essential-randomness

[essential-randomness]

Join today's stream to learn how to make Astro integrations...

...which let people install simple plugins that automatically add routes (and more!) to their sites. Current project: authentication with ATProto!

[essential-randomness]

Today's (late) stream: creating an Astro integration for oauth login with an ATproto PDS!

(because I'm tired of implementing it over and over) Never created an Astro integration before, so... we'll figure them out together.

P.S. we're so late cause we were concocting evil plans so come hear about them if you're curious 👀

[essential-randomness]

It's that time(s) of the week! Come join our guestbook adventures with authentication (yes, again), styling, and maybe even a delete feature!

[essential-randomness]

Doing some more guestbook work on stream today! The bulk of it will be CSS/Astro work styling the client. Come hang out and talk web development: https://www.twitch.tv/essentialrandomness

[essential-randomness]

Some of our sites are down for some unscheduled maintenance, which is code for our sysadmin and @essential-randomness going "let's turn off this droplet and take a snapshot, how long could it take?"

[essential-randomness]

Streaming time! Let's allow people to make new ATproto guestbooks through an Astro website using Astro actions!

[essential-randomness]

Our latest and final "Git"s (Gitea and Forgejo) are finally here

...courtesy of our official catboy artist @doubledeadstudio! Stoked to have them join our panthe(r)on, alongside Git, GitHub and GitLab.

Debuting them in our next newsletter (coming soon) 👀👀

And if you want to help us hire more artists to turn your favorite technologies into hot men (and teach them to folks like you), support us on Patreon!

[essential-randomness]

I packed so many cookies 😭 but it was totally worth it!!

MY COOKIES CAME TODAYYYY THANK YOU TEAM I LOVE THEM

So glad you love them!! We've been so busy we didn't get to announce it, but YES! our Fandom Cookies shipped this week and they should be making their way to everyone. Some pictures for everyone's viewing pleasure:

We're STOKED to put these in people's hands, and are delighted by the reactions to our fortunes. The team put in a lot of effort into making them fun & relatable, if you have a favorite we'd love to hear about it!! 😉

(P.S. these April 1st limited edition cookies are sold out, but there's plenty more fun merch in our store!)

[essential-randomness]

Stream time!

Come hang out and chat as I continue my guestbook work.

Today we're adding user data to our guestbook entries, so we can see WHO has written us (and their avatar) rather than just their DID!

Join the adventure!

[essential-randomness]

Starting now! Jump on in and let's remember what we were doing: https://www.twitch.tv/essentialrandomness

In 1 hour: ATproto guestbook streams start again!

Now that "talks season" is over and I've caught up with pressing work and obligations, it's time to continue the work on the ATproto guestbook. See you on Twitch at 3PM Pacific (IN ONE HOUR!) for the next installation: figuring out what we were even doing a month ago! See you on Twitch!

[essential-randomness]

In 1 hour: ATproto guestbook streams start again!

Now that "talks season" is over and I've caught up with pressing work and obligations, it's time to continue the work on the ATproto guestbook. See you on Twitch at 3PM Pacific (IN ONE HOUR!) for the next installation: figuring out what we were even doing a month ago! See you on Twitch!

[essential-randomness]

Friends, check out the slides for my talk above! And thank you everyone for coming to CitrusCon :)

Thank you again to everyone who joined us last week at #CitrusCon2025

...to the staff & volunteers who welcomed us, and to @marinehaddock for the fansite-building panel!

Read below ⬇️ for:

1️⃣ Ms Boba's slides 2️⃣ Don't forget your coupon 3️⃣ Support our mission 4️⃣ Article feedback

1️⃣ Missed @essential-randomness's talk, "Working Together in a Dying World?" Eager to revisit it? @citruscon will be uploading it to YouTube, but you can check it out here in the meantime👇 As feedback said, it was a "wonderfully empowering" panel!

2️⃣ If you attended #CitrusCon2025, don't forget to use your exclusive Goodie Bag coupon to receive 15% off in the FujoCoded store! It expires July 1, 2025, so you have a couple of days left to find your favorite stickers, charms, and cheese paddles!

