SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the I-thought-the-name-was-bacconmuffinnews dept.
After several early attempts, we have settled on a process for deciding on the final name for this site currently known as SoylentNews.org. You'll need to log in and go to: userprefs/homepage and check the box marked "Willing to Vote" if you'd like to participate (do this now, the submission round will go out soon). The vote will occur using an email-based solution loosely based on the Debian/Condercet method that we cooked up. Note: checking this box will indicate that we are scraping your email address from the database for participation (this is completely opt-in). If you wish not to participate, just make sure this box is unchecked (this is the default).
We are opening the floor to name suggestions. If you have suggested a name earlier, you'll need to re-submit it through this email voting system. Though we prefer available domains, if you have pre-purchased a domain (eg: to prevent squatters), by submitting the name you are stating that you are the owner of the domain(s) and will give it without strings attached to this project if it were to be chosen.
The criteria for an acceptable name:
- Unique and free of obvious trademarks
- Ideally be a bit technological/geeky and signal the site is "news"
- Domain should be available in all permutations: .com/.net/.org
- Easy to pronounce
- Easy to type
- Easy to 'market' or has a "hook" (imagine a mug with the name, a logo, slogans, plays on words, etc.)
- Passes the girlfriend / wife / significant other / random person at work - test
This is how it will work:
- The first round will go out asking for name submissions
- Submissions will remain open for 7 days
- The community will vote to yield 5 names
- Staff will vote and produce 5 names
- A final vote on all 10 names will be held
- At this point, the staff will have a second full vote on the same ten items the community voted on
- The result of this vote, and the community vote, including its runoff, will then be published
- The staff vote is the final decision. We have to live with this. But the community will have a powerful influence on the final staff vote.
If you're interested:
NCommander adds: So its finally here, and I wanted to apologize for the long delay before this actually happened. To the editoral team, please bump this to the top of the index for the next 24 hours so everyone gets a chance to see it (click 'fastforward' then save to autoupdate the timestamp). I promise a Featured Story option is coming in the next major update so we don't have to deal with this!
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @06:11PM
I will post these as comments to this one, one phase at a time. The Community Votes and the Staff Votes will both be posted, in the order they occurred (there is some overlap though).
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @06:36PM
People were asked to register for the vote by setting a flag in their user preferences. 507 did so.
In addition, more people were added by hand over the course of the various phases, those totaled 30 by the last vote.
The original email requesting submisssions went out seeded with one choice:
[] soylentnews.com
45 people that were registered sent suggestions email back, plus a few more were added from people added who were not registered, by staff. Three people missed the cutof time for that phase. (voting emails had already gone out).
The final list of submissions we got was this:
[](1) absorbingnews.com
[](2) achetee.com
[](3) alphadot.com
[](4) altdiscuss.com
[](5) apt-get-news.com
[](6) baconnews.com
[](7) bangdot.org
[](8) bayesianews.com
[](9) beardrhetoric.com
[](10) boardkey.com
[](11) chattrnews.com
[](12) crosslog.com
[](13) dailybacon.net
[](14) deltachroma.com
[](15) devnull.com
[](16) dotbang.org
[](17) dotsalt.org
[](18) dupenews.com
[](19) eigentime.com
[](20) epsilonnexus.com
[](21) fetanews.com
[](22) firingsquid.com
[](23) forkbeta.com
[](24) forkdot.org
[](25) freedefy.com
[](26) freedivide.com
[](27) fuckbeta.com
[](28) futurians.com
