Thanks so much for checking this out. I made this site as part of Ludum Dare 46, a game jam. The theme was "Keep it alive." I wanted to do something that was positive and that would give people an outlet to write about their experiences related to Covid. I've had to deal with some abuse, particularly after the first week, but overall it's been an incredibly positive experience.
There are certainly a lot of improvements I hope to make soon. I honestly built it in an evening and expected it might be dead within a day or two. That it's lasted over a month is incredible.
With a large influx of new readers, I'm sure you'll come across a few less savory posts. I'd encourage you to click the report button on the bottom of the page.
Thanks so much for checking it out!
Edit: Since this is HN, and I'm bound to get the question - It's built with Rails and Vue, with PaperCSS for the styling, Postgres for the database, and Redis is being used as part of the spam mitigation system. Oh, and the DB really will wipe itself if it goes more than 24 hours without a post.
2. It's strange how the simple things, efforts and connections mean so much these days
3. It is joyous and comforting how many interesting, loving, quirky, emotional, sincere messages I've found, and how few trolls I've stumbled upon. Hope it stays that way (understanding that it may be unlikely if it keeps getting more visibility).
4. I have no idea if by deleting reported spam you become more culpable/liable for any offensive messages you don't remove, or any freedom of speech issues - check the laws in your region I guess, and yes it's sad that one has to think about these things :-/
Have you written about your experience with abuse, or are you willing to share? It's absolutely awful that you would experience that for something so obviously positive, but if you have thoughts you want to share on that it could be helpful for those of us who want to continue to challenge abuse in tech generally and might be educational for people here (maybe me) who engage in harmful behaviors and don't realize it.
(It's also not your responsibility to publish your abuse, I'm only opening up the opportunity to say more if you want to.)
I just want to say this: the angled design is absolute genius because it lets me hold my phone at an angle without bending my wrist. I thought it was a cute gimmick at first but turns out there’s a huge usability factor!
Does the game Queers in Love at the End of the World have an influence on your website? You mentioned your audience is very LGBT. This, combined with the "time is running out" feeling of your website, made me think of that game immediately.
I really like your idea and I felt like leaving a comment on your website! But I have a question: what does the heart button below other people's comment?
“This website contains a timer for seven days. If this timer reaches zero a one million dollar donation will be made to numerous charities. The button below resets the timer.”
I was going to call it “This is why we can’t have nice things”
The major difference is that an individual reddit account could only press the button once and anonymous presses were not allowed.
A single person can send an unlimited number of messages to this new website.
Given that I would expect this to go longer.
On the other hand, The Button was an april fools experiment on one of the internet's most popular websites and thus garnered a ton of attention. This could easily fade into obscurity much faster.
I wish I didn’t make this life I have. I wish I had made different choices and had the foreknowledge to not meet certain people. I wish I felt happier with what I have, instead of yearning for the things and situations I don’t.
I just wanted to say, whoever posted this, things can get better. I was in much the same situation about four years ago.
One thing that helped greatly was antidepressants. But that's a can of worms that seems to upset people whenever it's brought up, so perhaps I'll just mention it in passing.
I am not person who wrote the message but I am in similar situation, may be it’s the quarentine and being alone at home for weeks now but I have been thinking about my choices and mistakes.
Please considering adding a privacy policy and some CYA legalese. I know it probably seems excessive and unnecessary but I would just hate to see someone wind up in a whole mess of trouble for a super cool side project that was supposed to be fun.
The FTC has resources for small-business COPPA compliance and there are plenty of free tools to help with a privacy policy.
This is extremely high on the todo list. It was going to be done this weekend, but then I ended up living a little too close to some of the ongoing protests in the US to concentrate on getting it done.
I'm late to the party, but wanted to say I really liked the slight tilt on the wonderful floating buttons, with their gentle shadow and floaty-but-satisfying animation.
Great page and excellent attention to the little details that makes it feel like it was made with love :)
One of the notes included a base64 encoded message that reads:
"You are Big Brain. Good job finding an Easter egg. Know that God is Real. Believe in Jesus Christ and repent for your sins. It's not just a bunch of rules you have to follow but a relationship with him. Know that everything happens for a reason and God only wants the best for you."
