Show HN: Open-source StackOverflow-like service

I even wrote a rails console-like equivalent for the older version[1]. Didn't get time to write a new one though. Will be a good addition to the generator I think.

[1] https://gist.github.com/manu29d/ced4a558abf2fa654bff

anton_gogolev3• 10 years ago

Kudos for effort, but for the life of me I cannot understand why the hell is "load empty shell of a page and then asynchronously fetch bits and pieces of content, ruining the UI along the way" is so prevalent these days.

nso• 10 years ago

I know how you feel. I live in Mexico now, and the internet connections in these parts are terrible. It's given me a whole new perspective after coming from cheap 100 mbit back home. Sometimes I get confused with pages like this, only to later realize that the main content wasn't loaded yet.

ChrisDutrow2• 10 years ago

Can be fixed pretty easily with a "loading..." message, but I guess no ones going to fix something they don't know is broken (since the developer will be using fast internet)

dkopi• 10 years ago

That's how a basic angular.js app with client side templating works if it has to fetch the the data from the server using AJAX calls.

A common optimization would be to preload the served javascript with the initial AJAX results. This still means rendering the content on the client side, but the content isn't fetched asynchronously. Another optimization is to actually render all the DOM elements in advance on the server, and only use client side rendering for updates.

anton_gogolev3• 10 years ago

This, I assume, is all done because 99% of web sites are trivially done with server-side HTML generation and that is not hipstery enough.

uberneo• 10 years ago

You can use ng-if="results" for your result div and this will only display the div only when the $scope.results have got the values from AJAX call

Mahn• 10 years ago

Another optimization is to actually render all the DOM elements in advance on the server, and only use client side rendering for updates.

Which is, you know, how the web is supposed to work.

nyan4• 10 years ago

It's terrible indeed, and it works only if javascript is enabled.

plugnburn7• 10 years ago

Why would anyone disable it these days?

grrowl• 10 years ago

Isomorphic/universal React just about solves this. Taken all the way, you get the full UI and clickable navigation links before any javascript loads.

l1n• 10 years ago

Or progressive enhancement.

bpicolo• 10 years ago

It's also a totally reasonable pattern to template the constant UI parts of the page in the backend (and not have to necessarily fetch user sessions in the frontend), and then just render the fun bits with React. The user isn't going to get a literal blank page this way. I think this is a pretty happy medium actually.

plugnburn7• 10 years ago

Are you on GPRS? Cause the page loads fine even on 7Mbit 3G (HSPA).

The problem is it's still quite raw and full of demo-stuff. Not in the way it loads.

Although... yes, isn't Angular a bit overkill here?

listic• 10 years ago

Isn't StackOverflow open source?

michaelmior• 10 years ago

Not as far as I'm aware.

a3_nm• 10 years ago

User content is under a free license (and dumps are provided), but the engine is proprietary.

Ralfp• 10 years ago

Originally their software was available as download to third parties (but without sources AFAIK), but it no longer is.

qznc• 10 years ago

There are a few alternatives: http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/37953

mkesper• 10 years ago

StackOverflow has already often served me but sometimes I think what we really need would be some place where some people fluent in languages/frameworks could showcase best practices/mini howtos giving a little bit more context.

ChrisDutrow2• 10 years ago

More than half the questions I ask on there are not "How do I do something", but "How do I do something WELL"

omegote• 10 years ago

The article is missing what I think is one of the most important parts, and that's the reasoning behind using a MEAN stack instead of a more classic approach using a standard back-end language like Ruby, Perl or Python, because I honestly fail to see how this is easier than using a framework like Django or RoR.

yoshiokatsuneo4• 10 years ago

Thank you for your feedback!

For me, the most important part is the language. I can use JavaScript for client side, server side, and database. There is no context switching related to language like Ruby, JavaScript, SQL. (And, the way of thinking related to that like asynchronous and synchronous.)

It is especially helpful for startup or prototyping where small team build everything.

plugnburn7• 10 years ago

Then you should definitely give a try to Meteor framework (https://www.meteor.com/). Using it, we have built and run a production-ready service + Android app for a local flower shop delivery-messengers in about 5 days.

orrinward• 10 years ago

I think you mean "Q & A" and QA. QA = "Quality Assurance".

unwind• 10 years ago

I think you mean "and not QA" and not "and QA". :) But I agree, it should be "Q & A".

yoshiokatsuneo4• 10 years ago

Thank you for pointing out! I just changed the article's "QA" to "Q&A". Now, the title is:

Building a Q&A web service in an hour - MEAN stack development(3) http://engineering.paiza.io/entry/2016/03/10/115345

henrygrew• 10 years ago

we have osqa http://www.dzonesoftware.com/products/open-source-question-a...

fiatjaf• 10 years ago

I don't understand Ruby. Is there an easy guide for deploying to Heroku?

rallende2• 10 years ago

Askbot (https://askbot.com) is also open source and you can create you QA forum "in a minute" (sic).

No seriously, the askbot guys have been for a long time on the field, great app.

blackoil• 10 years ago

they have there source code pretty well hidden, can't find any link to source on Home / Developers / Contact page. So they may no longer want it to be open source.

rallende2• 10 years ago

https://github.com/ASKBOT/askbot-devel askbot creators believe that if someone does not know to google askbot source code he shouldnt get the code :)

dionidium• 10 years ago

Technical improvements were only one part of what made SO great. If you want to compete with them, then you have to figure out how to prevent posts like this one from lasting more than 5 seconds on the site:

http://paizaqa.herokuapp.com/questions/show/56e1a5872c8dfa03...

Animats• 10 years ago

The problem isn't displaying the pages. It's the rating and asshole management system for the questions and replies. How does that work?

plugnburn7• 10 years ago

What's the real issue is:

Do you even know that this is invalid and the proper tag is called just <nav>? Do you know that <title> must not be empty in the initial page? Do you know that custom attributes must start with data- (not ng- or ui-)?

Did you even check your page with http://validator.w3.org?

plugnburn7• 10 years ago

Care to explain why this was downvoted?

I honestly don't understand how did the authors manage to make a skeleton (!) page not passing validation. Even <title> is empty when it must not be so.

Is it because of Angular? Well, if a framework forces you to write invalid HTML (tags, attributes, whatever), it sucks, no matter what.

Show HN: Open-source StackOverflow-like service

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