the power of community
Somewhere around this time last year, I was posed with a problem. A bit of (personal) history here – I was doing some crucial (to my thesis, anyway) research and I was busy running experiments and writing papers and the like. By this time last year, I had finished those experiments, my results were decent and I had decided to myself that a break was required. So I was looking around for something to do.
When looking around for something to keep idle hands occupied, I usually tend to scratch my itches – so to speak. I write things that I need. Sometimes this includes writing plugins to spam fighting software, sometimes it involves various other things. But this time, I got this idea about doing an aggregator right. So, it was around this time last year that I decided to build Achcharu. Yeah, Ach is a one year old.
Yeah, so there’s ancient history here, here and here. I really didn’t write much about Ach back in the day but I’ve begun to realize the value of documenting some of my plans and assumptions because … as usually happens … I tend to forget them fairly fast. I blame my advancing years.
The first hurdles were mostly technical. I couldn’t believe that no one had written something that I could just install… but surprisingly, it seems that no one really had. Oh, there were lots of aggregators out there but they all had various niggles that made them (in my view) unsuited. So I took one aggregator that I liked for a number of reasons, not the least being nice and easy-to-read code (Lilina) and starting hacking features into it. Along the way, I also learnt some JavaScript from my Greasemonkey exploits so I started using that. And that was, fundamentally Achcharu. There were so many hacks piled onto the main product that things were really rather messy and from a technical standpoint, I probably made the wrong longterm software choice. As a short-term choice though, what I had actually worked. In fact, the name Achcharu was probably best applied to the state of the source code – hacks upon hacks upon hacks applied to make a messy piece of software that somehow staggered along and did the job.
Sometime in about August or September last year, the limitations of my choices were becoming more apparent so I figured that I would rewrite Ach when I got the chance. Technology had moved on, I had figured out a few more tricks in the interim and the experience of running Ach meant that I knew which features I needed and which were … fluff. What you see now is really written from the ground up. I use a number of open source libraries and software on it (SimplePie, HTMLPurifier and Mootools) and just glue the result together.
From the very beginning, Achcharu was meant to be social software. It was built with shared use by a small community in mind, although I would have personally preferred to use Ach even if no one else did. Other feed readers (Google Reader and Gregarius, for example) already supported (or would subsequently support) tagging. I wanted tagging to work like it does in del.icio.us for example – as valid metadata. Serendipitiously, other people using tags had other, better ideas. Tagging evolved to be much more than mere metadata, it became commentary. And now a break into more grainy, black and white footage from the archives here. That post refers to perhaps the single most influential tag in Achcharu history – the infamous “zombie fiction“.
Suddenly, the possibilities for tagging seemed limitless. Not only could it be valid metadata but it could also be commentary in its own right. Why wander over and flame hapless bloggers on their own blogs? There just didn’t seem a need to spread vitriol around anymore.
On 19-Mar-07 at 6:50 pm,
Tz. wrote:
You know, I had no idea “zombie fiction” was so influential.
On 19-Mar-07 at 8:54 pm,
Curious Yellow wrote:
I can’t see the tag!
Where is it?
I must see it.
It pleases me.
On 20-Mar-07 at 5:49 am,
N wrote:
hmm…as a break from school you built Ach…kkkk…personally prefer getting blindingly drunk (but then you’ll make millions in the software industry one day while I’ll get hit by a bus jaywalking)…I’m with yellow, wanna see this zombie tag…please oh please overlord!
On 20-Mar-07 at 10:28 am,
Darwin wrote:
Loverlord, I like that one! It can’t possibly get any cheesier:D
I still don’t see you on Ach though…
On 20-Mar-07 at 10:49 am,
drac wrote:
Tz: you have no idea. It was inspired.
CY/N: It’s in the archives of Ach1. I never bothered to import the old tags back in because the server structure for storing tags and posts is completely different. Couldn’t be bothered writing a convertor, really.
