Dipping my toes into the SaidIt source code... may attempt to make progress on adding a block feature

submitted by [deleted] from self.whatever

I plan to edit this post as I go along. Feel free to comment and join me over the next hour or so if you'd like to dip your toes in too! I figure it could be fun and can't hurt to learn more about the source code.

  • So, the source is on GitHub (...is this a good place to host code still?) and it's linked at the bottom of the site with the ToS and stuff.

  • I like the username of whoever it is that owns the repository. Ahhh. Good vibes. What was going on when SaidIt was forked? Was that name existing from previous affiliations?

  • There's another project under the same name? reddit html archiver? Wonder what that's about.

  • Well I don't know how to use git on this machine since it's not set up, so I'll just download the code and see what I can see in there. There's a download link if you click the big "code" button.

  • Ok, downloaded. But what is all this stuff? Aaaah. It's ... confusing. I don't know what it all is. Maybe the readme will help. Or I guess I just have to look around at it if it doesn't. (the logo on the readme page is pretty :))

  • from the readme, one of the project goals says "reddit API compatibility". Hmmmm. Is blocking part of the api? That sounds like it makes any edits harder to get all integrated properly with the whole thing...

  • There's a Dev Guide section in the readme! Oh! I was thinking it was just gonna be install instructions. ... nevermind, it's not a guide to the sourcecode, it's a guide to .. doing developer stuff with your installed instance, I guess. Which makes sense for a readme. Maybe there's something helpful in another doc, there's an "other documentation" section at the bottom.

  • The first "Additional Documentation" link at the bottom, the project wiki... seems like there's a lot of info there...

  • Eh, the wiki is a bit confusing I don't understand all of it maybe I'll just look around at the code. And the 2nd pdf link isn't working for me. Also, might be about time for this attempt to be over though.

  • Yeah, time for this attempt to be over. Well, that's where I got.

Things I learned:

  • If I wanna know how the code is organized I think I need to just look around and familiarize myself with it rather than look for documentation. I guess I could still check r/RedditOpenSource and r/redditdev but I don't wanna go on reddit. (aww, and /s/saiditdev is private)
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[–]magnora7 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

Good luck! If you get super-duper stuck on one thing, I'm here to ask for help, just reply to this comment.

D3rr runs the github repository.

If you want to run a copy of saidit, it's best to do it on a virtual machine, unless you have a spare computer sitting around you want to install ubuntu on to

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah I don't think I can install it.... oh dear ... I don't know how to do vm stuff. I guess that's necessary for testing edits, isn't it. Oh well, I'll keep going and see where I get. Thank you for the reply!

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I guess that's necessary for testing edits, isn't it

Yeah. I'm not a personal fan of VMs either, I have an old computer I use as a fake dedicated server. But if you can just figure out the core of how it should work, the variables involved and what needs to be changed to make it happen, that would also be plenty helpful.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

btw, if we want to help SaidIt, what are the main things we can do? Is the primary thing donating, or is there other stuff that would help too?

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Honestly coding is the help we need the most, imo. Second most needed would probably be to post good quality news and science articles on a regular basis to create good content for saidit, and to help promote similar content in /new. Third most needed would be donations.

Although donations could hire a coder... so if we got enough donations I could hire someone from fiverr for like $200 to make one feature improvement. It's something I've thought about trying, but we haven't had the budget for it really.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Honestly coding is the help we need the most, imo.

I might be able to help if you people need people that badly. Have to take a look at the code.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This 2nd link in the "Additional Documentation" section doesn't work for me, it gives me a 404:

https://qconsf.com/sf2017/system/files/presentation-slides/qconsf-20171113-reddits-architecture.pdf

Maybe the link should be updated in the readme?

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ah yeah, it is broken. /u/d3rr can update it if he wants, he's busy with other stuff I imagine though. I think that was the page that had the diagram of how the different parts connected. Most of it is automatic if you just follow the installation rules on https://github.com/libertysoft3/saidit

I think you'll be able to set it up if you tried, we've spent a lot of time honing the process and the instructions to make it easy to do. If you try and get stuck, just let me know and I can help, but other people have done it without problems

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Done. It's now https://web.archive.org/web/20191121131055/https://qconsf.com/sf2017/system/files/presentation-slides/qconsf-20171113-reddits-architecture.pdf

[–]killerjavi98 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh man coding is difficult. You seem dedicated if you got this far. You got this. Hopefully you can help Saidit.

[–]kokolokoNightcrawler 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I can do html/css/JS/React/Nodejs, amateur lvl...just I've never dealt with php/Python

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What I find interesting is that when I right click on any saidit page and view the source, the html is still littered with references to Reddit gold.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

OP if you get inspired to dive in again, the main guts of the app is here: https://github.com/libertysoft3/saidit/tree/master/r2/r2 I'm around to assist anyone that wants to get their hands dirty and help out.