6 ms·

Isso – Open Source Alternative to Disqus

110 points by avinassh 12y ago

avinassh 12y ago
Link to GitHub - https://github.com/posativ/isso/ https://github.com/posativ/isso/
talles 12y ago
Nice! I have a stupid blog generator (https://github.com/tallesl/deadsimplelog https://github.com/tallesl/deadsimplelog), might add support for it :) P.S.: I may be completely wrong but... isn't that a Pokémon (on the logo)? Being so, is possible that you guys would have copyright issues (right?).
- cleverjake 12y ago
  yes, its a pokemon - a Wynaut
  - yellowapple 12y ago
    Which (apparently) is named "Isso" in the German version of Pokemon.
- bobfunk 12y ago
  Added your blog generator to StaticGen now :) http://www.staticgen.com/deadsimplelog http://www.staticgen.com/deadsimplelog
  - talles 12y ago
    I didn't know StaticGen... Ty :)
pdx 12y ago
I love the idea, but I don't love forcing non-technical users to learn Markdown. Hmmm, actually, it occurs to me that formatted comments are in general, annoying and ugly, so perhaps hiding the fact that formatting is even possible by not providing formatting buttons, is just fine.
- alexcasalboni 12y ago
  Nobody likes Markdown. And even who does, can't really use it. Here is an analysis worth reading: http://ux.stackexchange.com/a/15929/57347 http://ux.stackexchange.com/a/15929/57347
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
infogulch 12y ago
I noticed they use a Bloom Filter based on ip address to prevent people from voting multiple times. According to the implementation[1] it uses a 256-byte structure and limits the total number of votes on a post to 142 [2] (more than that and the false-positive rate > 0.001). This is stored as a sqlite BLOB on the same row as the comment. But if you're limiting votes to ~142 anyways, you can just store the exact ip address of every voter (packed in the BLOB at 4 bytes each) and it would only reach up to double the space (~560). But since the overwhelmingly vast majority of comments won't get nearly that many votes, you'd actually be saving space compared to keeping a bloom filter for each comment. It seems like an overengineered and unnecessary technical complexity. [1]: https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/utils/__init__.py#L39 https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/utils/__ini... [2]: https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/db/comments.py#L186 https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/db/comments...
- trurl42 12y ago
  I guess the point is to not store ip addresses. Given the focus on allowing anonymous commenting [1] this seems to make sense. [1]: http://posativ.org/isso/docs/#what-s-wrong-with-disqus http://posativ.org/isso/docs/#what-s-wrong-with-disqus
  - kevan 12y ago
    In that case you could store a hash of the IP instead.
    - girvo 12y ago
      With a known structure, a hashed IP could be reversed quite easily couldn't it?
    - infogulch 12y ago
      We're limited to ipv4 so even if you hash it you could still test every possible address within a few minutes. You can even do the same with the bloom filter, since there's at worst only a 1/1000 false positive rate (and likely much smaller). The bloom filter isn't designed to provide security, and trying to make (ipv4) IPs private if you're using them as identities is a lost cause.
foolinaround 12y ago
I can get that comments are not "big data" but SQlite seems underwhelming. Any reason why this choice was made?
- infogulch 12y ago
  Underwhelming? Do you have a case for this where SQLite wouldn't be good enough?
  - jimstr 12y ago
    When having more than one web server (and no shared file system) ?
    - alexcasalboni 12y ago
      "SQLite is not designed to compete with Oracle. SQLite is designed to compete with fopen()." http://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html http://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html How about something towards the Cloud direction, like AWS RDS? MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Aurora might work better.
  - yellowapple 12y ago
    For me, it's not really so much "not good enough" as much as it is "I'm already using PostgreSQL as a database and I'd rather not have to maintain two separate SQL database implementations on my servers if I can avoid it".
    - skuhn 12y ago
      Well on the plus side, sqlite has no daemon and pretty much requires no care and feeding. However, I also think it is totally wrong for this use case.
      - yellowapple 12y ago
        True, though it still means having to check yet another place to make sure everything's backed up properly, etc.
Yadi 12y ago
This is pretty awesome! Is there a way to change the SQLite backend?
liotier 12y ago
No mention of the word 'spam' anywhere on the site, apart from rate limiting. To me, spam handling is pretty much the primary feature of a comments system.
dfischer 12y ago
New comments should go on top not bottom
- aw3c2 12y ago
  I'd like that to be a configurable option.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
cies 12y ago
Thoughtbot is also working on something Discuss-like: https://github.com/thoughtbot/carnival https://github.com/thoughtbot/carnival Made in Haskell, so it compiles to a binary for you deploying pleasure and performance needs :)
jtwebman 12y ago
If you are going to run your own comment system why not embed them in the HTML? At least then the search engines could index them. Does it have this option?

