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Today we stand proud, fellow Soylentils. Two stories have been received to explain why:
Slashdot.org switches accounts to Classic-like interface
It now appears that Slashdot has now completely changed its interface to the new "beta" interface - which looks almost the same as the "old" interface. Users can no longer view the non-beta classic site, which is being reported by users all around the site.
The only official news on the matter is in the form of a journal entry.
Does this mean it's time to go after our original mission and let them know we're here?
"Beta" Delenda est!
Remember Slashdot? Remember Beta? This blog post might be tagged "sudden outbreak of common sense," if it wasn't well over a year too late:
...effective today, we've jettisoned the Slashdot Beta platform out the side portal. [...] After heavily experimenting on the Beta platform and splitting traffic between Classic and Beta, we've made some decisions about which platform changes ultimately make sense: starting today, we're unifying users back on our Classic platform.
A raft of minor changes came along with this announcement. Still no comment, though, on whether those users are a "community" or an "audience."
And frankly, that's why soylentnews is better.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Saturday February 28 2015, @12:56PM
Whereas I preferred NOT having the comment be the full width of the browser window, because long lines are harder to read. That would be a nice style option, actually.
I never understand this argument. Long lines are difficult to read, but that's an argument for not making your browser window the width of your screen if you have a large screen. If you have a browser window that is full of large borders around the text, then that's wasted screen real-estate that could have another window in it. When I'm on a mobile device, I don't have spare screen space and I want the text to cover the entire screen. When I'm on a machine with a bigger screen, I want to have multiple windows open and don't want a site claiming space and then not using it.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday February 28 2015, @02:52PM
The problem is, what's wide enough for one site is not wide enough for the next, and too wide for the next, so like a lot of people I keep my browser window width set at a compromise where all sites will display properly (since anymore a lot of 'em assume width and don't squeeze gracefully -- this is getting worse as screens get wider and sites try to use all of that), and where not too many sites are a PITA to read.
For long lines, I'd have to make my browser window half its current width, and that's fine IF that's the only tab open in that window. But I usually have a bunch of tabs open (sometimes in a couple windows if I need to sort 'em out, but it's so much nicer to just pick the visible tab I want rather than have to switch windows first) and SN is not the only site that's currently up in that window. I'd have to resize the window every time I changed tabs, and that's a serious PITA (especially as one who does RTFAs and links in comments). I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this.
Okay, so having tabs in the browser rather than having to alt-tab among windows has kinda spoiled us... :)
'Course, ability to set individual tab display widths (or even for two tabs to share the screen) might not be a bad browser feature, either. Especially if remembered per site.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.