Phew, we are almost there, we've reached the last phase of voting. The final list of names is:
- apt-get-news
- crosslog
- dailybacon
- forkdot
- grepnews OR newsgrep
- salientnews OR salientnoise
- soylentnews
- sudonews
- techmatter
All of the above names we have confirmed in at least *.net and *.org, and we even have a few *.com (where possible). There are some new names because the staff held a round to submit and vote also. The above list was created by using the top 5 from both staff and the community, and two extras due to possible copyright issues with two of the names (soylent and apt-get-news).
There were a few names that were nearly identical, the two pairs are listed as one entry (with the variation that got the most points listed first). Should one of these win there will be a runoff to determine which variation gets used. (This is done to keep from splitting the vote for very close names).
The final round of voting will go out within 24 hours after this post and last for one week. We would like to provide an opportunity to discuss the finalists, so here is your chance, discuss below. If you change your mind after seeing an insightful comment, remember you can always change your vote by sending it in again (only most recent will count). We collected a quick writeup from as many submissions as possible to allow for discussion. Some names have more than one advocate due to multiple submitters; conversely, some submitters didn't reply.
Site Name: crosslog
islisis writes:
The idea behind this was to highlight the cross-fertilisation and communication of expert community voices I have cherished over the years. I hoped that our site name could represent that value to outsiders. To me, the site is also a record of our experiences through tech events, and a valuable log and testament to the lives which dared to ride the wave.
cosurgi writes:
Our site is cross-logging events from around the world. The "cross" means that various different disciplines are inter weaved together.
Site Name: sudonews
gishzida writes:
"Sudo" is a pun on both a *nix shell command to "execute a command as if you are the system superuser" and on the word "Pseudo" i.e. not genuine... both of these things represent the kind of environment our site operates in--- we find news stories, we edit them then we expand upon them factually or contra-factually... laughing, flaming, learning, teaching, and hopefully building friendships and consensus.
Site Name: apt-get-news
gishzida writes:
The name is based on the shell command in some linux distributions [Debian, Ubuntu, etc]. Apt-get is used to reach out to a software repository to obtain and install software. "apt-get-news" reflects the idea that we reach out to get and install news in our community to discuss.
I have been surprised by this community and whatever the name ends up being I know it will be the starting point of something great.
cosurgi writes:
Our site has "natural tendency" to "get" the "news" from around the world. (second meaning of apt on http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apt is "natural tendency")
Site Name: grepnews, newsgrep
AudioGuy writes:
This name was interesting to me because it instantly provides knowledge of what the site does, and who it is targeted to, from the very name itself. Grep is a command line program that searches a mass of data for information matching a certain pattern. Our site searches a mass of data ('news') for information ('stories') that match a certain pattern ('would be of interest to our community of users')
Our users are mostly of a somewhat technical bent, and tend to use computers in a fairly sophisticated way, so would likely know what 'grep' means. So just from the name one might assume this was some sort of news aggregation site aimed at more technical users. In this respect, it has some similarity with another, similar sites name.
Site Name: salientnews or salientnoise
AudioGuy writes:
Another description of exactly what our site does - it looks for news that is salient to our community of users. It does not indicate a preference for purely technical news.
Site Name: techmatter
middlemen writes:
The name "techmatter" is derived from Breaking Bad's "Grey Matter" corporation of which Walter White used to be a part of. Since Soylent News is predominantly a technological oriented website, the name "techmatter" makes sense. It also is safe for work and is easy to market to other folks who are already into technology or who will be part of the community in the future.
Marketing is everything.
AudioGuy writes:
This is a very general name indicating a site that concerns itself with technical matters, that can easily expand its meaning to different uses. I was surprised it was still available.
Site name: forkdot
geottie writes:
Well, pretty simple: our site (& community) is a fork of and has a similar ring to the site we came from and will serve us as a reminder of our effort as a community. The name represents the core values and principles of Free Software & Open Source, which, when followed truly, are always guided by the community. Our community is part of this larger culture/movement and this name will remind us and following generations to continue standing for Freedom and uphold our belief and ability to work towards and defend a genuine, Free Internet for the benefit and advancement of earth, humanity and our society. Huzzah^H^H^H^H^H^H Woot!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:14PM
As a non-voting anonymous coward, I'm shocked there's even a question. What a perfect name for a tech discussion site!
Soylent itself is a terrible, terrible name, and should be dispensed with as quickly as possible.
Daily Bacon isn't bad, even as a vegetarian, but it doesn't really mean anything.
TechMatter for the Win!
Also, please change over to Pipedot's engine. It blows the design and utility of this place out of the water.
(Score: 1) by Nerdfest on Friday May 16 2014, @04:18PM
Completely agreed here. I missed the voting on the first round, but this would absolutely be my first choice. There's a couple of the others that are pretty good as well of course, but to me, this one stands out. Nice work.
(Score: 0) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday May 16 2014, @04:23PM
Thirded.
(Score: 1) by eliphas_levy on Friday May 16 2014, @07:15PM
Metooed. For the name and pipedot engine.
This is a sigh.
(Score: 3) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @10:44PM
I threw the first 'Fuck Beta' bomb on slashdot, and I want SoylentNews.
Soylentnews IS PEOPLE.
subicular junctures
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Saturday May 17 2014, @07:29AM
I agree, Soylent was a statement, not only about how this site would be focused on the USERS and not on corporate but also how the suits at Dice considered us nothing but a commodity that could be packaged and sold with zero fucks given about how we felt, no different than cattle.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 20 2014, @04:11PM
That's hilarious. A site (this one) where I had to go through SIX clicks and SIX page changes just to read your reply nested this deep is the freaking OPPOSITE of focusing on the users.
The design of Soylent/Whatever is dreadful. Nearly unusable.
Now I gotta navigate back up just to keep reading this thread. Atrocious design and backward utility in every possible way.
Also, for the record, amid all the name debate, yours is the first time I've seen anyone claim the name itself was a sign of rebellion against Dice. Not that it's a GOOD or relevant argument.
(Oh and sorry for anyone reading this -- now you've had to click SEVEN layers deep. What a joke.)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday May 21 2014, @05:01AM
Sorry about that, the next code deploy should completely mitigate this issue, try the "nested" option until we get that sorted out.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday May 16 2014, @04:19PM
No. Please, SN administrators, do not use any name with "Bacon" in it. Bacon is pretty rad as a community meme, but please do not use it in the site name. Please.
Also, don't use anything with "slash" or "dot" in the title. I know we're mostly Slashdot refugees, but we are better than they are. The sooner we stop clinging to them in any way, shape, or form; the better.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by islisis on Friday May 16 2014, @05:22PM
i have to admit if the sitename moves from something reminding me of a hipster-drink to a high carb snack i will cry a little.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday May 16 2014, @07:20PM
We need to let people vote. But I'm going to throw in my $0.02:
- bacon is a very US/UK-centric concept, indeed acknowledged by many others, but repulsive to quite a few. For a website with a worldwide audience, not a good name.
- Crossdot could have a similar problem.
- Sudonews feels like I'm gonna get the latest sudoku championship information. I like it as a name, but it's confusing to the non-geeks (bonus?).
- Forkdot only rolls off the tongue if you say it in the almost-NSFW way, though that's a US problem only.
- apt-get-news is almost good enough. I want to like it, but those darn two dashes...
- Soylentnews and salientnews are ok, but the newbies may wonder that quip should be perpetuated in the site name. Got a bit of a chemist feel to it.
