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SoylentNews is people

posted by mattie_p on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-really-do-it dept.

By now, you have had the chance to read the updates of both NCommander and Barrabas. Nonetheless, you may still be wondering quite a few things about the site and its staff. Here is your chance to ask us anything. These questions can be general in nature, in which case the staff will select a spokesperson to answer it, or it may be specific to an individual. If the question is for an individual, please ensure you identify that person specifically enough.

We will select the best questions from the thread and provide answers to the community. These questions may not be the highest rated, although we will probably use those first.

In keeping with tradition, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

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You Asked, Soylent Responds! 93 comments

Based on your questions from a little over 10 days ago, we have our first batch of responses. I want to apologize for the delay, as everything has been moving so quickly that we're still getting our act together in so many ways. Remember that we were still in the very early stages a month ago, so bear with us in our growing pains. We chose a large number of questions, mostly highly rated ones from the community, with some additional questions that I felt deserved answers. Read on for answers from the site leadership.

State of the Site: 02/23/2014 108 comments
Well, we've survived our first week as a functional website, and have yet to go belly up because of it. The speed and growth of our community is staggering to say the least, and we are working hard to get this site fully operational. I'm pleased to announce that a development VM is now available for public consumption, and if you're interested in site development, one should join us in #dev on irc.soylentnews.org. Beyond that though, I've got a few points to address on and updated statistics to share ...
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:23PM

    by TrumpetPower! (590) <ben@trumpetpower.com> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:23PM (#2627) Homepage

    How do you plan on making money, and what happens if you don't make enough?

    b&

    --
    All but God can prove this sentence true.
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:25PM (#2632)

      I don't believe that money is the "bottom line" of this site.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:28PM

        by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:28PM (#2634)

        True, but running a site requires a certain amount of money.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 0) by crutchy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:46PM

          by crutchy (179) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:46PM (#2834) Homepage Journal

          i wonder if debian would be willing to host soylent news, if it adopts similar foss principles (which it seems to be), or maybe one of the other foss hosts

          don't necessarily need to use their domain (could use a freebie from freedns.afraid.org if they become really desperate) but the foss community should be fairly supportive of a not-for-profit discussion forum for geeks, and organizations like the linux and apache foundations no doubt have some fairly wealthy backers.

          • (Score: 1) by edIII on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:42PM

            by edIII (791) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:42PM (#2978)

            It would be nice to be able to donate at some point too.

            There was also an article about Tidbit. I'm very interested to know just what the viability of cryptocurrency mining using client-side architectures would be.

            If the mining could generate enough revenue from the user base to replace advertising, that may be all we need to keep the site alive and functional without external financial support.

            I'm not opposed to that, or running a native app to donate processing cycles to SoylentNews.

            --
            Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 1) by mcgrew on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07PM

          by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07PM (#2862) Homepage Journal

          Well, my site is only fifteen bucks per year, but soylent needs a bit more than I do. But I, too, wonder what will happen if they can't get cash. I hope they're getting advertisers, at least enough to break even.

          In my case, the money for my site comes from the books, which are the only reason it exists. But like I said, my needs are very, very minimal.

          --
          Our nation is in deep shit, but it's illegal to say that on TV.
          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:36PM

            by frojack (1554) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:36PM (#2929) Journal

            What about Memberships?

            Would each user consume more than $5/year of bandwidth and server space?
            Sometimes I think when you pay for something you are less likely to crap all over it by starting flame wars etc.

            Even maintaining the site will take someone's time and money. Otherwise the first good paying job that comes along snuffs out the interest in maintaining SN.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
            • (Score: 1) by mcgrew on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:29PM

              by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:29PM (#3675) Homepage Journal

              Maybe subscriberships, like at slashdot, but I wouldn't want soylent to be paywalled. We're not going to grow our community with a paywall.

              And as far as "when you pay for something you are less likely to crap all over it by starting flame wars etc", well, there are other, non-monetary ways to invest in it... like contributing good stories, good comments, modding trolls and morons down (which is how you stop trolls and visible flamewars), putting stuff here for free you're selling elsewhere (see my sig and journal)

              We were all pretty invested in slashdot or there would not have been such a backlash against Beta, everyone would have simply disappeared, shaking our fists in vain at Dice. I had the same feeling when K5's community deteriorated, and that's what I did -- I disappeared.

              --
              Our nation is in deep shit, but it's illegal to say that on TV.
              • (Score: 1) by frojack on Thursday February 20 2014, @09:01PM

                by frojack (1554) on Thursday February 20 2014, @09:01PM (#3693) Journal

                When writing that recommendation, I wasn't thinking about paywalls so much as the Wikipedia way of raising funds (begging banners), that could be turned off by tossing a few bucks via paypal or something like that.

                Also, (Mentioned in other posts in this thread)...
                Keeping "For Profit" an option as an founders want to maintain, does not seem inconsistent with seeking donations. There are many ways to seek income.

                Note:
                I almost suggested No ACs, or no way for AC posts to be modded above zero. I understand the anonymity angle, but i'm not sure its worth the disruption ACs cause. But then the thread was about funding, and ACs didn't seem on topic.

                --
                No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
                • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @03:30AM

                  by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday February 21 2014, @03:30AM (#4042) Homepage Journal

                  I think those are good ideas. As to ACs, even though 99% of them are trolls, morons, or trollish morons, sometimes folks do make insightful comments anonymously that deserve +5s. As long as the moderators do their jobs you shouldn't have to see many.

                  --
                  Our nation is in deep shit, but it's illegal to say that on TV.
                  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 21 2014, @05:11AM

                    by frojack (1554) on Friday February 21 2014, @05:11AM (#4092) Journal

                    Maybe a "Right to Post AC" is one of those "Achievements" the server can hand out.

                    (I know, I know, the job of getting slashcode running at all is big enough that
                    adding fluff at the beginning is a step too far).

                    --
                    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
                    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @03:44PM

                      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday February 21 2014, @03:44PM (#4370) Homepage Journal

                      I don't know, I haven't seen any need or had any want to post AC here. I've posted AC at /. a few times when I was on a terminal I didn't want to log in on. Once you have karma, why would you want to post with a starting score of 0 when you could post at 1? No point writing if nobody's reading.

                      --
                      Our nation is in deep shit, but it's illegal to say that on TV.
      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by mmcmonster on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:29PM

        by mmcmonster (401) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:29PM (#2636)

        May not, but some revenue is needed.

        Who's paying the bills now, and what are the plans for covering expenses in the future?

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by DarkMorph on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:41PM

          by DarkMorph (674) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:41PM (#2652)
          I'd elaborate on this question.

          One cannot ignore the fact that presently we have nothing foreign loading on the site. No third-party elements, no advertisements, beacons, trackers -- nothing of the sort. Yet we're all aware that keeping the server running has a cost. Surely many of us are curious how we will keep it running, and it's worth asking if there will be a method to facilitate donating to the SN fund to help with the costs.

          Back on /. I would often see comments from the older crowd along the lines of "the Internet existed once without ads just fine, and it will continue to exist with or without them." My hunch is SN does not want to resort to inserting advertisements. If this is the case what would the plan be?
          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by internetguy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:32PM

            by internetguy (235) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:32PM (#2706)

            "the Internet existed once without ads just fine, and it will continue to exist with or without them."

            I wonder what triggered costs on the Internet to increase to the point people found it necessary to create ads. It seemed to happen during the dot-com erra. Any ideas?

            --
            Sig: I must be new here.
            • (Score: 5, Interesting) by DarkMorph on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:46PM

              by DarkMorph (674) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:46PM (#2728)
              That is very complex and circumstantial. Definitely no simple answer because in reality there's no way to be sure. Is it necessity, or is it just the interest to acquire supplemental income? Or better yet, maybe it's neither, and it started once advertisers started to approach the webmasters and made offers. Few will turn down "free" money at the expense of simply adding an image here or image there in exchange.

              It wouldn't surprise me if, by now, many sites figure that it's worth a shot, because there's always the chance of acquiring ad-based revenue, whereas if there is no advertisement, there is a guarantee of no such revenue.

              SoylentNews represents the first time I've ever seriously considered donating to contribute to the needs of a news-oriented community. I find what SN stands for to be rather significant. Ironically the redesign of /. spurred the controversy and inspiration to defect yet I think it's more important to acknowledge the freedom by seceeding from the clutches of DICE much more important.
              • (Score: 1) by buswolley on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:52PM

                by buswolley (848) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:52PM (#2896)

                images. video.
                I bet the hosting cost on SN is not as large as one might think. Very clean.
                However, this disregards the labor of the people maintaining SN. Volunteer labor without compensation is finicky.

                --
                subicular junctures
                • (Score: 2, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:43PM

                  by frojack (1554) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:43PM (#2934) Journal

                  Exactly.

                  Servers do cost money, hosting costs money. And that's all good until you outgrow what can be handled by a single machine, or you exceed the bandwidth that your hosting situation can supply, or you sustain your first DOS attack or something.

                  Eventually, you realize you just want to put it all in the cloud somewhere and leave all the hardware and bandwidth issues to someone else. And THAT costs money too. Probably Big money.

                  But to remain interested, people have to at least make enough money to do the work even if it is only part-time work.
                  Just dealing with a small portion of the users that need help or want to bitch takes time and mental anguish.

                  --
                  No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
              • (Score: 1) by EvilJim on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:43PM

                by EvilJim (2501) on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:43PM (#3881) Journal

                I don't mind the odd ad here or there, but if allowed, they should only be static images or animated gif's, no java/flash or control by advertising networks who are likely to try to sneak that crap in.

            • (Score: 0) by crutchy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:55PM

              by crutchy (179) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:55PM (#2845) Homepage Journal

              increased traffic probably

              i can host a website on my home PC for next to nothing (electricity & internet access)

              when "dot com" became trendy and moved beyond the realm of nerds and geeks, and corporations realized they could make a profit using the interwebs, they pounced

              now there's ecommerce, bots of various sorts (good and bad), spam, viruses, multimedia, online games, etc.

              the bottleneck for a popular site is generally dns and load balancing. processing requests and database load etc can be spread out.

            • (Score: 2, Funny) by dilbert on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:08PM

              by dilbert (444) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:08PM (#2909)

              Maybe we could ask Jimmy Wales if he'd be willing to annoy every user on every page for an entire month for us so we can stay ad free.

