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posted by martyb on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the Happy-Birthday-to-Us! dept.

It all started when Slashdot rolled out a new, "Beta" user interface that was soundly disliked. In response, they posted a story calling us an "audience". That did not go over well. At all. Cries of "Buck Feta" were numerous and frequent. Then came a call for a Slashdot boycott — a "Slashcott" — scheduled for the week of February 10-17, 2014.

While the Slashcott was going on, a handful of intrepid nerds pulled down the (horribly out-of-date and unmaintained) open source code dump of Slashcode, forked it, and started whacking it into shape. This culminated in our announcement to the world: Welcome to the World of Tomorrow... Today!.

Now, one could argue as to the exact date of our birth. Was it when the domain "soylentnews.org" was first registered? (2014-02-09T01:50:26Z) How about when the first user was registered to the site? (2014-02-12 06:00:06 "NCommander") Or, maybe, the very first story posted to the site? Welcome Testers ... (2014.02.11 21:28 UTC)

Whichever one of those you choose, it has now been at least FIVE years...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOYLENTNEWS!

We've had hiccups along the way. Even the past year was not problem-free. Server reboots so our hosting provider, Linode, could roll out mitigations for the Spectre and Meltdown attacks. Then we had a server go down on us, which would not be such a big deal except its mirror had already predeceased it, so there was nothing to fail over to. A couple more issues with Apache and nginx going off to who-knows-where and needing to be restarted. Oh, and our mailserver decided to stop serving mail at one point, too. There may have been another couple of things which happened over the past year that escape me at the moment, but all-in-all I would like to think we are doing a pretty good job of keeping things up and running. Consider we are an entirely volunteer organization. Consider, too, that big-named sites like Wells Fargo, TSB, Google, and others all had site-wide outages in one or more of their services... we've got a good group here and it has been truly a wonderful experience to be a part of what keeps this site running.

A quick look around the site reveals some interesting statistics. That by week's end, we will have posted our 26,000th story. To that, add the 3,994 journal entries that have been posted by the community. We had our 800,000th comment posted to the site just this week. We have had, however, comparatively few comment moderations: ~540,000. We have 7,333 registered users, too!

Many thanks are in order to those who have helped keep everything up and running. Not just the sysops who lurk in the background, but also those of you who have opened your wallets and bought the subscriptions which pay the server bills, domain registrations, as well as the CPA for filing taxes, and the like.

Ultimately, this site is for you, the community. We focus stories on those which have a technical or science (aka nerd) angle with maybe a politically oriented story posted each day. And an occasional story that looks like it might engender discussion. There are plenty of other sites which cater to the latest Hollywood gossip, political machinations, recipes, and cat pictures... you've made it clear you don't want a bunch of that here. Submit stories. Make journal entries. Post and moderate comments.

Yes, we have had many accomplishments over these years, but we know nothing is perfect. We are overdue for a site upgrade, but it's likely nothing much will happen for a few months until TheMightyBuzzard can free up some of his time to work on it. Complaining is easy, but if you have concrete suggestions on what we could do better and how we might go about it, we can't promise anything (one man's drink is another man's poison), but we will certainly give it serious consideration.

If you should run into an issue with the site, please send details to admin (at) soylentnews.org noting the date/time/timezone and any data you can provide to help us locate and isolate the problem. That includes the URL for the story or journal entry. If it pertains to a comment, then please also include a link to that, as well. (That is the link under the (#nnnnn) in the comment header). Fair warning: complaining in the comments about a story not being accepted or about the moderation of one of your comments is generally off-topic and often moderated that way. Exception: if you accidentally modded a comment as spam, or have had a comment of yours moderated as spam that you think is incorrect, please send an e-mail to the admin address and we will take a look at it. We are running a bit lean on staff ATM with several of us in the midst of time-consuming things IRL, so please be patient.

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you who have helped this site persevere all these years!


Original Submission

Related Stories

Welcome Testers ... 25 comments
By the time this post goes live, we'll be proudly serving our first few users. Right now, we are still working on nailing some outstanding issues with slash (most notably, moderation), but we're at the point that I'd like to get some early feedback, and allow others to run through the system and test stuff. Please make sure to read the preceding posts, feel free to comment, and enjoy!

EDIT: Struck a naught word -- NCommander
Happy Birthday to SoylentNews -- Six Years Old! 37 comments

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!

