
Show HN: A developers-only news site you join via pull request - matt2000
http://pullup.herokuapp.com/
======
neoveller
The step of just adding yourself to the userlist seems ill-conceived.
Automatic merges are just going to overwrite the last person added unless
manually merged. Can I propose this just use github for authentication, and
only allow those on the contributors list
([http://developer.github.com/v3/repos/#list-
contributors](http://developer.github.com/v3/repos/#list-contributors)) to
successfully log in?

~~~
infogulch
Make a pull request! Also change the readme, faq etc.

I like this better also because you can update the list without restarting the
server.

~~~
neoveller
Still waiting on my first pull request to get merged (msied).

~~~
matt2000
Op here: sorry, we got a little back logged processing the PRs when we hit the
front page, and also because of exactly this username merge problem (whoops).

~~~
neoveller
Added the proposed auth method. Still awaiting merge for previous pull
request:
[https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/pull/11](https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/pull/11)

~~~
matt2000
Awesome, thanks. We're going to go through most of this in detail in the
morning, getting late here for us but this looks awesome.

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throwaway_yy2Di
It's amusing because I've seen so many people mad at HN's lack of features,
and spend so much noise demanding pg add this or that, or creating
bookmarklets to "fix" it, or even forking the entire site just to try to
modify a part of its functionality. But when offered the chance to
collaboratively control the whole thing, on github, now it's "meh? why would
anyone want that".

~~~
krapp
People seem to be questioning the validity of having domain knowledge in
node/heroku/mongodb and an approved pull request be a prerequisite for joining
a site not obviously about node development, not to the idea of an open source
site in and of itself. If people had to learn Arc and have a pull request
approved just to join HN, there would be maybe two or three people here.

~~~
coolsunglasses
Node, Arc, MongoDB, and Heroku are not difficult to learn at all. All are
borderline facile.

I don't think it's an unreasonable boundary at all and I _strongly dislike_
those specific technologies.

If you don't have the willpower or gumption to contribute to the community,
then I don't really care to read what you have to say at all.

tl;dr lazybones need not apply

~~~
krapp
Well, I managed to get a local instance running, poke around then hack
together something. I would by no means call it 'borderline facile' though,
just a set of annoying dependencies to install and hoops to jump through. That
said, getting it set up was easier than I anticipated. (though granted, nobody
_has_ to do any of that to submit a pull request...)

------
kristopolous
Unfortunately I'm not interested in working on this code for the sole purpose
of posting comments on this website. I honestly don't have that kind of time.

~~~
wbobeirne
I think that's what the site is banking on. That initial investment of time
and effort is their way of building a serious community.

~~~
kristopolous
It's a fascinating idea. There is the Eternal September effect that can be
combated by having a barrier to entry. Metafilter has $5 registration, stack-
overflow has their own sauce. My friend who runs the VMS company prgmr.com
requires someone to give them a public key to sign up.

I generally think this is a good idea to keep the riff-raff out. (then again,
I've done countless anonymous spelling, format, and grammar corrections on
wikipedia - but some people say their convoluted markup _is_ the barrier)

The point here is, if I can get my eyes on the prize (the privilege to post),
and if it doesn't look terribly valuable - then I have very little motive to
hop on board.

My core contention is that the barrier has actually been placed _too_ high.
$5, a public key, learning wiki markup, providing correct answers - these are
all easy tasks of very little effort. Doing code comprehension and diving into
a project - that's a fairly large commitment.

Am I to be held responsible for the code? Will the people behind the project
care if I continue to submit after I get the prize?

I count the circle of people I listen to, respect, and care about (here, it
would be the commenting accounts) as greatly outnumbering the circle I'd want
to work on code with.

~~~
krapp
Unfortunately, it appears to include node developers who don't have the time
or patience to submit a pull request, those who do but whose requests won't be
approved, and developers who code in languages other than javascript and who
therefore have nothing useful enough to add, among the 'riff-raff'.

Some kind of proof of work is an interesting idea for a site like this, but I
wonder if it self-selects for too narrow a domain? I don't know that the
correlation between "submitted code" and "provides quality content" are strong
enough for this particular filter to provide results worth the effort.

~~~
matt2000
Op here: yeah, it might be the case that the community selection will be too
narrow, but we figured almost any programmer knows something of HTML or CSS or
JavaScript, so that seemed like a good lowest common denominator for a minimal
standard of contribution.

~~~
pekk
Real contribution to a Node project requires more than passing familiarity
with HTML, CSS or Javascript.

If you just want a site for primarily Node developers, that's fine, just admit
it straight up

~~~
jpatokal
They're not asking for a "real" contribution, just a pull request. Two people
have already gotten in by tweaking the 404 page:

[https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/commits/master/views/404...](https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/commits/master/views/404.jade)

------
theatgrex
also interesting because presumably... as more of the low hanging fruit get
fixed or added...it will take more effort to become a member

~~~
matt2000
Op here: yeah, exactly - that's part of the thinking. Or maybe the feature
surface area will expand enough that there's always low hanging fruit
somewhere. I'm not really sure.

~~~
tg3
Or perhaps it will be a sparkling clean codebase, as I'm sure a lot of the
low-hanging fruit will be re-factoring existing stuff and improving
clarity/readability.

------
tlack
I had never thought about using the git push/pull model for anything but code
and data. Could git, tunneled over ssh, build the decentralized web that we're
all bandying about?

------
wnissen
Whoa. Sort of like how you have to pay $5 to join Metafilter. That seems neat.

------
viclou
Done!
[https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/pull/14](https://github.com/larvalabs/pullup/pull/14)

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fibbery
OK which of you broke it? The site is currently down.

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nilved
What if you don't have a GitHub account?

~~~
andrewflnr
Get one :). You're not selling your soul. They don't require much beyond an
email, IIRC.

~~~
chriswarbo
Selling one's personal data and selling one's 'soul' (principles) are two
different things.

Just because GitHub only requires an email address to join, doesn't mean
they're not incentivised to replace a decentralised Free Software system (git)
with a centralised proprietary alternative (git+github).

I'm a massive fan of git, which is precisely why I do not, and never will, use
github.

~~~
andrewflnr
Hmm. I wasn't thinking about it from that perspective. Still, I don't see
github as a replacement, but simply an optional nice UI for git collaboration.
It's easy to set yourself up so that if Github went down or you wanted to move
off it, you could. The only tricky part would be not investing too deeply in
the issue tracker, but that's not a replacement for git anyway.

I'm not sure they can be said to be incentivized to do something that's nearly
impossible.

------
Killswitch
> So far it's just a terrible and featureless clone of Hacker News

I don't have to waste my time adding features to HN to be a user here. I think
I'll stay here.

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1qaz2wsx3edc
Neat, I added bender (robots.txt). Enjoy!

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sneak
I'd have sent a PR except who the fuck writes serverside web apps in
javascript?

~~~
rschmitty
Perhaps it will be a site focused on Nodejs news as only Nodejs developers
will contribute in which case you wouldn't be interested anyways?

No need for the negativity! I could easily say who the f __* writes web apps
in ___ and get much praise /hate.

~~~
xerophtye
hmmm maybe you can make SEVERAL of these sites each in a specific tech so each
person can get into their niche of interest

~~~
vvvVVVvvv
or different implementations all linked to the same DB ?

Although it seems a bit of a waste of time.

~~~
mcosta
Hell no. This with metrics can be the end for all "X doesn't scale" or "X is
easier than Y". With real code.