              In all seriousness though I'd be willing to donate toward the site maintenance.

            • (Score: 2, Informative) by Iskender on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:21PM

              by Iskender (470) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:21PM (#2963)

              One source says the number of web users doubled within the years 2000-2001. Almost doubled in 1999 alone. Other sources I looked at give slightly different numbers, but they all agree that there was huge growth. The dotcom era may have involved a lot of hot air, but it certainly helped make the web more popular.

              Someone said it's complex. I don't think it's complex at all - the web got popular, and when it did, one's hosting solution couldn't be "freeloading on my university's network" anymore. Another user said there were images (and video, which came later), and those made advertising even more necessary.

              Now, slash-style sites are designed to require little bandwidth. But I believe even the processor requirements by themselves will drive hosting costs up if you're popular - all the old hobbyist ways of doing things fall apart when faced with modern amounts of users.

            • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:32AM

              by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:32AM (#3128) Journal

              "I wonder what triggered costs on the Internet to increase to the point people found it necessary to create ads."

              Leaving college and having to pick up the costs of a server and bandwidth instead of sponging it off of the school?

              --
              something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
          • (Score: 2, Insightful) by technopoptart on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:57PM

            by technopoptart (1746) <reversethis-{oc. ... ht} {ta} {semaj}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:57PM (#2901)

            Donations, seems to be the best way.

              I am curious to know about the hardware and hosting details. Is this hosted at a home / home office/ a company supportive of the ./ community, or a VPS provider?

            But i think this community is big enough and had a good percentage of people earning a good living. Some people will give $5/$10 a couple times a year, and others will give $300 or $500 a year.

            • (Score: 2, Informative) by boltronics on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:41AM

              by boltronics (580) on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:41AM (#3321) Homepage Journal

              Originally, they were running on two Linode 2048s running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

              http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/02/18/072 4232&mode=nocomment [soylentnews.org]

              However Barrabas wrote that they're also planning three additional servers for development, testing and experimentation purposes.

              http://soylentnews.org/~Barrabas/journal/41&mode=n ocomment [soylentnews.org]

              According to the front page of the Linode website (https://www.linode.com/), a 2Gb server (presumably what is meant by "Linode 2048s") is $40/month (presumably in USD). So $80/month for production. If the other three servers are the cheaper $20/month 1Gb machines, then we seem to be looking at US$140/month absolute minimum (assuming no extra storage or data transfer quota is required). That figure also does not include things like domain name registration, SSL certificates, etc.

              --
              It's GNU/Linux dammit!
          • (Score: 1) by Castout on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:22PM

            by Castout (1914) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:22PM (#2916)

            Since this is more of a community driven site - I would be curious if an 'ads only' page would work.

            Create a link that takes you off the main pages to one that is only ads. Make them tech relevant, load them in a decent format, and when you want to contribute, load the ads page and click around (in a Linux sandbox VM of course)

            Would keep the main pages clean but allow some unobtrusive easy access ad revenue

            --
            "Think outside the box but park between the lines!" - Castout
            • (Score: 2, Interesting) by demonlapin on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:33AM

              by demonlapin (925) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:33AM (#3013) Journal
              Actually, a page of affiliate links to Amazon, Newegg, Monoprice, etc., wouldn't be a bad idea. Just ask people to use them whenever they're planning a purchase.
              • (Score: 1) by sibiday fabis on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:54AM

                by sibiday fabis (2160) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:54AM (#3142)

                I'd appreciate being able to support SN in this way. Unobtrusive and useful. Great idea!

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by omoc on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:38PM

      by omoc (39) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:38PM (#2648)

      in addition, how much did this site set you back so far? I don't assume advertisement would cover the expenses, do you have any plan for subscription plans for early access like /. did or LWN does right now?

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by cx on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM

      by cx (239) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM (#2650)
      Where is the tip jar? I should be able to give you money in straightforward manner and be spared from trackers, ads, bitcoin mining scripts and whatnot.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Random2 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM

        by Random2 (669) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM (#2668)

        Well, they thought abut implementing one, but jar.js just feels so wrong....

        --
        If only I registered 3 users earlier....
        • (Score: 5, Funny) by zocalo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:44PM

          by zocalo (302) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:44PM (#2722)
          But still not as bad as "jarjar.js" ;)
          --
          UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:38PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:38PM (#2766)

          That's why they should make it a Java applet - tip.jar

          • (Score: 1) by d on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:16PM

            by d (523) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:16PM (#2961)

            LOL, a java applet would serve as a perfect addition to an ancient Apache server!

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by johaquila on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:36PM

      by johaquila (867) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:36PM (#2712)

      I am just putting this vague thought out here in case others can continue it in a useful direction:

      I really like the way Duolingo is making money (though apparently not enough yet to break even - not surprising given how fast they are expanding). They lure users into their ads-free site by offering them some of the best foreign language courses available, and make them translate the web to train their new language skills. Instead of milking or selling users in the usual way, they make them create content which some companies are prepared to buy. It's a win-win situation.

      Maybe this idea can be transferred somehow. For instance:

      I would imagine that the attention of the SoylentNews crowd will also be a pretty valuable resource. Maybe some companies would pay money for the privilege of asking us our collective opinion about some issue. Hopefully not just as a PR exercise.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:46PM

        by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:46PM (#2727)

        Rather than slashvertisements I would be much more tolerant of a marketing poll.

        We're thinking of entering the fashionable dog food delivery over the internet market. Do you feel our founders should be compensated:

        1) One Billlioooon dollars (twists mustache)

        2) Billions and Billions of stars, err dollars

        3) one Cowboy Neal

        Somewhat more seriously if there exists a market for extremely high end thermostats and smoke detectors I could totally see a poll to figure out if we'd pay $500 for a twitter connected garbage disposal or WTF. I could see it.

        • (Score: 1) by Jerry Smith on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:20AM

          by Jerry Smith (379) on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:20AM (#5132) Journal

          Rather than slashvertisements I would be much more tolerant of a marketing poll.

          Although the idea is good, the polls on 'that other site' have a major disclaimer, big enough to validate serious doubts.

          I'm positive towards a quick and easy kind of tipjar, via amazon or paypal.
          Make 2 options, a nice (few dollars) and a royal one (tens of dollars). The app stores have made it very easy to pay a few dollars, it's a model that could work for soylent. Make it HARD to make a payment more than once a week, to avoid hijacking or other abuse.
          Just make the 'nice' option small enough for my SO not to notice please.

          --
          All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by crutchy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:28PM

        by crutchy (179) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:28PM (#2923) Homepage Journal

        or maybe a service to help connect companies with nerds for hire

        soylent could build in some kind of feature for tipping users based on their skills (kinda like linkedin). skills could be demonstrated either by having worked with a fellow user, having used a program developed by them, having read about them in journals etc, or how they portray their knowledge/skills in solylent comments, journals and the like.

        companies could come to soylent and put a dollar offer on the table, users could accept, and soylent could provide the company with a preview of a selection of user tips for the company to review. users could also set a minimum offer and put some resume stuff in to help with the process.

        just a thought

        • (Score: 1) by EvilJim on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:26PM

          by EvilJim (2501) on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:26PM (#3867) Journal

          Why the 'funny' mod mods?, this sounds interesting.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM

      by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM (#2732)

      For what its worth I'd pay more than zero but less than "not very much" to gain control over where vlm@soylentnews.org and/or http://vlm.soylentnews.org/ [soylentnews.org] forward to. You want to charge enough to not front for spammers, however. Maybe on a delay or only up while $karma > 0 && $subscription_paid_up == "Y" or whatever. Or for the total noobs $karma > 0 && $subscription_paid_up = "Y".

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Jaruzel on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:14PM

        by Jaruzel (812) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:14PM (#2802) Homepage Journal

        Following up on that... how about a small charge for username@solyentnews.org email forwarding (or even better on-site secure (web-)email at mail.soylentnews.org) ?

        -Jar

        --
        This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:36PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:36PM (#2884) Journal

      Probably his business plan is:

      1. Start Slashdot clone.
      2. ???
      3. Profit!

      SCNR

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Barrabas on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:34PM

      by Barrabas (22) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:34PM (#2926) Journal
      For the convenience of readers, several answers are in one response.

      How do you plan on making money?

      I plan on taking community consensus.

      So far I've seen discussion of seven income types. I've thought them through and have notes and observations which should inform discussion.

      I'm putting it all down on paper in a vision statement which should be published in about a week, although I'm finding that things take much longer than expected.

      The ones I have so far:

      • Donations
      • Subscriptions
      • [selling] Swag
      • Advertizing
      • Job listings (viz. Slashdot "Jobs" link)
      • Sponsors ("This week's bandwidth is provided by...")
      • Paid reviews

      If you have more suggestions for income channels, please post them below & I'll include them in the vision statement.

      What happens if you don't make enough?

      I have set aside $10K to run the site for the first year, we have that long to establish our brand and break even. If we aren't successful then, I'll probably leave to pursue other interests.

      How much did this site set you back so far?

      Total startup costs are under $1000, a full accounting will be in the vision statement. I expect an additional $1000 in Business/Legal/CPA fees (mostly incorporation fees) and $200-$300/mo. in bandwidth.

      Nowadays, you can start an internet revolution for under $1000. Who knew?

      [Here are the projected expenses]

      If we don't hire anyone in the first year, our expenses will be mostly for bandwidth. Sys estimates this at $200-$300/month, which is consistent with the estimated bandwidth for Slashdot today. Slashdot of 2007 used an estimated $1400/mo, and slashdot at its peak used even more.

      Extrapolating from the first day's usage data, we're using about 30% of the bandwidth at our current linode tiers, which cost $100mo. Refer: 2nd day stats [dropbox.com].

      Note: Someone should check my math.

      Where is the tip jar?

      Until we choose a business model, this is still "officially" a for-profit venture. I don't think it fair to solicit donations under that model.

      Have you been contacted by the NSA?

      What will you do when [the NSA] comes?

      Could you put a dead man icon on the site [to show us when this happens]?

      Not yet, consult a lawyer, probably not.

      I can't answer these at the present time due to the liquid state of our governance and business model. Simply put, if this happens it will affect everyone involved with running and developing the site, some of which may have families and jobs to consider.

