It’s been a turbulent month for our core volunteers. One had to take a break for health reasons, one had to step back when things got crazy at work, and one has had to stop work for two weeks and counting due to an unresolved internet outage. Yikes!
There’s no denying it slowed us down, but we know these kinds of personal setbacks come with the territory of having a small, volunteer-driven team, and we certainly didn’t let it stop us. We’ve got plenty of juicy updates for you this month 😉
FujoCoded, LLC: Company Credit
Ask And Ye Shall Receive: We got a great response to our request for volunteers! We’ve taken on two people to assist with video editing, and an experienced project manager to help us tackle task management. Work has already started, and we’re looking forward to sharing our progress with you in the following months. Still, we can always use some more help in these areas! If you’d like to join our new volunteers, reach out at [email protected]!
Taskmaster Torch-Passing 1: Our beloved task coordinator, Leedie, is taking some time off due to a busy time at her day job. We’re very grateful to Leedie for sticking it out through three major multi-part tasks: digital reward pack, digital zine preview, and backerkit reward shipping. With Leedie’s help, the team was able to coordinate work despite our highly decentralized and “slipping-work-in-the-cracks-of-dayjob” environment. We look forward to more adventures together when she’s free to return!
Taskmaster Torch-Passing 2: …and we were very very lucky to have a new volunteer come in to help us design a system that is less labor-intensive on the task coordinator side—we’re finally in the market for some dedicated task management software rather than relying on a hand-coded Google Sheet. Our new taskmaster took a hard look at our practices and made a great list of recommended improvements that we’ll work on implementing in the coming months.
Secret $upporter Store Section: As mentioned last month, our new intern Fox has been assigned to work on the delivery system for our $upporter perks. Our first perk-delivery method is to add a $upporters-only section to the FujoCoded store, where supporters can use a password to access exclusive items. The necessary coding tasks are all laid out, and Fox has been familiarizing herself with React and NextJS to prepare for the work! Hopefully her internet will be restored and allow her to dive in soon.
Recent Progress on our BackerKit Campaign
Signed, Sealed, Delivered—it’s yours: We sent out the Digital Goodies Pack! A couple of supporters alerted us that the goodies couldn’t be downloaded as a group due to how GDrive shortcuts work. We quickly added some pre-made zip files to address the issue, and everything seems to have been smooth sailing from there. We hope you enjoyed your rewards. If you haven’t seen them yet, take this chance to go check them out! The announcement is in your email box, but let us know if you need the link sent again…and what you think 🤔
Locked & Loaded: The “confirm your address” email went out last weekend, and now all your shipping addresses are locked in! If you believe there’s an error with your locked address, please let us know at [email protected] as soon as possible and we’ll do our best to catch your order before it goes out.
Pack dynamics: A friend of Ms Boba’s came to stay with her out here on the (way too) sunny West Coast. Given the trying economic times, said friend has opted to pay rent in packing assistance and much-needed moral support during scary indie horror games. The two of them have been hard at work this week making sticker packs. All the sticker-only reward shipments have been packed, with tracking numbers inputted into Backerkit and everything. You know what they say—friends ought to stick together!
What’s Next for the FujoCoded BackerKit
Dis-Countdown: The store discount system has been implemented and the discount codes themselves have been assembled, so all that remains is sending them out! You can expect to get them in your email sometime in the coming week.
Pack, pack, pack, pack it up: Packing sure is full of unforeseen perils! As she was getting the sticker shipments together, Ms Boba ran out of thank-you cards to include in the packages! Once these difficulties are resolved, packing will recommence, to be followed by shipping. Those of you expecting physical rewards will soon receive tracking numbers via email. Wish us luck wrangling BackerKit’s system🤞
Around the FujoVerse
Word on the street
FujoTube: Remember that talk our founder Ms Boba gave at CitrusCon? It’s now available for anyone to watch on the CitrusCon Youtube account. Multiple viewers said it restored their hope for the internet, and we’ve also had some great discussion of the content here on tumblr. If you want to help us spread the good word, you can find our talk release announcements on all major socials: Bluesky | Tumblr | Mastodon | Twitter
Seeing Skies of Blue: Appropos of Musk’s latest nonsense, we decided to fill in our social media grid all the way by getting a Bluesky account for FujoGuide. Now, as they say, "all skeet skeet, motherf****rs!"
