Project incoming!

Would anyone actually be interested in POC'ing an open source alternative to devRant? Unfortunately it seems that this platform is going to the ground with little to no maintenance and even pipeless.io giving 502s.

I wouldn't expect anything real proper of it but could be a fun community project. Would require some planning though and probably more than just the odd person contributing.

Context in the middle of this thread: https://devrant.com/rants/9889646/...

@kobenz Developer estimates 😆 With a lot of people comes a lot of communication overhead as well. But yes, with some coordination I think we could move quite quickly too.

@kobenz we could also have a brand new baby by then if we start now ;)

@electrineer Here, have a read. Especially the second paragraph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... you're welcome

@ScriptCoded they didn't try what happens if half of devrant are involved, though.

POC'ing an open-source alternative to devRant signifies a commitment to innovation. This essay briefly explores the significance of Proof of Concept (POC) in developing an alternative to devRant. By embracing open-source principles, developers foster collaboration and customization, enhancing the platform's adaptability.

what’s the name ?

@vane You tell me 🙃

@ScriptCoded JoyScript Junction
Or ChuckleCommit Corner

@ScriptCoded YouTellMe sounds nice

When did chatgpt get internet access @jose3454?

@vane Actually does

@Totchinuko blessing me with your first interaction in 6 years? 😄

Any concrete ideas about the stack?

or atleast similarly important, what's the comm channels for that potential project? In this one i'd say the devrant matrix, that would atleast bring me to get into that haha

@Totchinuko's rants are a time capsule of the devrant we had but didn't deserve.

An open-source alternative to devRant == fediverse (mastodon) with a nicer UI + up/down voting + avatar designer (the graphics might be copyrighted btw?)

Let's call it fedirant.

I guess the API is the first thing to be sorted. And that's not too difficult either!

Somehow we would need to cover server costs though. But when there's an API, people would make clients regardless! So we wouldn't have to worry to much about that part :).

@joewilliams007 Yes, if only there were someone out there in the community who would be insane enough to take on the task of building a fully fledged client themselves. Hmmm... 😄

@thebiochemic No, absolute no thought about the stack. Yet. As @joewilliams007 said though cost would probably be a major concern.

As for communication I would advise to use something rather simple to get started unless the interest is booming. Matrix would suffice. If we use GitHub for source control we could also organize ourselves using projects and make sure to make good use of the issues system. That'd be an easy way to delegate work.

Oh and @joewilliams007, I think starting with an API is actually a great idea. That way we limit the scope and can focus on the foundations.

@usr--2ndry I think having it be a federated system would be super cool, and would also give it a chance to live on even if some single corner stone party decides to drop own. Personally I have no experience with such systems and have no clue how to engineer one properly.

@ScriptCoded that'd be awesome. IMO feels a bit like backstabbing devRant. However we cannot know if this plattform will die because of outdated tech. I think it is more of a question of 'when' and not if. And its probably extremly unlickely that the creators return to bring this plattform safely into the future, as they have moved on. Also i don't appreciate the fact that the main code is completly closed and uses analytics software, i cant see.

I guess in the beginning we can try to fund it ourselves and later on move to donations with proper credits. Cost is only really going to get higher when we introduce images. Embedding image links at first or using strong compression would be an option. But text will be the strong focus point anyways, like as on devRant right?

I'm getting to much into thinking already xD. I'm sure it will turn out great.

@ScriptCoded I'm happy to help though my background is backend mainly

If you wanna keep productivity high we'll need a dependable build process

That includes tests ༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ

@joewilliams007 Yeah I contemplated this a bit before writing the post. Even skimmed through the terms of service to make sure I wasn't backstabbing myself 😅 But in the end it's like with anything in life. People are free to make their own decisions, and the reason there's stuff that's better than other is because there is fair competition. The better alternative usually wins (as long as mega corporations aren't involved). And the best stuff is usually born from frustration and trying to solve a problem. In this case that problem is a lack of maintenance in my eyes.

Depending on what route we go there are some nice alternatives for file storage. Decent compression and $5 DigitalOcean Spaces goes a long way for example!

