i had this idea. it’s not my idea actually, but i don’t know the name by which this type of action is called. i have some books that i would place somewhere outside with a label saying they are supposed to be taken home by whomever finds them, read and then placed somewhere else by the person that read it last. i though along with this i could place a tag with a link for some sort of guestbook hosted in a fediverse/foss site so that people could tell me what their opinions on each book are. do you guys have any ideas where i could host that?

ideally, the site should be:

  • somewhat easy to manage for someone that doesn’t know how to code (aka me)
  • able to have multiple pages or spaces for each book
  • people should be able to post their opinions without having to sign up for anything (though i’d like it to have somewhere to post some basic info about the fediverse and hopefully get people to look it up).

i’d be grateful if you have any other ideas for my project as well! also, you are more than welcome to “steal” this idea (of course) or do something similar too :3

note: sorry abt my english

UPDATE: i made up my mind about hosting this project here :) i’ll post the community link here when it’s ready for anyone interested. i already made the logo:

i’m guessing i’ll call it bookcycling or something like that

  • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
    51·
    3 days ago

    How are you going to weather protect the books?

    You could easily create QR code (or NFC tags) that linked to a post in a lemmy community.

    As for posting opinions without a login, that is a little harder to pull off. Firstly, anonymous internet opinions are usually garbage, so you wouldnt want it to be truely anonymous. You’d be wading through spam in no time.

    If there was a way to encode creds into the QR code, such that it autologged into an account, that would be kinda cool, and it might last a little while until the creds were leaked.

    A basic (no-auth) guestbook site could be knocked up fairly easily by anyone (give me a week or so and I’ll give you something if you want, you’ll have to host it though), but getting the auth part right is nontrivial.

    • nimu@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      yeah, you’re right :v i was just thinking about how i’d filter spam right after i posted this

      perhaps i should just host a lemmy community as you suggested, that’s a good idea!

      as for weather protecting, that’s a good point. i guess i didn’t think this through bc where i live it is mostly warm all the time (it rarely rains, except for specific seasons). maybe i should just place the books in places with roofs or other types of weather protection

      (also, thanks for all these ideas!)

      • nimu@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        also, doing this on lemmy would have the additional benefit that other people could join my project and have their own posts with their own books :)

      • CameronDev@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        If you go down the “Little Free Library” + Lemmy community route, you can easily attach NFC stickers to the books, that point to a thread.

        You can buy a bunch of NFC stickers for a few dollars and program them with your phone (make sure you write protect them once written). Alternatively, you could print QR codes onto stickers.

        Would be pretty cool, please share the community when you have it setup.