Link Hoard of the Grubby Dog
My collection of neat websites (and a few other things) that I've found during my time on the internet.
I always try to focus on free resources whenever possible. The rare paid-only stuff is left $20 USD or less (not counting tax) and (B) made by indie creators.
If anything here breaks in the future, or becomes not-free/more expensive, or is riddled with ads (I use an ad blocker and don't always remember to check the sites), or otherwise becomes sketchy, just let me know and I'll fix it ASAP!
Creative Site Creation Alterhumanity Queer Resources Education Fun Stuff Personal Sites Uncatigorized Others' CollectionsCreative
Anything that helps you with art, be it visual, writing, music, whatever!
Programs
Photopea, a free photoshop-like program that works in your browser.
Polotno Studio, lets you make various graphics in your browser.
Glaze, free downloadable (Windows/Mac) program to help prevent your art from being scrapped for AI generators without your consent. It does this by adding a layer (a "glaze", if you will) over the art that, when said art is added to a AI dataset, causes it to "poison" said set and make it spew out nonsense. Note that this effect, while meant to be unnoticeable to humans, can be seen on art with mostly flat colors. The program can also be pretty demanding on your computer. A browser version does exist and is linked on the site, but in my experince it's had such high traffic that it struggles a lot as well.
Krita, a free and open source downloadable (Linux/Windows/Mac) art program. It's what I use and reccomend B)
Fire Alpaca, another free downloadable (Windows/Mac) art program. I used to use it, and it was pretty nice.
SketchBook, yet another free downloadable (Android/iOS) art program. I don't use it for serious drawing anymore, but it was servicable when I did use it for that. Note that some features are behind a prenium version, which costs $2 USD (paid once, not subscription, thankfuly). You can also purchase it for Windows/Mac for $25.
Twinery, free program that lets you create interactive/"choose your own adventure" stories. It can be run in your browser, or it can be installed for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Scribus, a free and open source downloaable (Linux/Windows/Mac) publising program.
LibreOffice, a free and open source downloadable (Linux/Windows/Mac) office suite, including a writing program!
Joplin, a free and open source downloadable (Linux/Windows/Mac/Android/iOS) note-taking program. Has a syncronization fearure; I actually use this to write my fanfics and such because of this!
Tools
Tools for Creating Ideas, for when you're hoplessly stuck on something.
Paletton, helps you make nice looking color pallates. You can even see examples of it used on webpages and generic art graphics! You can then export the pallate in a number of table styles.
Handwriting to Font, a tool that lets you create your own font from your handwriting! Site is also host to many free-to-use fonts.
Refrences
Vishopper Cut-Out People, meant to be for purchaing stock images, but its in-depth search function makes it useful for finding refrence images for drawing!
Human Anatomy for Artists, a site with a ton of pose refrences. Note that most models are nude or almost nude.
How to Draw Arms [Tumblr Post], that one Tumblr post by mcapriglioneart that shows you how to proportion limbs using triangles. This version includes a reblog showing how to also determine limb length.
Remove Background, what it says on the tin. Browser-based tool to remove backgrounds from images.
More Resources
Magnet Poetry, magnet poetry in your browser!
Let's Make a Zine!, a guide on how to make a zine by metaparadox. Takes the form of a downloadable PDF. Has a name your own price cost model.
Scribus Zine Templates, collection of zine templates for Scribus, also made by metaparadox and also name your own price.
Site Creation
How to make funny webbed site.
Guides
Interneting is Hard, a comprhensive yet simple introduction to HTML/CSS.
Sadness's Webmaster Guides, no longer mintained, but still has a lot of useful information on HTML/CSS.
W3 Schools, guides for how to do certain things in HTML, CSS, Java Script, and more!
Ground Floor, a guide on how to make a web page look pleasing while using minimal to no CSS.
Web Design in 4 Minutes, a short crash course on web design.
Make Your Own Website Almost From Scratch, a quick guide to making a website with neocities that is geared primarialy twoards artists looking to make a gallery/portfolio site.
MelonLand, a collection of resources for personal web development. Has a forum, but do know the forum closes on Monday and that there are multiple eye-straining and quickly moving elements on the various MelonLand sites.
32Bit Cafe, a community of website hobbists who provide a list of publicly avalible guides and resources.
Tools
WAVE, standing for "Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools" is a site that lets you test and make sure that your website is acessible to those with various disabilities.
