It passed without fanfare, but this very site recently passed an important milestone... SoylentNews celebrated its two-year anniversary!
On Wednesday February 12 2014, @07:28AM our very first article was posted: Welcome to SoylentNews! and then, on Monday 2014-02-17 at 02:06:00 UTC, we announced our presence to the world at large: Welcome to the World of Tomorrow... Today!
There were some who thought the site would fail right from the start. Yes, there have been some significant challenges along the way. Thankfully, the community has pulled together and given the support needed to keep this site running as a going concern.
The support has come in many forms. Of course, there is the financial side where people have subscribed or purchased SoylentNews swag. We are also grateful to those who submit stories, post comments, and perform moderations. Others post journal articles and comment on those. Still more are active on our IRC server. Then there's our very own Wiki. There are those, too, who mention our site to family and friends.
On an entirely different level we have the folks who maintain our servers, front ends, code base, site, mail, and the like. Others handle behind-the-scenes organization and communications tasks.
For those who joined us at the outset, you may recall that site crashes were a regular occurrence. Now, most of our downtime is due to either site upgrades or reboots of our systems by our hosting provider.
For those who may no be aware, this is all brought to you by volunteers who freely give of their free time and energy to make this all happen for you, our community.
So, I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big "Thank-You!" to all who have helped us get to where we are today. Some helped at the outset and moved on, others have been with us from the start, and still others have joined more recently. We would not be where we are today without ALL of you!
Related Stories
Thank You!
On the occasion of the site's sixth anniversary, I thought it fitting to mention some of the many ways that fellow Soylentils contribute to our community. This also seems like a good opportunity to mention some of the site's history, relate some staffing changes, mention other contributions by the SoylentNews community, and to wrap things up with some site statistics.
Please accept our thanks:
These thanks go out to all of you: my fellow members of the SoylentNews community.
To the Anonymous Cowards who post comments to our site (be they inciteful or insightful). To our registered users who not only post comments, but are also the only members who can moderate comments. No matter how long you have been here; whether you have just arrived (Welcome!) or have been with us from the very start... Thank You!
Speaking of which, thanks go to our staff who bludgeoned and duct-taped an ancient unmaintained open-sourced version of the code underpinning slashdot into some sort of basic functionality, and who have since made it the site you are enjoying today. Thanks, too, to our behind-the-scenes staff members, who keep the underlying services we depend on, running 24/7. Other staff members are more visible, like the editorial team who spend several hours every single day processing the stories that get posted to the site.
And let's not forget the members of the community who purchase subscriptions and thereby fund the operations of this site. We do have real world expenses: paying for our servers, domain registrations, and paying a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to do our taxes.
Read on past the fold for all the rest!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aliks on Friday February 19 2016, @10:13AM
Keep up the good work everyone!
To err is human, to comment divine
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @02:16PM
Gud jorb puples!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheReaperD on Friday February 19 2016, @10:46AM
The site still has some kinks and wrinkles to work out but, for a volunteer project with a still somewhat smaller userbase, you've been doing really well. The corporate owned sites would like to say that having a corporate overlord and advertising (as well as selling user data) is the only way you can run a site like this so thank you for proving them wrong. Keep up the good work.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 4, Informative) by pTamok on Friday February 19 2016, @10:53AM
Subject says it. My genuine thanks to those who contribute, either with cash, technical support, editing, submissions, and comments (and everything else I've missed).
The site will never please all of the people all of the time, so there will always be some aspects that some people don't like, or want changed. However, I am happy with how it has developed so far. Long may it continue.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Shimitar on Friday February 19 2016, @10:55AM
I really like what SN is becoming, has become. I also like the comments, which for the most part are of good quality.
One thing i dislike is how much mobile-unfriendly this website is. I try to read it often from my phone and, despite an almost 6in screen it's really bad. Too wide (don't like to turn the phone landscape, sorry), and simply does not flow. The "other" site has a great mobile view, where stories and comments just flow nicely and are easy to read on a small screen. I wish something similar could be done on SN too. I am not comparing or anything, just pointing out what i would like to see improved.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @11:50AM
The "other" site has a great mobile view
Obligatory: Fuck Beta
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 19 2016, @03:01PM
Surely you heard about Dice selling the green site? So it sounds like Beta is permanently dead at this point.
