7 ms·

Show HN: my open source "reddit"-like community

12 points by atko 12y ago

atko 12y ago
I am a 2nd year CS student and this is my side project. The point of the project is to help me better understand asp.net mvc, jquery, sql and all the other bells and whistles that are required to develop something like this. So far, about 90 man hours have gone into this project (only 1 developer). I am constantly improving it and I would love to hear your comments. Go easy on me :) ps. the site is running on a rather limited VPS instance which costs me about $15/month.
- joshmlewis 12y ago
  I applaud you doing this from scratch (besides stealing Reddits styles), it sounds like you've learned a lot. How'd you decide on this project?
thebiglebrewski 12y ago
Woah, this isn't just reddit-like, this is like, a direct clone. Did you copy their HTML/CSS file?
- atko 12y ago
  Yes, I used reddit css file with attribution. Attibution is on the about page: http://whoaverse.com/about http://whoaverse.com/about
  - joshmlewis 12y ago
    Ha, I don't know if it's ok to rip people's CSS file and then "attribute" it unless they specifically say that's ok it's still copyrighted.
    - andymcsherry 12y ago
      Reddit publishes it on github, the license is here: https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE
    - atko 12y ago
      Reddit CPAL license (Common Public Attribution License Version 1.0 (CPAL)) states so.
atko 12y ago
65 people browsing the site right now... please don't kill my VPS :p
- dkuntz2 12y ago
  Genuinely curious: were you not expecting a traffic boost from HN?
  - atko 12y ago
    As far as I knew, HN was not hugely popular. I was wrong. For a brief moment my post reached HN frontpage and the visits peaked at 70. I tried browsing the site during this peak period and I noticed no difference under this "load".
    - dkuntz2 12y ago
      That's always a great feeling when you get a relatively large amount of traffic and nothing breaks.
Mandatum 12y ago
Your name-generation for those automated accounts are hilarious.
leepowers 12y ago
An open-source Reddit clone written in .NET For the developer, it seems like a good way to learn more about web development. Aside from learning or novelty value, I would probably just fork the Reddit repo on Github if I was looking for a clone, as the reddit.com site code is already open-source: https://github.com/reddit/reddit https://github.com/reddit/reddit
- dkuntz2 12y ago
  Or use the https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/ code: https://github.com/jcs/lobsters https://github.com/jcs/lobsters
  - atko 12y ago
    I checked out lobste.rs and I liked it. Thanks! I also noticed that Lobster github repo currently has 22 contributors. Comparing Lobster to a 1 man project is not fair :p I'll keep working on Whoaverse though, who know what may come out of it :)
    - dkuntz2 12y ago
      I wasn't comparing, leepowers said if he needed a community site he'd probably just spin up a reddit (which has even more contributors, six of which look to be really active). While lobste.rs has 22 contributors listed, it's mostly just jcs, see the contributor graph: https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors

12 points by atko 12y ago

atko 12y ago

I am a 2nd year CS student and this is my side project. The point of the project is to help me better understand asp.net mvc, jquery, sql and all the other bells and whistles that are required to develop something like this. So far, about 90 man hours have gone into this project (only 1 developer). I am constantly improving it and I would love to hear your comments. Go easy on me :) ps. the site is running on a rather limited VPS instance which costs me about $15/month.

joshmlewis 12y ago
I applaud you doing this from scratch (besides stealing Reddits styles), it sounds like you've learned a lot. How'd you decide on this project?

thebiglebrewski 12y ago

Woah, this isn't just reddit-like, this is like, a direct clone. Did you copy their HTML/CSS file?

atko 12y ago
Yes, I used reddit css file with attribution. Attibution is on the about page: http://whoaverse.com/about http://whoaverse.com/about
- joshmlewis 12y ago
  Ha, I don't know if it's ok to rip people's CSS file and then "attribute" it unless they specifically say that's ok it's still copyrighted.
  - andymcsherry 12y ago
    Reddit publishes it on github, the license is here: https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE
  - atko 12y ago
    Reddit CPAL license (Common Public Attribution License Version 1.0 (CPAL)) states so.

atko 12y ago

65 people browsing the site right now... please don't kill my VPS :p

dkuntz2 12y ago
Genuinely curious: were you not expecting a traffic boost from HN?
- atko 12y ago
  As far as I knew, HN was not hugely popular. I was wrong. For a brief moment my post reached HN frontpage and the visits peaked at 70. I tried browsing the site during this peak period and I noticed no difference under this "load".
  - dkuntz2 12y ago
    That's always a great feeling when you get a relatively large amount of traffic and nothing breaks.

Mandatum 12y ago

Your name-generation for those automated accounts are hilarious.

leepowers 12y ago

An open-source Reddit clone written in .NET For the developer, it seems like a good way to learn more about web development. Aside from learning or novelty value, I would probably just fork the Reddit repo on Github if I was looking for a clone, as the reddit.com site code is already open-source: https://github.com/reddit/reddit https://github.com/reddit/reddit

dkuntz2 12y ago
Or use the https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/ code: https://github.com/jcs/lobsters https://github.com/jcs/lobsters
- atko 12y ago
  I checked out lobste.rs and I liked it. Thanks! I also noticed that Lobster github repo currently has 22 contributors. Comparing Lobster to a 1 man project is not fair :p I'll keep working on Whoaverse though, who know what may come out of it :)
  - dkuntz2 12y ago
    I wasn't comparing, leepowers said if he needed a community site he'd probably just spin up a reddit (which has even more contributors, six of which look to be really active). While lobste.rs has 22 contributors listed, it's mostly just jcs, see the contributor graph: https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors