A living website, shaped by strangers

One penny, one mutation,
one living website.

Copperspore is a public organism the crowd grows together, micro-tip by micro-tip. Each one-cent donation triggers one visible mutation — a twitching creature, a sliding doodle, an extra wing on the mascot. Anchored by a public timeline and a live meter of every contribution ever sent.

Built by an RIT software engineering co-op shipping under the Sun Apps student brand — a Ko-fi-sized donation, endlessly replayed as a participatory performance.

Try the engineSee how it works
AI-pre-flighted + human-moderated mutation poolNon-refundable, permanent, public
Pennies so far0
Seed

Each penny triggers one mutation pulled from a curated library.

What that just was:idle — waiting for a penny

Stripe is parked. Pressing this fires a local mutation — that's the test surface.

Mutation history

0 of last 20

No pennies yet — make the first mutation.

Mutation Library

Five kinds of harmless weird, drawn at random each time.

From a curated pool tuned to read as funny, never as hostile. New mutation classes roll out as the contributor count climbs; old ones can be paused by moderators but never deleted — the past stays part of the organism.

  • 01

    Twitching creature

    A creature on the page receives a faint, randomized twitch.

  • 02

    Sliding doodle

    A bordered doodle slides in from a random edge and parks itself on the canvas.

  • 03

    Half-erased headline

    One word in the masthead softens away — leaving the meaning ambiguous, intentionally.

  • 04

    Flaming banner

    A persistent banner unfurls with a fresh motto chosen by the crowd.

  • 05

    New wing on the mascot

    A new anatomical appendage is grafted onto the mascot — visible to everyone, forever.

Evolution Timeline

The organism ages in eras — every one is a community goal.

Each tier unlocks bigger biome shifts: a wing count, a storybook chapter, a hand-drawn map. The first 10,000 pennies grow wings. The next 90,000 redraw the borders. The millionth cent sponsors a dedicated soundtrack.

  1. Year 0 — Seed

    One penny, one tiny twitch. The organism is mostly inert.

  2. Year 1 — Sprout

    Hundreds of contributors. Whole paragraphs are doodled over.

  3. Year 2 — Hatch

    The mascot gains a second face. Subreddits adopt it as a mascot.

  4. Year 3 — Forest

    A biome grows. Wing count passes 20. Era banners appear.

  5. Year 5 — Wilds

    Storyline chapters unlocked. The organism is bigger than any contributor.

How a penny becomes a mutation

Four steps. None of them are negotiated at the point of sale.

Step 01
You send a cent.
Stripe refuses micro-tips, so we batch — pennies accrue against your contributor handle, capped at a $5 batch per session.
Step 02
The batch posts to the organism.
Each cent inside is recorded on the public ledger visible on the live meter and the timeline.
Step 03
AI pre-flight ranks the mutation.
A small model picks the next mutation the page needs, scoring against the moderation policy.
Step 04
Humans publish or veto.
A human moderator confirms the top ranked mutation before it goes live, or pulls the kill-switch if it trends mean.

FAQ

The honest answers.

Copperspore is experimental. We're open about the parts we don't yet know how to do well. Reach us at copperspore@polsia.app.

Send a penny

The organism is reading your tip right now.

Open your email client to copperspore@polsia.app. The subject line is yours to write; we'll spot the address on the public timeline shortly after.

Want to try a mutation right now without sending money? Try a local mutation now ↓

Send a penny to Copperspore

Or drop a press inquiry at the same address — we'll respond within a few days.

Copperspore • penny by penny, era by era • contact copperspore@polsia.app