DEV Community: Base31.org

Weekly Website Highlight: A Social Network That Deletes Yesterday

Base31.org — 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

Base31.org — 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

Base31.org — 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.

Base31.org — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 02:24:07 +0000