      It seems reasonable to have a clearly-worded statement of intent and policy regarding these issues. I'll put it on my (ever-growing) list of items.

      Oh, and to the best of my knowledge, we've not been contacted or compromised by any government agency or individual. Let me know if this is somehow "weasel worded" and I will rephrase.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by SpallsHurgenson on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:07PM

        by SpallsHurgenson (656) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:07PM (#2952)

        Regarding your options for getting money:

        Donations are fine. I see no problem with a tip-jar even if you are a for-profit website; if you are doing a good job, there is no reason not to accept a little cash on the side or even to solicit donations.

        Advertising is okay, so long as it is discrete, and on-topic. Just be aware that most of your users are tech-savvy enough to install ad-blockers, so most of them won't be seeing the ads anyway.

        Swag is always a fun option, but - unless you dedicate large portions of the site to hawking it - it's also brings in very little money. It's less a way of bringing in cash and more a way to market your brand.

        Paid reviews are probably not a good idea. First of all, it brings up conflict of interest issues; if you accept a paid review for a product, will you later run a story about how that same product catches fire if you plug it in? Second, if there was one message yelled loud and clear during the Slashcott, it was that most people are more interested in the comments than any articles you may put up. We're here for the discussion, not the editorial content.

        Job Listings sound neat, but that's a really hard market to get into and will likely require staff to maintain the listings and handle customer service. Soylentnews.org is unlikely to be the first place recruiters look for new hires; costs would probably fast outrun any income earned.

        Memberships and subscriptions can be tricky; one of the strengths of the Slashdot community was that it was the content of an individual's comments that were value more than anything else. It didn't matter if you got the first post, or were had a low UID - if you sounded like an idiot, you would get modded down. On the other hand, even the lowliest of the anonymous cowards could end up with a +5 Insightful post if he had something of value to say. It was a very democratic and meritorious system. You want to be careful not to upset that balance by giving subscribers any advantage over the hoi polloi. On the other hand, people who pay for a subscription may expect certain benefits. Finding some sort of equitable harmony between these two conflicting desires can be tricky. Personally, I'd be happy with "no adds and a little gold star next to my UID" if I were a subscriber, but others may want more. On the other hand, I would also be less likely to pay a monthly (or yearly) subscription fee than a one-time "membership" fee if that were all I got.

        My two cents, as a joe-average user.

      • (Score: 1) by demonlapin on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:36AM

        by demonlapin (925) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:36AM (#3014) Journal
        You could use the Apple (IIRC?) approach - put a line in that says "We have never been asked to disclose any information to the NSA or any other part of the US Government."
      • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:20AM

        by TheRaven (270) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:20AM (#10554) Journal
        $200-300/month in bandwidth?!?!?! That's insane for a site with no large image or video hosting. Who have you talked to about it? Even paying full retail and including hosting, that's several TB/month of transfer, and if you're paying anything like full retail with that kind of volume then you're idiots.
        --
        sudo mod me up
    • (Score: 1) by Techwolf on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:27AM

      by Techwolf (87) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:27AM (#3123)

      This an answer that need to be addressed very soon. I've seen community sites spring up and die due to not securing a revenue stream soon in the progress. What happen is when the site started to get into dire situation with bills and had to resort to last minute changes to the site to bring in revenue, the result was not pretty and site soon went *poof*. The sites I've seen flourish got a revenue stream early on and didn't have to resort to those last minute changes out of desperation.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by mhajicek on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:25PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:25PM (#2631)

    How should the economic issues of labor surplus due to automation be solved?

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 5, Funny) by bacon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:32PM

      by bacon (280) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:32PM (#2707)

      Toppling the ruling class ought to do it.

      Taking down those with 2 digit UID's would probably be a good place to start.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by dast on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:35PM

        by dast (1633) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:35PM (#2710)

        Say what now?

        • (Score: 5, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:39PM

          by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:39PM (#2716)

          Ah if you had a three digit UID like us old timers, you'd have gotten the joke. Noobs these days. Now get off my lawn.

          • (Score: 1) by Spinlock on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:19PM

            by Spinlock (1021) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:19PM (#2874)

            Imagine how disappointed I am, that I came so close to UID 1024.

            • (Score: 1) by FatPhil on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:13PM

              by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:13PM (#2957) Homepage

              There was very close attention to the UID progress - 1024 was in demand, and probably went within a fraction of a second of 1023.

              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
              • (Score: 1) by demonlapin on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:42AM

                by demonlapin (925) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:42AM (#3018) Journal
                He said over here [soylentnews.org] that he had the page loaded and filled out and was ready to go. At first, I believed that.

                Then I noticed that the comment where he revealed the origin of his success is... #1337.

                Be careful, folks. Ol' KibiByte is the man, behind the man, behind the man.
      • (Score: 4, Funny) by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:09PM

        by LaminatorX (14) <{laminatorx} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:09PM (#2742)

        I knew we should've made Jack-booted Thugs a launch-critical feature request.

      • (Score: 1) by Covalent on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:06PM

        by Covalent (43) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:06PM (#2908) Journal

        Hey!

        --
        You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
    • (Score: 1) by theluggage on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:42PM

      by theluggage (1797) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:42PM (#2932)

      How should the economic issues of labor surplus due to automation be solved?

      Clearly answered in the name of this site.

      Make room! Make room!

    • (Score: 1) by Barrabas on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:59PM

      by Barrabas (22) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:59PM (#2946) Journal

      How should the economic issues of labor surplus due to automation be solved?

      I actually have a proposal for solving this.

      One great aspect of being in this community is that you get exposed to new ideas, see problems ahead of time, and can brainstorm solutions. Then a bunch of really smart people will give you feedback.(*)

      Briefly, it appears that the world is on the brink of becoming a post-scarcity society. The short story Manna [marshallbrain.com] by Marshall Brain nicely illustrates the ramifications of this. It's short and an easy read, so consider checking it out.

      There is a considerable weight of opinion among economists, if not outright consensus, that the post-scarcity model is inevitable. The problem is that no one knows how to get from here to there - there's no "transition" plan.

      This change may have already begun, viz. the popularity of the phrase "another jobless recovery". When you only need 90% of the workforce to create the goods and services for 100% of the population, what do you do with the remaining 10%?

      I have an idea of how to solve this. Sadly, only a fully fleshed-out proposal with reasoning and reference would do the subject justice, and this is not the place or the time to do it.

      Perhaps we can start a discussion in a few months, but not here and not today.

      (*) I don't want my comic picked apart by nerds. I'm taking it to a comic book convention. - Fry

      • (Score: 1) by mhajicek on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:11AM

        by mhajicek (51) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:11AM (#2989)

        Looking forward to hearing your ideas when the time comes. I've been thinking about this for some time, but most of the people I have to talk with seem to think the future will be much like the past.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:22AM (#9520)

        Toppling the ruling class

        There is a considerable weight of opinion among economists, if not outright consensus, that the post-scarcity model is inevitable.
        There's a fellow who said something related:
        "The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet." --William Gibson

        Note that Socialist candidate for Seattle's city council Kshama Sawant (an Economics professor) campaigned on these issues (and won).

        The problem is that no one knows how to get from here to there
        FDR had this figured out following the previous bust of the boom and bust Capitalism model:
        After someone reaches the income level of Very Comfortable (at that time it was $30,000), the marginal tax rate becomes 100 percent.
        (He settled for 94 percent; Reaganomics reversed things and look how that has turned out.)

        When you only need 90% of the workforce to create the goods and services for 100% of the population, what do you do with the remaining 10%?
        You give everyone a paycheck and send them home.
        When there isn't enough work for everyone, everyone simply does a little less of the existing work.
        They do this at a cooperative that has been around since 1956 [googleusercontent.com]
          (orig) [rdwolff.com] (and which is now much bigger).

        The elephant in the room in the USA since 1968 has been that worker productivity has gone up but wages haven't [thinkprogress.org].
        France figured this out years ago and shortened the work week there (and keeping wages up).
        The problem we have in the USA is money in the electoral process [movetoamend.org].

          -- gewg_

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Kira on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:27PM

    by Kira (1868) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:27PM (#2633)

    Why are you so awesome?

    • (Score: 1) by cwix on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:25PM

      by cwix (873) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:25PM (#2752)

      From what I understand he did a large amount of the work getting slash running.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by ticho on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:08PM

        by ticho (89) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:08PM (#2794) Homepage Journal

        No, that's just the result of him being awesome. The truth is, nobody knows why he is awesome. He's an enigma.

        • (Score: 1) by stderr on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:25PM

          by stderr (11) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:25PM (#2966) Journal

          ... inside a riddle, wrapped in bacon.

          --
          alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" # ... and get off my lawn!
      • (Score: 1) by hybristic on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:56PM

        by hybristic (10) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:56PM (#2846) Journal

        This is true. While there were others that put in a lot of time and effort into this site as well, his awesomeness is what made this all possible.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:30PM (#2637)

    is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    The question is for each of you.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by BsAtHome on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:44PM

      by BsAtHome (889) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:44PM (#2658)

      African or European?

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:09PM (#2795)

        I... I don't know...
        Arrrggghhh...

  • (Score: 1) by mmcmonster on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:31PM

    by mmcmonster (401) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:31PM (#2639)

    Why does your icon for mobile looks like anyone else's icon for internet?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FrogBlast on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM

      by FrogBlast (21) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM (#2730)

      Because the Honorable Gentleman from Pipedot donated a set of icons to us (that didn't completely overlap with the set we needed) in which it was so. We'll probably be replacing many icons early on. Feel free to visit the forum and let us know which ones you do or don't like, or offer us your own home-made iconography.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:33PM (#2641)

    Why haven't you published it? (Reposting below so that you know what I'm talking about).

    Linux Security, Red Hat and Systemd Conspiracy Theory

    Former cypherpunk shares his conspiratorial view on Linux security: [wordpress.com]

    Since then, more has happened to reveal the true story here, the depth of which surprised even me. The GTK development story and the systemd debate on Debian revealed much corporate pressure being brought to bear in Linux. [...] Some really startling facts about Red Hat came to light. For me the biggest was the fact that the US military is Red Hat's largest customer:

    "When we rolled into Baghdad, we did it using open source," General Justice continued. "It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the U.S. Army is 'the' single largest install base for Red Hat Linux. I'm their largest customer." (2008 [linux.com])

    This is pretty much what I had figured. I'm not exactly new to this, and I figured that in some way the military-industrial/corporate/intelligence complex was in control of Red Hat and Linux. [...] But I didn't expect it to be stated so plainly. Any fool should realize that "biggest customer" doesn't mean tallest or widest, it means the most money. IOW, most of Red Hat's money comes from the military - they have first say in its development. And the connection between the military and spying agencies, etc. should be obvious.

