6 ms·

Subnetcube – An anonymous minimal discussion board for individual subnets

76 points by sn_master 12y ago

walterbell 12y ago
Cool localization idea, but major cold start barrier. How to advertise the board to people on the same subnet?
- sn_master 12y ago
  (I am the author of the website) No idea really. I wanted it mainly because in my office we have very high email volume, that it repels people automatically (Outlook "threading" sucks too). That and, a lot of people feel shy replying/talking about things knowing it would be liked to them (eg higher-up devs). Not sure how well it will fare in the real-world tho. If I find no one is using it will just pull the plug and keep it local for my office only.
  - walterbell 12y ago
    You could provide a presence indicator when someone connects from the same subnet, like joining an IRC channel. That way, people could leave a browser window until someone arrives. Try promoting the site on local communities where there is already a critical mass of people on the same subnets, e.g. http://blog.bloglocal.net/everyblock-alternatives/ http://blog.bloglocal.net/everyblock-alternatives/ Could be popular in other offices, but would need to be opensource.
    - sn_master 12y ago
      hmm yeah. An indicator can easily be done for any subnet you are in. Awesome idea, I'll do it in v2 !
  - nucleardog 12y ago
    It would be neat if the change subnet allowed you to jump up a little further. Having a board for the class C pretty much gets me... my office. Having a separate board for the /16 or even /8 would allow users a little more granularity on how their message is spread (local users, my ISP's users/regional users).
    - sn_master 12y ago
      It was in my original plan, but then I thought most users may find it confusing. Looking at it now, I guess I'll do it (I already have a change subnet option if you click on the Pi icon).
kaoD 12y ago
I didn't understand that "greetings citizens of A.B.C.X !" was actually a post until I posted my own. It had +1 likes. Did anyone like it, or is the default post +1ed by default?
- castis 12y ago
  Since I had the same thing, I'd assume its a default thing.
- sn_master 12y ago
  It is a default post with a default +1 like added when a user visits from a subnet for the first time. I was not sure how to indicate that you can have threads, likes and comments etc for first-time users, so I thought to have this default post just to get people doing.
robobro 12y ago
Very cute! Will you open the source?
- sn_master 12y ago
  sure. Its nothing fancy, mostly its in pure node.js with only selected few libraries for the database etc. I'll do it once I have enough confidence that everything is alright after some usage.
arh68 12y ago
I agree seeing the /16 and /8 would be very interesting. Perhaps just list those posts inline, with a smaller/greyer font. How hard is it to reliably extract an area code from an IP address? Now that would be nice. Kind of like craigslist, but invisibly partitioned by area code.
- ddorian43 12y ago
  i think maxmind has ip-to-areacode library/db
- sn_master 12y ago
  hmm, yeah. I think I can do that, maybe as button when the user clicks it shows him the top posts on the 'wider' subnets and he can see them without having to switch his default subnet. It will come in v2 then !
- meowface 12y ago
  The problem with IP geolocation is that at the city and ZIP code level, it's just imprecise enough to be kind of annoying for something like this. It's very possible 2 people in the same ZIP code may be geolocated to neighboring but different ZIP codes. At US state (and often international province/region) level you generally get nearly 100% accuracy, but that's probably too broad for something like this. Unfortunately I'm not sure there's really anything in between that you could use.
  - eli 12y ago
    Less than that. Maxmind only even claims 90% accuracy for US states. Zipcode would be well below that.
themadcreator 12y ago
I appreciate the minimal interface, but a little CSS could go a long way to making this look a lot nicer. Sans serif fonts and some margins and spacing would help.
- sn_master 12y ago
  If you have any specific suggestions please tell me and I'll do it :) I have little CSS knowledge and I wanted to keep a strict minimalistic look and feel to avoid confusing people.
  - fiatjaf 12y ago
    I'm against the CSS. Don't let this awesome simple thing get the air of a new "bootstrapped" startup.
gojomo 12y ago
Might work well in cafes.
Taek 12y ago
Something like this needs people on it all the time to work. One way to achieve that would be to increase the size of the subnet depending on activity. If no one is in the /24, expand up to the next layer, etc. And then maybe add an extra color and if someone shares a smaller subnet with you than just the size of the room you are in.
- sn_master 12y ago
