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SoylentNews is people

posted by mrcoolbp on Tuesday April 15 2014, @10:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the details-are-important dept.

I would like to clarify some points on the in-progress submission and voting process.

  • Ideally the name should be available in .com .org and .net
  • If not, we will still accept the submission
  • Suggestions left as comments on this site will not be added
  • If you are unable to submit a name through the formal process as a last resort the name can be submitted to suggestions@soylentnews.org or you can pester a staff member on IRC via a private message
  • Submissions close on Saturday at 06:50 UTC so I suggest getting them in by Friday at the latest

If you plan on making a submission then I also recommend you read the original article with full instructions. Unfortunately, if you did not register to vote before April 12, you are out of luck for this vote.

If you want more information about bounces, plain text email, or voting read this comment by audioguy.

Related Stories

Call for Suggestions for Site Name Vote 357 comments

After several early attempts, we have settled on a process for deciding on the final name for this site currently known as SoylentNews.org. You'll need to log in and go to: userprefs/homepage and check the box marked "Willing to Vote" if you'd like to participate (do this now, the submission round will go out soon). The vote will occur using an email-based solution loosely based on the Debian/Condercet method that we cooked up. Note: checking this box will indicate that we are scraping your email address from the database for participation (this is completely opt-in). If you wish not to participate, just make sure this box is unchecked (this is the default).

We are opening the floor to name suggestions. If you have suggested a name earlier, you'll need to re-submit it through this email voting system. Though we prefer available domains, if you have pre-purchased a domain (eg: to prevent squatters), by submitting the name you are stating that you are the owner of the domain(s) and will give it without strings attached to this project if it were to be chosen.

The criteria for an acceptable name:

  • Unique and free of obvious trademarks
  • Ideally be a bit technological/geeky and signal the site is "news"
  • Domain should be available in all permutations: .com/.net/.org
  • Easy to pronounce
  • Easy to type
  • Easy to 'market' or has a "hook" (imagine a mug with the name, a logo, slogans, plays on words, etc.)
  • Passes the girlfriend / wife / significant other / random person at work - test

This is how it will work:

  1. The first round will go out asking for name submissions
  2. Submissions will remain open for 7 days
  3. The community will vote to yield 5 names
  4. Staff will vote and produce 5 names
  5. A final vote on all 10 names will be held
  6. At this point, the staff will have a second full vote on the same ten items the community voted on
  7. The result of this vote, and the community vote, including its runoff, will then be published
  8. The staff vote is the final decision. We have to live with this. But the community will have a powerful influence on the final staff vote.

If you're interested:

NCommander adds: So its finally here, and I wanted to apologize for the long delay before this actually happened. To the editoral team, please bump this to the top of the index for the next 24 hours so everyone gets a chance to see it (click 'fastforward' then save to autoupdate the timestamp). I promise a Featured Story option is coming in the next major update so we don't have to deal with this!

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:38PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:38PM (#31916) Journal

    Then don't fix it. Soylent is both a clever twist and a statement that we are about the USER, not the business. Plus as a nice bonus its a geek joke and the kind of folks that are gonna hang out at a nerd site are by and large.....drumroll....geeks and nerds.

    --
    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:06PM (#31997)

      But I don't like it and I am a user. And they promised to let us vote on it in the very beginning.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @10:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @10:05PM (#32023)

        My vote (for Soylent) cancels yours. Since the anonymous users are always uncountably common that means that my infinity cancels yours and it will have to just be the logged in users voting. Sort of like renormalization.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Theophrastus on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:34PM

          by Theophrastus (4044) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:34PM (#32066)

          borf... what's in a name anyway? (Shakespeare if need be [wikipedia.org]) the most important thing on the web is to have a unique searchable name. there's nothing worse than naming a site, app, or, program with something commonly held elsewhere. (and don't get me started on names like "R")

          soylentnews is as good a name as any of the other popular sitenames. and it anagrams to "only wetness".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:32PM (#32062)

      doesn't seem like very user-centric web design to me.

      hey-o

      I'd rather have the comments made more readable before trying to decide on what name soylent news will use. But perhaphs we'd grow our userbase too big to change at that point?