[](29) gammavortex.com
[](30) geekcard.com
[](31) gitgot.com
[](32) grepcutnews.com
[](33) grepnews.com
[](34) hashsalt.org
[](35) hecknews.com
[](36) ionews.com
[](37) iorevolution.net
[](38) iotanexus.com
[](39) itarium.com
[](40) legitworksite.com
[](41) li694-22.com
[](42) linevertex.com
[](43) lostdash.com
[](44) lowlevelnews.com
[](45) ls-lnews.com
[](46) makemesmart.com
[](47) minddivide.com
[](48) nerdcard.net
[](49) nerdcraft.com
[](50) nerddiscourse.com
[](51) nerdgloss.com
[](52) nerdnewsnet.com
[](53) nerdpost.com
[](54) newschattr.com
[](55) newsconfig.com
[](56) newsdotorg.org
[](57) newsgrep.com
[](58) newsignal.com
[](59) newsisyou.com
[](60) newslash.org
[](61) newsping.com
[](62) newstat.com
[](63) newuucp.com
[](64) nntpping.com
[](65) noncorpnews.com
[](66) noncorporate.com
[](67) nunexus.com
[](68) omnidiscuss.com
[](69) pipebeard.com
[](70) port119.net
[](71) primedelta.com
[](72) pulsedot.net
[](73) reslashed.com
[](74) salientnews.net
[](75) salientnoise.com
[](76) saltdot.org
[](77) salthash.com
[](78) shpxurnq.com
[](79) sigmanexus.com
[](80) sigmavortex.com
[](81) silentmews.com
[](82) soylentnews.com
[](83) squintfeed.com
[](84) stealthnews.com
[](85) sudonews.com
[](86) techmatter.com
[](87) thegarlic.com
[](88) uuengeek.com
[](89) yottatalk.com
[](90) yottatech.com
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @08:44PM
The list (above) of proposed names was sent out to all registered voters and the late additions.
Voted in the Scoring round: 241 + 10 = 251 (241 registered plus ten of the late additions)
Emails that had to be hand decoded: 1 (non-standard quoted-printable encoding)
Emails that had to be hand counted (people added later): 10
People voting more than once:
Second vote unchanged at all : 2
(no change to vote, probably forgot they had voted)
Order alone : 5
(Order change suggests they misunderstood directions)
Order plus other changes : 3
(indeterminate due to changes in what was voted for)
--
Total: 10
Raw Results with point totals shown:
TOTAL NAME
(total pts)
(0)
1228 soylentnews.com
789 devnull.com
379 sudonews.com
346 grepnews.com
208 apt-get-news.com
(2950) (points used for first 5)
- top 5 above (this could change if some are unavailable) -
204 newsgrep.com
198 port119.net
198 geekcard.com
188 dailybacon.net
174 forkdot.org
164 techmatter.com
159 ionews.com
150 li694-22.com
147 newslash.org
145 salientnews.net
132 legitworksite.com
126 newsdotorg.org
116 bangdot.org
116 dotbang.org
110 baconnews.com
97 altdiscuss.com
93 alphadot.com
89 thegarlic.com
89 nerdcraft.com
87 forkbeta.com
86 nerdpost.com
86 nerdcard.net
85 fuckbeta.com
80 dupenews.com
80 hashsalt.org
77 reslashed.com
77 ls-lnews.com
76 pulsedot.net
79 firingsquid.com
70 eigentime.com
67 bayesianews.com
66 lostdash.com
64 newsping.com
55 lowlevelnews.com
52 newsignal.com
50 crosslog.com
44 salientnoise.com
41 itarium.com
40 uuengeek.com
39 beardrhetoric.com
39 silentmews.com
38 yottatech.com
37 nerddiscourse.com
36 newsisyou.com
36 boardkey.com
35 nerdnewsnet.com
33 freedivide.com
32 fetanews.com
29 omnidiscuss.com
26 makemesmart.com
25 minddivide.com
22 saltdot.org
22 newschattr.com
21 noncorpnews.com
21 gitgot.com
21 absorbingnews.com
20 squintfeed.com
19 sigmanexus.com
19 pipebeard.com
18 futurians.com
17 noncorporate.com
16 salthash.com
15 nerdgloss.com
14 sigmavortex.com
14 yottatalk.com
14 chattrnews.com
13 grepcutnews.com
12 iorevolution.net
12 deltachroma.com
11 shpxurnq.com
9 achetee.com
9 gammavortex.com
9 epsilonnexus.com
9 dotsalt.org
8 stealthnews.com
8 newstat.com
8 nntpping.com
7 primedelta.com
6 nunexus.com
6 linevertex.com
6 hecknews.com
6 freedefy.com
6 newuucp.com
5 iotanexus.com
4 newsconfig.com
-
(7839) (Total Points Used)
The points are shown to illustrate how difficult it is to predict anything from the initial ranking phase. It may look like Soylent was a sure win from this, but in fact, if you look at the points, those used for names OTHER than soylent far outnumber the soylent votes. Since only a few names will make it into the final vote all those points will need to go somewhere...