Color Contrast Accessibility Validator, simmilar to the above, however it only checks to see if your site's text contrasts well enough with its background to be readable to those with color blindness or otherwise impared vision.
Color Contrast Tool, another color contrast checker.
Codepen, a site that lets you test out HTML and CSS codes and shows you how they'll look in real time.
Atom, downloadable (Windows/Mac) text editor program focused on being good for code. I've used it before and it's quite nice. Note that it has been discontenuied and will no longer receive updates. The online collaboration feature the home page mentions no longer works.
Notepad++, downlowdable (Windows) text editor program also focused on being good for coding. Is what I use to code this here site! :3
Layoutit, a tool to help plan the basic layout of a website; it even generates the code for said base layout!
Magicpattern, tool that generates CSS pattrents for your various pattren useages.
Clippy, a tool that generates CSS code to "draw" a shape for your shapely needs.
Color Picker from Image, a tool that lets you color pick from an image. It then gives you the HEX and RBG codes for said color. Used this to get many of the colors found on this site!
Templates
Please be sure to follow any rules/conditions these users have with using their themes!
Rarebit, a site template/tool box made for webcomic hosting.
Code Snippits
W3S "How To" Series, a collection of snippets and tutorials on how to do particular things.
Kale's Code Snippits, a small collection of snippets including the java-free tabs used on this page.
Web Neko, put a little cat on your site that will chase the mouse pointer around!
Adopt a Chao, add a little Chao to your site.
Gify Pet, a virtual pet you can customize and put on your site.
More Resources
Sadgrl's Webmastery, a collection of various resources such as HTML/CSS tips, some more templates, a layout builder, free to use images, free to use fonts, and much more!
Sadgrl's Website Ideas, another one of Sadness's resources, this time being a list of things you can add to your website if you run out of ideas.
HTML Cheat Sheet, list of commonly used HTML elements. They also have CSS and Javascript sheets.
CSS Resources, collection of CSS properties/functions to refrence.
Cinni's Web Goodies, free to use graphics.
The 88 x 31 GIF Collection, many GIFs you can use on your site. Warnning: Many of them do flash quickly!
Web Badges World, a large collection of various web badges. Warning: many of them do flash quickly, though animated ones can be filtered out.
The Blinkie Hoard, a collection of "blinkies", narrow GIFs used to deccorate pages. Warrning: many of then do flash!
Dokode's Graphics, collection of free to use graphics.
Alterhumanity
"Alterhumans are individuals who have identities beyond what is traditionally considered human. An alterhuman can identify as non-human, or they can identify as being human in ways alternate to what is societally common" - Otherkin Wiki. This is a list of resources regarding alterhuman identities and our history!
Three Dragons and a Dog, large collection of writings and various resourses about alterhumanity, plus a few fun things like single player TTRPGs.
The Chimeras Library, more writings and resources about alterhumanity, plus some fun stuff.
Orion Scribner, even MORE writings and resources about alterhumanity.
From Fiction, site with various resources about being fictionkin in particular.
The Alterhuman Archives, an achive of various alterhuman resources.
Otherkin Wiki, my personally prefered wiki of information on otherkin.
Queer Resources
"Queer" here is being used as an alternative unbrella term for LGBTQ+. This is a list of resources about queer identities and our history!
History and Education
Making Queer History, a website and podcast that connects queer history with the present day
Country Queers, an ongoing multimedia oral history project documenting the diverse experiences of rural, small town, and country LGBTQIA2S+ folks – across intersecting layers of identity such as race, class, age, ability, gender identity, and religion (description from site).
ACT UP Oral History Project, The ACT UP Oral History Project is an archive of 187 interviews with members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (description from site).
University of Victoria's Transgender Archives, a public online archive of trans history hosted by the University of Victoria.
Digital Transgener Archives, another public archive of trans history.
Queer Liberation Library, QLL is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community (description from site). Features a handy button that will take you to The Weather Channel site if you need to quickly leave the page for any reason.
Queer Zine Archive Project, a project aiming to archive as many zines discussing queer topics as possible and encourage further creation of more queer zines. It also has a second site that seems to use a slightly diffrent catalouge system.
Trans Library Carrd, a list of free documentaries, books and magazines about trans and GNC people.
Trans Reads, texts by, for, or about people who transverse or transcend western gender norms (description from site). Note that it also hosts transphobic texts so that people can have a refrence to recognize when a seemingly progressive text is actually transpobic.
