I feel that its fitting to post this today on July 4th, Independence Day, given the mission and unique history of SN. I'm going to do a follow-up post on Monday with more information on where we go now. Until then, have an awesome Independence Day, and a great weekend :-)
Related Stories
In This Post
- So What Does This Mean
- Summarizing Our First Board Meeting
- Coming Site Updates
- Revenue Streams
- State of SN Finances
- Original Content
- In Closing
Exactly one year ago SoylentNews published its very first story: Welcome to SoylentNews!
And what a year it's been!
It all started with a posting at slashdot where an editor claimed they had "listened to their audience" about complaints about the new Beta version of the site that was being rolled out. Many noted that any changes were cosmetic — that it was the community that made that site what it was. And, in inimical nerd fashion, a "SlashCott" was scheduled from February 10-17 wherein the participants pledged to not visit /. for one whole week.
Others took a more active role. The source code for /. was originally made open source and was available on the internet. Sadly, that code had not been maintained and was several years out of date. Some intrepid souls labored long and hard to locate servers, coordinate activities, and get the code knocked into shape. The goal was to create an alternative site that was free from the manipulations of a corporate overlord.
That first story signified a major accomplishment, but the site was still unstable and many features were incomplete, non-functional, or just plain ugly. Many more days of implementation, debugging, and testing were to follow culminating with SN going live to the world on February 17, 2014: Welcome to the World of Tomorrow... Today!.
Much has happened since that nascent story first graced the 'net. There have been changes in our all-volunteer staff. We had votes for the name of the site. We implemented UTF-8 support so stories and comments can include any valid character. We incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation — on USA's Independence Day no less! We have an on-line store where you can buy SoylentNews Swag. You can subscribe and help support our site.
By the numbers: Over 5000 accounts have been registered and nearly 5000 stories have been posted to the site. Each story is read from 500-2000 times by logged-in users, and approximately 10 times as many Anonymous Cowards. More importantly, nearly 150,000 comments have been posted by you, our community.
Today, we have a small but dedicated group of volunteers who keep the site running. They keep the OS up-to-date on our servers, maintain our Wiki, e-mail, and IRC channels. They add features and fix bugs in the SN code base. Others edit and publish stories to appear on the site. We have a Board of Directors who take care of the legal sides of things. A treasurer who follows the finances. And there are still others who help in a non-technical, but just as necessary capacity in keeping the site humming along.
So, hats off to all who have helped build this site to what it is today!
A lot can happen in one year.
SoylentNews.org had its alpha release to the public on February 12, 2014.
I know it's been a long wait, but we've been steadily moving towards launch. With luck, you're reading this on the main index of the site, which means we've gone, and haven't gone mad in the process. Now that we're here, we hope to have made the wait worth it, but we depend on everyone in the community. To make this site a success, we depend on each and every single user even if its just from passing word of mouth. Remember, every single user can submit stories, moderate, and contribute to discussions all at the same time, and that's what makes us unique. May I be the first to welcome you to your new home.
We struggled during those first few months with organizational issues as well as just keeping the site up and running. The community grew. The site struggled at times under the load, yet we still pushed forward.
One year ago on July 4th, we became SoylentNews PBC:
I'm pleased to announce that as of today, our articles of incorporation have been accepted and signed off by the State of Delaware, and "SoylentNews PBC" is a licensed public benefit corporation, ready to accept business, effective today.
A staff of volunteers develop, maintain, support, and run this site. The community has been our main focus right from the start and now is a good time to take inventory. Over the past year, we have implemented changes in moderation with additional moderation options as well as the ability to both moderate and comment in the same discussion. There was a massive rebuild of the underpinnings of the site to take us from the unsupported base of outdated Apache and mod_perl code to more recent releases. We are in the early stages of rolling out nexuses. Subscriptions have been implemented and the community rose to the occasion to support our ongoing server and administrative costs. Numerous performance enhancements have been made. New site themes have been introduced. Polls have been posted (admittedly, some lingered for much too long) with vibrant community discussion. Similarly, there are some of our community who have posted stories to their journal which have also generated much discussion. We aim to facilitate discussion among our community and yet some choose to simply read the site and pass the word on to others — we are grateful for you, too!
