I’m unofficially joining SN’s engineering. What needs doing? \ stacker news ~Ask

pull down to refresh

I’m unofficially joining SN’s engineering. What needs doing?

6811 sats \ 101 comments \ @Zk2u 5 Jan Ask_SN

Hi y’all,

After speaking with @k00b I’m going to look at putting some engineering hours behind Stacker News. I want to know - from everyone - what issues or new features would they like added? You can pull these from the GH issues page or just something that’s on your mind. If it’s the latter, I do encourage you to put it on the issues tracker!

Try to avoid nostr support and issues the other engies have claimed so I don’t interfere with their work!

The first one I pick to work on will get 2500 sats. Have fun!

2,500 sats paid

Zk2u's bounties

view all past bounties

1120 sats \ 1 reply \ @Public_N_M_E 5 Jan

During a chat with other Territory founders the other night. A toggleable setting for push notification for when a user posts in a territory you own would be really helpful.

Also the ability to pin messages in a territory would be helpful aswell.

But these are just back of a packet ideas.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 5 Jan

+1 for opt-in notifications

3020 sats \ 3 replies \ @random_ 5 Jan

Please make copying links on mobile one click instead of two.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan freebie

Seems like an easy fix! You mean of replies?

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @random_ 5 Jan

Yes!!

Too many times I've already switched apps before realizing there was a second click to make.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

I'll sort it later today if I get the local dev env working.

659 sats \ 2 replies \ @beorange 5 Jan

Generally, to start contributing to any project, I think it is always a good approach to fix a few bugs first. It seems there is a list of known bugs: https://github.com/stackernews/stacker.news/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Abug

If you'd ask me, from a user point of view, I would say you could start with this one: https://github.com/stackernews/stacker.news/issues/718

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 5 Jan

I agree that fixing bugs is a good way to start contributing to a project.

I also agree that fixing #718 would be nice, especially because I struggled with finding a good fix for it, lol

I added some comments in the ticket. I think it's related to Apollo caching.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Very true. I still need to get to depths with the repo and how everything works.

530 sats \ 2 replies \ @AR0w 5 Jan

Territory explorer tab

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Yes. Very good idea.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @AR0w 5 Jan freebie

Yes very needed

719 sats \ 1 reply \ @phatom 5 Jan

Kudos to the getting this unofficial role

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Thank you :)

791 sats \ 6 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 5 Jan

How About Providing Details Of The Previous Day's Rewards ? => #369353

10 sats \ 5 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Where would you want this added on the site?

10 sats \ 4 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 5 Jan

I think it would look good on the rewards page after the pie chart: https://stacker.news/rewards

5 sats \ 3 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

I reckon that’s doable, let’s see how the stackers rank this!

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 5 Jan freebie

I think you may find the same names being consistently in the top rewarded. And I'm unsure if those people would want to have that publicised. I'm unsure if I'd want to be bombarded with DMs (we don't have DMs but you get what I mean, just tags or whatever) from accounts asking "how earn so much" because... As it turns out they don't like the answer (the answer is for anyone wondering, zap more. ;) )

245 sats \ 2 replies \ @kr 5 Jan

let’s go! ⚡️

635 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Thank you for the referral!!

15 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 5 Jan

🫡

121 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 5 Jan

Good stuff! I agree with the other comments about starting with bugs to get comfortable. That’s how I did it (I think? Who can remember).

99 sats \ 2 replies \ @jeff 5 Jan

Start an unofficial browser extension, that becomes so great it becomes official.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd 5 Jan

reddit enhancement suite is pretty great

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Hahaha

99 sats \ 5 replies \ @jeff 5 Jan freebie

Priced DMs.

Id like to be able to accept (and send) DMs for a small fee.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Considering that we have no DMs at the moment, maybe a little bigger than others but I like the sound of this. Would we accept having non-E2EE DMs with perhaps a warning at the top of DMs saying so?

191 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek 5 Jan freebie

Priced DMs. Id like to be able to accept (and send) DMs for a small fee.

