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posted by mattie_p on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-promised-open-access dept.

Greetings, Soylentils. First of all, I want to thank you, the community, for the outpouring of support during these past few weeks. The participation has been amazing, and I'd like to personally thank each and every one of you for your help in a successful launch so far. Unfortunately, I can't thank every one of you individually. As of this writing, there are over 3500 registered users!

Now, we promised to be transparent, and we intend to deliver. Our first (and right now, only) all-hands staff meeting is at 1800 UTC on 2 March, and will be held on our IRC channels.

The staff will be holding the meeting on #Staff at irc.soylentnews.org. Only staff will be able to log into and speak on that channel. However, our IRC folks will be re-broadcasting this on the public channel, #Soylent. If you aren't familiar with IRC, please review Landon's recent post (we have a web client available as well). Many of our staff members will be monitoring both channels, and we will try to have the opportunity for questions. Conducting this meeting will be one of many learning experiences for us, so feel free to pipe up and say your piece.

Items on the agenda include a vision statement from our founder, an overview of staff organization from me(draft available here), general status update from each group, as well as proposals for future development. You may notice some missing names in the org chart. Please contact us at suggestions @ soylentnews dot. org if you are interested in volunteering or working here.

As always, thanks for being a part of this great community!

~mattie_p, general manager

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:58AM (#9461)
    Will there be punch and pie?

    More people will come if you say there's punch and pie.
    • (Score: 5, Funny) by jt on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:05PM

      by jt (2890) on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:05PM (#9572)

      I'm coming for the blackjack and hookers. But each to their own.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:31PM (#9723)

      Will there be punch and pie?

      Da to be beating you in face with punch and take your wife for pie.
      Is good, no?

      --V. Putin.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Marand on Sunday March 02 2014, @09:16AM

    by Marand (1081) on Sunday March 02 2014, @09:16AM (#9471) Journal

    Out of curiosity, why google docs for the staff organisation overview? You have this shiny website here that, I would assume, is capable of hosting files of various types including PDF and HTML as needed. It's not like you're expecting collaborative editing of the file with the entire community, so what reason is there to link to the Google Docs version?

    Maybe I'm in the minority and nobody else cares, but it just seems a bit off to ditch all the web2.0 "I need javascript to scratch my ass" design with the SN site itself, but then expect everybody to allow every bloody JS script google wants to load just to view a simple list.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by cloying on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:07AM

      by cloying (91) on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:07AM (#9507)

      Yes, it does seem odd. There is an uncomfortable mix of old and safe, with new and slack. Why use something like irc, and then use Google docs? set up a forum and then ask us to submit trite videos to YouTube? I just did a twatter search for 'soylent news' and there exists a pointless stream of headlines. Lovely

      Have we escaped beta to enter another socially networked fiasco?

      I would love to see this site work, but one of its reasons for it needing to exist was, our at least I thought it was, to avoid the use of ludicrous technologies and dependencies the rest of the internet works are happily falling in bed with. I certainly don't ever want to be part of this huge social experiment of popularity wars and privacy stupidity.

      I can't make 'witnessing' the "staff meeting" due to living in a far off time zone. Perhaps the issues above would be something I would like to see discussed and decided upon in my absence, and before the site commits too much to operating in this way.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:41PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:41PM (#9557) Journal

        At least, up to now, the site itself does not depend in any way on third-party sites. Which I consider a big advantage. Especially today where most sites include stuff, especially JavaScript, from a dozen other sites.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by cloying on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:55PM

          by cloying (91) on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:55PM (#9565)

          Yes, but dependencies are being created. Twitter, google docs, youtube... In my view we should never need or even suggest these for any part of the site content or management.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by jt on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:09PM

            by jt (2890) on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:09PM (#9575)

            Personally, I don't want SN to be dependent on other third-party services. What the proprietary world giveth, the proprietary world taketh away etc. However, maybe this will be useful when getting things kicked off, provided there is a clear plan on how these dependencies will be dropped in the near future.

            • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @07:42PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @07:42PM (#9711)

              Which is EXACTLY why every else falls in line too -- it's just too "convenient" to take use of these freely available "cloud" solutions, just waiting to make life easier, even for high order tech geeks.

              "Oh we'll just use it while we kick things off."

              Sure. Except it will ALWAYS be more convenient in the Google / Apple / MS gardens.

              This is why no one really uses open source chat networks (yeah sure IRC/XMPP), why no one uses self-hosted Docs equivalents, why no one seriously relies on OpenStreetMap when GMaps or MS Maps or Garmin et al. are available, why no one uses self-hosted videos or photos or social networking. (All for varying definitions of "no one", of course.)

