A lot like this, but open source

October 16, 2006 11:41 AM

Does an open source version of something like Ask MetaFilter exist?

It should allow for threads organized by questions, marking of best answers, and potentially a point system for participation and good answers.

posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Suggestions for Googling:
"question and answer script"
"questions and answers script"
"ask and answer script"
"q&a script"

I've found WakQA (website is defunct) and ask_rave.
posted by Sharcho at 1:43 PM on October 16, 2006

Slashcode, maybe? It's what drives slashdot.org Link
posted by kc0dxh at 1:45 PM on October 16, 2006

It might be easier to take an existing forum script (e.g. PunBB), and add the custom Q&A code. It shouldn't be a lot of work.
posted by Sharcho at 2:04 PM on October 16, 2006

Check out Metaphilterr. Monkeyfilter runs on it. I could have sworn Linkfilter ran on an open source MeFi clone as well but a quick look doesn't turn up any info, you may ask someone over there.
posted by The Radish at 2:25 PM on October 16, 2006

Can anyone tell me how to actually get the Metaphilter files from The Radish's link? Thank you.
posted by eatcake at 7:27 PM on October 16, 2006

Can anyone tell me how to actually get the Metaphilter files from The Radish's link? Thank you.

You need to get them from the CVS repository.

mkdir mephi-fork
cd mephi-fork
cvs -d:pserver:[e-mail]:/cvsroot/mephi-fork login
(when prompted for a password, just hit enter)
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:[e-mail]:/cvsroot/mephi-fork co -P metaphilter

See also: http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=101441
posted by toxic at 5:58 AM on October 17, 2006

eh...i can't get it to work. I'm on a mac in Terminal and I get the error "-bash: cvs: command not found" when i put in "cvs -d:[ ...] etc .... login"

i don't want to hijack this thread so no worries if it's going to be complicated. thanks though.
posted by eatcake at 6:47 PM on October 17, 2006

Eatcake: I sent a tarball of the files to the gmail address in your profile.

For those reading along...

"cvs:command not found" means that you don't have cvs installed on your mac. This probably means you're not a programmer :) Sourceforge can be a little raw to the uninitiated -- but beware, so can most software that requires CVS to download.

Go to the sourceforge page that I linked to, and read the About CVS section closely. Follow the recommend software configuration link for more information about cvs clients and your platform.
posted by toxic at 8:40 PM on October 17, 2006