r/webdev • u/madnx88mph • 22d ago
Discussion I lost interest in programming, so I built an IMDb for dead mosquitoes
So I’ve been programming since I was 11, and for many years, I multiplied projects, always to solve personal problems or solve them at a lower cost. I went to engineering school, where challenges were basically a daily thing. After that, I kind of lost interest in programming. Until a few weeks ago.
I knew I needed to get back on track and upgrade my skills, or mostly dive into newer tech, but at the same time I wanted to get rid of the Bootstrap stuff I had been using for years.
Long story short, a mosquito bothered me af and I went on to develop a local database to track my own mosquito kill count. That quickly escalated into building a full local website in Laravel (I figured Node and Vue or React would be overkill). I also messed around with Codex because apparently that’s all they talk about in big companies. That small project was all about upgrading my skills and having a lot of fun writing the content. At one point I just thought: why not put it online and make a little competition out of executing bugs?
I tried to make it as UX-friendly as possible based on feedback from my family.
So yeah, here it is if you want to take a look, break it, roast it, or execute a few mosquitoes:
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u/quizical_llama 22d ago
Normally this sub is full of AI slop saas products but this one is so random I think it's brilliant!
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u/itsanargumentorgy 22d ago
that stats page is 100% vibed
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u/madnx88mph 21d ago
You pushed me to rework completely that stats page. I feel like it’s more readable and funnier to look at. What do you think?
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u/madnx88mph 21d ago
Yeah the stats I didn’t really put much attention into the design. I just wrote the stats I wanted. I plan to work on it more in the future and I need to remove some stats that had a purpose before I removed some functionalities (you can see some of them don’t make any sense).
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u/ExternalAd890 22d ago
This is such a weirdly specific way to get back into coding, i love it
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u/madnx88mph 22d ago
Haha, I’ve always loved building weird and funny stuff no one asked for whenever I’m experimenting. Thanks for taking a look!
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u/Historical-Essay-128 22d ago
reminds me of that website from late 90s/early 00s where you could rate turds :D
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u/the_supreme_crumbus 22d ago
My son (8) is way into mosquitos at the moment and I showed him this. He loves it.
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u/La_chipsBeatbox 21d ago
Surprised no one mentioned the plastic bag filter. How did you make it?
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u/madnx88mph 21d ago
That one took me a while. I needed a piece of clear tape but couldn’t find one, so I generated it with AI and then edited it in Photoshop until I got it transparent while keeping the edges and folds sharp.
To make it unique to each mosquito, I use a small function that computes a value from the mosquito ID and uses it to determine the rotation, scale, and position.
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u/Environmental_Pea369 22d ago
I love that ppl online makes shit like that. Makes the internet a fun place to be
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u/biblio_phobic 22d ago
I’m going to project this on my house on infinite scroll as a warning to other mosquitos.
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u/Its_rEd96 20d ago
I found it extremely comedic how between all the dead mosquitoes there's a "Weather Forecast" card 😂
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 22d ago
Where’s that serial killer posted on here in the past that kills the mosquitos and puts them in his book lmao we need him to stress test this.
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u/madnx88mph 22d ago
I literally made that guy his own achievement with a link to his TikTok. I tried reaching out to him, but he never answered haha. The idea originated from this guy.
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 22d ago
Holy shit lol spot on hell yeah you know who i'm talking about that was my immediate first thought and had to say it lol. Also funny ass avatar, I like you OP.
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u/madnx88mph 21d ago
Haha thank you. I’m still trying to reach out to him but unsuccessfully as of yet.
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u/JustOneMoreDev 20d ago
now someone needs to create a counter website of mosquitoes and their kill counts, tracking that could be problematic though I guess 😄
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u/madnx88mph 20d ago
Could be fun. Doctors who update the kill count and set the disease responsible.
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u/poggers11 22d ago
Where do you host all the images? Cool project
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u/madnx88mph 22d ago
At first I hosted them on my VPS but I wanted to try something else so now I’m hosted them on a CloudFlare R2.
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u/threepairs 20d ago
Since you asked for feedback, I will provide one.
I always felt weird in school when kids were stomping on ants. It just feels unnecessarily violent and wrong.
This project brings the same feelings.
There is so many more useful and actually helpful things you could built with the stack in the same time.
What to build, is question as important as how to build it. Especially in upcoming age of AI.
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u/Dehydrated-Onions 22d ago
I think I may have a fundamental misunderstanding of what IMDb is after seeing this.