Words of Pride

Let's not be emotionally distant in a physically distant world. This Pride month I'd like to introduce everyone to Words of Pride a simple web application that helps the LGBTQ community come together.

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Inspiration

Before starting this hack I was re-watching a movie called the Imitation Game. What caught my attention was the scene where Alan Turing opens up to his wife and privately admitted his homosexuality to her. From there on, a couple of clicks later, I was watching Youtube videos of individuals opening up to their families. It's hard to even fathom the courage it takes to overcome the emotional and mental obstacles and stand tall as one takes such decisions in life. Especially in a pandemic where you have no one to talk to and nowhere to go. This is why I created Words of Pride. A simple web community chat where you can openly talk with like-minded people, stay positive and help others stay positive as well!

What it does

It's a simple web application. At the very first glance, the home page comes out with some light colors and fresh quotes of motivation, encouragement and self-belief. Thereafter you, log in/sign-up and are right away welcome to the community chat. An open space where you can read messages from others or spread positive vibes yourself. There's no individual tracking, no user will know about when you're online or if you've read their message. Moreover, you can maintain absolute anonymity while using the application. It's all about finding your comfort zone. When you're all caught up you can press the top-right cross on the web page and you're signed out. It's as simple as that! :)

How I built it

The web application was built using HTML5, Javascript and CSS. I've leveraged the Google platform to create the backend. By using Firebase tools such as Firebase authentication, Realtime database and hosting I've been able to create an entirely functional web app that can be accessed using this link.

Challenges I ran into

The beginning structure was quite clear to me. I wanted to create a community chat room. Having dabbled a little with the Google platform earlier Firebase was a pretty straightforward choice for me. I did have some issues parsing data onto a modal object. The size and auto-adjustment of the chatbox so it fit the modal. I also wanted to create an ML model which impromptu would do some sentiment analysis on each message to make sure the content was at par with the standard of the chat community. It took a while, I think I might have found a solution but ran out of time. Maybe another hack I'll give that a try!

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I started Saturday evening with my programming so considering what I achieved with the obvious time constraint I'm very happy to have completed my submission.

What I learned

I learnt a lot through this hack, it was a massive amount of learning in a really short period of time. I had to relearn Javascript I had forgotten all about DOM and the firebase API functions. I wanted to get better with front-end development and this was the perfect opportunity for it. Got to learn the nitty-gritty of CSS (I truly tried to avoid inline CSS but sometimes just couldn't help it)! It was simply a lot of fun!

What's next for Words of Pride

Well, there's a lot to build on this platform. It's merely a baseline. As I said I wanted to add some sentiment analysis to each message. Moreover, I also want to make it mobile-friendly. Then maybe add an option for individual chats? The possibilities are endless! But for now, I'm gonna close all my tabs and call it a night.

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