As I write this, our stats since day one are: we have over 5,600 registered users; over 8,100 stories have been submitted (of which over 6,800 were posted); and over 204,000 comments made! A special thanks to those who have subscribed and thus allowed us to pay our bills and continue as a going concern.
Though entirely run by volunteers, the efforts I've seen put into this site continue to amaze me. So, fellow Soylentils, where can we do better? And where in your estimation have we done well? What are the high points for you for the site over this past year?
[Ed. note: Story updated to clarify that our anniversary is on July 4th.]
Original Submission
Two years ago, on 2014-07-04, SoylentNews received official confirmation of becoming a Public Benefit Corporation. Though there is no user-visible manifestation of this on the site (or any of the other services we provide), it does stand as an important milestone in our history.
A lot has happened since this site went live. Here are some numbers:
- 93 - polls posted.
- 170 - current subscribers.
- 1816 - journal articles posted.
- 6278 - registered nicknames.
- 12252 - stories posted to the site.
- 14556 - stories submitted.
- 369411 - comments posted.
- 41767215 - story hits we've counted (ignores AC hits)
Numbers, however, provide only part of the story. We have been able to keep the site up and running with only a few unplanned site outages, which is a far cry from how things were back when the site launched. To watch this community coalesce and grow to what it is today has been a heart-warming and enriching experience. I've read stories and comments that have changed my view of the world. All thanks to the tireless (and very occasionally tired) efforts of our all-volunteer staff and you, our community. And what a talented and selfless group of people we have! I am continually impressed with the knowledge and professionalism exhibited by the staff — I tip my hat to them all.
One of the comments to last year's story sums it up very well for me:
I[t] feels like much longer than a year ago, maybe because Soylent perfectly replaced the place Slashdot occupied in my heart. Except, it's better. NCommander, Eds, we really appreciate the work, spirit, and intent you've put into the community. It's a mark of distinction that this place feels more like a really big, walnut-panelled study filled with learned colleagues than it does a random, pointless forum. The latter is ubiquitous, the former unique.
It is my fervent hope that we will continue to earn your support and provide you with the best news discussion site we can.
Two of SoylentNews' staff submitted stories noting our three-year anniversary; one a site summary of where we are and a summary of what we've done, and the other a detailed presentation of the very early days and how SoylentNews got started.
Three Whole Years -- Thanks to You!
Three years ago, today, SoylentNews announced its presence to the world. Much has happened along the way of our providing a place for a community to grow and to engage in discussion.
It started as a fork of five-year-old, open-sourced code which had suffered under benign neglect. Perl, Apache, MySQL, and other products had continued on. So we had to deal with dependencies on unsupported and back-level versions of code. A great deal of effort went into bringing the site up-to-date with current versions of that base. See below for mechanicjay's illuminating first-hand account of how that all got started.
[Continues...]
Milestone:
I doubt many people noticed, but yesterday (2021-07-04) marked a significant milestone in SoylentNews' history:
Our Independence Day: We're Officially Incorporated!
I'm pleased to announce that as of today, our articles of incorporation have been accepted and signed off by the State of Delaware, and "SoylentNews PBC" is a licensed public benefit corporation, ready to accept business, effective today.
[...] I feel that its fitting to post this today on July 4th, Independence Day, given the mission and unique history of SN.
This transformed us from a collection of like-minded nerds into an official entity and which made it possible for us to (finally!) accept funding for the site! Yes, there have been some hiccups along the way, but this was a key step in giving us a solid foundation from which we could proceed.
Server Upgrade:
It is with pleasure that I can announce that one of our database front-ends, fluorine was updated on 2021-07-02. We had been running with 96 GB of storage. On this date, with Juggs (aka Deucalion) watching over things, I snapped a quick ad-hoc backup and mechanicjay pulled the trigger to upgrade us to 160 GB of storage!
It's not that we were pressed for space. Linode (our web hosting provider) had made a free storage upgrade available to us quite a while ago. We held off for reasons I do not entirely understand except for the classic: "If it's not broke, don't fix it!". Whatever the reason, that wait is over! MJ assured us that the site would stay up (our other front-end hydrogen would carry the load) without any issues. So, with some crossed fingers, the button was pushed, fluorine was taken down, its disk was upgraded, and the server was restarted... with nary a hiccup!
It was suggested that maybe this was not worthy of mention, but we strive to be open with the community. I felt it was critically important we keep the community informed as to our activities, so here we are!
