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posted by martyb on Monday December 20 2021, @10:15PM   Printer-friendly

Happy Holidays!
On behalf of the SoylentNews staff, we wish you safe and happy celebrations in the coming holiday season! 😀

I am also encouraging the editorial staff to post stories on a weekend/holiday schedule for Friday through Sunday (2021-12-24 UTC through 2021-12-26 UTC). Enjoy your well-deserved break!

COVID-19:
Let's face it, COVID-19 sucks. We've had to deal with lock-downs, masks, "Long Covid", and sadly the deaths and serious illness in our friends and loved ones. Did I say it sucks? To all who have suffered and struggled, please accept my genuine and heartfelt wishes for acceptance and peace. We can do our own part to mitigate the spread of this deadly disease. How deadly? Well over 800,000 people have died in the US so far, and 5.3 million have died worldwide.

Through all this we have tried to be a site where the community can come together to discuss things happening in the world today. We aim for a technical focus, but occasionally delve into other current events, too. A "known quantity" where we can have open, heart-felt discussions, all with a sense of humor strongly encouraged!

Fundraising:
We currently stand at $1510.49 (i.e. 43.2%) compared to our base fundraising goal of $3500.00 (for the 6-month period of 2021-07-01 to 2021-12-31).

We have 154 current subscribers. (WOW!) Thank You!

On 2021-12-16 we received a generous $100.00 subscription in memory of MichaelDavidCrawford (I still miss him and his positive attitude in the face of adversity!) That subscription was a great help; thank you! The large subscriptions are impressive, yes, but it's important to note we also received 12 other subscriptions so far this month that totaled $186.00. (These figures are gross amounts; they netted us $269.47 after processing fees.)

Want to help?
Click on our subscribe link and answer a few simple questions. (NB: we DO NOT directly handle the transaction; you may need to enable JavaScript for PayPal or Stripe). That's all there is to it. If you have any questions or problems, please reach out to admin (at) soylentnews.org (preferred) or IRC.

Editorial Staff Notes:
One of our editors reached a milestone of posting his 6,550th stories to our site. That's a LOT! Congratulations and thank you Fnord666! (Fnord has also been the cleaner of non-selected stories from our submissions queue for years). And (belated) thanks and congratulating to janrinok for posting his 5,700th 5,738th story! You've been a backbone of this site; I doubt the site would still exist without your selfless contributions!

Many, may thanks, too, to chromas for processing stories and especially for maintaining his systemd bot which is used every day to: look up sources, format journal citations, and submit stories.

Neck and neck with mrpg they have each posted over 1,300 stories -- thanks so much!

Other Admin Activities:
Over this time, AudioGuy has toiled behind the scenes maintaining our certs, e-mail servers, and I don't-know-what-else to keep our systems up-and-running. And just last night the comment counts for our stories stopped updating. I tried "bouncing" our servers, but to no avail. At a loss of what else to do, I called up mechanicjay around midnight and asked for help. He was already trying to deal with a fire at work, and trying to put his kids to bed, but he made certain that before he went to bed that it was taken care of and we were in good shape!

Linode:
Just over a week ago we received a report of difficulties from a user when they tried to reset their soylentnews password. I'm so grateful to janrinok for his taking the lead on this situation and starting in tough with the user while we tried to sort things out. Nothing we tried on our end seemed to help. I then reported it to Linode (our hosting provider). We had an informative, polite, and professional phone conversation. Apparently, another user on our /16 was "behaving badly" (e.g. sending out spam). Linode discovered we got caught up in the block that Microsoft placed on that IP range. Linode worked with Microsoft to get us excluded from their too-wide-ranging block. All seems to have been resolved. Yay!

Folding@home:
Our Folding@home team just reached 3.1 BILLION points! At the time of this writing, we are ranked #391 in the world! (official but somewhat less readable stats.) Our team's efforts have helped advance research on Covid-19, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and others. Mind you, other participants include the likes of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, HP, Dell, and many other multi-nationals! Congrats team!

Closing:
Yours in service --martyb
Buck Feta!

Related Stories

Meta: Fundraising Update -- Thank You! 53 comments

I hope this reaches you after a safe and healthy holiday!

