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What is the main reason that keeps you from volunteering to help with SoylentNews?
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If we can ever make red tape nutritional, we can feed the world.
-- R. Schaeberle, "Management Accounting"
(Score: 5, Touché) by Snospar on Friday May 28 2021, @01:14PM (2 children)
I don't even have time to take part in this poll.
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday May 29 2021, @05:54AM
Been putting in 13 hours 7 days for months now. Booked up for at least another month of that. Launching a business is hard work.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 04 2021, @01:58AM
On rare occasion I might have some time to volunteer, but those occasions are so scattered and unpredictable that I would feel I am doing more of a dis-service by dropping in every month or three, doing something, then abruptly disappearing again for who knows how long.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @02:47PM (112 children)
I would be interested, but
1) I have a full time job and would not want to feel compelled to put large numbers of hours in.
2) As a volunteer, I would do things my way. I have no desire to be part of a boss-subordinate relationship.
3) I used to be on IRC a lot. It was a grandiose timesink and I don't want to have to go back.
4) Can NCommander really just decide to shut it all down?
5) With the ejection of realDonaldTrump, the departure of TMB and maybe now Hemocyanin, gratuitous upvotes of Azuma's ad-hominems and anyone else parroting the current Democrat party line, corresponding downvotes to opposing ideas to hide them from default view and placing their authors in risk of an IP ban - I have no desire to volunteer for a site that is in danger of becoming a "safe space" for neo-Communists.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @03:54PM (41 children)
was rDT ejected, always took it to gettng bored with the presona. or did SN really start censoring so long before FB and the rest?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @12:28PM (36 children)
He was actively posting and then abruptly stopped. Word at the time was that he was "exposed as a sock puppeteer" but TMB would throw those accusations around liberally.
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Friday June 04 2021, @01:18PM (32 children)
What happened to realDonaldTrump.
tl;dr: The community moderated his comments.
He enjoyed an initial upswing in popularity (I'd seen several references to his posts as being a parody — good for a laugh — and I saw many "+1 Funny" moderations by the community.
As time went on, the account was less favorably viewed by the community. I started to see fewer upmods and started seeing more downmods; "-1 Offtopic" and "-1 Troll" became more common.
The moderations affected his karma (as they do for all logged-in users. His karma eventually dropped low enough that he lost the ability to post comments. (That's part of the design of our moderation system.) Actions have consequences. Nobody on staff put a anything like a "block" or "ban" on the account.
The community spoke.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @04:54PM
I thought the rDT persona was interesting, but it had limited long-term potential in this room. Like Paulie Shore or Emo Phillips (or Whoopi Goldberg). Ultimately, though, it wasn't the rDT performance - often positive and refreshing - it was the moderation. "less favorably viewed" means to eliminate threats. Encourage what you want, and drive away what you don't.
America sucks: +3 Insightful
MAGA: banned for life
I sincerely tried to lighten and maybe enlighten this room, and find relief my long, stressful days; fortunately, much of my work (and personally-identifying info) was lost last month in the fire.
Non-sequitur trolling, humorless anger, and driving-away other viewpoints are your fate. For me, the party's over, my friend.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @05:07PM (22 children)
Arguably EF was more offensive, but posted for much longer - Question: He hasn't posted since April, have you banned him?
rDT attracted downmods for his political statements, even though they were satire, as Hemocyanin's project has drawn attention to. Question: Has the green site banned users from voicing opinions that a brigade doesn't like?
This poll has been up for a week, and this may have been the first reply by staff to the concerns people have brought up. It has been more disconcerting than I would have expected. No effort to assuage concerns, plus I learn that a mob can cancel even a logged in account.
I have the technical skills, but hell no.
Shouldn't have run your skilled admin TMB off.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday June 05 2021, @01:12AM (21 children)
Same thing happened to EF as what happened to rDT... in this case his "offensive" posting (as you called it) caught up with him. He received enough downmods that it caused his karma to drop below a level where he could post comments.
Several factors at work here. First, staff learned of TMB's departure when he posted it to his journal. Much scrambling ensued. And continues. There was much that was done over the past few years that was not documented. We've been discovering things, and documenting them, as we go. Each of us has taken on a part of TMB's former activities on top of what we had already done before. We also have a couple staff members who are on a leave-of-absence for personal reasons.
