what is spectrum
> free baseline keeps the jokes. spectrum is how you become part of it_
Per amended filing: if a tool on this site has ever saved you an afternoon, made you laugh at 2am when nothing else would, or just quietly worked when you fully expected it not to - Spectrum is what you do about that feeling. It's how you go from someone who uses a thing to someone who backs it. Nobody is billed for this. Nobody is asked. It's just sitting here if you want it.
What backing actually gets you depends on the tool - sometimes a whole second edition, sometimes a louder cut, sometimes nothing but our genuine and slightly unhinged gratitude and a spot on the Wall (Exhibit B, below). What it never gets you is a better free version than the one everyone else has. That was never on the table, and it isn't becoming one now.
- Art. I - The ask Spectrum is the name for backing a tool, on purpose, because you wanted to - not a second tier of the free one. It's optional, it's not owed, and it exists because the shadow figures watching me sleep at 2am kept asking.
- Art. II - Baseline (free) Every tool ships free, forever, on this site, jokes and nonsense fully intact. Not a trial, not a teaser, not the version with the good parts held back for later. This is the whole tool. It does not get worse if Spectrum stays empty forever.
- Art. III - Shape What Spectrum includes is decided per tool, not promised site-wide. A packaged offline edition, a louder cut, bonus extras, or nothing but a receipt and a warm feeling - any of these are complete and valid along the SPECTRUM OF AMBIGUITY. None of this is a checklist a tool has to clear.
- Art. IV - Mechanism Backing a tool runs through Stripe, not a marketplace account. You pay, that's the whole transaction - no separate login, no bundled upsells, no algorithm deciding whether to show your tool to anyone else. Where a tool has real extras to hand over, how those get delivered is that tool's own business, and we are accepting of its lifestyle choices.
- Art. V - The Wall Back a tool and, if you want, you can show up for it - a name, a link, whatever you'd like attached to the receipt. Entries are reviewed before anything goes live (see Exhibit B). Staying anonymous is equally valid and changes nothing about what you backed.
- Art. VI - Scope Spectrum only applies where the free version is already whole. A product built around a real paid tier - an actual different product, not a personality strip - is a different thing entirely and doesn't wear this filing. (Looking at you, SliceBoard. Affectionately.)
- Art. VII - Distribution & attribution Free baselines may also live on GitHub, unmodified. Where a paid package exists, it lives wherever that tool's own page says it does. If a tool leaves this site in someone else's hands, a nod back here is appreciated, not required.
FAQ
frequently unasked
Do I have to buy Spectrum?
No. The free build is whole, jokes included, forever. Spectrum is optional backing on top of it, shaped however that particular tool's Spectrum happens to be shaped.
What do I actually get?
Depends on the tool, and it's stated wherever that tool lives - a page if it has one, a line on its card if it doesn't - not assumed here. Could be a packaged edition. Could be nothing more than a receipt and a spot on the Wall if you want one. Either way, you're feeding the person who made the thing you're using.
Will I show up somewhere if I back a tool?
Only if you want to. Add a name or a link when you back a tool, and once it clears moderation, it lands on the Wall. Skip that step and you're still a backer, just a quieter one - equally valid, no asterisk.
Is the free site a trial?
No. Free forever, any use, jokes on. Not feature-gated. Not a teaser.
Does this apply to everything ohnoai makes?
It applies to anything whose free version is already the whole thing - that's the only test. Microsludge Degoblin, for instance: built by us, MIT, free and whole today. That's enough. Something built around a real paid tier is a different thing, whatever else it might be.
Exhibit A: Roll Call (free baseline on-site) 路 its Spectrum is a free Clean + Unhinged zip, backing optional, at its own page - its own shape, not everyone's. Exhibit B: the Spectrum Wall 路 currently empty, filed under "not yet, but ask again soon." Back to tools.