This is a great idea and what a coincidence, just one week ago I posted a side project to HN that aims to build a website completely by user requests from scratch, while your website is destructing itself.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23315733 // https://userbricks.com/
Unique design. When I right-clicked to view page source the tilted orientation surprised me. It's like in life, you can realize something is a bit-off, and then time passes, and you get used to it. Then one day, a 'true north' appears and you realize how tilted your perspective was.
I remember something like this, it was not the website itself but you were keeping a character in space alive by supplying air to her? or something similar.
Eventually she died because because of website having issues and people not being able to support her
That's Deseret, an alternate alphabet for English. According to a converter, it says:
> I like writing in this text, it looks cool. Works different than standard old Latin alphabet, but at the same time formed* from the Latin alphabet. Imagine this being used for practical purposes. Random dude intrigued by the Deseret Alphabet.
[+] [-] FemmeAndroid|5 years ago|reply
Thanks so much for checking this out. I made this site as part of Ludum Dare 46, a game jam. The theme was "Keep it alive." I wanted to do something that was positive and that would give people an outlet to write about their experiences related to Covid. I've had to deal with some abuse, particularly after the first week, but overall it's been an incredibly positive experience.
There are certainly a lot of improvements I hope to make soon. I honestly built it in an evening and expected it might be dead within a day or two. That it's lasted over a month is incredible.
With a large influx of new readers, I'm sure you'll come across a few less savory posts. I'd encourage you to click the report button on the bottom of the page.
Thanks so much for checking it out!
Edit: Since this is HN, and I'm bound to get the question - It's built with Rails and Vue, with PaperCSS for the styling, Postgres for the database, and Redis is being used as part of the spam mitigation system. Oh, and the DB really will wipe itself if it goes more than 24 hours without a post.
[+] [-] NikolaNovak|5 years ago|reply
2. It's strange how the simple things, efforts and connections mean so much these days
3. It is joyous and comforting how many interesting, loving, quirky, emotional, sincere messages I've found, and how few trolls I've stumbled upon. Hope it stays that way (understanding that it may be unlikely if it keeps getting more visibility).
4. I have no idea if by deleting reported spam you become more culpable/liable for any offensive messages you don't remove, or any freedom of speech issues - check the laws in your region I guess, and yes it's sad that one has to think about these things :-/
5. Best of luck! :)
[+] [-] eyelidlessness|5 years ago|reply
(It's also not your responsibility to publish your abuse, I'm only opening up the opportunity to say more if you want to.)
[+] [-] Gigablah|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] outofe|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queers_in_Love_at_the_End_of_t...
[+] [-] GTP|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rhyneav|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _nalply|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithnz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eddieoz|5 years ago|reply
I think managing the spam could be the worse part, but best of lucky
[+] [-] taigi100|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bathtub365|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] battery_cowboy|5 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23346004
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gprasanth|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rurban|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Waterluvian|5 years ago|reply
“This website contains a timer for seven days. If this timer reaches zero a one million dollar donation will be made to numerous charities. The button below resets the timer.”
I was going to call it “This is why we can’t have nice things”
But I couldn’t find a million dollars.
[+] [-] klenwell|5 years ago|reply
Ah, here we go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Button_(Reddit)
Looks like it lasted about 4 months. So I guess that gives us a baseline for the over-under on the lifetime of this site.
[+] [-] harryh|5 years ago|reply
A single person can send an unlimited number of messages to this new website.
Given that I would expect this to go longer.
On the other hand, The Button was an april fools experiment on one of the internet's most popular websites and thus garnered a ton of attention. This could easily fade into obscurity much faster.
So who knows!
[+] [-] pjfin123|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Button_(Reddit)
[+] [-] whymauri|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sillysaurusx|5 years ago|reply
I wish I didn’t make this life I have. I wish I had made different choices and had the foreknowledge to not meet certain people. I wish I felt happier with what I have, instead of yearning for the things and situations I don’t.
I just wanted to say, whoever posted this, things can get better. I was in much the same situation about four years ago.
One thing that helped greatly was antidepressants. But that's a can of worms that seems to upset people whenever it's brought up, so perhaps I'll just mention it in passing.