    • (Score: 1) by art guerrilla on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:46PM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:46PM (#32071)

      i like 'soylent news' just fine, too...
      the logo isn't the best, but its okay-ish, sorta...
      layout is okay, color scheme is meh...

      2 centavos submitted

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday April 16 2014, @01:45AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @01:45AM (#32124) Homepage

      This, this, this. I've become quite fond of it, because it's nerdy and geeky in all the right ways. And I can bloody remember it, too.

      And when I finally noticed the logo, it made me laugh. I'm still chuckling. :)

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 1) by GmanTerry on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:32AM

      by GmanTerry (829) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:32AM (#32192)

      I agree 100%. I think Soylent News is a great name. Why change it?

      --
      Since when is "public safety" the root password to the Constitution?
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by GlennC on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:46PM

    by GlennC (3656) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:46PM (#31920)

    At least, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who could see this becoming a fustercluck.

    Just make a decision and move on.

    --
    Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:54AM (#32100)

      More drama = higher page views

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @06:49PM (#31921)

    Dear Linux Advocate,

    Choosing names can be contentious and time consuming. Wasting time can cost money and you know that money doesn't grow on trees. And, Linux Advocates is growing. Naturally, we anticipate operating costs and hope to be able to meet them.

    But, any amount you feel you are able to donate in support of our ongoing work will be most surely appreciated and put to very good use. Your contributions keep Linux Advocates growing.

    Show your support by making a donation today.

    Thank you.

    Dieter T. Schmitz
    Linux Advocates, Owner

    http://www.linuxadvocates.com/p/support.html [linuxadvocates.com] [linuxadvocates.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:47PM (#31982)

      dieterwelfarequeen.com is my suggestion for a domain.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:30PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:30PM (#31941)

    "Suggestions left as comments on this site will not be added"

    So, http://beta.soylentnews.org/ [soylentnews.org] is out? Not like anyone can squat the domain name.

    I mean, what could possibly go wrong with beta?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @10:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @10:12PM (#32026)

      Buck Feta!

      • (Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:58AM

        by Buck Feta (958) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:58AM (#32101) Journal

        You rang?

        --
        - fractious political commentary goes here -
  • (Score: 1) by freesword on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:48PM

    by freesword (1018) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:48PM (#31959)

    I have a question that needs clarifying regarding the request for submissions email:

    If someone does not have a suggestion to submit, do they still need to reply to this email to be included in the next round for voting?

    The instructions posted are clear on submitting a suggestion, but no mention is made about whether or not responses are required from those not submitting a suggestion.

    Thank you in advance for any clarification on this.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Koen on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:10PM

      by Koen (427) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:10PM (#31969)

      From the e-mail:

      If you have no items to submit, you need not respond to this email at all.

      --
      /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
      • (Score: 1) by freesword on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:50PM

        by freesword (1018) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:50PM (#31986)

        OK, clearly I'm blind to have missed that.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:09PM (#32002)

          This should be so simple that there shouldn't need to be instructions, but here we are, instructions instructions instructions.

          • (Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:18PM

            by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:18PM (#32004) Homepage

            Agreed, but we felt doing this sooner than later was crucial, and making some simplicity sacrifices along the way was worth it.

            --
            (Score:1^½, Radical)
      • (Score: 1) by jmoschner on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:08PM

        by jmoschner (3296) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:08PM (#32380)

        For those wondering, here is what was in the email:

         

        The Question: What domain name should our community adopt for its site?

        This is your chance to submit names for inclusion in the next two votes.

        So many people have registered to participate that we ask that you limit your
          submissions to your one or two very best names, so that we do not need to vote on
          literally thousands of names. Please use '.com' for the first level domain part to
          aid us in removing duplicates.