              Laporte used Skype temporarily when setting up his million dollar TWiT network, including the open source show "FLOSS Weekly". 5 years later he's still using Skype, with no real end in sight. He's talking about moving to a different Microsoft communications server next... seriously.

              I am not surprised Soylent would stoop to using Docs for sharing or Youtube for video... but I am disappointed. It's still hard to avoid the free candy.

          • (Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:26PM

            by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday March 02 2014, @01:26PM (#9581) Journal

            Twitter is an advertising channel, not a dependency. I don't think you lose out anything by not using twitter (I can't be sure, of course, because I don't use it, but AFAIU it only broadcasts the story titles.

            Also YouTube is not essential to the site (although it excludes everyone not willing to get a Google account from competing in that competition, but then, I also see that competition more of an advertising campaign, and while I don't really like that competition, the fact that it's done on YouTube is my least concern here.

            Use of Google Docs for documents central to the development is already a different level. Is there a reason why that could not have been done on the (already existing!) SoylentNews wiki?

            --
            The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @02:41PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @02:41PM (#9614)

        Why use something like irc, and then use Google docs? set up a forum and then ask us to submit trite videos to YouTube? I just did a twatter search for 'soylent news' and there exists a pointless stream of headlines. Lovely

        this. I agree, what seemed to be starting off quite well has turned into a complete and utter mess.

      • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:26PM

        by Open4D (371) on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:26PM (#9694) Journal

        I just did a twatter search for 'soylent news' and there exists a pointless stream of headlines. Lovely

        Pointless? Except for Twitter users who have an interest in SN, and prefer to subscribe that way [twitter.com] rather than using RSS [soylentnews.org]?

        And it seems like a sensible & cheap marketing strategy too. If a geek 're-tweets' one of these stories to his/her followers, SN may get some new users as a result - with no proselytizing needed.

        • (Score: 1) by cloying on Sunday March 02 2014, @10:40PM

          by cloying (91) on Sunday March 02 2014, @10:40PM (#9792)

          Retweet Marketing new users like subscribe follow

          All of that can fuck right off.

          • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Monday March 03 2014, @06:46AM

            by Open4D (371) on Monday March 03 2014, @06:46AM (#9929) Journal

            The old site provided RSS. It was just one of several RSS subscriptions I had, which was nice because it didn't require that I gave it any special attention - and yet I still probably saw the stories sooner than I would have otherwise. I almost never visited the front page; I always just went direct to the stories that interested me.

            Get off my lawn?

            • (Score: 1) by cloying on Monday March 03 2014, @09:08AM

              by cloying (91) on Monday March 03 2014, @09:08AM (#9957)

              Get off my lawn?

              I probably laid that lawn when you were a kid...

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:41AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:41AM (#9527)

      I for one do care. Don't do google because then google will do you.

      For collaborative editing, check out Gobby or Etherpad. (naturally free software)

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:10PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:10PM (#9634) Journal

      Marand (1081) wrote:

      Out of curiosity, why google docs for the staff organisation overview? You have this shiny website here that, I would assume, is capable of hosting files of various types including PDF and HTML as needed. It's not like you're expecting collaborative editing of the file with the entire community, so what reason is there to link to the Google Docs version?

      I'm of two minds on this.

      1. I strongly dislike having to access external resources to view community-developed content.
      2. There's a whole rat's nest of potential problems pertaining to how to maintain and organize these resources. Imagine a ten years from now and what might exist in a shared location.

      A possibility: I don't know if the slashcode can support it, but maybe the easiest work-around would be to allow a less-restrictive subset of HTML in a *story*? Comment submissions would continue to be restricted to a subset of HTML.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:54PM

      by TheloniousToady (820) on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:54PM (#9652)

      My guess is that this is purely a temporary expedient. If I were them, I'd be looking for the fastest and easiest way to set up a mechanism to collaborate on documents, and Google Docs may be just that. Personally, I'm glad they're focusing technical efforts on the site itself for now. As Tim Peters said, "Practicality beats purity."

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Sunday March 02 2014, @05:14PM

        by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Sunday March 02 2014, @05:14PM (#9664) Homepage

        I couldn't have said it better myself. However, the team values this sort of feedback and of course the goal is to use open-source, self-hosted things wherever possible in the future.

        Also as to the fragmentation comments, this is a known inconvenience, part of the reason for this meeting in the first place as I understand.

        Please continue to voice these concerns, as it is what contributes to the ongoing evolution of SoylentNews. Remember, this site is in it's infancy, and the direction it's headed seems to be along the lines of the discourse here.

