These are more notes to self:

- custom BBCode for Nickel videos
- file/image uploads should just work
- crisp icons for the post editor (probably just use the central icon set from iconists)
- better HTML structure (requires copying files from the default theme into this one and modifying from there)
- autoplay MMBN internet music on load that persists through navigation ala Soundcloud (not sure if this is possible)
- jack-in animation when logging in (how? idk, sounds cool)
- actually, footer text and submit buttons could probably be MMBN fonts
- dark mode (requires custom theme to be 100% first)
- make it so that uploaded avatars aren't limited to 65x65, they could be 650x650 FFS!
- remove jQuery dependency, I could rewrite all the JS in ES6

I forgot this was coming out this week! I noticed I didn't flip through this month's Nintendo Force magazine and boom, March 27th.

Nickel is a short-form video platform where videos are 5-minutes or less.

— Homepage: https://nickel.video
— Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/nickel/archive

Why work on this? A few reasons:

1) I wanted a place to upload my Fortnite clips. YouTube felt gross to use, if only because they're owned by Google. I'm not giving them even more info on me by choice.

2) Of all the work I've done involving the web, I've never worked with video. I was curious about it so why not see for myself how it's done?

3) I envision Nickel as being the place where creators connect with their core community and where that community (and new fans) can directly support these people financially. Every platform is incentivized to separate creators from their supporters in the service of ads. Nickel is in service of people who enjoy creating and supporting creators.

Nickel is subscription-based and is ~75% done. Currently it's just myself, my son, and one of my friends on the platform. I'm currently working on a payments product that I can dogfood with Nickel so I can have an alternative to Stripe.

You can view my profile to get a feel for the platform so far: https://nickel.video/@netopwibby

I changed some boards around, still getting the hang of this thing. I thought I removed all the "Verdana" fonts in the CSS but it's still prevalent in the post creator...I think I like it though? Idk.

Testing an emoticon: 

systemSOFT is the current iteration of my computing ideas dating back to checks deviantART sometime before 2013. That year was the first time I actually put thoughts to code and shared the web browser I was building at the time, based on node-webkit (pre-Electron).

— Homepage: https://systemsoft.works

Why work on this?

The incumbents aren't going to so I might as well take a crack at it. I believe the "desktop" metaphor has run its course and Big Tech is focused on increasing shareholder value by monetizing PII. No innovation, only profits.

Anyhoo, the homepage and the mailing list has a LOT more writing within so check them out.

Disc is a re-implementation of Gel, my favorite database which itself is essentially a layer of goodness atop Postgres. Disc is not public yet but it will be soon.

— (future) homepage: https://disc.sh

Why work on this? A few reasons:

1) The team behind Gel got acquired by Vercel to work on Python/AI stuff so Gel is currently "in the hands of the community" (dead).

2) This isn't my first rodeo with a favorite dead database (RethinkDB was my first database love). The AI chat interface in the official docs doesn't seem to be working anymore and that means I have little recourse for figuring things out that way. I'll have better luck hosting my own.

3) disc.sh was available and man, what a dope domain. Are you kidding me?! I gotta use it.

4) If I'm gonna make my own database, I'm gonna replace some things I don't like from Gel. Disc is written in Typescript for Deno and I intend to replace the database viewer that Gel uses with SvelteKit. I'm allergic to React and the tech industry's laziness has made it the default and it sucks!! Anyway.

I'm gonna release it when I dogfood it with a few projects so I can claim production usage on the marketing site.

Dap is a blockchain-based decentralized alt-root of the DNS (Domain Name System). Essentially, I'm building the foundation for a new "phone book" for what I call, "The Neue Internet." If that sounds interesting to you, check these links:

— Homepage: https://dap.sh
— Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.dap.sh

Why work on this? Two reasons.

1) I spent ~5 years of my life building a TLD portfolio and developing a domain registry/registrar as well as releasing smaller apps and writing and evangelizing and essentially becoming a trusted voice in the Handshake community. I quit out of protest of a proposed takeover and money grab of locked tokens of the blockchain and man, that's a lot of work and experience I have in this space, which leads me to the most important reason:

2) I've had this dream since I was ~15. Blockchain didn't exist so I resigned myself to grow up, get a tech job, and eventually save $185k to apply for a TLD with ICANN. Handshake showed me it was possible and my work within it showed me it was inevitable.

Blockchain has a reputation for being exceedingly wasteful computation so I engineered Dap to be ~90% more efficient whilst keeping the security of difficult computation. Blockchain naming systems have a reputation of simply being "squat chains" and I believe I've solved that with squatting being financially costly.

Dap is in active development but I'm happy to report that mining appears to work without issue, haha!

Uh, we're here on a forum in 2026. Incredible.

Setting up a bunch of stuff and customizing the CSS for this theme...5k+ lines and things aren't optimized at ALL. I also have to setup some boards/rooms/whatever for all my projects.

I wonder if anyone's making forum icons and smileys for the modern era. Everything in the post editor is pixellated and blurry.