Any Python developers on here? Or UX developers?

I'm now working on a project to replace LFGSS with a new piece of software.

Unfortunately, as much as I've been twiddling thumbs and waiting for someone else to make the software that we need... it hasn't happened.

So I'm turning Buro 9 (my company, the one that owns LFGSS) into a company that makes forum software.

I've a bloody good idea of what we need to make, and it's not like what we have at the moment.

What I believe we need is a group oriented community... whereby you opt into areas that interest you and you just see those areas.

That is to say, if you like Polo and Misc & Meaningless, that's all you would see. Yet you could still discover and join other parts of the forum really easily.

Each group could then contain 1 or more of the following (depending on the prefs of those who created and moderate the group):

• Conversations (threaded discussions)
  
• Questions and Answers (flat discussions with up-votes and down-votes)
  
• Articles (stand-alone wiki page with optional linked conversation)
  
• Adverts
  
• Events (articles with a time and place attached to them)
  
  

Users (you) would get a filtered view of this world, and users would login via email address, and have a display name that you could change at any time. For those who wanted to, you could also login via Twitter and Facebook should that be your thing.

Users would also get a concept of Equipment, which is compromised of Components... think bikes made of bits. I actually want to create a database of stuff like this to eventually help track and trace stolen bikes and return them to their rightful owners... by virtue of equipment being able to store detailed info, and auto-searches of eBay and Gumtree pairing things up.

The entire forum will be written in:

• Python
  
• on Pylons
  
• with SQLAlchemy
  
• talking to PostgreSQL
  
• and hosted on Amazon Web Services
  
  

And everything that the forums can do will be available via an API for anyone to extend however they please.

To top all of this off, I then want to offer the software as a service to any other forum admin or person who wants to create a forum. They'd simply bind their domain name to our IP address and a 100% blank and new forum would appear for them. This would be 100% free, and if the admins ran adverts on the site then they'd get 100% of the revenue, and if admins took donations then they'd get 100% of that revenue too... communities need funds to run beyond the hosting costs, it's no skin of my nose. Those admins would have 100% control over customising the forum to meet their requirements (CSS, options, etc... but probably not JavaScript or things that might break any functionality).

The affiliate fee click-throughs would fund the underlying platform. It's not a gold mine, but it is the most profitable part, and 1 successful forum like LFGSS can actually cover the costs of many smaller forums on the same platform. That's the basic premise of how it will pay for itself and make money.

So that's what's going to happen... it's long overdue and now it's really happening.

What I'm looking for is volunteers who want to learn all of this, and want to contribute time and skill.

If you know Python or HTML+JavaScript to a high level and you're interested in working seriously on this, then get in contact.

I already have a team of 3 (myself included) comprising of:

• Architect/Developer
  
• Python Developer
  
• DevOps and Systems Architect
  
  

This is a very serious attempt to do a startup in a low-risk part-time way.

I'm looking for an experienced Python developer to join the team, and an experienced UX developer who knows JavaScript (not just jQuery) to work on the front-end.

I cannot pay a wage for a long long time, but I am willing to give up a stock percentage of the company (subject to a cliff agreement to ensure you work on it - you must work a basic amount through to specified point in time (the cliff) to have earned n% of the company).

I am also willing to purchase some equipment (such as a laptop) to those who show a significant dedication and contribution.

So whilst I don't have cash to give you, I can give you the means to help, and the incentive that if this is successful that you will own part of the company which will allow you to cash-in in the future.

I have a realistic goal of getting 10 web-sites and over 50,000 users onto the platform within 6 months of launch. I want to make a soft-launch by Autumn 2011.

David, we've spoken about this before and I'm glad to hear you've finally decides to take the plunge. I'm happy to come in on the front end if you're interested. Let's do a beer ASAP to chat. B

Let's, I'll find out tomorrow morning when the other two guy are available... will you be around Wednesday evening?

"Like".

I should quantify that. I know sweet FA about Python or any other form of developing for that matter. But your idea on what Buro9 should be appeals immensely. Good luck.

Pm'd David.

Hey David,

I could probably be your UX guy—I mainly do design, JS, CSS, HTML. I run a startup at the moment and we're Python/Django based, though my co-founder covers the Python side of things. I'm sure Pylons wouldn't be totally alien to me.

Relevant also is that I set up and run http://techmeetup.co.uk and we've been through the wars on forum software (still using Google Groups). I understand exactly where you're coming from, a few of us spent a while planning and prototyping better ways of doing forums—I too think that there's a much easier (read: modern) way provide this functionality to the world, and we've always focused on the tags/interest side of things. Would be awesome to grab a beer, share ideas, and see what you have planned. I don't have the capacity to do this myself, but would be more than happy to jump in and help you get it done.