Considering that we have no DMs at the moment, maybe a little bigger than others but I like the sound of this.

Yes, this is definitely planned (DMs in general and priced DMs) but you're right, this is a bigger project. We had some internal discussion about the vision of this already. We didn't refine the ticket in Github however. But we could tell you what plans we have with DMs if you want to work on this since this doesn't mean you couldn't start to work on this :)

Would we accept having non-E2EE DMs with perhaps a warning at the top of DMs saying so?

I would say no but I am highly biased as someone with a background in cryptography, lol

I also participated in the spec process of NIP-44 and wrote a NIP-44 implementation in golang. My idea is that we might be able to use NIP-44 for DMs on SN. These would then be interoperable with nostr so stackers can use any nostr client that supports NIP-44 to read and write DMs.

1055 sats \ 2 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Also heavily versed in cryptography, probably not to the extend you are however. Yes I would want E2EE DMs. I'd be interested in getting those ideas and plans around it because this sounds up my street.

My idea is that we might be able to use NIP-44 for DMs on SN.

This is a good plan, would we be relying on nostr browser extensions for key management then?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 5 Jan

Also heavily versed in cryptography, probably not to the extend you are however.

Ah, nice, a fellow ~crypto OG, haha

I'd be interested in getting those ideas and plans around it because this sounds up my street.

Nice! I also wanted to work on this (hence the self-assignment on the ticket in November) but priorities shifted to wallet stuff. But I am happy to see someone (especially someone that has a background in cryptography) working on this since I can review your code then. Also, to (constructively) critize the code of another person people is easier than writing the code itself, haha

I think we can have a call with @k00b about this soon (or whenever you're available)

This is a good plan, would we be relying on nostr browser extensions for key management then?

Probably but maybe there are other, better options that we're not aware of yet. Let's see :)

464 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Here I am about to ask you to DM me.... lol. Yeah we can sort out a call, I'll email @k00b once I'm done processing all this.

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @satoshiplanet 5 Jan

Great news! I think we need community territories, personally I would like to create a territory based on a collaborative project that would involve several people.

Territories have a lot of possibilities, most of them still unknown, so I think it is good to glimpse some of the new features that are coming, or not.

For example, I envision small collectives and micro-organizations using the territories as a base of operations. Just imagine a group of 5 stackers working hard to strengthen a territory, this would be a huge leap, future SN brings all these features together.

Do, if I could have some of these features, it would simply be a dream come true:

Allow stackers to create proposed territories that other stackers can join and co-own.
Spread the benefits of the distribution of daily rewards to co-owners proportionally for the work contributed.
Incentivize territories that are maintained over time by providing them with new tools or reducing the monthly rental cost.

Thanks for reading!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kytt 5 Jan

I've thought about this same thing - collaborative projects. Great idea.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

This seems important, I like this idea. Multiowner communities was the first thing I noticed when the community feature was added. An MVP would probably give all of them the same permissions with more advanced permissions later.

10 sats \ 6 replies \ @mo 5 Jan

Territories I think like many others need attention! My prioritized list would be:

Outside territories:

Hope it helps

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 5 Jan

Founders to sell sub territories? Hmmm that one seems like it could be contentious and maybe even controversial.

As an example you could make an arguement that ~hiphop could be a sub territory of ~music but just because it could be you gotta ask... Should it be? Continuing to use hip-hop as an example, hip-hop as a culture has more to it than just music, as does emo or goth or punk, so I'd argue the side that it deserved it's own territory.

Or should I wish to create a purely NFL territory am I to defer to ~Stacker_Sports and rent space from GR for it?

The other point you could make is (I was chatting to GR about an SN fantasy football league) does that need a sub-territory? Or could it just be a post within sports? In the interest of consolidating information to places, I'd say it could just be an ongoing thread within sports, but I can also see the merit of perhaps a sub territory for it.

I can see how in a territory such as ~Agora or ~marketplace separate sections of the market would be helpful, eg if I wanted to buy power tools I'd look in the sub territory labelled power tools. It's a very helpful filtering tool for something that can be as big as a marketplace.