  hmm I am not so sure about this. I imagined it originally for small office/company cases, not sure how it would fare if I make the allocation dynamic. Tho yeah, I think making the subnet larger should be an easier process. I think one way of doing this maybe is having the subnets right on the top navigation bar as /0 /16 /24 etc with the selected one as a color and a (+X) next to each subnet based on the number of users in it.
- pavel_lishin 12y ago
  How do you know if no-one is there?
pcl 12y ago
It'd be interesting to add some sort of source IP filtering as well. I'm behind a VPN, so I'm on a private subnet. I'd rather chat with others on the same subnet within my company than anyone who happens to be in the same private subnet, worldwide.
- sn_master 12y ago
  if you mean the same exact IP address, you can do that if you click the pi icon at the bottom of every page then click change subnet.
osxrand 12y ago
Broke it, tapped new thread, then instead of entering anything, just tapped board. Not sure if it was that or just coincidence, but here's the error : iisnode encountered an error when processing the request. HRESULT: 0x6d HTTP status: 500 HTTP subStatus: 1013 HTTP reason: Internal Server Error You are receiving this HTTP 200 response because system.webServer/iisnode/@devErrorsEnabled configuration setting is 'true'. In addition to the log of stdout and stderr of the node.exe process, consider using debugging and ETW traces to further diagnose the problem. The node.exe process has not written any information to stderr or iisnode was unable to capture this information. Frequent reason is that the iisnode module is unable to create a log file to capture stdout and stderr output from node.exe. Please check that the identity of the IIS application pool running the node.js application has read and write access permissions to the directory on the server where the node.js application is located. Alternatively you can disable logging by setting system.webServer/iisnode/@loggingEnabled element of web.config to 'false'.
- sn_master 12y ago
  I think this must have been some one-time glitch. I find the error message strange tho because I disabled this logging setting before publishing today.
sn_master 12y ago
okay people, that was awesome to see it on the home page ! so far I got several great ideas from you for the to-be v2, including: > easy menu for switching subnets at the nav bar, including to wider subnet classes. > showing how many users are online for subnets (including the widers ones) > a quick link to see top posts in wider subnets, without having to change your default subnet. > HTTPs (mainly useful when accessing wider subnets) > Open source (once time takes care of showing any obvious problems in the current code). > Show post dates on comments (like its already done in threads). > Rick roll script kiddies posting all those XSS posts :D (or atleast prevent those from showing up) I'll let you know when its ready ! On another notice, the number of people trying to exploit the site is too damn high ! (nothing seems to be successful so far, I was expecting this in advance and did my best when doing the database queries).
- walterbell 12y ago
  Give the attackers a special discussion board :)
  - sn_master 12y ago
    :D yeah, maybe some easter egg to redirect them to the rick roll video or something. This is an example of what the "attackers" are trying to do since the morning: http://i.imgur.com/8UoCrqZ.png http://i.imgur.com/8UoCrqZ.png
    - krapp 12y ago
      Welcome to Hacker News. Sanitize your queries and check your privilege. ;) ... I do look forward to seeing the source code though. I like small forums like this.
    - lukasb 12y ago
      can someone please check out http://i.somethingawful.com/cliff/ihateyou/page-267/image-01.jpg http://i.somethingawful.com/cliff/ihateyou/page-267/image-01... and report back. i'm curious but afraid.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
fiatjaf 12y ago
Why not a simple sequence of messages, like a chat room, instead of threads? It would be friendlier.
hnha 12y ago
Awesome hack/idea! I wonder if hiding things in a "public" message board like this has been written up in some cyberpunk literature yet. After all you must come from the right network to see it.
mostly_harmless 12y ago
I think it would be interesting to be able to travel up the subnet nodes to bigger boards. eg, with subnet A.B.C.D, being able to visit A.B.C.X, A.B.X.X, and A.X.X.X. Additionally, subnets are a bit opaque. what does each one correspond to? if you wanted to extend this out even more, It would be nice to have a map showing how big, and where your current subnet is.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  Where is this data about which area correspond to each subnet? I can't find it. I don't know what to look for.
- techdragon 12y ago
  I opened the link expecting to find this ... and was disappointed to discover its not.
sakopov 12y ago
For usability sake I would also allow for a way to tag a subnet with a friendly moniker. If this takes off, it could be crowdfunded functionality. By the way. Very neat twist on discussion boards. :)
LeoPanthera 12y ago
It should be "Denizen", not "Citizen".
- userbinator 12y ago
  How about Subnetizen?