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Apparition on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:12AM (1 child)

    by Apparition (6835) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:12AM (#802297) Journal

    Soon you'll be in Kindergarten! Thanks for five years of hard work and for providing one of the best news aggregating sites.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Appalbarry on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:14AM (7 children)

    by Appalbarry (66) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:14AM (#802298) Journal

    And NATALIE PORTMAN too!

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:26AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:26AM (#802310) Homepage

      Oh wait, it's Saturday evening. I was drinking anyway. Cheers!

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by fakefuck39 on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:36AM (5 children)

      by fakefuck39 (6620) on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:36AM (#802390)

      and niggers niggers niggers!!! woohoo go niggers!

      oh memories of that sweet nigger dick. has anyone else here watched "gay niggers from outer space?" remember pipedot?

      happie birthday you hippy retards. damn fine job for stupid hippies. damn fine.

      niggers.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:18AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:18AM (#802419)

        You GNA people are rather amusing. You'll bash the gay niggers in public, but when the sun goes down, we know where to find you. Lined up at the back door of the GNA bar, hoping to be allowed inside, where you can slurp a huge black cock.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:41PM (3 children)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:41PM (#802636)

        You forgot to post A/C.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:04PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:04PM (#802645)

          At least we know who this troll is now

        • (Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Monday February 18 2019, @03:30PM

          by fakefuck39 (6620) on Monday February 18 2019, @03:30PM (#802985)

          Actually, I've posted ac at the beginning of this site. I have not posted ac once since creating this account so I could save preferences. I don't troll - I shit in your mouth to your face; now open wide. if you knew some russian and korean you'd get the joke in my username - it's about the cum all over your face after you watch your porn, you ugly fat fuck.

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:20AM (23 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:20AM (#802302) Journal

    And not a single advertisement *cough* Pepsodent *cough*

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:24AM (20 children)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:24AM (#802308) Journal

      My biggest regret in life was not moving quickly enough to get a 2 digit UID as you did.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:34AM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:34AM (#802315) Homepage Journal

        Easiest way to get one was to get in on the alpha testing but that had extremely strict qualifications. You had to be present and paying attention in the IRC channel when NCommander asked if anyone wanted to be an alpha tester.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:37AM (2 children)

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:37AM (#802318) Journal

        I would have gotten a lower one but was off line at the time.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 5, Funny) by Foobar Bazbot on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:22AM (1 child)

          by Foobar Bazbot (37) on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:22AM (#802361) Journal

          Sucks to be you.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:32PM

            by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:32PM (#802525) Journal

            Yup.

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:50AM

        by mhajicek (51) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:50AM (#802323)

        Booyah!

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:06AM (8 children)

        by RS3 (6367) on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:06AM (#802352)

        I've heard tell you slip TMB a few exotic lures and database glitches happen.

        • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:11AM (7 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:11AM (#802356) Homepage Journal

          Beer and liquor are also on the approved bribes list.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:11AM (6 children)

            by RS3 (6367) on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:11AM (#802371)

            And hookers as usual, right? I mean, the ones who put the bait on the fishhooks. Or hook the fish, or whatever it was you told me to tell everyone the last time.

            • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:00AM (4 children)

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:00AM (#802457) Journal

              And hookers as usual, right?

              Nah, tookers too expensive. Tities will do just fine for TMB

              Unfortunately, ASCII art triggers the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.

              --
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:58AM

                by RS3 (6367) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:58AM (#802469)

                Naa, we can splurge- it's a celebration! We'll sell some advertising, but use a server plugin that will make the ads only show on the advertisers' computers.

              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:31PM (2 children)

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:31PM (#802474) Homepage Journal

                ( o Y o )

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:47PM (1 child)

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:47PM (#802610) Journal

                  That's not art, that's tagging.

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:59PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:59PM (#803069)

              [Scene: The 18th hole of Mr. Wong's course. It's a mess of tubes leading to the green from a giant plastic gorilla head.]

              Tester: Stand by, men. And manly aliens. Prepare to test fire King Kong hole.

                      [The manly alien launches the ball at the gorilla. It goes into his mouth and comes out on the green, rolling into the hole for an ace.]

              Sal: It workses.

              Tester: Good job, men. And manly aliens. Construction of King Kong hole complete.

                      [The Feministas' camper is approaching in the background.]

              Frida: Typical. Always King Kong, never Queen... Quong.

                      [A few Feministas leap from the Camper onto the green and plant hooks in the turf and the bumper of their vehicle.]

              Sal: What are those, hooks? Get out of heres, you hookers.

                      [The Camper blats off from the green, pulling the turf with it and sending the asteroid, which the green was placed on, spinning out of control and smashing into the tubes.]

