DEV Community: Benlaunches.icu

I Discontinued Base31 and Rebuilt My Online Presence With BenLaunches.icu

Benlaunches.icu — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:11:48 +0000

Over the past few months, I’ve been building and refining my personal corner of the web. Originally, I used Base31 as my main portfolio and hiring site at hiresawyer.base31.org.

Now, I’ve decided to move in a new direction.

I discontinued Base31 and switched my main online presence over to BenLaunches.icu — a cleaner, more flexible home for my projects, work, and future web-development experiments.

The source code is open source, and you can check it out here:

👉 View the BenLaunches.icu code on GitHub

Why I Made the Switch
Base31 was a useful starting point, but as I kept building more projects, I wanted a site that felt more like my own brand and could grow with me.

BenLaunches gives me a better foundation for that. Instead of keeping my portfolio and projects split across different sites, I can use BenLaunches.icu as the central place where everything lives.

It also gives me more room to experiment with:

New layouts and UI ideas

Project showcases

Personal branding

Frontend features and interactions

Future web apps and data-driven projects

What BenLaunches.icu Is
BenLaunches.icu is now my main personal website and project hub. It is where I’ll share the things I’m building, highlight my web-development work, and continue improving my skills as a developer.

The name also fits the direction I want to take: launching projects, testing ideas, and putting real work online rather than keeping everything local.

What I’m Focusing On
As I continue developing the site, I’m focusing on:

A clean, modern, and responsive design

A better experience on both desktop and mobile

Showcasing projects in a clear and organized way

Building a site that can grow as I add more work

Keeping the code available on GitHub for anyone who wants to explore it

I enjoy the process of taking an idea, building it into a real website, deploying it, and then improving it over time. BenLaunches is exactly that kind of project.

From Base31 to BenLaunches
Moving away from Base31 was not about throwing away previous work—it was about simplifying things and choosing one main platform going forward.

Base31 helped me get started, but BenLaunches.icu is now the main destination for my work and future projects.

Check Out the Site
You can visit the live site here:

👉 BenLaunches.icu

And explore or fork the source code here:

👉 GitHub Repository

What’s Next
I plan to keep improving BenLaunches with more projects, better visuals, and new features. This is just the beginning of the site, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

If you have feedback, project ideas, or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out!

I Build Websites That Look Great, Load Fast, and Actually Work

Benlaunches.icu — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:34:42 +0000

Hi, I’m Sawyer — a web developer and digital creator. I’m currently building websites for people, brands, and projects that need a clean, modern online presence.

If you need a website that is simple to use, responsive on mobile, and built with a polished design, I’d love to help.

What I Build
Personal portfolio websites

Business and service landing pages

Sports and athlete profile sites

Data-driven web applications

React-based front-end projects

Websites with clean UI, animations, and responsive layouts

My Approach
I focus on building websites that are:

Modern and visually polished

Mobile-friendly and responsive

Fast and easy to navigate

Built around your goals, not just generic templates

Ready to deploy and share

I enjoy taking an idea from concept to a real, working website — including planning the structure, designing the interface, building the frontend, and getting it live.

Check Out My Work
You can see my site here:

👉 https://hiresawyer.base31.org

Let’s Build Something
Whether you need a portfolio, a landing page, a sports-data project, or a custom website idea brought to life, feel free to reach out.

I’m open to new projects and collaborations.

I Changed My Side Project’s Domain. Then I Changed What It Was For.

Benlaunches.icu — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 17:16:40 +0000

Changing a domain is easy.

Changing the idea underneath it is the part where you open seventeen tabs and quietly question your previous decisions.

My project used to be base31. Now it lives at benlaunches.icu, and the idea has changed too.

The new direction is Boring Internet: a quiet directory of launched sites.

Not a giant platform. Not a feed that requires your full attention. Just a place to discover things people actually shipped.

The name is Boring Internet.

Ideally, the websites are not.

A launch should have somewhere to land

There is something satisfying about a project that has made it past the “I should build this” stage.

Someone picked a name. Wrote the code. Dealt with the weird layout problem. Changed the button color six times. Deployed it.

Now it has a URL.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the project is huge, polished, or profitable. It means you can open it.

That’s the part I want this version of the directory to focus on: launched sites with enough context to help someone decide whether to visit.

Each listing gets its own page with its description, category, tags, launch date, votes, rank, and the collections it belongs to.

