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Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

metadocs8.com

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Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#21

Post by ritinkar »

thebeastie wrote: post #11

This is very neat. One question, would you consider making a version of your service that works like discourse.org? I don’t mean changing the discussion software to match theirs, I mean allowing clients to embed your software in their page. Also, for what it’s worth, if you had plug-in authentication of users you might find some clients in in web3.

I haven't thought about that direction yet, although I am aware of discourse and disqus.

Metadocs is pretty young, so I'll think about it.

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#22

Post by camtarn »

qprofyeh wrote: post #16

Hope this works out! I used to read the comments on PHP.net to learn more about certain features or to find example usages. This made the PHP community seem very approachable and helpful.

Similarly! You always wanted to read the comments, because the docs would not necessarily tell you that such-and-such a function had tricky edge cases, or had been replaced by a better version, or was a massive security risk.

Of course all of that should have been in the docs to start with, but the comments really saved that site.

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#23

Post by oezi »

ritinkar wrote: post #18
esperent wrote: post #12

I've dreamed of something like this for a long time. However, the actual tool is only a tiny part of the problem. The bigger part is moderation and spam. While this is niche that's not a big deal, but it's also nothing like reddit in that case. What if it does take of? How will you handle spam/astroturfing/hate/illegal comments?

Lots of problems to be solved yet. Moderating 10 comments / day is very different from moderating 10k/day which in turn is different from millions a day. I'll initially start by moderating comments myself, (need to create a policy first) and see what to do from there.

Moderation should work peer-to-peer. If somebody wants to post they have to first review posts which were flagged by users to violate the TOS. If sufficient users agree on the flag, the post is taken down.

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#27

Post by divbzero »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #10
tsol wrote: post #4

There was a cool link curator service called StumbleUpon. You click a button, and it takes you to a random interesting web page. One of my favorite things about this is you can comment on these pages as well. It was fun to see other peoples reactions to random pages, flash videos, memes, art, essay, etc. Eventually I realized that you can click the 'discussion' button even on pages that StumbleUpon didn't bring me to…

I too remember StumbleUpon fondly. Now I feel like it's a way to get people to go to questionable sites, but back then it was a lot of fun. > Rarely did I see trolling or off topic comments(Ie politics). I wonder if this is due to the format or strictly because of the time?

I think it was partly the time and partly the community. The format probably didn’t have much to do with it.

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#28

Post by RupertEisenhart »

oezi wrote: post #23
ritinkar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of problems to be solved yet. Moderating 10 comments / day is very different from moderating 10k/day which in turn is different from millions a day. I'll initially start by moderating comments myself, (need to create a policy first) and see what to do from there.

Moderation should work peer-to-peer. If somebody wants to post they have to first review posts which were flagged by users to violate the TOS. If sufficient users agree on the flag, the post is taken down.

This. You should read up about how recaptcha worked in the early days to do 'authority of the masses'. (I don't know any particular sources, maybe these methods are properly defined now in some framework.)

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#29

Post by RupertEisenhart »

There was something like this going around in ~2008, it was a plugin bar that turned the internet into a game, you could leave mines and portals on websites that would take you to other websites, so people could add their own hyperlink layer on top of the internet.

I wish I could remember the name of it, I played with it for a few weeks but then they put up a paywall.

That spirit of communal being-on-the-internet I only saw breifly recaptured again by the Beaker Browser, which unfortuantely seems also to be going the way of all things. There you could fork and remix any website you were on, could in principle afford a much more mucking-in stle of what you are trying to do here.

I think this could be great! Keep at it!

Re: Show HN: Metadocs, kinda like Reddit, but built into every documentation

#30

Post by yarg »

esperent wrote: post #13

I've dreamed of something like this for a long time. However, the actual tool is only a tiny part of the problem. The bigger part is moderation and spam. While this is niche with a tiny user base that's not a big deal. But, what if it does take of? How will you handle spam/astroturfing/hate/illegal comments?

Totally tangential, but HN should be able to handle duped comments.
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