              Sal: [He's flying through space.] Helpses!

                      [The Feministas cheer as they spray the gorilla head with make-up.]

              Leela: You go, gorilla !

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:20AM (4 children)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:20AM (#802373)

        As you can tell from my UID, it was several weeks after the Slashcott that I found out about this place: Thanks to whoever was posting links in the comments on the green site at the time.

        For that matter, how high does the UID count go these days?

        • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:22AM (2 children)

          by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:22AM (#802374)

          Ah, it is hiding in TFS up there: 7,333.

          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by DECbot on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:16PM (1 child)

            by DECbot (832) on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:16PM (#802615) Journal

            That number needs to double before I think I could successfully auction off my account. Speaking of such things, how many 3-digit and smaller UIDs are idle (not logged in for 2+ years)? Perhaps every few years SN could auction these UIDs as a fundraiser. Give the account holder 6 months to claim their account and login. If never claimed, it is considered abandoned and the UID becomes available for auction. Now there will be quite a bit of work to get Rehash to support multiple accounts using the same UID, but I'm sure Buzzy is up for it. :D

            --
            cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
            • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:04PM

              by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:04PM (#803576) Homepage

              Not a bad idea, but I'd make it a year at least. People come and go.

              My longest time between logins... year or so back I needed to do something on the roll-your-own-SuSE site. It wanted a login. On a hunch I tried my old Novell login that hadn't been used since 2001. And it worked! Damn, some servers never throw away anything....

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
        • (Score: 2) by arslan on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:42PM

          by arslan (3462) on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:42PM (#802625)

          Heh same here, it the green site didn't shite itself I wouldn't have found out about the flip side.

      • (Score: 2) by Kell on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:48PM

        by Kell (292) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:48PM (#802503)

        Yeeep

        --
        Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:21AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:21AM (#802338)

      How did you know I use Pepsodent? Fantastic stuff just don't swallow, the first ingredient is sorbitol.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:26AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:26AM (#802341) Journal

        You should try Cuke: it's heaven in a can!

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:35AM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:35AM (#802316) Journal

    Aristarchus is buying!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:03AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:03AM (#802330) Journal

      Certainly, but as the transport of Μπύρα over TCP/IP is not yet feasible, I will gladly buy all the free speech any solylentil needs! Here's to five years!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:38AM (9 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:38AM (#802319) Journal
    A technology/computing website, purchased for ad revenue by a corporation staffed with mandroids incapable of understanding the most basic needs of its users, quickly 'upgraded' to "Web 2.0" technology, effectively banning every computer literate poster on the site.

    Granted, we know how to circumvent bans. But are we gonna?

    Well my answer was hell no. If you don't want me here then I'm gone. Never been back. Go look me up if you want, frozen in time with maximum karma.

    Fuck beta, fuck javascript, fuck anyone who thinks they are entitled to use your CPU against you.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Quicksilver on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:50AM (8 children)

      by Quicksilver (1821) on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:50AM (#802445)

      And the bonus is that Soylent has actually focused on science/tech news!

      Slashdot has a large percentage of articles that are puff pieces, non technical, or even old news. In the last couple months they even had a political smear piece that was purposefully deceptive and obviously inaccurate.

      Keep up the good work Soylent!

      • (Score: 1) by linsane on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:53AM

        by linsane (633) on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:53AM (#802454)

        Concur

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:04AM (1 child)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:04AM (#802462) Journal

        And the bonus is that Soylent has actually focused on science/tech news!

        And alt-right, don't forget alt-right (grin)

        (the most commented news are mostly in "Politics")

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:37PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:37PM (#802477) Homepage Journal

          The site naming story is still in the lead by six comments. The call for name suggestions one is in sixth place. There's also a religion one and four about assorted shootings. Only three are really proper politics.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:13PM

        by fritsd (4586) on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:13PM (#802481) Journal

        TBH I do enjoy the political articles as well.

        We live in strange times.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Tokolosh on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:25PM (2 children)

        by Tokolosh (585) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:25PM (#802520)

        The level of discourse at /. is abysmal. The signal to noise ratio is very low. I go take a look now and then, and it is soothing to return here.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:09PM (#802647)

          I just can't read it anymore.
          Maybe if it were possible to collapse comment threads it would be ok.

          As soon as you hit the second page it's just a mess.

