Overview

Taboo.tv is a video streaming platform for raw, unfiltered creator content — real-world travel and culture from the places most media won't go. It brings together short-form Shorts, full-length videos, and multi-episode series, wrapped in a social layer of community posts, threaded comments, reactions, and live chat. Access is subscription-based, and the catalogue is built around creators whose series document journeys across South America and beyond.

Project Goals

I led the development of Taboo.tv, a platform offering unfiltered travel and cultural content, by integrating React, Vue.js, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Tailwind on the front-end, and leveraging Laravel and AWS on the back-end.

Tech Stack

To achieve this, the following technologies were used:

• Vue.js:Developed a dynamic and interactive user interface.
• Tailwind & Vuetify:Applied style for responsive design.
• Postgres:Utilized a reliable relational database system.
• Laravel:Implemented a robust backend framework.
• AWS EC2:Deployed scalable virtual servers.
• AWS S3:Provided secure object storage.

Features

Series

Content is organised into multi-episode series, each with a featured trailer, an episode count, and a synopsis. Members can start a series and move through its parts in order — for example a four-part journey across South America — with episode cards previewing every instalment.

Shorts

A vertical, swipeable feed of short-form videos in the style of TikTok or Reels. Viewers scroll between clips with on-screen controls for mute, reactions, and comments, making it easy to sample bite-sized content between longer watches.

Comment, Reply & Reactions

Every video carries a full engagement layer beneath it. Members can react with a fire button, leave comments, reply to one another in threads, and like or dislike individual replies — turning each video into a conversation rather than a one-way broadcast.

Community

A dedicated Community feed lets creators post text-and-image updates straight to their audience, who can react and comment in return. A separate Creators view and members-only posts give the platform a social home that lives beyond the video catalogue.

Live Chat

A real-time Live Chat panel runs alongside the site, letting members talk to each other live with instant message delivery, timestamps, and emoji. It adds a sense of shared, in-the-moment presence to the viewing experience.

Challenges

Like any project, Taboo.tv came with its share of challenges. Delivery meant coordinating closely with several teams — design, mobile, and QA — to ship a seamless experience across web and app. Handling large video uploads to AWS S3 introduced complexity around file chunking and reliable delivery, and supporting multiple payment methods and gateways made subscription management a demanding part of the build.

Initiatives

I led our team in adopting agile methodologies, which enhanced our collaboration and adaptability. Implementing a continuous delivery pipeline allowed us to automate testing and deployment, resulting in faster, more reliable releases without compromising quality.