Pronouny.xyz – Cloudflare customer – (United States)
As Pride Month commences we continue to celebrate the inspiring LGTBQ+ members of the .xyz community. These include cultural producers like Rocca.xyz, who provides a global platform for artists from the LGBTQ+ and East African communities. And designers like Rosenbloomboom.xyz, who envisions a sustainable games industry that welcomes and supports people of all historically marginalized communities. And we have skilled creatives like MightyType.xyz, an architecture student who writes features about social infrastructure and inclusive space. These LGTBQ+ members help define our community with their inspired creativity and innovation. Today we share about another innovative member, one who has taken great strides towards the challenge for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies to navigate the still-evolving communication practices around using and sharing personal pronouns. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to a forward-thinking platform helping to make the world of personal pronouns and gender-neutral language more accessible to everyone: Pronouny.xyz.
Pronouny.xyz is a free software platform designed to simplify and promote the practice of sharing personal pronouns and gender-neutral language. It was developed in 2016 by noa, a computer science student at the University of British Columbia, with ongoing updates as recently as March 2021. Pronouny.xyz serves LGBTQ+ people and their allies, helping to normalize the usage of pronouns, minimizing stigma, and lessen the need for an explanation of an individual’s identity or changes therein.
Members create an account on Pronouny.xyz, and then design their profile page to specify their preferred names, gender language, and personal pronouns. They then have the option to invite their friends and social media communities to visit and follow their page, which can be shared directly to Facebook and Twitter, or through the use of a personalized link. One page creator shared their Pronouny.xyz link on Twitter with the message: “I have so many pronouns now – I’m probably gonna add even more as I find more that I like but here are my updated pronouns.” Another shared: “Hey! Welcome to my safe space <3.” Of course, not everyone is equally comfortable sharing information about themselves. To address privacy and safety concerns, members can designate their pages as public or keep them private. They can make revisions to this and all aspects of their page at any time.
The collection of pronouns on Pronouny.xyz includes the growing class of neopronouns, defined as pronouns that do not align with a person’s physical appearance or gender-based name. A 2021 article in the New York Times about the growing use of neopronouns showcased Pronouny.xyz‘s feature of accommodating members with the freedom to use a collection of personal pronouns or neopronouns, as opposed to just one set. Page creators are further able to express themselves by specifying their own customizable options or by choosing from hundreds of preloaded sets.
We found a page creator whose Pronouny.xyz page features 13 preferred pronouns divided into two categories: “Favorites,” such as star/star/stars/stars/starself, and “Others,” such as “it/it/its/its/itself.” Each pronoun selection is clickable, and takes visitors to a page of usage examples for better understanding. In this way, Pronouny.xyz serves as a reference resource for the greater ally community. On the “Names” tab, members can indicate their welcomed names. That same user provided the options “JoJo, Narancia/Nara, Langa, Gon, Josuke.”
On the “Nouns” tab, members can further indicate gender-language preferences by listing particular nouns that are permissible to use, and any they may find to be triggering or offensive. We found a user who indicates a preference for masculine language to be used with him, including “boyfriend, sir, bro, husband, partner, and any masc compliment.” He writes: “I missed some good nouns but just don’t call me anything feminine and I’ll be fine with it unless stated otherwise.” If these selections don’t align with assumptions you might make about this member’s physical appearance or name, the clarification provided by his Pronouny.xyz page does the explaining for him.
We are grateful to Pronouny.xyz for this powerful contribution aimed to normalize the usage of pronouns and respectful, inclusive language. We wish everyone a safe, celebratory, and happy Pride Month. Head over to Pronouny.xyz to learn more or create your own page, and as long as you feel safe doing so, don’t hesitate to express yourself.
At XYZ, we’re dedicated to helping the next generation of internet users get online. As long-time supporters of Generation Girl, a non-profit organization in Indonesia that aims to inspire young women to become leaders in the historically male-dominated STEM fields, we’re enthusiastic about providing .xyz domains to help further education in tech for growing groups such as woman-identified developers and website owners.
To help us further this mission of providing resources for education, we recently completed an initiative called the XYZ Grad Program. Together with our partner Dynadot, we provided free domains and hosting to students and recent graduates looking to make their marks online. Various educational programs, including HackBright Academy, JavaScript Mastery, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Impact Byte Coding Camp, and more, were the recipients. Our goal with offering a complimentary .xyz for one year was to empower these jobseekers by giving them tools to build their online presence. Recipients had the opportunity to begin securing their brands, demonstrate their skills and experiences online, and get noticed by employers, clients, and collaborators.
