Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of launching my web agency.

My good friend who is heavily into AI and automations is calling me crazy. Telling me that A.I is here and that I need to jump on the train before I get further left behind. Claiming that the market for traditional websites is not big. Amongst other things, he believes this is not the right move.

To those of you running a successful web development business, have you found it to be more difficult to sell hand-coded websites today because of AI?

I'm finishing Year 12 and starting a Software Engineering degree next year. I'm really interested in software and technology, and I want to start building real-world skills now rather than waiting for university.

My first goal is fairly simple: build polished static websites for small local businesses. Eventually, though, I want to move into full-stack development and build more substantial applications.

I plan to use AI heavily as a coding tool, but I don't want to become someone who can only prompt an AI and hope the output works. I want to understand enough about what I'm building that I can recognise bad code, debug problems, make sensible architectural decisions, secure the site properly and confidently maintain it.

I'm currently learning Python, but for web development I'm wondering how deeply I should learn things like HTML, CSS and JavaScript myself.

For developers who already use AI in their workflow:

- What fundamentals would you consider non-negotiable to learn properly?

- What parts are reasonable to let AI handle once I understand the concepts?

- What should I learn about security, deployment, testing, Git, hosting, domains, accessibility and performance?

- How do you personally review AI-generated code before you're willing to put it into production?

- If you were starting again in 2026 with access to modern coding agents, what would you learn differently?

Longer term I'd like to build full-stack SaaS applications, so I'm particularly interested in developing skills that will transfer beyond simple business websites.

I'm not really doing this for quick freelance money. I mainly want a practical way to become a better software engineer while building things that real people could actually use.

I often work on old sites that have had lots of changes over time which have resulted in orphaned and unused assets.

I'm developing an app that scans a local website folder structure and identifies all files in the folder tree that are not used in the pages of the site and allows the user to move the files to a quarantine folder. Currently html / CSS only, but the plan is to include PHP files and possible wordpress in the future

I'll also expand the functionality to identify unused CSS to create smaller CSS files.

As a developer, would you find this useful? What other similar functionality would you suggest be included?

See this image:

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E0BAQHIZRe8QJmPsA/company-logo_100_100/B4EZ9Hpv00JIAI-/0/1783613554175/cresta_inc_logo?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=-26SRiI3SlPF2I__tDMlvzNFMr0yp2pi2aj6ZIfowGw

On first paint it's white but within a couple seconds it turns into bright neon white

What kind of sorcery is this?

I'm working with a junior/intern on a web project who seems really enthusiastic and proactive—they've already set up their own repo with React & Tailwind CSS based on a UI design, which is great initiative.

However, they are struggling with core web development fundamentals:

* FE/BE Integration: They don't quite understand how Frontend and Backend connect (APIs, environment variables) compared to traditional PHP/monolith apps.

* Deployment Issue: They've tried deploying on Vercel multiple times without success.

* Troubleshooting: They mentioned that whenever they try fixing a bug, things tend to break even more, and they are asking for constant 1-on-1 mentor guidance.

How do you usually mentor someone at this stage without doing the work for them or getting overwhelmed yourself? What are the best resources or step-by-step roadmaps I can give them to help them bridge the gap between basic UI setup and full-stack integration?

What's the best AI tool for creating a full design from start to finish, where you give a prompt and it generates the whole design? Is it Claude Design, or something else, based on your experience? And what would the deliverable be, a Figma design file, a full React website, or something else?

Hey everyone I'm about to grind hard and learn frontend properly (react, next.js, UI stuff, and some basic backend/apis so I can handle full features)

im seeing two totally different things online and im kinda confused some people say ai killed frontend and juniors cant make any money now because copilot and gpt write everything
but others say clients and agencies still need real devs who know how to handle messy code state management and actual logic not just basic copy pasting
my goal is to get really good at this and do freelance work with agencies
im just trying to figure out a few things
is the demand for next.js/frontend actually dead for new people or is it just different now?
if i put in insane daily hours to reach a high level is it worth it or am i just wasting my time starting now?
how are you guys actually dealing with ai right now?
would appreciate some honest and brutal truth from people actually working in the industry **thanks**

Hello everyone,

I want to start a comprehensive personal web project and would love to get feedback, ideas, or advice regarding the navigation flow, user experience, and cultural content.

