Is it just the database or the whole site that is using microsoft features of Azure? Does anyone know how many instances of microsoft paid products they are running? Instead of a rewrite at the beginning how about figuring out what needs to run microsoft at this point and lets streamline that by figuring out how many licenses they would need on dedicated boxes. In most cases bare metal will outperform any cloud system for a lot less money and then we can have a donation drive for licenses and dedicated servers. Just moving off a cloud solution will save large amounts of cash if we can optimize what they are doing right now. If we could run the web server portion on Apache even if we have to proxy it to a microsoft backend that would be a start. Then maybe see what the traffic stats are and see about pushing the static content to some type of CDN to reduce load on the servers.

What was the motivation for rewriting reddit in the first place? I'm guessing it's political because Reddit is open sourced, is forking the reddit codebase and porting Voat's data to it not more viable? That to me seems like the quickest way to start hosting it on an open platform: it's the difference between migrating all of the data to a different schema and porting the entire codebase (as well as migrating data from SQL server to something open source).

I am a Java guy and I am interested in checking this out. I've done a few years of Enterprise stuff, HCM, etc. Never did any open source projects before. I figure why not take this opportunity to learn something and probably add the experience on the resume.

I can probably only commit about 1 to 2 hours a night though.

Former startup CEO who sold for an exit, was one of the first people to bring responsive web design to WordPress.

Currently a VP at a cloud computing and container management and automation startup.

I'm well versed in business development, project management, web development, system architecture, and devops. Although I am more of a tinkerer big picture kind of guy, and no longer code or consider myself a programmer.

My immediate thought process from what I know so far is: is either get the fuck off Azure, or contact Microsoft and see if they're willing to sponsor Voat for ad space.

Secondly, you should be able to virtualize Voat's current setup in a Linux container (Docker) without having to really touch much of the existing code (even though you're running .NET). https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-docker-samples

Once you get the .NET code base running in a Docker container you aren't married to Azure. All you need now is a host that supports Docker, which is pretty much every major cloud provider. Once you're running in a Linux container you can pretty much host anywhere. I would also probably de-couple the SQL database and put it in its own container so you can scale the DB separately.

To save money on cloud hosting I highly recommend OVH, as they charge about 40-50% less than Google Cloud and AWS, and have cheaper bandwidth, memory, etc. Linode, and LiquidWeb are other options to take a look at. Or if anyone else knows of a cheaper data center with high availability in multiple geolocations?

This is maybe a week or two of work for 1 highly skilled devops engineer, maybe less, and will cut the hosting costs in half pretty much overnight.

Potential solutions to look at Rancher.com, mesosphere.com, https://kubernetes.io, or even https://traefik.io which you could install at the tech stack level and use as a basic devops management platform (although I'd seriously take a look at Rancher or Mesophere first).

Once that's done you can move Voat to any major cloud provider without having to rewrite the core code right now.

Phase 2: Core code rewrite.

Obviously it should be discussed, but an open source language with a larger developer community is recommended.

I would probably go with a NoSQL based solution as well for the DB, but also needs to be discussed.

What I can recommend from a web development standpoint is essentially start the rewrite by building out a core micro-service architecture and REST API. I would then rebuild the front-end using React, or another popular Javascript framework. Then you can continue to use a container based approach by hosting the core API in 1 container, DB in another, and front-end code in another then scale and load balance each appropriately based on need.

Take a look at http://www.telescopeapp.org - hell its open source we may even be able to borrow some code or ideas.

The major challenge with a rewrite of this style is migrating the existing DB into a new DB, but its doable.

As I said, I'm not the person to program this personally, but based on my experience this is the approach I would take. I would also open source the fuck out of all of this, and I also have a few monetization ideas.

Phase 3: You could allow people to launch their own Voat websites and sell them as a service at their own custom domains. Figure out what the hosting cost is, and double the margin and sell it as a SaaS. Then use the core API to integrate everyone into a single login / account management system. This would also allow you to scale individual communities separately, and put the burden of fund raising and payments on the community organizers. Obviously you will still have free subverses, but this approach would give the large ones the ability to launch their own domains, and cover their own costs, sell their own ads, etc. Meanwhile, Voat.co itself is merely an aggregator, and universal account management system, and SaaS provider.

I'm more on the ops side normally, but I'm very familiar with Python, C, Java. I know enough JS and ClojureScript to get by though. I can work on backend stuff in my spare time.

Isn't Reddit written in Python?, why is Voat written in C#?

I noticed this comment in this other thread: https://voat.co/v/Linux/1867282/9146982

I have little experience in coding overall, but I am working on using PHP to script transmission and translation of data between databases (what I've used is MySQL and MS SQL, but honestly it's not much effort to switch to other types) currently and have had success.

I don't know if that'd be useful at all, considering that comment, but I figure since it would be a one time import, this is something simple I could do as a grunt worker to let others do other things.

I own a website design and development company and sales have been shit this season. I would be more than happy to commit to this project. I would prefer to remain a drone and not take any management position if need be. Familiar with all the frontend scripting languages but also have experience with node.js, sails.js and other MVC frameworks. I am a LAMP developer and have worked on projects in the past to turn WAMP environment s over to Linux. Just tell me what to do for my community.

Don't know why I didn't ping earlier, but @go1dfish @riverwind

And just to put this on your radar one more time: @puttitout

i suck at coding but i can help with testing and moral support.