    Next, a reader posted this FOSDEM: NSA Operation ORCHESTRA Annual Status Report [fosdem.org]. Well worth watching in its entirety (including the Q&A at the end), to me this turned out to be a road-map detailing how Red Hat is operating on Linux!

    • (Score: 1) by ivan on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM

      by ivan (893) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM (#2731)

      Interesting... How is this comment offtopic?

      • (Score: 1) by hybristic on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:09PM

        by hybristic (10) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:09PM (#2863) Journal

        I would imagine this is modded off topic because there is a method to submit stories, and this is not the proper method. Next, the reason why this probably wasn't posted was because its a conspiracy theory, it even says so in the summary.

        Why would someone be shocked that the military is the largest customer of RHEL? I mean the US puts insane amounts of money into it's military. When you need to network the complex networks that the military has, it's not shocking they would choose a *nix. Then you look at what Linux Distro has the most support and you arrive at RHEL. I should mention I didn't read any of what was posted in this guys submission, but on the surface I am simply not shocked by this revelation.

      • (Score: 1) by etherscythe on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:59PM

        by etherscythe (937) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:59PM (#2947) Journal

        It reads like tin-foil nuttery at first glance, but there's actually a legit question there under all the detail. Mods probably didn't read closely enough. This may be a downside to such prolific mod points - modders spend them without checking because they don't have to guard them as carefully.

        --
        "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
        • (Score: 1) by c0lo on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:13AM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:13AM (#2991) Journal

          It reads like tin-foil nuttery at first glance, but there's actually a legit question there under all the detail.

          Well, maybe that's the problem. I mean, if not careful enough, it's easy to trigger the TLTR reaction (too long to read. Get it and TLDR is moot).
          Suggestion: if there is a question, with the risk of triggering Betteridge's law, maybe it's a good idea to raise it above those details... help me decide if this could be important/interesting enough to me to give to it my full attention.

          (anyway, regarding the submission that's very subject of the thread: I must admit that it's long enough to trigger the TLDR for me)

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:27PM (#2753)

      My dear, Linux is a kernel.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:52PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:52PM (#2780)

        My dear, Linux is a kernel.

        So the parent didn't write GNU/Linux and it is a great way for you to divert the discussion from an important point that he made?

      • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:40AM

        by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:40AM (#3134) Journal

        I guess I'm the only one to have gotten that joke.

        --
        something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by halcyon1234 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:34PM

    by halcyon1234 (1082) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:34PM (#2642)

    Have you been contacted by the NSA yet to install a blackbox on the site? If not, what will you do when they come around?

    --
    Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]
    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by ragequit on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:37PM

      by ragequit (44) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:37PM (#2646) Journal

      What if there's a gag order that they not disclose they have been contacted...

      Along those lines, could you put a dead man icon on the site so we know whether or not the above has happened?

      Oh! and a transparency report?

      and hookers
      and blackjack

      --
      The above views are fabricated for your reading pleasure.
      • (Score: 5, Funny) by youngatheart on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:59PM

        by youngatheart (42) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:59PM (#2676)

        Yes, I want the same thing, except I don't care about the dead man icon or transparency report.

        • (Score: 1) by modecx on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:37PM

          by modecx (1925) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:37PM (#2885)

          Can we get a mashup going and just make it a dead hooker?

      • (Score: 1) by dast on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:37PM

        by dast (1633) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:37PM (#2713)

        Free beer, free as in free. Or freedom. Whatever.

      • (Score: 1) by sfm on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:17AM

        by sfm (675) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:17AM (#2995)

        Actually, a better way to do this might be to include wording on the info page that indicates the system is not currently acting in cooperation with the NSA (or other TLA-type organization). Should the conditions change the text could go away, similar to a dead-mans switch ??

        Could this work?

        • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:43AM

          by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:43AM (#3137) Journal

          I has that idea a while back on the grounds that the government preventing you from speaking about something is one thing, but it would be a lot harder for them to go into court to argue that they have a right to compel you to lie.

          --
          something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by dilbert on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:24PM

      by dilbert (444) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:24PM (#2695)
      If SoylentNews implements a canary.txt similar to rsync, they won't have to "do" anything :)

      http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt [rsync.net]

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:07PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:07PM (#2739) Journal

      Nods head.

      "No."

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by everdred on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:35PM

    by everdred (110) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:35PM (#2643) Journal

    What we have here is in some ways a self-selected community of torch- and pitchfork-wielding Internet villagers. (I really do mean this in the kindest possible way.)

    If it's determined that things need to change for the good of SoylentNews, how do you go about making these changes, when you know that the community you've created knows how to do a proper Internet revolt?

    • (Score: 1) by ArhcAngel on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:04PM

      by ArhcAngel (654) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:04PM (#2681)

      As has been stated in the past. The beatings will continue until moral improves!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:17PM (#2746)

      As a kind of a follow up (I'm different person), the slashcode with the current updates is already available. What else do we need exactly to fork SoylentNews?

      I think that by honestly and fully answering this question paradoxically makes you (us) more likely to succeed. There are already competing altslashdots up and running so any damage done will be minimal to non-existent. After all, like a certain site recently learned, their business is only as loyal as their userbase is.

      Besides spilling the beans could be geek porn at its finest. Congrats for getting the show on the road during the 'cott!

    • (Score: 2) by naubol on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:56PM

      by naubol (1918) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:56PM (#2847)

      I feel like slashdot had to burn through a veritable mountain of loyalty to get that internet revolt and it was being threatened for weeks and they still haven't responded to it. So, I don't think this is like some sort of hair trigger thing. My guess is "reverse course when the whole site is telling you that you're doing it wrong" is a pretty good method.

  • (Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:38PM

    by TrumpetPower! (590) <ben@trumpetpower.com> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:38PM (#2647) Homepage

    How will you know whether you're succeeding or failing? Do you have MBA-style metrics, or will you just feel the zeitgeist, or is it enough if you have a smile on your face at the end of the day, or...?

    b&

    --
    All but God can prove this sentence true.
    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:12PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:12PM (#2744) Journal
      For me, when the end of the day comes and i don't want it to end, I'd say that is success.

      (Wishing for the super power of being able to not ever have to sleep.)

      (...or get sick.)

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by internetguy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM

    by internetguy (235) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM (#2649)

    As someone who has never launched a full blown website from scratch.

    Can you share with us the startup costs of SoylentNews?
    Did someone donate server space?

    Good job to everyone who was involved in getting this new site up and running!

    --
    Sig: I must be new here.
    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by hankwang on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:30PM

      by hankwang (100) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:30PM (#2703) Homepage

      Just guessing: the IP address is somewhere at linode.com [linode.com]. According to the statistics [soylentnews.org] posted yesterday, it's running at 7 GB/day (on the first day). A Linode VPS with 2 GB RAM and 2 CPUs costs $40 per month; the domain names another few bucks. I read somewhere on the wiki that they had to upgrade their hosting plan. I guess that the cost has been pretty much negligible so far.

      Not included: pizzas, cola, and the cost of the many all-nighters that undoubtedly have been pulled...

      More interesting: what will it cost to run once it has (a) slashdot-like traffic and (b) a huge database with 2^24 comments and 10^6 users. (Slashdot had a database crash around 2007 when the comment count hit 2^24.)

      • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:48PM

        by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:48PM (#2776)

        (Slashdot had a database crash around 2007 when the comment count hit 2^24.)
        Yeah, sorry about that...

        --
        "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
      • (Score: 1) by albert on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:34AM

        by albert (276) on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:34AM (#3203)

        I'm thinking we'll get a crash when we reach 2^24 comments.

    • (Score: 1) by new here on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:06PM

      by new here (1931) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:06PM (#2858)

      No, I am new here.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by pjbgravely on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM

    by pjbgravely (1681) <pjbgravelyNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:39PM (#2651) Homepage

    So far so good on the mods, I got modded funny for something that would get flamebait by Microsoft windows users on /. . I assume the creators are moding for now. Do you have plans for stopping the moding nightmare that exists on /. .

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:10PM

      by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:10PM (#2686)

      I'd like to point out, and this is just my opinion I don't speak for anyone else, that /. seems to be full of sock-puppets and PR management people trying to sell to the tech crowd. I think in the long run we'll probably end up in a similar situation here as SN gains in popularity. At the moment I think we're just off the marketing team(s) radar.

      One of the things I think will help us combat that is there are more mod points floating around, we get them much more often and it's much less skewed who gets them. I hope "real" users will take advantage of that. I also hope as a community of technical people we'll work hard to keep the "I've been using windows 8 for ten years and LOVE IT!!!11!!!1!" (yes it's hyperbole) post where they belong. That is, on /.

      --
      "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
      • (Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:28PM

        by GeminiDomino (661) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:28PM (#2699)

        One thing I've noticed about SN is that a lot (maybe 80%) of my mod points are expiring, because I'd rather participate in the conversations. Maybe that'll change when the story density goes up.

        Not really a complaint, mind. Just a single-datum observation.

        --
        "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:43PM

          by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:43PM (#2720)

          That was one of the things on /. that was skewed. Mod points seem to be given to people who prefer to log in and read, but not comment on stories. I could see someone having a ton of sock-puppet accounts specifically just to get mod points to horde or spend and keep out of the hands of people that might actually mod up conflicting views.

          I also don't think expiring mod points is bad as long as the turn around is short. You could go months on /. without mod points, but SN seems to give them very frequently. I don't care if my mod points expire if I'm going to have more in less than 24 hours. I've had mod points almost every day since Friday. Sometimes two or three times a day.

          --
          "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
          • (Score: 2) by dargaud on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:13PM

            by dargaud (364) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:13PM (#2800)

            Mod points seem to be given to people who prefer to log in and read, but not comment on stories.

            Wrong, at least for me. I could go 6 months without mod points, but as soon as I posted something (rarely), I'd get mod points the next day.