This week’s #WebsiteWednesday highlights a standout XYZ Grad Program recipient whose website can serve as an inspiration for establishing you or your organization online.
JodySunray.xyz – Dynadot customer – (United States)
Jody Sunray is a young woman making her software engineering skills known online. Jody attends Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, and is working towards a double major in Computer Science and Information Technology & Web Science (ITWS). JodySunray.xyz is where Jody shares her interests and academic achievements, and even specifies her current objective: “I am currently looking to obtain an internship or co-op in software engineering or data science during fall 2021 or spring 2022.”
Jody also uses her website to share her programming certifications and coding projects. JodySunray.xyz expresses Jody’s interest in taking part in coding projects that can have an impact. Jody declares on her website, “As a student in computer science, I believe that it’s important to put new skills to practice, and getting involved allows me to do just that—whether it’s through research, hackathons, or personal interest.”
Using a FirstNameLastName.xyz domain like JodySunray.xyz for your personal website can be beneficial, because when people are looking you up online, they are likely to search for your full name. With a professional website using a domain name that matches your full name, you are more likely to have your professional work show up in relevant results. Jody’s personal website sets her up for successfully reaching her goal of making her software engineering skills known online. You can reach out to Jody on Facebook or Linkedin.
Exhibiting your skills, achievements, passions, and objectives on your .xyz website allows you to connect with your desired audience and share the contributions you can make to the world. We are proud that the XYZ Grad Program helped to support the next generation of trailblazing young women interested in STEM and improving the world. We cannot wait to see what the future holds for them as they make connections, launch their careers, and follow their dreams.
SarahKuck.xyz – Squarespace customer – (United States)
If you are a filmmaker or multimedia creative, a personal website is a key way to showcase your work online exactly how you want to. Your website is an online hub to post your video portfolio and highlight what you have to offer. Potential clients can discover the films and video content you worked on, helping them to assess your skill level and style. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to a media maker who effectively organized her own website using a FirstNameLastName.xyz domain to showcase her wide variety of film and video making experience: SarahKuck.xyz.
SarahKuck.xyz is the personal website of freelance director, editor and cameraperson Sarah Kuck. A documentarian passionate about climate change, urbanism, and community, Sarah has amassed a substantial list of multimedia content in her career, which she showcases through her digital portfolio. As she explains on her About page, Sarah makes media utilizing digital cameras, computers, pens and watercolors, and has worked on magazines, blogs, documentaries, narrative films, and commercials. Her diverse skillset is displayed in a well-organized manner for potential clients to easily navigate, which can help her to attract projects that align with her expertise.
A visually striking splash page containing a wide variety of footage from Sarah Kuck’s reel is the first thing a visitor sees when loading SarahKuck.xyz. These vignettes include imagery of human interaction, communities around the world, marvels of nature, product promotion, and even live musical performances. Visitors can gain an immediate understanding of the expansive variety of projects to be found in Sarah’s portfolio as soon as they land on her website.
When it comes to using a splash page, website design professionals often advise not to add any extra “clicks” for the user to get to your primary content. The reasoning behind this is to limit any work the user needs to do in order to get to your website’s primary purpose. However, if visualizing something is the primary purpose of your website, an engaging splash page with an extra click to “Enter” a neatly organized page can be a very effective tool.
Sarah Kuck’s Projects page leads with a “Featured Project,” followed by “Past Projects.” The “Featured Project” showcases Sarah’s most recent project with a video teaser and a descriptive caption. Below that, under “Past Projects,” clients can view more video samples of Sarah’s work. In a caption beneath each video, Sarah provides a description of the project as well as her role in each film (such as director, editor, or cameraperson), so that viewers know which part of the work she was responsible for. Sarah’s featured project is called “Tarcila: Indigenous Solutions to Climate Change From Peru,” a documentary film about Tarcila Rivera Zea, an activist who is working to help her community survive amidst the volatile effects of climate change. From the description below the embedded teaser video, visitors learn that Sarah was the director, editor, and cameraperson for this film. This organization of content gives viewers a clear glimpse of Sarah’s most recent professional work, as well as the different types of project experiences Sarah has accomplished in her career.
