pixelo is about providing a social media experience for a controlled group of users—you know, for the kids.

See infrastructure notes for specs on SMS integration, image handling, and real-time content updates

Questions? Comments?

joannahonikman@gmail.com.

For Users

Posts & Chirps

You can "post" an image with or without a caption, or you can "chirp" (geddit?) with a text-only post.

Links are supported in posts, chirps, and comments, but only if you start with the "http://" part—e.g. "http://www.pixelo.club" will magically turn into a link, but "www.pixelo.club" won't.

Groups

Joining groups is how you make pixelo friends. Everyone in a group is automatically friends with everyone else in that group, which means they can see each other's posts & chirps and exchange messages. You can join as many groups you like—just go to a group's page and click "ask to join." Our admin will review your request.

Messages

You can message anyone provided they are your friend (see "Groups").

Emoji Support

You can use :format: to represent most common emoji—and we are in the process of adding custom emoji. For example, if you want a emoji to show up, just type :cat:—or if you're more into , type :unicorn:. There's even an emoji for :pixelo: .

(aka :smile: :purple_heart: :thumbsup:)

You can also use your phone's native emoji, but you may notice a slight difference in size—theirs are slightly smaller than ours .

Feature Implementation

Pixelo uses Twilio to send SMS messages to admins when requests are made by users to join groups or set up accounts. This allows tight control over who has access, but without causing unnecessary delays while requests are awaiting review.

The message feature uses Pusher API to maintain an open connection (via websockets) for users to message each other in real time, without needing to trigger content refresh.

Images are handled by Cloudinary, a service that allows dynamic transformation of images with S3 storage and low-latency caching.

Getting Snazzy

We'll be adding new features if they seem useful, but for the most part we want to keep this whole thing pretty lean so we can optimize what's already here and give you the best social media experience we can!

Infrastructure Notes

-> Pixelo is built on Rails 6.0.3/Ruby 2.6.3
-> Security is handled by Google OAuth2 / Omniauth
-> Images are handled by Cloudinary
-> Database is MariaDB
-> Caching is brought to you by Memcacged via Memcached Cloud on AWS
-> SMS is managed by Twilio
-> Emoji implementation by gemoji
-> App uses Pusher API for real-time communications (via webSockets)
-> Pixelo was designed with a "mobile first" philosophy for key features to be used primarily on phones and tablets
-> Code is managed via git on GitHub
-> Logs are managed by Papertrail
-> App was originally built in 2020 and needs a few minor updates
-> The app runs on Heroku 'hobby' dynos on a tiered plan shared with a custom decision engine called Is That What You're Wearing?. Pixelo currently has 5 active users, but is likely not scalable beyond a few dozen.