user accounts in beta!

2024-9-21

as you know, this website serves primarily as a fun personal project for me, and i've been wanting an excuse to learn how mysql works, so i figured i could add some cool features for user accounts!

the system works pretty well, you can register and sign in, but the "forgot password" system is still not finished. i haven't fully figure out how to send automated emails without getting rejected or marked as spam, so i'll keep working on that one! since i wasn't able to reliably test it, even if you had a sketchy email service that let you see the email, the link doesn't work yet. for now though, if you can't get into your account just send me an email at contact@ariah.love and i'll help you out!

what you can do now with a user account is showcase you're own website! i've added a showcase page where anyone with an account can add a site to on their own! you can even stylize your showcase panel with css, so leave it default or tune it to look thematically appropriate for your own site! unfortunately you will have to have an understanding of css to style your website's panel for now, but i do plan to have an extensive styling help page with code snippets you can copy and paste.

my goal with this showcase feature is to help the visibility of everyone's independant websites. i know like nobody knows about this site right now, and i don't necessarily expect that to change, but i figure we're stronger together! i've seen other indie websites showcase other sites they like so i wanted to implement something similar here! i know i will for sure be checking out any sites that get added!

please keep in mind that this is not a place for hate, it's a place for expressing your creativity and individuality. express yourself with your website and show it off here! if you use any hateful language or symbolism, you may get your site removed from the showcase. graphic violence and graphic sexual content are not allowed either.

in the future, user accounts will have more functionality. there's currently an "email notifications" setting that exists, although it does nothing as of yet. my plan is to send emails when i update my blog or post something else of significance for users who have this setting enabled. i also want user accounts to keep track of unread and read blog posts, as well as other things to come (i.e. keeping your page in a story i write?)

i'm really happy with how this site is turning out though! i'm learning a lot from working on it and i'm sure i'll learn much more in the time ahead!