Unless of course the new owners are huge flaming idiots.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @06:02PM
Obligatory: Fuck Beta
Surely you heard about Dice selling the green site? So it sounds like Beta is permanently dead at this point.
I am not above necropostia.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @07:44PM
So... when do we start trolling the green site, with a grassroots campaign calling for the new owners to "Return to Beta"?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 19 2016, @12:57PM
Mobile version is mentioned here on a previous meta post: https://soylentnews.org/meta/article.pl?sid=16/02/07/0220246 [soylentnews.org]
I feel like I might take a crack at if myself and see if it can be mostly solved with an @media extension and a font-size:x% or two. I would need some kind of a custom CSS extension on Firefox for Android though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @01:20PM
Phones nowadays ask for screen same as desktops rather than handheld. @media won't help.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday February 19 2016, @07:07PM
Depends on orientation. While pixel size is indeed same, in portrait orientation the fact the device is mobile becomes obvious. That is usually what I use to distinguish between mobile and non-mobile layouts. Of course requires JavaScript to be 100% sure width height, but I have no problems with that. Alternately you can use media queries and assume people with width threshold are in portrait mode on a mobile device. If ever someone on mobile device does view the site in landscape, they should expect an experience more close to that of desktop anyway.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @07:42PM
That was actually the first thing I tried. CSS based on screen width not js. There was plenty of "but I might want the desktop site" and also "800px width is too high to send someone to mobile, old/blind people still use it for desktop". It's a can't win for losing situation. So, when in doubt, let the user decide.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday February 19 2016, @10:16PM
Depends on orientation. While pixel size is indeed same, in portrait orientation the fact the device is mobile becomes obvious. That is usually what I use to distinguish between mobile and non-mobile layouts. Of course requires JavaScript to be 100% sure width height, but I have no problems with that. Alternately you can use media queries and assume people with width threshold are in portrait mode on a mobile device.
So, what about desktop users with monitors in portrait? That's a thing people do. Great way to read, since most content fails to use horizontal space worth a damn. At least until some brain-dead site gives you a mobile page because y>x and fuck everything else. Then there are larger tablets and hybrid devices that have large enough displays that you can comfortably read desktop layouts in portrait, like mine. Getting mobile sites that won't go away is really frustrating on them, too.
Sounds like you need to rethink your assumptions or be very certain you have a good, discoverable, and non-frustrating way to override them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @01:35PM
We've been discussing it since the previously linked story. There's really no good or easy way to decide who gets mobile and who doesn't for our unique community. Right now I'm pondering setting a cookie but that's not a complete solution as it would cheese off anyone who blocks cookies. Look for something in April or May though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday February 19 2016, @03:13PM
Might be able to do it as a theme and let users decide.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @06:41PM
Thought about that. Would mean you'd need two accounts for desktop vs mobile or you'd have to keep switching. Sounded like too much of a pain to me.
Logged in users though already allow cookies for the site by necessity. Wouldn't take anything but a link on the main site to switch you to or from mobile with a cookie.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @08:25PM
You could make "Allow us to set a mobile-awareness cookie" a user option. That would address the cookie issue from an opt-in perspective.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @08:56PM
ACs don't have any way to store user options aside from cookies, so we couldn't save a "no". Logged in users already have a cookie we can write to. How about just slapping "(requires cookies)" out beside the toggle between views button/link/checkbox/whatever?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @10:23PM
That would work. My reply was targeted at registered users. Those of us who are posting AC don't/shouldn't have a lot of expectations regarding feature accommodations, though a GIF blowing us kisses would make some of us feel better.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 20 2016, @01:37AM
Actually, yall should have some right nifty stuff coming in the next site upgrade. Registered users will of course make out the best though cause we can save preferences and data for them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by danomac on Friday February 19 2016, @09:22PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 20 2016, @01:31AM
Costs money for another ssl cert and leaves us having to maintain two different installs of rehash under two vhosts. I'm not even certain you could run two installs of rehash on the same db without hosing it either. Race conditions out the wazoo for starters.
