Hey there everybody! I have just released the very first alpha version of my project called “Bit Board” v0.0.1a. It is an extremely lightweight old school anonymous text board platform made with plain old HTML and client-side only storage in mind. I wanted to create an online service that would be lightning-fast, free of tracking scripts and massive corporate frameworks. I also strongly believe in freedom from harassment and racism, which is why I want to create a retro alternative platform that will bring joy to the hearts of all tech enthusiasts. Because of the frontend-only nature of this project, please feel free to leave your own anonymous post and provide valuable feedback on my website’s layout! Website: bitboard.neocities.org
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Okay, but… how are people supposed to talk to each other if it uses localStorage?
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yeah im a bit confused about that ( ╹ -╹)? Because, as far as I know, we can’t really do a whole forum thing being based on Neocities, cause we can’t host anything serverside or something like that idk about that stuff.
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Besides the storage question, I’m curious how moderation works on something like this.
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moderation is always tricky isnt it, completely unrelated to the topic but i read this book like two years ago about moderation and moderators in major social medias. It was sad cause a lot of the human moderators were people getting small time gigs off an amazon website called the digital turk or something, so they had to be exposed to horrible stuff for like 50 cents. But again this book was from early to mid 2010s so its a lot different now probs less human moderators.
uh, I’ve got bad news. Mechanical turk is still around, and now they’re looking at horrific things for the not-so-great cause of labelling training data for AI
well thats horrific. Honestly I thought it was less human moderators cause I did my own research and found that people aren’t getting as many gigs from human turk, but guess thats wrong.
It’s possible mechanical turk specifically is decreasing in use, but there’s a couple alternatives out there now, like Appen, clickworker, and prolific, that together account for a lot of harm.
did not know about that ugh its horrible.
I was very curious about this project, so I joined the Discord server linked on the homepage. There was nobody in the server except me and the creator (Snowjelly) and I ended up doing a bit of an impromptu interview:
Discord Interview
**Brennan Kenneth**:
hi. Using local storage on bitboard means that people are only able to see the messages they send. It is impossible for somebody to see any other messages by any other people, rendering the entire thing unuseable
**Snowjelly**:
Hey Brennan, thanks for checking out the project! You are 100% correct. Right now, version v0.0.1a is strictly a frontend client mockup and architectural prototype to lock down the HTML/CSS layout and file routing structure. I’m actively working on connecting a free cloud backend database (like Supabase or Firebase) to the form layout this week so it can handle global multi-user syncing. Glad to have you here for the development journey!
**Brennan Kenneth**:
oh, okay. hosting this on neocities is particularly ambitious since the website is designed for static hosting
**Snowjelly**:
Exactly! That’s the main challenge I’m tackling with the architecture. Since Neocities is strictly static, I have to run the entire application logic on client-side JavaScript, pulling the layout modules and processing the storage state right in the browser. Next step is wiring up an external API link to an outside database so the static frontend can sync data globally for everyone!
**Brennan Kenneth**:
Why did you choose neocities for this instead of vercel or netlify? Those platforms would give you a lot more flexibility for something like this
**Snowjelly**:
That’s a great point! I actually thought about Vercel and Netlify, but I specifically chose Neocities for two reasons. First, the platform perfectly matches the classic, lightweight, Web 1.0 aesthetic I’m aiming for. Second, I wanted the challenge of building an anti-bloat forum using strictly raw vanilla HTML/CSS and client-side JavaScript without relying on heavy modern deployment frameworks or dependencies. It keeps the core architecture ultra-lightweight and authentic to the retro scene!
**Brennan Kenneth**:
But you still need to rely on supabase for this? You can’t really avoid databases and dynamic backend functionality when making a forum. It’s just a matter of choosing what you’re willing to compromise on. Regarding the aesthetic, that’s just CSS and doesn’t really have anything to do with neocities. I look forward to seeing you get this functioning on the site, regardless.
**Snowjelly**:
You’re 100% correct, and I completely agree. A dynamic cloud backend like Supabase is definitely unavoidable to make it globally persistent. My focus right now on Neocities is purely Phase 1: locking down the local UI module logic, responsive layout trees, and client-side memory caching structures.
Phase 2 is exactly what you mentioned—keeping the static shell hosted on Neocities to stay embedded right where the target retro community loops are, but wiring up the external Supabase API to sync the data tables globally. Really appreciate the feedback, it’s a fun puzzle to map out!
**Brennan Kenneth**:
Hey by the way am I talking to an openclaw instance
**Snowjelly**:
what the frick do you mean
**Snowjelly**:
I just have very good grammer
**Brennan Kenneth**:
sorry just curious, is this open source? i’d love to see the repo
**Snowjelly**:
No sorry. I dont want anyone copying the code. But i do plan on making a tumblr blog 
**Brennan Kenneth**:
why don’t you want anybody copying the code if you’re promoting web 1.0 ethos? all of my projects are open-source and I encourage people to copy/steal. I only use the AGPL 3.0-or-later license:
brennanbrown (Brennan Kenneth Brown) · GitHub
Brennan Kenneth Brown · GitLab
Brennan Kenneth Brown - SourceTube: Version control for the omg.lol community
**Snowjelly**:
Ok, fair point but i just want to protect my code also that thing you asked me for earlier, the not being able to save thing? I am working on that right now. Sorry i just dont want anyone copying my code
**Brennan Kenneth**:
oh ok
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I wish the original poster had stayed to talk instead of this drive-by self promotion. Good work figuring out what this is all about, @brennan.
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Yeah I also checked the discord out for a second! I was pretty confused too so good job for the interview
Snowjelly:
You’re 100% correct, and I completely agree. A dynamic cloud backend like Supabase is definitely unavoidable to make it globally persistent. My focus right now on Neocities is purely Phase 1: locking down the local UI module logic, responsive layout trees, and client-side memory caching structures.
Phase 2 is exactly what you mentioned—keeping the static shell hosted on Neocities to stay embedded right where the target retro community loops are, but wiring up the external Supabase API to sync the data tables globally. Really appreciate the feedback, it’s a fun puzzle to map out!
You know, it’s funny… when I got to this part, I looked away from the screen a moment and though to myself, there’s something about this particular mixture of agreeing while disagreeing that’s setting off my sense of textual uncanny valley. With that said, I don’t want to get too trigger happy with accusations, so maybe it’s better if I don’t say anything.
And then I kept reading and saw that the very next line was this:
Okay so I’m not the only one who wondered lol.
Worth noting the very distinct style shift after that point.
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yess broo its the em dashes too --, it seems ai