        Please stand by.

        --
        (Score:1^½, Radical)
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Marand on Monday March 03 2014, @02:04AM

          by Marand (1081) on Monday March 03 2014, @02:04AM (#9871) Journal

          If you do continue to use Google Docs for this, at least temporarily -- I understand the reasoning of needing something quick and convenient to get started -- you can just link to the exports, like Open4D did in a reply to me. It should satisfy all but the most anti-Google diehards.

          He used https://docs.google.com/document/d/1doOI5O_VHEUjUd mqmSzwbf6UZwARjbLNqBM9PnkYiLQ/export?format=odt [google.com] as an example, but I tested with replacing the 'odt' with 'pdf' and that worked great as well, albeit without the added comments.

          ---

          Now that I've had a chance to look at the file itself, I'd like to make a suggestion about the advertising/adblockers issue:

          Host your own advertisements!. Keep them in separate areas, sidebars, boxes, etc. like you would an embedded one, but host them yourself. Keep them (mostly) static, and keep the off-site javascript requirements for them as minimal as possible.

          The primary problem with advertising sources, and the reason I block them, is that the current design with external advertisers is that you have to trust the advertisers to run executable code (javascript) on your computer. Not only does that enable the option of doing obnoxious things (animations, audio, etc.), but drive-by malware through adverts is an issue, and it's one that's mitigated by adblockers or strict NoScript settings.

          I don't even run an adblocker, I just keep NoScript fairly strict, and I don't see 99% of advertisements because they all rely on javascript. I have no issue with your site generating revenue through advertising, but if you depend on me allowing advertisers to run code on my machine, I won't be seeing a single one.

          Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, and the advertisers are far into the negatives on that score. Why should they care if you get malware from their ads? They won't be held accountable and the viewers aren't the ones paying them.

          • (Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Monday March 03 2014, @04:42AM

            by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Monday March 03 2014, @04:42AM (#9906) Homepage

            Thanks for this, I'll add it to my exponentially growing suggestions list. Please feel free to keep them coming in the direction of suggestions at soylentnews dot org.

            --
            (Score:1^½, Radical)
    • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:13PM

      by Open4D (371) on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:13PM (#9689) Journal

      It's not like you're expecting collaborative editing of the file with the entire community, so what reason is there to link to the Google Docs version?

      Maybe there will be collaborative editing with a portion of the community, and the rest of the community still wants to look at the latest version?

       

      ... expect everybody to allow every bloody JS script google wants to load just to view a simple list.

      Personally I'm too lazy / busy to care much about what JS gets loaded by most of the websites I use. But if I had time for that kind of thing I would probably want to have some kind of sand-box where I could accept all the JS they could throw at me if there was some value to me in it.

      But anyway, can you get to the ODF version without accepting any JS?: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1doOI5O_VHEUjUd mqmSzwbf6UZwARjbLNqBM9PnkYiLQ/export?format=odt [google.com]

                                                                                                          `
      As for those simply criticizing the choice of Google, well, fair enough. Personally I use Google Docs heavily but do intend to look into the possibility of switching away from it as soon as I don't have anything more important to do. Maybe the relevant SN volunteers are in the same position?

      • (Score: 1) by Marand on Monday March 03 2014, @01:42AM

        by Marand (1081) on Monday March 03 2014, @01:42AM (#9860) Journal

        The ODF export works just fine, opened it in LO Writer without having to change anything with NoScript or my cookie blocking. Thanks for pointing it out, hopefully if they continue to use GDocs they notice your post and start using it instead.

        It also solves both of my primary gripes with the setup they used: it lets me use a native app, and I don't have to screw with noscript or open another browser to view it.

    • (Score: 2) by mattie_p on Monday March 03 2014, @03:49PM

      by mattie_p (13) on Monday March 03 2014, @03:49PM (#10086) Journal

      I'll answer as many questions as I can today, and my apologies it took me until this story dropped off the front page to reply.

      I used google docs because I needed to share this proposal with some key people before I went public with it, first to the staff and then to the community.

      Frankly, I was concerned it might look like a hostile takeover if I appointed myself as general manager without checking in with everyone first. I had been doing the work for some time, and many on the staff relied upon my advice and direction, but in no "official" capacity. My idea was to codify what was already in place. But I wasn't the founder, Barrabas, and I wasn't the guy who got slashcode up and running.