Where We're At:
In our last fundraising update on 2021-21-20 we stood at $1510.49 towards our goal of $3,500.00 for the second half of the year. I am happy to report that we have since collected additional net subscriptions totaling $279.72. Thank You! You Rock!

mysql> SELECT SUM(payment_gross) AS Gross, SUM(payment_net) AS Net, ts, max(spid) AS SPID FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts >= '2021-07-01' ;
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| Gross   | Net     | ts                  | SPID |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| 1908.06 | 1808.21 | 2021-07-01 00:41:45 | 1711 |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

There were a total of 81 (YAY!) subscriptions purchased in the second half of this year (click to see):

mysql> SELECT ts, payment_gross, payment_net, method, submethod, payment_type FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts >= '2021-07-01' AND payment_gross > 0 ORDER BY ts ;
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
| ts                  | payment_gross | payment_net | method | submethod | payment_type |
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
| 2021-07-01 00:41:45 |         20.00 |       19.12 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-01 02:15:00 |         20.00 |       18.82 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-01 02:20:50 |         20.00 |       19.12 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-01 02:34:13 |         20.00 |       18.82 | paypal | NULL      | gift         |
| 2021-07-01 03:26:34 |         20.00 |       18.82 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-01 14:19:33 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-01 16:35:50 |         22.34 |       21.39 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-01 18:36:56 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-02 10:49:17 |         20.00 |       19.12 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-02 14:43:16 |         20.00 |       19.12 | paypal | NULL      | gift         |
| 2021-07-02 21:06:24 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-05 21:59:27 |         40.00 |       37.94 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-05 22:07:16 |        400.00 |      388.10 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-06 14:07:24 |          5.00 |        4.55 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-18 14:27:40 |          5.00 |        4.55 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-19 15:13:31 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-22 12:14:55 |          4.00 |        3.52 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-07-25 07:14:27 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-07-29 11:57:17 |         10.00 |        9.41 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-08-06 12:30:41 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-08-13 10:28:11 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-08-18 11:54:17 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-08-22 12:11:44 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-08-29 13:03:40 |         10.00 |        9.16 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-03 12:33:49 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-06 10:20:14 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-06 13:35:17 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-10 18:30:22 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-11 23:56:46 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | gift         |
| 2021-09-18 10:37:19 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-22 10:12:38 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-09-29 14:37:56 |         10.00 |        9.16 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-05 00:31:51 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-10-06 10:58:25 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-14 11:33:56 |         30.00 |       28.46 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-16 09:38:51 |         13.72 |       13.02 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-10-18 11:21:58 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-21 13:29:39 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-22 12:00:55 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-24 19:27:39 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-26 19:43:45 |         40.00 |       38.11 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-29 12:01:11 |         10.00 |        9.16 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-10-30 18:22:11 |         50.00 |       47.01 | paypal | NULL      | gift         |
| 2021-11-06 12:28:43 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-08 15:02:34 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-09 19:14:31 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-10 06:40:55 |         50.00 |       47.76 | paypal | NULL      | gift         |
| 2021-11-10 11:47:46 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-12 03:08:14 |         30.00 |       28.46 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-17 01:01:32 |         12.00 |       11.35 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-11-18 12:22:21 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-21 14:54:31 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-22 12:28:08 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-27 18:53:45 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-11-29 10:45:50 |         10.00 |        9.16 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-03 15:58:30 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | gift         |
| 2021-12-04 02:20:36 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-06 11:29:58 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-11 04:02:13 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-11 12:38:48 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-12 11:08:54 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-13 20:52:42 |         12.00 |       11.09 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-15 09:21:39 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-15 16:00:03 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-16 10:32:40 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-16 13:42:40 |        100.00 |       96.80 | stripe | CC        | gift         |
| 2021-12-18 10:16:24 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-18 10:52:56 |          5.00 |        4.34 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-20 23:21:01 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-21 02:21:21 |         40.00 |       38.11 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-21 05:25:20 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-21 17:14:58 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-21 21:00:59 |         50.00 |       48.25 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-22 10:26:01 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-22 10:45:00 |          4.00 |        3.31 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-23 05:17:16 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-23 18:26:06 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | gift         |
| 2021-12-23 20:05:03 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | gift         |
| 2021-12-25 12:02:11 |         40.00 |       38.11 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-26 01:32:21 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-28 13:01:56 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
81 rows in set (0.00 sec)

What's Next?