The Film Resume page contains further details about Sarah’s professional experience, including an embedded video reel at the top, with 28 of Sarah’s professional credits listed below. The credits are organized into four columns, labeled: Documentary, Narrative, Commercial/Web and Music Video. With Sarah’s organization by column method, potential clients can quickly see the amount of experience that she has in each category. If clients are looking for someone with experience in Commercial/Web projects, they can immediately see that Sarah has completed nine Commercial/Web projects and has held roles as an assistant camera operator, camera operator, set dresser, director of photography, and director. Each column demonstrates Sarah’s varied accomplishments in one convenient and easy-to-read location.
With Sarah’s work cohesively displayed on SarahKuck.xyz, website visitors have the opportunity to review her resume of work as well as experience a wide sampling of her completed projects all in one place. This simplified navigation makes it easy for visitors to get a strong sense of Sarah’s abilities and help them consider her for a collaboration.
Sarah is part of the thriving .xyz community of artists, creators, and multi-talented creatives showcasing their varied skills and projects on .xyz websites. Using your .xyz domain to neatly organize your visual projects can encourage your desired audiences to experience your body of work and connect for future work. Interested collaborators are invited to complete their mission by connecting with Sarah through her Contact page. You can also connect with Sarah via Twitter or immerse yourself in more of her professional work on Vimeo.
SpiritGuideSociety.xyz – GoDaddy customer (United States)
A website is a vital part of promoting your podcast because you can expand awareness to people all around the world with the ease and simplicity of one memorable domain name. Websites provide a great value to potential audiences by allowing them to easily go online to absorb everything you make available about your podcast. As discoverability for smaller and growing podcasts is sometimes limited to word of mouth, your podcast can always benefit from additional awareness. Look to Twitch co-founder Justin Kan who is using .Quest, one of the latest additions to the XYZ family of domain names, to launch Justin.Quest as the dedicated home for his podcast, The Quest. Like Justin.Quest, your website can help make it easier to have your podcast discovered, serve as an online hub for your growing brand, and even generate revenue.
In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, you’ll learn how the popular Los Angeles-based podcast The Spirit Guide Society serves as another example to follow for building a website to elevate and enhance your podcast: SpiritGuideSociety.xyz.
SpiritGuideSociety.xyz is the online home of The Spirit Guide Society, a podcast produced by the Seven Grand bar group of Los Angeles, CA, and hosted by their “Spirit Guide,” Pedro Shanahan. For nearly a decade, popular global spirit brands have been visiting the bar group (Seven Grand, Caña Rum Bar, Las Perlas) to teach whiskey, rum, tequila, and mezcal enthusiasts about the drinks that they love. The Spirit Guide Society relays that same level of knowledge in podcast form with new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
So how does a podcast benefit from a well-designed online presence? Here are three advantages to having a website for your podcast like SpiritGuideSociety.xyz:
A website for your podcast gives your listeners a place online to become fully immersed in your brand and can help them to share it with their friends with a shorter or more memorable link. As an online virtual hub, your podcast website can include things like the podcast’s backstory and ways to stay in touch with you, including your social media handles, embedded video promos, bonus episodes, candid photos of your hosts and guests, related press clippings, and more. Visitors can strengthen their fandom and increase their brand loyalty as they absorb all of your entertaining content, which can help convert listeners into brand evangelists. With your linked social media accounts centralized on your virtual hub, brand evangelists can easily follow the accounts and share about their favorite episodes and their love of the series. Increased social media engagement from your brand evangelists increases the promotion of your brand.
Spirit Guide Society has created a virtual hub for their intoxicating podcast on SpiritGuideSociety.xyz. Visitors can learn more about the Spirit Guide Society by checking out the video page and their blog. There is a welcoming contact page that invites visitors to send a message, with included social media links for them to follow. And, there is an entire collection of Spirit Guide Society podcast episodes with links for them to listen and share. With so much Spirit Guide Society-related content to absorb, fans can learn more about the podcast and its host Pedro, and can easily hop on social media to share their brand affinity.
Having a website for your podcast helps to make it discoverable during online searches. Many people may turn to search engines to help them find their next favorite podcast, just as they do for finding most things. With their exact-match .xyz domain and the content they’ve included on their website, SpiritGuideSociety.xyz is the top search result for “Spirit Guide Society” (as of May 9, 2021). New and current enthusiasts can more easily discover SpiritGuideSociety.xyz, which can help them gain more listeners. The SpiritGuideSociety.xyz podcast focuses on educating enthusiasts about whiskey, rum, tequila, and mezcal, and their website is rich with these keywords in their titles, headings, and body content. SpiritGuideSociety.xyz is also the top search result for “whiskey rum tequila podcast,” an example of a search one might make when hunting for a podcast like theirs (as of May 9, 2021). The content on the SpiritGuideSociety.xyz helps liquor enthusiasts discover their podcast online and can help them gain more listeners.