Good luck, whoever and wherever you are.
[+] [-] glasshead969|5 years ago|reply
I am not person who wrote the message but I am in similar situation, may be it’s the quarentine and being alone at home for weeks now but I have been thinking about my choices and mistakes.
I hope it gets better eventually.
[+] [-] kiernanmcgowan|5 years ago|reply
curl -XPOST -d 'body=you cant die. you will never die' "https://www.thiswebsitewillselfdestruct.com/api/send_letter"
[+] [-] elliekelly|5 years ago|reply
The FTC has resources for small-business COPPA compliance and there are plenty of free tools to help with a privacy policy.
[+] [-] FemmeAndroid|5 years ago|reply
Thanks for the reminder.
[+] [-] hiisukun|5 years ago|reply
Great page and excellent attention to the little details that makes it feel like it was made with love :)
[+] [-] snazz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] surround|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csunbird|5 years ago|reply
"You are Big Brain. Good job finding an Easter egg. Know that God is Real. Believe in Jesus Christ and repent for your sins. It's not just a bunch of rules you have to follow but a relationship with him. Know that everything happens for a reason and God only wants the best for you."
[+] [-] wsinks|5 years ago|reply
And that if you reload the webpage, it's always at the appropriate seconds for 24 hours?
[+] [-] trox|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_duke|5 years ago|reply
A Narcissist’s Prayer:
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did…
You deserved it.
[+] [-] ozdevi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ibdf|5 years ago|reply
1 AND 1=2 UNION SELECT table_schema, table_name, 1 FROM information_schema.tables
[+] [-] liquidify|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtxt|5 years ago|reply
If you were a person you would be the type that threatens suicide for attention. Not the most healthy. Good luck!
[+] [-] elwell|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ToFab123|5 years ago|reply
https://krystalrose.com/rosewood/library/BigButton.htm
[+] [-] shultays|5 years ago|reply
Eventually she died because because of website having issues and people not being able to support her
[+] [-] kruasan|5 years ago|reply
𐐌 𐑊𐐴𐐿 𐑉𐐴𐐻𐐮𐑍 𐐮𐑌 𐑄𐐮𐑅 𐐻𐐯𐐿𐑅𐐻, 𐐮𐐻 𐑊𐐳𐐿𐑅 𐐿𐐭𐑊. 𐐶𐐲𐑉𐐿𐑅 𐐼𐐮𐑁𐐲𐑉𐐲𐑌𐐻 𐑄𐐰𐑌 𐑅𐐻𐐰𐑌𐐼𐐲𐑉𐐼 𐐬𐑊𐐼 𐐢𐐰𐐻𐐲𐑌 𐐰𐑊𐑁𐐰𐐺𐐯𐐻, 𐐺𐐲𐐻 𐐲𐐻 𐑄 𐑅𐐩𐑋 𐐻𐐴𐑋 𐑁𐐫𐑉𐑋𐐼 𐑁𐑉𐐲𐑋 𐑄 𐐢𐐰𐐻𐐲𐑌 𐐰𐑊𐑁𐐰𐐺𐐯𐐻. 𐐆𐑋𐐰𐐾𐐮𐑌 𐑄𐐮𐑅 𐐺𐐨𐐮𐑍 𐐲𐑅𐐲𐐼 𐑁𐐫𐑉 𐐹𐑉𐐰𐐿𐐻𐐮𐐿𐐲𐑊 𐐹𐐲𐑉𐐹𐐲𐑅𐑆.
𐐡𐐰𐑌𐐼𐐲𐑋 𐐼𐐭𐐼 𐐮𐑌𐐻𐑉𐐨𐑀𐐼 𐐺𐐴 𐑄 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐈𐑊𐑁𐐰𐐺𐐯𐐻 .
[+] [-] alexjm|5 years ago|reply
> I like writing in this text, it looks cool. Works different than standard old Latin alphabet, but at the same time formed* from the Latin alphabet. Imagine this being used for practical purposes. Random dude intrigued by the Deseret Alphabet.
* The converter gave me "/f/aw/r/m/d/" here
[+] [-] Pxtl|5 years ago|reply
Although I did see what looks like a blockquote rendered in what looked like code blocks. Markdown?