I built a community word board where one word holds many lives

Y N — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:44:46 +0000

What does "home" mean to you? What about "grief"? Or "money"?

Everyone has a different answer. That's bort.

What is it?

bort is a word board. You pick a word — home, love, grief, money, silence, sorry — and leave what it means to you. One sentence. Anonymous if you want. Permanent.

Your bort sits alongside everyone else's. Same word, completely different lives.

Try it: bort.llc

The build

Solo developer, based in Singapore. Built this while working full-time in banking.

Stack:

Next.js 16 + TypeScript
Tailwind v4
Upstash Redis (Singapore region)
Stripe ($1 to add your own word)
Vercel

Features:

15 words, each holding dozens of personal stories
6 colors to express mood
9 languages — EN, FR, AR, ZH, MS, JA, KO, TH, ID
AI content moderation — keeps it safe without killing honesty
Photorealistic OG share cards — every bort looks beautiful when shared
Admin panel for moderation and analytics
PWA — installable on any device
Fully responsive, RTL-aware for Arabic

Interesting decisions

Why only 15 words? Constraints force depth. With unlimited words, people skim. With 15, you actually read what others wrote. The $1 price to add a new word means every addition is intentional.

Why 9 languages? A bort about "home" in Arabic hits differently than one in English. The word is the same. The life behind it isn't. Multilingual isn't localization — it's the feature.

Why anonymous? People write differently when no one's watching. The most honest borts come from people who didn't attach their name.

Live at bort.llc. Would love to hear — what word would you open first?

I shipped two full-stack apps solo — here's what I learned

Y N — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:43:19 +0000

I'm Younes, a project manager in banking by day, solo developer by night, based in Singapore. I just shipped two production apps:

B||T — Bless or Tease

blessortease.com

An emotional ritual app where you send anonymous bless or tease signals to anyone in the world. 28 features built and deployed.

Stack: Next.js 15, TypeScript, Upstash Redis, Vercel, Stripe, Resend, Web Push API

Interesting builds:

Passwordless OTP auth — SHA-256 hashed codes, timing-safe comparison, multi-layer rate limiting
Generative Sonic Identity — unique audio fingerprint per user using Web Audio API, driven by behavioral data
2am Mode — CSS class toggle based on local time, shifts the entire app darker between midnight and 5am
Weekly deterministic phrase generation — cached in Redis, all users see the same fractured "Unsent Signal"
CSS co-location — refactored 8,600 lines of globals.css into 14 component files using a custom Node.js splitter script
Symmetric echo chains — Redis counters that track exchanges between user pairs regardless of direction

Also built: peer-to-peer messaging, push notifications, 8 behavioral personality types, collectible Sound Drops, annual Wrapped cards, live global activity ticker, $1.99 gift signals via Stripe.

Localized in 5 languages (EN/FR/AR/ZH/MS) with full RTL support for Arabic.

bort

bort.llc

A community word board. Pick a word — home, grief, money — and leave what it means to you. 15 words, 9 languages, AI moderation, photorealistic OG share cards.

Stack: Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind v4, Upstash Redis, Stripe, Vercel

Both apps are live and taking payments. Built everything while working full-time.

Happy to go deeper on any technical decisions. What would you want to hear more about?