wegetit

An implementation of WeGetIt from Karl Schroeder's short story Degrees of Freedom

terminology

For lack of better terms, "definitions" describes the term-definition-paraphrase portions of WeGetIt, while "conversations" describes the broad collection of definitions.

possible terminology improvement

"conversation" might be a bit ambiguous so perhaps "topic" is better?

"term/definition" might lead people to feel ownership over a term, so it might better to use something like "perspective" or "interpretation"?

page/flow - single-page version

• The Page
  • Overview/description of WeGetIt
  • List of convos
    • • for new convo
    • Entry
      • UUID anchor
      • Title
      • Description
      • List of definitions
        • • for new definition
        • Entry
          • UUID anchor
          • Term + UUID indicating which initial definition of the term
          • Initial definition
          • List of Paraphrases
            • • for new paraphrase
            • Entry
              • UUID anchor
              • Yes/No judgment
              • Paraphrase

Endpoints / API

• GET / Returns: HTML rendering of the main page

• POST /threads

  Parameters:

  • title : String
  • description : String

  Returns:

  • Redirect to the mainpage with an anchor to #ThreadID for a newly created thread

• POST /threads/:thread_id/perspectives

  Parameters:

  • term : String
  • initial_interpretation : String

  Returns:

  • Redirect to the mainpage with an anchor to #PerspectiveID for the newly created perspective

• POST /threads/:thread_id/perspectives/:perspective_id/paraphrases

  Parameters:

  • paraphrase : String

  Returns:

  • Redirects to the mainpage with an anchor to #ParaphraseID for the newly created paraphrase

pages/flows - minimal version

• Main Page
  • Overview/description of WeGetIt
  • List of conversations
• Create Convo
  • Title + Description
• View Convo
  • Title + Description
  • List of definitions in this conversation --click--> view definition
• View Definition
  • Term
  • Initial definition
  • Add your own paraphrase
  • Other paraphrases + good/bad judgment

pages/flows - fuller version?

• Main Page
  • Overview/description of WeGetIt
  • List of conversations you've created
  • List of conversations you've joined
• My Conversations Page
  • Convo ID + Description --click--> Manager for this convo
  • Create New Convo button
• Manage Convo
  • Overview of what the conversation is about
  • List of definitions in this conversation --click--> view definition
• View Definition
  • Term
  • Initial definition
  • Paraphrases + good/bad judgment

considerations

• ease of setup - no signup required
• privacy/anonymity
• ability to return to conversations/connect up multiple convos?
• how to have more feedback beyond just "we get it!", without it devolving into arguments?
  • idea: maybe let the definer highlight some parts of the definition and explicitly mark those as not what they mean?