If a listing has extra details—like pricing, a tagline, or an FAQ—those can appear there too.

The goal is to help people understand what they’re clicking before sending them somewhere else.

A radical concept, I know.

“This week” actually means this week

One feature I wanted was a small “Launches this week” ticker.

Instead of maintaining a separate list by hand, it uses the launch dates already attached to the sites.

It selects the newest listings launched in the last seven days, shows up to five, and rotates through them.

That sounds like a tiny feature, and it is.

But it’s also the sort of thing I like building: enter the information once, then let the interface use it in a few useful places.

If a site is older, it can still belong in the directory. It just doesn’t get to pretend it launched this morning.

Browsing doesn’t have to be one endless list

The new site has a few different ways to explore:

Categories for when you know roughly what you want
Collections that group related sites together
Featured picks and editor recommendations
A trending page driven by votes
A “Very Interesting” section for selected listings

I don’t think one ranking should explain the whole directory.

Something can be worth opening without being the most-voted thing on the page. A small, specific tool might be exactly right for you and completely irrelevant to someone else.

Collections and editorial picks give those projects another way to be discovered.

The number next to a site is useful information. It isn’t its entire personality.

I also added a tiny website showdown

There’s a page called /this-or-that.

It presents two random listings side by side. You choose whichever one you prefer, the winner gets a vote toward the same trending system, and another pair appears.

That’s it.

No bracket ceremony. No ninety-minute awards stream.

Just:

“Which of these would you rather open?”

I like it because it gives visitors a reason to look at something they might otherwise scroll past.

It also makes voting feel like part of browsing rather than a separate task.

The content lives in JSON, not a CMS

The site’s content and settings live in a handful of JSON files.

There are separate files for branding, listings, categories, trending settings, homepage sections and collections, blog posts, and the launch ticker heading.

For example, adding a site means adding an entry to config/sites.json:


json
{
  "name": "Tiny Useful Thing",
  "slug": "tiny-useful-thing",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "description": "A small tool that does one useful job.",
  "category": "Utilities",
  "tags": ["browser", "tool"],
  "trending": 0,
  "launched": "2026-10-09"
}
The slug stays stable because votes are stored under it.

If I want the listing in a collection or an editorial section, I add its slug to the relevant configuration.

Then I redeploy.

No CMS login. No content API fetched at build time. No separate publishing system to maintain.

That also means content edits require a redeploy. It’s a tradeoff, not magic.

For this project, I like having the directory’s content in files I can read, change, and keep alongside the code.

The backend has a small job too
The interactive parts use a Cloudflare Worker with Workers KV.

It handles:

Reading vote counts
Adding and removing votes
Saving pending site submissions
Letting me review those submissions through a password-protected admin flow
Submissions go into a review queue rather than directly into the public directory.

The directory itself stays configuration-driven. The Worker handles the parts that need to change without a redeploy.

There are still rough edges here.

Votes and submissions aren’t rate-limited yet, so the current voting system isn’t something I’d present as a tamper-proof competition. KV updates can also take time to appear across locations.

For now, trending is a discovery feature—not an audited election for Supreme Website.

I’m keeping unfinished features honest
There’s an advertising page, but its placement and verification prices are proposals. Checkout isn’t connected, so those aren’t offers people can purchase yet.

I’d rather say that clearly than put a convincing-looking button in front of something that doesn’t work.

The same applies to the rest of the project.

This is a working site that I’m still developing, not a finished platform pretending it has no limitations.

Part of this change in direction is deciding what deserves to be built next—and what can stay simple.

Same builder, different job
base31 was a broader idea.

This version has a more specific focus: give launched sites a place to be found, understood, compared, and visited.

That gives me a clearer question when I’m considering a feature:

Does this help someone discover a launched project?

If it does, it might belong.

If it mostly gives me another settings page to maintain, perhaps it can enjoy a peaceful life in my notes app.

You can explore the new site here: benlaunches.icu

And the source code is here:


  
    
      
      
        NOTAM-bobk
       / 
        benlaunches.icu
      
    
    
      launch you site, here
    
  
  
    

Boring Internet


A quiet directory of launched sites. Everything on the page comes out of editable
files in config/. There are two server-side pieces: a small Cloudflare Worker
that counts trending votes, and three Vercel functions in api/ that take card
payments through PayPal (see Payments).


Editing the site: the config/ folder


Everything on the site comes from the JSON files in config/. Edit them and
redeploy — there is no CMS and nothing is fetched at build time.
































