7 ms·

FLibrary, a college notes publishing community

16 points by ashbreaker 4y ago

VoidWhisperer 4y ago
On the surface this seems like an interesting idea, but I feel like you will run into some issues here: 1. Textbook makers are generally not happy when you copy whole pages (as an image or not) from their textbooks and I wouldn't be surprised if you start receiving takedown requests as a result - especially considering you seem to have the ability to let people charge for their notes. 2. On a similar note, if this were to start drilling down to students sharing notes at a per-class level, some professors have warnings explicitly disallowing the redistribution of their slides. 3. The main page of the website is in english but as it currently stands, absolutely none of the actual content is in english.. it seems a bit odd to link this on a forum that is primarily english speaking as a result
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  1. Fair use, if just one person using just one snippet on just one post. 2. See 1 3. This, and other UI clunks, are the only thing holding this back, this sounds cool!
  - VoidWhisperer 4y ago
    I would think the idea of fair use would get a little bit murky with them allowing people to charge for the notes
- ashbreaker 4y ago
  Thanks for your feedback. And yes, we are aware of the underlying copyright issues of notes or study guides as derivations of textbooks or courses. We wish we could find a satisfying middle ground. As for the contents, actually one (Linear Algebra in Diagrams) is in English, and indeed most of the upcoming guides are designed to be either purely English or bilingual. But yes, we do have some in other language as well.
  - melony 4y ago
    You might want to consider implementing metadata sanitization and cleaning uploaded files to prevent institutions from persecuting uploaders.
    - ashbreaker 4y ago
      This sounds more like a last resort as we don’t pirate notes and guides. We might try to constructively solve the issue by obtaining permit from copyright holder of the original work or even register copyright for our derivative works like those notes and guides.
  - ivansavz 4y ago
    The "Linear Algebra in Diagrams"[1] seems interesting, but I didn't understand how I can download. Do I need to register and "purchase" even though it's $0 cost? [1] https://flibrary.info/store/prod_info?prod_id=e9fdcce3-937e-402a-9bb4-79a6fa052da7 https://flibrary.info/store/prod_info?prod_id=e9fdcce3-937e-...
    - ashbreaker 4y ago
      Minireference is awesome! I love the style and purpose of the textbooks by minireference incorporates!
      - ivansavz 4y ago
        Thank you for feedback. I try very hard to make compact explanations, but it's not always easy since some ideas are inherently complex, and once you include prerequisite topics (like `apt-get install x` pulls in dependency packages y,z,...) it ends up being hundreds of pages. Sometimes it's amazing though, you can condense a lot of material in just a few pages of notes, see for exmaple the linear algebra tutorial https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/linear_algebra_in_4_pages.pdf https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/linear_algebra_in...
    - ashbreaker 4y ago
melony 4y ago
How do you plan to compete against the likes of OneClass, CourseHero, Studocu etc.?
- ashbreaker 4y ago
  I personally believe the main distinction could be on the content side. CourseHero and Studocu serve great resources and provide almost unlimited choices but you have to take trials to find the best for you (if it exists). What we wish to achieve is to have a selected set of high-quality and consistent-in-style contents aligned with specific courses at some universities. We believe that could benefit most of the students particularly at those universities. Finally, I don’t think we “complete” cause we are a group of students sharing the same vision and not a corporation. You can find us open-sourced at https://github.com/flibrary https://github.com/flibrary
  - melony 4y ago
    The idea is wonderful but GitHub is not a good file hosting solution. Eventually you will receive a DMCA or C&D. Consider incorporating and putting the file hosting in another jurisdiction using a self hosted git server like Gogs or Onedev.
    - ashbreaker 4y ago
      Thanks. We are gradually phasing out past practice of “abusing” GitHub to host images by making use of CDNs.

16 points by ashbreaker 4y ago

On the surface this seems like an interesting idea, but I feel like you will run into some issues here: 1. Textbook makers are generally not happy when you copy whole pages (as an image or not) from their textbooks and I wouldn't be surprised if you start receiving takedown requests as a result - especially considering you seem to have the ability to let people charge for their notes. 2. On a similar note, if this were to start drilling down to students sharing notes at a per-class level, some professors have warnings explicitly disallowing the redistribution of their slides. 3. The main page of the website is in english but as it currently stands, absolutely none of the actual content is in english.. it seems a bit odd to link this on a forum that is primarily english speaking as a result

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
1. Fair use, if just one person using just one snippet on just one post. 2. See 1 3. This, and other UI clunks, are the only thing holding this back, this sounds cool!
- VoidWhisperer 4y ago
  I would think the idea of fair use would get a little bit murky with them allowing people to charge for the notes
ashbreaker 4y ago
Thanks for your feedback. And yes, we are aware of the underlying copyright issues of notes or study guides as derivations of textbooks or courses. We wish we could find a satisfying middle ground. As for the contents, actually one (Linear Algebra in Diagrams) is in English, and indeed most of the upcoming guides are designed to be either purely English or bilingual. But yes, we do have some in other language as well.
- melony 4y ago
  You might want to consider implementing metadata sanitization and cleaning uploaded files to prevent institutions from persecuting uploaders.
  - ashbreaker 4y ago
    This sounds more like a last resort as we don’t pirate notes and guides. We might try to constructively solve the issue by obtaining permit from copyright holder of the original work or even register copyright for our derivative works like those notes and guides.
- ivansavz 4y ago
  The "Linear Algebra in Diagrams"[1] seems interesting, but I didn't understand how I can download. Do I need to register and "purchase" even though it's $0 cost? [1] https://flibrary.info/store/prod_info?prod_id=e9fdcce3-937e-402a-9bb4-79a6fa052da7 https://flibrary.info/store/prod_info?prod_id=e9fdcce3-937e-...
  - ashbreaker 4y ago
    Minireference is awesome! I love the style and purpose of the textbooks by minireference incorporates!
    - ivansavz 4y ago
      Thank you for feedback. I try very hard to make compact explanations, but it's not always easy since some ideas are inherently complex, and once you include prerequisite topics (like `apt-get install x` pulls in dependency packages y,z,...) it ends up being hundreds of pages. Sometimes it's amazing though, you can condense a lot of material in just a few pages of notes, see for exmaple the linear algebra tutorial https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/linear_algebra_in_4_pages.pdf https://minireference.com/static/tutorials/linear_algebra_in...
  - ashbreaker 4y ago

melony 4y ago

How do you plan to compete against the likes of OneClass, CourseHero, Studocu etc.?

ashbreaker 4y ago
I personally believe the main distinction could be on the content side. CourseHero and Studocu serve great resources and provide almost unlimited choices but you have to take trials to find the best for you (if it exists). What we wish to achieve is to have a selected set of high-quality and consistent-in-style contents aligned with specific courses at some universities. We believe that could benefit most of the students particularly at those universities. Finally, I don’t think we “complete” cause we are a group of students sharing the same vision and not a corporation. You can find us open-sourced at https://github.com/flibrary https://github.com/flibrary
- melony 4y ago
  The idea is wonderful but GitHub is not a good file hosting solution. Eventually you will receive a DMCA or C&D. Consider incorporating and putting the file hosting in another jurisdiction using a self hosted git server like Gogs or Onedev.
  - ashbreaker 4y ago
    Thanks. We are gradually phasing out past practice of “abusing” GitHub to host images by making use of CDNs.