Folding@Home:
Still plugging away, the SoylentNews Folding@Home (F@H) team is still plugging along. Facing competition from the likes of Microsoft Azure, Google, IBM, Oracle, and other huge multinationals, it is a great pleasure to announce our current status.
We are still ranked within the top 400 teams in the world — at last check, we have earned over 2⅔ billion points!
New Funding Period:
According to my estimates, we missed our $3,500.00 funding goal by just 44 ¢. There were some additional subscriptions that came in after midnight UTC[*]. Since then, we have already received $211.69 (6.0%) of our $3,500.00 goal for the next half.
[*] Where to draw the line? I am not a CPA, and these amounts are all unofficial estimates, so for our purposes here I'm using Midnight UTC as the cutoff.)
(Score: 1) by NickM on Friday July 04 2014, @11:32PM
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 1) by No.Limit on Saturday July 05 2014, @11:30AM
Congratulations! :D
(Score: 2) by pbnjoe on Friday July 04 2014, @11:38PM
Glad to see! Definitely a good thing to get done, to cement the fact that this site isn't just a flash in the pan :)
(Score: 1) by goodie on Friday July 04 2014, @11:41PM
Are you hiring ;) ?
(Score: 3, Funny) by zizban on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:42AM
After hiring us well paid editors he's broke
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday July 04 2014, @11:52PM
...to out corporate overlords. (sorry, couldn't resist)
At least, this time I _believe_ the do no evil mantra ;-)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:27AM
You haven't looked at the code running the site then. I'm pretty sure it damns my soul further with every git commit I make.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday July 04 2014, @11:54PM
Does this mean soylentnews is now a person?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:22AM
Maybe self-even aware? We should undertake the Turing-test on the site. The test will be hard to design correctly, but I'm sure (no) intelligent life exists.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:55AM
Not a person ... SoylentNews is people.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:35AM
No. SoylentNews isn't people anymore, it's an evil corporation now. Fuck you Soylent. Fuck you very much.
(Score: 4, Funny) by lennier on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:41AM
But a corporation is a person, so...
STACK OVERFLOW
Delenda est Beta
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:59AM
No, soylentnews is now a People Butter Croissant...
soylentnews, PBC.
Now, where did i place my wife: she was here just a moment ago before those big garbage trucks came by....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @08:50AM
+1 Morbidly hilarious!
(Score: 1) by Cognizant on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:26AM
...where is the like button.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 05 2014, @07:41AM
Here you go: [Like] [soylentnews.org] :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:01AM
OK, now that you're a corporation, what religion have you chosen to inflict on your employees?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:29AM
Personally, I'm pulling for Jedi. Perfect excuse to wear your bathrobe all day.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bugamn on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:54AM
I find your lack of Sauce disturbing.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday July 05 2014, @06:43AM
Funny you mentioned that. I was incarcerated once and they asked my religion (seriously) and I told the guard "Put down Jedi or Jedi Knight". He laughed and said "I'll put down Jedi Knight.". Then I got locked in a solitary confinement room because they said I was suicidal. True story. Watch out what you say... and I live in the USA.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 1) by Squidious on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:48PM
I think I would prefer solitary to one of those community cells filled with rapists, druggies and vomiting drunks. I've heard stories.
The terrorists have won, game, set, match. They've scared the people into electing authoritarian regimes.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday July 05 2014, @10:35PM
That's what the psychologist said when she was interviewing me to see if I could be released. I'd rather be with the devil than locked alone in that room for four days. Laughs and call me a joke, but after the third day you start losing it. I would like to thank them for rehabilitating me.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:37AM
When might we the people expect Soylent to merge with Dice? Soon? How about Monday. Come on. You corporate assholes love mergers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:09AM
Date for the Dice buyout has been set to 1 Apr 2015.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Open4D on Saturday July 05 2014, @09:29AM
Okay, but remember I was there first :P ...
2014-04-01: Dice Corp completes purchase of Soylent News [soylentnews.org]
P.S. Congratulations and thanks to you and all the other staff!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mrkaos on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:56AM
Congratulations. I've really been enjoying SN as a more gritty alternative to /.
So will you publish your Corporate Charter here so we can read it? Thanks for SN.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NCommander on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:11AM
Its going up on Monday, I don't want to deal with file uploading and such today, which I'm taking off.
