For the past month or so I've been working feverishly to bring to life an idea I've had for some time. I have a lot of ideas but this one just had me brimming with excitement. Wouldn't it be cool if there were a website where you could somehow discuss the news before it happened? Where satire in the form of predictions could play out and where people could use their inside knowledge, imagination, or just plain old common sense to foresee what few others might?
Octavio, myself, and picture-taker Fernando, hail the birth of Headline Prophet, June 13, 2010
I did some checking around and found nothing "quite" like it in Google (rest assured they are there, but none came up as a top hit in searches like "predict the news" or "news prophecy", etc.). Next I checked the domains and found one that spoke to exactly what I wanted to create still available! I registered it for a pittance through Go Daddy, dawned my best beginner-PHP cap (along with W3 Schools which is always great when you need a standby tutor to walk you through new syntax and functions inherent to any language -- I've used it faithfully for years), and, for no less than 4 weekends and many weeknights, toiled to get this up and running in viable form. No kidding, I actually cashed in the gym for 2 weeks for this.
The final result?
www.headlineprophet.com
Yep. As my increasingly favorite tagline for this project touts, "Many sites let you discuss current news, only Headline Prophet exists to specifically discuss future news."
Last Sunday a little before midnight, I emerged from my bedroom after another intense 2-day coding marathon and announced to my roommates, my project was complete (enough). I was ready to make Headline Prophet visible to the world! With their help and with ingrediants from around the apartment, I whipped up a goofy picture of me hovering over a crystal ball appearing to predict the future to use as a make-do logo. I'm wearing a carpet as a robe no less.
Headline Prophet, first showing! June 13, 2010.
The first public showing was to these roommates who high-fived and celebrated. I'm including 2 pictures from this "celebration".
Now, of course I can't really say the website is "finished", there are way too many features I need to shore up, including some pretty basic functionalities. However, it's open enough if you want to pop in and see what's going on, and maybe even log a prophecy or two. If everything goes well, they will even stick.
