Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Journal by janrinok

NCommander is publishing a Meta story today: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=22/11/20/0342250 It will be published on the front page with all of the restrictions that apply to such stories and discussions.

In it NCommander explains how he sees the future of the site developing with regards to software, hardware and administration. Some of those views are different now from the views that many of us held in 2014. The requirement for some of our servers is no longer justified, and there are better technologies available for achieving what we are trying to do thus also reducing our running costs. The administration of the site is placing an increasing burden on the relatively few administrators that remain in the support team. Society has also changed. Some discussion has been replaced by intimidation and threats. It is much more polarised than it was in 2014. In many ways this is the same as for numerous other web sites. However, the abuse and toxic atmosphere created by a small number of Anonymous Cowards is unacceptable and must be reversed if the site is to survive. The responsibility for some of the problems that we are experiencing, and the resulting actions that we have had to take, is placed entirely at their feet.

A few months ago the majority of the community opted - albeit very reluctantly - to remove AC posts from the front pages of the site. This action has successfully removed the vast majority of the abuse from our discussions. We are seeing a slow increase in the number of comments week-on-week and the signal-to-noise ratio is now much higher. It is only right that we also reconsider the implications of that change.

This journal entry is to enable anyone who wishes to remain anonymous to express their views. I promise that I will read it and will ensure that genuine views are considered when the community decides which path it wishes to follow. I cannot make any assurances that other members of the site's administration will read it - although I expect that at least some will. If you have an account then I strongly encourage you to leave your views under NCommander's Meta story and not here.

I further my promise that I will try to represent your views as honestly and fairly as I can.

If you abuse this journal then you are simply giving more support to the alternative options that might be considered than you are to the status quo. I encourage you to expresses sensible, logical and considered views but should you decide that abuse is what you prefer then this journal entry can simply be removed. You are being given an opportunity - do not throw it away.

 

Reply to: Re:Some thoughts for what they are worth.

    (Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday November 21 2022, @10:47AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 21 2022, @10:47AM (#1280785)

    Thanks for your comments. I'll leave the hardware points to someone more qualified than I am to answer them. (With the caveat that I cannot guarantee that anyone with the answers will read this journal)

    The function of the dev server is diverse. It is used for training, it is used for testing software (and trying to crash the system) and, like the main site, it hasn't been updated in several years. We can currently reset it to a safe configuration very quickly after breaking it - either by testing or letting new trainees loose on it!

    The only real problem I have is there is no real accountability on them. This place has always tried to maintain some semblance of transparency, but there really seems to be none in this area. There is no public list of actions taken, spam mods dealt, comments deleted, etc. Who is watching the watchers is always a valid question, especially when they claim the need for more obtrusive powers.

    There are several issues here. One is that I agree with you hence the reason I wrote: https://soylentnews.org/meta/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=52490&page=1&cid=1280770#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]

    I do propose strict controls on comment deletion - I have stated quite clearly that it must be a last resort, that no single individual should be able to do it alone (at least 2 admins, maybe more), and that the system must record who/why/when. But we cannot show you the content that was deleted. If it was child pornography (1 attempt in the last 4 months) or doxing information (numerous actual examples over the last 3 years) then we are guilty of publishing that information. We are committing an offence. In fact, if we identify the comment too closely some people would find it on the WayBack machine or some other long term repository.

    If we open up the site database to public scrutiny - ALL the private data gets compromised as well. There are pages which show staff exactly who has moderate whom with a spam moderation - or indeed any significant down moderation. There are pages containing the private data and full history of each account. If you had access to these pages then you would also have access to private information again. If you don't trust the staff to manage it then there there is nothing else we can do. We also believe that bans are between the site and the person being banned. If you think that the community should be informed then raise it as a discussion point, even as a submission.

    New pages that could display some data releasable to the public can only be created by a programmer. We haven't had one for over 12 months, and he stopped doing any significant tasks long before that.

    I also find such talk a bit ironic given that the journal pages are full of literal spam

    Do you mean the comments within a specific journal, or the numerous journals that are created by fake accounts? The former is what ACs asked for - somewhere unregulated where they could discuss whatever they wanted. The fact that they rely on somebody with an account to create a topic, or that they can't moderate them because ACs just can't, apparently didn't occur to some of them. I am not wasting my mod points on the journals. I have posted stories in the journals - they have been trashed and ridiculed. We will see how this one fares.

    AC's were the ones trashing the stories on the front page. I know that they were a minority - but it was sufficient to cause long-term damage to the site's reputation. I have repeatedly said that I wish we could revert back to what we had. For that people must change - not the management of the site.

    The latter problem I have suggested a fix for - delete the false accounts if they are not used. They never ever get enough karma to appear in the list of journals displayed on the front page.

    Currently, there is no mechanism for administrators to make changes to any journals or the comments in them - they are controlled entirely by their creator. The software will have to be changed to make such a thing possible. We might be in a position to do that in a few weeks/months time.

Post Comment

Edit Comment You are not logged in. You can log in now using the convenient form below, or Create an Account, or post as Anonymous Coward.

Public Terminal

Anonymous Coward [ Create an Account ]

Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs!


Logged-in users aren't forced to preview their comments. Create an Account!

Allowed HTML
<b|i|p|br|a|ol|ul|li|dl|dt|dd|em|strong|tt|blockquote|div|ecode|quote|sup|sub|abbr|sarc|sarcasm|user|spoiler|del>

URLs
<URL:http://example.com/> will auto-link a URL

Important Stuff

  • Please try to keep posts on topic.
  • Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
  • Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
  • Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.
  • Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page)
  • If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

If you are having a problem with accounts or comment posting, please yell for help.