- grepnews sounds better than newsgrep, but only if you're talking more often about wine than WINE.
- Techmatter is boring and undifferentiated. On the other end, if you're going to send someone a link, it's got the highest "this looks legit" factor, by far.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by frojack on Friday May 16 2014, @07:38PM
Bacon is not repulsive to anyone.
It is forbidden by some "religions". That doesn't make it repulsive.
Most of my muslim friends sneak bacon as a guilty pleasure once in a while. They love it. Its not repulsive, simply forbidden.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bob_super on Friday May 16 2014, @07:51PM
> Bacon is not repulsive to anyone.
This may be your opinion, but an overbroad generalization does not do justice to your point.
Which country do you live in?
I used repulsive because "forbidden" implies an authority (likely religious), while repulsive also include personal choices. I was trying to dodge the need to list, on top of the Semitic religions, the vegetarians/vegans, dieters, medical conditions, pig-lovers...
(Score: 1, Funny) by ramloss on Friday May 16 2014, @08:41PM
So are you saying that by choosing dailybacon all those groups would leave? And what is the downside of that? I mean sure, we would miss the pig-lovers, but the trade-off seems fair.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 16 2014, @09:13PM
'tis a standard literary device: the useful idiot.
If you have a uniform community of people who think they know every explanation, you don't get to spell things out for the reader and correct misconceptions.
Plus, too much agreement kills a discussion.
oblig. [mindspring.com]
(Score: 3) by tathra on Friday May 16 2014, @08:35PM
bacon is absolutely repulsive. well, turkey bacon is alright, but pork anything is repulsive and disgusting.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @10:50PM
if you want tech in your name, go to technocrat.org
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @11:08PM
Meant technocrat.net .
oops
subicular junctures
(Score: 3, Interesting) by drussell on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:36AM
Yes... If Bruce`were up for it, it is a good name also.
(Score: 3) by pbnjoe on Friday May 16 2014, @04:26PM
This. Don't use bacon in the name, it's funny as an injoke sort of things but it'd be hard to be taken seriously if the site had it in the name, nor do we need any reference to the other site in the long run I think.
TechMatter is by far the best name. Easy to take seriously, sounds good, lets you know what the site is about immediately, you can make nice wordplay, and it's not made fun of super easily (sorry Fuc-- Forkdot).
The others I haven't listed aren't bad, but TechMatter is great.
(Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Friday May 16 2014, @04:37PM
Oops, meant to make this a reply to Ethanol-Fueled.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:28PM
Techmatter is BORING>>>
Bacon is yummy but STUPID >>>
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mbadolato on Friday May 16 2014, @04:32PM
It's also a HORRENDOUS piece of code, reminiscent of the crappy PHP code from 5 to 10 years ago. Simply awful. I couldn't believe how outdated and poor that was, for something that's brand new. It is exactly the kind of code that gives PHP and PHP developers such a bad rap*
* Excluding the whole PHP language Fractal of Bad Design thing. PHP applications *can* be clean and free from most of PHP's stupidity.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:36PM
Um, you know, as someone who VISITS these sites rather than programs them, I kind of appreciate how it looks outside more than it does inside. Pipedot looks much better, it loads MUCH faster, and I don't have to get all click-happy and navigate down multiple pages to see everyone's replies to a single comment.
In my opinion Soylent's current design is broken to nearly the point of unusability.
(Score: 4, Informative) by drussell on Friday May 16 2014, @05:31PM
I take it you aren't browsing in 'Nested' mode.... Try that.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by fishybell on Friday May 16 2014, @06:06PM
Even with nested mode on, this site isn't as user-friendly as pipedot; simple javascripts (which are optional via preferences) allow inline expanding of nested comments and on-the-fly moderation. Also, blue more pleasing than red. This isn't just about aesthetics, but a real usability problem; there is a reason they use red for errors, stop lights, stop signs, etc.
(Score: 1) by CyprusBlue on Friday May 16 2014, @07:29PM
Javascript comment management is actually built on dev, just not ready yet.
I personally can't wait. This current ui sucks.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 16 2014, @07:43PM
So its the colors then, in spite of your denial about it not "just about aesthetics".
The engine stays. Pipedot is crap code, and the usability is not any better than what we have here. It hasn't withstood the test of time or scale.
Your opinion wasn't asked about the engine, only the name.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @08:11PM
A revised discussion system (essentially D1.5) is implemented on dev, and will be rolled out in two weeks time with the 06.14 code release (production running slashcode 14.04.6 I think).
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by eliphas_levy on Friday May 16 2014, @11:37PM
Pretty please. I hate slash 2.0 and beta, but 1.0 is holding me down on all things besides reading, some sparing js for comments and replies are a must. Copy some design from pipe, too. Missing slash 1.5 on both slashcode sites, pipe is nicer to read, moderate and reply than both :-)
This is a sigh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 20 2014, @04:24PM
Bless you! This busier thread in particular was a nightmare to try to read in the DEFAULT INTERFACE PRESENTED BY THIS WEB SITE.
But Nested helps a lot. Thank you!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Friday May 16 2014, @06:11PM
Eminently a matter of opinion. I feel very comfortable on SN with the familiar layout and a bit of actual color. Pipedot being all blah and steel gray/extremely faded blue puts me to sleep.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday May 16 2014, @06:13PM
Not to mention that they have about 5% of SN's comment count...which is itself like 25% of /.'s. When I'm on the front page and none of the articles have >5 comments, that's a bad sign.
#rampantlypullingnumbersoutofmyass
"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 buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @10:58PM
|. isn't even a useful command.
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Saturday May 17 2014, @08:09AM
That depends entirely on the arguments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Friday May 16 2014, @06:54PM
Pipedot does look nice, but the admin's here already explained why they aren't moving over: The code is not structured to be as scaleable as slashcode. That's not a criticism of the Pipedot developer - the site was built in a short period of time, and really does look and work great.
So which is easier: Adding niceness to Slashcode, or adding scaleability to Pipedot code. It's hard to say, and the Soylent admins are already familiar with Slashcode, so that's where we are...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday May 16 2014, @04:32PM
Isn't Pipedot just a generic Drupal install? Or is that just what it looks like?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ancientt on Friday May 16 2014, @04:39PM
I also like TechMatter and am planning to vote for it. I'd be happy to send my boss a link to an article on TechMatter but not as happy with many of the names on the list.
I think we can all agree readily enough that Pipedot is pretty. I look forward to the days when this TechMatter is also pretty, but I don't want you to switch engines. At least not until there is equivalent functionality and I don't expect that to happen any time soon. Meanwhile, the part that I really care about, the community, is here and that's where I stay regardless of how pretty it may or may not be.
This post brought to you by Database Barbie
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:59PM
No. I said "design and utility". This site works much less well than the other. It is much, much harder to navigate and read a discussion here. Too little is shown at a time, and replies must constantly be expanded to be read, many levels deep. It's rather awful.
I was not talking about being pretty.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Friday May 16 2014, @05:31PM
It is because you are viewing the forum likely in "Threaded" view. Change it to Nested and you'll be a lot happier I suspect.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Friday May 16 2014, @05:34PM
Try 'Nested' mode instead of 'Threaded'. Also, proper comment expanding/collapsing is coming with a future update and is already being tested.