The sharp-eyed among you have already recognized something: that's not nearly enough:

We need to net an additional $1691.79 to reach our goal.

WE CAN DO THIS! 😃

Just click on Subscribe and follow the instructions! (Click the "*SPOILER* for more details.)

Select whether it's a subscription for yourself or a Gift to someone else. For a Gift sub you can provide your name to tell the recipient who the subscription is from or blank it out if you want to remain anonymous. Then choose a duration (30, 180, or 365 days). Important! You can accept the minimum amount offered (4.00, 12.00, or 20.00) OR type another (larger) amount into the field. Then click the "[Continue]" button.

NB: All transactions are processed remotely — SoylentNews sets up the transaction but does not actually participate directly. Also, if you have an Ad Blocker such as No Script or uBlock Origin installed, you may need to allow an exception for "soylentnews.org", "stripe.com", and "stripe.network" for the transaction to be entered and accepted.

You're on the Home Stretch! Click a button: PayPal (1) "[PayPal Buy Now], (2) "[PayPal Subscribe]", or (3) "[Pay with Card or BitCoin]" (Actually only "Card" is accepted at this time).

You are then taken to a form on their payment processor's site where you provide the payment information and confirm the transaction.

That's it! The payment processor then informs SoylentNews of the transaction amount and their processing fee.

Should you have a question or problem, please feel free to reach out for help on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and/or leave a message here in the comments.

These funds pay for hosting our servers, incorporation fees, taxes, and a CPA. All income goes to paying for the site. Period. Staff is all-volunteer. Nobody here has ever been paid anything for working on SoylentNews!

--martyb

Meta: That's What I Call PROGRESS! Fundraising Update 21 comments

You guys are GREAT!

Previously:
In our last Fundraising Update we had raised $1,808.21 (net) towards our goal of $3,500.00 for the 2nd half of the year. (And five days earlier we stood at just $1,510.49).

Currently:
And where are we now? Hold onto your seat...

mysql>  SELECT SUM(payment_gross) AS Gross, SUM(payment_net) AS Net, ts, max(spid) AS SPID FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts >= '2021-07-01' ;
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| Gross   | Net     | ts                  | SPID |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
| 2435.06 | 2307.23 | 2021-07-01 02:15:00 | 1727 |
+---------+---------+---------------------+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

In that time, we had 4x $50.00 subscriptions and a $100.00 subscription (flagged by an "*" below):

mysql> SELECT ts, payment_gross, payment_net, method, submethod, payment_type FROM subscribe_payments WHERE ts > '2021-12-28 13:01:56' AND payment_gross > 0 ORDER BY ts ;
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
| ts                  | payment_gross | payment_net | method | submethod | payment_type |
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
| 2021-12-28 22:28:09 |         *50.00 |       47.76 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-28 22:48:32 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-28 23:33:57 |         *50.00 |       47.76 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 00:54:44 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 02:47:41 |         *50.00 |       47.01 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 03:08:48 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 04:50:49 |        *100.00 |       96.02 | paypal | NULL      | gift         |
| 2021-12-29 07:01:43 |         20.00 |       18.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 10:58:54 |         10.00 |        9.16 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 12:46:04 |         25.00 |       23.26 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 13:32:12 |         20.00 |       19.12 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-29 13:37:36 |         *50.00 |       48.25 | stripe | CC        | user         |
| 2021-12-29 14:16:35 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 14:24:29 |         40.00 |       37.51 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 21:11:32 |         12.00 |       10.91 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
| 2021-12-29 22:06:03 |         20.00 |       18.81 | paypal | NULL      | user         |
+---------------------+---------------+-------------+--------+-----------+--------------+
16 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Yes, the larger subscriptions are attention-getting, but $220.00 of that $527.00 came from subscriptions of $20.00 or less.

Remaining:
Since I started writing this, we received two more $20.00 subscriptions! All told, we need just $1,173.96 to make our goal and only 2 days to go. Can we do it? We Can Do This... Please Subscribe!

Ahem. Got carried away there. But seriously, every bit makes a difference; please help.
--martyb

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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 20 2021, @10:30PM (16 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 20 2021, @10:30PM (#1206746)

    I come to this place a lot, and have been since almost the beginning. I do almost everything as AC. Thank you all, the big and little contributors, for all that you do.

