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The Quest for Zero Login, Part 1 (drfloob.com)

6 points by drfloob ↗ HN
For the TL;DR crowd: my thoughts on how to build a community site without a required login system. How to structure an anonymous community with user-generated content / assets.

I've been working on this idea for the past few months, and have only come to a rough solution. I'd like to put the idea out there, see who else is working/has worked on it, and get some feedback.

To be frank, I'm working on this for a project I don't intend to monetize, so maybe it's not right for the community, but I think you might find it interesting anyhow.

Thanks all, feedback appreciated!

4 comments

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Hexstream
How is it possible to have a meaningful implementation of "voting, tagging, or some reputation-earning scheme for the content itself" without an accompanying concept of identity?
drfloob
The content has its own identity. It would gain reputation. You, the creator, would not.

Problems: It devalues the individual, and an essentially anonymous vote system would make gaming logic and moderation interesting (but feasible) problems of their own. If these are solved well, the votes have meaning.

They're significant trade-offs, but every option has them.

Hexstream
I got that, but it seems to me for there to be reputation, some identifiable entity must be able to "give" it.
mdonahoe
How do zero login sites deal with spam? Fancy javascript?