File

What it controls









config/site.json

Brand name, tagline, description, canonical URL, keywords, social links





config/sites.json

Every site: name, slug, url, description, category, tags, trending (starting score), launched, featured (true/false — see featured launch slots), plus any extra detail fields





config/categories.json

Categories used by the filters, the side navigation, and the counts





config/trending.json




topLimit for the trending page (0 ranks every





…


  


  View on GitHub




What makes you click?

When you find a directory of new projects, what actually makes you open one?

A clear description? A recent launch date? A category you care about? Someone else recommending it?

Or are you like me and occasionally willing to click something because the name sounds mildly suspicious?

Tell me in the comments. And if you’ve launched a site, share what it does—I’m building this for projects that made it out of the local development server.

File	What it controls
`config/site.json`	Brand name, tagline, description, canonical URL, keywords, social links
`config/sites.json`	Every site: `name`, `slug`, `url`, `description`, `category`, `tags`, `trending` (starting score), `launched`, `featured` (true/false — see featured launch slots), plus any extra detail fields
`config/categories.json`	Categories used by the filters, the side navigation, and the counts
`config/trending.json`	`topLimit` for the trending page (`0` ranks every

Your Side Project Doesn’t Need a Pricing Page

Benlaunches.icu — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:57:46 +0000

Somewhere between “I have an idea” and “I should build this,” a perfectly reasonable side project can turn into an imaginary software company.

It starts with:

“I want to make a tool that resizes images.”

Then suddenly you’re thinking about subscription tiers, team accounts, onboarding emails, and whether the enterprise plan should say “Contact sales.”

Contact who? It’s you. You are sales.

I’ve been building base31.org, and the small tools inside it have made me think about the opposite approach:

What if a project just does one thing, does it well, and lets people get on with their day?

Let the button do its job
Imagine someone opens an image compressor.

They have a large image. They would like a smaller image.

That is the entire relationship.

They probably don’t want to create an account, verify their email, join a workspace, or explain their job title.

“Why are you interested in our platform?”

Because my image is large, Daniel.

The Image Compressor on base31 handles compression and resizing in the browser, including batch processing and before-and-after sizes, without uploading the images. The Background Remover follows a similar approach: edit a photo in your browser and download the result without uploading it.

Those are the kinds of tools I want to keep making room for.

Open the page. Do the thing. Leave with something useful.

A visitor leaving quickly can be a success.

Small is a design decision
A small project isn’t automatically an unfinished big project.

Sometimes its scope is the point.

A focus timer doesn’t necessarily need a social feed. A QR code generator doesn’t necessarily need a dashboard. An iframe tester probably doesn’t need a community ambassador program.

The temptation is understandable, though.

Once something works, adding another feature feels productive. Then another. Then the settings page needs settings.

Eventually, the original useful thing is somewhere behind three menus.

That’s something I want to watch out for with base31. The directory can grow, but each individual tool doesn’t have to grow in every direction.

The site already has separate tools for focus sessions, app screenshots, image editing, GitHub exploration, and other specific jobs. Giving them their own spaces lets people go straight to the thing they need.

A bigger collection doesn’t have to mean a more complicated tool.

Useful and ridiculous can coexist
The other thing I like about building base31 is that I don’t have to choose between practical tools and wonderfully unnecessary websites.

The directory has both.

There are browser utilities, developer resources, and public APIs. There are also games, interactive experiments, and sites like Cat Bounce, whose purpose is pretty much exactly what the name promises.

I think those belong near each other.

Some days you need to compress an image.

Some days you need bouncing cats.

I’m not qualified to decide which day you’re having.

A project doesn’t have to save someone three hours to deserve a URL. Making someone curious, making them laugh, or showing them something unexpected is a perfectly good reason to build.

Finish the small version
If you’re sitting on a side project, here’s the version of this idea I’d like to encourage:

Build the part that made you want to start.

Not the hypothetical version for ten thousand users. Not the version with every feature you might eventually need.

The version where someone can open it and understand why it exists.

For an image tool, that might mean selecting a file and getting a useful result.

For a game, it might mean one playable round.

For a weird visual experiment, it might mean a page that makes someone say, “Wait, how did you do that?”

You can improve it afterward. You can expand it afterward. You can decide whether it should become something bigger afterward.