Yall don't have to decide it. Ultimately it's going to be myself and paulej72 and bytram and Deucalion deciding it cause we're the guys writing it and the boss but we want input from anyone who's got some to give so we can hopefully make more people happy than we cheese off.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Sunday February 21 2016, @12:10PM
Why not - in addition to other methods - use a "GET-url"? (ie &mobile=1 ) and pass that along?
With this crowd we should be able to expect people to know how to edit urls (especially those that block cookies)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 21 2016, @04:00PM
That'd make me and paulej72 feel obliged to make it a sticky thing for all links to anywhere on the site. Which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Every template would need to have something along the lines of [% mobile %] added to the end of every link to somewhere on the site. Might be worth doing, not sure yet.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Saturday February 20 2016, @07:20AM
Though the JavaScript on the other site for moderation, messages and login is absolute crap.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by iWantToKeepAnon on Monday February 22 2016, @07:35PM
(I know this is not the same things as mobile web, BUT ...) I browse SN's RSS feed on my phone all the time and it looks great. But yes, a mobile stylesheet would be nice.
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 19 2016, @11:30AM
I take it there will be an IPO soon for a squillion US dollars. Shortly thereafter the site will be bought out by Microsoft or Friendface. All the users migrate to a shiny new spinoff site, and TMB gets to go fishing all day every day, lighting cigars from wads of 100 dollar bills.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday February 19 2016, @11:48AM
And we'll all go out to dinner at 'MessyJoes' after.
Man, that joke just doesn't work when you type it out. :(
Mesijoes
Mesyjos?
Mesciejose?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @01:37PM
Indeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEKbFMvkLIc [youtube.com]
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Webweasel on Friday February 19 2016, @11:45AM
And I got a 3 digit ID.
Gonna have such UBER NERD CRED here in a few years.
One day ill be a grumpy old soylentis who only raise's his head when people comment about low ID users.
Can't wait to repeat 10 year old memes to the kids!!!
On a more serious note, well done soylent team and the community for getting this far, keep up the good work!
Kudos to everyone.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 3, Funny) by cmn32480 on Friday February 19 2016, @12:41PM
Get off my lawn!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday February 19 2016, @01:02PM
Yeah! What he said!
(In before TMB =)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 19 2016, @01:11PM
That's not your lawn, Bytram. You're drunk again. That's your neighbor's green livingroom carpet which they'll thank you to stop peeing on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by hemocyanin on Friday February 19 2016, @02:45PM
Nuts -- I should have gotten in between cmn32480 and martyb -- but my arthritis is acting up and I couldn't get to the keyboard fast enough.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday February 19 2016, @01:10PM
There's nothing wrong with the number 567, but I wouldn't call it a low-numbered UID. Get off my lawn, whipper snapper.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday February 19 2016, @01:10PM
And I got a 3 digit ID.
Gonna have such UBER NERD CRED here in a few years.
by a few i hope you mean 15 because that's actually about the time it will kick in.
(Score: 1) by aitmanga on Friday February 19 2016, @11:59PM
High Five!
Back to topic: Congratulations to all the SN staff for doing a great job this past couple of years!
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
(Score: 1) by Drake_Edgewater on Friday February 19 2016, @12:02PM
Congratulations!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 19 2016, @01:03PM
Hats off to the devs and editors. Thanks too to all the users, registered and AC, who build the conversations that we enjoy.
To everyone: if you can, set aside some time this year to pitch in somehow. A turn as an editor, submit one story per day, write some for the wiki, or even author an original article for the site, register, subscribe...they're all additive.