I can see this particular feature being very contentious.

Just for clarity I'm not advocating against it, but I am asking everyone to proceed with caution on it.

Silly question, what would you name a sub-territory?? A province perhaps?

295 sats \ 3 replies \ @mo 5 Jan freebie

You make a really valid point and I believe the issue is not on defining territories but indeed enabling crosspostig in multiple territories or sub-t at the same time if a stacker is willing to pay for it.

I'm just guessing here a possible solution, just because I faced the issue experimenting in the ~Agora, i.e. for a guitar: should it be really only posted in one marketplace? why not in both? or it could also be posted in ~music? (had to create a link to give it visibility to stackers that might be interested).

SN decentralization! My point is that posts could have visibility across multiple territories at a cost

Let the user decide... just provide the options!

PS: this also will remove the need to have that so-long dropdown and maybe replace it with a checkbox, or something like filtering territories functionality even better

https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/212/screenshots/923105/dropdown.png

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 5 Jan freebie

Enabling crossposting for sure has excellent benefits. But I'm unsure what sub-territories add that a territory in itself doesn't already provide. Perhaps however something like tagging could help crossposting more efficiently?

Eg selling a guitar in ~Agora If you go on to tag ~marketplace ~music ~vintage those tags instead of only providing a link to those territories actually autopost that one post to all those territories, similar to how hashtags work in other social media platforms? I'm unsure how you'd consolidate it to one post for all responses however to keep all the responses in one place as currently in that example you'd have 4 separate posts of the same thing. As for posting fees, I guess they could stack so at the bottom where the button tells you how much the post costs, it could count all the territory posting fees and give you one price for multi posting.

Could also be a drop down menu when you're creating a post called crosspost (like options or similar) and have tickboxes of territories you can select to cross post to.

There's definitely a few avenues to explore on how to facilitate crossposts. I do agree that posts should have visibility across multiple relevant territories so long as the poster is willing to pay the price, and we should definitely look at how to automate that process rather than the poster manually making individual posts.

The issue id foresee with tagging creating posts is you'd only want it do so on posts not on comments.

But my point wasn't about crossposting (and hopefully I've given some useful ideas on how to do that), it was about being cautious with charging rent to sub-territories as I'm unsure what value the sub-territories add above that of any regular territory, and how you'd define (which you pointed out we need to be careful about) what should be a territory and what should be a sub-territory. I think it's also very territory dependent aswell, in a territory as busy as ~Agora sub-territories could be a brilliant filter, same with sports and having sub-territories for NFL,NBA,MLB etc but in territories quieter like ~music I'd find it a hard sell to see the benefit of a sub-territory that couldn't just be a thread.

Certainly lots to think about and territories have really changed the game in SN, how they evolve and what grows from them is going to be really interesting to see.

Sorry for the wall of text :/ you made multiple good points I felt deserved proper thought through responses.

EDIT I've just seen your additional bit on the end of your comment. I also think checkboxes would be the better approach than long drop downs. As for letting the user decide, I can't argue against that 😅 but I would say as an example, if someone came to me saying "hey I want to make a sub-territory in your territory" I think I'd advise them to make a specific thread first and see how that plays out and what sort of community engagement it gets before deciding if it warrants a sub-territory of its own. I think that would be a reasonable way forward (would keep my conscience clear, rather than just collecting rent for sub-territories that didn't get off the ground).

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

High quality suggestions, thank you! Keep it coming.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @ladyluck 5 Jan

What type of engineering are you talking about, software engineering?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Yes

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @supratic 8 Jan

@617a7a who won the bounty?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zk2u OP 8 Jan

Haven’t had the opportunity to pick one yet as I’ve been working on college work but I’m thinking of adding the one tap copy first.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @random_ 8 Jan

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 8 Jan

Some starters to consider

Make SN decentralized while building a feasible business model
Build algorithm for sorting the content that's not possible to game
Enable self-hosted wallets to seamlessly participate on SN
Solve cheap & fast & private & decentralized payments on bitcoin
Integrate with user self hosted AI models that work for the users
Create a top of the class "Profile" page that every person would be proud to present

@k00b wdyt? ;)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @398ja 6 Jan

A summary of the territories in the weekly email would be nice. Top territories by number of posts, comments, zaps (and total zap amount) etc. 🙏

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 5 Jan

The content sorting algorithm. The algorithm is what made every successful social media successful.