Editorial Oversight: In the Fandom Coders discord server, the need for a high-quality all-purpose post editor that can be used across different fandom projects is a recurring subject. Many projects need a modern, next-gen editor that feels good to use, including not only BobaBoard but also future projects FujoCoded is considering. Our founder Ms Boba had thus already been having thoughts in this direction herself, and will be inviting any interested Fandom Coders folks to join her in discussing the broader question and tackling some of the practical aspects in the coming months!
Hang Out with FujoCoded Live on Twitch 💬✨
Once the digital preview of Vol. 0, Issue 1: Git is sent out, our founder Ms Boba will need to start replenishing her personal finances while continuing to build up FujoCoded LLC…and that means finding contract work. Her first step will be to tidy up her personal/professional website to showcase her work and skill—and what better time to do that than on a weekly stream? In early November, she’ll return to streaming twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. Her Thursday schedule is below, but you can double-check her streaming schedule page for information about potential Monday streams.
October
Thursday, October 24 @ 3pm PDT: Let’s explore the Astro Content Layer
Thursday, October 31 @ 3pm PDT: BobaBoard Stream - Connecting to Discord via API
November
Monday, November 4 @ 3pm PST: Let’s build MY Webs…Résumé!
Thursday, November 7 @ 3pm PST: A Fandom Editor Polish-Up
Monday, November 11 @ 3pm PST: Résumé Website BTS
Thursday, November 14 @ 3pm PST: A Fandom Editor Mystery Episode
Monday, November 18 @ 3pm PST: Résumé Website BTS
FujoStore Highlights
Charm Offensive: This month, we’re highlighting some of our pre-FujoCoded merchandise! Everything in the Charm section was designed and produced as BobaBoard merch and features BobaBoard’s (and now FujoGuide’s) mascot Boba-tan. These clear acrylic charms go great on a phone case, where they can remind you to relax and read some fanfic instead of getting into yet another argument with somebody who’s wrong on the internet. Or add one to your key ring, to give you some much-needed whimsy on your daily commute!
If you want to support our project and look cool doing it, make sure to grab one 😎
Since last month’s request for help went so well, we’re asking again! This month, we’re wondering (🥺) if anyone wants to help us do the following:
Draft or coordinate technical writing (for BobaBoard): Getting new coding volunteers up to speed is easier the better our documentation is. We’re forming a dedicated documentation bubble, and would love for people interested in or experienced with technical writing to join us. If you’ve been wondering how to get more technical writing into your professional portfolio, look no further!
Recruit volunteers (for BobaBoard): Ever done volunteer outreach or onboarding, even just for fandom events or hosting a party? We’re getting together a group of volunteers to brainstorm about volunteer outreach, onboarding, and management. Yes, this means we’re asking you to help onboard yourself! We’re meta like that.
Grow a Patreon audience (for FujoCoded): Bridging the gap between our BackerKit campaign funds and our projected future sales income from the Fujoshi Guide to Web Development and other consumer-facing projects requires cultivating a base of Patreon supporters beyond just people who know Ms Boba personally. We’d really love to consult with someone who has insight into Patreon best practices.
Make pixel art (on commission): Unfortunately, the artist who created the 88x31 pixel art badges in our digital reward pack won’t be available for the foreseeable future.This means we’re now putting out feelers for an interim pixel artist interested in our cause and willing to take paid commissions. If that sounds like you, or you’d be up for other types of commissions in the future, go ahead and fill out our artist info form (and tell your friends!)
If you’d like to try any of these roles, or if you’d like to get involved in other ways, let us know via [email protected].
Alright, that's the long and the short of it! Keep your eye on your inboxes, and we'll see you next month.