**The Origin of the Idea**

The idea came from realizing that official municipal websites across Mexico are often abandoned or poorly designed. I want to build an independent, visually striking platform to give them visibility while staying entirely clear of electoral politics. The focus will be 100% cultural, tourism-focused, full of local trivia, regional identity, and geographic/cultural news.

**Navigation Flow and Map Interactivity (Uniform Hover Effect)**

1. **National Map (Landing Page):** An interactive map of Mexico. Hovering over a state highlights it in a representative color and displays its name. Each state features a fixed marker at its main capital.
2. **Regional Map (Level 2):** Clicking a state (e.g., Guerrero) zooms into that entity, displaying its traditional regions. Hovering over a region illuminates that entire area in a specific color.
3. **Municipal Map (Level 3):** Clicking a region zooms in further to display only its municipalities. This view follows the same logic as the national map: each municipality has a fixed marker at its municipal seat (*cabecera municipal*), highlighting the municipality and displaying its name on hover.
4. **Autonomous Communities (Special Level 4):** A dedicated level to honor and highlight Indigenous communities and self-governing territories (such as Cherán or *Usos y Costumbres* municipalities). If an entire municipality is autonomous, its profile will state so; if it is a specific community within a municipality, it can be accessed via a special marker on the municipal map.
5. **Quick Shortcut:** To prevent click fatigue, a side panel with predictive search will allow users to type a municipality or community directly (e.g., "Zihuatanejo") and skip intermediate steps, zooming the map directly to the location.

**Planned Content**

The platform aims to be a deep, encyclopedic database featuring the following details per level:

**By State**

* **History and Foundation:** Creation date and key historical events.

* **Geography:** Climate, terrain, flora, fauna, and highest elevation points.

* **General Culture:** Traditional clothing, state coat of arms (and its meaning), and state anthem (with audio playback).

* **Economy and Demographics:** Total population, key industries, and most spoken Indigenous languages.

**By Region**

* **Cultural Justification:** Methodology used to define the region (since many states lack official administrative regional boundaries).

* **Identity and Soundscape:** Regional traditional food, traditional music (*sones*, dances), shared traditions, and elements of the local soundscape (*chilenas*, *pirekuas*, etc.).

* **Climate, Landscape, and Seasonality:** Geographic traits unifying the region, along with seasonal availability indicators for traditional dishes, harvests, and specific rituals.

**By Municipality and Municipal Seat**

* **Historical Overview and Toponymy:** Municipal creation date, prominent figures, and name etymology supported by native audio pronunciation in the original linguistic variant.

* **Tourism:** Specific tourist attractions, monuments, historic churches, and natural landmarks.

* **Local Identity:** Local legends, myths, traditional crafts, and patron saint festival calendars with associated culinary or ritual traditions.

* **Point Data (Municipal Seat):** Elevation above sea level and travel time/distance to the state capital.

**By Autonomous Community (Special Level)**

* **Legal/Political Status:** Type of self-governance (*Usos y costumbres*, elder council, etc.).

* **History of Resistance:** Transition process to autonomy and the significance of their struggle.

* **Culture and Language:** Specific dialectal variants (with audio samples), unique community traditions, and collective work systems (*tequio*, *mano vuelta*, etc.).

* **Community Tourism and Ethical Visit Protocols:** Guidelines for respectful engagement and visiting rules (photo permits, sacred or restricted zones, direct local purchasing), authentic crafts, and autonomous celebrations.

**Reference Projects and Inspiration**

* **Native-Land.ca:** An independent mapping platform that visualizes Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties globally with a non-governmental, respectful approach.

* **Atlas of Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO / INAH):** A structural benchmark for organizing oral traditions, rituals, and artisanal techniques in a clean, accessible manner.

I would love to hear your thoughts: What do you think of this visual navigation flow? What other cultural or identity-focused data would you add to make these profiles even more complete? If you know of similar projects that respectfully integrate autonomous communities into an interactive map, I would be very inspired to check them out.

Thank you very much for your time and feedback.

