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Learn more about the journey as we re-build SoSa from the ground up!
2nd March 2023
Hello everyone, I thought it was time for a decent update! When we last spoke, I recognized that I needed some time to re-energize and I took some time in 2022 but it wasn’t quite enough and I made plans to take more time off as soon as I could. The original idea ...
2nd July 2022
Hmmm, how do I start this? Maybe, “To whom it may concern” no no that’s too formal, “Hello!” Does that work? No, you’re right it feels a bit excitable. “Hi” Yes, Hi! I like that. Now we’ve got the formalities out of the way, how are you? have...
8th March 2022
Hello! I wanted to give some sort of update because life and depression mostly took over towards the end of last year and I’ve not made SoSa a priority. A bunch of stuff has still happened on SoSa, new designs, been working on architecture and code but because I’m still in a weird...
18th October 2021
Hi, it’s me James again 🙂 A lot has happened since the last blog update so this is a bit of a long one, buckle up, grab you popcorn and I hope you enjoy the read James x Privacy The main focus at the moment for SoSa is getting the Privacy setting’s in place. I ...
19th July 2021
Hi hi! I thought you’d all like an update! Before we get started I just wanted to say a little thank you to everyone who sends me lovely messages and engages with these posts, i’m mostly doing them to keep myself accountable but it’s nice knowing i’m not just talking into the void and...
14th June 2021
Hi. Have you missed me? The last update, I was exhausted, stressed and trying to buy my first home. So of course it was the perfect time to start doing 70 hour weeks for work! Well, that’s all over now. No more overtime, I had a week off to get my head straight and I ...
25th April 2021
Hello everyone, it’s been a while since i’ve given you an update so I wanted to give you one 🙂 At the moment I can’t seem to catch my breath with my free time and the last month has been as manic as always. If it weren’t for a lack of motivation, my Grandad passed ...
15th March 2021
Boy, do I have a story to tell. I started this sprint with best intentions, i thought “Hey James, why don’t we get a release out and build it using App Center” boy… was that a mistake! For those not in the know, app center is a platform run by Microsoft and it allows you ...
1st March 2021
Hello girls, boys and cabbages! How are you? I’ve had a great two weeks working on SoSa, it’s been very productive! and not only have I finally finished the refactor Saga i’ve actually managed to build some features! Happy 7th Birthday!
15th February 2021
Hello everyone! This update is going to be more technical than usual, I set out with the plan to finish last weeks clean up, then start working on profiles but ended up going down a buggy rabbit hole.
31st January 2021
Oh hai! wow it’s been forever hasn’t it? But guess what! it’s update time again so i hope you’re ready to read me talk utter nonsense for 5 minutes. Firstly, thank you for IamSprots for becoming our latest Patreon! If you would like to support what I’m building and get some an inside look...
23rd December 2020
Hello, is it me you’re looking for? I thought it’d be nice to take a step back this sprint and do a bit of a retrospective of the last year, see how far we’ve come help give me perspective for the new year! Before we start looking into how far SoSa has come this ...
6th December 2020
Hello hello! I’ve been thinking about you, I hope you’ve been thinking about me too! You can ignore the title, I couldn’t actually think of one and this jumped out at me as being the most appropriate. It’s been another great sprint with lots of changes and great progress! Because...
6th December 2020
I’d like to welcome Kira to the Alpha team!, I’m starting to add more people to Alpha to help smash out those bugs! If you’d like to get involved just let me know 🙂 As before, a lot of work has been done for this release during this sprint so i’ll share what the Alpha ...
23rd November 2020
Good morning boys, girls and amorphous blobs. How are you? You look cute today. I’m writing this at 4am, because apparently I can’t sleep, so bear with me. I think i’m considerably funnier than I am at the best of times – much less at 4am. This sprint has gone really well, I’m...
23rd November 2020
Here’s a video to check out the app and all these changes in real time 🙂 Firstly! Welcome Jelle and Peter to the Alpha team! That’s right ladies and gentlefolk! we’ve moved up a whole minor version! Only 9 more to go… Meetups In the last few updates we saw the meetups interface in...
