...and Now It's Time to Find Out
Ms Boba's Quarterly Extravaganza #1
Table of Contents
OwO What’s this?
This is a commented version of the first edition of my $upporters newsletter/town hall/“quarterly extravaganza”. It was originally published in July 2023, and I’m only now (December 2023) getting to making it public. If you want new editions of this Town Hall straight into your inbox as soon as they’re available, you can support me on Patreon, Ko-fi or this same website!
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Intro: This “Town Hall”
Fashionably late (or, better said, just in time for the second one), it’s time to finally release my first $upporters-only Town Hall to the world, “…and Now It’s Time to Find Out” edition!
Follow along this blog post to learn more about the BobaVerse (including what it is)… but first, some context!
About “Town Halls”
For the uninitiated to the intricacies of “corp speak” a Town Hall is a meeting where leaders answer questions and share plans with everyone. My own flavor of Town Halls (“Quarterly Extravaganzas”) are sent ~quarterly to my paid $upporters (you can become one here).
Ground Rules
Before we dive in, something incredibly important to me (and hopefully to you too): ground rules. While some don’t apply at the public stage, others (like the “trade offer”) remain relevant. I strive to be open, honest, and accountable, but I can only be in a mutually-respectful and psychologically safe environment!
Getting Started (Finally)
With this out of the way, then welcome to the first public edition of “Ms Boba’s Quarterly Extravaganza”, aptly named “and Now It’s Time to Find Out”.
Part 1: What is The BobaVerse™?
The BobaVerse™
As the slides say, “the BobaVerse™ is an eclectic collection of projects related to coding, community and fandom on the web that may or may not create a sustainable ecosystem one day”. We took all we learned while building up the BobaBoard project and community, and charter the path to a future where members of online niche communities participate in the creation of both spaces and software!
Building it Slow
Getting any project to sustainability is hard, but getting a project off the ground in this online (and fandom) environment is a particularly thorny issue! Doing it slowly is fundamental to success, but doing it slowly is not easy, either! Many issues loom on the horizon.
A Different Approach
Given the complexities of building sustainable community-driven software, The BobaVerse™ wants to do things differently: rather than just building another unsustainable social platform with disenfranchised users, it seeks a self-sustaining ecosystem that involves them in the building process (and helps get more underrepresented people into Open Source at the same time)!
Part 2: Where is The BobaVerse™ at?
(or better said, “where was the BobaVerse at in July 2023, when this was written?”)
The Fundamental Question
While a vision like this poses a lot of questions, the most important one is also simple: can this all be set up for success before I run out of money and have to go back to sell my OP programming/marketing skills to some VC-backed company?
Learning, Failing, and Back to Learning
The process of getting to sustainably build things is a treacherous and complex one, one that must account for the (unfortunately inevitable) failures along the way. Learning is a fundamental part of the building process!
We fail, we learn, we get up, we go back to trying!
Our Wins
In more practical fashion, the first half of this year (back in July) saw quite a few wins under our belt! The highlight is The Fujoshi Guide to Web Development, our successfully Kickstarted guide to Git and GitHub that will help us clear the highest hurdle to collaboration: teaching Version Control to a whole new set of people!
Our Losses
We also had a few Ls, which we don’t shy away from! For one, the Kickstarter was an immense amount of effort (but worth it); I’m incredibly far from covering my rent (so I can keep at this); and life just Keep Happening™ to both me and volunteers, which makes collaboration hard!
How to Help
So how can you help? Well, we did have some requests, and we did get help with a bunch of them! Right now (for how uncomfortable that is to say) the main thing we need is recurring income. Our runway is getting shorter, and every little bit helps us focus on building and not fundraising!
The most impactful way is to support me directly, either on Patreon or on this same website. If you can’t give yourself, consider pitching it to friend(s) that want to help build a better web!
If you’d rather give one time, we’re running a 2023 holidays fundraiser with exciting discounts! It won’t give you early Town Hall access (unlike patron support), but you can get sleek Yaoi cheese paddles or Ship Ownership certificates for you or a friend!
Bonus: What we Learned Running a Kickstarter Campaign
Since content creation takes a long time (and I need to entice people somehow), I’m keeping bonus question content as subscribers-only! If you’re interested in reading it, make sure to subscribe to one of my support channels! At this stage, you’ll also need to ask me for a link, since old editions aren’t automatically sent out (working on it).
…and that is all for this edition of Ms Boba’s Quarterly Extravaganza!