[HN Gopher] Codidact - A community-run, open-source Q&A platform
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Codidact - A community-run, open-source Q&A platform
        
       Author : leonry
       Score  : 44 points
       Date   : 2021-11-02 10:08 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.codidact.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.codidact.com)
        
       | jaredcwhite wrote:
       | This looks pretty awesome. Cool to see a new open source Ruby-
       | based platform enter the scene (along with Forem, Discourse,
       | Mastodon, and so many others).
       | 
       | It'll be interesting to see how their open proposal process for
       | creating new communities in the main network scales over time. I
       | like the fact many of the initial communities here aren't just in
       | the super-nerd tech territory.
        
       | denysvitali wrote:
       | Discourse (although written in Ruby), is very good at Q&As IMHO
        
         | asiachick wrote:
         | I absolutely detest Discourse
         | 
         | (1) It's super bloated. It requires a 10x the resources of an
         | old school PHP forum. I'm not saying an old school PHP forum is
         | better. Only that gees! Why do I need to pay 1GIG dedicated
         | machine when a shared PHP host was working for ~15yrs
         | 
         | (2) All the damn gamification that's so effing annoying. I've
         | got enough notifications in my life. I don't need "You posted
         | your first message", "You posted your first reply", "You edited
         | your first message". The only notifications I want are those
         | that are actually useful for me "You got a reply"
         | 
         | (3) Poor design for engagement. I have no data on this but I've
         | never seen a discourse forum be as active as older non-
         | discourse forums. Something about the way it's designed IMO
         | discourages long lived lively topics. Where is the NeoGAF of
         | discourse? Where is the Tigsource of discourse?
        
           | alexknowshtml wrote:
           | I've seen way too many forums die in the switch from an old
           | school forum to Discourse. Makes me sad.
        
       | posterboy wrote:
       | I've seen the language section of this platform before and I'm
       | under no illusion that their etymology section would be more
       | welcoming than other prominent ones about speculation like, for
       | example, is _codidact_ a pun on _addict_?
       | 
       | Although this could be a useful usecase for me personally, I do
       | in any other event not see what value they are trying to add over
       | the big SE
        
         | BenjiWiebe wrote:
         | If you are familiar with the rather uncommon word didact (I
         | am), then co-didact is a meaningful and clever name for the
         | site.
        
         | b3morales wrote:
         | > I do in any other event not see what value they are trying to
         | add over the big SE
         | 
         | They started as a breakaway group; the project was created as a
         | result of severe user dissatisfaction with some of Stack
         | Exchange's actions.
         | 
         | The FAQ also has this entry:
         | 
         | > We differ from Stack Exchange in several core ways, of which
         | perhaps the most significant is that Stack Exchange is a for-
         | profit company while Codidact is currently run by volunteers
         | and incorporated as a UK Community Interest Company (CIC). This
         | means that instead of focusing on profit, we can focus entirely
         | on the needs of our communities. You can read more in [The
         | Codidact Vision][0].
         | 
         | [0]:https://meta.codidact.com/articles/276296
        
           | galaxyLogic wrote:
           | There is value in non-profit for the users. Think of Facebook
           | and how their business-model benefits from getting users
           | engaged by getting enraged, to keep them reading more
           | "shocking stuff".
           | 
           | SE is a for-profit company and no doubt that is a reason
           | behind their gamified approach of making users more or less
           | compete on who gets the most points, which can lead to an
           | adversarial atmosphere. A non-profit's main priority will be
           | getting users to collaborate, not compete.
        
         | programmarchy wrote:
         | Probably a pun on autodidact. I first read it as "co did act",
         | but once I saw the tag line it clicked.
         | 
         | Regarding SE, if you mean StackExchange, Codidact is open
         | source, so you can host your own.
        
         | danielvaughn wrote:
         | I take codidact as a portmanteau of "collaborative" and
         | "didactic".
        
           | BenjiWiebe wrote:
           | I was thinking the co was like coworkers.
        
       | leonry wrote:
       | Another service/community is referred on the main site. It is
       | called TopAnswers (https://topanswers.xyz/).
        
       | ParadisoShlee wrote:
       | That name tho.
        
       | cinntaile wrote:
       | Hahaha, this is great. Imagine you have this idea, you execute on
       | it and you come up with a clever name. Only some of your audience
       | has never heard of the word didact and thinks it's a pun on
       | addict. From codeine addict I guess? In reality it's quite a
       | fitting name, it means to learn together.
        
       | tbonesteaks wrote:
       | this looks very similar to
       | question2answers(https://www.question2answer.org/), but with a
       | more updated UI. q2a has a lot of features and has been around
       | for a long time, and since it is PHP it is simple to setup.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-11-04 23:01 UTC)