    A close relative of mine died last night from COVID. It hurts pretty bad right now. I don't ask for any condolences or sympathies, but I wanted to second martyb's comment to encourage all to do what you can to mitigate this damn disease.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by martyb on Monday December 20 2021, @10:44PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 20 2021, @10:44PM (#1206752) Journal

      It's a privilege to serve and I've learned so much as a result!

      I thank you for your kind words... VERY MUCH appreciated!

      Lastly, so saddened to hear of your loss. May you find peace.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday December 21 2021, @02:39AM (14 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @02:39AM (#1206785) Journal

      I come to this place a lot, and have been since almost the beginning.

      That's an understatement! You have comment #15 [soylentnews.org]!

      =)

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday December 21 2021, @08:49AM (13 children)

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @08:49AM (#1206819)

        Are you stalking comments made anonymously? Be admonished!

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:00AM (12 children)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:00AM (#1206825) Journal

          Pretty anonymous, if they can tag a post made more than seven years ago. IP address? Airtag? That poor AC is hosed!

          • (Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday December 21 2021, @02:32PM (8 children)

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @02:32PM (#1206839) Journal

            I don't know why you guys get so worried about this, I'm still using the same IP that I have used for years. But, just so you understand, this is taken from the code that CmdrTaco wrote all those many years ago, and is still in use in rehash today:

            ########################################################
            ########################################################
            # (And now a word from CmdrTaco)
            #
            # I'm putting this note here because I hate posting stories about
            # Slashcode on Slashdot.  It's just distracting from the news, and the
            # vast majority of Slashdot readers simply don't care about it. I know
            # that this is interpreted as me being all men-in-black, but thats
            # bull pucky.  I don't want Slashdot to be about Slashdot or
            # Slashcode.  A few people have recently taken to reading CVS and then
            # trolling Slashdot with the deep dark secrets that they think they
            # have found within.  They don't bother going so far as to bother
            # *asking* before freaking.  We have a mailing list if people want to
            # ask questions.  We love getting patches when people have better ways
            # to do things.  But answers are much more likely if you ask us to our
            # faces instead of just sitting in the back of class and bitching to
            # everyone sitting around you.  I'm not going to try to have an
            # offtopic discussion in an unrelated story.  And I'm not going to
            # bother posting a story to appease the 1% of readers for whom this
            # story matters one iota.  So this seems to be a reasonable way for me
            # to reach you.
            #
            # What I'm talking about this time is all this IPID crap.  It's a
            # temporary kludge that people simply don't understand. It isn't
            # intended to be permanent, or secure.  These 2 misconceptions are the
            # source of the problem.
            #
            # The IPID stuff was designed when we only kept 2 weeks of comments in
            # the DB at a time.  We need to track IPs and Subnets to prevent DoS
            # script attacks.  Again, I know conspiracy theorists freak out, but
            # the reality is that without this,  we get constant scripted
            # trolling.  This simply isn't up for debate.  We've been doing this
            # for years.  It's not new.  We *used* to just store the plain old IP.
            #
            # The problem is that I don't want IPs staring me in the face. So we
            # MD5d em. This wasn't for "security" in the strict sense of the word.
            # It just was meant to make it inconvenient for now.  Not impossible.
            # Now I don't have any IPs.  Instead we have reasonably abstracted
            # functions that should let us create a more secure system when we
            # have the time.
            #
            # What really needs to happen is that these IDs need to be generated
            # with some sort of random rolling key. Of course lookups need to be
            # computationally fast within the limitations of our existing
            # database.  Ideas?  Or better yet, Diffs?
            #
            # Lastly I have to say, I find it ironic that we've tracked IPs for
            # years.  But nobody complained until we *stopped* tracking IPs and
            # put the hooks in place to provide a *secure* system.  You'd think
            # people were just looking for an excuse to bitch...
            ########################################################

            ########################################################

            ########################################################

            But, in addition to that, there are other advantages by having hashes of the actual IPs. One, is that we do not have to use save IP address in order to reconstruct a story that is older than a few weeks. Everything in the original slashcode and in rehash uses hashes in the database. But real IP addresses are erased after a couple of weeks. We don't need them so we don't keep them - we have the one-way hashes. CmdrTaco refers to them several times throughout the source code. If you are concerned about what we do - download the code from https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash [github.com] and read it yourself. Search for the bits that you are worried about and see what is done and why.

