I want to create a site about peripheral compatibility with the Raspberry Pi. Good idea or not?

[nomine.nominandum]

Hey Guys! I have learned a lot from the forums in the last 2 or so years. So in my first post in this forum, I want to thank all of you for all the wonderful advice and project ideas!

I have been doing quite a bit of experiments with my Raspberry Pi, like recording TV, internet connection monitor and other interesting projects. Now I am starting to learn about website development and I want to try to apply my newly acquired knowledge on a site about the Raspberry Pi.

Since I have learned so much from all of you, I want to give back to the community. Throughout the years, I have got some peripherals/accessories (like USB TV dongle or remotes) and sometimes they work wonderfully with the Pi but sometimes they don’t. Although there are resources online that mention which device works or not, we usually need to search multiple website to get all the information and the user cannot easily give feedback (such as a thumbs up or thumbs down) on whether the peripheral works for their Pi (e.g. whether a TV dongle works for Pi1/Pi2/P3, etc.)

Now, I want to create a website that centralizes all these information. It will display which accessory works with the Pi and a user can vote on the same page how that accessory is working for them (whether it's working out of the box with no problems, require major work to work properly or did not work, etc.)

I want to ask all of you: Do you think such a website is a good idea? If I create such a website, do you think it's helpful and will you use it? I am only working on this project in my free time during the weekend, so if people don't find it useful, then perhaps I should be doing another project instead.

[DougieLawson]

Already exists: https://pinout.xyz

[mikerr]

Already exists: https://pinout.xyz

Pinout is, as its name suggests, just for gpio connected peripherals though.

For usb connected compatible peripherals there is https://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals

[bensimmo]

Give it a go and keep it up to date.

The worst is nobody uses it, the best is it actually works.

You'll learn what you setout to learn.

Link to the known resources (Hat's above) and elinux and here too but make it easier to search ammend and not heave to faff with wiki code.

[hippy]

Give it a go and keep it up to date.

It is probably best to make it a Wiki of some kind or at least allow direct contributions so it isn't too much to handle if it is popular, doesn't just become another out of date resource if you lose interest in it.

[nomine.nominandum]

Thanks for all of your suggestions and the site that all of you have provided! It's a good learning experience for me, so I'll definitely give it a go. I'll try to post updates along the way. I should be a bit more clear on my post. I do meant a site mainly about USB peripherals.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems a lot of people do not leave feedback on a wiki. But a very simple poll (like a thumbs up or down poll) will usually attract a lot more feedback. So I am leaning toward a more conventional site rather than a wiki since I want more people to provide feedback easily and intuitively (i.e. clicking on a huge thumbs up for working properly and a thumbs down if not)

What I am planning to do now is to have a site that have a huge search box along with a list of categories of peripherals. You type your product in the search box and it will tell you if the product is compatible or not. On the same page, you can leave some type of feedback (i.e. thumbs up for working, thumbs down otherwise). What I eventually want to do is to comb through all the products (SD card, USB drive, TV adapter, keyboards, remote, etc) on Amazon and search for Raspberry Pi or Linux review specifically, then generate rating base on those review (whether it's likely to work, or a star rating). At the same page, you can leave feedback there as well. At least, that's the plan.

[PiGraham]

I commend you for your enthusiasm. I think the best idea if you have information on compatibility is to contribute to existing sites catering for that exact thing. etlinux is a good one. These lists are most useful when information is gathered n one place and they reach a critical mass of contributors, users and devices.

[bensimmo]

I commend you for your enthusiasm. I think the best idea if you have information on compatibility is to contribute to existing sites catering for that exact thing. etlinux is a good one. These lists are most useful when information is gathered n one place and they reach a critical mass of contributors, users and devices.

Yes but no, the wiki is horrible to search/browse and look through. A nice database, even if scrapes the wiki would be better. You can link both ways
People do not comment on wikis as you need to go in and edit it.

I've tried to help with wikis before but the few that bother it is good. Though that's only a few that bother as they have to learn the code, maybe put it down in the wrong format to keep thing consistent, mess a table up...)

I can see a database, searchable with timestamps etc.
You could have product , usb id, date and Raspbian version working (kernel?) Which Pi etc.
The voting, but also a simple form for submitting new hardware.
Also a flag to say I have problems with (so needs comments after the thumbs up/down).

It may work, it may not.

