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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: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:45PM
...and now you've practically guaranteed it to win.
The terribleness with Barrabas and now the long delay for a "voting system" and NOW the practical requirement that any proposed name already be reserved in 3 domains... you're officially WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME because you damn well know that SoylentNews is now a shoo-in.
You've stacked the deck. You've made it nearly impossible for any better name to succeed.
That sucks. It's the opposite of fair and transparent and community driven.
"Soylent News" is an awful, awful name for a tech news web site. It means nothing if you haven't heard of Soylent Green, and if you have heard of Soylent Green it means EATING GROUND HUMAN FLESH SMOOTHIES. It has a general public ick factor that is off the charts.
What a stupid name, and how vain of you to guarantee that it stays the name of this site.
You've done a disservice to the "community" you keep touting, in my opinion at least.
(Score: 2, Troll) by skullz on Wednesday April 09 2014, @02:49PM
Someone's skinny jeans are a little too tight today.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Woods on Wednesday April 09 2014, @05:06PM
He had a little too much Soylent Green.
(Score: 1, Troll) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday April 09 2014, @03:19PM
Oh fiddlesticks, clearly you've found us out. The delay in holding the vote was entirely artificial and had nothing to do with trying to come up with a good plan, researching reliable online voting systems due to our mission never to hand over any user info to 3rd parties, coding and testing a solution, and then implementing it; instead, it was all a big ploy to "stack the deck" cementing us with a name there is clear distaste for so we can alienate as many as possible. /sarcasm
The "should be available in all permutations .com / .net / org" might be easy to satisfy if the name is actually unique. That being said, I don't think it's a deal breaker. Think of it as an ideal case, please. Use your best judgement. Also just to clarify you are not required to "reserve" a domain, just check if it's available for registration (please no for-sale-by-owner).
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:28PM
The effect is the exactly the same -- witness all the people above encouraging you to keep the name because everyone is so used to it. It's a foregone conclusion that this is the permanent site name. And that stinks. (In part because the name is bad and in part because we're now going through the pretense and wasted effort of a "vote".)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday April 10 2014, @03:56AM
There is sentiment to keep the name, and sentiment that it's "bad." You can't expect to please everyone. We apologize for the delay in getting the vote going, believe me, it took a lot of hard work. We didn't want to rush out a solution, we wanted to do this right. Unfortunately, that meant it took longer, but we are still going through with it.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 1, Troll) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:04PM
You should improve your reading skills.
The requirement is that if you have reserved a domain name you suggest, that you agree to give it without any strings attached (that is, you cannot buy a domain, suggest it, and then say "oh, that's my domain, but you can have that domain name ... for a thousand dollars."
The other requirement is that otherwise, the domain must be free on all three top-level domains (that is, if foo.com is already held by some unrelated person, you cannot suggest foo.org).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 09 2014, @06:22PM
You should improve your understanding of the word "practical".
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:12PM
I cannot find a meaning of the word "practical" that would make the claim true.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @07:00PM
My understanding is that they're more like crackers.
(Score: 1) by urza9814 on Wednesday April 09 2014, @08:54PM
Based on the rest of the comments here, it seems to me like the community is more in favor of keeping SoylentNews than the site admins...the only person I see consistently pushing for a new name is NCommander!
So...you want fair and transparent and community-driven AND INSTANT? As the saying goes...Cheap, fast, good: pick two. Frankly, as a web developer, I've been kinda shocked with how *quickly* this site has been making progress. I sure as hell couldn't work that fast.
So what's your suggestion?
No, only the green variety is human flesh. This site is apparently Soylent Red, which is just generic mass-produced nutrient crackers of some sort. ;)