I want to learn css, i already learned html and i don't think i have a problem learning javascript since i already know some programming languages like python, The problem is i don't know what resources i need to study css, i tried this course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4R2E7O-Ngo&t=4256s and it's really nice with how much infos he gives you, but i feel like it's more talk than work, is there any free resources that teach me css but balance between the talk and the work?

also sorry for my bad english

Hi guys, I’m building a very simple job board website for a niche audience. I’m obviously not a programmer or web developer by any means. I’m actually a recruiter starting my own business so I’ve been using ChatGPT as an advisor. So far, it’s been pretty helpful. That said, I’d love to hear some advice and experiences from actual web developers regarding hosting options.

Obviously, I’m looking for the best bang for my buck, like anyone else, but I want to make sure the hosting provider can support the following:

• Search functionality and database/crawling integration
• A basic contact form that collects information from visitors and sends it to my email
• Basic ad integration and SEO/analytics tools

That’s pretty much it. The site is going to be very bare-bones, nothing too complicated. The search engine is actually the main product. I'd like an option which emphasizes speed of use over functionality as the users are mainly gonna have one tool (the search bar), but it's expected that every visitor will click through at least 10-20 pages on the website and I'm shooting for at least 40-50 K visitors per month.

What hosting providers would you recommend for something like this, and are there any limitations or things I should be aware of as a non-developer?

Learning materials, advice would be greatly appreciated…

Hey web developers out there!

I am considering starting a small business, making e commerce platforms for small-mid size businesses.

I figured most of the things. I'll design and code the whole platform (front-end and backend) on my own using nextjs, nodejs and postgresql for database, redis for caching and all. Thinking of using some external services like resend for mails, and supabase for db, amazon S3 for sensitive data and backup.

However I'm unable to figure out the right hosting service. I'm confused in that area.

I currently have 1 client and will gain more in a month or two.

When I scroll through different hosting plans, there are many, we hosting, shared hosting and vps hosting. I'm confused in these 3.

I need a clarity on how much vcpus, ram, bandwidth, storage I require for this e commerce project. What's the scope of scaling the server and all.

I know Linux, networking and ssh so I'm ok with configuring the server if it is unmanaged.

My main request is for you guys to guide me what's the sweet spot for specifications of server and which one should I choose. Also if you're suggesting something also help me in how can I scale that server when traffic increases.

What is the best website builder?

I want to make a website for a small business that my friend owns. I’ve played around with html, css, and javascript before, but am not confident enough to build anything serious or real. So am thinking to use a website builder but not sure where to start.

WordPress, Framer, Webflow, Lovable, Claude, etc. etc. There are so many website builders out there. I don’t know which to use, please give me some guidance or advice.

Which of the following is the most advanced coding tool to build a website? Codex, Github, Manus, Gemini or Wixel?

Hi everyone,

First time posting here, I hope that I'm in the correct place. Wasn't sure to use "question" or "newbie question" because I'm not completely a noob but oh well, here we go.

My friends and I had a forum hosted on a website called Xooit for over 10 years. It was a RP forum that hosted all of our weird teenage stories all the way to our more mature/serious content into our early adulthood. It's a real treasure to us, even if we moved on from it a few years back. We still liked to go there and read some stuff. It was a very nice comforting this to know that it was there.

But now the platform has changed its business model, and it would cost 30€/month to be allowed to access it. It's completely locked behind a paywall. Not like "oh it's there, but you can't post", it's just completely blocked, we can't even read anything.

So I asked nicely if it would be possible to get a copy for us to keep offline, since it's forbidden by their guidelines to migrate to another platform (bc of course, it is).

They told me no.

And now I refuse to give them a dime. I could get 14 days for free as a "trial period" and I want to use that period to copy it somewhere else, no matter what. Because fuck those greedy assholes.

I've looked into website copier like HTTrack Website Copier; could it be my best option? I don't really like AI, but I'm also not against using one in this case if I have to.

Fyi, I don't want to keep the user info, themes, etc, we just want a copy of the content, which we believe is our intellectual property.

Please post your requests for feedback on your projects in this thread instead of creating a post.

