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Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

ringerhq.com

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Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#41

Post by mintone »

mxuribe wrote: post #34
mintone wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi foxhop - at the moment, yes. We've had conversations with people about GitLab, Gitea, BitBucket, SourceHut and others and we'd like to support them, and self hosted, in time. For now we're constrained by resources though so I can't put a timeline on other services!

> ...We've had conversations with people about GitLab, Gitea, BitBucket, SourceHut and others and we'd like to support them, and self hosted, in time... I would guess that *when* you achieve support for those other (and especially self-hosted), then you'd up your game massively in the eyes of the open source software community. Of course....i acknowledge that this is not a small nor easy nor fast thing to achieve. ;-…

Thank you! I enjoy the big and not easy things, it's where the magic happens!

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#42

Post by danielvaughn »

I was just in an exact situation that called for something like this. About a month ago, I was trying to implement a collaborative text editor for a freelance client. This was my first time working in the CRDT/conflict resolution space, and I was completely unprepared for how complex it was.

I was using a few open source packages - TipTap, YJS, ProseMirror - but I had a particular use case that the docs simply didn't address (long story). It was the kind of help that would really require at least an hour sit-down with a very experienced developer to brainstorm with me on a solution, but there's not an obvious marketplace for that kind of touchpoint.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#43

Post by mintone »

danielvaughn wrote: post #42

I was just in an exact situation that called for something like this. About a month ago, I was trying to implement a collaborative text editor for a freelance client. This was my first time working in the CRDT/conflict resolution space, and I was completely unprepared for how complex it was. I was using a few open source packages - TipTap, YJS, ProseMirror - but I had a particular use case that the docs simply didn't…

Now there is! ;-)

Yeah - this is where I see us fitting well. It's not really the standard install/import and you're done issues that docs deal with. It's the niche problem niche expertise area where I believe we can excel - these tend to be very competent teams or developers who would be willing to take that hour and pay for it because the value is high enough.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#44

Post by smashah »

mintone wrote: post #31
smashah wrote: post #30

Cool project. I signed up to be an expert on my repos however I think I don't show up to potential clients until I add my stripe details. I've tried platforms like this and have secured basically zero revenue from any of them so I'm hesitant to go through the whole stripe setup process unless I get some confirmed work out of it. So my suggestion is to allow maintainers/dev to show up to potential clients before havin…

Hmm on this [1] page there is a link which should allow you to appear as an expert without completing the Stripe process. I think we might not be routing everyone through that page though! You can stay that way until you receive a request, which you cannot accept until you have set up payments. [1] https://www.ringerhq.com/u/become-a-ringer

ok my bad, I completely overlooked the "skip" part.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#45

Post by adigau31 »

danielvaughn wrote: post #42

I was just in an exact situation that called for something like this. About a month ago, I was trying to implement a collaborative text editor for a freelance client. This was my first time working in the CRDT/conflict resolution space, and I was completely unprepared for how complex it was. I was using a few open source packages - TipTap, YJS, ProseMirror - but I had a particular use case that the docs simply didn't…

Hey danielvaughn, I was curious if you ever considered Liveblocks for CRDT/conflict resolution?

They released an example for a block based text editor here: https://liveblocks.io/examples/block-text-editor-advanced/ne...

And as for CRDT and conflict resolution they have the Storage Block that's handling all of this. You can do offline/online and undo/redo quite easily.

I keep sending you example cause I'm a visual person :P, but look at that interactive article and let me know what you think: https://liveblocks.io/blog/how-to-build-undo-redo-in-a-multi...

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#46

Post by bragr »

pessimizer wrote: post #33
bragr wrote: post #32

How do you ensure that people aren't asking bad/sub-expert questions and burning out your experts? From the perspective of being an expert, I'm not sure how many basic introductions to docker compose [1] I'd want to do without any advanced questions before it would get tedious. Or worse, the questions boil down to "I'm struggling to install docker on my laptop" or "help me complete my homework exercises". You almost…

> How do you ensure that people aren't asking bad/sub-expert questions and burning out your experts? These are people who are being paid, right? I mean, I'm sure that plenty of adults get sick of hearing questions about subtraction and multiplication from 6 year olds, but as teachers it's their job and pays the rent. A platform facilitating paying for expert help seems like the ideal place for shitty questions to be…

>These are people who are being paid, right?

