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Well, it has been a good run. Some people had some principles, and stuck to them. But the end result is catastrophe. We have made, what? 6000 members? We should be orders of magnitude above that by now. Something is wrong. There is trouble right here in River City! (Music Man, for those too young to get the reference)
Just now, in the submission by butthurt, which I have been watching since it was in the queue, we have people defending the KKK. You know, this is silly. It is ridiculous. This is a farce! Why? Everyone knows the KKK is dead. Those claiming to be KKK are either federal agents or seriously mentally ill persons. That is the only reason that I can say the violence against the KKK was wrong. Although I do not think the violence marred the protest: KKK protests are self-marring. If it was me, no head stomping, just head shots, at an appropriate photo studio, with posting to the internet, a la Anonymous, so we do know who these crazy mentally unbalanced people, and can recognize them in our scopes at a later date. Reap the whirlwind, racists!
But you see, my concern is not with these despicable racists, it is with the false equivalency that SoylentNews seems to be granting them. And not only them, but the gamergater-can't-meet-women crowd, and the Sad Puppies-my-fascist-Futurist_fiction-gets-no-traction people. These people are not to be taken seriously, by anyone! Now I am not saying we should ban them, but just letting them in causes problems for the site as a whole. Yeah, Mighty Buzzard, I hear you, but just listen for a bit.
We are getting an online rep. And it is not a good one. Yes, Ethanol_fueled can be entertaining, but the fact that he posts his racist screeds, even when they are modded down (and they are not always!), hurt SoylentNews. Runaway1956 has similar issues. Not as much of an ass as Eth, but not a contributer of material that is likely to encourage the kind of debate on issues that will make SolylentNews the place to be on the Internets. We are failing to be the replacement for the other site, and this is why. Bad money drives out good, and bad posters drive out good ones. I, for one, welcome [no, scratch that] grow tired of constantly responding to fascist, racist, dominionist, libertarian, and other crap here. I may stop entirely, soon. So, you volunteers, give some thought to what we want to be. A lid on the crazy may not be such a bad idea.
Oh, and by the way, that is the other thing that kind of tipped me off! When we have a certifiable homeless crazy person (MDC), that regularly posts more coherent and interesting things than do these racist trolls, I fear for the existence of SoylentNews. Well. I have said enough. It is up to the site whether I and those like me continue to contribute. The irony is, butthurt did this to me! Ha!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 08 2016, @11:23AM
You seem to be one for this site.
If you're looking for a site that will censor views that you find offensive, allow me to suggest reddit or twitter They've shown plenty of willingness to silence wrongthink. We will not. Ever. Full stop.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 08 2016, @04:30PM
Very cool! This comment convinced me to sign up. *Just say no* to censorship. Let's make the internet indelible.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 08 2016, @05:02PM
There goes the Buzz, falsely equating criticism to censorship, yet again.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 08 2016, @09:50PM
What part of a post whose entirety can be summed up by "You allow people to say things I don't like, so I'm taking my ball and going home." do you think is not a cry for censorship?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 08 2016, @10:28PM
The part where choosing to not read a website is not even close to censorship.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 08 2016, @10:40PM
Let me make it real simple for your bitsy little mind. "You don't censor, so I'm leaving." is now, and will always be, about censorship. There are absolutely zero other ways to interpret it. Either your English skills are failing you or you simply do not want to admit how horribly, horribly wrong you are.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 08 2016, @11:23PM
Yeah, 'cause boycotting a website because you don't like the path it's taking would be a totally unprecedented move for the SlashD...*cough*..Soylent community.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 08 2016, @11:51PM
Yet again you ignore the stated reason for his leaving. This is just getting asinine. I'm done playing with you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2017, @06:11AM
No you are not. It's your whole game.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday December 12 2018, @12:06AM
The 100% predictable outcome when khallow starts responding to you and you're tempted to reply...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:58PM
Maybe, I dunno.
On the other hand "The atmosphere here stinks, I'm leaving" is not about censorship.
Aristarchus is pointing out that the current atmosphere on SN is not helping SN. And he is right about that. Source: (1) anecdotal evidence, it is true for me (showing existence); (2) SN has been struggling to pay its bills (showing that on the whole, more supporting folks here would help).
The thing is (and I experienced it yet again while writing this message and deleted the rest as a result and started writing this instead):
At one point, you realise you're arguing on the internet. Not learning something, not teaching someone, not getting into a reasoned discussion where either of those two things happen. Just arguing - a pointless exchange of viewpoints that slowly will digress into shouting, namecalling, etc. On the internet.
As it turns out (cf. XKCD), I've got better things to do with my time.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 11 2016, @09:49PM
So the solution to this problem is "tell trolls to be nice"?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 11 2016, @10:08PM
I was thinking more like "tell the moderators to do a better job."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday March 12 2016, @05:22AM
Most of us do the best we can, DeathMonkey.
I take the responsibility of moderation very seriously, and do it to the best of my ability. Not as a weapon, but as a "thank you" for the other Soylentils who took the time to post something I got something out of.
I hold with the concept of anyone posting anything they want. No censor.
I know, we sometime get some crap posts, but at least its not as bad as trying to eat a catfish.
Because this is so general, one can get quite an education from reading what other people have to say on a given matter.
One can find very specialized forums on the net as well. One I liked in particular was "TheOilDrum", ( now in archive status ). I thought it was very well run as well. Other forums I frequent are specialized Ford Diesel Truck forums, as I just acquired one of these old beasts and I need to learn how to feed and care for it.
