What other platforms exist and why won't they do?

Software Development
9

I’m thoroughly tempted to start up a new discussion in a separate thread - if you want me to let me know - but I feel like this is because we’ve been spoiled by what Stack Exchange software has provided over the years.

Let’s be honest. That’s a clean package and it’d take a lot of work to replicate anything close to that.

So, my initial thought: why recreate that?

To answer your first question: each candidate sucks in its own right in that it’s attempting to ape what Stack Exchange did. To a degree, every clone would be wise to do so since it’s the archetype of successful Q&A.

However, it all becomes a bit same-y. Nothing about those systems pops out or adds more value than not just going to Stack Overflow or some other Stack Exchange site wouldn’t provide. Worse, it’s completely unclear how new features, which would differentiate from or add value to this Q&A platform, are capable of being added. It may be simple; it may be pulling teeth. With a platform that you pick out of the box, you’re left with the design decisions that its predecessors made at the time.

To answer your second question - there’s definitely work, but that too is non-deterministic. Depending on how certain features - such as anonymous posting - are meant to be handled, certain design principles will make building out features like that a lot easier.

I’ve been kind of thinking that an actual protocol - like ActivityPub - could be adapted for Q&A in a unique and value-add way. Implementing the protocol could provide some freebies that weren’t really intended as part of MVP - such as chat.

Better yet, it frees this platform from being yet another Stack Exchange clone. I cannot stress enough that an effort like this will sink if it turns out to look and feel just like Stack Exchange, since this lack the notoriety.

So…with that said:

  • My vote would be to build this from scratch.
  • My vote would be to leverage the ActivityPub protocol to a degree (e.g. disable federation to other Fediverse sites as a baseline) to allow for flexibility in how users can interact with content.
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