A/B testing also

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sebastix 5 Jan

Maybe add a fixed nav element for the pwa? I miss a fixed button to navigate back a lot 👀

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @okpj 5 Jan

User feedback for buyers/sellers on marketplace style territories

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @italiansatoshi 5 Jan

A page that lists accounts I'm currently following with their last post.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @itsrealfake 5 Jan

The PWA doesn't display the sats/$ price (on a pixel3a size screen) like the browser.. that was my favorite feature of stackernews when i started visiting

could you bring that back?

1000 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 5 Jan

It still exists but we hide it when your nym is too long iirc

https://m.stacker.news/10819

We could probably still show it using dynamic font size though

1000 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 5 Jan

We use a dynamic font size already. It'd just be so tiny in some cases.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 5 Jan

thanks for the updates, yall...

i could tinker with the CSS locally and maybe pass a PR if i get motivated :)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 5 Jan

Earn filter in the wallet history. Thanks

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stacker_rubble638 5 Jan

Issue #369 - The text on the PWA is too small for my middle-aged eyes. 🔎

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bitcoinisawesome 5 Jan

I would like to have a back button in the PWA accessible after I have scrolled to the very bottom of the thread.

Currently you must scroll back up to hit the back button on the top.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @fiatbad 5 Jan

I'd like to see non-custodial LN payments..... something like zaps in Nostr.

In fact, I'd like to see Nostr integrated into SN as an alternative way to authenticate and store posts/comments. It could be a parallel system where SN still hosts its own servers and domain names, but adds a new Nostr client wrapper for people choosing to login and use SN as a Nostr client.

Obviously, a full blown Nostr client version of SN is a huge task. But non-custodial zapping feels like a low hanging-fruit... right?

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @ek 5 Jan

But non-custodial zapping feels like a low hanging-fruit... right?

Yes, I'm working on that currently

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

How are you implementing this?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek 5 Jan freebie

With Bitcoin Connect from @Alby, see here.

Bitcoin Connect uses WebLN under the hood. It provides us a nice interface to connect with various wallets, including self-custodial ones.

Does this answer your question? :)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @jeff 5 Jan

Transaction extracts.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Could you expand?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @faithandcredit 5 Jan

at some point the territories dropdown will become overwhelmingly full of entries, but it would be interesting with an analytics. so u can see which territories are most active, trending, zapped, or something. im sorry i cannot suggest any better ideas.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

That's a good idea. Should add that along with previous day stats to the analytics page.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @supratic 5 Jan

Good on you! Please cosider:

717 - 718 - 688 and 679

I thik is a good start!

So how much time you'll ivest? it's one time gig or are you dedicatig specific time alog all 2024?

1546 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Likely a few hours a week and then full time for 6+ weeks during the summer. Not confirmed after that, we'll have to see how this goes. Thank you for the suggestions! I'll prioritise my todo list sometime later.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 5 Jan

After speaking with @k00b I’m going to look at putting some engineering hours behind Stacker News.

Hey, nice to hear that this came out of your call with @k00b yesterday :)

I wasn't sure if I should chime in here or just let you do your thing for now, but I decided that I'm going to comment here and there and answer some questions to help you with getting started.

But overall, feel free to pick anything, I would say. That's also how I started with contributing to SN. Some things make more sense than others but it's probably more important that you work on something that you're interested in than picking the ticket that has the best ratio of "good first issue" and "high priority" - if that is even easy to measure.

792 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Hey, nice to meet you (over a post lol) :)

I decided that I'm going to comment here and there and answer some questions to help you with getting started.