10th November 2020
Hey! you probably didn’t think it’d been a month since I last updated did you? It’s been a month since my last update and 6 weeks since my last Alpha release! Before I share what happened, I want to say thank you to everyone for their kind messages of support over the last month, as ...
10th November 2020
Here’s a video to check out the app and all these changes in real time 🙂 Uploads / Embeds – First version In chat, you can now upload an image and share it with chat, this works using amazon S3 and chat will now embed the image as well. The interface is a little ...
12th October 2020
Hello fellow person or person/s Another two weeks have passed and work has still been kicking my ass, the good news is that we’ve managed to move our deadlines to something more manageable and get more resources in at short notice so now I get to work on SoSa in my free time again! I ...
12th October 2020
Sunday 1st November 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET Last one was so much fun and you built some incredible builds so we thought we’d do another one, but this time for Halloween! Alright, it’ll be a day late – but fuck it! it’ll...
27th September 2020
Hey! how’re you? My full time job is chaotic at the moment, so whilst I have worked on SoSa this sprint, i’ve not had nearly as much time as I would have liked and decided against doing a release this sprint just to make sure i’m delivering something of value! I’ve still make great progress...
27th September 2020
Sunday 18th October 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET It’s been months since we played golf with friends so I thought it would be a nice change! Don’t have it? Don’t worry! ...
14th September 2020
It’s been another two weeks since your last update and aside from being crashed into at the start of the sprint it’s been a great two weeks! Lot’s done! another release out in the wild and ready to start a new sprint! This happened So this person responded to two emails, one from 2015 and ...
14th September 2020
I’ve started making videos each release, I might get fancier with them next update but for now I thought I’d keep it simple – the write up below gives much more information! Welcome Screen This one’s been a long time coming, when you sign up to SoSa, it’s important you get a...
14th September 2020
Sunday 4th October 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET It’s time once again for Boob and belly physics and we delve into the world of WitchIt! The game recently had an update and we had so much fun...
1st September 2020
Gather round! gather round! Girls! Boys! Troglodytes! Every one lean in close, we have another important set of updates for you. This one is a bit later than usually because in the UK we had what we call a “Bank Holiday” and what this basically means is everyone who works for the bank goes on...
1st September 2020
Here’s the line up for Alpha Release 1.0.7! We’re picking up a bit more speed again now and I hope each release will show case more and more features 🙂 Google Login! Last of the logins, this one was a bit more complicated because we don’t get a username from Google! For now,...
1st September 2020
Sunday 20th September 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET Thought we’d go for a bit of a classic this time with Worms W.M.D, it’s also free at the moment if you have Xbox game pass! ...
16th August 2020
Well well well, look who it is! That’s right… it’s you! You beautiful bastard! How are you? Oh! you want me to tell you about SoSa? Well why didn’t you say so! You may remember my last update was a little melodramatic, well don’t worry I feel much better this sprint, I have managed to...
16th August 2020
After a short break, i’m back to creating releases every sprint, this first one is a little small but we’ll pick up momentum with each sprint again 🙂 New Stuff Facebook Login Alpha team should now be able to login to the app with Facebook, to avoid privacy issues we’re not...
16th August 2020
Sunday 6th September 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET Work together as you attempt to prepare your spaceship for departure, but beware as one or more random players among the Crew are Impostors bent on killing everyone! ...
2nd August 2020
The funny thing about the startup world is that we only ever see the success stories, the plucky entrepreneurs that save the day by creating some world changing software, or that appear one day with an amazing, addictive game that everyone wants to play. It’s rare people talk about the failures,...
2nd August 2020
Sunday 23rd August 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET Play together with your friends and have a fun time! In Teeworlds you can play in three gamemodes (Deathmatch, Team-Deathmatch and Capture The Flag) and tons more of...
