My weekend hack postmortem: Iterating(blog.oak.io)
blog.oak.io
My weekend hack postmortem: Iterating
http://blog.oak.io/post/23812010432/iterating-my-weekend-hack-postmortem-part-1
8 comments
Thanks! I spent a couple of days on the article and was pretty nervous having not written anything but specs in a year or two.
I also am starting to find the colors cluttering, mostly because they're the first thing my eyes are drawn to on any given page. I'm not sure what the solution is here. If I make them any smaller, they look even worse.
I also am starting to find the colors cluttering, mostly because they're the first thing my eyes are drawn to on any given page. I'm not sure what the solution is here. If I make them any smaller, they look even worse.
I think you only need the colors inside a thread and not really on the front page... and then in one thread you could just add a unique picture/avatar per participant (but maybe something subtle, not like a usual avatar - I was thinking of replacing the color rectangle by a random picture of the same format)
This could be used with the poster's IP address. https://robohash.org/
I don't know if you were influenced by it, but anonymous text boards are somewhat common on the Japanese internet, and there are a small number of English (and Spanish and German) language derivatives. Unfortunately, even though there are several pieces of text board software, they're all very similar. Seeing something like this which is highly divergent is quite a treat.
Are threads ordered by most recent post or something more complicated?
Are threads ordered by most recent post or something more complicated?
The threads are ordered by if they are sticky and then the most recent item.
I've looked into ("chan"?) text boards, but they're all in PHP and usually in some huge file with no separation of concerns.
I've looked into ("chan"?) text boards, but they're all in PHP and usually in some huge file with no separation of concerns.
If you hash the ip and then use that for colouring the hash function is likely to be surjective (rather than bijective) but perhaps you could still work back to "it was probably one of these x (255?) ips"? If you then open source the code too, do you make it more susceptible to working back to the original ip? Perhaps you'd need some form of salt too?
Hey there mate. I'm the one who was linking to the Underscore.js annotated escape function:
http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/docs/underscore.h...
If you use something like this when displaying messages, it should not allow any XSS.
http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/docs/underscore.h...
If you use something like this when displaying messages, it should not allow any XSS.
I wonder what the cultural impact would be if realtime anonymous forums forced everyone to use proper spelling/grammar.
Interesting thought. How would you implement that in an algorithm? Maybe a Bayesian filter?
It doesn't have to be enforced algorIthmically. It can just use a client-side spellchecking library that makes spelling errors very visible. When it detects > $THRESHOLD errors, then it shows a warning saying, "Your post will be partially hidden if you don't fix your spelling/grammar errors." Then, on the client-side, it changes the opacity to something like 0.5 for posts with > $THRESHOLD spelling/grammar errors.
Please, please do not use ragefaces while writing.
In addition to being an utterly exhausted internet meme, they take something out of the prose- it would be more compelling, better flowing writing if you were to try and describe your own feelings.
I should add that, as prosody said, imageboard discussions are working anonymous communication models.
Take 2channel, with the slogan 「ハッキング」から「今晩のおかず」まで (From "hacking" to "side dishes for tonight's dinner"): it generates revenue of around 100 million yen per year; or perhaps 4chan, which has either scarred the internet, or broadened it depending on your viewpoint, having once (I believe) produced those images you used in your post.
I'd be really interested to see how you use similar projects to inspire yours, and as I've tried to show, innovation in this area could be influential or lucrative.
Ragefaces are one of my favorite parts of Internet culture, and I did think about it before I inserted them into the post. I think they give it a certain feeling, that this is an experiment and I'm playing around.
I've tried to take the good parts of every service I could find, and leave out the rest. I don't intend to make any revenue from this site. It's only for fun :)
I've tried to take the good parts of every service I could find, and leave out the rest. I don't intend to make any revenue from this site. It's only for fun :)
instead of the color (which personally I like), you could use numbers, so the first person who replies is #1, next is #2, and they re-use that number for the extent of that thread. That way if you're having a discussion with someone, you know it's still them
If you guys have any feedback on the site or my writing, I'd love to hear!
It's a really interesting concept! And nicely executed too.
That being said, I don't know if I'll come back after having played with it for 5 minutes...
That being said, I don't know if I'll come back after having played with it for 5 minutes...
That's totally fine. I'm only intending this to be an experiment, and honestly something to hack on in my spare time.
I'm curious though, what would compel you to return?
I'm curious though, what would compel you to return?
That's an interesting question, and I don't think I have the answer... And if I did I wouldn't tell you and launch my own website ;)
Seriously though, I think it would be hard to get a sense of community on a website where you can't identify the persons that are interacting with you... But of course the whole point is to be anonymous.
PS: what about the pokeball there ?
Seriously though, I think it would be hard to get a sense of community on a website where you can't identify the persons that are interacting with you... But of course the whole point is to be anonymous.
PS: what about the pokeball there ?
I think the pokeball is because of the name of the service, there was this character in Pokemon called Prof. Oak.
What gives 4chan a sense of community? I agree, just wondering.
You're right, I don't know. oak.io is indeed starting to look like 4chan a little...
But 4chan has some sense of community, no?
It was one of the most interesting experiences I've had online; I noticed that I was liking/not-liking things specific people would say, that I normally wouldn't. I had somehow managed to surpass the internal biases I had built up about specific people. Obviously doesn't answer the question of how I'd change if I was acting anonymously, since everyone else could identify me. But for me looking out and interacting largely anonymously with people I already knew was profound.
Personally, I find the color's annoying and cluttered, but it is a decent idea to add some common identity inside a thread. I like the idea in general, and would love to see more things like it.
You're writing was great. I laughed several times during the "Then all hell broke loose" section.