Now at this point we had to make a few decisions about the rules, some anticipated, some not.
The anticipated one was that all the names would be checked and we would try to get possession of them in .com, .net, and org. Any we could not, would be removed from consideration.
However, as it turned out, almost ALL the top choices would have been eliminated by this requirement. So we decided to relax that a bit to just the domains we ACTUALLY felt we needed, which were .org and .net. .com was less important, it is not like we were going to open a retail store...
Then there were some problems that were not anticipated.
The first one was that if we had to drop a name (and we did), the next name in line was newsgrep.com, which was nearly identical to grepnews.com - in fact they were deliberately submitted to be so, as an example. So a new rule was created: if two names are nearly identical, they get combined into one item, and if that item wins, a runoff is held between them.
The next problem was that two of those names had potentially serious copyright problems. Soylent we expected, but with apt-get-news in the running, that was pretty closely associated with Debian/Ubuntu, and in particular, it could cause a problem with NCommander in his work situation which could be VERY awkward. (Think about it: your company makes a product called the XP100plus, and one of your employees starts a site called 'xp1000plus.com' that has NOTHING to do with your company or product...).
At any moment, two of those names could be knocked out of the running, leaving us with a rather limited list for our runoff, consisting of
sudonews.com
grepnews.com
newsgrep.com
(if it happened after the list went out)
Sort of a limited choice...
So the next new rule was created: If a name has a copyright problem, another name will be added to the list as a backup in case that name gets knocked off the list later.
So, with the new rules in mind, the runoff list from the community vote turned out to be:
soylentnews.com
sudonews.com
grepnews.com (or newsgrep)
apt-get-news.com
dailybacon.net
forkdot.org
techmatter.com
Now we needed to add the results of the staff top five to this, and delete any duplicates, to make up the final list that both staff and community would be voting on in the final round.
So the staff vote was next...
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @09:41PM
The staff vote worked exactly like the community votes, with an initial submission phase.
The initial email went out with just
[] soylentnews.org
just like the communithy vote..
Six staff submitted names.
-The initial name submissions were:-
alphadot.org
apt-get-news.org
crosslog.org
dailybacon.org
deltachroma.org
eigentime.org
forkdot.org
freedefine.org
futurians.org
grepnews.org
ionews.org
mindefine.org
newsgrep.org
newslash.org
omnidiscuss.org
salientnews.org
salientnoise.org
sigmanexus.org
soylentnews.org
sudonews.org
techmatter.org
(Just like the community vote, only names actually submitted could be voted on)
This initial list went out for ranking.
11 staff members voted.
The raw results were:
-Ranking Results (scores) for all submitted items:-
36 sudonews.org
31 salientnews.org
27 ionews.org
22 newsgrep.org
21 techmatter.org
20 apt-get-news.org
20 salientnoise.org
20 grepnews.org
19 crosslog.org
18 freedefine.org
17 futurians.org
17 deltachroma.org
17 soylentnews.org
16 eigentime.org
16 alphadot.org
15 sigmanexus.org
9 newslash.org
8 omnidiscuss.org
8 mindefine.org
7 forkdot.org
7 dailybacon.org
No duplicates or cheaters were detected. :-)
-Final Top 5 for Staff (derived using the same rules used for the community vote)-
sudonews
salientnews:salientnoise (similar names)
newsgrep:grepnews (similar names)
techmatter
apt-get-news.org
crosslog
Interesting that Soylent did not even make it into the staff top 5.