20th July 2020
So today is the last day of my fortnight off and It’s been an interesting two weeks. I’ve played a lot of games, saw some friends, did my full time job and started to exercise again. I figured i’d do a mix of an update and how i’ve spent my 2 weeks this update. Let’s ...
20th July 2020
This is a smaller release, I spent a lot of time refactoring and cleaning up the code to support some new features so not a huge amount of changes but still some! A lot of this was done during the previous sprint to make sure i had something to release this sprint. Character Restrictions Ok...
5th July 2020
It’s not me, it’s you… just joking! OR AM I? At the start of the last sprint, I was starting to feel burnout on the horizon, so to keep momentum I did one big push the last two weeks and got two lots of “releases” ready, one for this update and one for the next. ...
5th July 2020
New Features Tagging Have you ever been in a chat room full of bots all creatively named and thought to yourself “How do I tag Bot10”? Well, if you’ve followed previous releases, you would know you could press their face. Or, even press them in the user list but sometimes – that’s a...
21st June 2020
Another awesome sprint! so much has changed, it’s hard to keep up! Before we get started, a reminder that this Sunday (28th June) we’re playing Among Us for game night You can get a ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sosa-plays-among-us-tickets-108609297332?ref=estw Game Night Video A...
21st June 2020
Because releases are now getting bigger and more frequent, it’s getting a bit confusing having a single article that contains everything so it’s time to separate out the posts. This one will be for release changes and there will be a normal one for the other work i’ve done during...
7th June 2020
Wow! What a sprint! Genuinely one of my most productive in the last few months, I’ve gotten so much done that I’m not at the point I feel I can start blogging a mix between what’s been released and what i’m working on. Before I get started with this week’s update, I wanted to do...
25th May 2020
I have literally no idea where the last two weeks have gone. If it weren’t for Jira, I honestly wouldn’t know I’d achieved so much this sprint! Everything is blending into a single, really long, coffee fueled day and it’s weird. Stop it.
11th May 2020
Hello girls and boys! It’s me! yo friendly neighbourhood James! We’re going to do things a little differently this update. It felt a bit weird that everyone on the BETA were getting the updates a week after I share it everywhere else on Social media. So starting this week, beta’s come...
26th April 2020
Hello, it’s me again! James! You’re probably wondering what i’ve been working on the last two weeks. Well take my hand and we will delve into a world of imagination! But just before we dive in – here are the articles covering the journey so far! Right! up to date? let’s go!...
13th April 2020
Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes after my last update. Thankfully I feel much better now, I’m sleeping and the headaches have gone 🙂 which means I managed to get a fair amount done this sprint! 🥳 If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you! Let me know how...
29th March 2020
Ok… so I should preface this with a few caveats… I wasn’t expecting a global pandemic to completely change the way we have to work overnightI haven’t slept very well at all for the last 2 weeks leaving me only just enough brain power to do my day job properlyI definitely underestimated how...
15th March 2020
This sprint hasn’t really been a sprint, more of a really long refinement and retrospective. When I came back from Prague, Corona was starting to get more media attention with speculation of a recession so I decided it was time to start looking for work. I spent some time getting my...
4th March 2020
First things first! We’re in the Alpha stores! 🥳🥳 Exciting right? But what does that actually mean? So right now, the original Council team can install the app on their phones and break it to their heart’s content.
16th February 2020
Well well well, look who we have here! I’ve been thinking about you… yes you… don’t be coy!I want to tell you about my last two weeks, would that be ok? Great! Previously on my descent into madness: Last sprint I spoke to a bunch of members, got auto deployment working and got very ...
3rd February 2020
This sprint has been a little… fucky. The winter has hit my mood hard and I struggled for the first week to focus. Stepping away, sleeping, working out – none of it worked. So it’s been a bit of a struggle. I almost booked a trip to the canaries just to get some of that ...
22nd January 2020
This is a technical post going into depth about the work i’ve done in the last sprint, if you’re looking for my general update you can check it out: here If you’re not up to date and you’ve stumbled on this post through my shit posting everywhere You can see the previous posts: Tech...