[PiGraham]

I commend you for your enthusiasm. I think the best idea if you have information on compatibility is to contribute to existing sites catering for that exact thing. etlinux is a good one. These lists are most useful when information is gathered n one place and they reach a critical mass of contributors, users and devices.

Yes but no, the wiki is horrible to search/browse and look through. A nice database, even if scrapes the wiki would be better. You can link both ways

It doesn't seem that bad to me. The important thing is to have the info there and maintained.
You can always site: search it on your favourite search engine.

People do not comment on wikis as you need to go in and edit it.

Long comment threads are the worst source in many cases because they are totally unstructured.

You can always find the mentioned peripheral, sind it on Amazon and read comments there!

It may work, it may not.

The OP is not specific about what this new ite would have or how it would be maintained. If it aggregates infrom from sites like etlinux with a nice GUI, good search and searchable comment system it could work.

[bensimmo]

Long comments would never work on a Wiki, it would be a mess. Try reading the History/Chat on a page. It's a job in itself maintaining that.
It's just not designed for it.
It's a simple reference and info site.

They do their job for what they are good at though.
---
Will people use it, should you be heading down another project.
It's all experience, so see how it goes unless there is anything better to do.
It's not the sort of thing I make or do, but I like the idea.

What we don't have is a Pi Ring (whatever happened to the good old rings to linked sites of interest together)

[nomine.nominandum]

I have actually want to start this project since earlier this year, but never really have time to work on it until now. When I have finish modifying the layout and other stuff, perhaps I will post a link of the site and all of you can give me some types of feedback?

I commend you for your enthusiasm. I think the best idea if you have information on compatibility is to contribute to existing sites catering for that exact thing. etlinux is a good one. These lists are most useful when information is gathered n one place and they reach a critical mass of contributors, users and devices.

Perhaps I don't have too much experience working on wiki, but a wiki doesn't seem to be very user-friendly for most people. My focus for now is on user experience. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the information itself is not the most important factor, how I present the information so people can get the most of that information is the most important.

The OP is not specific about what this new ite would have or how it would be maintained. If it aggregates infrom from sites like etlinux with a nice GUI, good search and searchable comment system it could work.

The initial source of information for the site will come from existing site, for example, the elinux site that was posted earlier in this thread. I am hoping, later on, the source of information will come directly from Amazon. I am planning to use the Amazon Product API to search for products and filter product based on review that contain the word "Raspberry Pi". I have a quick look at Amazon Product API and it seems what I want to do is possible, but it's going to take some time. So at the beginning, the information will be entered manually or will come from existing sources. But eventually, the site should be able to get the products automatically so it should be pretty self-sustainable, especially with a easy to use feedback system (the thumbs up/down system that I am planning to use). And yes, I am trying to present the information with a more user friendly UI, with a huge focus on search.

I can see a database, searchable with timestamps etc.
You could have product , usb id, date and Raspbian version working (kernel?) Which Pi etc.
The voting, but also a simple form for submitting new hardware.
Also a flag to say I have problems with (so needs comments after the thumbs up/down).

Thanks for the ideas! I will definitely try to see if I can implement all of these ideas.

Since I am basically at the earlier stage of getting the site ready, that's why I want to ask whether the site itself is a good idea and what types of things would you like to see at a site like this. After all, even if the site has a lot of information, the site isn't much use if people don't enjoy using it. And I got a lot of feedback, so thanks. I have read all of your comments, I will make some modification, and hopefully, when the site is ready, all of you can enjoy using it!

[PiGraham]

My focus for now is on user experience. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the information itself is not the most important factor, how I present the information so people can get the most of that information is the most important.

I would say the information IS the most important. Information that is out of date or has errors or covers too few devices isn't useful and, even worse, can lead to wrong decisions about what to use.
A nice UI is also import since the best info is only useful if people can find what they need in it, but its not use at all to have bad info that is really easy to access.

One concern I have is that in scraping data from etlinux and Amazon you do nothing to improve that data. If it's hard to update the wiki is even harder if you view the data from the wiki somewhere else without editing built in.

Quality of data in Amazon reviews is very patchy. Most of it is irrelevant. Will you be able to extract the most relevant, most up to date and most accurate review data? In short will your scrape of Amazon be better info than Amazon itself?

There are a lot more sources than etlinux and Amazon so make it extensible.

The biggest challenge is how to encourage people with knowledge of a wide range of peripheral to contribute to the data and maintain the data. Will your site do that?