While looking for Discord alternatives I came across this project which looks like a great alternative for the kinds of Discord servers centered around Open Source projects and organizations. Ones where live chat and voice rooms aren't the focus.
It's a combination of forums and knowledge base that would be perfect for this use case.
56 Comments
Sibbo@sopuli.xyz · 42 pts · 201d
It mentions many AI features. Is this vibe-coded?
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 201d
From what I can tell the author uses AI assistance in creating API endpoints and some front end styling, based on some clause code agent files in the repo. Whether that is for prototyping client changes after making backend changes, or thats what winds up in the official client, I cannot say. It’s a good thought though as it’s not really mentioned on the main site.
From reading his blog he seems to be not be yet another AI bro and I sort of agree with his position on the ultimate usefulness of AI. There is little to no AI generation implemented in the app, it seems mostly designed as a search function and is optional.
littleomid@feddit.org · 14 pts · 201d
Looks like the pictures are also AI generated?
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · -26 pts · 201d
imo this line of questioning will become increasing irrelevant, coding might just be the best thing about AI, you're going to find fewer and fewer projects hand crafted
GreyCat@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 200d
Depends heavily on use. If it's only for completion or for tedious tasks or for ideas, then yeah it's fine. But if it's a fully vibe-coded app it brings into question wether the author has the skill to maintain and keep developing the project.
That's why it should be asked, or even better, just answered in the README.
fizzle@quokk.au · 22 pts · 201d
Some kind of weird WebGL error on their site I've never seen before.
Doesn't load for me.
LibreWolf doesn't seem to be offering to activate canvas.
Oh well.
Mnmalst@piefed.social · 14 pts · 201d
Same for me, why does a forum software need webgl?
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 pts · 201d
You mean why does the site for a forum software need webgl, by which the only reason I can think of is tracking visitors somehow. It's not like the background landscape on the site is dynamic or something.
dev_null@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 201d
But, background is dynamic. You can see it has some kind of fancy moving dots. It's totally unnecessary, but clearly WebGL was used for that.
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 10 pts · 200d
Oh, so it is, hadn't noticed it at first.
And, sure enough, disabling webgl in about:config causes the page to throw the error, instead of degrading gracefully. An animation of random dots is not at all necessary to expose about a product that is a web forum.
dev_null@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 200d
There is also a 3D spinning globe, so that too.
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 200d
Once again, something that is absolutely not needed to explain what a forum software is and thus, should degrade gracefully. To a static png or something.
southclaws@piefed.social · 2 pts · 194d
i added a dumb globe thingy and some useless effects in a mania of creative chaos, not felt a spark of creativity in ages and hate the current site, but you're right this was stupid, i removed the useless webgl stuff and made it simpler, thanks for the feedback!
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 194d
Thanks!
It's not so much about wholly removing webgl contrasted to at least having some sort of fallback that allows the site to be experienced, but thanks again for at least tackling the change.
southclaws@piefed.social · 1 pts · 194d
yeah I'm usually disciplined with progressive enhancement but not this time, should have been a .webm or .gif lol
eodur@piefed.social · 3 pts · 201d
Same for me in IronFox.
HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 199d
Also on cromite. Both disable webgl by default, iirc.
Not like a forum has a reasonable use case that requires webgl, tho.
irmadlad@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 201d
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred while loading www.storyden.org (see the browser console for more information).said@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 199d
Exactly same error for me. I'm glad there are such indicators so I don't have to waste my time on such a crappy overcomplicated design.
irmadlad@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 199d
Could be something everyone is blocking in their browsers. I know I use arkenfox. No joy with LibreWolf or Waterfox. I did pull it up in Opera, and it worked ok. I didn't browse any further than the front page. I only use Opera for paying bills as Firefox, LibreWolf, and Waterfox are set up to block a lot of excess crap, and my utilities love their bullshit webpage candy.
False@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 201d
Works fine in Firefox on Android
biotin7@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 201d
Me too
libyx@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 201d
I find it strange that they themselves have a Discord link in the footer.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · 9 pts · 201d
Because it's not for replacing discord it's a modern version of phpbb or vbulliten forums, the OP mentions this
artyom@piefed.social · 6 pts · 201d
libyx@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 201d
That is correct. However, OP says right before:
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 16 pts · 201d
That's because it aims to replace one of the wrong use cases that projects (FOSS or not) weirdly decide to use Discord for, such as replacement for a "contact forum" or "support forum".
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe · 10 pts · 201d
Such a great point.
I've refused to use software that require things like Discord or Telegram for support.
Use a proper tool on your website.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 201d
I know, I literally quoted the line after it to put emphasis on the fact he wasn't saying it's a discord replacement but one where live chat and voice rooms aren't the focus
tbh he could have just said it's a new type of forum because it really has nothing to do with discord at all
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 200d
It has unfortunately, a lot to do with Discord. I am a members of a dozen or so Discord servers, none of which are used for live chat, audio, screen sharing, etc. This software would be a 1:1 replacement for all of those servers.
You should be correct in saying that this software is not a replacement for Discord, but it is, just not in every single instance.
biotin7@sopuli.xyz · 10 pts · 201d
Oh great more cool FOSS projects to bookmark
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 200d
Whatever happened to vBulletin? That was peak forum software. Simple to use, no frills, and no bloated tracking shit.
