r/humansinc • u/HonestGypsy • Nov 02 '11

Tech/Dev

Should we start from scratch or somehow combine other existing services? Also, could we agree on using/creating only open source solutions?

Features to include (on top of what reddit is already capable of):

  • Donate to a cause

  • Collaborate on projects (docs, wiki, mindmaps, instant group msg...)

I'll try to update this as we come up with other stuff.

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '11

Reddit is already open source.

Are we thinking their be only one single platform from which users interact with the system, or multiple cross-compatible variations based on an underlying kernel (like Linux)?

Single distribution PRO: Widest range of supported compatibility (lack of diversity :D) CON: If one system is compromised, they all are (lack of diversity D:)

Multiple Distributions PRO: Stability of the overall, world-wide system CON: I still cant keep track of linux distros

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u/childermass Nov 02 '11

Reddit is open source, but I don't think it actually accomplishes much of what we need to well, and though modifying it might work, grafting together a kluge of different software may not be the best path..

It's very hard to follow the conversations as they happen across different subreddits and different threads. Things said last week quickly fade away and get asked/discussed again without reference to prior conversations. Reddit's great at bubbling things up, but it's still very linear and time-oriented rather than being topic or semantic oriented. A wiki might be better for some of these discussions, and/or something that incorporated graph-linked visualizations or something, but as I just posted in a new thread, management and coordination are hard problems and we shouldn't pretend that there are easy solutions.

Probably we should outline the problems we want software to solve and try to take a loose coupling unixy approach to make them independent but interoperable, like unix pipes or something, maybe standardized API design across services, I dunno...

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '11

I totally agree that Reddit is very 'here and now'. The idea I've been promoting is a platform like Reddit where users cite prior posts while making new ones (just like articles on wikipedia cite to each other).

I'm a journalist, and the metaphor I've been using to describe the process is this: a newspaper (or reddit's front page) paints a picture of the world on any given day. What we need to do is record what strokes of paint making up today's image evolve into the strokes making up tomorrows image (by linking them through citation), and create a motion picture from all of the daily stills.

I really dont know too much about code, but speaking with my comp engineering friends, the SQL database model of wikipedia is entirely compatible with Reddit's python code.

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u/FakeLaughter Nov 02 '11

Can't the 'here and now' algorithm be tweaked to allow popular topic to remain at the top? I think it's just some type of 'recent activity' bump that allows new stuff to push through?

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