So, today was the first day that I noticed this poll was here and I am making some time to respond to it.
Let me take this opportunity to extend my personal thanks and amazement at the selfless extra efforts that staff has made during this period! The attitude has been all about "what can I do to help?" I count myself privileged to be a part of this organization. I've never before worked with such a selfless and talented group!
That said, I need to step away from this discussion -- our pending story queue is running dry.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @03:15AM (15 children)
They both posted at similar rates, yet EF somehow kept clear of being cancelled for two years longer than rDT? How curious.
It's apparent there was some sort of coup behind the scenes here, around the time Ncommander showed his self around. It doesn't look like anyone has ended up vocally pledging loyalty to him, but suddenly there was talk of "enforced niceness", Hemo and TMB left and erased their journals, and EF was cancelled.
Fuck beta and all that, but how is the Green Site nowadays? As for me, it looks like I'll go perusing the Register more often. They have more stories and their comments have a fair share of dissenting opinions.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:04AM (14 children)
Karma bans are temporary. EF can come back whenever he wants. rDT probably got bored of playing the character.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @05:03AM (11 children)
Even if rDT were allowed back, nobody with any energy and talent likes playing to empty seats.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @10:04PM
rDT the talented? Ha! More like people realized it wasn't a parody at all and just another user driving a rightwing agenda in a joking manner. Republicans beat troll humor into the ground and are busy skull fucking the corpse at this point. Actually, they switched from trolling into straight up psychopath behavior and are currently trying to generate support for a military coup.
That shit ain't funny.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday June 17 2021, @03:19PM (9 children)
He is free to return, there is no ban issued by SN. His karma went below the level that permitted him to post, thus he became silent. That was a result of community moderation. However, his karma has long ago returned to its default level and, if he wishes, he can resume posting again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @03:54PM (8 children)
That's like Captain Edward John Smith saying, "All is forgiven. Come on back aboard, we miss you!"
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday June 18 2021, @08:17PM (7 children)
Except we are not sinking, personally I don't wish to see that persona back, and it is the community that moderated him into silence, not us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:47AM (6 children)
With bulkheads made of Perl. As the bo'sun orders you to take on ballast, and the first mate jettisons the lifeboats. And yet you blame it on the sharks.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday June 22 2021, @07:06AM (5 children)
Nobody orders anybody here to do anything. We are all volunteers and we each get on with our own role. You have a very distorted and inaccurate view of how this site is managed and how we all function. Politics or personal vendettas do not exist. Views expressed in comments however are personal views and we each have a right to comment as does every other member of this community.
The only reason that I can see to explain why rDT stopped posting was because his karma was moderated down below a certain threshold - I think -5. It returned within a very short period of time, and had he chosen to do so he could have continued to post comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @04:21PM (4 children)
You seem to take a very narrow view of the analogy. rDT is just a symptom, not some charismatic martyr. Review earlier posts. You can see the true theme here, again and again. And again. We are abandoning a sinking ship because...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:04PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22 2021, @05:32PM (2 children)
Okay, fine.
Somebody else must have figured something was awry. Otherwise, why did they start this poll about "Why Don't You Want Anything To Do With Us?"
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday June 23 2021, @05:01AM (1 child)
You have made your decision to 'abandon ship' based upon erroneous information. What does it matter which language the site is written in? It makes no difference to how you interact with it. You seem to think that there is some sort of evil cabal overseeing this site plotting against certain community members - which is simply untrue. I have tried to correct this misconception but you have still decided to go. If you distrust us that much then I can only wish you luck in finding a community that you can join and enjoy being a part of.
The site depends upon Rehash - our fork of the original Slash code written in Perl. It has been proven to be robust and more than capable of supporting a community several magnitudes larger than our current one. A decade or more ago Slashdot was famous for remain operational despite several attempts to bring it to its knees by Denial of Service attacks. The same cannot be said of the vast majority of modern frameworks. Rehash depends upon an old version of Apache. Work has been continuing on converting it to work with a modern and fully-supported version of Apache but this work was invisible to the community and, for the time being, has come to a stop. However what we currently have is working fine - the problems experienced over the last few years have all been systems problems and nothing at all to do with the Perl code. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.
