--- title: Disqus hacks the roadmap description: A recap of HackDay at Disqus featuring projects such as virtual reality moderation, a mobile publisher app, and more. image: https://blog.disqus.com/hubfs/60.png --- [![disqus](https://a.disquscdn.com/next/710d860/marketing/assets/img/brand/disqus-logo-blue.svg)](https://disqus.com/) - Comments - [Overview](https://disqus.com/platform/overview/) - [Engagement](https://disqus.com/platform/engagement/) - [Moderation & Safety](https://disqus.com/platform/moderation/) - [Audience](https://disqus.com/platform/audience/) - [Monetization](https://disqus.com/platform/monetization/) - [Boards](https://about.disqus.com/disqus-boards) - [Polls](https://disqus.com/polls/) - [Pricing](https://disqus.com/pricing/) - Resources - [Blog](https://blog.disqus.com) - [Support](https://disqus.com/support/) - [Knowledge Base](https://help.disqus.com/) - [Disqus 101](https://about.disqus.com/disqus-101) - [Discuss Disqus](https://disqus.com/home/channel/discussdisqus/) - [Case Studies](https://about.disqus.com/case-studies) - [About](https://disqus.com/about-us/) - [Contact Us](https://about.disqus.com/contact/) - Login - [Publishers](https://disqus.com/profile/login/?next=https://disqus.com/admin/) - [Commenters](https://disqus.com/profile/login/?next=https://disqus.com/home/notifications/) [Get Started](https://disqus.com/profile/signup/intent) Site Admin - View Profile - [Settings](https://disqus.com/home/settings/) - [Home](https://disqus.com/home/) - [Help](https://help.disqus.com/) - [Log Out](https://disqus.com/logout/) [Blog](https://blog.disqus.com) Disqus hacks the roadmap # Disqus hacks the roadmap June 06, 2016 | [Ryan Valentin](https://blog.disqus.com/author/ryan-valentin) [... comments](https://blog.disqus.com/disqus-hacks-the-roadmap#disqus_thread) ![Disqus hacks the roadmap](https://blog.disqus.com/hubfs/60.png) Find me on: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ryanvalentin/) The suspense in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Former teammates were now pitted against each other to bring their ideas to life. Monitors were moved, conference rooms requisitioned, and coffee consumed. At the end of May, Disqus broke apart into small teams for a two-day hackathon. The stakes? Fame, glory, and placement on the product roadmap. We came into this hackathon with a simple idea: Figure out how to make something better to prove we should commit the resources to building it. Anyone - including people from Product, Engineering, Data, Advertising, and even People Ops - got to pitch their idea(s), form teams, and build. The more ambitious leaders of us could be seen pitching prospective teammates before the pitches were even heard, hoping to secure precious resources for the coming days. Ultimately there could only be a handful of projects, and when the teams were formed, got to work. # The Winners It's Friday now - the final day of the hackathon - and teams were working frantically to polish their projects and presentations in time to demo. It almost felt like the end of an exam and at any moment we might hear, "Pencils down, everybody!" With the hackathon at a close, it was now time to present, vote, and award prizes. First we had 5 superlative, loosely modeled after each of our [Disqus values](https://disqus.com/company/), and our winner-takes-all "Best in Show" grand prize. ## The "You Made Your Mark" Award  ![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/publisher-ios-app.gif?width=320&name=publisher-ios-app.gif "publisher-ios-app.gif") **Publisher iOS App** An interactive prototype exploring how moderators can manage their communities from their phones. *Jono Lee* ## The "Team Spirit" Award **![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/publisher-analytics.png?width=640&name=publisher-analytics.png "publisher-analytics.png")** **Publisher Analytics Club** Envisioning the next generation of analytics for engagement and revenue on sites. Includes a service to push data to other services like [Keen.io](https://keen.io/) so publishers can evaluate community metrics next to their own data. *Adam Hitchcock, Mindy Rose, Rachel Cook, Sam Parker, Talton Figgins* ## The "Unique Personality" Award **![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/disqusvr.gif?width=640&name=disqusvr.gif "disqusvr.gif")** **DisqusVR** An exploration in consuming and interacting with Disqus comments in full 3d virtual reality using the [HTC Vive](http://www.htcvive.com/us/) and [Unity game engine](http://unity3d.com/). *James Greenhill, Ryan Valentin* ## The "Take a Stand" Award ![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/nsfw-media-auto-detection.png?width=640&name=nsfw-media-auto-detection.png "nsfw-media-auto-detection.png")  **NSFW Media Auto-Detection** Applying visual AI tools to image uploads using the [Clarifai](http://clarifai.com/) APIs, as a way of allowing sites to automatically filter out NSFW images, and ultimately make life easier for upstanding moderators and communities. *Dan Fuller, Tony Hue* ## The "Explorer" Award **![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/talent-digest-bot.png?width=640&name=talent-digest-bot.png "talent-digest-bot.png")** **Talent Digest Bot** A bot that facilitates the sharing of talent within the Union Square Ventures community (and beyond!), and aggregates those hires in a daily/weekly digest. *Kim Rohrer, Jeremy Laskar, Helen Laroche* ## Best in Show ![](https://blog.disqus.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot_2016-06-01_19.02.47.png?width=640&name=Screenshot_2016-06-01_19.02.47.png "Screenshot_2016-06-01_19.02.47.png") **ModBox - Priority-based moderation** A reimagined way for teams and individuals to moderate, where comments are auto-magically grouped and sorted based on community signals like flagging and upvoting. *Anna Vu, Burak Yiğit Kaya, Dan Fuller, Daniel Matteson, Saeed Oday, Ryan Greaves* In the winning team's own words: > The goal was to surface the most urgent comments needing moderation straight to the top of the queue rather than relying on chronological sorts. Our all-star hack team made up of engineers and customer success folks took a stab at this and we were all very excited about how it turned out. We combined a whole new pretty UI, a clever algorithmic way of sorting comments, and a fancy frontend built in React (buzzword alert!) to build "ModBox" # What's Next Events like these remind us why we’re here and give us new ways to connect to the missions and values we care about. Disqussers truly believe in stretching ourselves and re-imagining what’s possible (on all of our teams!), and hackathons provide a little breathing room to get creative about opportunities for the open web. With our first "Hack the Roadmap" hackathon complete, we can now move a little more confidently in bringing some of these ideas to life as complete products. With monthly "Hack the Roadmap" hackathons planned, there will be plenty of opportunities to push the limits of communities and shape the Disqus product ahead. *Want to participate in our next hackathon? 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