Besides, the post that it was tagged against no longer exists. Let’s just say that it was easter related and leave it there.
Also, getting blindingly drunk seems to lose its allure after a while. Believe me, I’ve been there. It gets boring. Still doesn’t stop me getting sloshed on occasion, but err..
Darwin: I suppose it’s completely wrong that I feel the need to break into Shaggy’s Mr Boombastic lyrics when I hear it. Yeah, forget I said that.
Gah. All these demands
When the number of serious voting bugs die down to single digits… I’ll contemplate it. Need to do a few tweaks to the voting algorithm today anyway.
On 24-Mar-07 at 5:33 pm,
G wrote:
Hello drackety
Apologies for derailing the thread a bit but I tried mailing to both your fierydragon addresses for an access key and have received no reply yet. Have I been restricted in some way? :p
On 25-Mar-07 at 1:10 pm,
drac wrote:
G: check your mail
On 26-Mar-07 at 10:22 am,
G wrote:
And now your turn.
Let me know if nothing’s come through again.
On 30-Mar-08 at 1:29 am,
Java Jones wrote:
My view is that tags should reflect, in some way, the post in question and not be a means of irrelevant personal attacks – as many on ach are. There’s also some of the ‘rules’ that are being, what appears to be, selectively applied. Some tags that exceed 8 words are allowed, whilst others are not. If there’s a group that gangs up on bloggers, it seems to be counter-productive to the ‘noble’ intentions of the site.
On 31-Mar-08 at 9:51 am,
drac wrote:
Java Jones: I do not have regular internet access at the moment, so I’m just vaguely aware of the apparent controversy that appears to have sprung up, but let me respond as best as I am able. Please do bear in mind that I have not had either the time nor the internet access to read all the content that has been generated by this latest saga.
a) Your view is laudable, but I’d challenge you to figure out a way to determine relevance to the post sans subjectivity and without babysitting the site 24/7 (hint: I certainly do not have the time, nor can I in good conscience ask the other volunteer administrators to do so). What you see on Ach represents a good-faith, best-effort at moderation, given that all of the people thus far involved have their own lives outside the internet. I encourage anyone to complain about specific tags which offend them (this has always been the case) at which point I can make a decision about what (if anything) needs to be done. I always read email, even if a response is a few days late (as it will be these days).
There also exists a mechanism for removing tags which are objectionable without any moderator intervention. This is completely in the hands of the individual users of the site, provided enough people agree. This mechanism has been very infrequently invoked – draw your own conclusions as to why this may be the case.
b) You are entirely mistaken that 8 word or longer tags are completely disallowed. This has never been the case. There is indeed a warning printed out and users are given the opportunity to fix lengthy tags. The issuance of a warning also allows me to maintain an automated record of which users are consistently writing essay-length tags, at which point a quiet email usually suffices to restore order.
On the other hand, I have no hesitation in enforcing the rule about not having blogger names and nicks in tags. If there is any “selective” application of that particular rule, I fear it has erred significantly in your favour to the cost of bloggers that you have called out in apparent ignorance. You may recall the email where I recounted your numerous infractions. Consider that there are others on the site with similar difficulty in absorbing rules and etiquette surrounding tagging, who deserve as much leniency as you got over an extended period of time.
c) Are there noble intentions for this site? Achcharu is a personal feedreader project, as I repeatedly mention. I work on the site and provide resources because it works for me, and as long as it continues to do so – then my primary objective has been accomplished. Clearly, it doesn’t work for some people and that’s ok by my book.
If you have any specific ideas about how to enforce better conduct (in your opinion) on tagging in a non-labour intensive way, I’d certainly like to hear from you – or anyone else. As sensitive as I am to criticism, non-specific exhortation to improve the conduct of taggers, change the government or facilitate world peace only deserves the indifference that has thus far been my reaction to this whole affair.
On 01-Apr-08 at 8:26 pm,
sez wrote:
I admit. I tag bad. but it’s so much fun !!