Fast forward a few years, and the internet coughed up some “no-code” options. Basically, training wheels for people like me who never made it past the “Hello World” stage. I’d been obsessively researching databases, but every option seemed to require an advanced degree in computer sorcery. I even tried learning SQL, but let’s just say it ended the way most of my New Year’s resolutions do. Fast, messy, and abandoned.

Google Sheets crossed my mind, but the tools to turn them into websites were priced like they came with a free yacht. Then I stumbled across Airtable. I Frankensteined together a database, crammed it with hundreds of dolls, and slapped it on a website. It was slow, hideous, and about as elegant as a potato wearing lipstick, but it worked.

Then came pory.io, which let me dress up my ugly Airtable database like it was going to prom. It took years to get there, but finally, progress! I even managed to rope in a small cult (about five of us) who were feverishly adding dolls to the database.

The five brave souls who once helped add dolls to the database eventually lost interest and vanished into the internet ether. Can’t blame them. dding a doll is less “fun hobby” and more “data-entry purgatory.” I personally crammed in about 700 dolls myself because, as they say, no pain, no gain. Though in my case, it was more lots of pain, absolutely no gain.

Then Airtable decided to spice things up with a little corporate cruelty: they were slashing the free plan down to about 1,000 records. The database was already there, so I was effectively being told to pay $300 a year for my own obsession. On my minimum wage paycheck, that’s the equivalent of setting fire to my grocery budget.

I considered accepting donations or even running ads, but that sounded dangerously close to “running a business,” and I have the entrepreneurial instincts of a confused squirrel. So, in true tragic fashion, the project was shoved back onto the dusty shelf of abandoned dreams.

I liked building websites and tinkering with the project far too much to just toss it into the graveyard of my abandoned ideas. Years later, after another bout of “let’s Google my life away,” I stumbled onto Baserow, which is a cheaper alternative to Airtable that even had a built-in equivalent to pory.io. Finally, one platform to rule them all, instead of juggling two like some kind of underpaid tech circus act.

P.S. Baserow finally announced a file upload feature… but only for their top-tier subscribers. Even Airtable throws that in for free. #bitter #saltierthantheDeadSea

MEET THE MASCOT

Doffee is the site's mascot. I thought the website would be better with a mascot, and I wanted to try drawing one. You can see him in various places on the site providing help to those who with to use the Doll Finder!

So original, I know.