(Score: 1) by NigelO on Friday May 16 2014, @06:30PM
Why isn't 'nested' the default?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @07:26PM
I agree. In other stories back when this site started months ago several people requested 'nested' be the default. From the consistent responses here it seems it is still the requested default. I suggested it be the default months ago but was mocked.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @08:05PM
The default is actually "Improved Threaded" which was not implemented in time for golive, and still not done on the last site upgrade. It *is* implemented properly on dev, and will be live in two weeks. Feel free to try the system on http://dev.soylentnews.org/ [soylentnews.org]
I vaguely remember people suggesting switching it to nested, but I think it was something I overlooked, and we have something better coming down the pipe in a bit.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by ancientt on Friday May 16 2014, @08:45PM
The look is immediately a little better, but it is hard to get a feel for what real stories will look like without more comments. Would it be reasonable and possible to copy all the comments (with their ratings) to the dev site?
This post brought to you by Database Barbie
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @08:58PM
Here's one of the largest stories in the dev archive: http://dev.soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/31 /070201 [soylentnews.org] with 136 comments which should give you an idea of how it works in practice.
Still always moving
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 17 2014, @02:33PM
It's broken by default if it needs JavaScript to work. They better keep Nested as an option...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @04:59AM
On slashdot, used to be "threaded" expanded everything from your threshold on up. During the last big 'upgrade' (I think?) this got busted, but not severely (mostly it no longer expands some +3 comments; my threshold is +2). However, it's really broken here -- sometimes even +5 comments are not expanded. Not enough comments over on dev to really tell, but looks like it might be fixed there...??
Anyway, I shall use "nested" for the nonce as it seems to be playing nice.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Monday May 19 2014, @09:25PM
It *does* work, but probably not in the way you expect it, you need to set the Breakthrough value in preferences to make comments of that score automatically expand. I'm aware this is hugely unintutative, and Improved Threaded is a major improved for it.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 20 2014, @12:11AM
Okay, thanks, I'll experiment with it a bit. I've been kinda leery of changing settings as I recall having hell's own time getting it back to how I wanted it on Slashdot, at least after they'd messed with how it worked.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by Magic Oddball on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:24AM
It's easy to set it to show you most or all comments at once... Here's the settings I'm using to get it:
Display Mode: Improved Threaded
Sort Order Threshold: Oldest First
Highlight Threshold: -1 Uncut and Raw
Reparent Highly Rated Comments ON
(Score: 1) by Horse With Stripes on Friday May 16 2014, @04:42PM
TechMatter.what is available? Not .com or .org
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Jaruzel on Friday May 16 2014, @04:56PM
techmatter.xxx of course. For Bacon Pr0n.
Actually, who ever suggested techmatter originally, has probably pre-registered the domain(s) - part of the rules were that anything suggested had to be free and/or be handed over to the admins.
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pbnjoe on Friday May 16 2014, @05:02PM
Hmmm, techmatter.com belongs to consultants who call themselves the same in Toronto, it seems. techmatter.org may have been preregistered though. Actually I hope it would be; leaving them open seems a good way to have someone malicious scoop them up.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @05:00PM
Umm. It isn't available...Better stick with Soylent.
subicular junctures
(Score: 4, Informative) by TK on Friday May 16 2014, @05:23PM
.org and .net are available. .com is a website for a Canadian company [techmatter.com] that does something. Possibly designing websites or apps or something trendy and flashy.
In any case, completely different from us, so no Trademark recognition problems.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Friday May 16 2014, @07:50PM
So instant lawsuit.
I simply don't see the attraction to techmatter. It doesn't add any value to the site. It sounds cookie-cutter, corporate-speak, and wanna-be-serious. Something the PR department thought up in a desperate attempt at corporate re-branding.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:57AM
We contacted submitter's and registered domains where needed. Worry not.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 16 2014, @05:25PM
As a non-voting anonymous coward, I'm shocked there's even a question. What a perfect name for a tech discussion site!
But, this isn't a tech discussion site. This is a discussion site for anything the community finds interesting which is a much wider range of topics.
If it becomes a tech discussion site I am leaving.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday May 16 2014, @06:43PM
Technology isn't the only word that starts with tech. It could be a technical discussion site, for example.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday May 16 2014, @07:24PM
As a non-voting anonymous coward, I'm shocked there's even a question. What a perfect name for a tech discussion site!
But, this isn't a tech discussion site. This is a discussion site for anything the community finds interesting which is a much wider range of topics.
exactly. "TechMatter" would pigeonhole us and we'd forever be considered a "tech" site, rather than a "cool stuff that nerds/geeks find interesting" kind of site. that people have already tried to justify "tech" being more than just "technology" means they see the problem too.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @08:16PM
Ok Now I'm confused. I thought the entire reason people were leaving slashdot was because it was changing to accept a broader audience, one not constrained to geeky tech topics. This _IS_ a tech site. I think you should go elsewhere if you don't like it. If soylentnews changes to a general news site, or a "hey look at this cool image I found on my facebook feed", I can guarantee the core members here will leave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @08:41PM
"This site is what I say it is, and if you don't like it, GTFO"
Beautiful, especially coming from an AC.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday May 16 2014, @05:57PM
I agree, I'd vote for TechMatter in the off chance I actually get the vote mail this time. Highly unlikely, since I (along with some others) haven't gotten a single one of the related poll/vote/whatever emails so far. Nobody's bothered venturing a guess as to why or how to fix it, so I'll just have to put my vote here and hope it still counts somehow.
As a bonus, if a site gets DDoSed by visitors coming from here, we could say it got tech-splattered.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @08:08PM
You aren't registered to vote; you have to opt-in to vote on site issues; the option is under Preferences; this was described in multiple emails. I'm not sure if audioguy already dumped the database for this round of voting, but if you post the Name Voting News thread (see left sidebar), he can help you).
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday May 16 2014, @08:40PM
Got that changed now, thanks. Never saw it mentioned any other time I asked about it.
It was described in what emails? The ones that you don't get unless you already know how to opt in to receive them? I've received a grand total of one mail from the site, received when I registered. (Which is not a bad thing, really.)
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @08:46PM
Wow, mistyped. Sorry, its been in several of the posts about voting. We stopped running stories and put a sidebar on it since there are a fair number of bitching about the number of voting stories on it. I obviously need more caffeine >.;
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday May 17 2014, @04:54PM
I probably missed the info because it never showed up in a reply to me; the only replies any time I'd mentioned the problem were other people stating they were having similar problems. I tend to just read a story's comments once and then only go back if there are replies to any comments, probably similar to other people's behaviour. So if I get into one early (not usually often) I tend to miss things :p
I got an alternate-vote email, so I'm good to go. Thanks :D
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday May 21 2014, @10:01PM
What, you don't wanna get to say that it got forked? ; )
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday May 22 2014, @07:56AM
No! We already have enough news fragmentation without forking every site! ;)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday May 16 2014, @06:08PM
Techmatter strikes me as an overly bland name. I prefer my communities to have a bit of flavor, not sound like they could be any other random corporate SlashBI/ExpertSexchange clone.
"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 linuxrocks123 on Friday May 16 2014, @09:14PM
I voted for FuckBeta. Yeah it's NSFW, but I thought it was worth it for the flavor.
Didn't get into the finalists, though :(
(Score: 1) by boris on Saturday May 24 2014, @11:55AM
Agreed. What I like about Soylent is its 1) Unique. 2) References Sc-fi 3) References everything we don't want about news.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gidds on Friday May 16 2014, @07:52PM
To coin a phrase: Meh.
