@dansup it seems like lemmy can be that with the right skin. We also really need a federated alternative to github. Gitea is partway there but thinking also about how github is sort of a linkedin for programmers.
@thomasjwebb@dansup Federating software forges is already happening. @forgejo is actively working on it. They even have a good overview of the progress somewhere I don't have at hand right now.
I had an online discussion about a Federated-Yelp that raised some interesting points that might apply to SO as well -- How do you “federate” the features that DON’T fit into the standard social media formulae? Things like “accepted answers” might only work on a centralized server.
Also, this might fall under the threaded discussion WG. I’d love to talk in more detail if you’re ever interested.
@benpate@dansup probably not a real problem, this partly incompatibilities exist since the Fediverse is around, so 14 years or so, the only way is to discuss ideas and then implement some solution that works for all sides.
In the past there was Diaspora (still exists) that was the big player, that had fewer functions than for example Frienidca, they somehow arranged and it worked quite well. Today Mastodon is the big player, now others arrange their projects around the reduced feature set that Mastodon had... It kind of works, mostly.
@utzer@dansup Yeah. We could always just build a new network with special features that would require an account on a Q&A -style server.
But an emerging feature of "fedi" is that you can take your identity everywhere. I'd really like to support this somehow, too.
Perhaps it just means using main Mastodon (or whatever) account as a "universal inbox" for notifications. But then we link you back to a site with SSO, so you can interact more richly there.
What is the actual difference between a site like StackOverflow (or their sister sites on the exchange) vs. a forum with a question-and-answer functionality built in?
At its core, as Ben alluded to, each question is essentially a "topic/thread", with immediate replies considered "answers", and further sub replies considered "comments".
An accepted answer needn't federate, though it can always provide that information via a separate ActivityStreams property.
My assertion isn't that StackOverflow does anything different "technically", but that their network effect and centralization, along with being the only good option to ExpertsExchange, allowed them to prosper.
Yes. Stack Overflow isn't magic. I think they succeeded because they focused heavily on SEO, which brought both ask-ers and answer-ers to the site.
Personally, the "accepted answer" is the killer feature. Dunno if NodeBB, Kbin, or others already support this.
There's potential in SO's gamification aspects, too. I'd love to let third-party sites to award badges or "endorsements" and display them on my profile page. This could work in all kinds of trust/credibility situations.
@dansup there used to be a full-blown (non-federated) remake of Stackoverflow in a GH project. Firing it up would give nearly the same UI and a whole bunch of the gamification features.
I was only mildly interested at the time, and did not star or anything. Later on, seeing "federated SO" thread for the N-th time I tried to find it again on multiple occasions. No luck, unfortunately.
Such project would be a great basis to add #ActivityPub to.
@smallcircles
MS probably deSEOed competing FOSS projects when they bought SO. Maybe someone forked it to GitLab or gitea or codeberg. Will look. @dansup
That can be a) giving a good headstart in designing an alternative, and b) depending on how it is exactly licensed, be great to "fork" the brand assets (if they are also just MIT, they maybe aren't protected as they usually are).
@smallcircles@dansup was also just talking about this. we should start a call for action. the SE situation is really shit rn and it would be a great time to get some interest in this.
@dansup does stackoverflow really have anything that the other link aggregators / ranked forums like lemmy or kbin don't other than an automod closing functionality if you don't have enough karma and the ability for a thread's OP to pin a reply?
@rochacbruno@dansup if I had to pick one service that I'd like to see an unshittified version of, it would be LinkedIn. That site is unusable, and that was even before they added paid DM spam as a feature.
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