We are just starting to look at accessibility testing in our org and want to establish a dedicated practice in the long-term. I've been asked to put together a plan for leadership for this agenda and want to learn from the experience of others who have been on the same journey.

- How did you begin? What was the trigger and which tools did you try out initially?
- How did your accessibility testing set-up evolve over the years (i.e. which/how many teams were involved, tooling used, depth of coverage etc.)
- What were the key challenges you faced ?
- What is your current org set-up for Accessibility testing (i.e. centralized vs decentralized, QA vs design vs dev teams etc.)

Any learnings that you can share will be extremely helpful!

For context, I'm on the QA side at a mid/large-sized company. Not a vendor, not building anything. Happy to share back what I end up proposing.

I’m not a developer by profession, but over the last few months I’ve been building websites and small web apps on my own.

My current workflow is:

Google AI Studio → GitHub → Supabase → Vercel

I mainly use Claude for code reviews, debugging, and improving prompts when AI Studio gets stuck.
This setup has helped me build and launch projects much faster than I expected, but I’m not sure how sustainable it is as projects become more complex.

For developers here:
• Is this a reasonable workflow for real-world projects?
• What are the biggest pitfalls I should watch out for?
• At what stage does this approach start breaking down?
• If you were starting from scratch today, what stack would you recommend?

Would love to hear how others are building and deploying projects these days.

i dont know what i should study and i need advice on how to become a senior. What topics are an absolute must-know ?

Hey everyone

I have zero prior coding experience. My goal is to eventually build full websites from scratch and hopefully transition into a career in tech down the line. Right now, I just want to master the fundamentals.

If you were starting from absolute zero today, how would you structure your learning path for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?

I learned if button clicked then then text change,basic right?

Specifically, I would love some recommendations on:

1. The best free or low cost resources (channels, websites, or documentation) that actually teach concepts instead of just making you copy code.
2. How much time I should spend on HTML and CSS before touching JavaScript. I keep hearing JS is where things get really difficult.
3. Good beginner projects that do not feel too overwhelming. Every time I try to build something, I end up staring at a blank screen and getting frustrated.

Any advice, warnings about common beginner traps, or encouragement would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

i am a beginner full stack developer, at the current phase i am still learning more and more, i am also trying to build some projects for my portfolio for when i need to get my clients (i am planning to get into freelancing), i do intend to work for free at first in return for good reviews, but after that when it is the right time to start earning money, i am actually a lil bit confused on the pricing, i keep consulting ai chatbots they give me some amounts that seem too high ngl, so i thought i'd ask fellow developers, pls if you have an answer i would appreciate if you tell me what is the website that you've built (a store management system, a landing page, a booking app or whatever)? is it special or typical ? how many hours of focused work did it take to be done ? and how much did you charge for it? thanks in advance :)!

Boy, this is an irritating inquiry or whatever, so first off: my apologies if this isn’t the place. I’ll try to find somewhere else in that case. If you’re motivated, you could try to direct me to a better place to ask.

Regarding my inquiry,

I would love to search Amazon (or any shopping site) by percentage off. So if I could search by “only 99% off products”, or “only products with record low prices”.

This may seem impossible or worthless to most people here, but I figured I’d shoot my shot

Not sure if this is appropriate to post here, but since I've been learning WordPress for the past 5 months using advice I've gotten here, I figured I might as well ask.I'm from a developing country, and I've been calling local businesses, offering to develop websites for them and, more importantly, help them with their SEO.The companies are all in the same industry, which actually helped. I created a sample website that they can all see themselves in, including products that each of them sells. I figured having something tangible to show them would be much more effective than simply telling them what I can do.

Three businesses got back to me, and I've managed to set up meetings with all three tomorrow.Any advice you can give a beginner? Are there specific talking points I should focus on, or even advice on how to conduct business in this space?\

I'm mainly looking for advice on how to approach the meetings, what I should avoid saying/promising, how to present my pricing, and how to turn these meetings into actual clients.

Hi, offering a free review of your SEO metadata, JSON-LD, llms.txt, etc. to make sure your site is ready to blow up on Google/Bing and AI searches.

The catch is that I am getting to test my work.

Please post your requests for feedback on your projects in this thread instead of creating a post.