@MammaNeedHummus well backend seems to be step one, so that doesn't sound like a problem to me ;) And personally I'm guilty of writing unit tests even during hackathons :P

@ScriptCoded I'm fairly sure it was a reference to the quote from The Mythical Man Month about nine women can't make a baby in one month.

I am down to do web stack + native like flutter or some shit to make it easy. Anything but mastodon sorry lol

Just put a repo out there and see if it catches on lol

✌️ Check out dR Bulletin Board:

https://kbin.melroy.org/m/drbboard

It's just one of the corners in Fediverse and moderation is not elected this month... But maybe you will appreciate the open API with which Mbin comes and even make a client of your own that integrates neatly with our magazine!

Mbin is not Mastodon, it's more detailed alternative with rapid development. Nothing stops you from making account on one of other 1000+ Fediverse sites and interact with dRBB from there.

My point being is you wouldn't necessarily want to host all this,nor centralize in one place. Here's another proof-of-concept:

Rant and share stories with devRant, Mbin and Lemmy communities of choice. Write to microblog, browse aggregated links and offline bookmarks. Backup and share your prior rants.

^ Cross-post: reach through the popular communities, post to the smaller ones, devRant, or all those at your fingertips.

@vintprox yes, if this was actually followed through by clients that were actually used widely. A drawn structure would certainly help implementing the various types. And getting some kind of Community.

only downside, it gives us little control over the api's and we would have to conform to each plattform and fetch multiple api's Kinda, instead of one Good and with the features we want.

@joewilliams007 The point of Fediverse software like Mbin is often being able to retrieve whatever seems possible from other interconnected servers and give away an information in a standard protocol - this is basically how federation with ActivityPub helps us here.

Although it might not force some features deemed useful to us on something as basic as Pleroma, everything else that you'd expect from social media platforms is fundamentally there. And if we focus just on API of Mbin, instances of which grow quite a bit since its appearance, and if we contribute to it (if needed), while making an app that can answer the demands of devRant community, there is a good chance it will work out as a 1:1 alternative even without original API.

You also rightfully noted that active community is needed to push this thing. Maybe it's not dR Bulletin Board (it's not there yet?) or maybe it just needs a bit of promotion.

@joewilliams007 I also read into your concern about how devRant, as we know it, and Mbin have different structure to it and that platforms may end up layering on each other.

If Mbin is unlikely, then exploring the avenue of separate implementation with ActivityPub *support* is worth a shot anyway (recent example: Ecko). Anything that does talk through AP is there to stay: posts don't just disappear if server does, because others at that point have already replicated them. And you can have any feel you like out of your server implementation, of course.

One could even say that, to save devRant, the only thing needed is making it talk via ActivityPub. But we know how that goes... Devs have abandoned the platform, so it's up to you guys.

@vintprox i have never heard of AP before. Sounds interesting though. Being abandoned isnt a good look :/.

@joewilliams007 Uh, I think I should clarify. ActivityPub is a HTTP standard protocol approved by W3C, that you can make your server talk given the right addresses. AP is not a platform, and the one abandoned is devRant.

@vintprox ohh sorry. missunderstood. Yea. dR wont change probably... actually i'm stashing new rants for some time now though. in case it goes offline. to preserve atleast some of it.

i will look into AP. Thanks 😄.

@Nanos clowns overflow error xD.

Whoa, a lot of good ideas here! Just want to address that I think I'll open up for some more structured discussion regarding this topic. Maybe in matrix, a Discord meeting, a thread on the forum or who knows, maybe even a pull request to a markdown file on a new repo. Idk yet but I would really love for this to be a community project that we do for fun, to explore interesting technologies and come up with cool solutions. It doesn't necessarily have to be a full on clone or replacement for devRant.

@ScriptCoded yess. i've mentioned you in the matrix group about this

@ScriptCoded Yep. Discord aside, you can make VoIP calls on #drcc:matrix.org just as good and even fetch a public link for call where one doesn't even need a Matrix account (for those who don't want or join randomly from devRant, for any reason).

And for permanent notes, you are welcome to use dR Bulletin Board that I linked above.

Let's discuss these ideas on open platforms! 😊

📌
Just leaving a pin here in case it becomes relevant for my iOS+macOS client :)