Alternative crowdsourcing workflow instead of Google Sheets

[Vonter]

As the initial crowdsourcing workflow, Google Sheets is being used as a tool to crowdsource details. Alternatives need to be explored which can be better suited for this purpose. Few requirements for the potential alternative:

1. Visitors to the site should be able to "Comment" without "Editing" the database directly. This does not necessarily need to be in the form of a comment or edit on a Google Sheet, but could be an equivalent for the alternative platform.
2. Curated set of users can "Approve" a comment and "Edit" the database.
3. The tool should expose an API to download the entire database with an unauthenticated HTTP request, similar to the ?exportFormat=xlsx option with Google Sheets.

The goal is to hand over the maintenance of the backend database to an interested citizen organization. In such a case, the frontend exposed to site visitors could be simplified to a Form that can be filled up. On the backend, the citizen organization would manually update the database based on comments received on the Form. In this case as well, the form structure and the backend tool workflow would need to be decided.

[Vonter]

CryptPad is a FOSS alternative to Google Sheets that was suggested. It does not have the following features needed for use as a Google Sheets replacement:

• "Comment" level access equivalent: https://docs.cryptpad.org/en/user_guide/share_and_access.html#access-rights
• Downloading database with an unauthenticated request. The available cryptpad-tools would require extra dependencies and does not seem to be maintained anymore.

[quickfixdemon]

Hello Vonter,
Here is a list of suggestions I have for you:

1. Use gitlab: Gitlab is a FOSS platform that is used for code hosting, but with the right tweaks, we can make it work for this project too. It fulfills most of your conditions, such as comments for changes to the database which can be approved by a select group of users, downloading of the database, etc., however, I think it falls short in the area of being easy to use a user friendly.
2. Nextcloud files: It is basically a FOSS version of Google sheets. Not sure if it meets your requirements because I haven't tested it yet.
3. Make your own website: I think this is the best option out of all of them, as there may not be a software that meets all of your requirements on the internet. By building your own website, you can control every aspect and detail of the website and make changes in the future if necessary. However, depending on how you want the website to look like, you may need to learn web development or hire a web developer to build it for you. Here is a example idea of how you could build your website:
   1.Use a simple HTML form to collect input from visitors. It should be clear, concise and easy to understand for anyone who reads it, and available in other languages like Kannada.
4. Set up a backend database to handle the form results and comments, like PostgreSQL or SQLite.
5. You can use python scripts to handle database input, storage, etc.,

Hope this helps!