Yes, 'techmatter' would explain what the site is about — but only in the broadest terms. It could equally be a gadget review site, a scientific or engineering journal, an electronics trade supplier, or a variety of other things. It doesn't suggest news, discussion, or any of the things that make this site special.
It's also bland, characterless, humourless, anaemic, boring, and forgettable.
I'd much prefer something with character, something that will make a meaning for itself over time, just as The Other Site's name did.
'Soylentnews' is already starting to do that, and I think it's only worth losing that momentum if there's a really compelling name to change to; at first glance, I can't see one.
[sig redacted]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ancientt on Friday May 16 2014, @09:05PM
At first glance, most people don't know how to pronounce it. When they hear it or try to pronounce it, it sounds like "soiled" and makes them uncomfortable. The "oy" sound isn't one that people generally like, particularly mixed with soft consonant sounds, so it isn't as referable as other names.
I don't hate it, but the first glance is a difficult one to be happy sending people to. I particularly dislike this discussion:
You know which question I hate most? Hands down, "how do you spell it?" That's why I can't really get behind newsgrep or apt-get-news or several of the others. I don't like dailybacon or crosslog, but I at least I won't have to explain how to spell them. And yes, I know, I know, /. was designed to be difficult to explain verbally, but in 12 years, I never had anyone ask me how to spell it even if quite a few people asked why it was called that.
This is why I will vote for techmatter:
Ask yourself this, "which name do you think Natalie Portman's agent will be least likely to reject out of hand?"
This post brought to you by Database Barbie
(Score: 3, Insightful) by iroll on Friday May 16 2014, @10:57PM
We can't help that you hang out with idiots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 22 2014, @08:28PM
So if you told your friends you drank a "soy latte," would they turn green with disgust? Would you be embarrassed to repeat it? Would you blog about how you would rather have had rice milk, but the barista laughed at you?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fadrian on Friday May 16 2014, @10:29PM
Sorry, but I disagree. Putting "tech" in the name also opens up a debate on whether or not every freaking article that isn't strictly science- or tech-oriented should be here. And I really don't want to give more ammo to the "Get off my lawn" types who can't stand to see an article that isn't about science or tech (or usually, who don't like the political spin of a non-technical story). Frankly, their incessent whining about "off-topic" articles (that they're already reading, for Christ's sake) irritates me more than the having "off-topic" articles. I don't necessarily have a great deal of interest in articles about games, but I don't bitch about them (In a post in the article? WTF?) - I just don't read them. So excuse me if I want to get away from "tech" (or sci) in the site name.
A "news" site like this will generally have a focus, but can't be a laser focus unless you want less than a dozen readers. An interesting story will draw in a larger audience and perhaps new members (which is good because, if you haven't noticed, there aren't a lot of us here).
I don't see this as a purely sci-tech blog (and its utility to me would drop if it were).
As such, I'd basically keep the name neutral - I like apt-get-news, myself, but Crosslog, Forkdot, and even good old Soylent work for that, too.
The get off my "tech" lawn folks may have their own opinions, and that's fine, but, of course, they're incorrect.
That is all.
(Score: 2) by crutchy on Saturday May 17 2014, @06:53AM
techmatter++
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @04:15PM
I'm fine with soylent, but salient seems like a good alternative.
(Score: 1) by zaxus on Friday May 16 2014, @04:15PM
Come on...who doesn't love bacon?
"I do have a cause, though. It is obscenity...I'm for it." - Tom Lerher
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday May 16 2014, @04:20PM
Putting bacon in the title borders on cheating. It's like doping.
(Score: 3, Funny) by zaxus on Friday May 16 2014, @04:25PM
Yeah, but I like it anyway. It's short and sweet, easy to remember, easy to tell other people about, and it represents salty / smoky pork goodness. If ever there was a domain of the gods, DailyBacon would be it. :-)
"I do have a cause, though. It is obscenity...I'm for it." - Tom Lerher
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Friday May 16 2014, @04:46PM
I hate bacon, and I really have no idea why people eat that crap. It's just nasty, greasy, fried pig fat.
(Score: 2, Funny) by NeoNormal on Friday May 16 2014, @05:09PM
> It's just nasty, greasy, fried pig fat.
I think you answered your own question. ;)
(Score: 3) by drussell on Friday May 16 2014, @05:39PM
Personally, I think good bacon really shouldn't have much fat. Perhaps you just need better bacon! :)
Mmmmm... Bacon!
That said, it's probably not the best name for this particular site.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by gidds on Friday May 16 2014, @07:36PM
I love many things that wouldn't necessarily make for great web site names...
(And anyway, aren't there issues of, er, ethnic sensitivity there?)
[sig redacted]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @07:58PM
No; Juice gave us bad editing and beta. No juice!
(Score: 1) by LukeSkywalker on Saturday May 17 2014, @07:16PM
Okay how about BaconBITS or ChickenNIBBLES or TurkeyBYTES
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 16 2014, @07:54PM
That's what the SnorgTees Girl says [snorgcontent.com].
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:51AM
Muslims
(Score: 5, Interesting) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @04:21PM
How about a vote count for all the submitted names?
subicular junctures
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stderr on Friday May 16 2014, @11:30PM
Seconded!
Preferable a list of all the votes with the name of the voter pseudo-anonymized somehow, so we can check if our vote was counted correctly.
It would have been a very good idea, if the voting software had sent us an email telling us if our vote could be parsed or not. Right now, we don't even know if you received it or not. Maybe you should consider some form of feedback this time.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 3, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:05PM
The results will be published in the end. This is done to keep from influencing the vote. Not sure on the specifics of how we will present the information quite yet, but this is certainly an interesting idea.
Beleive it or not, we really do appreciate all the feedback on how we can improve this process, no matter how negative some of it has been; however, changing the code at this point is not going to happen, the next phase has already begun (sorry). Audioguy has been quite thorough in ensuring emails are received and parsed correctly (even examining the raw votes and making sure they are entered correctly).
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stderr on Saturday May 17 2014, @11:26PM
What happens, if we after months and months of voting, find out that a huge amount of votes wasn't received and counted correctly in the first round? I mean, enough votes to change the top 5 (or top 10 or whatever it is). Are we going to redo this round using the names from the real top 5?
How can he be sure all the emails were received? What if there's a bug in the mailserver, so it silently dropped an email after it was received?
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Sunday May 18 2014, @05:46PM
At the end of this last phase, it will be one month and 14 days since first post went out. Not reall "months and months". That includes the registration period (which many said wasn't long enough), submissions, 2 rounds of voting, registration of domains, etc. I've come to realize that we will be criticised no matter what we do, so we are just trying to the best we can with what we have.
What like they just got lost in the interwebs? Email is well depended-upon for good reason. If you mean a bug in the system, then that's always a possibility with any system. We did test it and we have been monitoring it. For example we had only one ballot that had to be manually counted because of non-standard quoted-printable encoding.
I'm not sure specifically what you mean by this.
In the rather unlikely event that everything gets completely screwed up, let's cross that bridge if we come to it.
Is that a common problem I'm unaware of? Wouldn't that still have been a potential issue if we had used devotee (a solution which you seemed to support)? If it's "an email" like you said, it wouldn't effect the final vote due to the hundreds of other ballots and the final runoff.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stderr on Monday May 19 2014, @11:08PM
According to my IRC log of #staff, I suggested geekcard.org and port119.net on March 10th. If I'm not mistaken, that's more than two months ago, not just one month and 14 days. So I'll stick with my "months and months" comment.