But it gets a chance to be real first.

base31 also offers free publishing for small static sites: people can upload HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, give the project a title and description, and let visitors discover it through the directory.

That’s one part of the project I’m especially interested in.

A home for things that are finished enough to share, even if they aren’t trying to become companies.

What’s your tiny project?
I’m still building base31, and I want it to make room for more projects like that.

Useful ones. Strange ones. Things someone made because they had a problem—or because they thought it would be funny.

You can explore it here:

base31.org

And the code is here:

NOTAM-bobk / base31

The (useless web) real official web directory

base31.org

A small directory for a very big web.

Useful browser tools, playful websites, public APIs, creative apps, and AI picks—curated together, searchable in one place.

Visit the directory · Explore the tools · What's new · Report an issue

What is this app?

base31 is both a discovery directory and a collection of independent web tools. The Next.js app serves the directory, editorial pages, and SEO guides. Plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript tools live in this same repository and are served on their own *.base31.org subdomains. A separate Cloudflare Worker handles shared counters, votes, community publishing, and notification subscriptions.

What visitors can do

Search Featured sites, Other cool sites, Cool APIs, Cool apps, and Cool AIs by name, URL, description, category, or tags.
Use #utility or tag:no-key for an exact tag; combine words such as #utility image to narrow results. Normal browsing starts with nine cards per section; search shows every match.
…

View on GitHub

What’s one small thing you’ve built—or wanted to build—that you wouldn’t turn into a business?

Drop it in the comments. If it already has a URL, include that too.

No pitch deck required.

Weekly Website Highlight: A Social Network That Deletes Yesterday

Benlaunches.icu — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 23:34:38 +0000

Every week, I want to highlight one website, tool, or project that made me stop scrolling and think:

“Okay, that is actually a fun idea.”

This week’s pick is Nychthemeron — an open-source social platform where posts, comments, and messages disappear after 24 hours.

Yes, completely disappear.

No endless archive of old opinions. No post from 2017 waiting patiently to ruin your afternoon. No carefully maintained feed of things you said when you were tired, overconfident, or had just discovered a new JavaScript framework.

Just a fresh feed every day.

The idea

Nychthemeron is built for developers, but the concept is simple enough that anyone can understand it:

Share an update, idea, code snippet, or random thought
Other people can see and react to it
Twenty-four hours later, it is gone
The feed resets and everyone gets a clean slate

It is basically somewhere between Twitter, Snapchat, and the part of your notes app where half-finished ideas go to live forever.

Except here, they do not live forever.

The project describes itself as a social network with no permanent history and no clout chasing. That is a surprisingly refreshing idea when so much of the internet is built around keeping everything forever. [3][4]

Why I picked it

Most social platforms want you to build a permanent personal museum.

Every thought gets stored. Every take gets searchable. Every post becomes something you might have to explain later.

Nychthemeron goes the other direction.

The 24-hour limit makes posting feel lower stakes. You could share a quick work-in-progress, a tiny code experiment, a late-night idea, or something that does not need to become part of your permanent online identity.

That does not automatically solve every problem with social media, obviously. A disappearing feed can still have spam, moderation, and safety challenges.

But it does create a different feeling:

You do not have to make every post important.

Sometimes it is enough to share what you are working on today.

Built in the open

What makes this project even better is that it is open source.

The creator, Ovi Ren, published the code and describes the project as a developer-focused social network built with React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion, Supabase, and Vercel. The repository includes the application code, Supabase setup, and documentation for contributing. [3][4]

iamovi / nychthemeron

an open source social network where everything disappears after 24 hours.

nychthemeron

a social network for developers where everything disappears after 24 hours

share code, post updates, connect with other builders. no permanent history, no clout chasing. just a daily feed that resets every morning.

why 24 hours?

most social platforms accumulate posts forever. your late-night takes, half-baked ideas, and experimental code snippets stay online permanently. nychthemeron is different.

every post, comment, and message automatically deletes after 24 hours. this means:

you can post freely without worrying about your permanent record
the feed stays fresh and relevant
performance stays fast no matter how many users join

think snapchat meets twitter, but built for developers — and casual users too!

nychthemeron feed api

want to use public nychthemeron feed posts in your own app or website?

visit the docs site: iamovi.github.io/nychthemeron/api

contributing

want to contribute? see CONTRIBUTING.md for setup and guidelines.

why open source?

building a social network is hard. building it…

View on GitHub

One interesting technical detail: the project’s public write-up says expired posts are hard-deleted on a schedule rather than simply hidden from the interface. That matters, because “temporary” should mean more than just making old content difficult to find. [4]

Try it

You can explore the live project here:

nychthemeron.vercel.app

And you can read the creator’s original DEV post here:

i built a social platform where everything vanishes after 24 hours

The source code is here:

github.com/iamovi/genjutsu

Sparking the conversation

I like projects that challenge an assumption we have accepted for so long that we barely notice it.