-Final Combined List To Be Used For the Final Runoff Votes (Staff and Community)-
This list is created by combining the top 5 from the community with the top 5 from the staff vote. The list is then alphabetized, and any duplicates removed. This is the list that will be used by both staff and the community for both final votes.
apt-get-news
crosslog
dailybacon
forkdot
grepnews or newsgrep
salientnews or salientnoise
soylentnews
sudonews
techmatter
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @09:59PM
This is the big one. :-)
The combined staff and community top fives were sent out to the community.
Registered voters results
1253 7 soylentnews
837 5 grepnews or newsgrep
792 8 sudonews
769 9 techmatter
550 1 apt-get-news
514 6 salientnews or salientnoise
485 4 forkdot
472 3 dailybacon
447 2 crosslog
Add in points from a few manually added (kicked out, could not be decoded) ones:
1253+28 7 soylentnews
837+29 5 grepnews or newsgrep
792+4 8 sudonews
769+15 9 techmatter
550+3 1 apt-get-news
514+5 6 salientnews or salientnoise
485+8 4 forkdot
472+10 3 dailybacon
447+6 2 crosslog
Add in points from voters added after registration:
1253+28+91 7 soylentnews
837+29+107 5 grepnews or newsgrep
792+4+68 8 sudonews
769+15+79 9 techmatter
550+3+54 1 apt-get-news
514+5+52 6 salientnews or salientnoise
485+8+64 4 forkdot
472+10+42 3 dailybacon
447+6+37 2 crosslog
-Grand Final Totals for the community vote final runoff-
Score Name
- -
1372 soylentnews
973 grepnews or newsgrep
864 sudonews
863 techmatter
607 apt-get-news
573 salientnews or salientnoise
557 forkdot
524 dailybacon
490 crosslog
Now to the staff final vote, which by the rules, will prevail.
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @10:31PM
This is where the staff votes upon the exact same list as the community did (the combined list).
10 staff voted.
- All Rankings -
44 grepnews or newsgrep
40 soylentnews
28 techmatter
25 sudonews
24 salientnews or salientnoise
18 crosslog
6 dailybacon
6 forkdot
5 apt-get-news
- First choices only-
27 soylentnews
27 grepnews or newsgrep
9 techmatter
9 salientnews or salientnoise
9 sudonews
- First and Second choices only -
35 grepnews or newsgrep
27 soylentnews
17 salientnews or salientnoise
17 sudonews
9 techmatter
8 crosslog
This is very close. So close, in fact it made a lot of people on staff very uncomfortable with going with such a narrow staff win, against the wishes of the community which had both a much larger voter base and a much more clear choice for its favorite.
A decision was made in irc to have one more staff vote, this time on just one single issue. A new poll was started, with these choices:
[] We should use the community vote results.
[] I disagree
The results were:
63 We should use the community vote results.
9 I disagree.
So there you have it. Pretty much a landslide.
The new name is...drum roll...
soylentsnews.org
With the following next in line (in order) for backups, if that name should become unusable due to copyright conflicts:
grepnews or newsgrep
sudonews
techmatter
apt-get-news
salientnews or salientnoise
forkdot
dailybacon
crosslog
(Score: 2) by AudioGuy on Monday June 02 2014, @10:36PM
And wouldn't you know it, after all that, I made a typo in the last, final, name that mattered.
Let's make that name: soylentnews.org. :-)
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Friday June 06 2014, @05:41PM
It probably would have been wise to have had a run-off vote between soylentnews, and newsgrep (or grepnews), so that way all the anti-soylent news people would be splitting votes across all those choices. I mean the votes for everything other than soylentnews way outnumbered soylentnews. It should have been required that the winner achieved a true majority, and since that wasn't the case, reduce the number of choices until one does (or just go for two right away).
I say this as someone who, in fact, did vote for soylentnews as the name. It just doesn't seem fair though, that it was picked with less than majority..
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 06 2014, @06:29PM
I think there's something in the US water that makes people incapable of doing a two-candidate run-off. :)