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I wanted to get feedback on how the community feels about our current name vote. There have been some concerns that we've had relatively small percentage (~10 percent) of members register to vote, and wanted to see if there was something more fundamental going on. As it is currently setup, here's how things are
- You had to be registered by April 12th to have been included in the name vote; if you received a ballot for submission, you should have gotten ranking ballot
- We haven't retroactively added in additional users, though it hasn't been clear that there was a hard cutoff
- The submission phase went until the 19th, and the vote for the name will continue until the 27th
- The current system is email only (but we are looking at getting something integrated into the website implemented for future votes)
I want to hear your feedback below from everyone. Based on what we get back, we'll roll improvements into future votes, or if need be, reset the vote and do it again; I know a lot of you are active here or at least more involved, so the relatively low turnout is a warning canary for me. Leave your comments below, and expect another story in a few days to see how we're using your comments.
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Q: What is the difference between a duck?
A: One leg is both the same.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:02PM
that most people think the name is fine?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Snow on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:07PM
I didn't know that it was time to vote. The email ended up in the spam folder. Looking at it now... IMO, SoylentNews is the best name by a pretty good margin, although maybe I'm just used to it now.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Horse With Stripes on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:40PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday April 23 2014, @11:34PM
I voted but I voted to keep the name as i think its the right amount of geek snark and a statement of what we were getting away from with Slashdot (being treated like a product) so I think its a REALLY good name. Maybe many feel as i do and just see no point in fixing what ain't broke?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday April 23 2014, @11:56PM
^this.
Just drop it, in my opinion. I like it, it's got a good beat and it's goes good while i read by bicycle-powered light... I give it a 10 (or a 9, if that is the highest, but mine goes 11). The ONLY change i'd make is to call it soylent-green, or soylentgreen or something.
drop the vote and keep on truckin'! :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 1) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:17AM
Joined 14th, I was holding out.
Never got a ballot.
I think the site should be named "Richard Harris". It's a good name, and no one is using it, anymore.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Thursday April 24 2014, @08:36AM
Too late. You cannot drop it now. Either call a vote and vote or do not call vote. Dropping the vote at this moment makes the team seem incompetent and frustrates a percentage of users that DID want to vote on it.
If you are happy with the same, you should vote to keep it. If you did not, do not bitch when it gets changed.
What may be done by the staff is to call another round of voting (including new registration) for the people that somehow missed the name.
(Score: 1) by Iskender on Thursday April 24 2014, @01:33AM
I'll be sad if it turns out to be the winner. On one hand, we have some good, nerdy suggestions.
On the other we have a reference to a cheesy 70s movie and its totally done-to-death meme. The message of the site's current name and slogan is that the news provided here are made from the mutilated, ground-down and processed corpses of the users - for me it doesn't work even as a comment on Slashdot's policies of late. The movie is not even very well regarded in the scifi fandom, and its meme is really mainstream. The current name doesn't describe our community at all.
If the current name wins in the end, it will be all due to inertia, and the curse of temporary names.
(Disclaimer: the "Home" scene in Soylent Green was really good. It conveyed the feeling of loss very well. But the site's name is from the sucky last scene, not to mention I don't think profound loss is what I want to think of on a news site)
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday April 25 2014, @08:50PM
I didn't see any of the others that weren't frankly forgettable and shouldn't we try to remember WHY we moved away from /. the whole being treated as a commodity with no say in the matter? Soylent reminds those of us old guys that started that we were getting away from being treated as product while letting newbs think its just a classic geek sci-fi reference. Works for me.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:54AM
I'm the person who came up with the name so I'm glad you think it's a really good name. I hope we keep it.
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Couuard on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:28AM
Mine ended up in the spam folder as well.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:08PM
AC is probably correct. Even if we were a vocal minority about Beta, not everyone has an opinion or an opinion that goes against what we already have on a name.
Also, people are lazy about voting for anything, no matter how important.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:41PM
Thirded, Soylent news is just a bit "inaccessible" to the average Joe but good enough for Slashdot refugees.
I for one didn't vote for two reasons: the first being that I didn't have a better idea (especially one that met the criteria) and the second being that it would be jarring to some who were just starting to get settled in. We don't need anymore jarring events after the Barrabas stuff. But that's just, like, my opinion, man.
I don't think anything should be done. Maybe include a small "Why Soylent news?" link near the logo which explains the name to the baby or common plebe and then wittily points them to the mission statement and constitution and all that shit.
