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You know, this is probably one of the hardest things I've had to write since we went live. My first few attempts just lead to writer's block and frustration, so I tried to take a different tack with this and do it the way I usually do my write-ups for anything; by the seat of my pants. The staff have poked and prodded my early attempts, and I think we're ready to open this up to everyone to add their two cents in as we work towards a final version.
Since we've gone live almost three months ago (yeash, time flies), we've already had our fair share of debates, strife, and conflict, yet at the end of the day we remain operational with an involved community that keeps growing day after day. As I continue my relocation to NH, we're getting scary close to the point we're going to need to start drafting the bylaws and operating principles for this site. One of the pressing questions that have been asked time and time again is, "What will we be?" I'm ready to give you that answer.
Without further ado, let me present the current draft copy of the site manifesto. I'll read through and debate feedback below, and keep refining this until it becomes the defining statement for what SN will be.
SoylentNews Manifesto: Version 0.1
Preamble:
In recent years, many alarming trends have surfaced regarding the free interchange of news and ideas on the internet. The practice of selling users' information for profit, without their approval or even knowledge, has become rampant. People are being prosecuted simply for expressing their opinions. A "Big Brother is Watching" mentality from both state and commercial actors, with universal surveillance now becoming common, has created a chilling effect, preventing people from exercising their rights or speaking up.
Unpopular or unusual views are being actively suppressed, diversity of opinion is too often deemed a problem, and actively restricted, at the whim of corporate and political power.
Too often, the focus upon profit has led to owners forgetting that sites exist for the benefit of their community, and the leadership and staff live to serve that community.
Too often, useful help and input from a site's community is ignored by staff and management who are so out of touch with the very people they serve that they will destroy the support of the community they built, and eventually the business itself.
Statement of Purpose
Our aim is to stand in stalwart opposition to these trends. We will be the best site for independent, not-for-profit journalism on the internet, where ideas can be presented and free discussion can take place without external needs overshadowing the community.
Our Principles
Right to Privacy
We will limit the amount of data collection we do whenever and however we can.
Our user database, and the information in it, is not, and never will be for sale.
Any data collection we do will be done with the consent of the community, and destroyed once we are finished with it.
Any information we collect for legal purposes (i.e., DCMA safe harbor protections) will be destroyed as soon as legally possible.
We will continuously look at ways to shore up users' privacy, including, but not limited to, the tor proxy presently available to our users.
Right of Opinion
Diversity will be respected and encouraged as an important aspect of our community, as groupthink can easily prevent people from seeing other, perhaps better, ideas.
Except as required by law, no one will be banned or have their comments deleted due to stating a fact or opinion, no matter how unpopular or repugnant it is. We will not ban or silence a user for merely stating an opinion.
Freedom of Access
Access to information needs to be available to all members.
We will, to the extent possible, attempt to accommodate members of this site with disabilities, such as those dependent on screen readers.
Content produced by this site shall be available in a format that does not require proprietary or patented software. Non-free methods of access in addition may also be provided for sake of convenience (i.e., a YouTube video)
Freedom from Financial Backers/Handling Advertising
Media can be influenced by those who fund it; to prevent us from becoming slaves to a new overlord, the LibreNews Foundation shall be funded independently by the member sites (such as SoylentNews) which comprise it.
Should fundraising efforts prove insufficient, at the discretion of the staff, we may run advertising on this site in an attempt to supplement income.
No attempt to block access to this site shall be made by those who use ad-blocking software, though we urge such users to subscribe.
Permissions granted by the user to this site shall not extend to other sites (i.e., if you give us permission to email you, we're not going to give anyone else permission to do so).
Third-party media hosted on this on this site shall be limited to a form which is non-distracting, and non-disrupting.
Freedom of Topic
We recognize that the free flow of ideas can only take place in an environment free of taboo subjects.
No topic will be deemed unsuitable for our community to discuss.
Right to Criticize/Right of Reversion
A true community can only exist when communication can flow in both directions.
The right of our community to criticize, make suggestions, and help us improve our site will be respected. No staff or leader will ever be above criticism.
We recognize that mistakes will be made, as we are all human. It is both the right and privilege of others to correct us when needed.
