Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Building a free/libre platform for reviews

[Erik Moeller]

Hi folks,

I wanted to give you an update on this project, in case you feel like getting
involved now there's a bit more to look at.

Right now, I have registration limited to people with an invite code. If you
promise to write at least one freely licensed review, I'll send you the code. :)
Just shoot me a note offlist.

Here's what should work:

* You can create new reviews. For now, you identify things to review by
  providing a URL. As you can see on the front page, the advantage of this is
  that we can already review pretty much anything -- such as software packages,
  movies, or books. The disadvantage is that we don't have easy
  discoverability / search yet. But it's a way to get started.

  Over time we want to interface with open repositories like Wikidata,
  OpenStreetMap, and so on.

* You can edit a review after you've posted it (all changes are versioned).

* You can start/edit/delete a team and write team blog posts. The "Developers"
  team shows off a little bit of that functionality:
  https://lib.reviews/team/6bfc0390-e218-4cb7-a446-2046cb886435/

  This is still very early, but my hope is that this can be a way to organize
  review communities, e.g. "Friends of Free Culture/Free Software".

* You can translate a review! Just switch languages and edit. Language is
  a first-class citizen in the architecture, so all texts (UI or content)
  can be translated.

  We'll add languages once we have UI localization for them, so if you want
  to help with that, that's an easy way to get involved right now (we're not
  on a third party localization platform yet, but I definitely want to make
  that happen).

  Using the aforementioned team functionality, we can also create a
  "Translators" team that has full permission to translate all content.
  Imagine going to a city and finding restaurant reviews by locals translated
  into your language -- that's what I'm aiming for.

* The site _should_ look nice on mobile (with a few cosmetic bugs), and it
  definitely should work 100% without JavaScript. All client-side features
  are enhancements of the core functionality and not required.

I'm using GitHub for now, so if you want to report issues, you can do it via
https://github.com/eloquence/lib.reviews/issues (or just shoot me a note).

Collaborators are welcome in all areas: design, development, documentation,
translation, localization, content, etc. I am more than happy to schedule a
video-call with anyone who wants to sink their teeth into the code or make
a commitment to help in other ways.

I believe high quality reviews of _anything_ are a critical component of the
free culture ecosystem. If you agree, I hope you'll check out the project and
get involved.

Finally, as a side note, I'm making an effort to revive
http://wiki.freeculture.org/Main_Page and the freeculture.org community
as a potential incubation space for projects like this one -- check it out :)

Warmly,

Erik