In this case, the assumption is that everything we post needs to be saved forever.

So I am curious:

Would you post more freely if your posts disappeared after 24 hours?
Should a developer social platform prioritize permanent portfolios or temporary conversation?
What would you build for a web that forgets things on purpose?
What small website, tool, or open-source project should I feature next week?

If you know a site that is useful, creative, strange, beautifully designed, or just too good to stay hidden, send it my way. I am always looking for the next weekly website highlight.

Just email at hello@base31.org or go to https://www.base31.org

I Turned My Web Directory Into a Growing Collection of Tools, Sites, and Experiments

Benlaunches.icu — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 22:42:13 +0000

A little while ago, I shared base31.org as a small home for the interesting internet.

Since then, the idea has grown beyond a directory.

base31 is now a place to discover interesting websites, use small browser tools, explore public APIs and AI projects, and even upload a simple static site for other people to find.

The project is still independent, still hand-built, and still focused on making the web feel a little more fun to explore.

👉 Try it: base31.org

👉 Source code: github.com/NOTAM-bobk/base31

What base31 is now

At its core, base31 is a curated directory for people who still enjoy finding weird, useful, creative, or unexpectedly good things on the web.

There are a few different parts:

Featured sites — tools and small projects hosted under *.base31.org
Other cool sites — hand-picked projects from around the web
Cool APIs — public APIs that developers can build with
Cool apps and AI tools — useful creative and developer-focused finds
Editor’s picks — a rotating shortlist of things worth opening
Tool guides — dedicated pages that explain what each hosted tool does
Community publishing — a way for people to upload a static HTML/CSS/JavaScript site and have it hosted through the project

I wanted the site to feel less like an app store or another generic listicle and more like a starting point for curiosity.

The web has a lot of great small projects. They are just often hard to find.

I also started building tools on subdomains

One of the biggest changes was making base31 more than a directory.

Instead of only linking to other projects, I started building small standalone tools that live on their own subdomains.

A few examples include:

An image compressor and resizer that works in the browser
A QR code generator
A password and passphrase generator
A GitHub repository explorer
A disposable email inbox tool
A domain availability and idea finder
An iframe tester
A website status checker
A daily word game
Screenshot and file-sharing tools

Each tool has its own small experience, but they all live under the same project.

For example:

imagecompressor.base31.org
qrgenerator.base31.org
githubexplorer.base31.org
isittaken.base31.org

That structure lets base31 work as both a discovery site and a collection of lightweight web experiments.

The stack behind it

The main site is built with Next.js and TypeScript.

The repository includes the directory, editorial pages, search, tool guides, structured metadata, and the hosted static tools.

The general setup looks like this:

Next.js app
├── Curated directory pages
├── Search and category filtering
├── Site detail pages
├── Tool guide pages
├── Blog and changelog content
├── Internationalization
└── Static-tool routing for subdomains

Cloudflare Worker
├── Views and basic stats
├── Voting
├── Community site publishing
├── Discussion board
├── Notification subscriptions
└── Shared API endpoints

The code is public here:

https://github.com/NOTAM-bobk/base31

I keep the curated content in editable JSON files instead of burying every site entry in UI components. That makes it much easier to add a new tool, API, app, or interesting website without rewriting the frontend.

For example, listings include a name, URL, category, tags, description, and optional review dates.

{
  "name": "Example App",
  "url": "[https://example.com/](https://example.com/)",
  "category": "Utilities",
  "tags": ["utility", "no-key"],
  "description": "One specific sentence explaining why someone should open this app."
}

That simple content model powers search, category browsing, detail pages, metadata, related recommendations, and editor’s picks.

Search was important

A directory is only useful if people can actually find what they are looking for.

So search works across:

Site names
URLs
Descriptions
Categories
Tags

I also added tag-style search support.

For example:

#utility
tag:no-key
#utility image

The goal is to let someone come in with either a vague mood — “show me something cool” — or a practical need — “I need an image tool without an API key” — and still find something useful.

