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SoylentNews
from the editorial-staff-is-getting-TIRED dept.
I will put this to you, the community, in a very straight, simple (hopefully understandable) way.
The editorial staff is a small, hardworking group. There are currently about 5 of us that are actively pushing stories out on a regular basis, and we need help.
We humbly come to you, the community, to solicit for a volunteer or two. We will provide all the necessary training, at a cost of just 3 easy payments of $999.99US, or entirely free if you apply before 1 Apr 2099.
For that pittance, you can expect to learn:
- The editing process
- How to get onto the bouncer for IRC
- The best ways to abuse The Mighty Buzzard
- The secret staff handshake
- How to be abused, and learn to like it
- How to deal with having your name in lights
- and much much more!
In all seriousness, we all are busy and have lives. So do you, and we get that, but for this community to continue to thrive, we need a little fresh blood on the editorial staff. Some of us have been at this since the site went live almost 3 years ago (janrinok and martyb have posted over 3000 articles EACH). To put it in perspective, the site has only run about 14,500. Some of us came on almost a year later, but like any organization, there has been attrition, and we need to replenish.
We are starting to see some of the tell-tale signs of burnout, and to avoid that, we need your help.
If you are interested, please feel free to reach out in the comments below, via email ([nick] at soylentnews dot org), or hit us on IRC. If we aren't there (we all LOOK like we are logged in all the time due to the bouncer, but we may not actually be there), /join #editorial and leave a message — we will get back to you.
Remember, it isn't all doom and gloom! Working on staff, you will be on a team with a fantastic group of REALLY smart (myself excluded) people. I can honestly say I have made some really good friends from this experience, and I've even gotten to meet one of the guys in meat space. It is something that I am truly glad I took advantage of when the opportunity came around.
Thanks for listening, and with a little luck, we will see one or two of you pretty soon.
Live Long and Prosper,
-cmn32480
[TMB Note: Seriously. You really don't want me having to pick stories.]
[Update: see this comment below if you've expressed interest in volunteering.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday November 15 2016, @01:38AM
I submit a lot of stories, so some of this I can speak to. Submission "quality" is a tricky target to zero in on, because so many people have such different ideas what that means. There is often feedback that people prefer straight up technical/scientific stories. Those interest me, too, so it's >90% of what I submit. Most of them don't generate much discussion, which may mean people aren't that interested in them, or it may mean people are interested in them but since the story lies outside their particular field and focus they don't want to seem a fool by commenting, lest somebody who is an expert should happen along and upbraid them. The only measure we have of "interesting," which is number of comments, is, as you can see, ambiguous.
If it's the length of the submissions that's wanting, or that they're excerpts and not paraphrasing, then that's a different matter. In my case I have arrived at a balance between how long it takes me to do it the way I do it and how much I would care my submission is declined. Back in the Slashdot days I laboriously researched and prepared a half dozen submissions only to have them each declined without explanation. After those few times (and we're talking about spaced out over more than a decade at that site), I never bothered again. I imagine that if any of them had been accepted and got very few comments, I would have also felt like not bothering again.
So I bang out a submission in 2-3 minutes by excerpting what seem to be explanatory bits, with maybe a brief icebreaker/conversation starter. If it's rejected or gets few comments, no big deal.
But there's more than one way to do it, and at Soylent there's plenty of opportunity to introduce those other ways. Compose a submission that satifies your indices of quality and it's pretty sure it will be accepted for publication.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by nethead on Tuesday November 15 2016, @05:36AM
This. I've been on slashdot a while, UID 1563, and have submitted dozens of articles and maybe two have been accepted. Maybe I suck at it but without editorial feedback there was no reason to keep on keeping on. Slashdot is also too big now and I have to read it at 2. SN lets me read at 0 and I enjoy that.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 15 2016, @11:25PM
When we don't accept a sub from a registered user, you actually DO get feedback via the site messaging system.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 1) by nethead on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:25AM
That's good to hear. I'll have to try feeding the pipe.
SN reminds me of the early /. days. I was even able to provide hosting for images.slashdot.org because of my job when Rob saturated his T1. Gawd I feel old.
Maybe later after work settles down I'll try my hand at editing. I just switched positions from Lotus Domino admin to HP-UX admin. That's what I get for being the oldest person on the team.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:59AM
All submissions are welcome and appreciated!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson