The question should be how much do I spend to run the forum and DNS! I'd like to get to a point where it brings in more than it costs to run. As right now, I'm spending out of pocket, similarly to how the Homebrew Appstore CDN runs. The @Hide-BDNS-Ads should be enough to handle annoying ad complaints though, while their performance is evaluated.

At some point in the future I can write more specifics about the cash flow for transparency, but we're not there yet. (In other words, "how much do I make from ads?" -> well $0, since there hasn't even been a payout cycle yet). But it'd be nice if the infrastructure here were self-sustaining in the long term.

Sorry, still evaluating how well these perform, if they're worth keeping, whether to tweak or not, etc.

But please feel free to join @Hide-BDNS-Ads ! I won't feel less supported. Also, if anyone does want to directly support me, I have a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/vgmoose

Ideally either through ads or some other monetization strategy we can find a way to get support for BDNS long term. I don't think whether an individual user turns on adblock or not should make a big difference in that calculation. The forum has a lot of signed-out traffic as well, from external visitors landing here from Google, for instance.

When you use the DNS to browse the Internet, do you primarily do so while the console is docked to a TV, or in handheld mode like a tablet? If you do both, choose the option you do more often.

@Aries Probably the switch is having a javascript error, I can look into it soon. Is it every page of the bio, and does it display any error message?

@maple I've thought about doing something like this, but running your own web mail seems difficult due to spam filters and other modern-day limitations. Let me know if you do pursue it. Some related reading: https://mailtrap.io/blog/email-hosting/

To underscore how difficult it might be, many hosting providers even explicitly block outgoing SMTP ports (25, 465, 587). It might not be possible to have a web client alone circumvent that with existing providers, but it would be interesting.

Maybe it'd be easier to try and get Switch support eg. in ProtonMail, if their web UI is open source, after debugging specifically where it breaks.

I think I found a permission issue, now only mods and the author should see drafts

The BrowseDNS home page has been redesigned to feel more like a modern "new tab" or "home" page. Many more bookmarks have also been added from user feedback.

New URL: https://browsedns.com
(Separate from the forum, which is still browsedns.net)

Preview:

The four main categories are:

• Knowledge (learning resources, like Wikipedia, Wolframalpha, or news sites and gaming guides)
• Entertainment (fan websites, html5 games, and web comics)
• Tools (simple utilities, networking, and email/cloud services)
• Resources (BDNS related links, development resources)

The search engine can be changed with the Pencil icon under the search bar. And all technical info is moved into the header or footer now. Hopefully this makes it easier to use the DNS!

It's working over here! Do you have any other plans for the gameplay loop or graphics?

This direct link might work better for Switch users: https://cdpn.io/Pururisan/fullpage/WbGzBJw

Raven! Under your moderation and guidance, order was brought to this site. Without you it's not clear what would have happened. You also created sustainable structures and frameworks that the rest of the team is able to work within, which sets it up for success in the future and long term.

I am holding out hope that this is an April fool's joke still... but if it's legit, know that you'll always have a spot on the team, and to feel free to reach out as you see fit. And best wishes for your family and lifestyle changes, those personal milestones sound huge and likely will require the time commitment.

Simple website for displaying the weather in your area: https://browsedns.github.io/weatherio/

Source code modified from: https://github.com/omar-mazen/weatherio

This still works! I got a cloudflare error on neal.fun's Size of Life page. You wait around a bit for the "Stuck? Troubleshoot" link to appear, and can submit feedback that way. The more people submit feedback, the more likely these checks will succeed.

Also if you keep dragging around the cursor with the joystick and staying on the page, while holding A, making circles and stuff, it will also eventually lets you through to the target page. I think it is more about making the inputs "seem human" since otherwise a lack of mouse input makes it seem like a robot is on the page.

Does anyone have first-hand knowledge of a "good" email client website that works well in browsers like the Switch 1's?

I'm currently updating the landing page and it'd be nice to have an email client that actually works on there.

I'd like to add proper server-side drafts, but there's not a good way to do it right now.

I've now enabled "Post later" on the General category which might help, according to this post: https://community.nodebb.org/topic/16977/long-running-drafts-and-scheduled-topics

"Post later" can be used this to schedule a post for the far future, (no one but moderation can see it), then continue editing until it's ready to be posted for real

@Raven This time, that's part of the experiment, I'm curious to see if the situation has changed at all in that area. There's a new "optimize for mobile" feature that might help Switch users.

Do you know the filetype and filesize of the image you're uploading? Maybe compressing it first is a good idea using an external app. Either way though, the browser shouldn't be crashing, that kind of sounds like a bug between the specific Files<->Browser apps.

For those on Switch, is it that bad? Is that on Switch 1 (OLED, Lite, or original) or Switch 2? And which DNS are you using? (certain ones might have some built-in ad-blocking)

Popping up during conversations is a definite problem. I'm also not a huge fan of ads, so I'm always going to err on the side of making them be optional. The @Hide-BDNS-Ads group works well because you still have to seek it out, but also, signed-out users eg. people arriving via Google search can't join them.

If the ads are weird, how weird are we talking? Below is an example of the kinds of ads I'm seeing. Although it's a LOT of ad real estate, I also kind of feel like that's just how the Internet is these days?

Google has their own internal algorithms where they decide where to put the ads, but you can mark certain areas as "off limits" zones. That first page load though is some of the more valuable real-estate (which is also why so many news sites look so terrible). It's a trade-off for user annoyance VS ad performance, really.

Sorry, the drafts get stored locally and then get wiped when the browser reloads. The closest you can do is post and edit the thread.

Google AdSense ads have been added back to the site. This is an experiment to see how well they perform, but also whether or not they're too intrusive.

If you'd like to opt-out, you can join the @Hide-BDNS-Ads group and refresh the page to hide them. There's no penalty for joining that group! In the future, it may be placed behind rep requirements.

Although, I do want to receive feedback on how annoying they are as well-- This thread can be used to report whether they work on various devices, do they break things on the site, are there too many, etc.

You can check your serial number to see if your Switch is a model that's easy to mod: https://switch.hacks.guide/user_guide/getting_started

If you got it in 2017 on release, it very likely is! That guide also details the process, and the NH Discord can be used for any questions that may come up: https://discord.com/invite/C29hYvh