There is also a random-pick option because sometimes the best way to use a directory is to let it surprise you.

Letting people publish small sites

One feature I am especially interested in expanding is community publishing.

Visitors can upload a simple static site made with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The project can host it, list it for others to browse, and let visitors vote on it.

I like this because it gives small web projects a place to exist without requiring someone to set up a complicated hosting workflow first.

There are limits and tradeoffs, of course. Community uploads are public, and moderation matters. But I think there is something valuable about making it easier for people to put a small project online.

A lot of great web ideas start as one-page experiments.

Things I cared about while building it

I wanted the project to be useful, but I also wanted it to feel polished and respectful of visitors.

Some things I worked on:

Dark and light themes
Reduced-motion support
Keyboard navigation and visible focus states
Responsive layouts
Structured data and canonical metadata for directory pages
Clear labels for sponsored or referral links
Search-friendly detail pages for every curated listing
Honest labels around things like estimated code size, review dates, and voting limitations

I also tried to keep the line between editorial picks and paid placements clear. If something is an editor’s pick, it is there because I chose it. If something is sponsored, it should be visibly labeled as sponsored.

That distinction matters.

What I am learning from the project

Building base31 has been a good reminder that a project can grow without needing to become huge or complicated overnight.

It started as a directory idea.

Then it became a place for small tools.

Then it became a small publishing platform.

Now it is also a way for me to practice:

Next.js application architecture
Content-driven UI design
Search and filtering
Cloudflare Workers
Static-site hosting patterns
Subdomain routing
SEO and structured data
Accessibility details
Deployment and domain management
Keeping a real project maintainable as it grows

I am still actively improving it, adding tools, reviewing links, and making the directory more useful.

If you enjoy small web projects, useful browser tools, creative internet experiments, or open-source side projects, check it out:

https://base31.org

And if you have a small site or tool worth adding, I would love for you to submit it.

Thanks for reading.

I Built a Small Home for the Interesting Internet

Benlaunches.icu — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 02:31:36 +0000

Most of the internet is now five websites wearing different fonts.

You open a tab to find something interesting. Ten minutes later, you have watched three short videos, seen the same AI tool listed on four “best tools” blogs, and somehow learned that a guy you went to high school with is selling mushroom coffee.

I missed the version of the web where clicking a link could lead somewhere genuinely unexpected.

So I made base31.org — a hand-built directory of cool sites, useful tools, tiny games, creative web experiments, and personal projects worth opening.

Not an app store.

Not a “top 500 AI tools” spreadsheet with twelve affiliate links.

Not a website that makes you create an account before you can see a button.

Just interesting things on the web.

What is base31?

base31.org is a small, independent directory for curious people.

Every project gets opened, checked, tagged, and given a real description before it goes in. The goal is simple: if someone clicks a link, they should land on something that is either:

Fun
Useful
Beautiful
Weird
Creative
Or at least weirdly useful

The site includes projects built on Base31 plus hand-picked sites from around the web. You can browse by category, sort entries, heart the sites you like, or hit “Surprise me” and let the internet make the decision for you.

Try it here: base31.org

Things I built for it

I wanted the directory to be more than a list of links, so I also started making small tools and projects under the Base31 umbrella.

A few examples:

App Screenshot — Generate polished screenshots for product pages, portfolios, presentations, and launches.
CompMails — A disposable inbox for temporary signups and quick testing.
Daily Wordle — A fresh daily word puzzle.
GitHub Explorer — Browse repositories and files, explore user repos, and use AI to help draft README files and documentation.
Image Compressor — Compress and resize images in your browser, including batch processing, without uploading them.
Is It Down — Check whether a site is actually unavailable or whether your Wi-Fi is just having one of its little moments.
Is It Taken — Check domain availability and see alternatives.
Password Generator — Generate passwords and passphrases, with an encrypted local vault option.
QR Code Generator — Create QR codes for links, Wi-Fi, contacts, and messages.
Share Files — Upload a file and get a shareable link without needing an account.
Word of the Day — Learn a new word with definitions and examples.

They are intentionally simple. I like tools that do one thing clearly, quickly, and without asking for your email address before they let you click “Generate.”

The sites I keep coming back to

The directory also has projects I did not build—just sites that make the web better.

