Update: The staff is in conversation with the buyer right now. More to follow, but at this point it looks to be a benevolent benefactor from the community. More to follow as we get it.
SoylentNews community:
As you know, there is not a lot of information available right now. Barrabas reports that he has sold the Soylentnews.org and associated domain names, and successfully transferred them, but neither the buyer's name nor the terms of that sale have been disclosed. As spokesperson for the staff of the site during this time, we would like everyone to know the following:
Our current backup plan is to revert to the li694-22.members.linode.com where the site is actually hosted. If we need to go there for any reason, we will try to notify the site in advance. If it has to go down or we are forced down, we'll be there. We will rebuild the database with some downtime and work from there.
We will send out a mass email to all users from the database informing them of this step should we need to do so.
We do not plan to implement this yet. We (the staff) did not advocate the buyout, but will try and work with the buyer if possible. We do not know the terms on which the domain name was sold.
We the staff will still operate the site, in its current condition on linode, until the community can vote on a new name. Depending on the buyer, we hope we can consider keeping the name the same as an option.
Until we know more information, we would like everyone to remain calm, collected, and civil, while we sort through these issues. Thank you
~mattie_p
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gringer on Monday March 10 2014, @08:18PM
As others have said, these sorts of dirty backroom politics happen all the time when you have a group of people get together and try to agree on things. The only difference is that SN has chosen to make the internal politics very public.
I know that people don't like hearing about these things, but I consider such exposure to be a healthy state of affairs, and appreciate the attempts to be open about company business.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Lukehasnoname on Monday March 10 2014, @08:19PM
Aye. It's always tough to get people together on something and quiet. Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Congress.
(Score: 2) by Random2 on Monday March 10 2014, @08:22PM
Maybe if they worked more than half the year...
If only I registered 3 users earlier....
(Score: 1) by captain normal on Monday March 10 2014, @08:43PM
Maybe if only we could get congress to air their dirty laundry out in public.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday March 11 2014, @02:54AM
"Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Congress."
OK, that's just crazy talk....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by snick on Monday March 10 2014, @08:29PM
bullshit
I've worked on happy projects and stressful projects. I've worked with people I've liked and respected, and I've worked with people I ... didn't like or respect. I've been in meetings where you could cut the tension with a knife. But I have never in my life had to deal with the comic opera antics that open source and "community" projects seem to wallow in.
FTFY
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sl4shd0rk on Monday March 10 2014, @09:06PM
Eh.. actually, this kind of thing happens daily in the business world. If you haven't run into any project crises caused by personality conflicts, mis-communications, misunderstandings, differences of opinions, or simple douchebaggery, then you should really get your managers to write a book because they could make millions on how to effectively herd cats.
Fact of the matter is, being third party to this kind of thing is useless for anything other than observation and mop-up. If anything, ranting about "comic opera" and applying offensive labels to people is typical water cooler antic for those who aren't able to express themselves effectively in a group.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Khyber on Tuesday March 11 2014, @03:47AM
" But I have never in my life had to deal with the comic opera antics that open source and "community" projects seem to wallow in."
And that's why we've got a ton of Linux forks right now. Assholes can't get over themselves.
And that's why both Linux and Barrabas suck right now.
Perhaps they'll both get better as they grow the fuck up.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008, and scaring you ill-educated fools since 2013.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:27PM
both Linux and Barrabas suck
I won't argue WRT John, but the City of Munich has something they'd like to show you:
Over 95 percent of their machines run Linux.
They started with Debian, switched to Ubuntu, and now run LiMux.
They have complete control of the source code for the software they run on those boxes and they have saved over 10 million Euros so far.
"Suck" is the last word they would use.
-- gewg_