Fluffeh writes:
"When the D.C. U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the FCC's Open Internet Rules, a White House Petition was put up to 'direct the FCC to classify ISPs as "common carriers"'. With over 100k signatures, there is now an official response.
Absent net neutrality, the Internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries. The resulting decline in the development of advanced online apps and services would dampen demand for broadband and ultimately discourage investment in broadband infrastructure. An open Internet removes barriers to investment worldwide.
The petition asked that the President direct the FCC to reclassify Internet service providers as "common carriers" which, if upheld, would give the FCC a distinct set of regulatory tools to promote net neutrality. The FCC is an independent agency. Chairman Wheeler has publicly pledged to use the full authority granted by Congress to maintain a robust, free and open Internet a principle that this White House vigorously supports."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Wednesday February 19 2014, @01:45PM
To improve the summary, emphasize that every word after the "official response" hyperlink is actually quoted from the official response. This could be done with a colon and then italics, for example.
I thought I was still reading Fluffeh's words until the very end, when I was thrown by "... a principle that this White House vigorously supports".
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @01:49PM
Didn't you know Fluffy works at the white house? Try to keep up.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Open4D on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:15PM
lol
.
And yeah I always felt the other site had this problem too.
It seems to me that a big improvement could be made by not just saying "posted by Dopefish [soylentnews.org] on Wednesday ..." but instead expanding that to "posted by Dopefish [soylentnews.org] based on this original submission [soylentnews.org] by Fluffeh [soylentnews.org] on Wednesday ..."
This would then free up the main summary section for what most readers really care about, with 1 fewer level of quoting going on.
.
DISCLAIMER: In my example above, some of the URLs are wrong.
(Score: 2) by mattie_p on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:03PM
You know, that isn't a bad idea at all. I'll bring it up and see what sticks. Thanks for reading! ~mattie_p
(Score: 3, Informative) by mattie_p on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:07PM
Thanks for pointing this out. It can be difficult for us editors to make sense of the summaries sometimes, and we rely on the community to help us out. I know I've already gotten to the point where some edits I'm making are just words, no context. I appreciate the feedback, and thanks for reading! ~mattie_p