            • (Score: 5, Informative) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:31PM

              by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:31PM (#2881)

              Mod point distribution was/is skewed toward older (low UID) *readers* rather than newer or active commenters.

              "The system does not promote regular users as "moderators" and instead assigns five moderation points at a time to users based on the number of comments they have entered in the system" wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

              Note "based on the number of comment" doesn't imply more comments,

              NCommander has confirmed as much in IRC dicussions of his mod system rewrite.

              --
              "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
          • (Score: 1) by jturpin on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:39PM

            by jturpin (1985) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:39PM (#2976)

            I haven't noticed what you are describing on /.. I created my account years ago but didn't use it until about a year ago, when I started posting. At that point I got more mod points than ever (only good for 2-3 days, I would use maybe 1/3 of them). I post comments about 5 days a week and always seem to have mod points.

            For the record, I just signed up here and have no mod points... And I have a very high UID on this site. Maybe the highest.

            • (Score: 1) by paulej72 on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:27AM

              by paulej72 (58) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:27AM (#3161) Journal

              I hardly posted on /. but I did read daily. I got mod points about every other week recently.

              --
              Team Leader for SN Development
              • (Score: 1) by boltronics on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:02AM

                by boltronics (580) on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:02AM (#3335) Homepage Journal

                Agreed. I was a lurker for years, rarely commenting, and it was a real shock whenever I received mod points because it happened so rarely. This never really changed up until the last 6 months or so when I suddenly seemed to be getting mod points maybe a couple of times a week.

                --
                It's GNU/Linux dammit!
          • (Score: 1) by albert on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:39AM

            by albert (276) on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:39AM (#3205)

            Consider two posts. The first has no moderation. The second has 100 up mods and 101 down mods. I strongly think the second post is more interesting; people care about it. Most likely it is a well-argued post that expresses an opinion that some moderators are trying to suppress. For example, it could be of a political nature.

            The fix is asymmetric moderation. A simple and easy method would be to square the up mods. So 10 up with 10 down becomes 90. (10*10-10) You could use a fractional exponent, or you could raise one type of mod to an integer power that is slightly different than the other. For example, raise up mods to the 8th power and raise down mods to the 7th power.

            (originally posted in journal entry http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=124&cid=218 0 [soylentnews.org] where nobody saw it)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08 2014, @10:10PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08 2014, @10:10PM (#28481)

            uhuG8R http://www.qs3pe5zgdxc9iovktapt2dbyppkmkqfz.com/ [qs3pe5zgdx...kmkqfz.com]

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by dilbert on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:44PM

          by dilbert (444) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:44PM (#2724)
          I've only had mod points once so far, and put all 10 into the three stories I hadn't commented on. I suspect most of the good posts I've seen that haven't been modded up are because of what you stated, people wanting to comment.
          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by cwix on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:45PM

            by cwix (873) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:45PM (#2772)

            I've had mod points here twice. The first time they expired before I had a chance to use them. This morning I got the opportunity to use three of them, but they had expired before I got to work. I dont mind the mod points having a short expiry time. But perhaps 8, maybe even 12 hours would be nice.

          • (Score: 1) by frojack on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:54PM

            by frojack (1554) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:54PM (#2941) Journal

            Yeah, that's the way I play it too.
            Its less than Ideal, because some of the stories I'd like to post on, I end up moderating instead.
            Oh, well....
            I look at it as adding quality rather than quantity.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 1) by pjbgravely on Friday February 21 2014, @03:45AM

      by pjbgravely (1681) <pjbgravelyNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday February 21 2014, @03:45AM (#4051) Homepage
      LOL so far for crazy modes I have a funny and a flamebait. I wonder if I will get a troll next?
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by siliconwafer on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:41PM

    by siliconwafer (709) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:41PM (#2653)

    Have you noticed any interesting trends in submissions since the site went live? E.g., an increasing or decreasing number, generally high quality or low quality, or targeted to specific subject matter?

    I ask because the site is still fairly small and there are relatively small number of users posting. The subject of submissions at this point has the ability to set the stage for the direction this site will move in.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:44PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:44PM (#2657) Homepage Journal

    I've yet to find how to report bugs on this site, so I'll take this opportunity to ask this now.

    Please can the "Logout" link on the profile page be changed to the more traditional and more grammatically correct "Log out" to match the "You" side bar?

    Sites changing "Log out" into "Logout" often seems to be symptomatic of a hideous Web 2.0 or 3.0 upgrade.

    I'm sorry for my pedantry but it just irritates me. What's the past tense of "logout"? I "logouted"?

    I'm certainly not alone in my quest. See loginisnotaverb.com [loginisnotaverb.com].

    --
    Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
    • (Score: 1) by BsAtHome on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:49PM

      by BsAtHome (889) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:49PM (#2661)

      You have https enabled, but I cannot login using https.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by efernsler on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:52PM

      by efernsler (1035) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:52PM (#2663)

      I am very eager to see some FAQs. I was a reader on the 'green' site for many, many years and never bothered to create an account. As such, many of the interfaces are brand new to me here, and I find I have a few, simple I'm sure, questions. I just need a little hand-holding to get me going is what I'm saying.

      When can we expect that to be complete? I know it seems like a low priority thing, but for us newbies, it's critical.

      Thanks for this place!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by furiousoyster on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM

      by furiousoyster (594) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM (#2666)

      Unlogined

    • (Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM

      by TrumpetPower! (590) <ben@trumpetpower.com> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM (#2669) Homepage

      As long as we're on a grammar nazi spree, "The Fine Print" should read, "The following comments are owned by who M ever posted them."

      Also, the parser is nuking &ldquo; and related HTML character entities, and it's inserting extra spaces around the M above.

      Cheers,

      b&

      --
      All but God can prove this sentence true.
      • (Score: 5, Informative) by johaquila on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:24PM

        by johaquila (867) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:24PM (#2694)

        Actually, no, it's fine as it is and should not be changed. As a native speaker of a language in which the dative and accusative (of which "whom" is one of very few remnants still existing in English) still exist, I am acutely aware of what is going on with "whom". There was a time when every native speaker of English used who/whom as naturally as they are still using he/him. At that time nobody would have thought of using "whomever" in the way that you are proposing. In that sentence, "who[m]ever" functions as a relative pronoun. It is an object in the surrounding sentence ("The following comments are owned by ..."), and simultaneously the subject of the relative clause ("Whoever posted them"). Turns out that in Germanic languages the latter function has always taken precedence. It is a recent effect of language change that English speakers have become so unsure about who vs. whom that they even consider doing it the other way.

        That said, the number of people who are doing it in a way that would have been clearly wrong a hundred years ago is close to critical mass now. Linguists will soon unequivocally consider it correct to use "whomever" in the way you are proposing. But this is not the case yet.

        If you don't believe me, consider this. The strangeness of a part of speech being in nominative case in one respect and in accusative/dative case in another has long been felt. That's why there is an alternative construction: "The following comments are owned by him who posted them." "Him" consumes the dative/accusative, leaving the relative pronoun "who" in the nominative case, as it should be for its clause. Presumably this is the original construction, which was later shortened by dropping "him". This is why the case from the relative clause wins.

        Sometimes the effect is the other way round:

        "Whomever they are trying to kill, will have a hard time." Here the accusative case comes from the relative clause ("Whomever they are trying to kill"), and wins against the nominative case in which the pronoun (or clause) stands in relation to the main clause ("... will have a hard time").

        Linguists have written a lot about this, especially on the web. For one nice casual treatment, see http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2900 [upenn.edu]

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by bucc5062 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:53PM

          by bucc5062 (699) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:53PM (#2734)

          see, this is why I love reading the comments (and why the other site is failing. Whomever remains at the aqua site will be less for the experience. Yes?

          --
          The more things change, the more they look the same
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:17PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:17PM (#2747)

            Magic 8 ball says yes!

        • (Score: 1) by frojack on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:01PM

          by frojack (1554) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:01PM (#2948) Journal

          I like it. An instructive and informative Grammar Nazi! Correction done without malice.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:52AM

          by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:52AM (#3141) Journal

          "The following comments are owned by *he* who posted them." is the version that doesn't make my brain hurt.

          Most "who/whom" usage questions can be solved by converting to "they/them" and seeing which sounds right to the mind's ear.

          --
          something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
          • (Score: 1) by TheSage on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:42AM

            by TheSage (133) on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:42AM (#3206) Journal

            "The following comments are owned by *he* who posted them." is the version that doesn't make my brain hurt.

            My wife will hunt you down and explain gender neutral language to you.

            May $DEITY have mercy on your soul.

            • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:55AM

              by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:55AM (#3211) Journal

              I would be equally happy with "she who posted them" instead of "her", since it's just an alternate as a way to illustrate when to use "who" and when to use "whom", both of which, last I checked, are not gender specific.

              So my problem wasn't with "he" versus "she" but "he" versus "him".

              --
              something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
          • (Score: 1) by johaquila on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:04PM

            by johaquila (867) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:04PM (#3475)

            Unfortunately your post proves that these usage questions can no longer be solved this way by most native speakers because they have started getting even these simple things wrong. The correct (though of course sexist) version of your sentence is (currently) still the following: "The following comments are owned by *him* who posted them."

            For further illustration, a very classical example with a nice workaround for the problem:

            "*He* that is without sin among you, let *him* first cast a stone at her".

            The correct short version of this has always been:

            "Let *him* who is without sin cast the first stone at her." (60 Google hits in 19th century books)

            But more and more speakers are preferring a new, formerly (and arguably still) ungrammatical version:

            "Let *he* who is without sin cast the first stone at her." (8 Google hits in 19th century books)

            This new variant already has 50% more Google hits than the old one. There are even reports of copy editors who have already started 'correcting' the correct version into the new one: http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/let-her -who-is-without-error/ [wordpress.com]

            This is just normal language change. What used to be wrong becomes right, what used to be right sounds antiquated or even ungrammatical to more and more people, and before you know it we are yet another little step removed from the language of Chaucer.

            • (Score: 1) by acid andy on Sunday June 01 2014, @04:16PM

              by acid andy (1683) on Sunday June 01 2014, @04:16PM (#49927) Homepage Journal

              The correct (though of course sexist) version of your sentence is (currently) still the following: "The following comments are owned by *him* who posted them."