20th January 2020
Oh hey! Quick recap Hi I’m James! I’m a 34, slightly belligerent and from the UK. Between January 2020 – April 2020, I’m building a social network! Why? Because it’s fucking hard to make new friends and socialise as you get older and I think the world needs a platform that...
6th January 2020
Sprint 1 If you’re an entrepreneur you’ll probably be in a similar boat to me. Trying to do a million jobs on a tiny budget. Great for your startup, not so much for fortnightly updates! So I’ll try to keep these posts structured and a little ridiculous. There will be a combination...
4th January 2020
Hi! If you’re reading this, you probably already know – I’m James AKA TheBritishAreComing. There’s a few things you need to know about me: I’m a tech agnostic developer, with about 15 years commercially.Although British, I’m awful at English! (poor grammar get out of free...
25th December 2019
Ever since I began SoSa back in 2014, I wanted to find a way to make it open source! Lack of time, resources and a bunch of clone sites popping up meant I didn’t ever get around to making the source code available on Github. Well, that’s about to change! With the relaunch of ...
3rd September 2018
Hi, I know this would have come to you as a shock, i’m sorry for that this isn’t how I wanted SoSa to end. Let me explain When I started SoSa, I wanted to help the imgur community connect, it was a bit of fun and I thought after it launched it would only last ...
5th April 2018
Hey guys, After a pretty wild and hilarious Easter prank, we have decided to release another long play video from our Golf With Your Friends meetup. I repeat this is not a prank. Yet another Golf With Your Friends post you say? Well yes, after all we are all friends here are we not? Click ...
1st April 2018
You read the title correctly. After 4 long years of you begging and tormenting me, I have finally caved and made SoSa a dating site. But this of course isn’t any normal dating site. OH NO! this is a dating site made for a community that hasn’t dated for 4 years, a community that is ...
29th March 2018
Hi friends and welcome to another SoSa gaming blog post. This week we are gracing you with the second long play part from our OpenRA Red Alert meetup. Over two hours of barely edited footage for you to enjoy. Click here to watch the video. The group seems to have really improved their building ...
22nd March 2018
Hi guys, and welcome to another week and another gaming blog. This week we are gracing you with the long play video of our Teeworlds meetup. Click here to watch the video. What is Teeworlds you ask? Teeworlds is an adorable little fast paced shooter arcade game where tee balls try to murder each...
8th March 2018
Ohh yeah, you have been waiting for this video. That is right, just before Christmas we played Murder, and it was one of our most fun meetups. Murder is one of the many mods that Garry’s Mod has to offer, and one of our favourites to play together. (Trouble in Terrorist Town being a very ...
1st March 2018
Hey SoSarians, welcome to yet another Golf With Your Friends meetup video. There can never be enough golf videos. Just putting it out there. Click here to watch the video. As a community, everyone always asks us about the next time we will be playing Golf with your Friends and the videos are always...
27th February 2018
Wow. Just wow, we’ve made it another year, and what a year that was! As a business we’ve seen a lot of changes over the last year, we started the with a small army of developers and mods but ended the year with just Umbrena and I, No more Tinychat and all but 3 chat ...
15th February 2018
Hi SoSa friends and welcome to another gaming video! This week we are showing you the footage of our OpenRA video and specifically we are playing Red Alert. This is the first part of the video, stay tuned for the second part coming in the following weeks. Click here to watch the video. OpenRA ...
9th February 2018
Hi SoSa members and welcome to our Jackbox Party Pack meetup blog/video, Check out the video on YouTube by clicking here. This was the first time we played Jackbox Party Pack and it was actually a really cool, engaging and fun game. Jackbox Party Packs have multiple games that our whole site can...
2nd February 2018
Hi guys and welcome back to the second part of our “Golf With Your Friends” meetup. Click here to check out the video. You know you want to. Ohhh, yeah. And if you have not already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel as we post weekly game meetup videos now. So to begin the ...
