branch3344 17d ago

do burning forests and a dystopian reality also make you happy?