A few favorites:

Window Swap — Open a window somewhere else in the world. You get a view from someone’s home, submitted by people everywhere.
Neal.fun — Beautiful interactive projects including The Deep Sea, Spend Bill Gates’ Money, and more.
Radio Garden — Spin a globe and listen to live radio almost anywhere on Earth.
A Soft Murmur — Mix ambient sounds like rain, coffee shops, thunder, waves, and fire.
Pointer Pointer — Move your cursor anywhere. Someone will point directly at it. It is pointless. It is perfect.
Zoomquilt — An endless collaborative illustration that keeps zooming deeper.
The Useless Web — One button that sends you somewhere unexpected and usually unnecessary.
Music for Programming — Long, carefully sequenced music mixes for focused work.
Httpster — A showcase of websites with strong, simple design.

That is the energy I want Base31 to preserve: the moment you find a site and immediately send it to somebody with, “You have to see this.”

Why build another directory?

Because search is useful, but it is not always fun.

Search engines are great when you know exactly what you need. But they are less great when you want to stumble into something cool. The modern web often pushes you toward the biggest brands, the most aggressively optimized pages, or a page that is mostly pop-ups with a small article trapped underneath.

Base31 is meant to be slower and more human.

It is a directory where:

Entries are chosen by hand.
Every link should lead to a real project you can use or explore.
Personal sites and small experiments have room next to utilities.
Visitors can discover something without an algorithm deciding what they should see.
Community-made sites can be uploaded, hosted for free, and added to the directory.

The goal is not to catalog the entire internet.

That sounds exhausting, and the internet would probably make a new JavaScript framework before I got halfway through.

The goal is to collect a growing list of places worth visiting.

Build something? Add it.

If you have a small project, a static HTML/CSS/JavaScript site, a strange browser experiment, a useful tool, or a tiny game, you can submit it to Base31.

The site lets you upload your files, add a title, description, and tags, then publish it for people to browse and vote on.

You can find the submission option at base31.org under “Add your own site.”

I am especially interested in:

Personal websites
Browser games
Creative coding experiments
Free tools
Useful developer utilities
Interactive art
Weird internet projects
Tiny sites that do one oddly specific thing very well

If you built something that makes the web feel a little less boring, it probably belongs there.

Try it out

Start at base31.org.

Click around. Hit Surprise me. Find something useful. Find something dumb. Ideally, find both.

And if you find a bug, have an idea, want to sponsor the project, or have a site that deserves a spot in the directory, email me at hello@base31.org.

The web is still full of good stuff.

You just have to wander a little.

Domains. Spent weeks trying to figure out the perfect name more my brand they I just gave up and picked base31, even though I new there was base44 and other companies I still chose it. Anyone else with this issue (base31.org) visit if you want.

Benlaunches.icu — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 02:24:07 +0000

DEV Community: Benlaunches.icu

I Discontinued Base31 and Rebuilt My Online Presence With BenLaunches.icu

I Build Websites That Look Great, Load Fast, and Actually Work

I Changed My Side Project’s Domain. Then I Changed What It Was For.

A launch should have somewhere to land

“This week” actually means this week

Browsing doesn’t have to be one endless list

I also added a tiny website showdown

The content lives in JSON, not a CMS

NOTAM-bobk / benlaunches.icu

launch you site, here

Boring Internet

Editing the site: the config/ folder

Your Side Project Doesn’t Need a Pricing Page

NOTAM-bobk / base31

The (useless web) real official web directory

base31.org

A small directory for a very big web.

What is this app?

What visitors can do

Weekly Website Highlight: A Social Network That Deletes Yesterday

The idea

Why I picked it

Built in the open

iamovi / nychthemeron

an open source social network where everything disappears after 24 hours.

nychthemeron

why 24 hours?

nychthemeron feed api

contributing

why open source?

Try it

Sparking the conversation

I Turned My Web Directory Into a Growing Collection of Tools, Sites, and Experiments

What base31 is now

I also started building tools on subdomains

The stack behind it

Search was important

Letting people publish small sites

Things I cared about while building it

What I am learning from the project

I Built a Small Home for the Interesting Internet

What is base31?

Things I built for it

The sites I keep coming back to

Why build another directory?

Build something? Add it.

Try it out

Domains. Spent weeks trying to figure out the perfect name more my brand they I just gave up and picked base31, even though I new there was base44 and other companies I still chose it. Anyone else with this issue (base31.org) visit if you want.

Editing the site: the `config/` folder