The the poll was run because we are always trying to recruit more staff. We have a very small editorial team, there are currently only 2 active sys-admins which is insufficient for 24 hour coverage and the amount of remedial work that a restructuring will require, and the last active developer for our software has just left the team with no warning. The software is fine but, currently, we are unable to make any enhancements or other changes. The problems have all been exacerbated by the arrival of COVID which has left many in our community struggling in their private lives and jobs with little time for giving support to the site. The poll, which was suggested by a member of the community - not a member of the site staff - is an attempt to discover if there are any other reasons why people are reluctant to join the team.
There is also a frustration amongst the current team that many in our community are not here to discuss the stories that are published, but are using the site to push their own political or social views or simply to troll other members of our community. They seem to think that it is acceptable to attack the speaker rather than debate the views that are being expressed. We are not unique in this regard - social media of all kinds is battling with exactly the same problems amid much publicity. We are constantly looking for solutions to this problem and we discuss various options from time to time. None have yet been implemented and none will be without consultation with the whole community. None of the possible solutions discussed will please every member of our community and none discussed so far will address every aspect so we have not introduced them. But the fact that we are looking at the problem is not something that the community should interpret as an attack upon themselves.
Good luck wherever you find yourself a home.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 23 2021, @11:06PM
I love you, too, janrinok!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:02AM (1 child)
Parody eventually gave way to the strangeness of truth. By the time they could post again, there was no challenging what is true, for truth is always strange but fiction has to make sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:15PM
Should've started using realDrFauci last year, 'cause it's starting to lose its humour, now.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:55AM (3 children)
Maybe that is a bad thing. If one wants to be offensive one can always go AC. I can block a user (can I?) but I cannot block AC. Will users with low karma first start at -1? This would seem sensible to me: do not ban but start posts at -1. With 10 mod points per day it seems that by using a couple accounts a given user can be banned in a few or even on a single day. BTW 10 mod points per day is to much IMO, bring it down to 7.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Tuesday June 08 2021, @03:26PM
It started as 5 points, but moderation was very sparse. TMB was the one who poked that the code to first make 5 points an automatic thing instead of random chance and then bumping up the point level to 10 to encourage more moderation. I agree that the original point scheme from slashcode doesn't work for a smaller community like SN. Perhaps the better solution was bumping up the chance you are awarded mod points to a number between the $orig_chance and the current 100% chance we enjoy now? That way you're more likely to receive points than what the original slashcode dolled out thus returning moderation into a reward for good karma and limiting users with sock puppets to a smaller pool of points to modbomb posts. Of course the way to defeat that is to just have more sock puppet accounts to increase your odds of getting an account with mod points that day--but with a vast quantity of puppet accounts to guarantee a daily pool of points, signs of abuse would be flagrant in the IP logs. Though take my recommendations with a grain of salt, I'm not staff and I haven't actually looked at the code. This is just what I recall from previous conversations about the topic.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:47PM (1 child)
Especially if those points are used to punish your enemies.
It depends on what your definition of "offensive" is.
We've seen so many times here what the definition of "enemies" is.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:19PM
We needz 15 pointz, precious. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:12PM
No redemption for the sinners, even if they were to repent, eh? (not that I imagine EF would)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday June 11 2021, @12:17PM (3 children)
I didn't realise that you could lose the ability to post comments. Personally, I would prefer that to not happen - maybe lose the freebie +2 mod points you get for logging in. I don't see that banning comments helps, as anyone can come in as AC, it just means we lose the ability to track unpopular people. I don't mind reading the slander fest that is FaceF?ck - it's just their style, and I appreciate knowing who posted so I can take that into account. Probably doesn't win them many mod points though.
Nb: I thought RDT was an insightful poster right to the end. For some he is MAGA. For others he is satire. For others still he is just a jerk. Same as the real realDonaldTrump. That was the whole point, I thought. Moot point (for now) as the *real* realDonaldTrump has got the kick for now.