              It's unlikely that you'll see this reply as the topic is so old now but would an acceptable gender neutral version of the above be: "The following comments are owned by them who posted them."?

              I realise that by using they / them rather than he / she you're substituting the sexism for ambiguity between the singular and plural.

              --
              Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
              • (Score: 1) by johaquila on Tuesday June 10 2014, @04:41PM

                by johaquila (867) on Tuesday June 10 2014, @04:41PM (#53844)

                I agree with your solution, though it looks a bit weird. I think that's because during the time when the now antiquated construction with "he who" (or "him who", depending on case) was still in widespread use, singular they was not, or at least not so generally. That's not to say singular they is a recent thing. Starting with Geoffrey Chaucer it has always been part of written English, including in the King James Bible. But of course there were times when it was restricted to certain situations, and times when a lot of people were careful to avoid it in general.

                That said, the curves for "he who", "they who" and "them who" in Google's n-gram viewer are essentially parallel, so my feeling may be wrong.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:53PM

      by LaminatorX (14) <{laminatorx} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:53PM (#2781)

      We welcome bug reports here. [soylentnews.org] Please also find the already reported bugs here. [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 1) by acid andy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:23PM

        by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:23PM (#2812) Homepage Journal

        Nice, thanks!

        --
        Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:29AM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:29AM (#3010) Journal

        For the purposes of reporting bugs...

        How much of the issues I see listed on the Bugs page are actual bugs, and how much of them are simply missing slashcode features?

        It seems the version of Slashcode you are using is somewhat older than that found on Slashdot and that seems to cause a lot of functionality to go missing.

        Examples:

        1) The quote button at the bottom of a posting does not appear.

        2) The chevron enclosed quote does not work. (These make quoting parts of prior posts or TFAs hard.

        3) After Posting you are shown your post, but your place in the Story is lost, and you have to naviaget down to where you were to continue reading replays.

        D4) 2 radio button won't stay checked in account settings.

        I'm sure there are more of these, but that's enough for here. Are these due to the vintage of Slashcode you are starting with, or are they features that somehow got broken?

        If SoylentNews is to be the people that comprise it, treating the poster to all the goodies seems
        pretty critical. I think all of us don't mind tweaking and experimenting with the moderation system. But something more than basic functionality still needs to be in the posting system.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 1) by mrkaos on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:47AM

      by mrkaos (997) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:47AM (#3020)

      >I'm sorry for my pedantry but it just irritates me. What's the past tense of "logout"? I "logouted"?

      logged out.

      As in, I logged out of beta as I found it intolerable.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:52PM

    by BsAtHome (889) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:52PM (#2662)

    You already published "day one" statistics. Are you going to enable visit/viewing/members/... statistics on a more regular basis (with graphs, please)?

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by seandiggity on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM

    by seandiggity (639) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:53PM (#2665) Homepage

    What are your plans for licensing "SoylentCode" (e.g. move to GPlv3 or AGPLv3)? How about a license for a [scrubbed] database so that the site can be cloned if need be? We should, after all, learn from beta.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:56PM (#2900)

      What are your plans for licensing "SoylentCode" (e.g. move to GPlv3 or AGPLv3)?

      The old code can't be re-licensed without the permission of all the old contributors, so don't hold your breath on that one.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:12AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:12AM (#2990)

      Also Atlassian offers their products free to opensource projects if you qualify.. and Soylent might, somoeone should investigate.. their products are fairly easy to setup and fairly good.

      Issue tracking,
      Wiki (code review), git integration etc)

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by tkd-physics on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:55PM

    by tkd-physics (1306) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:55PM (#2673)

    I submitted a story the other day, it was rejected. Fine, no problem, but why? Subject matter? Bad Summary? I think we need feedback so we know what to do next time.

    If it was subject matter (the ISO C++ committee signed off on the C++ 14 text)... should I not submit on that topic? Who decides what topics are of interest?

    Thanks for the new site!

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:35PM

      by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:35PM (#2711)

      Sounds interesting to me, but probably we had too many stories go live in the last 9 hours (sarcasm, aka zero).

      Aside from that snarky comment somewhat more politely I'll ask, "Roughly how many stories are you planning to release per day?" Which ties in rather closely with how often I will load up the site and take a look.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:46PM

        by LaminatorX (14) <{laminatorx} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:46PM (#2774)

        We've informally been aiming for a story every hour and a half or so, a bit less late at night. We're working to balance our desire to post many of the great submissions we're receiving with wanting the stories we do post to have their time in the Sun at the top of the feed. (This is also a good answer to the "Why wasn't my submission posted?" question, in many cases.)

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:06PM

          by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:06PM (#2857)

          Have you been toying with the idea of automation?

          There's some stories that really need to go up immediately (Hey, the Ukraine just started a genuine shooting civil war this morning and (insert something soylent relevant here))

          On the other hand, some stories can sit and if nothing was force posted in the last 120 minutes then one waiting in the hopper goes up. So some really cool scientific paper from last week (hint hint) could automagically appear to break up a dry spell.

          This is not theory... theoildrum and thehousingbubbleblog have done exactly this in a cron job for many years.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:58PM (#2785)

        Sounds interesting to me, but probably we had too many stories go live in the last 9 hours (sarcasm, aka zero).

        You are wrong. I have made this submission and you didn't publish it: http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=150&cid=264 1 [soylentnews.org]

        Looking forward to hearing from you,
        AC

        • (Score: 1) by cwix on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:05PM

          by cwix (873) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:05PM (#2791)

          Calm down. No reason to get upset if your submission didn't make it up yet. Getting frustrated or angry will not help. Remember the staff is fully unpaid volunteers.

          • (Score: 1) by frojack on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:39AM

            by frojack (1554) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:39AM (#3015) Journal

            Heh, ALL my stories get Rejected at Slashdot, only to be followed by a less well written one on the same subject, often with the same links, submitted later, by one of their pet submitters.
            I just stopped trying.

            So Rejection seems the norm, but Rejection without a reason seems less than user friendly and less instructive for the future.

            I think some general checkboxes could be attached to the rejection listing one or more things that were reasons for the rejection.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by tkd-physics on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:59AM

            by tkd-physics (1306) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:59AM (#3024)

            Who's upset, frustrated, and angry? Not me. I can't imagine that my original post sounded that way, and I don't think any of the follow-ups did either (a single, mildly snarky comment aside).

            Sure, they're all unpaid volunteers. Sure, the site is new. I'm just asking, as a general point of interest, if we can get feedback when a submission is rejected, so that we know why and what to do next time. This seems like a reasonable question to me.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Drake_Edgewater on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:01PM

    by Drake_Edgewater (780) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:01PM (#2677) Journal

    Have you received any contact (via e-mail, message, phone, letters with antrax, catapulted lawyers...) from the people in charge of the "other site"?

    • (Score: 1) by sootman on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:59AM

      by sootman (2137) on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:59AM (#3099)

      Once upon a time in the FAQ, there was a part along the lines of "Q: But what if someone downloads Slashcode and uses it to make a clone of Slashdot?" and the answer was "Go for it!" Seems to be gone now, but in any case, they probably barely care, and legally, they can't do a thing. (IANAL)

    • (Score: 1) by outlier on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:46AM

      by outlier (1709) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:46AM (#3173)

      Relatedly, have you had any contact with CmdrTaco or Hemos? What do they think of the efforts here?

  • (Score: 1) by nobbis on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:02PM

    by nobbis (62) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:02PM (#2678) Homepage Journal

    If you all had a fight , who would win ?

    --
    It's easy to look up when your mind's in the gutter
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:18PM

      by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:18PM (#2689)

      My money's on NCommander. If he can fix SlashCode in a week, surely programming a killbot on the fly to fight for him would be a piece of cake.

      --
      "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:22PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:22PM (#2748) Journal

      Deputy Lupo.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:00AM

        by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:00AM (#3148) Journal

        Only because we'd all surrender to her immediately (although I wouldn't mind a friendly little wrestling match with her first).

        --
        something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by youngatheart on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:04PM

    by youngatheart (42) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:04PM (#2680)

    I see that others have asked how we can donate, and I hope to do the same.

    Longer term, I'd like to be able to donate time, energy, bandwidth and systems experience to the project.

    Q1: First real question: Are people getting sleep now? I know there were several days when it was touch and go to know how sane any of the core team would be at any point in time.

    Q2: When do you think you will start considering modifications beyond just catching up to where the old site was?

    Q3: Have you had any personal contact with other people with similar projects and do you think you will be able to share ideas and source code?

    Q4: How hard is it for a moderately geeky guy to set up a virtual machine and catch up with where this site is now?

    • (Score: 1) by dast on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:33PM

      by dast (1633) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:33PM (#2708)

      I am also interested in knowing how I could help. Will code or test for charity.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:23PM (#2749)

      They specifically asked "In keeping with tradition, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post." Dunno exactly why but they did.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:30PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:30PM (#2757) Journal

      A1. Sleep is still, I believe, getting caught up on.

      A2. Ah, the future... it's still there! :)

      A3. Can't help you, you'll have to look to a higher power for those answers (although I think source code will be released eventually????)

      A4. If you mean coding? There was a lot of work going on by people with wizard level skillz beyond what I have leveled up to: furious, sleepless work of over (I believe, but my mind is gone) a week. It is beyond me how they did it. I just like that I got to be a part of it... it's been fun so far! :)

      my 2 pennies... except we don't have pennies in Canada anymore.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by tanqueray on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:07PM

    by tanqueray (291) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:07PM (#2682)

    How do you intend to promote the site? Is this strictly word of mouth or do you intend to take more active measures?

    • (Score: 2) by joekiser on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:28PM

      by joekiser (1837) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:28PM (#2879)

      As a follow-up to this question:

      Should we still be trolling the other site? Years ago, I remember a situation where the BSDForums.org community all moved to DaemonForums.org within a few weeks. All it took was word of mouth. Should we be posting on each /. article about where the community has moved to?

      I have had /. blocked at the DNS server for over a week now.

      --
      Debt is the currency of slaves.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by fliptop on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:11PM

    by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:11PM (#2688) Journal

    By what metric(s) will you consider the site to be a success or failure, and how long will that determination take to quantify?

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by SMI on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:31PM

      by SMI (333) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:31PM (#2705)

      Just my opinion, but I honestly think that this site is already a success. Much gratitude to all involved!

