I initially didn’t plan to reply to this thread, but maybe somebody wants to hear my thoughts on the issue.
The folks at AnkiHub are doing an amazing job and have a proven record of contributing positively to the Anki ecosystem. I strongly believe they are good people and don’t plan on hijacking Anki or serving the community poorly.
Money is not evil; it’s a necessity to keep progress going, and both AnkiHub and Dae are aware of that. Dae has made it clear that he also has to think of his business, and therefore made this decision. I totally respect that and wouldn’t do it any other way.
However, Anki is not like any other software developed by some LLC. It’s a very open community that thrives on its members and their altruistic contributions. This includes everything from the Anki core and add-ons to AnkiDroid, the Android app. Anki wouldn’t be where it is without its community and volunteers.
In light of that, I think it’s fair for others to request that all parties be given the same opportunities. Dae is already kind of doing that with his idea of allowing other parties to make PRs that include them in the core. Personally, I think that’s a poor long-term approach for reasons others have pointed out, but it makes sense for getting things started.
“Ideas don’t come out fully formed; they only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started.”
I personally don’t have the resources or time to come up with a fully-fledged PR for AnkiCollab to be included in the core right now, but AnkiHub has the manpower and motivation to lay the first brick.
I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that, and maybe they can develop a system that balances an open interface with a solution tailored to their system. If they keep in mind that others might want to reuse as much code as possible while they develop the implementation, I can use their groundwork to create a working version for AnkiCollab and we can all slowly evolve it into an open interface from there. I’m suggesting this because I want to make it clear that if they aren’t allowed to do the heavy lifting, nobody will get any collaboration platform because there’s no way for me to implement an open interface from the ground up.
From what I understand, nobody is strictly against having AnkiHub available in the core, as long as the spirit of Anki is upheld and there is always an alternative for die-hard FOSS fans. If AnkiHub can use this step to improve the user experience and other platforms can use their groundwork to enable collaboration for those who don’t want to support AnkiHub, isn’t that a win-win?
I don’t think the first-mover advantage is a significant (negative) factor for free and open alternatives. AnkiHub’s development started over two years before AnkiCollab and already had about 30,000 users when I first published it. Yet, as of now, I still have about 800k notes stored on my server. People don’t really care about who came first; they pick the products that are available and suit their needs. If they want a highly polished, professional platform or are american medical students they will pick AnkiHub, if they only care about small deck collaboration or are fine with a quick and dirty method, AnkiCollab will do fine.
However, it should be clear to users that Anki itself has nothing to do with AnkiHub and is simply offering functionality for convenience, not endorsing it. Catchphrases like “AI Features on AnkiHub” or “Sign up here” don’t belong there. It should be clear to AnkiHub users how to connect the two, but Anki users shouldn’t feel like they are missing out on anything.
I don’t know why you’re so worried about my server, but please stop stressing about my resources. I’ll make sure to let you know once we come closer to the limit of what’s manageable;)