Yes, that does happen.
You really shouldn't...
How did you manage to monitor if an email was lost before it reached any of your servers?
Are one of you working for the NSA or something like that?
Maybe not common, but yes, it can happen.
Yes, the mailserver could drop the mail before it reaches Devotee. BUT when Devotee do receive a vote, it sends back an email telling you if the vote could be parsed or not. If you don't receive that confirm email, you know that something went wrong. Either Devotee didn't get your vote or you didn't get the confirm email, so you re-send your vote.
Right now I still (after a very long time) don't know if you received my vote. None of us do. (Well, maybe some of you know that your votes were received, but that doesn't really say anything about the rest of the votes.)
(I don't necessarily support Devotee, but I do support well tested software over new homemade software with obvious problems.)
If a mailserver can drop one email, it can drop hundreds of emails. You won't know until we get to see the numbers. At that point, I have a feeling it'll be too late.
As it is, I have absolutely no confidence that this whole voting circus is going to find the domain name, the users truly wanted. It all feels like a big waste of time for no reason other than to say "see, you got the voting, you were promised."... But no, I don't think we did.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:46AM
Does this mean that my highly embarrassing site suggestion and subsequent voting will be made public?
If so, will I get advanced warning so I can find a rock to hide under?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by gman003 on Friday May 16 2014, @04:39PM
apt-get-news
I don't like this one, both because of the dashes (which are unusual for names and URLs), and because it sounds too narrow. This isn't news about apt, this isn't news about Linux, this is news about general nerd stuff.
crosslog
Seems suitable, although I wonder how many confused christians we'll get thinking it's a site for them. Probably not too many, but worth considering.
dailybacon
Ugh, bacon is too "meme"-y. If the goal of this site is to bring back the original spirit of Slashdot - a relatively small community of insightful commenters talking about significant news - we don't want to pick a name more suited to a Reddit clone.
forkdot
I'd prefer to split more emphatically from Slashdot. Besides, the name itself doesn't seem meaningful other than "it's like slashdot, but isn't slashdot".
grepnews OR newsgrep
No objections here. Honestly this seems like the best one of the set.
salientnews OR salientnoise
Maybe? It doesn't make much of a tech reference, and a pun based on a temporary name of the site seems like something we'll regret in a decade.
soylentnews
I've never really been too fond of this name. It's a pop-culture reference that really doesn't have anything to do with the site.
sudonews
Is the "pseudo-news" pun deliberate? I really can't tell. And even as a sudo pun, what's the "news" command that needs to be run as root?
techmatter /tech.*/ sites.
Seems very generic. It's a suitable name, but might be hard to remember amidst all the other
(Score: 2, Interesting) by islisis on Friday May 16 2014, @05:12PM
i hope not, try rotating another orientation, abbreviated as in 'Xlog'
anyhow, personally i'll be voting for sudonews :) got a good laugh out of me. news fit for superusers, but hidden as always with a healthy dose of self-deprecation :)
(Score: 1) by VanessaE on Friday May 16 2014, @05:14PM
Agreed on the bacon and on forkdot. If I had to pick one of these, and Soylent weren't among the list, it'd be apt-get-news, with techmatter being my second choice.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ls671 on Friday May 16 2014, @10:04PM
apt-get-news seems way too much flavor specific to me ;-(
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mojo chan on Saturday May 17 2014, @09:35AM
IMHO they all suck. Sorry, but they do. Half of us were locked out of the suggestion phase anyway, and there are no published results for the first round of voting.
Come on guys. It's a web site with user accounts and voting built in, the proverbial piss-up in a brewery. If there was an option for "abandon the whole thing and start over" that would get my [9] vote.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Saturday May 17 2014, @02:57PM
We had no intention of "locking people out," in fact we only received one email from a user asking to be signed up, went through the hundreds of comments [soylentnews.org] on multiple articles regarding the vote and contacted users that didn't make it in, and got them signed up. We also scraped the comments for people suggesting names that didn't wish to sign up and manually added those in [soylentnews.org] our selves.
Then in a clarifying post [soylentnews.org] we added this:
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Thursday May 22 2014, @08:21AM
So can I submit a name or not?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday May 22 2014, @03:51PM
Unfortunately, the submission round ended a month ago.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Thursday May 22 2014, @05:01PM
Exactly, it ended before some people were even aware it was happening.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hoochiecoochieman on Friday May 16 2014, @04:54PM
I'm new here. What's wrong with "Soylent News", anyway?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @05:03PM
Everything. It has nothing to do with technology, and means either (a) nothing, (b) cannibalism, or (c) a misguided granola bar.
A better question might be what's right with it. (Oh, except that it's here already. A lousy reason for a site that is purporting itself to represent its community.)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hoochiecoochieman on Friday May 16 2014, @05:10PM
It comes from a science fiction cult movie, so it's pretty nerdy. I though this site was about nerdiness, not only technology.
A good test we should give the prospects is: If you have to ask what the name means, you don't belong here.
(Score: 2) by DrMag on Friday May 16 2014, @06:09PM
Which is part of the problem with it, too. Would we run into copyright issues with the name Soylent? I'm alright with the name, personally, but between that possibility and the existence of better options, I say we change it now.
We deal with too much legacy, backwards-compatible cruft as it is. It may make things confusing at the moment, but sometimes a clean break is a huge win for the future; it only needs to be done with enough transparency that the users/customers/etc. are aware of it. So far, the team here has done a good job with that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RedBear on Friday May 16 2014, @06:57PM
But that's why SoylentNews has always been the mostest perfectest name for this site. Because it doesn't mean much of anything intrinsically besides being a techy/geeky/nerdy reference to a possible dystopian future, which is something that gets discussed a lot these days, especially around here. And as a reference to possible indirect cannibalism it is also perfect, since do we not "consume" each other's news submissions as they line up in the queue, and then "consume" each other's posted observations and opinions?
I have never understood why we've even bothered to go through the motions of this voting process. None of the other candidate names can hold a candle to SoylentNews as far as I'm concerned. They're either awkward or far too limited in what they imply the site should be about. SoylentNews is People, and the name and slogan are a perfect fit for what is, and should be, a general geeky news site without artificial limitations.
Sometimes you just get things right from the beginning without even trying, and it's unwise to keep mucking about until you screw it up. Plus, the momentum already inherent in the SoylentNews name could mean the difference between life and death for this site. I haven't bothered with any voting so far but I'll definitely be putting in my vote for SoylentNews this week in this final vote. Please join me.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Iskender on Friday May 16 2014, @07:21PM
If the first good thing that springs to mind about a name is that it means nothing, then it's probably not very good. If being a frequent topic is a criterion, then we could also pick anything - it's a meaningless distinction.
And sometimes you don't, but people get used to a bad solution. That's what's happened here - several of the suggested new names are good enough not to require anyone to get used to them. Were the current name actually good, it would have already won. But because it's there mostly due to inertia, anything might win.
(Score: 1) by RedBear on Saturday May 17 2014, @08:02PM
Wow, I guess the tide of public opinion is really against me on this one. Not sure how any moderator can justify modding someone _down_ for offering up an _opinion_ in what is supposed to be a free and open discussion of the worthiness of the site name.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TK on Friday May 16 2014, @05:04PM
It was only meant to be a stop-gap name. A name vote has been promised since before the site began, so it's happening.
