SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the I-thought-the-name-was-bacconmuffinnews dept.
After several early attempts, we have settled on a process for deciding on the final name for this site currently known as SoylentNews.org. You'll need to log in and go to: userprefs/homepage and check the box marked "Willing to Vote" if you'd like to participate (do this now, the submission round will go out soon). The vote will occur using an email-based solution loosely based on the Debian/Condercet method that we cooked up. Note: checking this box will indicate that we are scraping your email address from the database for participation (this is completely opt-in). If you wish not to participate, just make sure this box is unchecked (this is the default).
We are opening the floor to name suggestions. If you have suggested a name earlier, you'll need to re-submit it through this email voting system. Though we prefer available domains, if you have pre-purchased a domain (eg: to prevent squatters), by submitting the name you are stating that you are the owner of the domain(s) and will give it without strings attached to this project if it were to be chosen.
The criteria for an acceptable name:
- Unique and free of obvious trademarks
- Ideally be a bit technological/geeky and signal the site is "news"
- Domain should be available in all permutations: .com/.net/.org
- Easy to pronounce
- Easy to type
- Easy to 'market' or has a "hook" (imagine a mug with the name, a logo, slogans, plays on words, etc.)
- Passes the girlfriend / wife / significant other / random person at work - test
This is how it will work:
- The first round will go out asking for name submissions
- Submissions will remain open for 7 days
- The community will vote to yield 5 names
- Staff will vote and produce 5 names
- A final vote on all 10 names will be held
- At this point, the staff will have a second full vote on the same ten items the community voted on
- The result of this vote, and the community vote, including its runoff, will then be published
- The staff vote is the final decision. We have to live with this. But the community will have a powerful influence on the final staff vote.
If you're interested:
NCommander adds: So its finally here, and I wanted to apologize for the long delay before this actually happened. To the editoral team, please bump this to the top of the index for the next 24 hours so everyone gets a chance to see it (click 'fastforward' then save to autoupdate the timestamp). I promise a Featured Story option is coming in the next major update so we don't have to deal with this!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zizban on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:23AM
I like the current name actually. Simple and easy to remember.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by iroll on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:34AM
Second.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by buswolley on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:02AM
Why kill your brandname?
subicular junctures
(Score: 5, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:33AM
A formal vote on a new name was promised before we even launched the site you are currently using. We are trying to keep that promise.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 5, Funny) by davester666 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:43AM
What the hell am I going to do with 500 Soylent News Is People t-shirts if the name changes?
(Score: 2, Funny) by LeadFreeSucks on Wednesday April 09 2014, @05:32AM
You could always push for a re-run of Soylent Green on Hulu. /what do I know, i'm just a solder monkey ;-)
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:42PM
Pft. i have 200 AltSlash and another 300 BuckFeta..
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:59PM
Sell them for double the original price. Collector item now (for those in the know)
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:25PM
I'd raise an error 500.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:21PM
Take a laundry pen and cross out "Is" and write in "Was" instead. :-)
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dilbert on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:34AM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:38AM
As for the girlfriend test... what are you worried about, them mistaking it for a porn site? I mean they'd have to imag... eww.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by TK on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:00PM
It's Soylent News not Soylent Nudes.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:31PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by iroll on Wednesday April 09 2014, @05:52PM
Well, you get a gold for mental gymnastics :p
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday April 09 2014, @08:26PM
Only the Germans and the Japanese would consider that "porn."
(Score: 1) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:25PM
If they would change the color scheme to green, it would line up a lot better with the tagline "...is people."
If you don't get it, you need to brush up on your old, bad, SciFi movie literacy.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday April 10 2014, @03:24AM
Because brands are insignificant? Are you a marketing major?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @04:18PM
Because your dick is insignificant? Are you an ass?
(Score: 1) by soylentsandor on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:16PM
Thirded (for obvious reasons).