        To insure your submissions and votes are counted please follow the instructions,
          and if you have any questions about the process please have a look at:

        http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/04/08/221 6224 [soylentnews.org]

        http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=1177&thresh old=-1&commentsort=0&mode=flat&cid=30218 [soylentnews.org]

        http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=1177&thresh old=-1&commentsort=0&mode=flat&cid=30259 [soylentnews.org]

        This email must be received before 7 days from the time you receive this email to be counted.
          This is not yet a vote. We are asking for submissions of items to vote on only. If you have no items to submit, you need not respond to this email at all.

        If you wish to add more choices for consideration in the upcoming vote, make sure your email program is set to plain text, both for this and later emails. Then hit reply to this email.

        Add your choices to the end of the list (max 60 chars) in the same format as what is shown. Each on a new line. You must place the number 9 between the square brackets for any items you add. Double space the items you add.

        Make no other alterations to the email. Hit send.

        --- BEGIN VOTE ---
          VOTE IDENTIFER: DomainChoice
          VOTING MODE: COLLECTION
          VOTERID=(Removed so I could submit if I wanted)

        [my ranking] Proposed Poll Item

        [9] soylentnews.com

        ....

          --- END VOTE ---

        The email could have been written a little more "user friendly." Also the method of adding to the list in the email instead of just emailing the suggestions, while not hard, is not the most user friendly way to do things. Then again this whole process seems a little convoluted.

  • (Score: 1) by unitron on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:48PM

    by unitron (70) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @07:48PM (#31960) Journal

    ...in the previous article was the requirement to monkey with the preferences page in order to have a voice in this.

    I wasn't planning on submitting a suggestion for a name, since I'm sure others here will easily outshine me in that, so I just skimmed the article, which appeared to be aimed solely at name suggestion submitters.

    --
    something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 2) by Koen on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:16PM

      by Koen (427) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:16PM (#31973)

      I have no name I want to submit, I can submit one for you if you want.

      --
      /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
      • (Score: 2) by unitron on Thursday April 17 2014, @01:50AM

        by unitron (70) on Thursday April 17 2014, @01:50AM (#32487) Journal

        I don't have one to submit, but apparently the only way to know which ones are being voted on is to have gotten the email I had no idea was going to be sent out, and only sent to those who checked off some box that appears to have been added to a preferences page only after the last time I looked at it, with no particularly noticeable announcement that it had been so added.

        --
        something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 1) by Koen on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:19PM

      by Koen (427) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:19PM (#31974)

      Ignore my previous post, I only read your first sentence before replying.

      --
      /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
    • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:55PM

      by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:55PM (#31989) Homepage

      The first two sentences from that article:

      "After several early attempts, we have settled on a process for deciding on the final name for this site currently known as SoylentNews.org. You'll need to log in and go to: userprefs/homepage and check the box marked "Willing to Vote" if you'd like to participate (do this now, the submission round will go out soon)."

      Sorry about the confusion, but there's no way to add any more users for this vote. 500 users managed to sign up despite the quirks in our method so we should have a decent sample-size for the vote.

      --
      (Score:1^½, Radical)
      • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by black6host on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:08PM

        by black6host (3827) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:08PM (#32001) Journal

        The requirement to opt-in is clearly spelled out, to be fair. I would make the suggestion that critical information be put in bold in the future. Much like how this submission was handled.

        Not being critical, it just that sometimes submissions are scanned quickly if one is in a rush. I missed the above myself, though I readily admit I should have caught it.

        That all being said, thank you to all for helping to make a new home for my tech news needs. Nothing of importance is built overnight and everything is (hopefully) a learning experience.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by kokako on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:41PM

    by kokako (740) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @08:41PM (#31981)

    I hope that whatever name is chosen makes a clean break with Slashdot and Beta. This site is too good to be named after that old place. We should pick something original, not something secondary and derivative. I don't particularly like the current name either as it strikes me as a little childish for the long haul. Let's think up something new that will last and that we won't be embarrassed of in a year or two.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by FuckBeta on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:04PM

      by FuckBeta (1504) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:04PM (#32052) Homepage

      A clean break?
      What will happen to my username?