That being said, Soylent has momentum going for it, as well as a few fans, so we'll see.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @05:27PM
How would you know, #2760
(Score: 1) by karmawhore on Friday May 16 2014, @05:56PM
Yeah, he must not have signed up until at least the second week! :)
=kw= lurkin' to please
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 16 2014, @06:20PM
He's right though.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by karmawhore on Friday May 16 2014, @06:47PM
I was trying to convey sarcasm with the :) at the end. I think we can consider everyone here to have been here "from the beginning."
=kw= lurkin' to please
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday May 16 2014, @07:34PM
In that ilk, maybe a design suggestion be that UIDs are not shown on comments? If we're all supposed to be equal members of the community then UID one-upman-ship have no place here. I love my 3 digit UID (would have preferred a 2 digit, but I was too slow - I didn't sign up for oh, at least 4 hours after go-live), but in the end, it's only important to me - and if people want to see my UID - well they can head over to my user profile and see it there (and read my journal while they are there).
Follow on thought before I click submit - It'd still be good to see 'new' users (to ward off shill accounts etc) - so a simple 'new' icon in place of the UID for account less than say 1 month old.
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 1) by paulej72 on Friday May 16 2014, @09:06PM
Jaruzel it does not matter that you waited 4 hours, by the end of the closed alpha, we had already gotten to 3 digits. If I remember correctly we had about 130 in the alpha. Personally I am still pissed that I did not get a lower UID :p
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 16 2014, @09:25PM
Yeah, I was mostly jumping in to flaunt mine. =P
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by stderr on Friday May 16 2014, @11:08PM
Yeah, whatever...
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Friday May 16 2014, @10:56PM
> If we're all supposed to be equal members of the community then UID one-upman-ship
> have no place here.
Anyone who actually tries to seriously apply UID one-upmanship immediately reveals themselves as someone whose opinion is suspect. So no harm done. Meanwhile they do occasionally make for a good joke (ironic "you must be new here" etc).
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday May 16 2014, @11:46PM
I thought it was all in good fun.
Oh, while I'm here, I'm torn a bit because there are a few names I like, but I'll probably go with sudonews. Easy to type, "geeky," and it's a pun; yes, it's slightly confusing, but easy explaned "s-u-d-o news").
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @04:51AM
I like having the UID visible. Sometimes I remember that instead of the name (or at least it reminds me who I'm talking to).
But more important, it's good for cross-checking against lookalike usernames.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @05:58PM
uid #'s arn't a ranking system and using them in that way only discourages community expansion. Besides, having a high uid doesn't necessarily mean the user hasn't been here from the beginning. There are always more lurkers than registered users, not everyone needs a journal. In fact, the only real reason so far to have an id is to participate in this site name vote.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 16 2014, @06:22PM
Or to be recognized and build friendships.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by youngatheart on Friday May 16 2014, @07:26PM
Sure, that's what you'd expect from someone who doesn't hold the number associated with the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Just kidding of course. I'm actually in favor of hiding the user ID at some point in the future.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Friday May 16 2014, @08:12PM
That's a pretty good number but I like that mine has that special rule associated with it :)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday May 16 2014, @06:20PM
Insulted on UID by an AC. Wow.
"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 The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 16 2014, @07:26PM
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Jerry Smith on Saturday May 17 2014, @02:23PM
On the other website, AC's uid was 666 iirc.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @05:05PM
Nothing, and they want to kill their name brand for the nonsalient pastels of techmatter
subicular junctures
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @10:13PM
y' know what? Fuck Beta. Know what else? FUCK MARKETING!
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday May 16 2014, @05:33PM
but soylentnews
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Friday May 16 2014, @05:34PM
Congratulations.
Now make a choice and move on.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Friday May 16 2014, @07:03PM
I don't concur with your sarcasm or your arithmetic.
(The "Site News" slashbox on the left says "slated for approximately May 12". Even with a very strict interpretation of "approximately", it's only 4 days late.)
(Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Friday May 16 2014, @08:44PM
No. Please. Drag out the drama.
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ken_g6 on Friday May 16 2014, @05:54PM
apt-get-news: News site about Debian repositories.
crosslog: A Christian's daily devotional site.
dailybacon: News of the Dogecoin set or something.
forkdot: That could be us. A Free as in Speech fork of Slashdot.
grepnews OR newsgrep: That could be us too. If I have to pick one name, this may be it.
salientnews OR salientnoise: Generic news (not apparently tech-oriented) OR a music or music review blog.
soylentnews: News about alternative foodstuffs, like that Soylent drink.
sudonews: An Onion-type site with fake tech news.
techmatter: A tech review site, like AnandTech or Gizmodo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ken_g6 on Friday May 16 2014, @05:57PM
I just thought of a huge downside to "forkdot": It sounds like "fuck that". Could be a porn site.
(Score: 1) by SlackStone on Friday May 16 2014, @06:09PM
Forkdot is easy to remember, and short. It's meaning is obvious to geeks. I can picture a great logo with it. Soylent News never really struck me as a very worthy. (Actually I think PipeDot, news without slant, is an awesome name.) Regardless of the outcome, the site is great. Thanks to all you people for making it that way.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday May 16 2014, @06:26PM
Anything containing "slash" or "dot" will have too strong a tie to the site which shall not be named for my taste.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by gidds on Friday May 16 2014, @07:32PM
But should we define ourselves purely in terms of The Other Site? Do we not have our own identity here?
Its meaning (no apostrophe!) is obvious to geeks who know The Other Site. That's probably most of us now, but if this site thrives, over time it'll become less and less meaningful.
I think a new, fresh name would be better for the long term.
[sig redacted]
(Score: 1) by SlackStone on Tuesday May 20 2014, @12:22AM
Just my opinion, but I think forkdot has the potential for the best logo. The term "fork" is how this site came to be. It was the largest community fork I've ever seen. You only get true forks like this from open code/community. The power to fork is what drive the developers who contribute to FOSS, so I see "fork" as a word with a very subtle power behind it. The term dot, well, that's all about the 90's and the fun of cybersquatting and quecats. I'm not voting, just like thinking about marketing words.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @06:17PM
I wasn't a fan of 'Soylentnews' as a name before, but I've gotten used to it and I think it works.
I'm sorry to say I don't like any of the given names. Can we put off the vote until later?
Some of these aren't terrible. Soylentnews, newsgrep, sudonews, and techmatter would all be acceptable, in that order. I would much prefer the first three to techmatter, which is pretty bland. 'newsgrep' sounds better than 'grepnews', and easier to say.
If the site were named apt-get-news, dailybacon, forkdot, or salient*, I probably would stop visiting the site, they're that bad.
BTW, this is my first post on SN. Keep up the good work, whoever's doing this.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Friday May 16 2014, @06:50PM
The reason to choose Soylentnews is precisely the saying "Soylent is people", i.e., emphasizing the community. Plus a fun, geeky reference - I think that's important. The question is how many people know the reference...
For me, techmatter would be a distant second choice - it is kind of generic and unexciting, with no "secret" meaning...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1) by iroll on Friday May 16 2014, @11:02PM
Seconded almost across the board, but swap apt-get-news for techmatter, which is terribly, terribly bland. Apt-get-news is just way, way too wordy.
"Dailybacon" is embarrassingly bad.
(Score: 1) by maxim on Friday May 16 2014, @06:18PM
I really like apt-get-news
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Friday May 16 2014, @06:52PM
Wait for the voting email.
But you definitely won't get an email if you haven't ticked the "willing to vote" box in your preferences. (Or "checked" it, in US English ... )
Have a look at the "Site News" slashbox on the left. It links to the "original posting about the voting", which has more info, and which seems to be the place to report problems.
