Looking for a project idea + a collaborator

Using Django
1

Hey everyone! Is there anyone here with a project idea they’re excited about? I’m looking to build something and would love to collaborate. If you’ve got an idea and want a partner to work on it with, let me know!

I’m ready :hugs:

2

TL;DR

Yes. Yes I do and as for excitement… is the >5000 hours I’ve spent over the last couple of years any indication?

I’m the creator of the following projects to which are in early development:

A Centurion was rank within the Roman army. Their role was crucial for the control of a Cohort and instrumental to the overall success of the Legion and wider Roman army as a whole. I guess you could call them the “backbone of the Roman army.” This is what Centurion ERP is. The “backbone” of your app stack.

Centurion ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): Even though I have called it an ERP. What I wish to achieve will more closely resemble a framework or a core you can easily extend. An ERP is the closest to what’s out there now (minus what I wish to add as features). Simply put, I’d like to have a way to add new features to a “stack” that does not require extensive development work.

i.e. Ticketing is a core feature.

To be able to add a new ticket type, lets say “software dev issue,” I just extend the core ticketing model with the fields and business logic. Now I can track development issues as the example.

Additionally Centurion ERP is responsible for everything, i.e. logic, presenting data, describing data for frontend, security, permissions etc.

Centurion UI: An automagic UI where the backend describes the data with the frontend interpreting and rendering. The UI itself is a separate project that is based upon React that renders the data presented to it from the backend. The sole goal of this UI is that you don’t have to update it every time you make a change to the backend.

i.e. Adding a new feature to the backend

As long as you have described this data in the format that the frontend can interpret, The frontend will render it and without you having to make any frontend changes.

Basically if the frontend already has the “display/rendering” feature you will never have to update the frontend as you work upon the backend.

So what?

I would like to point out a few things that are important to note as I believe they will shed light on why I may/‘may not’ have done something:

  • Everything I know (computers) is self taught (I like to learn and have concentrated on enterprise computing, be it architecture, engineering, management etc)

  • My development experience began in the late 1990s early 2000s

Centurion ERP came about as I run quite a lot of different applications for the management of my IT infrastructure. My biggest pet peeve over the years has been that one of a few things have occurred:

  • “The open source software” later lost features

  • “The open source software” was later closed sourced

  • “The open source software” later moved to closed source with open core

  • “The open source software” remains in active development, however with limited new features added that the community requests (Concentrating on the downstream version over upstream.)

  • Basic Features “i.e. SSO” are only available in the “downstream” version

Additionally, managing multiple application suites is time consuming. Especially when you add that people are averse to the use of SemVer for their application. Don’t get me started on this…

I found Django by accident a few years ago and can not remember what I was doing when it occurred. I started software dev a few decades ago which was quite different to what it is now. My last major development project (for a web app) was a shopping cart (circa 2003-2005). What’s important about this is back then you did everything yourself, As in; you started the project with a blank text document. The only dependencies were that you deployed a webserver so you could see that what your doing is correct. You designed everything: db layer, security, migrations etc. When I found Django and started playing and after learning a little bit I realized I had spent ~150hrs implementing something that would have taken 500-800hrs. Yep, I was sold. The possibilities I could think of were endless as realization of what we used to template in our web apps is essentially what Django offers as part of the framework. Even better’er (Yeah it’s not a word, just roll with it) Any issues with the framework are fixed/improved.

The UI came about again due to where I started my software dev experience. Whilst js was around in the early 2000s It was never something I needed as my web apps were always built with PHP. It took me a while to get my head around “why separate the front and backend.” If I’m completely honest I looked at this as the backend pulls the data (in this case from a database), just to present the data essentially in an abstracted form of the very database the backend pulled from. At the time I simply considered this “stupid.” Why would I want to work on two separate code bases for what is essentially the same app every time I updated the backend. So I created Centurion UI to “deal” with the “abstraction of data.” I was also of the opinion at the time and still am today that this abstraction passed to the frontend can be templated in such a way that a UI can be created that will not need to be updated as new features are added to the backend. I would like to add that I do not share some of these opinions of frontend / backend anymore as I have since learned about the “why” they exist.

Early in 2026 a proof of concept had passed 12 months of development of Centurion ERP where I would work on the backend and not have to update the frontend outside of features that didn’t exist. Now my goal is to finalize the backend<>frontend communication spec so that the UI can then be designed to work with more than Django.

In conclusion, I would welcome anyone who wishes to contribute. Whilst I do have a plan forward, unfortunately most is in my head and having someone else to bring this to light through the development process would be something I would like to learn. Please understand that whilst I attempt to conduct my project development is a professional manner (as in, how a trained developer/project manger would). I am self taught which has led to my processes being what I have deduced from doing not from training.

Regards

Jon

3

Hi Jon, I’m very happy to receive your invitation to contribute to Centurion. It would be amazing to participate. Can we chat on WhatsApp to discuss it more?

4

I don’t use WhatsApp due to having a de-Googled phone and my aversion to the data practices of “big tech”. However I do use Signal. Since this is tied to a phone number, I won’t publish it here. If you go to any commit on my repo’s you will see the commit user, which contains my email address to which i’d be happy to provide my contact details for further discussion.

5

No problem, Sir. I’ll go pick it up and see how I can start contributing. I’ll take my time to explore the project and I’ll reach out to you on Email from time to time.

6

No dramas. I also forgot to mention in lieu of Signal, If you still have a preference for voice, I am happy to use another solution if you have any in mind. But yes, please feel free to reach out and open any tickets you desire.

7

Thanks sir Jon

First pull request

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