Nb2: Reminds me of Starship Troopers (the movie). For some it is MAGA. For some it is satire. For some it is just a movie. I appreciate the trichotomy, especially given the historical context of the Iraq Wars.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday June 14 2021, @02:18PM (2 children)
Following that thought, what happens when a bad poster's karma goes so far down that they can't post comments?
What can they still do, as a logged-in user? Can they reform their character and raise their karma back to the point where they can post useful comments again?
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday June 14 2021, @05:27PM (1 child)
Some other post said the bad karma disappears after a few days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @05:49PM
Aren't there any Rules of Engagement? It's no wonder people go off shooting in all directions. And all the foot injuries.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Friday June 18 2021, @12:17PM (3 children)
That is very debatable at least. Mods (up or down) would only reflect the community if individuals were chosen at random (maybe weighted by their activeness) and would deliver a mod. This assumes that fake accounts do not exist. By contrast, few active modders (potentially using several accounts) dominate the modding landscape. Again, I advocate for limiting the number of mod points.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @06:25AM
But I thought the only solution to bad speech is more speech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:23PM (1 child)
[Citation needed] No, seriously, that's quite an accusation, proof would be in order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 23 2021, @11:12PM
Shrewdsheep is clearly a sockpuppet account of a conservative on staff, probably chromas. In fact, maybe all SN accounts are sockpuppets. Everywhere I look, there is sockpuppetry, and injurious downmodding and mod-banning! So in the village where the barber shaves everyone, who is the sockpuppet puppeting the sockpuppets?
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday June 05 2021, @08:59AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @04:19PM (1 child)
Which is less healthy, vanity up-modding oneself, or ganging together to drive-out opposing viewpoints?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 11 2021, @11:12AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday May 30 2021, @04:43PM (1 child)
TMB confirmed in the comments of his good-bye post that both RDT had been a satirical account by one of the regulars that I haven't seen on site in quite a while. The same person was (according to TMB) originally the creator of Azuma 2.0 but then lost control of the account to someone else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @06:28PM
It's hard to make parody of someone who long ago descended into self-parody. It was funny in 2016 and maybe for the first couple of months of 2017.
Azuma 2.0 is horrible. It's one thing to parody a public figure, another to parody a community member, even one who's a troll. (And she's not even as bad as her gang of haters, EF, or any of the other troll accounts).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @02:46PM (1 child)
Question is why haven't r3alB1d3n appeared yet?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:26PM
He's still sleepy, I reckon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 28 2021, @08:02PM (22 children)
I can agree with one of your points.
Additionally,
[x] IRC, what's IRC? (hey, grew up with Macintosh, rarely touched a PC until the mid 90's, didn't touch Linux until 1999. So some tech culture differences)
[x] I probably don't know the technology that powers the site
[_] I felt like the site was really going downhill, over run by AC bots and AC mods or something going on behind the scenes that I could only guess at.
[x] I've read how un-ready some story submissions are, and don't think I could edit them into suitable form before accepting them. (the time, the patience, the maturity and sanity required)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @09:48PM (5 children)
IRC is internet relay chat, a client-server protocol for realtime text communication.
Don't worry about the second one, they didn't know the technology powering the site either.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 01 2021, @02:17PM (4 children)
Yes, I know that these days. I'm not totally ignorant, just mostly. But thank you.
It makes me think of BBS days. Later internet based "BBS" using telnet (yes, telnet). But I would have to learn to use it. And that is yet more of a time sink.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Friday June 04 2021, @03:20AM (3 children)
Pretty much everything can be webpage-ized: https://chat.soylentnews.org [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 07 2021, @06:15PM (2 children)
I've had a peek at that before.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday June 07 2021, @11:55PM (1 child)
What has been seen cannot be unseen.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:21PM
Can be forgotten alright, tho'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Saturday May 29 2021, @10:57PM (15 children)
If by un-ready you mean nothing more than a link to a story, then you are correct. If you look at the submissions queue at any given time, 90%+ of the submissions will be by bots, meaning they are just a link to a story. The burden is on the editors to actually turn those into stories, even if they have no personal interest in the story itself.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Friday June 04 2021, @03:24AM (14 children)
I've only submitted a couple/few stories. My first one or two, I had _no_ idea what to do. Of course now I know- hindsight is 20/20. I'm not sure if there's a tutorial, how-to, etc. Maybe there is now. If not, it might help to give a good clear outline of what's expected.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fnord666 on Friday June 04 2021, @06:33AM (4 children)
That's good feedback and something for the staff to review. Maybe I should put together an "Ask Soylent" story to get a discussion going with the community. There are some guidelines at https://soylentnews.org/faq.pl?op=editorial [soylentnews.org] but I'm too close to things at this point to be able to tell how useful those are for a newer person.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday June 04 2021, @07:57AM (3 children)
Thanks, you're truly one of the great workhorses of SN, and we could not thank you enough.
