The submissions queue is running very low. Please support the site and make submissions on the usual topics because, without them, we will have to reduce the number of stories that we can publish each day.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:01AM (57 children)
Arthur T. Knackerbracket (the bot, or so I assumed)? If his decommissioning was announced, I missed it, sorry.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:25AM (56 children)
The editors are very busy and are being criticised for the stories that they are publishing. Yes, I know, that criticism goes with the job. However, it is the community's role to provide the submissions and it would aid us considerably if they would contribute. We provide feeds of links to hundreds of potential stories a day, and have made the submission job as simple as possible using 'upstart'. Choose those that you want to discuss and submit them please.
There are currently 3 active editors - 2 of whom have jobs, families and other responsibilities. I am currently giving between 3 and 4 hours a day and I cannot continue to maintain this rate.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:59AM (44 children)
Solution is simple, publish better stories! Would help is the eds did not reject all the interesting stuff in favor of retro computing and boomer hypochondriac stuff. And, maybe if we had more aristarchus submissions? Just saying.
aristarchus.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @12:24PM (43 children)
So your solution would be to have more political rants? You mean, the sort in the journals each weekend that deteriorate into throwing insults and contain very little intelligent discussion at all. They are the very thing driving people away. No, it isn't going to happen.
You had a 13% acceptance rate for your submissions - I don't think you are the one who should be giving others any advice.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:23PM (8 children)
Talking shit to the people submitting stories, on the other hand, is going swimmingly!
Maybe you should check the rejected pile, I heard there's some gems in there! And I keep my political flamebait in my journal already thankyouverymuch.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:32PM (7 children)
By the time we received and processed your last submission it had already been covered by the green site and was being widely shown on sites such as imgur.com, acidcows.com etc.
That is just the way it goes sometimes. Submissions are not rejected by a single editor.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:41PM
It's the deflection that bothers me, not my submission acceptance rate.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @07:47PM (4 children)
When you reject good, high-quality stories like that one, some of hubie's stories, a story [soylentnews.org] about a serious vulnerability in some of Intel's datacenter products, a story [soylentnews.org] about the architecture of future space stations, a story [soylentnews.org] about the drawbacks of pig-human organ transplants and ethical issues, and other high quality stories, sometimes you end up with a shortage of stories in the queue. That is just the way it goes sometimes. You're right that editors don't get paid for their work. Neither do members of the community. We also provide contributions for free.
As a member of the community, whinging about a lack of stories on the front page comes across in a particularly bad way after the editors rejected many recent high-quality stories by the community. I interpret it as a lack of gratitude for the work the community has already done for free, saying it's not good enough, then requesting more free work.
I'm all for rejecting political stories, aristarchus spam, and other low-quality nonsense. But there were several good STEM-related stories that were submitted and rejected. Maybe you didn't mean to come across this way, but your comments feel like a slap in the face to the community. I suspect that might be why other people like DeathMonkey aren't reacting kindly to this either.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hubie on Wednesday May 18 2022, @11:13PM (3 children)
I've recently submitted more stories than can be reasonably published, and I'm fine with that. Any of the ones that don't get published, I'll put in my journal. I try to find stories that I think will generate some conversation or that I find to be personally interesting and that others might not know about, but I'm not bothered by whether they get published or not. You want to strike a balance with stories so that they aren't all off the NASA feed or whatever, and I know that my stories don't span the range of interests that cover this site. I would bet this need to request stories is partly my fault in that the queue had gotten fairly low at one point and I submitted a whole bunch of stories on the same day or two, and it seems the remaining ones all timed out at the same time and the queue took a bigger than normal drop. Since then I have paced out when I submit stories to keep that from happening again.
Having recently become an editor myself, I can fully appreciate being on the other side of the subs queue. Being an editor seems to be a lot like being a sports referee in that you do the best that you can and people are going to be upset with you. It is a job, again like a referee I suppose, where you are much more prone to hear the complaints than the accolades, even if the accolades are out there. There are only a few editors and we get on when we can, look at the status of the release queue and what is currently sitting there. There's a number of factors that go into how something gets turned into a story, which are all mainly practical. I'll comment on a few that go into my thinking, which again is based only upon my own very limited experience and I'm sure the other editors have their own approach. If the release queue is filled going out a decent amount into the future, like more than a day ahead, there isn't a lot of need for me to jump in and get more stories into the release queue, so I'll check back in later. Some stories are a wall of text, with 3000 words or more in it, and you realize that will take a good bit of effort to distill it down, so it may or may not be high on the list of contenders to put into submission. There are some that are the opposite, which are basically only a single URL pointing to a story, which would take a bit of effort. Some come in from experienced submitters or maybe even former editors, and those are usually "copy-ready" and ready to release. Those are the easiest to get in the queue. I actually enjoy distilling down the long stories or building up the single story links, but I need to set time aside to do that and sometimes I get to it and sometimes not. If you submit a story and it gets rejected, the rejection notice even invites you to resubmit it if you want. I had a few stories rejected recently for being on the queue too long, but I'm not resubmitting them because I will just find new ones to submit in their place.
