i scream and angrily watch tv until Neko can get back to me. but honestly just cry and bookmark the tab, and don't look at it until i get frustrated seeing the tab on my browser and wipe everything and start over lmao

It really depends on what the problem is, but for my own designs I usually try going about it different ways until I get what I wanted.

Though when I break things, it's usually because I forgot to close a div. I go around slapping the closing tab everywhere until it works lol.

I'm better at fixing everyone else's code tho. It's my job, so I find the issue faster on code that's not my own lol whoops.

I'll play test my code first to make sure they are how I intended. If it did not work, I will probe every section of the codes until I found the problem and fix it... while cursing, screaming and crying. If I still cant find the solution, well, the code goes to trash bin. Sayonara, shitty codes.

I break it up into smaller pieces. If the smaller pieces work individually, it's easier to find where the problem is. This piece works, this piece works, this one doesn't... And then I can narrow it down.

With HTML, the issue is usually an unclosed tag or an attribute missing a closing quote. Sometimes a typo. It's easy to start there. I don't make a lot of these anymore because I'm very particular about indentation and my IDE text changes color if something is broken, but when I'm helping someone else, this is the first place I look.

With CSS, it can be a typo (I type "colro" and "fnot" a lot, for example), missing semicolon, missing curly brace.

With JavaScript, it's usually a programmatic error because I still have more to learn. Things not happening in the right order, or missing an important step.

Once you have a feel for the types of mistakes you make regularly, it's easier to find them later, or just prevent them in the first place.

work obsessively on it until it does what i want because i tend to hyperfocus and can't step away until it's fixed. agreeing with elli usually a broken code for me is missing something small or forgetting a basic thing. like i use :before tags a lot and i regularly forget to include content:"", which is required for anything to show up.

if i can't figure out what to do with a design, i'll step away from what i'm working on for any length of time and go back to it when i have a better idea.

about 85% of my codes end up being scrapped because i'm just not happy with how the design is turning out.

Stare at it, and if I can't find the error, then google or start from scratch until I get angry enough to rant, walk away from the computer and go pace in the kitchen... I pace in the kitchen when I am angrily pondering how to handle something...

listen to a shitton of kpop and hope it inspires me

My go to when I struggle with coding is a handful of my friends that can usually vibe with what I'm looking for and help me fix it. If that doesn't work: I try to find a community or a discord channel of coders who can help me out!

like elli said—

break it up!

if your code is malfunctioning, the first step is to identify the problem (obviously but shh). if you don't know where to begin, slugging through a fuck ton of code one line at a time is hell, so narrow where the problem is coming from. chrome inspect, or whatever version your browser has, is your friend for css bullshit problems too. kinda just play around with the code, and slowly form ideas in your mind of what issues and errors would cause these symptoms in your code.

also, asking help on resource forums might get you somewhere too, but the last time i asked for help and didn't work myself to the bone finding a solution while waiting for an answer was never so i don't usually do that for myself rip.

The more I learned how to code (still learning even to this day), the more I found the method to figuring out my problems. Hopefully this will help you and I'm sure I'll be repeating some if not all advice from above:

There are so many places you can go to get help and while you might encounter the occasional butt, you'll get the answers you are looking for. A few links for places I tend to go first if I need to look up code examples:

CodePen | A fantastic resource for looking for the examples you need and even use if you'd want to. It's a free library that you can draw inspiration from at any time.

W3Schools | In case you don't know about this one, this site is a great guide for new learners to people who are experienced. We're human, we all can't remember everything. It's a simple tutorial and a dictionary for all things code related. You need Java, Python, C++, CSS, HTML, more? A lot of it is there. They don't have everything but for building skins and templates for ProBoards and jCINK? They have all you'll ever need.

Stack Overflow | Do you have any questions about a section of code that isn't working properly or at all? This is your place. I've found this site extremely helpful. You can search your question before you ask it and I'm sure someone has already had the same issue. If not, you can always ask the community there. Most, if not all respondents, will give you a detailed response telling you what you've done wrong and how you can improve it.

Last but not least, you can ask around here. I've been helped multiple times on this site and the community has been great about it.

Always remember, if you don't do it already, test your code on the actual board it's going on. I know when I create things in Brackets or on another site, sometimes the code behaves differently when I apply it to the site I'm making it for. If it's not working in the application you're using, it might work just fine on the board.

Don't be afraid about "stealing" code. When people say that, I'm assume they just mean their specific design as a whole. But if it's a simple design, you can't get around it and just ignore it. Anyone can code three flat colored boxes that lay in each other. Especially if you're just making things to learn. If you want to take design elements that aren't particularly simple, try to make it your own. If it's still very similar, think about just giving credit at the bottom of the template or skin.

Lastly... just try to make a simple check list of things to look for if a code isn't working or breaks. elli made an excellent basic list that works most of the time. I recommend following their advice. And like bc said, the inspect tool in Chrome and other browsers that have it are your best friend. To access the inspect function, the usual method is to right click the specific part and click inspect. Control + Shift + I is another way to access it on Chrome, at least.

For Chrome, you can click the box with an arrow in it on the upper left corner to refine the location to get it precisely where you want it.

You can edit the code in REAL TIME and see it change before your eyes. This is great for figuring out what is wrong or mess with colors / sizes. Just click on the box of the element you're trying to edit in the inspect area. So, where it may show...

body {
background-color: #fff;
}

You'll click on that section to add code or click on something like background-color to edit that specific part.

I hope this helped a bit. Sorry it was such a long post. ; __;