There's some saying that I can't exactly remember, but it's about people who write about something- often write from their own perspective and knowledge. I encounter this constantly, esp. in tech manuals, instructions, etc.
The FAQ you pointed to is awesome, and thank you. I'm thinking more of a template for a submission. IIRC, my first submission I just sent a link to an article. Someone (probably martyb) kindly gleaned out a summary. Then I realized what was needed. And it's all well and good, but when I spent a little bit of effort (not whining, really!) and got a rejection, I though: "okay, I don't really 'get it', like what's a good submission vs. rejection material, so I'll do something else." Sorry to ramble- tired and I type too fast.
Bottom line: it may seem obvious, and maybe is to most, but a simple template would help us who are verbally disinclined. (English / composition was by far the most difficult subject for me in school...)
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Friday June 04 2021, @12:35PM (2 children)
You raise a great point, thank you!
The code base for soylentnews.com (which is now called "rehash") is based on a version of the code base for slashdot. Slashdot started in late 1996(!). Sure there were updates over the years but it was designed and implemented by internet nerds for internet nerds. IOW, everyone was expected to know HTML.
Also keep in mind that HTML was much more limited then! HTML 2 was published on November 24, 1995 [wikipedia.org] and HTML 3 was published on January 14, 1997 [wikipedia.org]. There was a short learning curve and it was the obvious choice at the time — why reinvent the wheel?
It's now 2021 and HTML is less well known. I'd dare say most people are more familiar with using web pages than in writing them.
Several years ago, I started to write a "primer" on basic HTML for soylentnews but that fell by the wayside. It seems there is still a need for it — thanks for the reminder!
Thinking about it now, offhand, I am thinking these are the basic, supported tags (actually HTML elements) that would get a new user started:
Next might be:
Not sure where OL, UL, and DL as well as LI would fit in.
My plate is pretty full right now, so no telling how soon I (or someone else) could get to it, but this discussion has certainly given it a higher priority. Thank You!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DECbot on Friday June 04 2021, @02:27PM (1 child)
I can say that OL, UL, LI are supported, but I think you can only nest 2 or 3 levels deep before it breaks as there are some "optimization" in the slashcode/rehash that covers for the lazy editor that forgets to close a tag. I use the UL, LI tags all the time for the poll submissions and OL for the 1., 2., 3. ???, 4. Profit memes. Never used the DL personally, so I can't say.
Also <quote> tag works if you're too lazy to type out <blockquote> like me. We also support <user> if your trying to link a user in your post like this martyb.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday June 05 2021, @11:44AM
Thanks for the feedback!
My focus on the GP post was to aim for a minimal subset that could help a person -- who was new to HTML -- to get started. IOW, if I were new to the site and am looking at a blank text-entry field... what do I do?
Agreed, the other tags ARE useful. Looks like this is turning into a mult-page "primer". =)
I use <blockquote>...</blockquote> very frequently, so it was helpful to *me* see <quote> mentioned as it looks like it will save me time and typing. Thanks!
I have directly used DECbot before, but had forgotten about <user>DECbot</user> so thanks for that, too!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:04AM (4 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Saturday June 05 2021, @12:02PM (2 children)
If a story submitted by a logged-in user is accepted for use on the site, their account currently gets 3 karma points.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday June 05 2021, @05:04PM (1 child)
Thanks, I wasn't aware of the karma points. That may explain why some people like to submit a lot of stories (trying to recover lost karma due to so many downmods.)
Soylent News math: 50 = 50 + 3
I wonder if I can get my supermarket's cash registers to calculate that way... :)
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:47AM
It only works that way when you're giving the register $53 dollars.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @08:54AM
hmmm... if I'm going to submit the least I can do is try to whack it up in some fashion using the web form.
