

Show HN: Github for normal people. - Jonovono
http://rubberdocky.com/

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Jonovono
Hey HN!

So this is something I have been working a bit on in my spare time (err, I
mean, I just wrote it in 3 seconds :p).

I have been using Github since I got into coding a little while ago and I love
it. It makes it super easy to store files, find projects that are helpful, and
just encourages the idea of open source by making it easy and fun. I feel like
I have learnt a great deal just downloading peoples code and making changes to
it and seeing the process they went through. I have been wondering what a
similar site like this would look like if it was made for people unfamiliar to
Git and would never take the time to learn a new language or whatever do
collaborate or use version control.

Right now it works very simply. It is like Google docs but everything is
public (I will be introducing private projects). You can upload changes by
dragging a new document onto the page and it will be stored. You can annotate
files, highlight text, etc. Right now it supports images, text docs (code),
pdf, doc(x), and excel. I think it would be exciting to have a system where
people could come and collaborate on things such as books, textbooks, etc.

I have seen a few cases here on HN where such a system is discussed but I have
not seen any solutions.

One of those was how Wired used Github to publish an article
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3631618>). They were not happy with this
solution however and are looking for another system that is more user
friendly. But the demand is there. I think it would be awesome to be able to
easily suggest mistakes on articles and allow an easier way for the author to
accept those.

Another was about a git powered Project Gutenberg
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3638917>). Gutenberg is a mess (no nice
way to view, no consensus on what the base text format should be) and git
would be an interesting solution but again it is not that user friendly. As an
example I put a couple PG documents on Rubberdocky
(<http://rubberdocky.com/ProjectGutenbergFiles/Siddhartha>).

I am hoping to make use of a cool project I just ran into called substance.io
to make it easy for people to collaborate on documents.

Rubberdocky is not the solution yet, but I am hoping to steer it that way by
getting some feedback from interested user. If you are interested in the idea
email me contact@rubberdocky.com and we could discuss this in more detail! Im
looking for some web designers/UI to maybe join forces (I know supposed to
find someone you know, but desperate times). If you get some errors email me
or Tweet me @Rubberdocky.

------
jonschwartz
One quick suggestion. If this is for "normal people" (I'd rather have that say
non-techies as it's slightly insulting to us _non-normals_ ), try to factor
our programming terms. 'Version Control' is a programming term. I would change
it to 'File History'.

~~~
Jonovono
True. I didn't know the best term to use here on HN. But on the site I think
changing Version control to File History is a good idea. Thanks.

------
Toshio
Do you intend to eventually open-source it?

~~~
Jonovono
Well I took an open source project (gitlabhq) and just scraped id down to make
it user friendly. So you could check that out for now! Its an awesome
software!