3️⃣ Want to support our mission to help fandom build their own online spaces, learn new skills and be the change they want to see in the web? Want to support us hiring fans for art, coding, and writing projects? Support us on Patreon! as the presentation said….. 🖼️👇🥺

4️⃣ Thank you for your support and enthusiastic conversations during the weekend. We can't wait to see more of your projects! If our Learn@FujoWeb.dev articles helped, we'd really love to hear feedback and suggestions—both positive and need improvements!—so please do reach out!

…and with this, onwards to the next adventure! Word says, we may be at (virtual) Dashcon2 next week 👀

[essential-randomness]

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[essential-randomness]

# yaaaaay another fun and thoughtful read from bobaboard

💖💖

Rebuilding Community on the (Fujo)Web, pt. 2

This part (my favorite) is all about why "getting help from your community members" is not a straightforward way to exit the Downward Spiral of Indie Projects Burnout. The answer is "simple": power dynamics

Many Indie Projects start from a desire to flatten the hierarchy of power between platforms and users. Many project runners are uncomfortable with wielding power at all!

But wishing power away is not enough: the US vs THEM always lies in wait, ready to rear its head—especially in moments of crisis.

Above all, power is not as simple as we make it: while we all understand the power that flows from top to bottom of a hierarchy (power-over), we rarely talk about power that flows FROM the bottom of a hierarchy to the top—even though we see it all the time!

Power-under is all around us online.

Changing the power dynamics that happen in Indie Projects and our Community Spaces means understanding that it's not enough for people who build them to give away *their* power, we MUST figure out how to get people to take on the power that's given away. Reaching shared power requires both sides.

There is a lot more to this talk that would make this Tumblr post way too long. You can read more in the article itself, or a longer summary in this Bluesky thread.

Come to @citruscon this Saturday to watch me give (and discuss) its spiritual successor! 👇

[essential-randomness]

It's that time of the month(s)!

The FujoCoded Mune (Jay?) newsletter is out

Find the table of content in the pic👇 or go straight to the site for all our work in the past month+!

Are you a hobbyists HTML/CSS dev looking to build your skills and get some extra cash? Are you a more experienced developer wanting to contribute to a FUN project, with a mission you can stand behind?

This month, we've added a "small-gigs" webdev recruitment form to our line up! Check our opportunities out and 🏦💰🥖 Come join our fight for a better web 💪🌐

✏️ Writers assemble! Do you want to help with our NPM articles? Or maybe, you want to help us sell the lore behind our catboys (and beyond) to the wider public? Our Writers Intake Form is for you!

💻 WebDev Gigs incoming! There is a lot going on in the FujoVerse™ and many pages (like the one on FujoGuide Volume 0) could use some TLC from entry-level HTML/CSS-wranglers. We also have a few other challenges at different levels we’ll be looking to take care of as we grow. Join the fight here!

🖼️ Art(ist) Archive! We’ve got some character art needs in the pipeline (don’t we always?), and we’d love to have even more artists on tap for when that gets firmed up—monsterfucking tendencies appreciated but not required. Add your info here!

Read the full newsletter, help us spread the word, and see you next month!

[essential-randomness]

Rebuilding Community on the (Fujo)Web, pt. 2

This part (my favorite) is all about why "getting help from your community members" is not a straightforward way to exit the Downward Spiral of Indie Projects Burnout. The answer is "simple": power dynamics

Many Indie Projects start from a desire to flatten the hierarchy of power between platforms and users. Many project runners are uncomfortable with wielding power at all!

But wishing power away is not enough: the US vs THEM always lies in wait, ready to rear its head—especially in moments of crisis.

Above all, power is not as simple as we make it: while we all understand the power that flows from top to bottom of a hierarchy (power-over), we rarely talk about power that flows FROM the bottom of a hierarchy to the top—even though we see it all the time!

Power-under is all around us online.

Changing the power dynamics that happen in Indie Projects and our Community Spaces means understanding that it's not enough for people who build them to give away *their* power, we MUST figure out how to get people to take on the power that's given away. Reaching shared power requires both sides.

There is a lot more to this talk that would make this Tumblr post way too long. You can read more in the article itself, or a longer summary in this Bluesky thread.

Come to @citruscon this Saturday to watch me give (and discuss) its spiritual successor! 👇

[essential-randomness]

[staggering to my feet and wiping a single perfect drip of blood from my mouth] i have to get back on my bullshit. no matter the cost