          The commander of tacos must be rolling in his toaster over the current state of his creation

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @06:49AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @06:49AM (#802806)

          I've noticed a much higher level of authoritarianism on Slashdot, such as comments professing support of things like the NSA's mass surveillance and the TSA.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:14PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:14PM (#802589)

        In the last couple months they even had a political smear piece that was purposefully deceptive and obviously inaccurate.

        Thank goodness stuff like that never happens on SoylentNews! *cough*Discovery Institute*cough*

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by zeigerpuppy on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:54AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:54AM (#802325)

    No small feat to keep the site improving all this time, you're all legends!
    Looking forward to much more soylenting...

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:57AM (3 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:57AM (#802326) Journal

    SUBSCRIBE!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:02AM (2 children)

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:02AM (#802398) Journal

      I did today :-) (errr, yesterday actually at this point)

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:33PM (1 child)

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:33PM (#802485) Journal

        Ah, if only there were MORE perfect people like you: perfect, wonderful, probably handsome/gorgeous, definitely intelligent people, JUST LIKE YOU!

        Well done, sir.... ma'am... thou...... .......?

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:40PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:40PM (#802549)

          Ah yes, money. The only thing to get a conservative to care about gender pronouns ;)

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by black6host on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:27AM (6 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:27AM (#802342) Journal

    Yes, we have had many accomplishments over these years, but we know nothing is perfect. We are overdue for a site upgrade, but it's likely nothing much will happen for a few months until TheMightyBuzzard can free up some of his time to work on it.

    No rush as far as I'm concerned. Everyone here is why we're here. Nothing is perfect, ever. We like it here. We keep coming back. The personalities, the ACs, the faults and all of it. I contribute what I can because I like this place. Maybe money, maybe comments, maybe heartburn :) So thank you all!!!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:40AM (5 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:40AM (#802346) Homepage

      The gimmick of a fast and clean user-interface free of bullshit is alone valuable.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:03AM (2 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:03AM (#802351) Homepage Journal

        Indeed. It's like salt in food. If we think the site needs more bullshit, we're not shy about adding our own.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Hyper on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:16PM (1 child)

        by Hyper (1525) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:16PM (#802650) Journal

        This type of site is becoming rarer. Hosts it's own scripts? Degrades gracefully in the absence of js? Look and feel and usability? No external advertising? Other than personal sites this is not found very often nowadays.

        SN should be congratulated for delivering a news site that is open and easy to use focusing on its users rather than how much revenue can be generated.

        It still boggles my mind that the green site screwed up as badly as they did.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:03AM (#802773)

          Yep, I was going to type this but instead just "yup". Thanks coders and editors and comment participants all; thanks everyone, for making this community worth being part of, in an environment (no js, screenreader compatible) that's not abhorrent.

          -AC since very very early.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:38AM (30 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:38AM (#802345)

    A good question to ask in all of this is where does Slashdot stand now?

    It's still there. At a glance it is covered with advertising, even with an ad blocker. I guess the dumbed down mobile-ish "beta" never really took off. It looks like they never fixed some of the browser rendering problems with their comment system.

    Who owns them today? I thought I head that they left Dice, but I'd guess they are still some unrelated corporation.

    I got tired of the community years ago. Commenters were getting dumber. Comments would get modded in to oblivion even if it was just an opinion that did not fit in their groupthink.

    Quite sad really.

    It is good to have soylentnews around. Not sure I'd recommend it to everyone though. I think the sarcastic description of "a news site started by former slashdot trolls" is too accurate really.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:10AM (5 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:10AM (#802355) Homepage Journal

      As far as I know, /. has done fuck-all since being acquired by the most recent corporate daddies. They haven't done anything at all on unicode support even though they announced they were going to when they got bought out and I offered to help if they needed it.

      I'd say more pissed off people than trolls, though we do excel at that as well. We're definitely not for the faint of heart though. If you can't handle both well thought out dissent and someone telling you that you're going to burn in hell in a conversation about dark matter, I'd suggest another site.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:20AM (4 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:20AM (#802372) Journal
        I wonder who the dude was who kept slamming SN in Slashdot? He said much the same thing. It's funny how those same trolling attacks keep coming up over and over again.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:30AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:30AM (#802421)

          Blame Aristarchus. He dreams of converting this place into a leftist utopia.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:19AM (1 child)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:19AM (#802434) Journal