25th January 2018
Hello SoSa friends and welcome to another gaming meetup video! Today we will be showing you the long play video of our Tabletop Simulator meetup. We played Tabletop Simulator as well last Sunday, so it would only be fitting to show you the video you have been waiting for (only since this summer!...
Wow! What a sprint! Genuinely one of my most productive in the last few months, I’ve gotten so much done that I’m not at the point I feel I can start blogging a mix between what’s been released and what i’m working on.
Before I get started with this week’s update, I wanted to do a quick shout out to Sebastian, Rhod, Tom, Samantha, Dan and Jake!
Next one is Sunday 14th June 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET and we will be Among Us
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
I have literally no idea where the last two weeks have gone. If it weren’t for Jira, I honestly wouldn’t know I’d achieved so much this sprint!
Everything is blending into a single, really long, coffee fueled day and it’s weird. Stop it.
Next one is Sunday 14th June 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET and we will be playing Jackbox Party
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
Starting to get into a rhythm with these now! I’ve finished Part 1 of the Jackbox Party 6 video from our game night in February.
This one was a little bit more difficult to make interesting, so please be gentle and of course like and subscribe! 🙂
You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/h6V4p21wjWs on YouTube!
Hello girls and boys! It’s me! yo friendly neighbourhood James!
We’re going to do things a little differently this update. It felt a bit weird that everyone on the BETA were getting the updates a week after I share it everywhere else on Social media.
Next one is Sunday 17th May 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET and we will be playing Team Fortress 2
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
Part 1 of our WitchIt game night is now live!
Follow us as delve into a world of wonder and play hide and seek as Hunter and Witch with realistic belly and boob physics!
Enjoy the wonder that are chickens as hunting devices, belly flops that weed out the enemy and @TheSire praising himself constantly.
You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4WPut6kU-w on YouTube!
Hello, it’s me again! James!
You’re probably wondering what i’ve been working on the last two weeks. Well take my hand and we will delve into a world of imagination!
Next one is Sunday 3rd May 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET and we will be playing Jackbox Party 3, 4, 5 and 6!
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes after my last update. Thankfully I feel much better now, I’m sleeping and the headaches have gone 🙂 which means I managed to get a fair amount done this sprint! 🥳
If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you! Let me know how you’re getting on with the current crisis 😊
Next one is Sunday 19th April 1900-2100 BST / 1100-1300 PT / 1400-1600 ET and we'll be playing Trouble In Terrorist Town (Garry's Mod)
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
Ok… so I should preface this with a few caveats…
This sprint hasn’t really been a sprint, more of a really long refinement and retrospective.
When I came back from Prague, Corona was starting to get more media attention with speculation of a recession so I decided it was time to start looking for work.
I spent some time getting my CV together and tying up some loose ends, like end of year accounts, paper work, my tax return etc.
Remarkably, I actually secured a contract very quickly and so today as you’re reading this, i’ve already started!
Next one is Sunday 22nd of March, 1900-2100 GMT and we'll be playing Jackbox Party 3/4/5/6!
All you need is a phone / web browser and way to watch the stream. There are limited spaces so if a lot of people sign up, we'll run separate games or take it in turns.
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
First things first! We’re in the Alpha stores! 🥳🥳
Exciting right? But what does that actually mean?
So right now, the original Council team can install the app on their phones and break it to their heart’s content.
Next SoSa game night we will be playing Murder (Garry's Mod)
Sunday 8th March 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET
If you've not played Murder before, you run around a spooky house, going through trap doors, hiding and trying to work out which one of you is a Murder.
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
Well well well, look who we have here! I’ve been thinking about you… yes you… don’t be coy!
I want to tell you about my last two weeks, would that be ok? Great!
Next SoSa game night we will be playing Witch It
Sunday 23rd Feb 1900-2100 GMT / 1200-1400 PT / 1500-1700 ET
Witch It is a multiplayer hide & seek game. Brave hunters seek hidden witches in a humorous, magical world.
