Show HN: my open source "reddit"-like community

leepowers 12 years ago |

An open-source Reddit clone written in .NET

For the developer, it seems like a good way to learn more about web development.

Aside from learning or novelty value, I would probably just fork the Reddit repo on Github if I was looking for a clone, as the reddit.com site code is already open-source:

https://github.com/reddit/reddit

dkuntz2 12 years ago | |

Or use the https://lobste.rs/ code:

https://github.com/jcs/lobsters

atko 12 years ago | | |

I checked out lobste.rs and I liked it. Thanks! I also noticed that Lobster github repo currently has 22 contributors. Comparing Lobster to a 1 man project is not fair :p I'll keep working on Whoaverse though, who know what may come out of it :)

dkuntz2 12 years ago | | |

I wasn't comparing, leepowers said if he needed a community site he'd probably just spin up a reddit (which has even more contributors, six of which look to be really active).

While lobste.rs has 22 contributors listed, it's mostly just jcs, see the contributor graph: https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors

atko 12 years ago |

I am a 2nd year CS student and this is my side project. The point of the project is to help me better understand asp.net mvc, jquery, sql and all the other bells and whistles that are required to develop something like this. So far, about 90 man hours have gone into this project (only 1 developer). I am constantly improving it and I would love to hear your comments. Go easy on me :)

ps. the site is running on a rather limited VPS instance which costs me about $15/month.

joshmlewis 12 years ago | |

I applaud you doing this from scratch (besides stealing Reddits styles), it sounds like you've learned a lot. How'd you decide on this project?

thebiglebrewski 12 years ago |

Woah, this isn't just reddit-like, this is like, a direct clone. Did you copy their HTML/CSS file?

atko 12 years ago | |

Yes, I used reddit css file with attribution. Attibution is on the about page: http://whoaverse.com/about

joshmlewis 12 years ago | | |

Ha, I don't know if it's ok to rip people's CSS file and then "attribute" it unless they specifically say that's ok it's still copyrighted.

andymcsherry 12 years ago | | |

Reddit publishes it on github, the license is here: https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE

atko 12 years ago | | |

Reddit CPAL license (Common Public Attribution License Version 1.0 (CPAL)) states so.

atko 12 years ago |

65 people browsing the site right now... please don't kill my VPS :p

dkuntz2 12 years ago | |

Genuinely curious: were you not expecting a traffic boost from HN?

atko 12 years ago | | |

As far as I knew, HN was not hugely popular. I was wrong. For a brief moment my post reached HN frontpage and the visits peaked at 70. I tried browsing the site during this peak period and I noticed no difference under this "load".

dkuntz2 12 years ago | | |

That's always a great feeling when you get a relatively large amount of traffic and nothing breaks.

Mandatum 12 years ago |

Your name-generation for those automated accounts are hilarious.