Anyway, back on topic
It would be quite a good name for some website, but I don't think for this website. We're not specifically about Debian based Linux distro(s), or even specifically about Linux (or even specifically about computing).
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday May 16 2014, @07:42PM
Breaking it down - apt-get-news infers News about apt-get - i.e. a articles about software repositories, or the use of.
I have always liked SoylentNews; I'm used to it I guess - but seeing the list, I could live with TechMatter (only concern is the use of 'Tech' in the title). In fact, vegitarians/Jews/Muslims not withstanding, I actually like DailyBacon - only concern would be people think it's a satire site, or associated with DailyMash.
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 1) by gishzida on Friday May 16 2014, @11:11PM
guess you've never used a debian distro... to get any kind of app from a repository the command is "apt-get" -- here it means to reach out to this repository for news...
By your analogy "Fox News" is news about foxes. "NBC News" is "Nuclear, Biologic, & Chemical News". "ABC News" is "Alcoholic Beverage Control News" [prolly EthanolFueled's favorite site]... "CBS News" is "Complete B.S. News"... "BBC News" is "Big Busted Chav News"... Which of course is only possible if you live next door to Homer Simson.
I don't expect either of my suggestions to succeed. They are both focused on the *nix world and command line... [and I am not mainly a *nix user] which of course is the heritage of that other website...
Personally I don't accept this here thingy we are conversing on is a "non-technical news site"... But then I've been using PCs since 1982... Windows and OS(e)X are 'babies' when set beside Unix and "unix like" OSes. [of course there are OSes that are of the same Vintage as Unix-- PICK OS anyone? [ugliest dern thing... to defrag the disk you had to back up everything to tape and then restore it... what a pita!].
A technical [and thoughtful] slant on things is why I washed up originally at "the other place"... and it is what [and why] I came over here...
For me [truth be told] I don't particularly believe either of my suggestions [or any of the other names] actually matter... what matters is that we build a community that respects divergent opinions and thrives without corporate or government influence.
(Score: 1) by Drake_Edgewater on Friday May 16 2014, @07:28PM
apt-get-news
I'm a big fan of Debian, but the site is not about Debian. As someone pointed out, the dashes complicates things.
crosslog
Ok.
dailybacon
I don't want the name to be based on a meme. Sounds like a recipe site.
forkdot
I like this one. Reminds me of 'fuck beta'.
grepnews or newsgrep
I had a preference on 'lsnews', but this is nice too.
salientnews or salientnoise
Funny, but after a while the joke will be obsolete.
soylentnews
I like this most, because of the nerd factor and the fact that I've got used to it. May get us in trouble with copyright issues, though.
sudonews
Any name with a UNIX command in it is fine with me.
techmatter
I don't watch Breaking Bad, so I'm not very enthusiastic with this one.
In addition, please keep the site's look & feel. It's clean, fast, and makes me nostalgic. Make the color scheme customizable if you want, but the day this site starts incorporating 'like' and 'share' links I will have to get my spanish dictionary and welcome my new seniores espanioles [barrapunto.com].
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Derp on Friday May 16 2014, @07:45PM
I have no objection to continuing with the current name, but my top choice from the first vote was sudonews, and I still think I like it best due to having both a nerdy reference and a pun.
Of the remaining ones, I admit I missed grepnews on the original list, but I do like a pun, so this would probably be a close second for me. /. or the events that led up to the beginning of this community, so avoided references to 'dot', 'slash' or any of the other buttons on a keyboard. Will we really always want to be reminded of Beta?
Newsgrep seemed a little awkward. Techmatter seems a bit more marketing-y than nerdy to me, which put me off a bit.
I didn't really get Crosslog at the time, and to be honest, I think the name should reflect what the site is about a bit more obviously.
I personally would prefer the name not to have a reference to
Salient* seemed a little taking-itself-too-seriously for my liking.
Finally, I'm not a fan of dashes in a domain, and I do like bacon very, very much.
(Score: 1) by siliconwafer on Friday May 16 2014, @07:56PM
Based on comments it sounds like Vegas gives grepnews OR newsgrep the best odds. I tend to agree with the masses.
(Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Friday May 16 2014, @09:51PM
Man I like apt-get-news, dailybacon, and forkdot. :(
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Friday May 16 2014, @11:42PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Friday May 23 2014, @12:47PM
You sir, are a genius.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by stderr on Friday May 16 2014, @10:33PM
But won't that screw with the voting?
Let's say "salientnews" gets 2 votes, "salientnoise" also gets 2 votes and "soylentnews" gets 3. Because "salientnews" and "salientnoise" are listed as one option, that option gets a total a 4 votes and a runoff will take place between "salientnews" and "salientnoise", even though "soylentnews" got more votes that either of them alone. That doesn't sound like a fair vote at all.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday May 16 2014, @11:30PM
THey're one option together on the ballot; one vote. If one of the split options wins, it will either be one final round of voting, or I'll just pick one of the two.
Still always moving
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stderr on Saturday May 17 2014, @01:26AM
You didn't get the point at all. If 2 voters like "salientnews", 2 others like "salientnoise" and 3 (that's MORE that 2, hint hint!) voters like "soylentnews", the combined "salientnews or salientnoise"-option will get more votes (2+2=4) than "soylentnews" (3) and "soylentnews" will be out of the race.
Please explain why either "salientnews" or "salientnoise" should win the election when "soylentnews" would have gotten more votes that either of them, if they hadn't been combined as one option? How is that fair at all?
What if I like the "salientnews" option, but really, really hate the "salientnoise" option? Why should my vote for "salientnews" also help "salientnoise" in the election?
If you really don't think it matters if options are combined or not, I suggest a new ballot with two options:
Do you still think your choice has a chance to win?
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Sunday May 18 2014, @06:08AM
I do understand your point but you need to take into account the following:
1. There is not a perfect solution to this. You point out a theoretical problem. This decision was actually made in response to a real, specific problem: in one of these cases, newsgrep/grepnews, one got into the finals of the community vote and the OTHER got into the finals of the staff vote. But there is more: that particular name was deliberately submitted as an example of how a name might be modified in case a very popular name was taken, by making relatively minor changes to the name (changing the word order in this case). I know this with 100 percent certainty because it was I who submitted it, for exactly that reason. :-)
The other name was also exhibiting a similar problem, but not to quite as high a degree. What was also clear in -that- case was that if EITHER of those variations were chosen, we would want to have both those names available to us. So that was the factor that tipped the decision over in that case.
2. The problem you describe is in reference to 'votes' implying a first past the post single vote system, but this is not such a system. This is a scoring system, so it is perfectly possible for a single user to vote their specific preference for BOTH names at the same time.
What a single user must decide is the same as what the group must decide. I do not have to choose -exclusively- between
soylentnews
-OR-
salientnews or salientnoise
I can rank them according to my real preferences, and so can everyone else.
So if I like soylentnews best, but also think salientnews would be pretty good, but maybe not so much salientnoise, I can modify my rankings to reflect this. Let's say that I think both salientnews and salientnoise have a roughly equal chance in a runoff, I can rank with that in mind, like this:
[9] soylentnews
[4] salientnews or salientnoise
which reflects my knowlege that a runoff between salientnews or salientnoise might not go my way. So I am downgrading my support for the second option a bit - by about 50%.