It is well documented that people are not that money motivated past a certain point. After that job satisfaction, respect, recognition, etc are much better motivators. You can only have a successful experts platform if you're able to recruit and retain those experts, otherwise you've just built a new Fiverr.

>I mean, I'm sure that plenty of adults get sick of hearing questions about subtraction and multiplication from 6 year olds, but as teachers it's their job and pays the rent.

Considering the teacher crisis right now, that's not a compelling example IMO.

>edit: Assuming no cheating is involved, what's wrong with paying an expert to help you with your homework? I think that a marketplace for expert help is flawed if you can't use it to find tutors.

Nothing wrong with it per say, but a site oriented towards tutoring is a different product IMO with a different kind of person you need to recruit. I don't think most experts want to be tutors or would make good tutors in the first place.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#47

Post by oneplane »

I really hope this works out well, it's a very difficult problem to solve with a chance of making a huge impact. If this is one of the major ways in which we can get FOSS contributors funded, get FOSS users 'paid support' and solve the 'who is the expert on subject X' problem all at the same time, everyone will be better for it.

The danger of success in this case might be a slow creep in requirements to 'be on Ringer or we do not want it' for FOSS projects, or if ringer gets bought by LinkedIn or something like that, that would be bad as well.

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#48

Post by danielvaughn »

adigau31 wrote: post #45
danielvaughn wrote: post #42

I was just in an exact situation that called for something like this. About a month ago, I was trying to implement a collaborative text editor for a freelance client. This was my first time working in the CRDT/conflict resolution space, and I was completely unprepared for how complex it was. I was using a few open source packages - TipTap, YJS, ProseMirror - but I had a particular use case that the docs simply didn't…

Hey danielvaughn, I was curious if you ever considered Liveblocks for CRDT/conflict resolution? They released an example for a block based text editor here: https://liveblocks.io/examples/block-text-editor-advanced/ne... And as for CRDT and conflict resolution they have the Storage Block that's handling all of this. You can do offline/online and undo/redo quite easily. I keep sending you example cause I'm a visual pe…

Wow, this is very cool. I had not seen this before. Bookmarking for later. Are you affiliated with them?

Re: Show HN: Ringer – Get and provide expert help on Open Source Software

#50

Post by pessimizer »

bragr wrote: post #46
pessimizer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you ensure that people aren't asking bad/sub-expert questions and burning out your experts? These are people who are being paid, right? I mean, I'm sure that plenty of adults get sick of hearing questions about subtraction and multiplication from 6 year olds, but as teachers it's their job and pays the rent. A platform facilitating paying for expert help seems like the ideal place for shitty questions to be…

>These are people who are being paid, right? It is well documented that people are not that money motivated past a certain point. After that job satisfaction, respect, recognition, etc are much better motivators. You can only have a successful experts platform if you're able to recruit and retain those experts, otherwise you've just built a new Fiverr. >I mean, I'm sure that plenty of adults get sick of hearing quest…

> After that job satisfaction, respect, recognition, etc are much better motivators.

I don't think that all people will inevitably be disappointed, disrespected, or go unrecognized for answering someone's simple question for money. I also don't think these things can be disentangled from pay: if you pay me what I want you to pay me in order to ask a basic question, I will be pleasantly surprised, feel like the questioner really values me, and build up recognition as it leads to more work.

> Considering the teacher crisis right now, that's not a compelling example IMO.

The teacher crisis is about not being paid, and being abused.

> a site oriented towards tutoring is a different product IMO with a different kind of person you need to recruit.

If I have a team that needs to know a particular package that there's no established training for, a contributor who knows it well could be a lifesaver. I'm no professional teacher (and honestly pretty impatient) and I've given talks/classes to both teams that I have been on, and other teams who needed expertise that was locked in our team. There doesn't have to be some caste system, and there's no reason to think that all contributors to a FOSS project would either be terrible at or reject work that requires their expertise rather than their line count.

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