Open source, community driven, audience-centric platform to share posts and communicate with peers on the internet without the fear of the 'algorithm'.
SCSP is a platform that lets user share their posts and follow other users. Users can like,dislike,comment on users' posts. Users recieve notification on comments on their posts. User can upload images to be posted inside the post. They can also upload image as their display picture, without which a default display picture is assigned which is made from their name provided by taking the initials.
Users can also message other users and the messages are stored in the data base as plain text (no encryption). The user credentials are not stored in plain text, they are salted and hashed before storing in the database.
User auth is performed using cookies on the server side. Multiple users can use the platform simultaneously.
The platform is mobile friendly and primarily built using bootstrap, along with some custom styles.
The posts on main page are ranked using hot-ranking algorithm so newer posts are shown at top. Posts with more like:dislike are shown above others.
The comments on each posts are sorted only on merit and not age. The comments are ranked using the Wilson Score Confidence Sort Algorithm to predict the merit of a comment from the number of likes and dislikes available at the time. The algorithm gets better with more data.
The formula used is talked in detail, along with a python implementation in this medium article by Amir Salihefendic: How Reddit ranking algorithms work
The intention of making this platform was to have a platform that respects the user's choices of what they want to see by implementing a community logic of post ranking, instead of an advertiser centric one. Although media like reddit and 4chan already do this, they primarily focus on communities as a whole, and people follow subreddits, instead of individual users. Furthermore those platforms advocate anonymity (which I agree with, in that use-case) which does not enhance the socialising outcome desired by SCSP. SCSP encourages people to use real names and a display picture to be explore-able and connect to people using the platform (like twitter). In doing so, an user does not need to worry about the platform moderating their free-speech or de-ranking their post. Posts of an user are shown to anyone and everyone who chooses to follow them, and are ranked fairly using their score and age as variables.
SCSP does not use any advertisement for its running. If it becomes unviable to keep it running, the hosting may be taken down but the project will always be present on VCS. Anyone can clone/download this repository and host their own version (it will have its own point-of-truth). This is useful for organizations or communities that wish to connect only within their group and not expose it to the internet. The server's IP can be distributed to the employees and they can use the platform as a totally disconnected network of its own. All functions still work.
Follow the following steps if building and deploying on linux. If you use windows / visual studio then figure it out yourself :)
To build the platform to be hosted on a server, one needs to have :
- dotnet-runtime
- nginx (or any reverse proxy)
Build the project to your runtime using
dotnet -c Release -r linux-x64 --sc
replace linux-x64 to whatever server you are using.
after build, move the files into the server using rsync or scp.
rsync -aP . user@servername:/var/www/scsp
Folder should be owned by user, not root.
chown sayan /var/www/scsp -R
chgrp users /var/www/scsp -R
In your server create a systemd service for the kestrel server to keep running:
[Unit]
Description=Run .NET Web App running on Ubuntu
[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/scsp
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/dotnet /var/www/scsp/scsp.dll
Restart=always
# Restart service after 10 seconds if the dotnet service crashes:
RestartSec=10
KillSignal=SIGINT
SyslogIdentifier=dotnet-scsp
User=sayan
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
replace the user with your user.
Create a symlink in the project root which points to the dll to run:
ln bin/Release/net6.0/linux-x64/scsp.dll scsp.dll -s
Install nginx on server and configure it properly. An examples sites-available/default is provided:
server {
listen 80;
server_name sayn.work scsp.sayn.work;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection keep-alive;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_buffer_size 4m;
proxy_buffers 8 4m;
proxy_busy_buffers_size 4m;
}
}
The proxy-set-header are required for proper passing of request/response between server and reverse-proxy. Also set the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file so that POST requests can have large bodies. Otherwise image upload will fail. Example is provided:
large_client_header_buffers 4 4m;
client_max_body_size 100m;
proxy_buffer_size 4m;
proxy_buffers 8 4m;
proxy_busy_buffers_size 4m;
add these lines inside the http{ body.
Start the server and reverse-proxy, platform should be running.
If any difficulties, follow the manuals:
- Host ASP.NET Core on Linux with Nginx | Microsoft Learn
- Nginx file upload error - too big file
- dotnet build command
To develop (and hopefully contribute to this repository) you need to have
- dotnet-runtime
- dotnet-sdk
- aspnet-runtime
maybe also the targetting-packs.
Open the code on any editor and run dotnet watch on terminal, dotnet will
build and open project on chrome with hot-reload.
In case of un-understandable errors like token error while hot-reloading, kill the server (ctrl+c) and restart it.
If you find any bugs, unwanted behaviour, possible features / flairs to be added kindly create an issue with appropiate comments. If possible also clone this repository and contribute to fulfil that issue and create a pull request.
The project is licensed as per the LICENSE file
- Sayan Ghosh
- Aasif Khan