      Had I posted it on the wiki, not only would the staff have seen it, the community would have as well. In this case I preferred to keep it close until it was unveiled. And then I didn't have time to transfer to the wiki. Thanks for reading! ~mattie_p

  • (Score: 1) by Marand on Sunday March 02 2014, @09:19AM

    by Marand (1081) on Sunday March 02 2014, @09:19AM (#9475) Journal

    every bloody JS script google wants

    Unintentional redundancy. Correcting myself before someone else does. Meant to write "every bloody JS source google wants".

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by TheLink on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:55PM

    by TheLink (332) on Sunday March 02 2014, @12:55PM (#9564) Journal

    Please support https logins. They don't seem to work for me at the moment - I can log in without any error but neither the http nor https site shows me as logged in after that. Maybe the cookies are not being set correctly?

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @02:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @02:51PM (#9619)

    Every couple of days I have to bang my head against the wall when I read stuff like this. First we shall abandon Freenode for some private IRC server, then we are asked to submit ad videos to youtube, now there is some community meeting announcement where half of the userbase cannot take part in because of timezones. There is a forum (apparently), a bugtracker where (like the forum) I need a new account, twitter, something on google docs (?) and I'm sure I have missed out on the other 50%.

    This fragmentation is a total disaster! I hope /. stays usable, if anything at least the community interaction is consistent there.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Landon on Sunday March 02 2014, @03:37PM

      by Landon (45) on Sunday March 02 2014, @03:37PM (#9628) Journal

      We would have enjoyed being able to schedule a meeting that fit 100% of timezones, but that's not physically possible :)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:35PM (#9696)

        You didn't get the point. Side-channels are created that are _required_ to participate in community interaction. Community interaction that only part of the userbase can take part in is *fragmentation*, and that sucks.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:36PM

        by Open4D (371) on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:36PM (#9698) Journal

        Yeah, I think that proves that the AC you are replying to was a troll. If not, at the very least they should have suggested an alternative time and made a case for why it they thought it would have been a better fit for the community as a whole.

        Further evidence: they complained about having different logins for the main site, the bug tracker, etc.. But it's pretty obvious that shared logins are non-trivial, and not necessarily something you worry about in the first few weeks - if at all.

        E.g. Wikimedia's bug tracker [wikimedia.org] uses separate logins from their main site. And for Apache you need 2 different logins just for bugs! https://issues.apache.org/ [apache.org]

        • (Score: 1) by cloying on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:05PM

          by cloying (91) on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:05PM (#9808)

          I think suggesting a troll here is unjust. All this fragmentation is awkward. And I too have found it so from the get go here. It doesn't seem trollish at all.

          I'm know it's not all easy, and sometimes a new direction has to be found, but it does keep happening here. Even with the original forums the forum categories horridly overlapped so various conversations on similar topics were happening blissfully unaware of each other. Then it spilled out to various irc channels as well as the forums. Then we're all here. Yay! But now we're back on another Irc channel, with a separate channel for those who are outside the staff circle. It's very chaotic and I'm sure causes alot of folk to not bother.

          Also, the irc chat will come and go, and be gone, leaving no lasting data ( I think)

          I was an advocate for using polls here, or other discussion to include everyone, regardless of timezone and without having to find one of several new channels you'd only find out about if the 'staff meeting thread' caught your eye. At least with the current poll we have a sensible guide to what we all think about the Colour scheme, and the comments with it help with what people think about various design ideas. And they are a permanent resource, and means everyone's voice can be heard.

          Or, if you want just as staff meeting, maybe don't invite us at all, if our voice is muted, and half the world can't take part at all. Seriously, just get on with our without us and ask our opinion in better ways.

          I know I'm coming across as negative, but a better direction for democracy or involvement that is consistent needs to be found IMO, and calling people trolls for expressing this is counter productive.

          • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Monday March 03 2014, @07:18AM

            by Open4D (371) on Monday March 03 2014, @07:18AM (#9934) Journal

            I gave 2 good reasons to presume it was a troll. And that was without even bothering with the Twitter and Google Docs points, which I have dealt with elsewhere.

            People have to bear in mind the difference between this and the old site. Both have a main community of readers & commenters. The difference comes in the people working behind the scenes. On Slashdot there were just a handful of people (Taco, CowboyNeal, Timmy, Samzenpus, etc.) doing that job, and the main community had little visibility of what was going on between them. Private IRC? Maybe even telephone calls!

            Here there are far more people involved working behind the scenes. I like the fact that I could get involved if I had time. But I don't. So I don't feel entitled to bitch about how they organize themselves - especially in the hectic early weeks. (They've got phpBB forums and a self-hosted IRC channel! The horror!)

