05/09/24: Randomness, spiders, and overblown scope
The last couple days have been an... adventure. What at first started as wanting a random button so I could just bounce around the Web without much searching turned into a project that I genuinely enjoyed putting togther! While it might sound pretty simple at first (and really, the actual button was the easiest part), getting it to work just the way I wanted it to was a adventure.
First, requirements:
The button would draw from a text document, hosted on this server, visible publicly
I would not be the one to create this text document
Every page in this list should load
Of course, this is the job for a webcrawler.
A webcrawler? What's that?
A webcrawler is basically a computer program that goes through the Web, picking up whatever it's supposed to be picking up. Their most well-known use is for search engines like Google, Yandex, or Duckduckgo, but they're used everywhere from cybersecurity to databrokers. This one's job is to visit a landing page, scoop up all its links, stick 'em in a long queue, and moving on.
And how does this help with your random button?
Well, the webcrawler (I've named it Fuzzy Pink Dragon Bot after an older, more ambitious project) is what built that list! Every time it successfully crawls a page, it gets logged, and that log is used to pick random websites! The code is literally a couple of lines long, the crawler is doing all the real heavy lifting.
Is the random button, well... safe?
On average it'll be about as safe as any Web page. The list isn't curated in any meaningful way, so if a page is linked to in the wider Web it'll end up here. Just make sure you're using an up-to-date browser, computer, and use some critical thinking and you'll probably be fine. Can't make any promises emotionally though.
28/08/24: Community!
I've joined the GeekRing webring! I'm excited to continue exploring the small web, and adding the intereting places I find to my collection pf badges in the footer (which is now a separate document from this one - you can see it on its own over here but it's not special).
-- user0
16/08/24: A guestbook!
I've produded a guestbook so people cal leave messages! This sucked to do! The modal code was stolen from W3schools! I'm tired!
-- user0
12/08/24: Technically...
I've added a visitor counter. I made it "myself" (at least the service is hosted by me. poorly. fuck im tired) and it works. There's also a love button for my own ego. <3<3<3
its 1:36am i have work in the morning wtf
-- user0
11/08/24: Centering a Div
This is a summary of a few, smaller changes within the website. namely, as you can see above, I've got a new icon! It's kinda shit, but what do you expect from a complete non-artist using Inkscape for the first time? I figured a serving plate would be a pretty solid joke, since the website is on a server.
...
I need to work on joke delivery through blog posts.
Anyways, the deckabase got some improvements as well, hiding nonexistent images. [user1] has been steadily updating her images and converted the GTKY readings from Apple's wacky-ass format into somemthing an actual computer could use, and she's continued to add decks to the deckabase. Johnvertisements (not affiliated with johnbot, this website) have also been added to this page's footer, because they make me giggle. I'm looking into webrings, but we'll see where I get with that one.
Oh, and the sidebar can be hidden! There's a bit of jank, but it should automatically hide when you go to a thinner "mobile" view and then automatically show when you return to a wider "decktop" view. There's also a button so you can toggle it. This change has been applied to all the pages that use this page format, which is just the deckabase, diceabase, and my personal page that doesn't do anything.
Anyways, that's all from me, Peace!
-- user0
08/08/24: Deckabase is live!
I'm pleased to announce [user1]'s deck database is live! At time of posting the database isn't actually present, pending some updates [user1] will work on. However, the page itself is completely functional with everything she wanted; descriptions, cover image + get to know you readings, production information, whatever. It could certainly use a visual upgrade, but that depends on me learning more about CSS and general web-building. As of right now, I'm quite pleased with what I've accomplished so far.
- user0
26/07/24: The hoard is shown!
In all its beautiful, full-scale PNG files to kill your data cap.
I'm going to be honest, I didn't really have much of a plan when I sat down and decided to start learning Javascript, and my working document really fucking shows it. But, thanks to a sudden burst of activity from [user1] and her hard work photographing all our dice for her own projects, I've managed to get the whole database onto the website with most of them getting accompanying photos! She did a fantastic job making them all look their best, and I can't wait to use these new tools (and Papa Parse, thank you, Papa Parse) to help her build a tarot DB!
As an example of her hard work, I'll include a picture here and you can look at the whole database over here!
- user0
19/07/24: baby!
Hard to believe it's been seven years with this little shit (as of two days ago)
- user0
16/07/24: User Profiles
Writing about your friends is haaaaard :(
User profiles have been created for the other folks who use this site. While their names are hidden on this page, they're more than welcome to do (or ask I do) whatever they want for the subpages.
I do want to thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing so much joy to my life. All of your are loved and irreplacable.
- user0
14/07/24: site is live!
Of course this is edited live, we die like real men.
After a bit of struggling, I've managed to get a webserver running again! After even more struggling, I managed to get the Foundry VTT server working within it. I do still have an old copy of my previous page, but I kinda want to try remaking it. There was a lot> of jank with tables, and I wanna try and get a deeper knowledge of base HTML/CSS. Sure, it's not a skill that most people find useful, but I enjoy it so fuck 'em.
But hey, it means I can put pictures of Minu here!