(Score: 3, Informative) by prospectacle on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:43AM
I believe it will be one of the candidates
If a plan isn't flexible it isn't realistic
(Score: 5, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:45AM
This is correct, soylentnews.org will be one of the options.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 5, Funny) by iroll on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:01AM
And if it doesn't win, we'll just fork and start all over!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:44AM
Good! besides, SoylentNews already has my vote. :)
As someone else says, why kill an existing brand? Obviously it's easy to remember, or we wouldn't be here. :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:36AM
It's a terrible name. Nothing to do with the original, not nerdy at all and it sounds like some nature-friendly pregnant women blog.
pipedot.org got it right, close to the original, catchy and understood by nerds. We need something in that direction
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @08:40AM
...and Pipedot has a cool logo.
Can we buy Pipebot out too?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by M. Baranczak on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:42PM
"Close to the original" is just another way of saying "unoriginal".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:53PM
I prefer unoriginal over of the utter unrelated and misleading name "soylentnews"
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:50PM
I am not a fan of pipe dot name.
subicular junctures
(Score: 1) by rival on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:04PM
Agreed; while we geeks get the reference, there's a good chance that others (think stupid filters) may think pipedot is some sort of drug-related site, and hence NSFW.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Wednesday April 09 2014, @08:21PM
I've never |. in bash before. What would it do?
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by hybristic on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:20PM
go do it and report back!
(Score: 2) by stderr on Wednesday April 09 2014, @11:47PM
Have you /.'ed in bash?
Neither of them makes sense on their own in bash, but maybe |. is part of a longer command, like foo|./bar or awk '/foo|.bar/ { print }'.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Thursday April 10 2014, @12:46AM
well yes. Of course..If I were to direct it to a file in the current directory...but just |. ?
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by stderr on Thursday April 10 2014, @01:41AM
Then you would have used "./", not "/.", but even in that case, you didn't use "just /." (or "just ./"), did you?
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 1) by J053 on Thursday April 10 2014, @01:19AM
"Yes, just browse to aitch tee tee pee slash slash slash dot dot com"
How about "httpslash.com"?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday April 09 2014, @11:25PM
How long do you want this site to be a slashdot-wannebe? This is already history, let the site stand on their own merits, for gods sake... I definitely prefer Soylentnews
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by xlefay on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:20PM
This is a terrible idea!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:41PM
w00t w00t
(Score: 2) by xlefay on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:46PM
oops, replied to the wrong comment. lol
(Score: 2) by crutchy on Thursday April 24 2014, @07:52AM
haha you dingbat :-P
(Score: 1) by barnhd1 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:53AM
In all due respect, I love the site, but wouldn't mind a name change
(Score: 3, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:56AM
A proper vote on the name change was promised from the very beginning, we are now (finally) delivering on that promise.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by FuckBeta on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:11PM
Yeah, for people who use email. .gov issued picture ID to vote?
Only people with email can vote?
Isn't that like only allowing folks who can afford to buy a
Anyone who has been paying attention isn't using email.
Maybe we don't want our online comments tied to our real world identities forever.
Bad choice. Put some sort of poll where only registered users can vote.
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:38PM
Yeah and we need an option for people who don't use the internet
(Score: 2, Informative) by Buck Feta on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:35AM
"Butts" is simpler and easier to remember (not that I'm advocating that particular moniker).
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:19AM
Yeah, but the domains are probably expensive.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @10:10AM
Brilliant! Let's alienate the entire female segment of the market, and attract every lonely H.I.V. donor on the internet.
(Score: 3, Informative) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:56PM
Most of the women I know like butts.
(Score: 1) by francois.barbier on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:54PM
The breast news for the nerds?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @10:30AM
"bigbutts" is easier to remember and... ...
you other brothers can't deny
that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
and a round thing in your face
But(t) anyway, where was I? .com, .net nor .org is available for that name.
Neither
(Score: 4, Insightful) by zocalo on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:12AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:31PM
Psh, casual.
