Thanks, I'll definitely check it out. I found mvcforum to be surprisingly well built (https://github.com/YodasMyDad/mvcforum) but even there you could see major changes had to be made at some point (like completely dropping the repository layer in release 1.8).
I'm working on a new model of how online discussion is done by developing a new monetizing strategy which shares ad revenue with users who bring original and quality content to the board. In essence, insightful comments which spark meaningful discussion are rewarded with real money (or an option to gift that money to a charity or another user).
We're a startup (https://whoaverse.com) using .NET4.5/C# MVC5 and SQL, currently working on getting set up in Switzerland. C# beauty, Visual Studio and Azure were the key factors why we decided to go with .NET.
Bing is a clone of Google and Yahoo is a clone of... DuckDuckGo? Call it what you want, here are just a few distinctions:
- built-in night mode (reddit does not have this)
- responsive design which works great on mobile out of the box (reddit does not have this)
- limited voting (new users need to gain a certain amount of points before they are able to vote without restrictions, reddit does not have this)
- limited number of owned subs (reddit does not have this, one person can and does moderate hundreds of subs)
- youtube-like score bar which graphically shows percentage of upvotes/downvotes (reddit does not have this)
- user profiles which show statistics about user activity, for example, submission distribution and highest-lowest rated submissions (reddit does not have this)
- better privacy, users can delete all data stored about them if they decide to leave and close their account (reddit does not have this, all data is kept and public even after user deletes his account)
- youtube-like revenue sharing model (in development) where community is rewarded with real money (reddit does not have this)
- based in Switzerland, no censorship policy as long as content is legal (reddit is like North Korea when it comes to this, censoring thefappening but leaving sexwithdogs)
- no blatant ad submissions posing as regular posts policy (examples: a photo of a starbucks cup with a cute kitten inside which frequently reaches reddit frontpage or a video titled "look what I filmed with my GoPro")
- ...constant dialog with community and very open to new ideas and improvement
We are in the process of raising first round of funds for http://whoaverse.com and things are starting to get interesting. We have major plans for both enterprise and private use of the platform and when it comes to giving back to the community - we plan to use the same model big players like YouTube and Twitch have for rewarding content creation (actual money).
This will be a fun ride which currently feels like David vs Goliath, but boy is it fun :)
There is a pile of 8 books on my table right now (pro asp.net mvc 5, visual c# 2012, software architecture in practice, database solutions...". I started by skimming through each and every one of them, and it all seemed rather boring. Nothing taught me more than working on my side project.[1] I am far from good at anything and there is a long ways to go but actually digging in and creating something was very rewarding.
I checked out lobste.rs and I liked it. Thanks! I also noticed that Lobster github repo currently has 22 contributors. Comparing Lobster to a 1 man project is not fair :p I'll keep working on Whoaverse though, who know what may come out of it :)
As far as I knew, HN was not hugely popular. I was wrong. For a brief moment my post reached HN frontpage and the visits peaked at 70. I tried browsing the site during this peak period and I noticed no difference under this "load".
I am a 2nd year CS student and this is my side project. The point of the project is to help me better understand asp.net mvc, jquery, sql and all the other bells and whistles that are required to develop something like this. So far, about 90 man hours have gone into this project (only 1 developer). I am constantly improving it and I would love to hear your comments. Go easy on me :)
ps. the site is running on a rather limited VPS instance which costs me about $15/month.
I am actively working on a "Reddit"-like community. Open source, asp.net mvc (c#,sql). Been working on it for a few weeks now. Would love to get some more devs to join and contribute. At first this was a hobby thing that started with windows forms but after finding out about asp.net mvc and entity framework, this turned into at least 3 hours a day thing :)
Spike of interest? Zero upvotes, zero interest :) I made a C# clone of HN/Reddit (well, sort of, still working on it) and it's open source, but I have yet to see any interest whatsoever :) It has been a great learning experience so far since this is my first .net project ever, being a 2nd year CS student in Sweden. The url? Funny you should ask: http://forbidme.com (yes, domain name is weird).
Awesome concept. It was about time someone made a system like this. As an avid redditor with quite a bit of useless reddit-karma, I'll give your site a try. If you were selling company shares, I'd buy some right away :) Good luck!