Find a piece of tech-trash—a broken toy, an old radio, or a forgotten gadget—and breathe new life into it. You must use at least one component from these broken electronics to create a software masterpiece or a hardware marvel. This is your "You Ship"—a unique creation that proves you are a builder, not just a consumer.
As you build, you must utilize Hackatime or Hack Club Lapse in order to validate your effort as a temporal record. We do not reward vibe-coding; we reward honesty, which means spending at least 2 hours forging and refining creations. This ensures your work has an ego and isn't just an immitation.
Once your creation is ready, you send it to the master smiths (our expert reviewers) and on occasion the forge master himself will be assisting in this part of the process. They will look at your code and temporal records to ensure everything is honest and of high integrity. If they see your project is real and works, your ship is cleared for the harbor.
For your brilliance and your hours of labor, you are granted Leaf Coins. This is validation of your valuable time, and every hour of honesty you substantiated through your chronicle is rewarded.
Finally, you visit the treasury to spend your Leaf Coins. Instead of boring trinkets, you acquire "We Ship" rewards such as magnificent artifacts like 3D printers, soldering irons, and/or specialized sensors. These treasures are not just trophies; they are the very artifacts that will help you forge your next grand creation as an artisan.
Build a game, website, app, or distro. (Host it on a DevBoard & use it to control something physical to implement your reforge requirement.)
- To prove your mastery, your software must reach out and touch the physical world. It must use a component salvaged from broken electronics as a custom interface or controller. - You must provide a Demo Link where the Master Smith can test your magic. - Your effort is tracked via Hackatime. We do not count time spent watching videos or wandering aimlessly. We only count Good Practice: the difficult, beautiful hours spent debugging and solving puzzles.
You may build a physical invention or a complex mechanical wonder.
- The heart of your machine must be tech-trash that you have brought back from the dead. - Since a physical machine cannot always be interacted with remotely on a screen, you must provide a Video of your project in motion and a link to your Technical Schematics (GitHub Repository). - Your effort is tracked via Hack Club Lapse and Hackatime. You must prove you spent your time in the Design and Build phases—wrestling with circuits and soldering joints.
Do you have everything required? Is it all working? If not, we give feedback and you can resubmit.
Was there any part of the project fraudulent? Did you follow the rules? If not, we may have to call the Fire Department and Fraud Squad.