That being said, I'll stick around here, no matter the name, until I die or get banned. Or until the admins get bought out by Facebook and force SN Beta on us all.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 23 2014, @11:03PM
Dude, don't even kid.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by xlefay on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:19PM
I think it would have been a close one, the biggest obstacle however is e-mail. Some people, don't want their e-mails to be put in yet another database, or, having to submit/vote (on) names via e-mail.
Besides that, I'm fairly sure there are a lot of people that skimmed (read: didn't read) the instructions and instead gave 1 'point' to which name they liked the most (which means, the one they dislike the most), etc..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by githaron on Wednesday April 23 2014, @11:52PM
I almost did this. I read the directions three times because that point was a little confusing. It was kind of misleading calling the points "ranks". When I think of ranking something, I would normally think the best rank was 1. Also, the reason I didn't vote earlier was because I didn't see the email.
(Score: 2) by Daniel Dvorkin on Thursday April 24 2014, @02:07AM
Yep. All of the above. Confusing instructions, invisible e-mail, etc. The voting process is terrible, and any results from it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Pipedot [pipedot.org]:Soylent [soylentnews.org]::BSD:Linux
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Thursday April 24 2014, @06:35AM
O M F G. I just read the vote email again and yes it says:
"A higher number means you like this choice better."
WTF guys? Every existing voting system I have ever used uses 1 as highest preference... why would you reverse it? :(
I like that you hid this massively significant detail as 1 sentence in amongst a gigantic wall of text so that this clearly *abnormal* and *unintuitive* requirement wasn't in any way easily visible or concisely pointed out. *sigh*
Just keep SoylentNews, for all its flaws it's just as good as anything else suggested. Changing names now will just add confusion for the sake of what... proving that we can generate clever names and are therefore smarter than everyone else?
Thank you for trying though (seriously thank you), but definitely a warning canary! I guess at least this vote is on something fairly trivial that doesn't matter if things go wrong. Biggest piece of advice: Concisely repeat the exact voting process in dot-point form at the end of the email so there is absolutely ZERO confusion - perhaps with an example vote shown?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @09:28AM
> Every existing voting system I have ever used uses 1 as highest preference...
You obviously didn't spend much time on HotOrNot :-)
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Thursday April 24 2014, @03:36PM
If you didn't absorb this before voting, don't worry. You can change your vote [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Thursday April 24 2014, @05:30PM
Thanks. It's kind of funny that there is yet another weird/hidden feature in the voting process that lets you recast your ballot.
The SoylentNews voting machine has so many features I think somewhere in there it probably doubles as a microwave oven.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 25 2014, @01:03AM
learn to read you fucktard
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:23PM
Still, it would be nice to have an alternate domain name registered and ready to go should the copyright holders of Soylent Green come calling. (Turner Entertainment Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.), or the estate of Harry Harrison who coined the word in his book Make Room, Make Room
Soylent is used in a bunch of other instances, so this seems unlikely.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday April 23 2014, @11:26PM
Does this fall under Fair Use? Maybe as a parody?
(too pressed for time to do any research today, hopefully somebody can answer?)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mrclisdue on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:36PM
It's anecdotal, with a sample size of just me, but imnsho, we don't really give a shit about the name (well, not a whole lot anyhow) - or perhaps the seeming complexity and meticulousness of the process contributed to a c'est la vie, laissez-faire complacency about it all.
Bacon News, SN, hell even slashdot2, it's ultimately "about the comments", that's what brought us here, what keeps us here, and ultimately will determine whether or not we stay , regardless as to how much or how little we contribute.
cheers,
(Score: 0) by lajos on Wednesday April 23 2014, @10:40PM
no, the "soylent news" name sucks.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:04AM
> that most people think the name is fine?
That and the process is waaaay too complicated.
Speaking for myself, I can't be arsed to do all that crap with email for something that is essentially a glorified poll. If it was a poll over on the right-hand side of the front page, I'd participate. Otherwise, there is just too much inertia to bother.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @01:22AM
This right here. I read about the process and I was like screw that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 24 2014, @12:18AM
Well I guess since we're having a vote we'll find out soon.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Thursday April 24 2014, @08:38AM
That is the most stupid argument about voting I ever heard. And sadly it got modded up.
So the low voting turnout in many western countries is that people think everything is fine? It is far more common to hear people complain and say they do not vote because it does not matter anyway.
If you think the name is fine, you should vote to keep it. No right to complain if you did not.