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AYG Bozo Buddy
Fan-made media library & archive tracker for the Are You Garbage? comedy podcast
Live — independent fan app in production
bozobuddy.com
Fan-made media library & archive tracker for the Are You Garbage? comedy podcast
AYG Bozo Buddy is an independent, fan-made media library and archive tracker for the Are You Garbage? comedy podcast. It unifies the show's entire YouTube and Patreon back-catalog into a single browsable directory — grouping audio, video, preview, and re-release variants under one canonical episode record — so fans can track what they've watched, discover what they're missing, and find a path into the Patreon archive.
The app is a content directory, not a media player: every episode, ticket, store link, and article opens on its official external platform. The Patreon discovery funnel keeps locked episodes visible with public metadata and dismissible membership CTAs, letting fans see exactly what they'd unlock before committing. Members paste their own private Patreon RSS link (encrypted at rest, never logged) to unlock their entitled destinations.
Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Are You Garbage?, Patreon, YouTube, Shopify, or any ticketing provider. Built by Howarth Tech Solutions.
A lean Next.js full-stack build — data pipeline, server-side proxy, and PWA shell all in one containerized deployment.
Patreon episodes surface a real thumbnail in the episode grid without ever exposing the unlisted YouTube video ID to the browser. A server-side proxy route (/api/episode-thumb/[id]) resolves the episode to its YouTube thumbnail server-side and streams only image bytes — no video IDs, no Patreon tokens, no paywall bypass. The locked content stays locked while the browse experience stays visually complete.
Everything a fan needs to track, discover, and navigate 1,648 episodes across YouTube and Patreon.
/history page listing every viewed episode in watch orderPublic-facing screens captured from the live app. Admin dashboard screenshots pending Darrell's login credentials.
Episode library — filters by series, year, access level, and date basis
Collections — curated playlists of guest appearances and crossover content
Watch history — every viewed episode in watch order, exportable
The engineering that makes a multi-source content archive more than a database dump.
Patreon episodes are linked to unlisted YouTube uploads that should never be discoverable. The server-side proxy route (/api/episode-thumb/[id]) resolves each episode to its thumbnail server-side and streams only the image bytes to the browser — the unlisted video ID never reaches the client. Paywall integrity is preserved while the episode grid stays visually complete.
Each episode has a canonical record that groups YouTube and Patreon variants under a single identity. Air-date vs. Patreon-release-date dual-date derivation handles the show's inconsistent release order. Fuzzy title matching catches re-releases and preview clips; ambiguous pairs go to an admin review queue. The multi-source sync (YouTube Data API v3 + Patreon RSS) is fully idempotent — safe to re-run without creating duplicates.
The app is a mobile-first installable PWA with a service-worker offline cache, fixed top and bottom navigation bars, and safe-area insets for notched phones. Interactions are tuned for native feel — tactile press states, screen transitions — so the installed app behaves like a native app, not a browser tab.
Private Patreon RSS URLs are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM before being persisted. Secrets are redacted from all log output. The /admin route is protected by HTTP Basic Auth middleware that is fail-closed in production — a misconfigured or missing password env var locks the route entirely rather than granting open access.
Docker Compose with a SQLite named volume that survives --force-recreate deploys. Resource limits, a /api/health healthcheck, Caddy reverse proxy, and automatic Let's Encrypt TLS. CI/CD runs through GitHub Actions → GHCR → deploy.sh on the VPS, with a nightly backup drop-in keeping a rolling snapshot of the episode database.
YouTube Shorts and preview clips share the same channel as full episodes and would corrupt series completion stats if counted. A hard duration filter in classify() prevents any upload ≤3 minutes from reaching the episode count. A reclassify-shorts.ts maintenance script handles retroactive repair of any that slipped through before the guard was added.
Production-grade full-stack engineering applied to a non-trivial data pipeline problem — not a CRUD app.
AYG Bozo Buddy shows what a media archive looks like when you add a canonical data model, a multi-source ingestion pipeline, security-aware secret handling, and a polished installable UI. If you have a podcast network, media brand, or fan community that needs the same treatment, let's talk.
AYG Bozo Buddy is an independent, fan-made media library and archive tracker for the Are You Garbage? comedy podcast — 1,648 episodes across YouTube and Patreon unified under a canonical episode model, with viewed tracking, a Patreon discovery funnel, and an installable PWA.
No. AYG Bozo Buddy is an independent fan-made project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Are You Garbage?, Patreon, YouTube, Shopify, or any ticketing provider. Built by Howarth Tech Solutions.
Yes — multi-source data pipelines, archive trackers, and community discovery platforms are within scope. See our software development service to start a project.
Tell us what you have in mind and we'll come back with an approach and a flat quote — no obligation.