Meanwhile.. I submit stories when I see then, post replies, and pay money when I can.. is that enough?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 13 2021, @12:53PM (3 children)
Submitting stories is easy. I use a template that takes about 2-3 minutes to complete. It's:
From [Link to story source]:
[Representative excerpt copy & pasted from article (most news articles have a suitable one)]
[Some sentence from you as an icebreaker/conversation starter]
You can skim through headlines quickly for those that interest you. You don't have to be an expert in the subject, nor do you have to come up with supporting material, because the discussion in the community is the thing and even experts disagree among themselves.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:45PM (2 children)
That's... amateurish.
How about:
1. confirm the story from multiple sources (if it's not from a reputable news agency)
2. find the one that put the story into perspective from multiple angles. Sometimes there need to be 2 stories to reach enough perspective
3. avoid stories exclusively syndicated by NewsCorp and the like - effing shits publish the same story in UK, US and Australia to baloon it up and nobody else's s interested
4. if it's sciency, dig up the DOI for it, Maybe trace it down to the Uni or lab press release source, cause I hate IFLscience and the pseudo-sci pseudo-journos.
Even the stories I push on IRC go through all the above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 22 2021, @06:12PM (1 child)
That's...a persnickety response.
Nobody gets paid to go to that length. If you want to volunteer your time to do that for your submissions, great, but don't volunteer my or anyone else's time to do the same.
Many don't submit stories because it seems too complicated or time-consuming to follow a method like that which you bumptiously insist on. Many also never submit stories or contribute to the site in any way because they don't have the time or energy to deal with reactions like yours.
My method is simple and fast that others can use if they want to (and it works [soylentnews.org]). If they want to do something else, great.
And, in the end, the community is not about creating the perfect bibliography, but about the discussion.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 23 2021, @03:40AM
TIL: persnickety, bumptiously.
Did I volunteers your time? I fail to see how.
I said: your approach is amateurish, that's my opinion (and I'll maintain it)
You said: it works, however it would may be.
I don't see any contradiction between the two. If you see one, I'll be grateful to be enlightened.
Discussion is also my reason for going the extra in choosing the source of the stories I submit: I want more discussions and less bashing - in my mind, there are better chances if the sources of the story present a variety of angles to view the object of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @08:33PM (20 children)
gratuitous upvotes of Azuma's ad-hominems and anyone else parroting the current Democrat party line
Yeah, I saw that too. It's happening much worse than it used to.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @08:59PM (2 children)
Always remember, don't feed the Azuma's of this world. Once your argument has been made, resist the urge to reply to a blatantly aggressive/degrading/stupid comment. People here can judge for themselves.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:27AM
Because you are already going to burn in hell, so don't make it worse for yourself.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 13 2021, @12:55PM
Azuma is a rancid bigot. Once you realize that, she's not worth a moment's thought.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Tork on Wednesday June 02 2021, @09:19PM (16 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @03:32AM (14 children)
Hey white knight, the pattern I see is a factual discussion is taking place, and then Azuma flies in like a seagull cackling loudly and shitting on everybody. She seems to enjoy it. I consider Azuma a troll account.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @08:01AM (1 child)
And you know what you do not do with trolls? Feed them. If you or others think she is a troll, then don't feed her. Otherwise you are just asking for the reaction you know in advance that you are going to get. That simple.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @08:33PM
You are correct.
I held myself to stop responding to Azuma'a posts for that very reason, and I consider the forum topic basically "over" if she arrives on the scene. Other people, I will still engage. Maybe I need to learn my lesson with others, but so far, it's just Azuma who is bad enough to treat the same as finding a turd in the punchbowl at a party: don't go back for another serving, party's over, time to leave.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @04:26AM (9 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @10:31AM (2 children)
FTFY, you scum-sucking lime-lizard white guy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:55PM
It is wrong to assume I am a white guy because I point out Azuma's racism.