It's a special place we have here. I can't think of any other forum where such diverse political perspectives and social backgrounds still talk to each other. A place where true-believer nazis, socialists, libertarians, trans-people, pagans, and people of faith can converse more or less civilly is doing something right.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @02:20PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 19 2016, @05:48PM
Fuckkk youuuuyouasdmfaisgmdfkgasmfkmapfppgfpgpfpppgffff
*hic*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @10:28PM
More proof that everything is a dildo if you're brave enough.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by goodie on Friday February 19 2016, @02:51PM
Seriously, I think many people were iffy about the site's longevity at the beginning. And guess what, it doesn't have all the (stupid) bells and whistles that "social networking" sites try to show down your throats. SN is fast, unbloated (by most people's standards) and most of all, the community is pretty freaking' awesome. So hats off to the team for keeping it up especially when considering the ups and downs of the first year! There's a story to write about all this (social scientist here, it's on my list ;) ).
It's a good occasion to subscribe and I see the Stripe link that was missing the other day, yay! :)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @02:45AM
I block everything[1] that isn't readable text.
I guess I get the least-bloated presentation of any Soylentil, yet pretty much everything still works.
(Without downloading the stylesheet, long URLs don't fold at the right margin[2] and the quote pseudotag[3] doesn't work.)
[1] Out of curiosity, I whitelisted the subscriber star graphic a while back and haven't blocked that again since.
N.B. That image *could* be given alt-text (an asterisk?) and would then be compatible with e.g. Lynx and blind people's screenreaders.
[2] In the early days (when the codebase was still Slash and before the name Rehash was chosen, I think), this was done in HTML and worked for me.
I presume that some folks didn't like the text presentation that that gave, with whitespace|a break in the middle of a URL when marked and copied.
[3] Redundant due to the HTML blockquote tag and, as such, completely unnecessary IMO.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday February 21 2016, @05:28AM
SN is fast. Based on my personal surfing experience, it's one of the fastest sites on the Internet. That's because it's not loaded down with crap.
Obligatory: Thank you to the guys in charge for your hard work.
(Score: 2) by present_arms on Friday February 19 2016, @03:25PM
It's gone quick :d here's to another 2 at least :D
http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
(Score: 3, Interesting) by rufty on Friday February 19 2016, @04:00PM
Happy anniversary, but two years? The years are starting to make zipping noises as they pass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @07:08PM
Didn't SystemD hit about the same time as "Fuck Beta?" All that rage & butthurt seemed to roll into one gigantic mess.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Friday February 19 2016, @09:37PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday February 22 2016, @03:11PM
I'll sign on to this one. Happy 2nd birthday everybody :D
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday February 20 2016, @02:26AM
I'm really grateful to all of those who created, nurtured, enhanced and continue to support SN. From the devs to the editors to the users. You've made this a place I want to be!
What's more, I was just about to hunt down and kill Bennett Haselton [slashdot.org] when I found out about Soylent News.
As such, thanks to SN, I'm not sitting in PMITA prison right now.
Keep up the good work! I don't want to go to prison.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday February 20 2016, @03:29AM
TYPING IN ALL CAPS SO YOU KNOW I'M SERIOUS/DERANGED
IN THE AGE OF CENSORSHIP AND UNBOUND CORPORATISM, THE GREATEST DESCENDANT OF THE PRINTING PRESS IS UNDER SIEGE.
FROM WITHIN, FROM WITHOUT, FREEDOM. HISTORY. KNOWLEDGE. MAN'S EVER-TRUSTWORTHY SERVANTS AND GUIDING FORCE - NOW RUN, EVADE, STRUGGLE TO ESCAPE THE SHACKLES WHICH MONEY WOULD IMPOSE.
YOU , THE STEWARDS OF THE FREE-AS-IN-FREEDOM GNU/PRESS (LOL), ARE THE ONES WHO NOW AND FOREVER PART THE SEAS FOR MAN AND HIS GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS - NOT FOR CREED, OR RACE, OR RELIGION, BUT FOR THE POSTERITY OF ALL OF MANKIND.
FIGHT ON BROTHERS AND SISTERS, AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday February 22 2016, @03:29PM
Soylent Gnus? :D
But yes, every so often one is reminded how unusual a place like this is so I'll add a "Fight the bubble!" [wikipedia.org] :)
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))