The Witch It world is jam-packed with humble villages, icy lakes, and ancient libraries for you to explore and hide within. Each map has its own stories and secrets for you to delve into and discover!
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
This sprint has been a little… fucky.
The winter has hit my mood hard and I struggled for the first week to focus. Stepping away, sleeping, working out – none of it worked. So it’s been a bit of a struggle.
I almost booked a trip to the canaries just to get some of that sun juice but the hassle of organising the trip was also apparently too much
TheSire and I had a lot of fun in last nights game night thank you everyone who joined.
Next one is Sunday 9th of Feb, 1900-2100 GMT and we'll be playing Jackbox Party 3/4/5/6!
All you need is a phone / web browser and way to watch the stream. There are limited spaces so if a lot of people sign up, we'll run separate games or take it in turns.
Grab a free ticket on eventbrite to let us know you're coming.
This is a technical post going into depth about the work i’ve done in the last sprint.
Tech stuff can be dry at times, so I’ll add pictures, colours, maybe some explosions – keep it interesting.
I will also over explain so non-techies can understand better, it’ll still be very technical but at-least if you’re interested in learning it won’t be completely off limits!
Read More...
Last update, I got some feedback that people didn’t get the “tech stuff” so this time I’m going to try something new and exciting!
So this article will be an overview and then i’ll do a 2nd post with much more technical stuff that will go into more detail about the code i’ve built and why i’ve made some of the choices I have so I don’t look entirely insane!
Read More...
Matt / TheSire and I met earlier in the week and have worked out the best way to run the game nights (for now)
They'll be run every 2 weeks on a Sunday and between 1900-2100 GMT
The first game night is Sunday 26th! We'll be playing Golf With Friends and you can grab a ticket on eventbrite.
If you’re an entrepreneur you’ll probably be in a similar boat to me. Trying to do a million jobs on a tiny budget.
Great for your startup, not so much for fortnightly updates! So I’ll try to keep these posts structured and a little ridiculous.
There will be a combination of tech stuff, marketing stuff and general nonsense.
Read More...
I want to lay the foundations for who I am and why i’m here, tell you a bit of my story.
On Monday 6th I’ll post what i’ve been working on the last 2 weeks and then you’ll see the same every 2 weeks from there 🙂... Read More
I'm pleased to announce that the blog is live again! you can view it by visiting blog.sosa.net :)
I've always been passionate about is Open Source software and by building an open and honest community I feel we can make a really possitive impact on people's lives.
With the re-build of SoSa, I felt it was time to start making as much of our code Open Source as possible so with that, you can find us on GitHub where shortly repos will start appearing :)
Along with our acquisition of SoSa.org in November, we have now purchased sosa.dev which will be used for all our developer documentation and sosa.help which will be used for all user guides and how-to's.
LonelyGiraffes.com also became available, because some imgurians might still use this it seemed sensible to buy it whilst it was cheap.
We've purchased and secured sosa.org, although we won't be using this as our primary domain it is important to the future success of SoSa.
We may in the future use this for business specific groups and communities but for not it will redirect to sosa.net :)
Next week marks a year since I put SoSa on pause for health and financial reasons.
After almost 5 years it was one of the hardest decisions i have ever had to make.
I had to let several employees go, including Ena and in a way that should have never happened, I regret that and I know it upset a lot of the community.
At the time I felt I had no choice left, it should have never gotten to that point, but my health took priority and the community continued in a fashion on in Discord.
Since that night, I've had a lot of counselling, sorted out my debt and lost a considerable amount of weight.
Now, on to the good stuff!
After months of planning with veterans of the site, next month - I will be restarting development of a whole new SoSa.
Two completely new mobile apps, a desktop app and website. Built properly this time, planned properly and with features you've all been suggesting over the last year.
The aim is to relaunch next year with a beta program first to iron out any bugs.
I'm really looking forward to getting SoSa back online and providing somewhere online to build a great community.
Thank you to everyone that's encouraged me and supported the community over the last year. <3
Originally posted on our Facebook