76 points by sn_master 12y ago

walterbell 12y ago

Cool localization idea, but major cold start barrier. How to advertise the board to people on the same subnet?

sn_master 12y ago
(I am the author of the website) No idea really. I wanted it mainly because in my office we have very high email volume, that it repels people automatically (Outlook "threading" sucks too). That and, a lot of people feel shy replying/talking about things knowing it would be liked to them (eg higher-up devs). Not sure how well it will fare in the real-world tho. If I find no one is using it will just pull the plug and keep it local for my office only.
- walterbell 12y ago
  You could provide a presence indicator when someone connects from the same subnet, like joining an IRC channel. That way, people could leave a browser window until someone arrives. Try promoting the site on local communities where there is already a critical mass of people on the same subnets, e.g. http://blog.bloglocal.net/everyblock-alternatives/ http://blog.bloglocal.net/everyblock-alternatives/ Could be popular in other offices, but would need to be opensource.
  - sn_master 12y ago
    hmm yeah. An indicator can easily be done for any subnet you are in. Awesome idea, I'll do it in v2 !
- nucleardog 12y ago
  It would be neat if the change subnet allowed you to jump up a little further. Having a board for the class C pretty much gets me... my office. Having a separate board for the /16 or even /8 would allow users a little more granularity on how their message is spread (local users, my ISP's users/regional users).
  - sn_master 12y ago
    It was in my original plan, but then I thought most users may find it confusing. Looking at it now, I guess I'll do it (I already have a change subnet option if you click on the Pi icon).

kaoD 12y ago

I didn't understand that "greetings citizens of A.B.C.X !" was actually a post until I posted my own. It had +1 likes. Did anyone like it, or is the default post +1ed by default?

castis 12y ago
Since I had the same thing, I'd assume its a default thing.
sn_master 12y ago
It is a default post with a default +1 like added when a user visits from a subnet for the first time. I was not sure how to indicate that you can have threads, likes and comments etc for first-time users, so I thought to have this default post just to get people doing.

robobro 12y ago

Very cute! Will you open the source?

sn_master 12y ago
sure. Its nothing fancy, mostly its in pure node.js with only selected few libraries for the database etc. I'll do it once I have enough confidence that everything is alright after some usage.

arh68 12y ago

I agree seeing the /16 and /8 would be very interesting. Perhaps just list those posts inline, with a smaller/greyer font. How hard is it to reliably extract an area code from an IP address? Now that would be nice. Kind of like craigslist, but invisibly partitioned by area code.

ddorian43 12y ago
i think maxmind has ip-to-areacode library/db
sn_master 12y ago
hmm, yeah. I think I can do that, maybe as button when the user clicks it shows him the top posts on the 'wider' subnets and he can see them without having to switch his default subnet. It will come in v2 then !
meowface 12y ago
The problem with IP geolocation is that at the city and ZIP code level, it's just imprecise enough to be kind of annoying for something like this. It's very possible 2 people in the same ZIP code may be geolocated to neighboring but different ZIP codes. At US state (and often international province/region) level you generally get nearly 100% accuracy, but that's probably too broad for something like this. Unfortunately I'm not sure there's really anything in between that you could use.
- eli 12y ago
  Less than that. Maxmind only even claims 90% accuracy for US states. Zipcode would be well below that.

themadcreator 12y ago

I appreciate the minimal interface, but a little CSS could go a long way to making this look a lot nicer. Sans serif fonts and some margins and spacing would help.

sn_master 12y ago
If you have any specific suggestions please tell me and I'll do it :) I have little CSS knowledge and I wanted to keep a strict minimalistic look and feel to avoid confusing people.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  I'm against the CSS. Don't let this awesome simple thing get the air of a new "bootstrapped" startup.

gojomo 12y ago

Might work well in cafes.

