SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
As someone who pays an inordinate amount of time pondering things, I noticed some recent milestones for SoylentNews and thought these might be of interest to the rest of the community. In round numbers we have:
- 20 Months since SoylentNews went live (on February 14th, 2014.)
- 20 Current staffers who keep things running.
-
200150 Subscribers.[*] - 5,900 Registered users.
- 8,400 Stories posted.
- 10,000 Stories submitted.
- 250,000 Comments posted (almost -- who will get it?)
- 166,770,000 page hits on the site (yes, 1/6 of a Billion!)
What started as a protest activity (The Slashcott) burgeoned into action in the form of taking a several-years-old, non-maintained code base and, through the alchemy of dedication and sleep deprivation, came to be known as SoylentNews. There were numerous site crashes and outages, but things gradually stabilized. We were incorporated (completed on July 4th, aptly enough). Other niceties started to make their way onto the site: moderation changes, User Interface (UI) enhancements, Unicode support, apache and mod-perl upgrades, and countless other behind-the-scenes tweaks and tunings to get things to where they are now.
Besides the main site, I would be remiss if I did not mention that we also have our own Wiki and an active Internet Relay Chat (IRC) community.
Most importantly, it is our community that drives us! Thank you for all the story submissions, for all the comments on those stories, and for your feedback on site improvement ideas.
[*] The original value of 200 for the number of subscribers was an estimate; the correct number was 150. Updated this story for posterity.
To those who have started or extended their subscription please accept our genuine and sincere thanks — we could NOT do it without you! -Ed.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Gaaark on Wednesday October 14 2015, @04:57PM
+1 agree: when i was growing up, i was considered 'shy'. As i grew older, my mother said i was 'anti-social'.
Now i know i am only awkward in social situations where i am not confident in my words: if i know you have a weird sense of humour, we'll get along. If i know you are a computer geek, we'll get along (even if you use windows). If you are uncomfortable in social situations, we'll probably get along.
Not shy, not anti-social, just socially awkward/different.
Thanks, Soylentils, for giving me a forum for being myself: i post here WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than ANYWHERE ELSE, cause i know that despite the occasional troll, people here know what i am talking about/feel the same way. (And the posts/comments/stories are excellent, mostly).
Signed, future subscriber.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Thursday October 15 2015, @12:06AM
Heh.
Socially awkward fits me to a bill as well. I won't make small talk most of the time and find it utterly boring. That being said, I am easily interested in listening to my friends talk about almost anything when we're in a group. (And they know well enough to just let me smile and stand along with them without having to say much.)
I had a couple friends mention to me that they thought I was aloof and uncaring before they met me, and now realize that I care a great deal for my friends and being quiet when I don't have something to add to the conversation is just the way I am.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday October 15 2015, @12:56AM
Ha, yeah... "Some weather we've been having.... how about them Jays, huh?.... other things people say for conversation starters"
My wife says it's a necessary social convention, but i say "Let me the f*ck outta here!"
If i have to say something useless like that in order to be social, then i'd rather be non-social.
Now, have someone talk linux/computers/relativity/girls/geek-shit, and i'll join in and be social; pull out a Settlers of Catan board and i'll game you (euchre or f*ck your neighbour, sure!). Talk intelligent and i'm there... talk dumb and i'll walk.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---