5 ms·

New Stackexchange like site for Ubuntu Q&A

24 points by patrickaljord 16y ago

patrickaljord 16y ago
This is supported by some people at Canonical such as http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/2010/07/19/an-invitation-to-try-ubuntus-qa-on-shapado-com/ http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/2010/07/19/an-invitation... Shapado has the advantage of being localized in many languages so that not only English speakers can ask and answer questions. Also just like Ubuntu, Shapado is 100% free and open source.
SandB0x 16y ago
A week before Stack Exchange launches their version: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu It would be great if one of these ended up superseding (at least some parts of) the current Ubuntu forums. Too often the "winning" replies are buried a few pages into the thread, and the information isn't updated as Ubuntu evolves. Edit: I'm not saying Stack Exchange is better, just that there's going to be a fight!
- patrickaljord 16y ago
  But it's only for English speaking users, and as you say it's not even out yet. Also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1556075 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1556075
- RossM 16y ago
  The Stack Exchange version has literally just entered private beta today.
papapep 16y ago
Shapado works like a charm, it's free, opensource, supports l10n and has many other great features. What else can we ask for? There's no possible comparison with a closed, for only english speakers application. Shapado is the way!
- DrJokepu 16y ago
  My only problem with Shapado is that, I don't know how to say that nicely, it's just simply hideous (in my opinion, at least). I'm not talking about major things, I mean a bunch of minor things such as things not lining up perfectly to the natural grid of the page, inconsequently used font sizes, etc. Nothing a professional graphic designer couldn't fix in a day.
  - patrickaljord 16y ago
    Feel free to submit patches http://gitorious.org/shapado http://gitorious.org/shapado
  - jfr 16y ago
    This is the first time I saw a Shapado site. In fact, I just learned its existence. Yet, in 3 minutes browsing the site I found may issues that raised a red flag. They made some very primary design mistakes. Observe the schema of question URLs, for example. They don't contain any numeric identifier, only the normalized contents of the title of the question. This means that: 1. Sooner than later the database indexing of questions from URL contents will become a bottleneck. In the best case, the whole URL has to be hashed and the (non-unique) hash looked up in the database. If it had a unique number, the application can just snap that part of the URL to uniquely retrieve a single entry. Also, if load balancing becomes important in the future, having a short unique identifier easily accessible in the URL is very important. 2. If the title of a question changes, either the URL changes too (which is not good (http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI) and causes problems) or the URL has to stay unchanged with the old contents of the title. Another issue: Country flags are displayed along usernames. I can't find the reference here, but this is a touchy subject in some cultures. Some cultures don't like to see flags for other countries, or don't want their flags to appear in a computer screen.
    - patrickaljord 16y ago
      1. We don't allow two questions with the same title, so I don't see how it will become a bottlenec. Can you explain please? 2. We already take care of that, the old urls are still valid, we just make a redirection with permanently moved code. About flags: People can choose not to show them on their settings page. Also, no big deal.
toxicflavor 16y ago
Superuser.com and ubuntuforums.org have worked well for me.
kylec 16y ago
Note: This is NOT a Stack Exchange site. "Stack Exchange" is a trademark of Stack Overflow Inc and may not be used to identify anything except Q&A websites built on the technology of Stack Overflow Inc. It might be understandable for a third party to make this mistake, but the submitter is the creator of Shapado himself, and is quite aware that his software is not Stack Exchange. http://stackoverflow.com/legal/trademark-guidance http://stackoverflow.com/legal/trademark-guidance Perhaps coincidentally, the private beta of the real Ubuntu Stack Exchange has just begun. The site will open up to the public in 7 days: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/ http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/
- patrickaljord 16y ago
  > Note: This is NOT a Stack Exchange site. "Stack Exchange" is a trademark of Stack Overflow Inc and may not be used to identify anything except Q&A websites built on the technology of Stack Overflow Inc. You should re-read the title, it says "stackexchange like site", not "stackexchange site". Also this site has the support of many from Canonical, the company that owns Ubuntu. > Perhaps coincidentally, the private beta of the real Ubuntu Stack Exchange has just begun But stackexchange is only for English speaking people. How about people from South America like myself or the rest of the world? Shapado supports many languages http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Shapado/stats http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Shapado/stats and integrates with more services, including Launchpad from Ubuntu. Also, Shapado is open source which is more in the spirit of Ubuntu.
  - kylec 16y ago
    I realize Shapado is basically a clone of the software, but identifying it as "Stack Exchange" even with "like" after it is still a trademark violation. You don't see advertisements for "Toyota-like" cars or "Apple-like" computers for precisely that reason.
    - patrickaljord 16y ago
      StackExchange must be lucky to have lawyers working for them for free ;)

24 points by patrickaljord 16y ago

This is supported by some people at Canonical such as http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/2010/07/19/an-invitation-to-try-ubuntus-qa-on-shapado-com/ http://www.fabianrodriguez.com/blog/2010/07/19/an-invitation... Shapado has the advantage of being localized in many languages so that not only English speakers can ask and answer questions. Also just like Ubuntu, Shapado is 100% free and open source.

