This Site Has A Genuinely Ludicrous Number Of Pages.

[rionaleonhart]

It's the first birthday of my Final Fantasy VIII website today! Happy birthday, Balamb Garden.

I've had such a blast working on this site, writing down all my rambling thoughts about this game and then hiding them all over the place like a mad squirrel. Drawing stupid doodles, gradually uploading my terrible teenage fancomic, having conversations with myself on Garden Square. Watching everything become steadily more sprawling and unnavigable. It's deeply impractical, but I'm having a great time.

I'm really touched by the messages I've received on the guestbook! (The 'guestbook' is actually a Dreamwidth entry, because guestbook providers tend to have adverts, and I really want to keep this website advertisement-free.) I really thought this project would only be of interest to me and possibly my friends who are into Final Fantasy VIII; who's looking at personal websites in the mid-2020s? But apparently people have actually stumbled across and enjoyed it! I'm delighted.

Absolutely terrible thought I had recently: it would theoretically be possible to create a similarly structured fansite for Silent Hill. Wandering around the town, stumbling across all of my intense feelings about James Sunderland.

Please don't let me create this. I do not have the time or the psychological resilience to build an online replica of Silent Hill. I beg someone to steal this idea from me so I no longer have it in my hands.

Comments

[vriddy]

I think you should do it.

[rionaleonhart]

I don't know what I expected.

[wolfy_writing]

Make the Silent Hill one! Please!

[rionaleonhart]

It's bad enough that my mind drags me back to Silent Hill on a semi-regular basis; if I created a website about it, I'd have to live there!

[militarypenguin]

DO IT DO IT DO IT (please)

[rionaleonhart]

I can relate; I'd love it if a site like this existed! But I'm so reluctant to be the one who makes it.

[necrophilia]

Happy birthday, my favourite website on the interwebs! 🎂

First thirty seconds are very relevant

Does doing a Silent Hill fansite mean you'll play the other games? I'd love to read your entries on f when it comes out!

[rionaleonhart]

Alas, I don't have an Instagram account and it's not letting me see whatever you linked!

Whether I play f depends entirely on whether Tem bullies me into it! I'm definitely intrigued by the involvement of Ryukishi07, though.

[necrophilia]

Whoops! Does this work? If not, we are out of options and I will just have to obnoxiously make you watch stupid videos in person.

I hope Tem does bully you into it. ♥

[rionaleonhart]

omg I love him

[necrophilia]

That is the correct response. And I am reasonably confident he has, at some point or another, seen your website.

[storme]

Without clicking on the link I knew from this exchange that it would involve Ben Starr.

[necrophilia]

He’s perfect.

[alaterdate]

Happy birthday, Balamb Garden!
Your site is truly a treat.

The title of this post is a mood. Peeking at the number of all the files and images on my website—woof.

However, the process can be very fun (and I'm sure you could do something equally as amazing as Balamb Garden for Silent Hill ;) )

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you! ♥

I thought 'oh, I'll count all the pages on my site; that'll be a fun statistic to include in this post!' and then watched the number escalate in mounting alarm. I thought 'it's probably around fifty, which is a ridiculous number.' It's over eighty. I need to be stopped.

[ai]

So I assume you've already started to work on the idea at this point... P:

Happy birthday, Balamb Garden!

[rionaleonhart]

DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT

I'VE ONLY WRITTEN A HUNDRED AND TWENTY WORDS, THAT BARELY EVEN COUNTS

[lassarina]

[dark kermit] do it.

:D

I'm glad you're having so much fun and I'm so glad to see weird personal websites coming back (weird is affectionate here.)

[rionaleonhart]

Leave me alone, Dark Kermit.

(I'm increasingly tempted to! I should really have predicted that 'my evil friends persuade me to carry out the bad idea' would be the natural consequence of posting about my bad idea.)

[lassarina]

I was going to say, I don't know what you expected, here.

squall have you met your hair twin james?

[operasteers]

omfg.... i am sorry to be an enabler but... a silent hill fansite would be so amazing and cute;;; also! never thought about using a dreamwidth entry as a guest book :o! and it's been really cool seeing the site develop, so happy birthday balamb garden! may u trap more people into become flowers or squall enthusiasts (or both, i feel like squall would have some interesting conversations with the flowers from alice in wonderland)

Re: squall have you met your hair twin james?

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you so much! This comment delighted me, and I'm sorry I took so long to respond to it; I was - I was, uh - I'll be honest: I was busy working on the Silent Hill fansite.