Oh, hi there Azuma, you racist you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:59PM
Nope, nope, nope. Azuma is 100% fully racist. Everything that comes out of that troll's account is absolutely racist to the core.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @05:45PM (5 children)
The fact that Azuma is an ignorant, hateful bigoted bastard, with ridiculous delusions, has nothing to do with race. Azu is a CBI who thinks a nurse's aid requires more than a 90-IQ. You kids are going to have to quit looking for racism in everything. That's a Don Quixote-size red herring.
Now, about calling somebody a "scum-sucking lime-lizard white guy," that's racist. And bigoted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @06:36PM (1 child)
CBI?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @07:31PM
Certified Bedpan Inspector.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @06:44PM (2 children)
Yep.
But Azuma also believes that us dark skinned people are too stupid to be able to obtain ID, and that is racist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @07:43PM
That's what Joe believes, too. That's why he is against showing an ID for voting. He also said "Poor Kids Are Just As Bright As White Kids." And let's not forget that Joe's mentor, Robert Byrd, was Exalted High Poobah of the KKK. And Joe's son Hunter goes around dropping the "N-word" at the drop of a laptop.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 11 2021, @08:28PM
After mulling it over, I still think I'm right... Azu is/was practicing equal-opportunity ignorance and hatred. Someone who spews bile at anyone and everyone, and is only called out on it when the recipient is a minority, is not a racist.
It's like blaming cops for shooting armed perps of one race, but giving a free pass when the same events happen to another race. The fact is that armed perps are the problem. I had a terrifying event with two cops; I'm convinced that I'm alive today because I was unarmed, and I let them get their exercise without my resisting (I wasn't encouraging it... they had a gun on me). I'd be rich today, if someone had a camera phone at the time.
The racist is the one who singles out one group, and gives a free pass for all the rest. It's like there is allowed minority privilege, in their minds.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @09:40PM (1 child)
Interesting how people like yourself laud Ethanol-Fueled as a brilliant troll for his racist hate rants, but lose your fucking minds when Azuma calls you mean names. Maybe if you had some consistency then as a community we could tone down the vitriol, but that is not the case. In typical conservative troll fashion it is rules for everyone else, but when it comes to yourselves you whine about them frozen peaches. Truly the most fragile of people who can't stand some mean words!
(Score: 0, Troll) by TheMightyChickadee on Friday June 18 2021, @02:03AM
Yes, very interesting. Rightwing snowflakes? [insert "pinch" emoji here] 🤏
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @05:19PM
I'm not sure which came first, Azumi screaming insults at the right-wingers, or the right-wingers having a go at her?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @11:39PM (12 children)
That resonates with me. Why volunteer for the abuse heaped on non-progressives by the worst behaved members of the community?
I've wondered about that. I think I blame Sockpuppetarchus for a lot of it. TMB told us that if/when we suspected Aristarchus of sockpuppetry, we would be right.
The dynamics are odd, though. Ari seems to be in love with 'Zumi, but 'Zumi has told him to fuck off, quite publicly, multiple times. Typical incel stuff, I guess . . .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30 2021, @10:51PM (10 children)
You see that when there's a critical post, making a point exactly and succinctly. Click on the # and you'll see 3-up and 4-down votes, to keep it suppressed. You know that if there were 8-up votes, they'd find 9-down to counter it. Frankly, I don't think there are more than a half-dozen downers here... they're just very dedicated.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @07:28AM (9 children)
It must be some sort of brigade. It can't possibly be that people actually think it is a bad post.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @02:42PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @04:02PM (7 children)
Thinking has nothing to do with it.
#1137843 -1 Troll [soylentnews.org]
Flamebait=1, Troll=2, Insightful=1, Informative=2, Total=6
#1138033 -1 Informative [soylentnews.org]
Flamebait=2, Redundant=1, Insightful=1, Informative=2, Overrated=1, Total=7
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @06:24PM (6 children)
It's simple. When discussing a topic like Critical Race Theory, don't point out the circular definitions. [youtube.com] Don't mention the child-like sophistry of the Hegellian Dialectic:
Definitely don't point out the underlying psychopathology at play [russh.com] or provide receipts. [twitter.com] Don't point out that Leftists wouldn't be upset about Republican bills banning race essentialism if these bills didn't ban CRT. Don't cite Gramsci [wikipedia.org] or point out that attacks against the family unit are contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Never mention the liberal order is being upended by attacks on the foundational concept of natural law. [thepostmillennial.com]
If you do any of those things, you should fully expect to be modded down!
