Lots of Boxes is an interactive message board featuring different types of "boxes," or topic threads. Click on a list item to jump to the appropriate feature highlight:
- Exercise your freedom of speech
- Protect your privacy
- Converse with friends
- Think inside the box...
- Pick a side
- Languages and technologies
Create a new SoapBox to start a public discussion about a topic of your choice. On the main SoapBoxes page, threads are organized by most recent activity. Heated discussions are likely to remain near the top of the page, but newly-created SoapBoxes will also appear at the top.
LockBoxes are password-protected. After you create a new LockBox, you can either share its credentials with other users whom you would like to give access to, or keep it as a personal repository of data for yourself. From the main LockBoxes page, threads that you have authored will appear on the left, and those you have been granted access to will appear on the right.
With every post you make to a SoapBox or a LockBox, you will have the choice of signing either with your username or as "anonymous" (username by default).
When you and another user add each other as contacts, a conversation will be initiated in your MailBox. From here you can send private messages to each other directly. (To start a group conversation between many friends, use a LockBox.)
Want to keep tabs on a particularly interesting discussion? If you're in a SoapBox, click the "follow" button and any new posts to the thread will appear at the top of your InBox, along with new posts from your LockBoxes and your MailBox.
When responding to a thread, you can also reply directly to a previous post; when a "reply-to" reference is clicked, you will jump directly to that post's position in the thread.
When posting to a thread, you have the option to include a link to an external webpage.
Every post you author will be saved in your OutBox. From here you can delete any incriminating or embarrassing posts.
Lots of Boxes supports a novel post-alignment feature. If you respond to a SoapBox or a LockBox, you will have the choice of aligning your post to the left, right, or center of the page (center by default). This is useful, for example, in a debate where there are two opposing sides. Within a MailBox conversation, your posts will appear on the left, the other user's on the right.
SoapBox previews on the main page will display the content of their most recent post, and will also adopt alignment on the page from this last post.
The following were used in the development of this application:
- Ruby on Rails
- RSpec
- JavaScript* JavaScript
- jQuery
- Underscore.js
- Backbone.js
- PostgreSQL
- BCrypt
- HTML5
- CSS
- Git
- Heroku
- New Relic
Extras that I plan to implement: