So you want to create a Dark Age of Camelot Web Site? Hopefully, I can help a few of you out. Creating web sites is a lot of fun. And if you are creative in some way, you may discover that you have a real knack for it! But know up front that it can be hard work. Not 'hard' like digging ditches, or having to watch 'Bette', but hard in that the learning curve can be frustrating.

HTML is the easiest of the languages out there. If you use Windows (not sure about the Mac OS), you already have what you need to create a web page. If you look under 'accessories', you should see a program called 'Notepad'. This is what's known as a 'simple text editor'. Go ahead and open it up.

All HTML documents must be written in, surprisingly, HTML!

HTML is plain English, but with 'commands'. All HTML commands are surrounded by the "<" and ">" symbols. A typical HTML command is 'p', which creates a new paragraph or page break. I'll use one at the end of this sentance, but like most HTML commands you won't see it. It works behind the scenes.

So your first step is to learn some HTML commands. A great way to start learning is to take someone else's code, and play around with it. In your browser, go to "View" then "view source" for this page. Here you see all the HTML coding I did for this simple page. Using your mouse, highlight the entire page and copy it to Notepad.

Now, in Notepad, change 'Mike the Mad' to your own name. If your name also happens to be Mike the Mad then use your favorte mid-70's sitcom star instead. Now click 'file' and 'save as'. Save your document in a place you can find it easily, I recommend creating a special folder on your desktop called "HTML". When you save it make sure to save it as "yourname.html" not "yourname.txt"

So now you have an HTML document you can wreak havoc on. If you open up your net browser, you can click "open" under file and then browse to where you saved your web page. To do any future modifications on this documents just view it's source and type away! After you save your changes return to the web page and hit "refresh" on your browser to see the changes. Now that you have a few basics down. I will not attempt to teach you more, but I will point you in the right direction.

The best site on the net for novice webmasters is undoubtably HTML Goodies. He has a lot of tutorials covering every subject out there. I'd recommend learning basic text commands, then work your way up to tables. After tables do frames, and by then you'll be ready to tackle java applets and streaming audio.
A great book to start with is 'HTML 4 for Dummies'. Should cost you about $25.00.

Where to host your site? For a fan page, I suggest you start out with a free site. Sure, there are annoying banners, but till you decide you REALLY want to do this, why invest money?

Everyone has a preference, but I like Geocities. The main reason I prefer them is that their FTP (file transfer protocol) is very intuitive. You HAVE to use FTP to move content from your computer to your web site, so why not make it easy on yourself? Geocities can be found here. That's about all I got for now. I realize this may not help many people, but if one person discovers the joy of HTML because of this page then it was worth it.

Best Wishes,

Mike the Mad