All the car community forums are operated by Fora at this point, and they're trying to push some bullshit AI assistant called "ForaFrank". I blocked it on every car forum I'm a part of, and have encouraged others to do the same.
early_riser@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 198d
markstos@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 199d
The marketing mixes metaphors, talking about gardening, growing, curating… all part of sustainable process that includes plants dying.
It also uses words like forever and permanent.
Having content live forever is at odds with metaphors of the natural world, where things naturally die.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 199d
I think the metaphors refer to different aspects of the project. The gardening refers to a more deliberate, small scale, cultivated experience tailored to your community, which is opposed to commercial factory farms that produce a monoculture on a massive scale for profit.
The permanence refers to the fact that you own and control the data, so you are in control of its lifecycle, not a third party that could kill it at their discretion.
kossa@feddit.org · 2 pts · 199d
Well permaculture is a thing in gardening ^^
I mean, it's not "forever" as in "until the end of all things", but as much set and forget as I would like in a knowledgebase (and in a garden).
early_riser@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 200d
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu · 4 pts · 201d
Love this... Will take a spin for my OpenAstra
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 201d
Mind, seems to be vibecoded.
southclaws@piefed.social · 2 pts · 194d
Hey 👋 creator of storyden here! it's a labour of love that started long before "vibecode" was a word, almost 4 years ago now! I do use some language-model tooling now, but not anywhere close to blind-push-to-prod "vibe coding" :)
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu · -5 pts · 201d
So?
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 200d
It's 2026, being vibecoded is a self-explanatory problem.
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu · -1 pts · 200d
Well, I have seen so many classic coders write shitty unmaintainable and insecure code that I don't think that NOT being vibe coded mean anything.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 200d
It's like the difference bewteen publicly-traded and privately-owned companies. Publicly-traded companies are guaranteed to enshittify due to fiduciary duty. Privately-owned companies could enshittify, but it's not guaranteed.
A human programmer could be shit but at least they're not guaranteed to be shit like the vibe coding AI
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu · -3 pts · 200d
I like the analogy...
But at the end of the day better to have something that starts shitty but can be improved over time rather than nothing.
If it stays shitty, then it's just shit and won't go anywhere.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 200d
And how is it supposed to get less shit if it's vibe coded? The programmer didn't learn anything when making the initial build
verstra@programming.dev · 3 pts · 201d
This looks ... great.
Sibbo@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 201d
Looks cool. Is it already supported by NixOS?
southclaws@piefed.social · 1 pts · 194d
thank you for sharing my product here! I grew up on forums, it's somewhat of a love letter to the mid 2000s I spent many hours of my youth with, happy to answer any questions on the project!
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 194d
Could you give us a brief overview of the use of AI in the production of Storyden? Like which components are ai-assisted, and to what degree?
I think this is the main sticking point people have with the project, especially since it is apparently in use but it’s not super clear how.
southclaws@piefed.social · 2 pts · 194d
sure, so I use a ton of codegen and hand-write the openapi schema, jsonschemas and database model, I use AI often to write the mapping/binding boilerplate that goes between the outside-to-inside world (database stuff to queriers/writers and http handlers to actual logic) then I write the logic itself as well as the end-to-end tests. I find language models work very well once you have a clear set of constraints/boundaries such as a clear api contract + generated types or a set of tests that define the behaviour. I use a mix of claude and codex. Claude I find works well for exploratory/experimental work (a ton of the new plugin system was R&D so claude helped set up and tear down a bunch of potential implementations and ideas) codex is a lot less interactive and doesn't seem to play well with creative r&d style exploratory workflows, so I use that one more for well planned out features using the codegen mentioned before.
while I somewhat understand the "sticking point" it allows me to work faster and focus on the more enjoyable side of the craft i've honed for almost 20 years. While it's still not a super popular project and a couple of friends sometimes help, it's just me doing it so the AI helps a lot when I only have a couple of hours a night to work on it!
outside of pure code, I used a combination of very early generative imagery models (circa 2022 I think) for the hero art, which started life as a sketch, scanned in, with some iterations on Dall-E (back when it was an app before chatgpt absorbed it) and a few hours painting and expanding in photoshop with my wacom. for future art on blog posts and such, I'm keen to commission a human artist for future marketing assets (in case you know anyone!)
and I think finally, lots of exploratory discussion with chatgpt on api design, http semantics, cross-browser cookie behaviours, boring stuff like that... very useful!
do you think it would be worth including some blurb about how ai tools are used in the readme for this kinda crowd who are understandably skeptical of many open source projects now due to irresponsible usage of ai?
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 192d
I think a blurb would be a great idea, especially for your project.
I feel like the biggest hurdle for your project is that the people it speaks to, especially the way you market it (analogues to natural, organic things like plants, the purposeful methodology intrinsic to gardening, as well as the nostalgic throwback to a simpler time of the internet when everything was more hand-made and deliberate) are the same people that will be put off by AI, being that it’s the antithesis of those things.
Making your case for why and how it’s used, (IE Not just vibe-coded slop but something that matters a little more to you) might be enough to keep people on board, and maybe give it an honest try.
early_riser@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 198d
southclaws@piefed.social · 1 pts · 194d
hey, would love to know what that error was if you have any logs or can remember, and any feedback is truly welcome!