            Dream of reality: People who can see reality. Truth and justice as far as the eye can see. Yes, that is it, and it is not leftist, it is reality, and justice. Thus Colbert said, "reality has a well known liberal bias", which when you parse it, says, Reality is reality, and all those rigiht-wing nut-jobs are off in la-la land. Build the WaLL! The Huang-di commands us! Bury the scholars, they criticize the Huang-di! And the Cnin Dynasty lasts 21 years, because they forced the people to build a Wall. Steven Miller sucks donkey dicks, on a regular basis! He is a self-hating Jew, a non-white white supremacist, and a motherfucking alt-right incel not married cocksucking neo-conservative sucker of cocks, especially dick "Dick" Cheney cocks, and "Newt" (I have no cock) Gringrinch cocks, and Seah Hannity "my cock fell off for the sake of a Cardinal, and I am not talking about a sports team" Hannity. Of course, the goddess of death, Annie Coulter, has decided to split. The President is an idiot, and that is our national emergency? She figured that out all by her self? Maybe blondes are not as dumb as the folklore suggests, except, with Kaleigh and Tomi, and Kellyanne, maybe they are.

            So where were we? Leftist Utopia? Hell I would settle for a Realtity based community. And libertariantards are not that, even.

            • (Score: 1, Troll) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:47PM

              by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:47PM (#802488) Journal

              How about sucking Kellyanne (I have a tiny cock) Conway cocks....I like THOSE kinds of cocks! (Disclaimer: NOT specifically saying HER tiny cock) ;)

              --
              --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:53AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:53AM (#802447)

          24 khallows, for the bad faith.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by julian on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:12AM (20 children)

      by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:12AM (#802357)

      I guess the dumbed down mobile-ish "beta" never really took off.

      I know most people here are techno-primitivists (that's a thing, shut up) and think a real computer is a beige desktop connected to a CRT, but it would be nice if SN could also work on a mobile browser. I try to use it on my phone and tablet sometimes and it's a pain; lots of pinching and zooming to read text that's set too wide and too small.

      I prefer the desktop site, it's very efficient and functional. It would still be nice if it degraded gracefully for smaller, narrower, higher DPI screens.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:26AM (10 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:26AM (#802362) Journal

        I read your comment on mobile and I was doing the "thumb dance" at the time.

        I'm planning on doing a new CSS theme, so I might look at mobile at the same time.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:43PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:43PM (#802478) Homepage Journal

          We have a mobile version sitting in my email, it was just written for the version of the site that was current at the time as opposed to all the fun stuff that had been merged into the master branch ahead of it, so it didn't get included due to not having the time to refactor it to reflect all the changes. If I ever manage a free day again, it's on the list.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by Hyper on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:19PM (6 children)

          by Hyper (1525) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:19PM (#802651) Journal

          Thumb dance. Nice.

          A lot of sites don't scale well for mobile. I am happy to thumb dance is that is what it takes.

          Open a beta channel for mobile users to test and provide feedback?

        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:11PM (1 child)

          by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:11PM (#803579) Homepage

          I use a Stylish theme called "SoylentNews Night Mode Red". Pretty and restful. Please don't break it (as sometimes happens when CSSs are layered).

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:59AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:59AM (#802397)

        Yep. Looking terrible and working terribly on mobile is one of two of SoylentNews' biggest faults today IMO. The other is that I really wish there was a five or ten minute window to edit comments to correct misspellings and such. I strongly suspect that I'm in the minority on the latter, however.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:33AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:33AM (#802422)

          Mamy of is just dont caire aboot our tipos

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:12AM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:12AM (#802464) Journal

            Mamy Nany of is just dont caire aboot our tipos

            FTFY, 'coz sum do.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:45PM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:45PM (#802479) Homepage Journal

            Yes, we absolutely do care about typos. cmn32480 has a required class to make sure all new editors can keep up the number of typos we expect from a story, despite the red wavy lines.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by EETech1 on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:39AM (2 children)

        by EETech1 (957) on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:39AM (#802405)

        Use Opera browser!
        Text Reflow!
        Force Zoom!

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:02PM (1 child)

          by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:02PM (#802491) Journal

          +1 Opera browser.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 2) by Teckla on Monday February 18 2019, @01:01PM

            by Teckla (3812) on Monday February 18 2019, @01:01PM (#802922)

            Chinese browser are safest browser!

      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:18PM (1 child)

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday February 17 2019, @12:18PM (#802472) Journal

        and think a real computer is a beige desktop connected to a CRT

        Not at all. I'm writing this on a black laptop, and I haven't connected any computer to a CRT monitor since many years.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:34PM

          by DECbot (832) on Sunday February 17 2019, @10:34PM (#802634) Journal

          To be fair, I'm not sure what the original color was for the box on the far end of this cable. Come to think of it, I know this host name, but I'm not sure what actual hardware it runs on any more. Anyone remember the name of that utility that would flash Morris code on your hard drive LED? Hopefully I won't be confusing some poor server monkey at a VPS provider asking him to look for some random LED flashing "abracadabra."