If I liked both but slightly preferred soylentnews, I might vote like this:
[9] soylentnews
[8] salientnews or salientnoise
I am not suggesting that this -completely- eliminates the problem with combining names, simply that it mitigates it.
If people actually vote their real preferences, this should work out in the end just fine. So far I have been very pleasantly surprised at the ability of this voting method to provide results that seem to genuinely trend toward consensus, especially with the larger group.
In the end, a choice had to be made, and there was a clear and present problem the other way.
After the final votes are over all the numbers will be posted and perhaps some statistics specialist can tell me if I (and the others involved) made bad decisions, and why. :-)
Many things are odd about this situation, having some of your choices removed due to lack of ability to get control of some domain names is not really a situation encountered in most votes, for example.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stderr on Sunday May 18 2014, @06:36AM
I can tell you two bad decisions right now:
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Sunday May 18 2014, @04:18PM
We didn't decide to take that long. We were busy securing domains from users, like we've said, this is by definition a long and more complicated process then any other kind of "vote" I can imagine. As for your other point, there are many advantages and disadvantages to any kind of voting system. We could allow only one choice for example. Still I appreciate the feedback.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stderr on Monday May 19 2014, @10:34PM
Why did it take so long to secure the domains? Transferring or buying a domain doesn't normally take that long.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday May 20 2014, @03:24AM
Finding out which were registered, contacting users, Waiting for users to respond, verifying, etc.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by stderr on Friday May 16 2014, @10:40PM
Huh? How is "sudo" a pun on "pseudo"? The words doesn't even sound remote alike at all.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 1) by Angry Jesus on Friday May 16 2014, @10:47PM
> Huh? How is "sudo" a pun on "pseudo"? The words doesn't even sound remote alike at all
Is English not your first language?
Ever hear of sudafed? Named as an easy to spell version of its active ingredient pseudoephedrine.
(Score: 1) by gishzida on Friday May 16 2014, @11:24PM
Maybe he pronounces it as "SUD-o" rather than "Sue-Doe"... of course I only started to fumble around at learning *nix based OSes 15 years after I learned IBM-PC DOS 1.1a... so I'm not really an early adopter and because most of my working environments were non-unix focused I had to teach myself... so maybe it's me that has a bad accent... ;-)
(Score: 1) by Angry Jesus on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:02AM
I looked up the wikipedia entry. Apparently some people say it "sue-due" which fits the job of the command, to "do su's." But that is so boring.
(Score: 2) by stderr on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:33AM
Yes, that's how I say it.
But in "pseudo" the "e" is before the "u", so that sounds more like the beginning of "Zeus" (minus the "s") + "doe" (or "doh", but not "due").
At least that's how I have always heard it pronounced...
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by jcd on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:50AM
I think this dialect difference is a great reason to *not* use this name. It can get confusing.
"What good's an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?"
(Score: 2) by stderr on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:43AM
No, C is, closely followed by Danish and then English. :-)
No, I don't think I have. But I would never have guessed that "sudafed" was pronounced like "pseudoephedrine". You're kidding, right?
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 16 2014, @11:47PM
Unix reference with a bit of a pun.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Murdoc on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:39AM
It seems most of the ones I voted for didn't make it, but that's not unusual for me. :p None of these are perfect IMO, but here's what I think:
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:53AM
Apparently there is a server or domain name or something called LibreNews that's connected to this enterprise somehow, and if not for the "doesn't imply tech geek/nerd specifically at all" aspect, it seems it would be a good name, and perhaps need less explaining than SoylentNews.
I'm not that crazy about Soylent, but I do appreciate the "It's People" aspect of the name, which is in re-action to the damage being done to Slashdot by the corporate overlords.
I got an email for a final round of voting to which I'm perhaps not supposed to respond, having voted previously in what I think was a second round set up for those who missed the original, so I think I'm just going to have to abstain and accept whatever the rest of you come up with.
BaconLibre has the advantage of being interpretable as either "freedom from bacon" for those opposed to bacon for some reason, or "Free Bacon!" (free as in beer), for those who think bacon makes everything better.
I find the look of Pipedot much easier on the eyes.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:34AM
Feel free to respond, it was quite intentional that you were included in all subsequent rounds.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday May 17 2014, @04:19AM
Thank you for your kind invitation, but I am insufficiently enamored of any of the available choices and am content to leave it in the hands of those with stronger opinions one way or the other.
Although the more I think about it, the more I like BaconLibre.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 1) by DaTrueDave on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:56AM
And the tagline "...is people!" really makes it relevant to the origins of this site.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 17 2014, @02:01AM
The secret list of missing names..
* pkg-add-news
* slashslayer
* paradigm news
* Crowdnews
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Saturday May 17 2014, @02:45AM
Remember, the first round was messed up due to about half the responses put the number "1" instead of "9" for there highest rank. How was that mess straighten out?
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Saturday May 17 2014, @03:41AM
There was a lot of discussion and re-iterating the correct method, pointing people to the answers, and re-iterating that one could easily change their vote by sending in another "ballot". Not sure what else we could do at this point, we're not going to re-do it.
It may not be common practice around here, but take 30 seconds and RTFM. I know it's not ideal, but it's what we have for this vote.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:50AM
Next time use a web page for voting.
The Pirate Party of Australia have this down and will help you if you ask them. Their voting system is most excellent.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @04:39AM
sudo.com is already registered (appears to be a squatter).
I dunno... none of the other 'finalists' does anything for me. In one eyeball and out the other. I'm still good with soylentnews.org.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by number6 on Saturday May 17 2014, @11:53AM
TechToc is my favorite 'new' name for this site.
A rhetorical blending of 'Technical' and 'Table of Contents/Comments" and "Passage of Time".
Those words describe exactly what I perceive when looking at the main page.
The name rolls of the tongue sweetly and baits the mind to have a further look...
IMHO, all the candidate names so far are no better than leaving the name alone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 17 2014, @05:58PM
I would have added some mediocre ideas to the pool too.
It's mostly too late, but why not :
BitPost
BytePost Daily
devNews
NewsDot
WordsAndBytes
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NeoNormal on Saturday May 17 2014, @06:26PM
I'm not crazy about "Soylent News", but I don't see any others that are so awesome as to warrant giving up the bit of name recognition that has already been earned.
BTW, I didn't receive the original email regarding the name change.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Monday May 19 2014, @03:54AM
It was promised that we'd have a vote in the beginning.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by LukeSkywalker on Saturday May 17 2014, @09:47PM
I don't particularly like techmatter, it feels like it should be plural like techmatters. Otherwise it just seems like two words put together. I don't get techmatter from graymatter either. At least techmatters as in "Tech is important" and techmatters as in "subjects relating to Tech" makes some sense. To me though it feels too corporate cookie-cutter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 20 2014, @05:40PM
Sure, and basing your identity off an unrelated commercial food product and using ITS WRAPPER as your logo is smart.
Just lawsuits begging to happen.
The current name and identity fail on every possible level except "because that's what we picked and we're sticking to it" which is where most of the pro-Soylent voters seem to lie.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 18 2014, @07:38AM
I can't wait for the new age to arrive so we can vote for this kind of thing using a web page!
(Score: 1) by Rousay on Monday May 19 2014, @07:41AM
Makes most sense to me.
(Score: 1) by Tom on Monday May 19 2014, @12:30PM
Not because they're all good, but because none of them are really good. I'd suggest to keep looking. It's not like we need a name right now, is it?
Might & Fealty [mightandfealty.com], my political sandbox game