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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: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:47PM
Shoulda just used Debian's "devotee" which has all the bugs worked out of the weirder formatting problems and peculiar ideas of ranking (like multiple selections at the same level, refusal to even comment on certain options, etc)
https://vote.debian.org/~secretary/devotee.git/ [debian.org]
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday April 18 2014, @04:23PM
...and requires PGP signed emails.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 21 2014, @01:14PM
True but I was getting at the idea that its easier to patch out a test such that it always passes, than to re-implement all the parsing code.
Or to really be a jerk it would be a great excuse to set up keyserver.sn.org for semi-ACs and link to the real keyservers for non-ACs, to enforce encrypted email.
(Score: 2) by stderr on Tuesday April 22 2014, @02:28PM
No, it doesn't.
Devotee is a collection of multiply smaller programs, each taking care of their own part of the voting process. If you don't want to deal with all the PGP stuff, you can simply skip the program that checks the PGP signature.
I have actually said so multiple times already, e.g. a month ago, when I was still on #staff:
(Those timestamps are CET. It would be Mar 21 13:28:34/13:29:02 UTC.)
I know NCommander ignored a lot of the stuff I wrote on IRC (after all, that is why I left staff), but maybe he wasn't the only one ignoring me? You were on #staff at the time.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday April 22 2014, @05:51PM
I missed that, I was at work at the time and talking to colleagues. For what it's worth, I was really hoping that you did look into Devotee, it seemed like the best option. I had no intention to offend you by looking into another solution. I was waiting to hear about your efforts, and was pursuing another avenue, and along the way I couldn't keep track of every effort. Unfortunately, you left the staff and at that point, it didn't seem like I could do more. Again, I apologize.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by stderr on Tuesday April 22 2014, @07:37PM
I did look into Devotee, but when I left staff, I didn't think there was any reason for me to keep working on something related to SoylentNews (or whatever the name will be). I did continue to look into Devotee for other reasons. :-)
As I think I have told you before, I wasn't offended that you or anyone else were looking into other solutions. People should do that.
As I also think I have told you already, I didn't leave because of you. If you look closely at the comment you replied to, it may contain a small hint (ok, a big hint) about why I left.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" #