SandB0x 16y ago

A week before Stack Exchange launches their version: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu It would be great if one of these ended up superseding (at least some parts of) the current Ubuntu forums. Too often the "winning" replies are buried a few pages into the thread, and the information isn't updated as Ubuntu evolves. Edit: I'm not saying Stack Exchange is better, just that there's going to be a fight!

patrickaljord 16y ago
But it's only for English speaking users, and as you say it's not even out yet. Also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1556075 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1556075
RossM 16y ago
The Stack Exchange version has literally just entered private beta today.

papapep 16y ago

Shapado works like a charm, it's free, opensource, supports l10n and has many other great features. What else can we ask for? There's no possible comparison with a closed, for only english speakers application. Shapado is the way!

DrJokepu 16y ago
My only problem with Shapado is that, I don't know how to say that nicely, it's just simply hideous (in my opinion, at least). I'm not talking about major things, I mean a bunch of minor things such as things not lining up perfectly to the natural grid of the page, inconsequently used font sizes, etc. Nothing a professional graphic designer couldn't fix in a day.
- patrickaljord 16y ago
  Feel free to submit patches http://gitorious.org/shapado http://gitorious.org/shapado
- jfr 16y ago
  This is the first time I saw a Shapado site. In fact, I just learned its existence. Yet, in 3 minutes browsing the site I found may issues that raised a red flag. They made some very primary design mistakes. Observe the schema of question URLs, for example. They don't contain any numeric identifier, only the normalized contents of the title of the question. This means that: 1. Sooner than later the database indexing of questions from URL contents will become a bottleneck. In the best case, the whole URL has to be hashed and the (non-unique) hash looked up in the database. If it had a unique number, the application can just snap that part of the URL to uniquely retrieve a single entry. Also, if load balancing becomes important in the future, having a short unique identifier easily accessible in the URL is very important. 2. If the title of a question changes, either the URL changes too (which is not good (http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI) and causes problems) or the URL has to stay unchanged with the old contents of the title. Another issue: Country flags are displayed along usernames. I can't find the reference here, but this is a touchy subject in some cultures. Some cultures don't like to see flags for other countries, or don't want their flags to appear in a computer screen.
  - patrickaljord 16y ago
    1. We don't allow two questions with the same title, so I don't see how it will become a bottlenec. Can you explain please? 2. We already take care of that, the old urls are still valid, we just make a redirection with permanently moved code. About flags: People can choose not to show them on their settings page. Also, no big deal.

toxicflavor 16y ago

Superuser.com and ubuntuforums.org have worked well for me.

kylec 16y ago

Note: This is NOT a Stack Exchange site. "Stack Exchange" is a trademark of Stack Overflow Inc and may not be used to identify anything except Q&A websites built on the technology of Stack Overflow Inc. It might be understandable for a third party to make this mistake, but the submitter is the creator of Shapado himself, and is quite aware that his software is not Stack Exchange. http://stackoverflow.com/legal/trademark-guidance http://stackoverflow.com/legal/trademark-guidance Perhaps coincidentally, the private beta of the real Ubuntu Stack Exchange has just begun. The site will open up to the public in 7 days: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7716/ubuntu http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/ http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/

patrickaljord 16y ago
> Note: This is NOT a Stack Exchange site. "Stack Exchange" is a trademark of Stack Overflow Inc and may not be used to identify anything except Q&A websites built on the technology of Stack Overflow Inc. You should re-read the title, it says "stackexchange like site", not "stackexchange site". Also this site has the support of many from Canonical, the company that owns Ubuntu. > Perhaps coincidentally, the private beta of the real Ubuntu Stack Exchange has just begun But stackexchange is only for English speaking people. How about people from South America like myself or the rest of the world? Shapado supports many languages http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Shapado/stats http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Shapado/stats and integrates with more services, including Launchpad from Ubuntu. Also, Shapado is open source which is more in the spirit of Ubuntu.
- kylec 16y ago
  I realize Shapado is basically a clone of the software, but identifying it as "Stack Exchange" even with "like" after it is still a trademark violation. You don't see advertisements for "Toyota-like" cars or "Apple-like" computers for precisely that reason.
  - patrickaljord 16y ago
    StackExchange must be lucky to have lawyers working for them for free ;)