            I do provide feedback of course. And I expect they like to see this kind of discussion going on, just maybe not the tone taken by the AC.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:51PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:51PM (#9650) Journal

      Disclaimer: what is expressed here is solely my own viewpoint from my own observations. I am NOT speaking in any official capacity. What follow are *my* thoughts and obervations, in no particular order.

      I know I've only seen a small part of what is "behind the curtain" and the more I see, the more I am absolutely astounded at they tremendous efforts that have been, and continue to be, expended to build this site into what you see now

      Personally, I'd like to see all in-house developed content accessible locally.

      I think what we are witnessing is partly an intersection between several competing factors.

      Several people are running themselves ragged just trying to get the code base knocked into shape and there's just not enough time to implement everything that they'd like to see here. Meanwhile, they are also trying to do this on top of a day job, family needs, and the like.

      Others are trying to use this still-developing site to bring salient stories to us.

      Still others are working hard at the infrastructure (hardware and services) which are required to host this discussion sytem.

      We're looking at a work in progress. We're still in the alpha stage of getting the site to run stably.

      There are some competing thoughts on what is wanted for this site. Can't please all the people all the time, but I can see a tremendous effort in place to provide a top-notch tool to the community.

      IRC provides real-time many-many communications. It's a very useful tool for those who are trying to get the site into shape. Hosting IRC in house saves us from being beholden to the continued benevolence of an external entity.

      As for youtube? I don't care much for it, personally. Then again, I like my text. I can skim a 1 hour video's transcript in 5-10 minutes and remember more of it that way. But, I also recognize that not everyone shares my view. I suspect (most) others share my view, but I commend them for being willing to try something new. If it fails (and I suspect it will) then it will be dropped.

      The time of the meeting is a challenge for many. I understand that. There are folks from around the world working hard to make this site the best it can be. Some of them have expressed that they would like to attend, but cannot because of the time.

      As I understand it, this is an effort to step back, take inventory, see where we stand, where we are going, solicit feedback, and try to keep things on track.

      I cannot speak for the developers/staff/etc. but my understanding is that this is an interim step for communicating with the community. I fully expect there will be many more opportunities to come.

      So, please, come to the meeting and help us make this the best site it can be.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 1) by Barrabas on Sunday March 02 2014, @05:40PM

      by Barrabas (22) on Sunday March 02 2014, @05:40PM (#9674) Journal

      Let me see if I understand your position.

      Because there are other things going on that you don't like, you're going to stop reading the newsfeed and go back to slashdot.

      Half the readership won't read the meeting dialog in real-time and will have to read a summary or transcript later - and that's somehow a problem for you?

      We try new things (youtube video) and respond to community feedback.

      All of these things make you - nay, *force you* to stand up, go over to a wall, and bang your head?

      I don't see a problem with that :-)

      • (Score: 1) by efitton on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:24PM

        by efitton (1077) on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:24PM (#9693) Homepage

        I'm just going to say thank you and that I like it here.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:45PM (#9700)

        Obviously you misinterpret. The point is, _the community interaction is not consistent here_.

        On /. your low user ID is worth something because everyone knows you by the consistent interactions that are comments. People know and judge you by that interaction alone. With your way of running things this is no longer true and may destroy the spirit and feeling around the original /.

  • (Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:55PM

    by Appalbarry (66) on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:55PM (#9733) Journal

    Minor quibble - as much as I appreciate the effort to work from UTC, it would have been handy if at least one North American time zone was also referenced. I only just now checked in and found out that the IRC thingy happened hours ago.

    For that matter, maybe also reference Tokyo time as well?

    In any event, it was billed an a meeting of staff, open to a wider audience, so the timing would reflect when those people could get together.

    I have to say that I am pretty damned amazed at how fast and how well this project has been brought up to speed. To launch only a week after kicking off, and to have the sheer volume of pretty high quality content is a remarkable thing.

    I'm finding that I read more of what I find here than I did at Slashdot, and that the overall quality of the comments is higher and more detailed. You really seem to have attracted the smartest and most thoughtful, and that makes it a must read for me.

    I could probably list a hundred things that I would love to see change, but won't bother - the site as it is is perfectly usable, and there's no significant rush to change stuff.

    Kudos to everyone!

    • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 03 2014, @01:49AM

      by GungnirSniper (1671) on Monday March 03 2014, @01:49AM (#9863) Journal

      There was some talk of posting an edited version, so you may not completely miss out. It was interesting to see the staff have some disagreements, it wasn't just a press conference with everyone agreeing with everything.

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @05:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @05:59AM (#9919)

      If you are in Tokyo, no worry. https://slashdot.jp/ [slashdot.jp] still uses the old format. No beta loaded.