Hush, Hush

Inspiration

The first time I was introduced to Discord, honestly I didn't get it. When Discord became a popular platform for attending virtual hackathons, I learned to navigate it as a means to an end to find the information I need. I didn't care for the small talk because I was certain that would affect my own mentality and mental health. Despite hackathon organizers' best intentions, hackathon culture tends to send the message that people like me aren't welcome or don't fit in.

While aiming to be RU Hacks' most engaged hacker, however, I saw this subtext play out. And it started eating away at me. So in true hacker fashion, I decided to hack it by creating a discord bot that harnesses the power of Hush (not quiet! I want to be anything but quiet—).

That's why I created Hush, Hush.

What it does

Hush, Hush is the discord bot project I worked on this weekend. I created a discord bot named Physeter masquerading as a friendly neighborhood sperm whale who helps everyone have a whale of a time at hackathons.

Physeter can help in many ways, such as:

• hushing the hoopla of social media
• hushing our hearts through playing music using slash commands
• hushing the culture

Physeter also has some easter eggs when you experiment with exclamation commands like the classic ping.

Why a sperm whale?

Why a sperm whale? While Moby Dick's clash with Captain Ahab might've given whales a bad first impression that they're evil and dangerous, whales are large but gentle creatures with mesmerizing and song-like ways to communicate. The name Physeter derives from the Latin name for sperm whale, which are the loudest animals on earth.

How we built it

I stuck with using Discord.js, Node.js and the different libraries they come with for the discord bot. The front end website was made with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Challenges we ran into

This hackathon was rather taxing for me emotionally, reading through the engagement on the server. It made for the need to set aside for self-care through eating right and sleeping a lot more than I usually do at hackathons. It also led me to

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I created my first discord bot with node JS! More importantly, I learned to think critically of what I was consuming and building a "solution" to the challenges I faced. I also created a front end with rotating text, and I haven't created a website from scratch in... forever — chalk it up to going solo and needing to do all the work and learn it all.

What we learned

Thinking critically about my place in tech— there's also something understated about thinking about technology in the context of society and even ethics. Because yes, I learned to create and interface with a discord bot, but it's really about the why behind what we create that matters.

What's next for Hush, Hush

I would present this experience and proposed way of handling challenges to Major League Hacking -- because it's one thing to complain and it's another to actually say, I identified this issue, and I have an idea and proof of concept of how to address it.

Built With

• css3
• discord.js
• html5
• javascript
• node.js