A local events listing for western MA, built the day I read about Northampton's flyering ban.
Role
Creator
Client
Self-initiated
Stack
React · Supabase · Vercel
Seven days from civic problem to live site. On Tuesday, March 14, 2026,
Northampton banned flyering on utility poles. By Monday, March 20, 2026,
theplot413.com was live — a community events calendar covering the four
counties of western Massachusetts.
community calendar · western mass · est. 2026
live · theplot413.com
city of northampton · the sparkTUE · MAR 14 · 8:42 AM
Posting on utility poles is prohibited. Posters will be
removed and disposed of.
NO POSTING
conception · to · launch7 days“who else wants to do that?”
theplot413.com · liveMON · MAR 20 · 6:18 PMplot_413all plot. no noise.
FRI · 9Psilver creek pickersmusic
SAT · 10Aspring makers marketcommunity
tue · mar 14
Posting on utility poles is prohibited. Posters will be removed.
NO POSTING
conception to launch7 days“who else wants to do that?”
mon · mar 20plot_413
FRI · 9Psilver creek pickers
SAT · 10Aspring makers market
Context
In early 2026 the City of Northampton announced a ban on flyering on utility poles, the primary way local events had been promoted in this town for decades. The announcement made the news. I read it, thought about what fills that void, and started building the same day.
The Problem
Northampton has an unusually dense calendar of small events: shows, markets, readings, talks, pop-ups. The existing solutions were either Facebook (not everyone is on it, not everything gets posted, algorithm-dependent) or local news sites that don’t specialize in event listings. The flyering ban made the gap more visible.
The problem wasn’t complicated. It just needed someone to build the thing.
Approach
React frontend, Supabase for the database and submissions backend, deployed to Vercel. I kept the scope deliberately small: event name, date, time, location, description, link. Community submissions with a simple review step. No accounts, no profiles, no friction.
Three-tier architecture diagram. Client tier: visitor reads from the calendar, submit form writes a pending entry, no auth required. Edge tier: Next.js 16 on Vercel handles rendering with server components and ISR. Data tier: Supabase Postgres stores events, venues, submissions, and cron logs with row-level security. Sidecar services: Buttondown for the weekly digest, nightly iCal sync, Anthropic API for brand-voice review, Cloudflare for DNS.
the stack
what runs plot_413
request flow ↓
client
read
visitor
›no auth required
write
submit form
/submit
›no account · public
↓ request ↓
edge
render
Next.js 16 on Vercel
app router · rsc
›server components · static + ISR by city
›tailwind 4 · syne / space grotesk
›cron · daily ingest · image optimization
↓ query · rls ↓
data
store
Supabase Postgres
auth · rls · storage
›events · venues · submissions · cron_logs
›admin auth · review queue
›object storage · cover images
also running
Buttondownemail
weekly digest · no profile required
iCal synccron
nightly venue feed reader
Anthropicvoice
brand voice review on every description
Cloudflaredns
theplot413 · plot413
$ npm run dev
local: http://localhost:3000
The name came quickly. The Plot 413, from the western MA area code. The tagline: “All plot. No noise.”
Hero band for the plot_413 case study. The brand wordmark and tagline "all plot. no noise." on the left; a sample week of community events on the right, including stand-up at Bishop's Lounge, the Silver Creek Pickers bluegrass show at Hawks & Reed, a makers market at Look Park, a drag night at The Drake, and a poetry reading at Forbes Library.
community calendar · western mass · est. 2026
live · theplot413.com
the
plot_413
all plot. no noise.
a community events calendar for the four counties of western massachusetts — hampshire, hampden, franklin, berkshire. just the next thing on the calendar.
music · arts · drag · queer · comedy · community · theater · film · literary · food & drink
this week4 of 29 · mar 21–24
thu218pm
sasha reilly Bishop's Lounge · Northampton
comedy
fri229pm
the silver creek pickers Hawks & Reed · Greenfield“bluegrass, heartbreak, slide guitar”
music
sat2310pm
one night only · all sequins The Drake · Amherst
drag
sun244pm
pinkham notch poets Forbes Library · Northampton
literary
Submission lifecycle. Stage one: a public form on the phone, no account needed — submitting the Silver Creek Pickers bluegrass show. Stage two: the entry lands in the admin review queue as pending; the admin can publish, edit, or reject within twenty-four hours. Stage three: once published, the event appears as a card on the site at /events/silver-creek-pickers.
submission flowfrom your phone to the calendar
every event reviewed by this human
usually within 24 hours
1submitstatus: draft
plot_413
/submit
submit an event
title
the silver creek pickers
categories
musiccommunitycomedyarts
date
fri, mar 22
time
9pm
venue
Hawks & Reed
submit event →
lands as pendinginstant · supabase insert
2reviewstatus: pending
/admin/events
all
pending 3
published
rejected
spring makers marketpending
communitysubmitted 2h ago
the silver creek pickerspending
musicsubmitted 3h ago
publisheditreject
poetry & prose open micpending
literarysubmitted 5h ago
≤ 24hstatus → published
3livestatus: published
s
musiccommunity
the silver creek pickers
dateFri, Mar 22
time9pm
whereHawks & Reed, Greenfield
submittedpublic form
reviewedhuman · light edit
published/events/silver-creek-pickers
Outcome
The site launched within a week of the flyering ban announcement. It’s live at theplot413.com. A community newsletter is in progress. It shows up first in local search for Northampton events.
The project came from noticing something and deciding to fix it. That’s usually how the best work starts.
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