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 31 2021, @07:34PM (2 children)
Happy Memorial Day
Remember The Sacrifices Of Those Who Made And Kept Us Free
God Bless America
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 01 2021, @01:33AM (1 child)
Above is an example.
When they drop a bunch of boilerplate text trying to get you to take the bait, don't let them drive the conversation. As they attempt to drift the topic, don't go. They'll look exactly like what they are. And for fun, add something that will convulse them... like God.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @04:33PM
It's an example of someone's agenda. Imagine thinking that "Happy Memorial Day" is Flamebait!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:26PM (1 child)
Today, Sunday June 6, 2021, remember...
D-Day June 6, 1944
Allied forces landed in Normandy, sacrificing all for freedom
God Bless America
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 18 2021, @02:06AM
Fighting Nazis? I'm sure there were fine people on both sides.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @07:54PM
Today, Monday, June 21 2021, remember...
June 21, 1788 The US Constitution was ratified
New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify, ending the Articles of Confederation
God Bless America
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday June 01 2021, @07:23AM
Indeed it seems that a small group of people was able to upset this site recently. It also has to be said that people who recently left fell to their provocations (or trolling in newspeak). Certainly, if you feel you have to have the final word in an online forum, you have a problem we cannot help you with. Apart from these personal problems, I believe that technical solutions are sufficient. This site is small enough, so that no posts need to be hidden (apart from Spam). Make the breakthrough -1 as a default. Then, hide a thread if it becomes larger than a certain threshold (say 10 messages). The latter would require new programming but it shouldn't be hard. I believe that such measures could restore peace for most of us.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @11:52PM (2 children)
Personally I'm not interested, for two reasons:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:36PM
I join you on point 1 - 35 year IT, burnout. In a nutshell - old skills, I will just watch tech from the sidelines, thank you.
And actually a bit of point 2 - I come from a more conservative view. Not USA, so actually good, sound and sane values.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @09:46PM
Sounds like we've got a trumper here who thinks GOP agendas are "slight disagreement" instead of literally fascist police state policies. You lot whine about any pushback, which means you are a massive narcissist with a victim complex. Doesn't help that you actually believe the lies Fox feeds you as you rant about how bad the MSM is. Can we get better people please? Brain dead boomers pushing Russian misinformation is getting pretty tiresome.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30 2021, @08:28PM (1 child)
The artless and humorless Me-tooers - those bigoted, agenda-driven bolsheviks and commies - are driving reasonable people to re-evaluate everything.
Tip: Ignore their insults, accusations and gotcha questions... unless you have something extra juicy. Everything they say is rhetorical. Stay on your topic, make your points, follow your agenda.
Or go elsewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30 2021, @08:33PM
The party's over, it's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's all over, my friend
It's all over, my friend
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 01 2021, @01:09PM
I think you got just about everything for me.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:29PM (1 child)
I see what you did there.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday June 22 2021, @01:58PM
I don't. Really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday June 10 2021, @05:15PM (1 child)
Ditto. When half of most threads are people shouting insults at each other (sometimes not even related to the topic at hand), it doesn't encourage me that the site is worthy of my effort.
It used to be a lot easier to have a civilized conversation around here.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kazzie on Monday June 14 2021, @02:25PM
A lot of the arguing seems to be based on politics for a country other than my own, so it's a little easier for me to be indifferent or clueless about it. And some of it serves to remind me that there are a lot of different perspectives and viewpoints out there; that's the sort of broad sampling that you don't get on bubble-oriented social media.
But yeah, it is a pian to have to scroll past loads of un-related arguement to find any discussion of TFA.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday June 11 2021, @12:47PM (2 children)
There are as many loony right posts as loony left. I don't think TMB was very loony right compared to Ethanol Fuelled or a couple of others.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday June 23 2021, @05:23AM (1 child)
... and they are all off-topic. I agree with you entirely, if everybody would discuss the subject story it would be a far more interesting discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @02:19AM
Because those topics are so damn well selected and intelligent that they should never drift.