I feel the same, miss oldie dA and now DA is hot trash between the actual site and the shitpost spam. Miss the communities the most, something I don't see much anymore. Least here on neos I can make my own little nook to live in. HTML and CSS has been fun to learn :) and I hope I can do more.
i used to use deviantart literally everyday, so i definitely relate. my all time fav feature was their chatrooms, which is where i met a ton of my earliest best friends. im glad u like my layout!! if ud like to sample anything from it u can feel free!! :)) i pulled the main code from the wayback machine and largely customized it based off my own preferences. if u have any questions im more than happy to help!!