110 points by avinassh 12y ago

Link to GitHub - https://github.com/posativ/isso/ https://github.com/posativ/isso/

Nice! I have a stupid blog generator (https://github.com/tallesl/deadsimplelog https://github.com/tallesl/deadsimplelog), might add support for it :) P.S.: I may be completely wrong but... isn't that a Pokémon (on the logo)? Being so, is possible that you guys would have copyright issues (right?).

cleverjake 12y ago
yes, its a pokemon - a Wynaut
- yellowapple 12y ago
  Which (apparently) is named "Isso" in the German version of Pokemon.
bobfunk 12y ago
Added your blog generator to StaticGen now :) http://www.staticgen.com/deadsimplelog http://www.staticgen.com/deadsimplelog
- talles 12y ago
  I didn't know StaticGen... Ty :)

pdx 12y ago

I love the idea, but I don't love forcing non-technical users to learn Markdown. Hmmm, actually, it occurs to me that formatted comments are in general, annoying and ugly, so perhaps hiding the fact that formatting is even possible by not providing formatting buttons, is just fine.

alexcasalboni 12y ago
Nobody likes Markdown. And even who does, can't really use it. Here is an analysis worth reading: http://ux.stackexchange.com/a/15929/57347 http://ux.stackexchange.com/a/15929/57347
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

infogulch 12y ago

I noticed they use a Bloom Filter based on ip address to prevent people from voting multiple times. According to the implementation[1] it uses a 256-byte structure and limits the total number of votes on a post to 142 [2] (more than that and the false-positive rate > 0.001). This is stored as a sqlite BLOB on the same row as the comment. But if you're limiting votes to ~142 anyways, you can just store the exact ip address of every voter (packed in the BLOB at 4 bytes each) and it would only reach up to double the space (~560). But since the overwhelmingly vast majority of comments won't get nearly that many votes, you'd actually be saving space compared to keeping a bloom filter for each comment. It seems like an overengineered and unnecessary technical complexity. [1]: https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/utils/__init__.py#L39 https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/utils/__ini... [2]: https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/db/comments.py#L186 https://github.com/posativ/isso/blob/master/isso/db/comments...

trurl42 12y ago
I guess the point is to not store ip addresses. Given the focus on allowing anonymous commenting [1] this seems to make sense. [1]: http://posativ.org/isso/docs/#what-s-wrong-with-disqus http://posativ.org/isso/docs/#what-s-wrong-with-disqus
- kevan 12y ago
  In that case you could store a hash of the IP instead.
  - girvo 12y ago
    With a known structure, a hashed IP could be reversed quite easily couldn't it?
  - infogulch 12y ago
    We're limited to ipv4 so even if you hash it you could still test every possible address within a few minutes. You can even do the same with the bloom filter, since there's at worst only a 1/1000 false positive rate (and likely much smaller). The bloom filter isn't designed to provide security, and trying to make (ipv4) IPs private if you're using them as identities is a lost cause.

foolinaround 12y ago

I can get that comments are not "big data" but SQlite seems underwhelming. Any reason why this choice was made?

infogulch 12y ago
Underwhelming? Do you have a case for this where SQLite wouldn't be good enough?
- jimstr 12y ago
  When having more than one web server (and no shared file system) ?
  - alexcasalboni 12y ago
    "SQLite is not designed to compete with Oracle. SQLite is designed to compete with fopen()." http://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html http://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html How about something towards the Cloud direction, like AWS RDS? MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Aurora might work better.
- yellowapple 12y ago
  For me, it's not really so much "not good enough" as much as it is "I'm already using PostgreSQL as a database and I'd rather not have to maintain two separate SQL database implementations on my servers if I can avoid it".
  - skuhn 12y ago
    Well on the plus side, sqlite has no daemon and pretty much requires no care and feeding. However, I also think it is totally wrong for this use case.
    - yellowapple 12y ago
      True, though it still means having to check yet another place to make sure everything's backed up properly, etc.

Yadi 12y ago

This is pretty awesome! Is there a way to change the SQLite backend?

liotier 12y ago

No mention of the word 'spam' anywhere on the site, apart from rate limiting. To me, spam handling is pretty much the primary feature of a comments system.

dfischer 12y ago

New comments should go on top not bottom

aw3c2 12y ago
I'd like that to be a configurable option.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

cies 12y ago

Thoughtbot is also working on something Discuss-like: https://github.com/thoughtbot/carnival https://github.com/thoughtbot/carnival Made in Haskell, so it compiles to a binary for you deploying pleasure and performance needs :)

jtwebman 12y ago

If you are going to run your own comment system why not embed them in the HTML? At least then the search engines could index them. Does it have this option?