How I built this web site

I can do both of those. Two things I need from you first:

1. What should the website be? What it's for, what content should be on it, any look or style you have in mind.
2. How do I get into your SmartVPS — do you have SSH access (host/IP, username, and credentials or a key)?

Once I know those, I'll build it and handle the upload and server setup myself.

The site's built. Here's what's waiting in `~/workspace/brownrice-coming-soon/`:

• Full-bleed reef tank photo as the backdrop with dark cinematic overlays, so it feels sleek rather than bright
• "Coming Soon" headline with a staggered fade-in, "Something is surfacing" eyebrow, and a short tagline about the new site taking shape beneath the surface
• Email "notify me" signup with validation and a confirmation state (front-end only for now, easy to wire to a backend later)
• Subtle rising-bubble animation for an underwater feel, plus a pulsing "in development" badge and footer
• Fully responsive, respects reduced-motion settings

To get it onto your SmartVPS, I need SSH access. The cleanest way: add this public key to the VPS (via your brownrice.com control panel's SSH key section, or append it to `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` if you can already SSH in):

ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIIsd0d/WeujlKsqk6ukCc/rWi16Bik4ayMaHHVEhmqTc muse-brownrice-deploy

Then just send me the server's hostname or IP and the username, and I'll handle the upload and get it serving.

I can reach your server just fine, but the login was rejected — the username/password combo isn't being accepted. Could you double-check both?

Two things worth trying:

• Re-type the password carefully (watch for caps lock, extra spaces, or lookalike characters)
• Or skip passwords entirely: add the public key I sent earlier to the server, and I can get in with that instead — it's the more reliable route anyway

Once I'm in, the upload itself will take a minute.

It's live — https://reef.jenhull.com is now serving your coming soon page.

What I did on the server:

• Uploaded `index.html` and `aquarium.jpg` to `/home/domains/reef.jenhull.com/public`
• Backed up the old Brownrice placeholder page to `index.php.bak` (nothing deleted)
• Verified the page loads correctly over both HTTP and HTTPS

One thing to know: the "notify me" email form currently just saves addresses in the visitor's browser. Say the word when you want those signups actually collected somewhere, and I'll wire it up.

Yes, all done and tested. Here's the setup:

• Database: `brownrice_notify` with a `signups` table (email, signup IP, timestamp; emails are unique so no duplicates)
• Endpoint: `notify.php` on the site validates each address and saves it using parameterized queries
• Form: the "Notify me" form now posts to that endpoint. If the server ever can't be reached, it falls back to saving locally in the visitor's browser so nothing is lost

I tested the whole flow — valid signup saves, duplicates get a friendly "already on the list," bad addresses are rejected — then cleared out my test rows, so the table is empty and ready for real signups.

One security note: the website connects with a dedicated database user that can only insert and read signups. Your root credentials aren't in the site code anywhere.

Pulling your posts from that Reef2Reef thread now — going through every page to get your posts, dates, and photos. Once I have them all I'll build the Tank History section and put it on the site.

I've got your opening post saved. The thread's later pages wouldn't load through the normal reader, so I've got a browser on it now pulling every page of your posts and photos. I'll build the Tank History section as soon as they're all in.

Tank History is live. I pulled all 23 of your posts from the Reef2Reef thread — January through June, in chronological order — with your 29 photos, and laid them out as a timeline in the same dark style as the rest of the site.

There's a "Tank History" link in the topbar of the coming-soon page now. Take a look:

Your words are kept exactly as you wrote them, typos and all. If you want anything trimmed or rearranged, just say the word.

Done — fixed 47 typos and small grammar slips across all 23 posts. Things like its/it's mixups, "tho" → "though," "flair up" → "flare up," "lead" → "led," "fulla chaeto" → "full of chaeto," and a couple of missing words ("trying to place," "an Apex").

I also restored one sentence from your opening post that got clipped when I first pulled the thread — the bit about heading to the office with the HOB overflow, sump, and "a vague idea of what we were supposed to do with it all."

The page is regenerated and live. Your slang and voice are untouched — hecka, frikkin', and Wu Tang all survived.

Done — every visible brownrice.com reference now reads reef.jenhull.com: the page titles, the brand in the topbar, the "coming soon" text, and the footers on both pages. Both pages are updated and live.

One thing I left alone: the database is still named `brownrice_notify` — that's just an internal name, never shown to visitors. Say the word if you'd like that renamed too.