Annika's Design Manifesto Corner

the general tacky vibe

i grew obsessed with early-internet websites during a depressive episode. the idea that when people are first exposed to a huge set of tools they would use ALL of them as expansively as they possibly could delighted me. we had been shopping around for website options for the fool for quite some time, but everything was pricey and highly standardized. we were just about to craft a budget that allowed for monthly payments to squ*resp*ce :yuck: when cora mentioned neocities ofhandedly as probably a joke. i dove right in. i already have some coding experience, so re-learning html wasn't all that difficult, but the slight learning curve left me truly obsessed. i explored other websites, learned about the neo/geocities cultural moment that is 88x31 buttons and blinkers and gif collections and knew it was perfectly Foolish. each page i finished taught me more about the delights of early internet and i became quite attached to communities i had never seen before. the world of early internet became my solice :) so here ive given you a little glance into the world i have come to love so deeply. on this page you will find
~the story behind rebeccapurple
~the charming and misunderstood history of 88x31 buttons
~my dissent into utter chaos
~when to give up and when to fight on; the philosophical implications of programming frustrations

the story behind rebeccapurple

as I embarked on the journey of creating this website, i knew i wanted to start with a solid color pallet. for those who are unfamiliar (as many i assume are) in html and css (the language that is used to write visual/design choices) there are two ways you can pick a color; using a pre-set color name, or, if you're cool, a hex code. i am far from an artist and often struggle to come up with color ideas on my own so i google html color pallets. because i do. i poke around and on some now-long-forgotten website i find a page with lists of colors and wind up with the pink-green-purple you see now. it listed the colors by the css names, Pink, Lime, and RebeccaPurple. being depressed and hyperfocused, i thought nothing of it at the time. in a moment of increased clarity, however, curiosity began to spark within me... why was it called Rebecca purple? and, because i am not the worst, i turned to google with my query. this once unimportant color, #663399, suddenly had me tearing up on break at my fwt. it turns out, Rebecca was a real person. Rebecca Alison Meyer was the daughter of Eric Meyer-- notable early css guy. Rebecca passed away on her 6th birthday from brain cancer. her favorite color was purple. when the news of her passing spread through Eric's online community, people used #663399Becca to memorialize the young girl. Jeffrey Zeldman began the campaign with,

"It’s so easy to do, there’s no reason not to. Go to Twitter on 12 June and post the hashtag #663399Becca along with any additional words or pictures you feel moved to share. Or just share the hashtag. It will not be enough. Nothing will ever be enough. But it will be something."

this lead to the proposal of a new labled color, "beccapurple" #663399. this was later changed to "rebeccapurple" as Eric writes,

“Rebecca informed us that she was about to be a big girl of six years old, and Becca was a baby name. Once she turned six, she wanted everyone (not just me) to call her Rebecca, not Becca.”

upon reading this, i felt even more drawn to the color. to be able to further the memory of this young person, and to have the very color of the text hold such meaning, felt important. and while this site is silly, and the aesthetics are far from serious, i hold some solemnity through the goof, as is always the case with the Fool. i hope that as you scroll through this website you find some Rebecca, memorialized in purple.