Yup that is what it is. It builds on the notion that many apps are actually forums, with various levels of customization. Flickr, Pinterest, HN and even Amazon and Tiger Direct (TigerDirect will have products, reviews etc as 'posts') are actually forums. So we use the term forums and apps interchangeably.
The social aspect is equally important:
- There are millions of developers who don't participate in improving apps today because creating and hosting an app isn't a friction-less process. On Fora, if you see an app/forum that fits your needs, click fork, edit some JS+React/JSX in the browser, and you have a new app.
- Everybody sees all source code for all apps/forums; so it's great to learn. And then improvements help everybody. Like wikipedia for code. .
- Many people know enough JS to tweak stuff. React mostly takes just JS knowledge, so you don't need to know the framework like Angular. Ah, and also isomorphic UI code that runs on the server and browser. Also for all it's issues, one thing JS has going for it is that you can read and edit in a browser.
The social aspect is equally important:
- There are millions of developers who don't participate in improving apps today because creating and hosting an app isn't a friction-less process. On Fora, if you see an app/forum that fits your needs, click fork, edit some JS+React/JSX in the browser, and you have a new app.
- Everybody sees all source code for all apps/forums; so it's great to learn. And then improvements help everybody. Like wikipedia for code. .
- Many people know enough JS to tweak stuff. React mostly takes just JS knowledge, so you don't need to know the framework like Angular. Ah, and also isomorphic UI code that runs on the server and browser. Also for all it's issues, one thing JS has going for it is that you can read and edit in a browser.
Ah there; I got excited. :)