Consider me in, if you'll have me, I already work full-time so I don't need any financial support. I need to get a couple of side projects off my plate before I'll have time, but am very up for getting stuck into this.

Fantastic... are you in/around London as I notice all the Edinburgh links flying around. If you happen to be in London today and fancy West Beers this evening then we can talk in person.

Also... do you have a github account? If so, let me know your username and I'll share the high level thinking so far.

Cool, yeah I was in Edinburgh for the last few years and just recently moved to London. Living in Dalston, I'll aim to get to West Beers this evening. Github name is samcollins.

Hi David, Sounds like a good idea. You know the position I'm in, I'm looking for extra projects outside of work to build my portfolio.

I'd be willing to help out with the HTML / CSS / JS. Currently working on a couple of my little own practice projects creating HTML5 interfaces which are backwards compatible, would be good to put this to some use. :)

You also around this evening? I'll be down at West Beers speaking to benjam and smcllns about this if you're interested.

The others who aren't on here (Dan - DevOps & Matt - Python) are champing at the bit to start but I want to fully test the proposals with others who are interested in joining in before we start (in potentially the wrong direction).

It's a bit late notice for tonight unfortunately, but let me know when you meet again and if you decide you need my help.

Can this be a python thread now?

I'm learning python... sort of...self taught as I await to go on a course.

Question... I've managed to do a fair amount of googling and have this thing that attempts to do a VLOOKUP in a csv that has a very simple list of callsigns and station names i.e.

CallSign,StationName
A23,Euston
A30,Islington

and so on... here's what I have.

import csv
callsign = input("Please enter the callsign ")
stations = csv.reader(open('stations.csv', 'r'))
for row in stations:
    value = row[0]
    if value == callsign:
        print (value + " = " + row[1])

I've tried to add a last line saying

else:
       print("Callsign invalid")

but it just ends up printing every row that is invalid and then one row with the Station Name

any help please? I promise not to inundate with questions, but SO is a bit overwhelming at this n00b stage

Have a look at
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4960208/python-2-7-getting-user-input-and-manipulating-as-string-without-quotations

using input instead of raw_input is ending up using a variable instead of a string (unless you're putting what you type in quotes).

Some alternative code to google

import pandas as pd
stations = pd.read_csv('stations.csv', names=['call_sign', 'station_name'])
my_callsign = raw_input("Please enter the callsign ")
print stations[stations.call_sign == my_callsign]

could also
print stations.head()
print stations[stations.station_name == 'Islington']

import csv
callsign = input("Please enter the callsign: ")
with open('stations.csv', 'r') as f:
    # usually see it recommended to use `with` when using open
    # not super important and won't bite you unless you're using
    # a different python implementation but it is good practice
    stations = csv.reader(f)

# make a flag so you know if you find it
found_station = False
for row in stations:
    if callsign == row[0]:
        # try using format strings when combining strings
        # you can also use tuple unpacking, which is pretty neat
        # below is the same as
        # print ("{} = {}".format(row[0], row[1]))
        # or 
        # print (row[0] + " = " + row[1]) )
        print ("{0} = {1}".format(*row))
        # update our flag
        found_station = True
        # terminate loop early so we don't check rest of list
        break
# check our flag to see if we managed to find what we wanted
if not found_station:
    print("Station '{}' not found".format(callsign))

Bit of reading:
with statement
format string
tuple unpacking

you could also use a "for-else" loop, but I don't know many people who use them so they just end up looking weeeeeeeird

import csv
call_sign = input("Please enter the callsign: ")
with open('stations.csv', 'r') as f:
    stations = csv.reader(f)

for row in stations:
    if call_sign == row[0]:
        print ("{0} = {1}".format(*row))
        break
else:
    print("Station '{}' not found".format(callsign))

Thanks, but I get errors in both :(

Please enter the callsign: A30
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "stations.py", line 10, in

for row in stations:

ValueError: I/O operation on closed file.

Please enter the callsign: A30
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "stations.py", line 5, in

for row in stations:

ValueError: I/O operation on closed file.

oops don't know why that appeared like that

My bad, I messed up the indentations.

Indent everything below:

    stations = csv.reader(f)

and both examples should work.

first example works, second doesn't

really appreciate the help by the way

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tried this but it didn't work unfortunately, a bit of googling shows:

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You have callsign rather than call_sign in the last line of the first example.

Ah, you're on Python 3 maybe? I'm on 2.7

This is great and makes sense...

now time to play with it ... progress!

print ("{0}".format(*row)+" is the callsign given to {1}".format(*row)+" which is in the {2}".format(*row)+" Area")

yes, installed it the other day, didn't realise there's so many differences

one last one for the day. would you recommend using TextMate & Terminal or Jupyter Notebook for learning?