Posted a tweet at 7:54 PM on April Fools' Day. Woke up to 700 strangers on my site. Not a joke.
It was April 1st. 7:54 PM. I posted a quick 5-second screen recording of mesh3d.gallery — a curated gallery of 3D websites — on my personal X profile. Didn't think much of it, and went right back to coding. No checking X, no refreshing notifications. Just heads-down until around 1:30 AM, when I finally shut off my PC and went to sleep.
No campaign. No launch plan. Just a builder sharing something he was genuinely excited about on what happened to be the least believable day of the year.
Then I woke up.
Majo had messaged me: "Why do we have 700 visits on the site right now?"
I grabbed my phone. The tweet had taken off overnight — almost 50,000 views, over 1,000 likes and bookmarks, 150 reposts. And the Three.js account itself had reposted it. For context: this wasn't a big account moment. This was just people sharing something they thought was cool.
The traffic that followed wasn't the bounce-immediately kind. People were spending an average of 2–3 minutes browsing the gallery. We got registrations, newsletter subscribers — but most importantly, over 50 page submissions in 2–3 days from people wanting their 3D work featured.
That last part is what actually surprised me.
I expected the usual launch-week arc: a spike, a wave of "nice project!" comments, then silence. What I didn't expect was the quality. The submissions weren't spam or half-finished experiments. They were thoughtful, polished 3D web experiences — from studios, indie developers, creative agencies. People who clearly cared about their craft. Majo and I had spent months obsessing over details most people would never consciously notice — and somehow, that attracted people who did the same.
It told me something I hadn't fully let myself believe yet: there's a real community around 3D on the web, and they've been waiting for a place to gather.
The 3D web is still a niche. Tools like Three.js, WebGL, and WebGPU have been maturing for years, but the work being done with them has largely lived scattered across portfolios and Awwwards submissions. There was no dedicated place where this community could surface its best work, discover each other, and get inspired.
That's what we're building. One week in, the response tells us we're not the only ones who felt that gap.
If there's one takeaway: the people who care most about your thing are out there. You just have to show up with something real. Apparently even on April Fools' Day.
If you've built something you're proud of with 3D on the web, please submit it.