      • (Score: 1) by fliptop on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:21PM

        by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:21PM (#2809) Journal

        but I honestly think that this site is already a success

        Perhaps, but what I want to know is, how is that success measured? Amount of traffic? Number of registered users? When /. shuts down due to lack of readership?

        --
        Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
    • (Score: 1) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:27PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:27PM (#2818)

      If the average Soylent article receives more comments than the average Other Site article, I'd call it an unequivocal success. Maybe >= 100 comments per article could be considered base success?

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:42PM

        by mtrycz (60) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:42PM (#2832)

        I feel like I need to comment on this, because your comment could express much of the sentiment, but it's not actually the drive of all this.

        Except for the initial inception of the (old) slashcode, this site has no relation, good or bad, with the "Other Site".

        Sure it's in the same segment of news and has a similar interface and functionality, but that's that. Specifically it's not intended to *compete* with the "Other Site". Just, disregard it. Forming a site just to make an other site fail sounds just wrong.

        I'm sure that users will compare, and have preferences, but the whole idea is just to make the best site possible (certain on this point), that is also s much comminuty driven as possible (this is what I hope, and what I feel the intentions are).

        That being said, I do hope Dice will DIAF, but that's not the point.

        Also, I'm not saying that you implied everything I'm saying, but there is some confusion about this, and I felt like clearing this up. Please note that I'm not by any means associated with SN, I just reported some bugs.

        --
        In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
        • (Score: 1) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:38PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:38PM (#3561)

          Yeah, that's a noble sentiment. I'm just saying that if we end up leeching away their users (just by soylent existing), that's going to say a number of things to people who are informed about the situation. Intent is somewhat disconnected from results in this case, I think.

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 1) by mtrycz on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:06PM

            by mtrycz (60) on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:06PM (#3638)

            Yes, I actually they diaf and the whole community migrate, but that's not the point. I don't think that'd happen if it was the point.

            --
            In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bacon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:25PM

    by bacon (280) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:25PM (#2696)

    It seems like the stories with a science-y bent are less commented on than those with a tech-y bent.

    Assuming that the most comments come from people familiar with the subject matter, this makes sense - there is probably a greater percentage of tech-types rather than science-types; an effect magnified by the relatively lower user base (vs the other site).

    Which begs the question of the editors - how will you approach submissions in this context?

    One strategy might be to play to the emerging preferences of the existing base. Another might be to persist with the less read articles in hope of generating a deeper pool of users. What would be the guiding principles for these decisions?

    • (Score: 1) by isostatic on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:10PM

      by isostatic (365) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:10PM (#2743) Journal

      I hope they keep posting them, even if they aren't commented that much, or even clicked on. I read the summary and try to keep my mind somewhere in the sciences, even if I'm not interested enough in the depth of discussion to spend the time on it.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:59PM (#2850)

      How will we keep down the click bait spam? On the other site it seems to have got fairly bad in many stories seem to be nothing more than to generate huge discussions that are little more than a platform for people to bash on each other. Sometimes the stories seem to be little more than advertisements for some sort of VC fund.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by naubol on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:48PM

      by naubol (1918) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:48PM (#2939)

      I choose not to comment on Biology posts, but I absolutely love reading them. If anything, I think they should keep them relatively even, because it isn't even always the amount of comments but the quality of those that are there.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:26PM

    by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:26PM (#2697)

    why not use the url beta.soylentnews.com? Sounds LOLworthy to me.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:29PM

      by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:29PM (#2700)

      Oh and I forgot to ask if you could CNAME goatse.soylentnews.org and rickroll.soylentnews.org that would be handy.

    • (Score: 1) by outlier on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:49AM

      by outlier (1709) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:49AM (#3175)

      April 1st is not far away. I see another opportunity to continue an old /. tradition!

  • (Score: 1) by snick on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:27PM

    by snick (1408) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:27PM (#2698)

    ... will you call the new version "beta?"

    • (Score: 1) by zocalo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM

      by zocalo (302) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:51PM (#2733)
      Might be good for a few Lulz, and it's technically correct, but after Google and /. that joke is wearing a little thin. Maybe use "delta" since that can be used to mean a change as well (and it's TWO more than those other sites!).

      Just keep the deltas small so we can tell you when we don't like it before you put all the work in, hmm...?
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 1) by EvilJim on Friday February 21 2014, @02:29AM

        by EvilJim (2501) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:29AM (#4003) Journal

        my vote is for Alpha # or Delta b (flat)

        • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Friday February 21 2014, @07:35PM

          by DECbot (832) on Friday February 21 2014, @07:35PM (#4492) Journal

          How about Objective BETA?

          --
          cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:21PM

      by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:21PM (#2876)

      I might be a little slow, but I finally figured out why nobody's talking about beta, and I suspect on the morning of April 1st aka April Fools day, rather than pink ponies on Soylent, we'll see...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:53AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:53AM (#3328)

        OMGHestons

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by dast on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:30PM

    by dast (1633) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:30PM (#2702)

    Can we get the content of the articles (plaintext or html) in the feed?

    Otherwise just keep doin what y'all doin. It's important work.

    • (Score: 1) by whatamidoing on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:08PM

      by whatamidoing (141) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:08PM (#2740)

      I second this. Trying to determine if I want to read the article and comments from a one line headline can be frustrating. If there is some content to pique my interest or make me meh, it would be beneficial.

      One line entries just will elude to sensationalist headlines.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:32PM

        by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:32PM (#2760) Journal

        ^This... is being worked on. A lot of people are asking about this.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 1) by SrLnclt on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:41PM

          by SrLnclt (1473) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:41PM (#2831)

          Good to hear. Regardless of what google or others think, there are still a ton of RSS users out there particularly in this crowd. Keep up the good work with the new site.

          • (Score: 1) by rodeo on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:08AM

            by rodeo (2010) on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:08AM (#3189)

            I agree with your post. Bump for praise and better RSS.

    • (Score: 1) by evilviper on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:29PM

      by evilviper (1760) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:29PM (#2924) Homepage Journal

      Came here to say this... RSS readers are many times faster and more user friendly on small-screen mobile devices, than visiting web pages in a mobile browser that is slow, has text wrapping, may not work quite right, etc., etc. But just getting the titles and nothing else is nearly useless.

      --
      Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
  • (Score: 1) by dingo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:40PM

    by dingo (1579) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:40PM (#2717)

    Will you put future enhancements to the site's code base, if any, on Github/Google Code or something similar so the community can benefit from it or even fork should that prove necessary?

  • (Score: 1) by TheloniousToady on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:45PM

    by TheloniousToady (820) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:45PM (#2725)

    If SN continues to be successful, it will incur some substantial costs and therefore need funding, and will need sustaining and committed leadership as well as some form of governance in order to remain healthy. As a community effort based on the open-source Slashcode, SN appears to be headed towards becoming a non-profit.

    The Wikimedia Foundation, with its reliance on donations from the community to pay costs, appears to be a good model. What do you think of either emulating the Wikimedia Foundation for governance/funding, or possibly even becoming a Wikimedia Foundation project if they would allow it?

    • (Score: 1) by lil'wombat on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:46PM

      by lil'wombat (1664) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:46PM (#2837)

      For $15 per month you can keep the light in and receive this handsome and stylish tote-bag with matching umbrella.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by boris on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:55PM

    by boris (1706) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:55PM (#2735)

    Does the open source license from the slashcode fully protect you from any litigation initated against you from the other site?

    • (Score: 1) by mtrycz on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:48PM

      by mtrycz (60) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:48PM (#2840)

      The whole thing was made as clean and as clear as possible. The team is serious about this.

      That being said, there's no reason stopping anyone, the "other site" or enyone else to sue SN for anything, expecially in a sue-happy culture like the US.
      While tThere are no legal bases for that, they sure can do that. It'd actually be an effective weapon against a project this young, as legal expenses would have to be spent anyway. I don't think they'd do this, tho, as It'd be the final blow to their image.

      In two words: SN is clean, but being clean doens't protect form litigation anyway.

      --
      In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Buck Feta on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:00PM

    by Buck Feta (958) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:00PM (#2737) Journal

    IIRC /. sold to Dice for about $10mm. While that's not an extraordinary amount of money, it might tempt one to sell out after building *this* site up. Do you have any thoughts or assurances on this subject?

    --
    - fractious political commentary goes here -
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:31PM (#2820)

      The number was $20 million combined for slashdot and sourceforge. Its impossible to know the valuations they gave to each site to come up with that number.

  • (Score: 1) by gringer on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:08PM

    by gringer (962) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:08PM (#2741)

    Given that you're changing other things, have you considered changing the nature of these question / interview posts from a two-stage process to a single-stage real-time format like Reddit's AMA?

    --
    Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by SpallsHurgenson on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:44PM

      by SpallsHurgenson (656) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:44PM (#2771)

      Oh, I hope not. Reddit responses tend to be shorter and less thought out, a result of the format. By allowing some time between when the questions are asked and when they are answered, it gives the interviewee time to pick the most interesting questions, and formulate better-thought out answers, rather than off-the-cuff comments.

      But I'm an old grump who doesn't like change ;-)

    • (Score: 1) by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:55PM

      by LaminatorX (14) <{laminatorx} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:55PM (#2784)

      I've been tossing out simple brief answers as appropriate herein, but expect to see more detailed and thoughtful responses in a followup post.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by mindriot on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:24PM

    by mindriot (928) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:24PM (#2751)
    In what areas could you still use help?
    --
    soylent_uid=$(echo $slash_uid|cut -c1,3,5)
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Buck Feta on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:30PM

    by Buck Feta (958) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:30PM (#2758) Journal

    Judging from the quality of the questions here, would you say have the finest, most intelligent, most handsome, and downright extraordinary user base?

    --
    - fractious political commentary goes here -
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:40PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:40PM (#2768) Journal

      Yes!
      Buck_Feta karma +1

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 1) by canoedf on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:25PM

      by canoedf (1729) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:25PM (#2919) Homepage

      I resemble that remark !

    • (Score: 1) by paddym on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:14PM

      by paddym (196) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:14PM (#2960)

      FTFY:

      Judging from the quality of the grammar here, would you say "you" have the most fine, intelligentest, most handsomely, and downright extraordinariest user base, for all intensive porpoises? If not "you", then "what website would you say has"?