Another benefit of creating a website for your podcast is that it gives you a place to sell your own products and services. Creating an online shop on your website can be an opportunity to make additional revenue and strengthen a special connection with your fans. SpiritGuideSociety.xyz has an online shop that they use to sell tickets to their live and virtual liquor tastings, which are recorded and posted on their video page. These virtual tasting events include at-home tasting kits containing a flight of liquor that the host and his guests will be discussing. These events offer fans of the podcast the chance to sample the featured spirits and hear about Pedro’s expertise, just as with an in-person tasting. Spirit Guide Society promotes these events on their social media and directs their listeners to SpiritGuideSociety.xyz for purchase.
Your .xyz domain can help take your podcast to the next level. After all, it’s the place for your fans to gather when they finish the latest episode and are thirsty for more. Demonstrating these three potential advantages of a website for your podcast, SpiritGuideSociety.xyz has expanded their discoverability with keyword-rich content, monetized their podcast with an online shop, and developed a fandom-strengthening virtual hub loaded with centralized, branded content. SpiritGuideSociety.xyz is an example to follow for how you can enhance your podcast by building an effective website on your own .xyz domain.
To join the fun of the Spirit Guide Society and enjoy all of their content, connect with them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or head over to SpiritGuideSociety.xyz.
Rosenbloomboom.xyz – Ionos customer – (United States)
.XYZ’s reputation as a domain for forward-thinkers has inspired creatives and developers from around the globe to join the movement and brand on .xyz domains themselves. Meet a developer that has set their sights on the gaming industry, and is working toward it’s evolution. This week’s #WebsiteWednesday features the portfolio of a distinctive game designer with a hopeful vision for the future of gaming: Rosenbloomboom.xyz
Rosenbloomboom.xyz is the personal portfolio website of Silicon Valley-based game designer and programmer, Honey P. Rosenbloom. Honey works as a full-time employee for Google as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Analyst. Their position plays a major role in the company’s commitment to build programming to lead to a more diverse and inclusive Google, including Employee Resource Groups, Leadership Councils, and Diversity Councils. Honey is also co-creator of Friendship Garden, a nonprofit organization “sowing the seeds of inclusivity to cultivate a gentle, playful, and sustainable games industry that welcomes and supports people of all historically marginalized communities.”
Honey aims to foster interactions that allow players to have fun while being vulnerable, connect with others, and explore themselves. Most importantly, they hope to use games to tell stories from the personal experience of living at an intersection of marginalized identities. Honey creates games as tools to inspire new perspectives from those who play them, as explained on their portfolio website.
Honey’s gaming projects include physical, digital, and hybrid games that include the usage of a variety of technological solutions, including Unity3D, C++, JavaScript, and Ionic. One thing the designs have in common is the intent to positively impact the players, whether it be socially, cognitively, or educationally.
Trash Traders is an example of an educational game that intends to positively impact players. Honey developed Trash Traders while studying at the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center. The game was designed for Apple’s iPad platform and helped introduce elementary school students to sustainability, recycling, and pollution dangers. Players in the game team up on iPads and each iPad serves as a different recycling center. The teams must quickly sort the trash that comes in, otherwise it goes to the landfill and increases pollution.
Honey designs games for adults as well. Butterfly Fields is a large-scale social game that Honey initially designed for a birthday party. Butterfly Fields encourages players to meet and mingle in social situations – utilizing secret challenges, fun icebreakers, and personal questions to encourage players to be vulnerable and develop new friendships. Honey added the ability for players to join and leave at any time without penalty, providing late-comers and those who may need to excuse themselves early some leniency, enhancing an infectious party game where no one is left out and everyone can be a social butterfly.
Honey also enjoys some competition theirself and has presented various unique projects at a handful of game design conferences over the years, including Serious Play and Connected Learning Summit. They have won prizes at competitions such as the Student Game Design Competition at 2017 CHI PLAY and the 2016 Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
Rosenbloomboom.xyz is a website set up to capture many layers of Honey P. Rosenbloom. Honey shares gaming projects and career highlights alongside their mission of changing the landscape of gaming. We are proud to have forward-thinkers like Honey defining the .xyz community. Just as .xyz is reshaping the future of the internet, Honey is working to reshape the future of the gaming industry. It’s a great fit.
See more of Honey’s work by following along on Instagram and LinkedIn, or checking out Rosenbloomboom.xyz.