Taek 12y ago

Something like this needs people on it all the time to work. One way to achieve that would be to increase the size of the subnet depending on activity. If no one is in the /24, expand up to the next layer, etc. And then maybe add an extra color and if someone shares a smaller subnet with you than just the size of the room you are in.

sn_master 12y ago
hmm I am not so sure about this. I imagined it originally for small office/company cases, not sure how it would fare if I make the allocation dynamic. Tho yeah, I think making the subnet larger should be an easier process. I think one way of doing this maybe is having the subnets right on the top navigation bar as /0 /16 /24 etc with the selected one as a color and a (+X) next to each subnet based on the number of users in it.
pavel_lishin 12y ago
How do you know if no-one is there?

pcl 12y ago

It'd be interesting to add some sort of source IP filtering as well. I'm behind a VPN, so I'm on a private subnet. I'd rather chat with others on the same subnet within my company than anyone who happens to be in the same private subnet, worldwide.

sn_master 12y ago
if you mean the same exact IP address, you can do that if you click the pi icon at the bottom of every page then click change subnet.

osxrand 12y ago

Broke it, tapped new thread, then instead of entering anything, just tapped board. Not sure if it was that or just coincidence, but here's the error : iisnode encountered an error when processing the request. HRESULT: 0x6d HTTP status: 500 HTTP subStatus: 1013 HTTP reason: Internal Server Error You are receiving this HTTP 200 response because system.webServer/iisnode/@devErrorsEnabled configuration setting is 'true'. In addition to the log of stdout and stderr of the node.exe process, consider using debugging and ETW traces to further diagnose the problem. The node.exe process has not written any information to stderr or iisnode was unable to capture this information. Frequent reason is that the iisnode module is unable to create a log file to capture stdout and stderr output from node.exe. Please check that the identity of the IIS application pool running the node.js application has read and write access permissions to the directory on the server where the node.js application is located. Alternatively you can disable logging by setting system.webServer/iisnode/@loggingEnabled element of web.config to 'false'.

sn_master 12y ago
I think this must have been some one-time glitch. I find the error message strange tho because I disabled this logging setting before publishing today.

sn_master 12y ago

okay people, that was awesome to see it on the home page ! so far I got several great ideas from you for the to-be v2, including: > easy menu for switching subnets at the nav bar, including to wider subnet classes. > showing how many users are online for subnets (including the widers ones) > a quick link to see top posts in wider subnets, without having to change your default subnet. > HTTPs (mainly useful when accessing wider subnets) > Open source (once time takes care of showing any obvious problems in the current code). > Show post dates on comments (like its already done in threads). > Rick roll script kiddies posting all those XSS posts :D (or atleast prevent those from showing up) I'll let you know when its ready ! On another notice, the number of people trying to exploit the site is too damn high ! (nothing seems to be successful so far, I was expecting this in advance and did my best when doing the database queries).

walterbell 12y ago
Give the attackers a special discussion board :)
- sn_master 12y ago
  :D yeah, maybe some easter egg to redirect them to the rick roll video or something. This is an example of what the "attackers" are trying to do since the morning: http://i.imgur.com/8UoCrqZ.png http://i.imgur.com/8UoCrqZ.png
  - krapp 12y ago
    Welcome to Hacker News. Sanitize your queries and check your privilege. ;) ... I do look forward to seeing the source code though. I like small forums like this.
  - lukasb 12y ago
    can someone please check out http://i.somethingawful.com/cliff/ihateyou/page-267/image-01.jpg http://i.somethingawful.com/cliff/ihateyou/page-267/image-01... and report back. i'm curious but afraid.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

fiatjaf 12y ago

Why not a simple sequence of messages, like a chat room, instead of threads? It would be friendlier.

hnha 12y ago

Awesome hack/idea! I wonder if hiding things in a "public" message board like this has been written up in some cyberpunk literature yet. After all you must come from the right network to see it.

mostly_harmless 12y ago

I think it would be interesting to be able to travel up the subnet nodes to bigger boards. eg, with subnet A.B.C.D, being able to visit A.B.C.X, A.B.X.X, and A.X.X.X. Additionally, subnets are a bit opaque. what does each one correspond to? if you wanted to extend this out even more, It would be nice to have a map showing how big, and where your current subnet is.

fiatjaf 12y ago
Where is this data about which area correspond to each subnet? I can't find it. I don't know what to look for.
techdragon 12y ago
I opened the link expecting to find this ... and was disappointed to discover its not.

sakopov 12y ago

For usability sake I would also allow for a way to tag a subnet with a friendly moniker. If this takes off, it could be crowdfunded functionality. By the way. Very neat twist on discussion boards. :)

LeoPanthera 12y ago

It should be "Denizen", not "Citizen".

userbinator 12y ago
How about Subnetizen?