      --
      Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by stderr on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:26AM

        by stderr (11) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:26AM (#32088) Journal

        You haven't heard?

        We're going to have a vote on that too.

        --
        alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" # ... and get off my lawn!
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by NullPtr on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:03PM

    by NullPtr (3786) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:03PM (#31994) Journal

    Just an idea, but you may want to tell people there's a vote running rather than sort of talk about it when it's in progress.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:06PM

      by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:06PM (#31998) Homepage

      We ran this article [soylentnews.org] at the top of the page for about 24 hours, then allowed 4 days for people to register.

      --
      (Score:1^½, Radical)
      • (Score: 1) by NullPtr on Wednesday April 16 2014, @10:46AM

        by NullPtr (3786) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @10:46AM (#32241) Journal

        I was on holiday last week, and when I go abroad the cost of mobile data changes from £12 for unlimited data to 45p per meg, so the first thing I do is switch off data! Why you get charged more than people in the country you're travelling in I have no idea.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 15 2014, @09:11PM (#32003)

      The announcement has been up at Alpha Centauri for the last 50 years. Don't you ever check your mailbox over there? Silly humans sometimes I don't understand them.

    • (Score: 2) by NCommander on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:59AM

      by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:59AM (#32102) Homepage Journal

      There's now a sidebar on the left about this when I updated the site to 14.04.6 slashcode

      --
      Still always moving
      • (Score: 2) by elf on Wednesday April 16 2014, @11:39AM

        by elf (64) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @11:39AM (#32256)

        Why is there a time line to register your want to vote for something that hasn't started yet? I was busy on the weekend and I don't tend to look at old articles. I just look at the front page.

        Why aren't all registered users eligible to vote by default? The worst that can happen is they don't vote. The best that can happen is they vote because they want their voice to be heard.

        • (Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday April 18 2014, @05:03AM

          by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Friday April 18 2014, @05:03AM (#32975) Homepage

          Good question. For many reasons we decided to go with an email solution. This required scraping emails from the database and sending them out, something we did not want to do without authorization. We thought keeping a post at the top of the main page for 24 hours and leaving over for days for registration was enough (it wasn't)

          --
          (Score:1^½, Radical)
  • (Score: 2) by zim on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:45PM

    by zim (1251) on Tuesday April 15 2014, @11:45PM (#32070)
    The name don't matter nearly as much as what you DO with the site.

    Plenty of completely stupid names have turned into household (on the internet) popular places.
  • (Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:05AM

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:05AM (#32219) Journal

    Reading some of these comments, and some of the comments in previous posts about this, I wonder how people actually get up in the morning. I thought it was simple and straight forward.

    Plenty of notice that this was an Opt-In only vote,
    Plenty of notice to tick a simple opt-in tickbox in your preferences,
    Lots of information in the posts and the email that was sent out in what to do and how to do it.

    I can't believe that some people simply can't read what is given to them.

    • (Score: 2) by elf on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:56PM

      by elf (64) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @12:56PM (#32281)

      There was only plenty of notice if you happened to see the post

      • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:51PM

        by etherscythe (937) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:51PM (#32352) Journal

        True indeed. Between having other things to do with my day (i.e. get paying work done) and technical issues with the site (I once got 503's all day and gave up on reading until the site stabilized, apparently on the day the notice went up), there's no guarantee that everyone who was interested actually saw the opportunity in time. I count myself among their number. Local ISP problems don't help either.

        --
        "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
  • (Score: 2) by moondrake on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:51AM

    by moondrake (2658) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:51AM (#32233)

    How are we supposed to vote for interesting names with that? I hope you will at least attempt to decode UTF-8 so we do not get stuck with names like
    släßhdöt.org

  • (Score: 1) by xorsyst on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:21PM

    by xorsyst (1372) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:21PM (#32332)

    How are you planning to prevent vote options being domain squatted as soon as the voting is up? Surely registering them all would be too expensive?