I have no changes I would like to make to these forums... I believe the people running this show know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. There are a few of us that seem to be a bit juvenile and drop inappropriate posts here ( I have done it as well ) and the resulting moderation is by-and-large appropriate.
I saw a few users called out by name, however, the posts are usually worth the read. I believe everyone should have some flagpole to run his notion up and see if anyone salutes. My failure to salute is NOT an indicator the notion should not be run up the pole. But how is one to know his notion is bad if he never got the chance to run it up and see?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:02PM
It's not about feeding the trolls. It's about who's doing the feeding.
If I write comments that I consider to be intelligible (irrespective of whether they actually are), that garner replies that I consider to be ignoring the points I'm trying to make and trying to move off in their own direction, then at one point, I'll stop feeding.
I'm happy to have an exchange of comments in which one person (me, or the other) learns something, but I will abort an exchange of comments if I feel (whether justified or not) that all that's happening is that we're just explaining our own stance to the other.
That's fine when it's not clear, but once that's done, what's the point of continuing?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sudo rm -rf on Tuesday March 08 2016, @05:16PM
You seem to be the one who tries to create an echo chamber of his own views. You also seem to be the one who starts barking the loudest of all, as soon as someone criticizes any fucked up backwater alpha male points of views. And you also seem to have difficulties reading. Read again the part that was obviously targeted at you (the part after "listen for a bit").
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 08 2016, @09:53PM
Really? If that were true, we would have deleted this journal entry. And your comment along with it. Instead witness the huge amounts of nothing that happen when you make blatantly and provably false accusations against a staff member. That, my full of shit friend, is what you call liberty.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Wednesday March 09 2016, @05:38PM
Re: sylnt.us
You shouldn't boil eggs to lengthen their shelf (read: fridge) life except when you are going to pickle or salt them afterwards. Cooking will destroy salmonella and other nasty stuff, but it will also destroy the membrane that keeps bacteria out.
Mod me offtopic, but it had to be said.
Ontopic: Has it ever occured that journal entries/comments have been deleted (legal requirement etc.)? And if so, was it made transparent to the community as to why?
Maybe it was discussed, but I missed it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 09 2016, @06:01PM
re: eggs
They were at their expiration date. I figured to get another week out of them by boiling them.
Ontopic: Not that I'm aware of. It's possible, though highly unlikely, that it happened in the first few months before I came on staff though. Hell, we even leave spam and torrent links up if they make it into the system, though the former is annoying as hell to everyone and the latter could end up with us shut down. The closest we've come is the text of one comment has been redacted (the comment itself still exists) because it was used to dox someone. Needless to say it would have defeated the point of redacting it to ask for community input, though we probably should have after the fact. That's our bad.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 09 2016, @06:03PM
Blerg, forgot to close the <i> tag after "one". Numfar, do the dance of shame.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 11 2016, @09:52PM
You should just abuse your power to edit the comment and add the </i> tag. Then delete this comment, and the parent comment.
Feel the power of censorship!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday March 12 2016, @12:14AM
Nah, I should abuse it to add half-formed <i> tags to everyone else's posts.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:12PM
Sure, because the unique and only way to create an echo chamber is censorship. If there is no censorship, then by definition it cannot be an echo chamber.
</sarcasm>
To reply to your question: yes, weally weally.
Even when people explicitly tell you that the tone and contents of their comments puts them off and is, in effect, creating an echo chamber, then you know better. *sigh*
The funny thing is: you're no better than a censor. Your actions on this site are driving people away, and you excuse it because you're not forbidding them. But in effect, your comments *are* affecting people, and they *are* causing people to lose interest in the site. Basically, you're just applying censorship in a way that does not fall afoul of your ideals. But after people have repeatedly called you out on it, you should be aware that you are, in effect, censoring this site. By your actions, you are causing people to apply self-censorship.
And as someone who loves liberty, that should shock you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2016, @05:44AM
Good. While I do agree with the author about being tired of some crap, I'd rather have a place where all voices get a chance than with pro-censorship platforms. Debate is healthy, and if we all stick to our own echo chambers then our society will speed ever faster into chaos. It takes effort, it can be tiring repeating the same points, but for those 6000 members there are more reading what we write. All the usernames listed have pissed me off on more than one occasion, but at the same time I have upvoted and applauded their points I feel are valid and insightful. As usual every human is a mix, and I just hope that you're wrong about a lot of users being feds and such... Those are the true scum, lying and deceiving to accomplish their own ends (unless they're being honest and just observing the community, goes with the public platform. Though tagging people for their non-criminal opinions sets them back to scum. From a certain space port...)
What was I saying?
Oh right, the popular opinion of this site... Perhaps a temporary addition to the page header, something like "this is a diverse community, check our handy various poll results to get a real idea" with poll results for a variety of topics that can help illustrate the diversity here. If the polls show a heavy slant towards one side of the spectrum then at least it would be honest. Without something, this community will be blacklisted by the netizens and even some of the members.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Tuesday July 05 2016, @05:48AM
So much frustration with this site on mobile, submit button often gets hidden when pasting text, and wrong form errors all the goddamn time. I was logged in when I pasted that post, still went as AC. Ah well, should I bother with a bug report?
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 05 2016, @10:29AM
Yup, bonus cookie if you can reproduce. Either slap it on github or email it to admin@soylentnews.org.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @02:23PM
Turns out the problem is with my mobile provider. Most likely reason: my web traffic through mobile is being "managed". Wish I knew if it was just ISP fuckery or gov spooks causing issues as they run my data through their super secret servers. Disturbing either way.
For anyone doing what they shouldn't:
FUCK YOUUUU FASCIST DICKBAGS!