InterACT's Brochures and InterACT's FAQ page, educational resources on intersex people.
Other Resources
Pronoun Dressing Room, a site where you can test out how diffrent pronouns are used and test out if they fit you.
Education
Free and cheap education resources. Covers book smarts (maths, histories, sciences, etc.) and street smarts (emotional intelligence, cooking, how to adult, etc.)
Book Smarts
LibreTexts, college-level textbooks provided for free. Seems to have some good stuff, though I find thier website hard to nvigate.
OpenStax, free and open-source college textbooks (and some highschool-level ones) provided for free. I've had instructors assign us books from their list, so I can strongly reccomend it.
Open Textbook Library, another collection of textbooks with open licences.
Project Gutenberg is a collection of books that have entered the public domain, free to be download and read by anyone.
JSTOR, academic articals with prices ranging from cheap (in comparison to the normal cost of such articals) to free.
Desmos Scientific Calculator, free and robust calculator in your browser.
The Anarchist Library, an archive of anti-state and anti-capitalism texts.
Street Smarts
Recipe Search lets you search the internet for any recipe. It will then pull the basic information you actually need (ingredients, directions, ect.) from the site for you so that you don't need to wade through tons of ads or unneeded stories.
My Fridge Food helps you find recipies based on what ingredients you say you have.
You Feel Like Shit, this is meant to be an interactive flow chart for people who struggle with self care, executive dysfunction, and/or who have trouble reading internal signals. It's designed to take as much of the weight off of you as possible, so each decision is very easy and doesn't require much judgment (description from site).
ADHD Analog Brain, this tool is designed to overcome your executive dysfunction by asking you questions and leading you to a helpful answer. Yes, it's for ADHD! Yes, it's for Autism! Yes, it's for TBI! Yes, it's for ANYONE who would like help with executive function! (description from site)
Furward Momentum, series on the Dhole Moments/Soatok blog meant to provide resources and guidence to get into the tech industry with little to no prior knowlegde.
Fun Stuff
Things that are just plain fun!
Games
Get used to seeing itch.io links, I use that site a lot.
TTRPGs
Monster Care Squad, single and multiplayer, free.
Her Odyssey, single player, name your own price.
DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game, costs $7 USD. Single player.
Offworlders, multiplayer, free.
Grove System, a tool for making your own TTRPG, name your own price.
5e Tools, a suite of tools for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters (description from site).
Desktop/Browser Games
Minetest, an open source voxel game engine made with modding in mind. Downloadable (Windows/Mac/Linux/Android) and free. You can play the base game, play one of the many games built with it, or heavily modify the base game to suit your needs. I highly suggest looking at Exile and Asuna in particular.
My itch.io favorites, just a collection of games I found and enjoyed.
Dwarf Fortress, the (in)famous fortress simulator. The original is free, and a version with better graphics is $30 USD.
Metazooa, think woordle but with animals; every time you guess an animal, you're given the closest taxonomic rank. Also has a plant edition.
Dragon Cave, an adoptable/pet game about collecting dragons. Raise them by putting them on your site or in forum signatures (or use a hatchery) so they can be viewed by others.
Dragon Cave Related Stuff
Cave Shuffle Clock, in Dragon Cave, the eggs avalible in the cave are shuffled/restocked every five minuites. This is just a tool to remind you to check on the shuffles should you be hunting for a particular egg.
Valley Sherwood, a Dragon Cave hatchery to help people hatch and raise their dragons!
DragHatch, another hatchery.
The Hatching Club, yet another hatchery.
The Allure of Neglected Dragons, ANOTHER hatchery, though this one has an extra tool to help make creating a Neglected Dragon a little easier.
NOTE: if you decide to use hatcheries to hatch you eggs, then use only two or maybe three at a time. Otherwise you may risk getting sick eggs/hatchlings. If you keep getting sick eggs/hatchlings, then lower the ammount of hatcheries you use.
Dragon Cave Wiki, fairly self explanitory. This is the breeze wiki link so that the site can actually be useable, but if needed/prefered for any reason then here's the original Wikia/Fandom link.
Picrews
As far as I know, none of the picrews featuring humanoid characters have ashy or otherwise poorly colored dark skin. They should also all have textured hair. If this isn't the case or something changes, just let me know and I'll remove it from the list. All information here is as of 4/28/2024.
Lemon maker (レモンメーカー), also has hijabs and wheelchairs.