If serious errors are made, we promise to revert them and fix the problems.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Monday May 12 2014, @08:09PM
I'm not sure I understand these 2 sentences. Does this mean no topic, except taboo subjects, will be deemed unsuitable...?
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 12 2014, @08:12PM
I vote to discuss soybeans. Now. Taboo soybeans.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday May 13 2014, @07:14AM
Only if it is lent soy!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mattie_p on Monday May 12 2014, @08:15PM
It means that the environment of this site will be free from taboo subjects. If it helps, insert an implied sentence in between the two sentences you quoted. "Our site will be that environment which has no taboo subjects."
We intend to allow a forum where any topic can be discussed. Does this clarify our intentions?
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Monday May 12 2014, @08:30PM
Yes, it does. The way the sentences were worded they seemed to be contradicting each other.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 12 2014, @08:36PM
See there's two problems. First in another post I mentioned separation of where your going from what you're going to do. One is a statement of 100% certainty of how you'll behave, and the other is just smoking stuff and coming up with a nice idea of where you'd like to get but whatever. And/or prioritize those two totally separate concepts. So you'd sacrifice X to save Y if you had to, where X and Y are I donno.
The other problem is some peculiar wording about opinions "no one will be banned or have their comments deleted due to stating an opinion" So I could get the axe if I posted some rather unpopular facts, like "there exists an average racial variation in IQ (admittedly inter is smaller than intra) as described in the Bell Curve book". That is a fact of little debate, surely not an opinion unless you're claiming I misread the book (LOL, I suppose possible) but it is a fact of much flame throwing. I'm guessing you wrote "opinions" with the implication along the lines of "something I wrote" rather than fact vs opinion. Or maybe not.
The ole open source thing of publish early and often will likely pay off for you...
(Score: 3, Informative) by mattie_p on Monday May 12 2014, @08:53PM
Where we are going and what we're going to do. That is part of the point of this article, to differentiate between the two and spark some healthy discussion on those. We'd love to hear your thoughts specifically on those points.
Regarding opinions and facts, we the staff will not be deleting accounts. Stating unpopular facts or opinions might get you modded down into oblivion, but we won't delete you. I'll clarify that point in the article.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 12 2014, @09:05PM
"That is part of the point of this article, to differentiate between the two"
I liked the general story, just saying I think it would be clearer to separate them in the outline. A simple three part recipe, here's how we'll do things, here's where we're trying to get, and when they conflict X or Y wins.
Right on, WRT "The ole open source thing of publish early and often will likely pay off for you." this is all part of making version 0.2 better.
I still think it would have been hilarious to put it all in a github project and see the pull requests rather than doing it in this format.
(Score: 2) by crutchy on Monday May 19 2014, @09:53PM
github_manifesto++
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hash14 on Tuesday May 13 2014, @06:56AM
I think a better way of phrasing this is "no topic shall be considered taboo". Writing something like 'this environment has no taboo subjects' could alternatively mean taboo subjects exist and should not be considered here - I feel that there is an ambiguity here.
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Monday May 12 2014, @09:54PM
I think I get what you're saying. To be "free of taboo subjects" could mean "without discussion of bestiality, because bestiality is a taboo subject".
That sentence could be reworded to something like:
We believe that the free flow of ideas can only take place in an environment in which taboos are not recognized.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday May 13 2014, @12:03AM
This. The bestiality analogy is spot on, although I'll admit I was thinking of this instead [imdb.com]. I mean, who doesn't think of that when they hear the word, "taboo?"
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Tuesday May 13 2014, @01:51AM
While I find it strange that some folk rank pedophiles that abuse children as less evil then someone that cares and loves there companion.
I do agree that no subject should be taboo as long its an intelligent/sane/debate discussion on it. Such a debate can help curb some myths, bias, and even educate folks.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday May 13 2014, @07:19AM
Not to mention those who abuse the English language. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Tuesday May 13 2014, @12:33PM
Sorry about that. English was not one of my strong points in high school.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 13 2014, @03:09AM
Perhaps is should be phrased, "No subject shall be taboo".
(Score: 1) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 13 2014, @03:12AM
Well, technically, I suppose it should also say, "The Queen shall not be taboo", because the Queen is not a subject. :)