I never close the tab.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Wednesday April 09 2014, @05:39PM
Pffhh, amateur. Accruing 1 tab per story, since the beginning of soylentnews.
subicular junctures
(Score: 1) by meisterister on Wednesday April 09 2014, @10:44PM
Pffffffffffft, newbie. Opening one tab per comment AND per story, since the beginning of soylentnews.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 1) by strattitarius on Tuesday April 29 2014, @02:17AM
Soylenites. It is also not great, but better than something with lentils in it. Really? Soy - lentils? That's too rich.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 1) by zigbigadoorlue on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:21AM
I really like the current name but has anyone addressed the fact the soylent green is copyrighted? Or is this covered under parody? I don't think SN could defend itself if MGM came knocking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:45AM
You can't copyright a movie title, but you can trademark it. But as I recall, "Soylent Green" came out before that trend began. I suspect that it's safe, and a rather funny parody as well.
(Score: 2) by stderr on Thursday April 10 2014, @01:05AM
More importantly, trademarks are divided into classes. "Apple" can be a trademark of both a computer company (class 9) and a record label (class 41) because those are different classes.
As far as I can tell, movies (i.e. "Cinema presentations") is covered by class 41, "Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities.", while this site (if it's "News agencies". Is it?) probably would be covered by class 38, "Telecommunications".
But then again, IANAL...
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:56AM
The color that jumps out at me is a red (not a green), so I think we're safe.
(Score: 1) by bookreader on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:27AM
True, easy and simple to remember.
On the other hand, my first association about 'soylent' is the food substitute [wikipedia.org]. Unless someone knows the history about /. and so on, how he is expected to think this site is for nerd news and not about the food?
Still, how we are going to avoid the Open Office trap? For many years people were told 'use Open Office instead of MS Office'. Than the split came and the new motto is 'use Libre Office'. Wait, what, you used to say to use Open Office ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:39PM
Well, my first association is something which could also be considered to be a food substitute ... but is green and made of people.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by ArhcAngel on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:34PM
So if I were to extrapolate on that premise I would come to the conclusion this site is in fact a news substitute.
(Score: 1) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday April 09 2014, @11:32PM
I don't think people getting confused that easily is the target audience here ;-)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Nerdanel on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:53AM
In the Soylent group of products, only Soylent Green is secretly made of people. The older Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow are not. When you think about it, you can't feed a non-collapsing population with only its dead.
But really, all the Soylents are mass produced "food" product and distributed to the masses who can't afford real food in a dystopian future. Soylent is corporate, homogenized, lowest-common-denominator, made of the cheapest available ingredients, and the very essence of closed-source. I think that's not what this site is supposed to stand for.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday April 09 2014, @01:59PM
But really, all the Soylents are mass produced "food" product and distributed to the masses who can't afford real food in a dystopian future. Soylent is corporate, homogenized, lowest-common-denominator, made of the cheapest available ingredients, and the very essence of closed-source. I think that's not what this site is supposed to stand for.
No, but that's exactly the future we have to look forward to, so we might as well enjoy parodies like this.
(Score: 2) by dmc on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:20PM
Maybe you can help me better understand that Matrix movie?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:30PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Thursday April 10 2014, @04:46AM
Heh, good one, AC -- yep, SoylentNews is all the news I need for my brain to be properly nourished. Works for me!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by meisterister on Thursday April 10 2014, @12:33AM
[sprouts neckbeard and fedora] But then it would be so ironic.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 23 2014, @03:30PM
It's an all in one food that can overcome disturbances in the natural food supply, allowing you to enjoy traditional food occasionally rather than depending on it for survival. // /. = traditional food here
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @04:43PM
I dislike it.
- It refers to a cheesy 1970s pop sci fi book
- It refers to cannibalism, ffs
- It doesn't roll off the tongue
- It refers to cannibalism
- It's gross
- Its grosseness and lame / disgusting references will turn people off
- We can do better
(Score: 2) by FuckBeta on Wednesday April 09 2014, @09:15PM
I agree. It disturbs me.
I don't want to think of cannibalism and Edward G. Robinson dying of cancer every time I want to read the news.
Also - "it's people" refers to the 'Charlton Heston and the statue of liberty moment' when the protagonist realises that corpses from state sponsored euthanasia were being boiled, rendered, and processed into foodstuffs.
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 1) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday April 10 2014, @01:25AM
"I like the current name actually. Simple and easy to remember."
And I already have it in my bookmarks as "Soylent News".