            We cannot track who you are in real life, nor do we want to. We simply don't care who you are. What purpose would that serve? What we have to do is maintain a database that allows every story that we have ever published to be reconstructed all the way from the submission to the latest moderation. We have to protect the site from the same DoS that CmdrTaco and his team had to do - only now there are more of them and they are much more powerful. And, just like CmdrTaco, we have to protect the site from those who would abuse it.

            --
            I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
            • (Score: 2, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:52PM (2 children)

              by shrewdsheep (5215) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:52PM (#1206850)

              You didn't get the initial point. From the behavior of the site it is clear that logged in messages are always connected to the user and can therefore be tracked even across IPs. The point is that editors should not engage in such tracking much as a doctor should not compute breast circumference from an MRI scan just because she can or, well, you name it (car analogy please, so the editors get it).

              • (Score: 4, Touché) by janrinok on Tuesday December 21 2021, @04:56PM (1 child)

                by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @04:56PM (#1206865) Journal

                The Whoosh is on you. The link given was the first AC to post on this site - it might not be, in fact almost certainly isn't, the same AC as the one who made the comment in this thread. All ACs are recorded as a single user. They are all Anonymous Coward and user # '1'. We cannot 'track' ACs because there is no data to be tracked which indicates an individual, unless they do something stupid to compromise themself. At comment #15 ( and we currently have over 1 200 000 comments in the db), the site wasn't even open to the community and we were still carrying out testing on the first system that was released. You are making accusations that are simply unfounded. If you don't understand how it works you are not very well placed to dictate what the administrators should and should not be doing.

                I do not have access to the servers and I never see an IP address. An IP address might (assuming no VPNs or other security measures are being taken) help me identify where you are in the world - and I simply don't care. That information is of no interest to us.

                Perhaps you would prefer it if we go back to the early 2000 version of the software where IPs were still being logged because, as CmdrTaco pointed out, nobody complained then.....

                --
                I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
                • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:39PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:39PM (#1206898)

                  They are all Anonymous Coward and user # '1'.

                  No. 1 baby!

            • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:57PM (3 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:57PM (#1206930) Journal

              We cannot track who you are in real life, nor do we want to. We simply don't care who you are. What purpose would that serve?

              Unless you are aristarchus! Which I am. Or one of his dastardly alleged sockpuppets! Then we are on a mission to censor non-right wing views and philosophy. And to not have any sense of humour. Methinks, my dear janrinok, thou dost protest too much?

              • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday December 22 2021, @01:49AM (2 children)

                by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday December 22 2021, @01:49AM (#1206996) Journal

                You think far more of yourself than we do of you. We don't care who Aristarchus is in real life, or where he lives. We only care when Aristarchus "Or one of his dastardly alleged sockpuppets!", or anyone else for that matter, abuses the moderation system or attempts to prevent free discussion. And for that we only need to know which account is responsible for it.

                --
                I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
                • (Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 22 2021, @10:21AM (1 child)

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday December 22 2021, @10:21AM (#1207047) Journal

                  Don't really want to hash this out on a congratutory thread, but janrinock drew first bile!

                  or anyone else for that matter, abuses the moderation system or attempts to prevent free discussion. And for that we only need to know which account is responsible for it.

                  The attempts to prevent free discussion are coming from INSIDE the editorial staff! Oh my Deus! May already be too late. I see moderation ban abuses all the time. Well, if you do not want fairly unbiased discussions, why don't you just say so?

            • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @12:48AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @12:48AM (#1206990)

              So how does it calculate the interval between posts? I'd swear I've waited much longer than one minute and still get the "Slow Down Cowboy!" page. This goes back to slashdot as well. I remember way back in the day someone got the page up to "Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 43 minutes since you last posted a message!"

          • (Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:02PM

            by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:02PM (#1206842) Journal

            Pretty anonymous, if they can tag a post made more than seven years ago. IP address? Airtag? That poor AC is hosed!

