Index Page
From Homestar Runner Wiki
- "Welcome" redirects here. For the misspelling, see Unusual Greetings#Weclome.
| view |
The index page is what first greets visitors to homestarrunner.com. In addition to directing viewers to a main page, recent updates and store items are also highlighted.
Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, Pom Pom, Marzipan, Coach Z, Bubs, The King of Town, The Poopsmith, Homsar, Trogdor (Trogday 2008), Sticklyman (December 31, 2020)
Places: The Field
Date: ca. June 10, 2003 (original), December 31, 2020 (current version)
Page Title: Everybody! Everybody!
- Trogday 2008 Page Title: Troggie Turns Five!
- April Fool 2014 Page Title: Everybody! Everybody?
- 2018 Redesign Page Title: Hey Look! A New Homestar Runner Website Thing To Click On Things On!
- December 31, 2020 Page Title: Umber Construmption!
Contents |
History
Before the index page was created, an introduction toon automatically played for visitors that would then redirect to a main page.
Yellow Index Page (2003-2020)
The first index page (created ca. June 10, 2003) featured Homestar Runner, silently standing still but blinking, in front of a golden backdrop with the text "homestarrunner.com" tiled behind him at varying opacity. Homestar was accompanied by two options: "come on in" — leading to a random main page — and "watch intro" — playing the introduction animation and then automatically redirecting to a random main page. The navbar was also visible, allowing visitors to bypass the two options and directly navigate to a specific subsection of the site.
"Come on in" would only select from the first 20 main pages, and the intro only the first 14, even though there were 26 main pages by the time this index page was replaced.
Through 2005, the Ween Intro would play during the Halloween season.
April Fools' Day
This page was frequently replaced or altered for an April Fools' Day gag on the first of April.
- 2004: A faux parked domain page suggested that the homestarrunner.com URL was now held by Thorax Corporation, before revealing the 20X6 toon Under Construction.
- 2005: HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS! greeted viewers by informing them that Homestar Runner had become a subscription-based site.
- 2006: The index page, along with most of the website, was rotated upside-down.
- 2009: April Fool 09 replaced the index page, changing the intro into a Strong Bad email.
- 2010: The toon Xeriouxly Forxe, announcing extreme redesigns for the characters, automatically played.
- 2014: The index page appeared old and dilapidated before playing a toon joking about the current status of the website. This alternate index page remained in place for roughly three months.
 Domain reserved |
 New annual fee! |
 Flip 'em Up Fran |
 Dilapidated index page (2014) |
Trogday 08
On January 13, 2008, the index page featured a picture of Trogdor in the shape of the numeral 5 (referred to elsewhere as Five-dor) on a black background, to celebrate Trogdor's fifth birthday. The two text options appeared in all caps with exclamation points. This page remained up for a week, returning to normal on January 21.
Unlike the standard index page, "come on in!" on the Five-dor index page linked to all the existing main pages (1 through 24).
Other Variations
On January 21, 2010, a "shop our store" link was added and the "come on in" link was moved to the center of the page. After that year's April Fools', the original index page was restored on April 2.
An Old-Timey version of the index page featuring a mechanized The Homestar Runner was shown in sbemail 206, though it never was in place on the actual index page.
 "shop our store" link (Jan – Mar 2010) |
 Old-Timey index page from sbemail 206 |
Post-Flash Transition (2018-2020)
- See also Post-Flash Site Update
On January 13, 2018, an HTML footer was added to the page mentioning the retirement of Flash. It announced a future redesign of the site, linked to YouTube videos and the HTML TROGDOR! game, and allowed viewers to sign up for the Deleteheads Download mailing list. This text was updated frequently, usually for announcements.
On July 17, 2018, an unfinished redesigned version was revealed at new.homestarrunner.com. This re-imagined index page featured an embedded YouTube player, with drop-down menus for playlists and episodes. However, it was given little attention and few to no updates after its unveiling, later officially referred to as abandoned.
On December 31, 2020, the page was replaced by a white screen with an image of Sticklyman, stating that the site was "way under construction" and "might be's down and/or weird for a bit". Soon after, the website was updated, and the page was upgraded to the current version.
 HTML footer |
 HTML footer |
 Abandoned redesign |
 December 31, 2020 |
Current Version (2021-Present)
From "post-flash update!":
The first thing you'll notice is that the landing page when you go to homestarrunner.com is very different. There are now useful things on here! Not just "watch intro!"
The index page features Homestar Runner and Strong Bad standing in a stylized version of the Field, underneath "homestarrunner.com" written in large text. A blue ribbon reading "come on in" on the left leads to a random main page. On the right are two content blocks of auto-scrolling captioned images: "the latest styles", consisting of messages about updates, and "store", highlighting recent products at all three storefronts. A feed of @StrongBadActual tweets was featured alongside these two widgets; this was removed November 23, 2023.
The scene changes to reflect the time of day on the viewer's computer clock (in a manner similar to the old Store Thank You Messages):
 Dawn |
Daytime |
 Sunset |
 Nighttime |
Easter Eggs
- Characters will occasionally peek in from the left, and will say a line when clicked. Clicking near the left side of the screen will also make a character show up.
- THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
- STRONG MAD: I'M A WEBSITE!
- STRONG SAD: Leave me alone!
- POM POM: {bubbles}
- MARZIPAN: Lookin' pretty good!
- COACH Z: This is a great worbsite!
- BUBS: That's five dollars a click!
- THE KING OF TOWN: Doo hoo hoo hoo!
- THE POOPSMITH: {"splat" sound}
- HOMSAR: Ah'm a real batch export!
See Also
External Links
- visit the index page
- visit the Flash index page
- view the Flash file
- view the Flash file for the Trogdor index page
- View an old redesign of the index page
- view the "Shop Our Store" version
- visit the December 31, 2020 version
| Homestar Runner Navigation | |
|---|---|
| Navigation Bar | Index Page | Main Pages | Toons Menu | Strong Bad Email Menu | Games Menu | Store | Contact |
| Popups | Quote of the Week | Weekly Fanstuff | Sketchbook | Random Toon |
| Other | Character Videos | Downloads | Museum | Legal | YouTube |