Felidaze's Warrior Cat Creator
BAYDEWS' Avatar Maker, also has hijabs.
Djarn's Character Maker, also has hijabs.
Bright's Picrew Hell, also has hijabs
Wervty's Murmur Chara Creator, also has hijabs and wheelchairs.
도트 인포 메이커, note that I can't read Korean but this is one that lets you make a little RPG character with stats and items!
Comics
Knife Beetle, webring for narritive-driven webcomics.
Comic Furry, free webcomic host.
Alice and the Nightmare follows the story of Alice Heart as she attends the prestigious Phantasmagoria University, where Wonderlandians like her train to enter and collect the dreams of sleeping humans (description from site)
Daughter of the Lillies, Thistle is chased out of every town with torches and pitchforks when the locals see her face, and is eagerly sought after by a great and terrible figure who defines most of her dark thoughts towards herself. Out of a desperate need to make a quick buck so she can move on to a new quiet place to live, she joins up with a small band of Mercenaries, but quickly finds herself unwittingly swept up in and caught off guard by their bonds of loyalty. Will these unruly, uncultured, rough-around-the-edge fighters be the ones to help Thistle realize her sense of self-worth in time to stop the shadows of her past from overwhelming and consuming the world? (description adapted from site)
More Fun Stuff!
Deck of Cards, a virtual standard deck of playing cards in your browser.
Text Faces, emoticons that you can copy paste anywhere! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Emoji Combos, similar to the above! I find it helpful for finding odd characters that you can copy/paste anywhere.
Neon Flames, fun and relaxing site where you can draw you own galaxies. Works well on mobile, too!
Frog of the Month, see who the frog of the month is!
No Clip, a site that lets you zoom around the map of many diffrent games! Including Pikmin hehehe...
Incorrect Quote Generator, does as it says on the tin. Generate totally real quotes for your favorite characters or OCs to say.
Know Your Meme, learn where and how various memes and jokes came to be.
Astronomy Picture of the Day, where NASA posts an astronomy picture each day. It's still goin', but has very early web fel to it still.
Secret Drawing Box, a way to receive anonymous doodles from others. Doodles are made using thier limited tool, but it is still fun enough!
Convert Text to Ascii Art, what it says on the tin.
Radio Garden, a site that lets you listen to radio stations from around the globe.
Random.org, good site for generating random numbers and pulling other randomized info.
Flower Meanings, learn (some) of the meanings of many flowers.
The Story of Boatmurdered, the story of a Dwarf Fortress file that was passed around many users. It went as well as you'd expect.
Marriage Certificate Generator, a silly little tool to create a "marriage certificate" for your favorite character. Or favorite whatever. Nothing to take seriously.
Personal Sites
Personal sites of others that I found to be really cool! Also has my internet friends and neighbors. Do note that I can't gurentee that every site here will have the same age rating as mine, so tread carefuly if that is a concern!
Sites marked with an astrisk (*) to their right have flashing elements to them! Sites marked with a carrot (^) to their right have flashing elements that can be disabled!
Friends and Internet Neighbors
Noodles [carrd], has animated elements but none move/flash quickly.
Cool Sites With Buttons
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Cool Sites Without Buttons
Uncatigorized
Stuff I couldn't fit anywhere else with confidence.
Marginalia Search, an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed (description from site)
True Treasures of Our Time [YouTube Playlist], playlist I made of random meme stuff that makes me smile. I've been maintaining this since like...2016? 2017? So there's also plenty of old memes to reflect on as well.
Post Images, image file host for your image file hosting needs.
Others' Collections
Collctions much like this one but maintained by other people! Wow! If a site doesn't have a description here then it means the site is incredibly similar to this page.
Please note that I haven't reviewed every single item in their lists!
Jasminnie's Resources, Warning: has flashing elements!
Sad Grl's Webring Directory, a list of webrings.
The Ichigo Directory is intended to be a non-comprehensive guide on cute websites with a focus on pixel art, web materials, and more (desciption from the site).
The Lilac Lynx's Index and The Lilac Lynx's Links
Tiny Tools, free (and usually open source) programs for creative endevors. Disclaimer: after digging through it more I found both AI tools whose datasets are made of stolen content + flawed internet privacy advice. There's still too much to review every entry, but as far as I can tell it has more good than bad resources. Still, keep this in mind while exploring it.
Archives
Collections that had to be preserved and accessed on the Wayback Machine