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Comment by velvet | Hacker News Reader

I love this idea (it's resonating with me because I've been investigating whether library management software packages provide APIs).

I'm concerned though that if you need people to email you so that you can add info to the database, you're going to be in for an awful lot of work if this thing takes off, maybe beyond your ability to provide.

The other thing I was wondering is if kopibibli will provide any kind of API itself, so other applications can query your database? There's a world of potential for third parties there if so.

(reposted as reply to my earlier post)

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People don't need to email me. How it works is that once you create an account on Kopibibli, you can create "issues". So if you have an album that is not on Kopibibli, you just have to create an issue with the name of the album. On the front page of Kopibibli, people can upvote issues. So I'm always focusing on the issues with the most upvotes. And I delete an issue once it is resolved.

I agree that if it takes off, I would need to find a better way to add content to the database. I was thinking of maybe letting people add content, but it wouldn't show up on the site until I approve it.

As for providing an API, I would definitely like to do that.

I'd probably separate out "bug" issues from adding data.

Even if it doesn't 'take off' right away, you'd do yourself a huge favour by allowing people to add their own entries. If you need to add user submitted data to a moderation queue that you have to check yourself, that's still better than you having to enter things in. By allowing people (who maybe can't help with the programming) to add to the database itself, you are then freed up to do things like, say, work on an API ;o)

(edited for better clarity)

I've just updated the app. Now users who are signed in can add new artists, new albums and new songs, even if they are not admins.

You're right, I guess I should remove the issues section. I just need to find what I would put on the homepage instead. Maybe a feed of the latest songs in the database?

Edit: I've removed the issues section. As you can see on http://www.kopibibli.org/, the homepage now displays the latest songs that were added to the database.

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