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by j-stroy on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:28AM
I'm genuinely grateful to assert my capability to post a meaningless post at a place I actually want to. Thanks soylent!!
And now for the fud:
Fzgzgsltzifdpyxfufigogogoog
Which is what the rest of the internet looks like to me most days.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @03:07AM
At least your meaningless post isn't gushing with your desire to kiss NCommander's ass like the rest of these tofu-brained soybean suckers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Saturday July 05 2014, @03:29AM
...shut the fuck up.
Seriously.
This is the opposite of a sellout. By incorporating as a public benefit corporation, the Soylent officers are now legally obligated to do that which they've merely given their word that they'd do until now. And they've demonstrated a serious commitment that that they at least intend to be in this for the long haul.
There won't be any sellout to Dice; a public benefit corporation is useless to that type of commercial interest.
So, really. Stop your bitching. This is cause for celebration and congratulations.
And if you don't think it is, then what the fuck are you doing here in the first place?
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @03:40AM
Sell me some stock in your company so me and the shareholders can vote all your officers out, HA HA HA HA naive fucker.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday July 05 2014, @05:28AM
No, don't!
If you shut up because someone is trumpeting so , all the "public benefit" of replacing the green site with soylentnews is gone and having the SoylentNews PBC is meaningless.
Please, do feel free to troll and do feel happy that others have points to mod you as such - trolling is part of a healthy nerd news community.
Maybe in one year time your "trolling" turns out to be just "an opinion ahead of its time" (although "bacon" is already old as a topic, using it in comments seems a waste of time. Better use it in your dishes... mmmm, yummy).
Seriously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Saturday July 05 2014, @04:53AM
Heartfelt congratulations.
It has been a rocky road to get here. I am sure that we will grow and prosper.
(Score: 1) by pyg on Monday July 07 2014, @03:29AM
Second this.
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday July 05 2014, @04:55AM
Congratulations, great job on building a community so far.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Saturday July 05 2014, @07:18AM
Hearty congratulations ... I hope SoylentNews becomes the preeminent tech forum on these internets ...
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @09:02AM
Does that mean we can start giving you oodles of money now?
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:18PM
Well, I presume subscriptions will be coming along pretty soon. I see that when I click on someone's user page, near the bottom it now says "Subscribers can view entire comment history for all users" - which was a feature promised 9 days ago in the Back To The Drawing Board: Rethinking Subscription + Explaing Expenses [soylentnews.org] story.
The matter of donations as such is also covered there. It may be that the closest possible option is letting you "buy" something that you may or may not particularly want, and that has a high profit margin for SoylentNews PBC. In the comments there, a few people suggested ideas, like promoted messages or using patreon.com (a less time-limited version of Indiegogo) or virtual badges.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 12 2014, @04:36PM
wHRJMq hnwbrvittkpb [hnwbrvittkpb.com], [url=http://njkbjamdcvbw.com/]njkbjamdcvbw[/url], [link=http://eenysrkrfrco.com/]eenysrkrfrco[/link], http://aomnjclnhhdi.com/ [aomnjclnhhdi.com]
(Score: 1) by art guerrilla on Saturday July 05 2014, @09:47AM
...and the others involved in doing the heavy-lifting of making this site/community:
hip hip
HOORAY!
hip hip
HOORAY!
hip hip
HOORAY!
(yeah, i'm old school)
(Score: 2) by present_arms on Saturday July 05 2014, @01:58PM
Congrats on this, means we're all in for the long haul and never mind the ney sayers there are always a few that try and spoil the party.
http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
(Score: 1) by chewbacon on Saturday July 05 2014, @03:24PM
This deserves an old warcry: fuck beta!!!
(Score: 2) by tynin on Sunday July 06 2014, @01:11AM
Here here!
Fuck Beta!
(Score: 1) by donjan on Saturday July 05 2014, @10:21PM
Good milestone, keep going!
Still waiting for the name change though...
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday July 11 2014, @09:40AM
It was finished awhile ago, soylentnews.org won. I can dig out the link which has the voting results, but a search should pop it up.
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday July 09 2014, @10:15AM
I know I am late to this party, but I just wanted to say congratulations for reaching this important milestone. I have been 'a bit' busy recently, so unable to contribute, but I'm very, very glad to see things progressing.
Best wishes for the future.