            Nothing so complicated! It was basically something like:

            SELECT sid, cid, uid FROM stories ORDER BY cid LIMIT 20 ;

            Those are just the story ID, comment ID, and user ID. Loaded the comment in my browser to confirm and posted that link to the site in my comment.

            --
            Wit is intellect, dancing.
          • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:08PM (1 child)

            by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:08PM (#1206844) Journal

            Er, that just happens to be the first AC comment - so AC must have made it!

            --
            I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @12:11AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @12:11AM (#1206984)

              I'm Sparticus!

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by hendrikboom on Monday December 20 2021, @10:40PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) on Monday December 20 2021, @10:40PM (#1206749) Homepage Journal

    Pretty soon the folding team is going to have to go beyond a 32-bit point counter! Congratulations!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 20 2021, @11:38PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 20 2021, @11:38PM (#1206763)

    Whoever donated in memory of MDC - good on you.

    I think of MDC lots. What would he think, or say; how would he react? (How many innocents would he have saved, how many despicables would he have revealed?) What, of his storied life, would seem relevant to a given issue?

    Where I live, nobody can just "go live by the river", and ways of life he knew don't occur. Of course, we also have socialized medicine, so he wouldn't have died because of a fucking gap in coverage for his meds. The system that made him, killed him.

    Anyways. Whoever donated in memory of MDC - good on you. You're not alone in prizing his memory.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:42PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:42PM (#1206900)

      Apart from complaining about his mental health all the time and providing a little personal disaster porn.... what the fuck did he actually do?

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:46PM (#1206953)

        He hunted abusers, though illicitly so he never intentionally talked about it here. That vigilantism was solo but he was a, er, "known actor" in some circles, and he Did Some Serious Good that way.

        Here, he shared knowledge and perspective. He was not a troll, and engaged in intellectually honest discourse, which is like finding diamonds in this day and age.

        He was, in short, a member of the community, who contributed in many ways.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Subsentient on Tuesday December 21 2021, @12:38AM (5 children)

    by Subsentient (1111) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @12:38AM (#1206773) Homepage Journal

    My best friend died of COVID-19 on November 12th. Right after my cat died of old age.
    Merry Fucking Christmas to me. Whatever, I've always deeply hated Christmas anyways.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:34AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:34AM (#1206777)

      Is it the turkey or the ham?

      Do like the wise Jews - go to a Chinese restaurant. There you can do kungfu fighting with all your despised relatives.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by martyb on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:52AM (2 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:52AM (#1206782) Journal

      This is a time of year with several anniversaries that remind me of painful losses. Made it really difficult to celebrate the holidays.

      One day as I was moping around my home I realized something:

      "It only hurts because I've been blessed."

      My life was better for having known them. (If they were a**holes, I'd be glad they were gone!) I just wanted them around longer (like forever!) That was not possible.

      That simple phrase — repeated often — has gotten me through some of the most painful and difficult times of my life.

      Loss is painful. You can make it through this. Others have survived losses. I've survived losses. You can, too. And, some day you'll be able to draw on your experiences and help someone gp through it, too. That's been the case for me. May you find peace during this painful time.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:44PM (#1206902)

        This post hurts because you've been blessed. Dipshit.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by acid andy on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:09AM

        by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:09AM (#1207012) Homepage Journal

        You're right. Thank you for posting this.

        --
        Consumerism is poison.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:42AM (#1206823)

      If it does get a bit much, you can always find help. Not such a big deal to give samaritans or another equivalent outfit a ring.

      https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ [samaritans.org]

  • (Score: 0, Redundant) by HammeredGlass on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:41AM

    by HammeredGlass (12241) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @01:41AM (#1206778)

    *with, not from
    *with, not from
    *with, not from
    *with, not from
    *with, not from

    Let us never forget!

  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @03:23AM (#1206788)

    His werewolf penis had barbs on it he custom designed to hurt when you pull out of the vagina or anus.

    He would meow like a cat before sex!

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:19AM (2 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:19AM (#1206804) Journal

    This is not about the software, but about the site. Therefore the topic should be “Soylent”, not “Rehash”.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:40AM (1 child)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:40AM (#1206810) Journal

      I agree - so I've changed it. Partly my fault for not spotting it as the 2nd editor at release time.

      --
      I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @04:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @04:31PM (#1206858)

    n/t

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