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ether
etherpad
TypeScript2013–2025
ether / etherpad

etherpad

Etherpad: A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor.

13Distinct people
16Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
18.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Etherpad: A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:45:45 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year16 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2013-04-11 17:32:23 UTC to 2025-08-02 00:47:22 UTC.

01232013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 2 submissions, 0 comments20132014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC220
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202

What Hacker News says

16 sources
Actually, both dependencies are specified: 1. https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite 2. https://plantuml.com/ -> go to the bottom, there is an editor that renders the diagram, collabuml uses such a public api. I'm happy to provide details about running etherpad if necessary. > I can put a little backend for this. Not too difficult. Etherpad is the collaborative backend, plantuml is the uml renderer (there is a way to run a server with this).
In Show HN: PlantUML based collaborative UML editor is now open source
Same here -- I use Jitsi to have meetings with friends sometimes (fun fact you can just go to https://meet.jit.si/<any random string here>), and the web app has gotten a lot better over the years (it was never "bad" IMO). I am not sold on the necessity of GTK/QT clients over Electron applications -- I think the development/packaging ease of Electron is exactly why it's where it is today and what works for users generally is not wins so I view it with dispassion. Doesn't matter how much better GTK/QT is (they can't be that good, devs are choosing to "shoot themselves in the foot" with Electron just over there!). Also the nice thing about web is that phones will at least have a chance (even if overheating during the call). I was more wondering about what it took to run -- Jitsi's server requirements always seemed a bit too heavy weight -- i
Read the rest
t requires like 4 things to run. That said, I just took another look at the documentation[0] and it's pretty well written... Maybe it's time to roll my sleeves up. [EDIT] Did not know Etherpad[1] (one of the things that jitsi wants you to host along with it) has video capabilities... We are really spoiled for good F/OSS software these days -- it's insane how much good software there is out there now. [0]: https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/devops-guide/devops-gu... [1]: https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite
In The Jami conferencing system
I'm perfectly ok with a maintainer reserving to himself the right to modify or even force-push a PR. If feature-wise the PR has value, but there are other requirements that have to be meet in order for it to be mergeable, I see no problem in the maintainer making his hands dirty. This contributor's work is recognized, and the maintainer can keep growing the project the way he wants. Not every occasional contributor will become a project member, so it makes no sense to impose too much burden on him. Maybe he only wants an interesting feature added. Some of them will eventually become interested in becoming regular contributors, and that is even better, but every one should be left freedom of choice. In my experience as Etherpad maintainer (1.6.5 through 1.8.4) this approach worked very well. For example https://github.com/ether/etherpad-li
Read the rest
te/issues/3540 (and the related PR https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/pull/3559) where deep changes that went very smooth, not only code wise, but above all wrt the relation with the contributor, who was smart and collaborative.
In Rust maintainer perfectionism, or, the tragedy of Alacritty (2020)
Etherpad has been open source since 2009, when it was bought by Google and immediately re-licensed. It stayed open source ever since. It was written in a mix of Scala & JS. Etherpad Lite (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite) is a port to javascript, is backed by the Free Software Conservancy and is not owned by any corporation. Yes, if you do not mind using Google's infrastructure, Google Docs is easier & more featureul. There are some cases in which running on premises may make a difference, and Etherpad strives to fill that palce.
In Open source collaborative text editors

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