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by seandiggity on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:39PM

    by seandiggity (639) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:39PM (#2767) Homepage
    How do you feel about joining forces with Pipedot [pipedot.org]? That site has a nice and simple interface resembling /. and uses a newer codebase than Slash. Maybe just some code sharing?
    • (Score: 2) by ticho on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:22PM

      by ticho (89) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:22PM (#2810) Homepage Journal

      |. code still needs a lot of work, they only have basics working. Also, the "dev team" is probably just one or two guys, and because of that they are not as responsive as team of this site, which has someone active on IRC at almost all times.
      Still, the look and feel of |. site makes me drool and feel warm and fuzzy inside. :) With some effort, it could be a root of a complete slashcode replacement.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by stderr on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:14PM

      by stderr (11) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:14PM (#2958) Journal

      Maybe just some code sharing?

      SoylentNews is using Slashcode, which is written in Perl, but Pipedot have said "no Perl CGI", so code sharing between the two projects might not be so easy.

      SoylentNews did get some icons from Pipedot, so some sharing do occur.

      --
      alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" # ... and get off my lawn!
      • (Score: 1) by seandiggity on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:48PM

        by seandiggity (639) on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:48PM (#3465) Homepage

        I realize that, but surely HTML + CSS theming wouldn't be an issue.

  • (Score: 1) by umafuckitt on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:22PM

    by umafuckitt (20) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:22PM (#2811)

    Are there still plans to solicit the community for a new name and to re-design the look of the site with community input?

    • (Score: 1) by adp on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:47PM

      by adp (1083) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:47PM (#2936)

      Personally, I hope this old-slashdot theme stays -- I like this layout.

  • (Score: 1) by kwerle on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:39PM

    by kwerle (746) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:39PM (#2829) Homepage

    What is the purpose of this site?
    What are the goals for this site?
    What is the focus of this site?

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:47PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:47PM (#2838) Journal

    The main page states (emphasis by me): "Welcome to Soylent News. As we're stil in alpha-test, these articles cover much of what's going around in the site."

    Now the logical next step after alpha would be beta. But of course all people here hate beta. So how are you going to avoid it?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:57AM

      by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:57AM (#3145) Journal

      "Now the logical next step after alpha would be beta. But of course all people here hate beta. So how are you going to avoid it?"

      As I have already indicated elsewhere, by calling it alpha 2.0

      --
      something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by lhsi on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:03PM

    by lhsi (711) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:03PM (#2854) Journal

    One problem with Slashdot is that it didn't seem to care that it was an internationally visited site and would run stories that are only of interest to residents of the USA. Stories about the USA completely unrelated to news for nerds appearing were particarly irksome.

    What are the plans for this site regarding this issue? Will you post non-news that is only of interest to the USA?

    Note that tech stuff happening in the USA is fine, even if it is political stuff like the NSA or FCC (although posting tech news happening in other countries wouldn't hurt once in a while); its things like the super bowl or pure politics that should keep itself out of a tech news site

    • (Score: 1) by fliptop on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:13PM

      by fliptop (1666) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:13PM (#2869) Journal

      its things like the super bowl or pure politics that should keep itself out of a tech news site

      I'll agree w/ the super bowl, but politics can be interesting to a nerd. The past couple of elections have been quite the revolution in using tech to get the word out to the electorate.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
      • (Score: 1) by lhsi on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:22AM

        by lhsi (711) on Thursday February 20 2014, @10:22AM (#3309) Journal

        I'll agree w/ the super bowl, but politics can be interesting to a nerd. The past couple of elections have been quite the revolution in using tech to get the word out to the electorate.

        USA politics is going to be interesting to USA citizens mainly, not the rest of the world, which was my main point.

        Tech usage in politics (or interference in tech stuff from politicians) would be relevant to a tech news site, but just politics from one country is not (unless the site is aimed at the USA only, which is what my question is trying to figure out).

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Dale on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07PM

    by Dale (539) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07PM (#2860)

    Are there any plans to make the title bars that have the new story headlines into links? It just seems odd not being able to click on the headline from the main page to go to the story. Currently I have to click "read more" in the lower left part of the summary to get to the story page.

    • (Score: 1) by rodeo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:54PM

      by rodeo (2010) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:54PM (#2985)

      Bump for this request.
      Also would like to see "full article enabled" in RSS feed.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by linsane on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:12PM

    by linsane (633) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:12PM (#2865)

    Do you have editors across enough timezones to cover daytime 24hrs a day?

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by cosurgi on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:53PM

    by cosurgi (272) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:53PM (#2897) Journal

    You responded enthusiastically to my first email suggestion to add MathJax support (that was even before the IRC channel was created), do you still plan on adding it? :)

    --
    #
    #\ @ ? [adom.de] Colonize Mars [kozicki.pl]
    #
  • (Score: 1) by technopoptart on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:59PM

    by technopoptart (1746) <reversethis-{oc. ... ht} {ta} {semaj}> on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:59PM (#2904)

    I am impressed to see a quick response to my suggestion about the old style icons. Its starting to feel like early college days again, thanks.

  • (Score: 1) by berrance on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:02PM

    by berrance (1229) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:02PM (#2906)

    I know there is already a lot being mentioned about advertisements or subscriptions to fund the site. How about setting up a donate@soylentnews.org email address for a paypal account. Then have a yearly drive much like wikipedia for donations to keep the site running. Hell, I want to donate just for the sheer effort of all the great guys who got this place up and running.

    I may have been lurking in the green shadows for the last 10 or so years, Now it is time to start lurking in the red shadows.

    --
    Just my two lentils worth...
  • (Score: 1) by frink on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:09PM

    by frink (461) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:09PM (#2910)

    I think we al know the other site started to go down hill not all that long after the money changed hands. Can't blame the founders, they earned it. But how do you see SN in 1, 3, 5 years time? Ready to be sold, or handed over to a foundation or a trust to look after it?

  • (Score: 1) by Covalent on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:15PM

    by Covalent (43) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:15PM (#2912) Journal

    Any news on how that's going? Will we be metamodding soon?

    --
    You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
    • (Score: 1) by berrance on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:19PM

      by berrance (1229) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:19PM (#2914)

      If we get the firehose back how about calling it the "soup bowl?"

      --
      Just my two lentils worth...
      • (Score: 1) by c0lo on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:24AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:24AM (#3003) Journal

        how about calling it the "soup bowl?"

        Shark pool or spam cesspool?
        Just stay out of my soup.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:55AM

        by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:55AM (#3143) Journal

        "If we get the firehose back how about calling it the "soup bowl?" "

        I suggested, and prefer, "Purgatory".

        --
        something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:00AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:00AM (#3334)

        "The Grinder"

  • (Score: 1) by pe1rxq on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:56PM

    by pe1rxq (844) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:56PM (#2986) Homepage

    Will soylentnews support ipv6?
    The other site were so busy 'fixing' commenting that they never got around to support IPv6 will you?
    After all the stuff you guys got working in so little time this should be a piece of cake, or not?

  • (Score: 1) by rodeo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:57PM

    by rodeo (2010) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:57PM (#2987)

    Will the RSS feed allow full articles to be read?

  • (Score: 1) by bluehorizons on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:17AM

    by bluehorizons (1141) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:17AM (#2994)

    It would be nice to have low bandwidth advertisements, as my hard drive is belt driven.

    Lovely site!

    --
    There is nothing general about the general public.
  • (Score: 1) by c0lo on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:32AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:32AM (#3012) Journal
    Re why not conspiracy theories [soylentnews.org] and firehose [soylentnews.org]
    1. how much spam you've got among submissions until now?
    2. what are the process/criteria to decide what submission makes the first page and which are not?
    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 1) by mrkaos on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:41AM

    by mrkaos (997) on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:41AM (#3017)

    Will the code base continue to be made available under the GPL, and will you be contributing your enhancements?

    And thank you for supporting the geek/nerd community. SN already seems to be more gritty than /. is now, though I was a daily .er I fell that SN is making good - plus I really enjoy the old style interface - much memories.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  • (Score: 1) by coolgoob on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:09AM

    by coolgoob (822) on Thursday February 20 2014, @02:09AM (#3069)

    I just want to know when auto refresh will be implemented?

  • (Score: 1) by Whiteludafan on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:10AM

    by Whiteludafan (2136) on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:10AM (#3109)

    It would be nice to see an article summary in my RSS reader, rather than having to click over based solely on a title. Please consider this change. Thanks!

    Also, I didn't find any obvious place to submit feedback like this. Perhaps I missed it?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @03:23AM (#3119)

    Is there a reason that the site is using Sans Serif fonts?
    For the longest time in my memory, the original site uses Serif fonts (Times New Roman, since it's the browser default back in those days).

  • (Score: 1) by unitron on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:06AM

    by unitron (70) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:06AM (#3150) Journal

    Well, I believe there's established precedent for "Boxers or briefs?"

    --
    something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 1) by linsane on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:18AM

      by linsane (633) on Thursday February 20 2014, @11:18AM (#3345)

      or "None of the above"

  • (Score: 1) by hash14 on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:28AM

    by hash14 (1102) on Thursday February 20 2014, @04:28AM (#3163)

    Where do you guys think we're headed with the codebase? Obviously this will be an evolving decision, but I think a lot of us are curious about how about how long we can work with the existing Slash codebase. Technical considerations on the viability of updating and maintaining existing Slash vs. rewriting one from scratch would be very interesting.

  • (Score: 1) by linsane on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:49AM

    by linsane (633) on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:49AM (#3270)

    Please try and make them MECE http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECE_principle [wikipedia.org] (comedy option excused as an exception perhaps)

    This would stop my inner scream from kicking off Every. Single. Time.

    It's not just pointy haired boss syndrome, it's good application and list design. None of the above would go some way to addressing this as mentioned elsewhere. Thank you. Pretty please.

  • (Score: 1) by SMI on Friday February 21 2014, @04:14AM

    by SMI (333) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:14AM (#4068)

    Is it possible to remove the appending site names from hyperlinks in comments, for sentence continuity and given that we can all mouse over the links to see where they lead?

    • (Score: 1) by SMI on Friday February 21 2014, @04:20AM

      by SMI (333) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:20AM (#4072)

      Woops, please ignore this. I'm pretty sure I found the relevant option in the comment preferences. ./ since the late 90's, but never had an account.