          --
          cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:28AM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:28AM (#802420) Journal

      covered with advertising, even with an ad blocker.

      I just clicked on them. Page loads almost instantly, without a single ad visible. I have half the world's advertisers and trackers blocked at the router. It's hard to say which of my addons takes care of the rest, but I'll give most of the credit to Ublock Origins. Perhaps with another browser, I might see some of the crap. I have Cyberfox configured more strictly than some of my other options, so I never see an ad with it. I have Opera pretty much unshackled - I'm not willing to wander randomly around the net with that.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:16PM

        by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:16PM (#803585) Homepage

        I don't even do that -- just naked SeaMonkey, a good HOSTS file, and NoScript (but no adblocker) so all JS is disabled, and modern Slashdot looks just like old Slashdot. No ads or other crap.

        Looked at it with Borealis (kinda FF60 in a Palemoon wrapper), which doesn't support add-ons, and then there's some sponsored content, but easily ignorable. Guessing it's a lot more noxious on mobile, tho.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:43AM (#802786)

      A good question to ask in all of this is where does Slashdot stand now?

      Their new "D2" commenting system is software designed to control the narrative. Comments are regularly "filtered" from the main thread of a discussion and don't appear at all. To see them you have to use the classic interface which has everything except ease of commenting.

      Right of reply does not exist, so if someone says something stupid to your insightful comment, sometimes your reply isn't displayed.

      The entire moderation system has been hijacked. Compare the classic and D2 system and you see comment that are modded up in classic are 1 in D2 and visa versa.

      People I argue with are just as censored as I am so I haven't cracked the motivation behind the censorship.

      One thing is certain, whatever the narrative is, it certainly isn't the "community's" anymore. I've been spending more and more time here as /. breaks down a into a troll forum for those who communicate irrationally.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:15AM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:15AM (#802359) Journal

    Intrepid makes me think of Adm Richard E. Byrd, or Roald Amundsen, or Robert Scott. I spent a minute or more searching for "intrepid nerds" and found just about nothing. Alas, the world has failed to notice Soylent's intrepidity. There is no justice in this universe!

    Maybe we should gather at Milliway's and wait for our proper recognition? Everyone get your pennies ready . . .

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by martyb on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:20AM (2 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:20AM (#802360) Journal
      And don't forget your towel! =)
      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:46PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:46PM (#802553)

        What another person too squeamish to give their order to their steak? Sucking on the nutrient corner is pretty sad when you'ee at Milliways!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @01:32PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @01:32PM (#802927)

          I prefer not to eat a meal that has just spoken to me.
          regardless of its willingness to die to be my dinner

          at the very least it can go off to the kitchen to expire and not introduce itself

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:37AM (#802363)

      s/nerds/trips
      http://cyber250.pacinfo.com/first.html [pacinfo.com]

  • (Score: 2) by pgc on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:39AM

    by pgc (1600) on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:39AM (#802406)

    Keep up the good work.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:50AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @07:50AM (#802411)
    The "allowed HTML" line on the "posting" screen has no whitespace surrounding the pipes:

    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|strike

    The result is that it forces a "superwide" page size, which then drags the right edge of the coment box far off the right side of the browser window. Just add some spaces around the pipes so that line will naturally wordwrap, and at least one SN irritant would go away.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:07PM (3 children)

      by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:07PM (#802493) Journal

      del & strike do the same thing

      del

      strike

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:21PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:21PM (#802652)

        If only we had a place to post bug reports

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:56PM (1 child)

          by Gaaark (41) on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:56PM (#802672) Journal

          It's not a bug, it's a feature.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @01:30PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @01:30PM (#802925)

            Pffffft
            this is not Microsoft!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:50PM (1 child)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:50PM (#802504) Homepage Journal

      This [soylentnews.org] work for you? Zero-width space so it doesn't take up extra room but should break before the pipe characters. Did it during my morning coffee because it was quick and easy. Won't hit the production servers until the next update though.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @08:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @08:07AM (#802837)

        Yes, please! Not the original requester, but equally thrilled if this fix went live.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:00AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:00AM (#802770)

      Don't add a space, add a nonprinting character. The aesthetic is good. The "word" just needs to break on the real word breaks.

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