Yes, any help getting to grips with the repo and architecture will push me in the right direction. Thanks for all the context - super useful. Probably the most useful.

Some things make more sense than others but it's probably more important that you work on something that you're interested in than picking the ticket that has the best ratio of "good first issue" and "high priority" - if that is even easy to measure.

Agreed. I put this up after I'd started going through the issues page to pick out things I liked the sound of. Thought it would be a good idea to get an idea of what the community wants and then pick a few from that as well. It's not going to be a formal thing yet but I'll make a todo list somewhere from the research I'm gathering here.

15 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 5 Jan

Hey, nice to meet you (over a post lol) :)

Also nice to meet you! Your replies remind me of myself a few months ago, haha

Thought it would be a good idea to get an idea of what the community wants and then pick a few from that as well.

It was a good idea :)

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @Wumbo 5 Jan

With the new "legal" stuff k00b has been dealing with in regards to IP address and Region

How about in the profile page (example: https://stacker.news/Wumbo) displaying the Country or Region Stacker News think you are coming in from.

Return the the country attribute from the DB mention here. #376372

Maybe as a new line below "longest cowboy streak"

This would help SN users would want to double check their VPN and/or Tor connections.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

I like this idea!

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Wumbo 5 Jan

To clarify, you would only see "your" region if login and on your profile.

If viewing another's profile the field would not populate and be hidden.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Of course, like a self diagnosis tool :)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 5 Jan

If we do something like this (not sure if we will), we need to consider the privacy implications. For example, we intend to never store IP addresses.

So something like this will probably need to run purely in the client since even displaying an IP address location touches IP addresses on the server more than we'd like to. At least that would be my educated guess.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

I see two ways here:

We SSR the IP into the page (not sure if this route is SSR'd but guess we'll see). Depends if people wanting to check their IP are using JS or not. Does SN require JS?
We just do a simple fetch from the client on page load to a next API endpoint that just echoes the connecting IP

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 5 Jan freebie

I'm not sure if it makes sense, since stackers can repost the same content. But it didn't make sense for stackers to be able to bring up a specific post of yours in the most recent posts?

edit: Of course, there is a cost.

cc: @k00b @ekzyis @kr

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @go 5 Jan freebie

Throw up a nice fat-finger-friendly back button for the PWA

👇

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kytt 5 Jan

deleted by author

0 sats \ 11 replies \ @deletedd 5 Jan

deleted by author

91 sats \ 6 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Haven’t seen Bitcoin connect but will add it to the list of research. The latter seems important. Is there any experience in particular you’re looking for?

91 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 5 Jan

Haven’t seen Bitcoin connect but will add it to the list of research.

This is the Bitcoin Connect we're talking about and I am currently working on that here.

But you can take a look at the existing code if you want :)

555 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

I'll leave it for you to make things simpler but ask if help is needed :)

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @deletedd 5 Jan

deleted by author

91 sats \ 2 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Maybe we should expose post/comment IDs so you can directly search for those. Search is hard so not sure what SN is using currently for it. Probably the built in stuff on Postgres.

91 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 5 Jan freebie

Probably the built in stuff on Postgres.

I can see why you might have guessed that (to keep things simple, for example) but we're using OpenSearch. Here is the connection code and we have a worker that indexes items in the background.

I think improving the search would be a very nice feature if you want to work on a feature.

This ticket is already a little refined and thus might be good to pick up in that case: Enhance search with quotation mark advanced search syntax

555 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zk2u OP 5 Jan

Good idea using OpenSearch. Typically for search, having something separate is far better. Thanks for all the resources, I'll look at this to see if it's something I can do.

91 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek 5 Jan freebie

I would really want to see SN Bitcoin Connect integration tho

Have you seen my latest draft PR? I am currently working on exactly this

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @deletedd 5 Jan

deleted by author

91 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 5 Jan

Ah, no worries!

Just wanted to let you know that you will get your SN Bitcoin Connect integration hopefully soon, haha

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @deletedd 5 Jan

deleted by author