Porting to a python based stack is certainly possible, after all, reddit runs on it. We need people from all areas, even if they aren't specifically programmers.

https://voatrewrite.slack.com/shared_invite/MTg0Mjg2MzQzNTg0LTE0OTUwNzc4NjMtZDcwZmNiODU5Yg

This is what free speech looks like when it goes to war.

I do science and I mostly use C, R, Java, Haskell and Julia. I am willing to spare 10-15 hours a week if you need programmers in the languages I mentioned. Please let me know.

I've been doing major project platform ports for the past several years; HP-UX to Linux and Windows to Linux particularly. Most of these are very large software projects (1.5+ Million lines) written in C, which require significant work to bring to the new platform. I started as a dev, and have acted as a technical manager, and now am a project manager.

I've been lurking around here for a long time, but I'd be happy to help.

GPG Signed version of this post is here.
My gpg public key, and my keybase info.

My education in programming is about a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, but I lack "real world" experience. The only reason I currently don't have a job yet is because I have had to deal with health issues, but I'm mostly recovered right now. I do have time to spend helping out.

I prefer C++ (not sure why myself but I do), but have programmed in Rust, Python, Java, Javascript, and C#.
Though I don't know C# that well as I've briefly used it for a team project for a class, but am willing to pick it up again.
I have been using Linux machines for personal use for maybe about 5-6 years now? My desktop and laptop run Arch Linux and am familiar with using qemu/virtualbox for testing.

I would not say I'm suited for a management role, but otherwise I think I can figure things out and write code. I just need to figure out C# again as working on a different language from what I'm used to can take a bit of time.

As an example of what I can do, I wrote a bomberman clone in a month for fun (very messy code base), and more recently made a BehaviorTree (for simple AI) that works with lua scripts.

I can provide an infinite string of beta testers.

I also want this to succeed so that I can use it for myself.

I had no clue that voat ran on something other than linux?

If a sticky asking for help on v/linux will help in any way just write it up and PM me so I can sticky it.

Edit: I put a sticky up in the meantime anyway.

Hi I'm willing to commit a few hours per week to this, I'm a software developer, I am decent with data manipulation and translating code, I'd love to help.

Game Programmer here, but I have minimal experience with web frontend and backend. I could probably contribute a few hours a week. Please add me to the list of gruntworkers! I'd be so proud to have contributed to something as awesome as voat.

It's been almost 5 years, but I have experience working with .NET (C#) MVC w/ Razor templates.

More recently I've done a lot of Python (Django, Flask) and can do all of the front-end too (js/css (preprocessors too)/html).

I've also got some devops skills that could potentially be put to use for infrastructure setup.

Can I plug https://gitgud.io. It's run by the same guy that does catbox.

I'm going to try running the site on dotnet core and see what hangups come first.

We could go completely away from c#. This is how they get you on the db. You end up with two layers dependent on their environment and you can't simply write a replacement in one step.

I am shockingly ok with sticking with c#. I don't know it but I know you can't ask your main contributers to code in a language they don't know intuitively. I think core is the way to go even thought I could contribute the most on node.

since I have been informed there's a ping limit of 3, and no one I pinged other than the first 3 responded @JunOS @Ywis @ohnoitsaninja

I'm in and support the primary importance of having good project leaders. Not my forte - I code and will happily do QA too

I'm a lead engineer at a decent size company, working on a product that has 300,000 unique users a month. I've got a lot of experience working in an agile structure, as an engineer who's enjoyed doing it, and I've been on teams from 2 to about 9. I would have to sit down and really consider this impact on my time, but I believe in voat as a free speech platform, and I am eager to contribute meaningfully to this community that feeds my eyeballs their dank memes every day.

If you're interested in talking to me about my experience further, I could do a video call at some point. I have questions too about what size the community is, who has what skills to contribute, and some other details like that. But, I'm ready to consider offering project management and general management time.

Here read this: https://voat.co/v/whatever/1866574

I'm no good here as I do not have the time to manage such projects. I already have to manage several actual businesses. I am always available for advice or guidance, but that would be useless in this venture as you need dedicated people who are familiar with what has been going on. I am still happy to assist indirectly anyway.

My applicable possible skills are in resource management, people management, project management, risk management, implementation and maintenance. Which is not very useful from an advisor stance. I am fluent in VBA, PHP and mysql, but so is like, every one else and I have no time for coding anyway. Im more of a business man and farmer these days. Anyone need help with a goat farm? (my wife wants goats)

With all of this being said and all of your attempts, putt has to figure this out for himself as he is the only direct access stakeholder. He needs to pick from the people he wants from the community in order not to get anyone who will leave backdoors open or sabotage things. I'm mostly a lurker so I do not have much evidence for myself anyway.

Not a coder at all, but applaud your effort, but been an internet guy from the good old days and have faked my way through much. I am a retired aerospace guy with time on my hands, so if there's anything I can do to pitch in, just holler. I could proofread, or do technical writing ... many years of tech writing and project management type stuff under my belt in aerospace electronics. Don't mind doing whatever, just not a coder per se, but generally a quick study. BTW, unless I'm mistaken, you can only ping 3 people per comment, so if I'm correct, many of those you pinged above didn't get it.

I'm fairly light on the experience side of things. Worked primarily in windows, next to no network programming experience, but willing to learn.

Python, Java, C/C++

Able to commit 10-15 hours a week to this