The latest articles on DEV Community by Compile & Cotton (@compileandcotton). https://dev.to/compileandcotton https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4239700%2Fb4314316-0d63-477f-8788-2d5cf8db80ce.png https://dev.to/compileandcotton en Compile & Cotton Wed, 11 Nov 2026 19:04:27 +0000 https://dev.to/compileandcotton/its-always-dns-i-started-turning-incident-channel-jokes-into-t-shirts-1p94 https://dev.to/compileandcotton/its-always-dns-i-started-turning-incident-channel-jokes-into-t-shirts-1p94 <p>Hey dev.to. First post here, so a quick intro: I work in tech, and for years my favourite writing has not been documentation. It has been the incident channel.</p> <p>If you have ever been on a 2 a.m. call, you know the lines. They are short, they are true, and everybody on the call understands them instantly:</p> <ul> <li>"It's always DNS."</li> <li>"MFA is my love language."</li> <li>"Human in the loop."</li> <li>"Have you tried turning it off and on again?" (The eternal classic.)</li> </ul> <p>A few weeks ago I started turning those lines into designs, mostly to see if I could. That experiment now has a name, Compile &amp; Cotton, and a small shop of wearable inside jokes for people who build the internet.</p> <h2> How it actually works </h2> <p>People ask about the mechanics, so here is the honest version:</p> <ol> <li> <strong>The lines come first.</strong> Every design starts as a phrase people in tech genuinely say. If it would not get a tired laugh on an incident call, it does not make the cut.</li> <li> <strong>Print on demand does the heavy lifting.</strong> Designs go through Printify to an Etsy storefront. No inventory in my house, no boxes of unsold shirts judging me from the corner.</li> <li> <strong>The range so far:</strong> a logo hoodie, twelve design hoodies, a nightwear line for women in tech (long tees: "404: Sleep Not Found", "Compiling Dreams", "Sleep Mode: ON"), and a bright colour line of the same nightwear designs.</li> <li> <strong>It runs in the gaps.</strong> Full-time tech job, so this gets nights and weekends, roughly ten hours a week. Bootstrapped, no team, no funding.</li> </ol> <h2> Why post this here? </h2> <p>Two reasons. First, this community is literally the audience: if a line does not land with developers and sysadmins, it does not land anywhere. Second, I am learning ecommerce in public, and dev.to is generous with honest feedback.</p> <h2> Three questions I am genuinely stuck on </h2> <ol> <li> <strong>Designs or distribution?</strong> My instinct says distribution wins at this stage: showing up where tech people already gather beats a thirteenth design nobody sees. Agree or disagree?</li> <li> <strong>Pricing sanity check.</strong> Hoodies at $44.99, tees at $39.99. Fair for the quality, or a quiet barrier?</li> <li> <strong>Organic only.</strong> The plan is no paid ads through the end of the year. If you have grown anything, a project, a newsletter, a tiny shop, on organic alone, what actually moved the needle?</li> </ol> <p>The shop is linked in my profile if you want to see the designs themselves. Blunt feedback is the most useful kind, so do not hold back.</p> <p>Thanks for reading, and thanks for every 2 a.m. call that wrote these lines for me.</p> sideprojects buildinpublic webdev beginners