I will comment on that pig-human organ story you mentioned as an example. I looked at that and I thought that was an interesting opinion piece, but it was very long, and if I recall, it made many points in the argument that were something like one per paragraph. To me that looked like something that would have taken a lot of effort to cut it down for a summary, probably with me needing to write a summary paragraph or two to pull in all those individual points to keep the summary concise. If somebody else had done that kind of distillation before it was submitted, it would have had a much better chance of getting selected, so that's an example of if there are a decent number of stories already in the queue, there's not a lot of motivation for a volunteer to spend a lot of effort getting that particular story into shape even though it can be an interesting topic.
It may not be obvious, but there is no specific direction given to editors other than that the stories they release should fit the site. There is no "we need more Elon Musk stories!" or anything. I can tell you that the job is taken seriously. The editors keep an eye on the other editors, and we strive for at least one other editor to review what goes out. I seconded the Breitbart/Musk/Twitter story, and I am aware of the reputation Brietbart has, though I had never been to the site personally. The reason I seconded the story was that it was a topic that was deemed of interest for the site, it was properly formatted and presented, and I read the story and it was a straight-up presentation of what it said it was about (no gratuitous use of incendiary words like "woke," "canceled," or blaming "the left" for anything). If this was my day job, maybe I would have set up a meeting with the other editors to discuss it, or searched the web to find the same or similar story from another outlet and rewrite the submission. The only strike against it I saw was the website it was coming from, but that's a tricky topic, I think. We don't have approved or banned source lists, and I don't think we'd want them. We've had science stories from Chinese media, which I don't consider to be bastions of truth and independence, and a number of things come in from RT and Al Jazeera, whom I know are not favorites of some people around here either. If there were two stories in the queue with the same story and one of them from Breitbart, I personally would probably go with the alternative as lead and add a "See Also" link to the former, but that wasn't the case there, I saw no obvious problems with the story, so I approved it and moved on and figured any issues would end up being pointed out in the discussions.
I apologize for this rambling on so long. I really do try to be a person of few words. But I stepped forward to help as editor when martyb had to step down because I really value this site and community here and I wanted to do my part. I have tremendous respect for people like janrinok and the time and effort they put in. You know janrinok because he puts himself out here like this and responds to direct criticism and becomes a face of the site (as others like NCommander or TMB were before), but there are also a lot of other people who you don't hear much from because they quietly do their thing to keep things rolling. Remember, the editors can only work with the stories that are in the queue at the time they need to use the queue. If the queue is low, pointing out there were interesting stories there yesterday doesn't do anything about where the queue is now. If you think he sounds ungrateful (which I would argue very strongly that he is not), just keep in mind where he is coming from as well and how some of the feedback on editing from some drifts closer to unwarranted personal acquisitions ("you are biased!", "you are trying to silence my viewpoint!", "you are incompetent!"). Like volunteering to referee a kids match and catching abuse from the parents on the sideline, it can wear on you and sometimes you may laugh or shake it off, and sometimes it may annoy you.
The very last thing before I get off my soapbox, if you like this site, please find some way to support it, whether it be volunteering as an editor or some other position of support, or by throwing some money into the till from time to time, or by occasionally submitting some stories that would generate some interesting conversations, or if nothing else, just positively engage in the discussions themselves and add your viewpoint or ask a question or whatever. Do it as AC if you aren't comfortable with using an account. Have a good technical throw down on whatever topic is your specialty. The smart, the silly, the absurd, these are the reasons I like coming here every day.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @12:13AM (2 children)
If you're an editor, you can see hashes, and know that I'm the same AC you replied to.
You're right, SN staff do receive a lot of nasty comments, particularly from a small subset of users. One of these users is banned but continues to actively disrupt the site as much as possible. I generally agree with his political views but find his behavior abhorrent and believe he deserves his ban. I will say that I am not personally making such comments.
With respect to the Breitbart story, the specific article probably was fine. Bias can be an issue, but the bigger issue with that specific source is its long history of failed fact checks. Janrinok said that the content of that article could be corroborated elsewhere, and I believe him. Generally speaking, Breitbart is a lousy source because of its poor fact check record. Where I disagreed with janrinok's defense of Brietbart was his comparison to other sources. NPR is a highly credible source with a clean fact check record, and doesn't have that much of a left bias. CNN's TV programming is highly biased and has a lousy fact check record. However, news articles on CNN.com do have good fact check records. There's really no comparison between those sources and Breitbart. WSWS might be the best comparison, but it has a better fact check record than Breitbart, at least according to the fact checking I found. The specific article almost certainly wasn't a problem, but it's typically not a trustworthy source. The specific criticism seemed unwarranted to me, but it's generally a bad source. There are sites that rate the credibility of sources, so it's fairly easy to check on this and get a good idea of whether a source is likely to be good. Look up Media Bias/Fact Check and you can find evaluations of a large number of sources.
As for being limited to stories that are in the queue, there is a solution to that. Stories that aren't time-sensitive and might be interesting a few weeks later can be held in the queue. That was done with COVID stories, which were then merged into a single story instead of posting each one individually. That's why the text is there on the submission queue page. Perhaps the Intel vulnerability story would be less newsworthy in 2-3 weeks, but the story about pig organ transplants doesn't have the same time-sensitive nature.
I trust you that janrinok isn't actually ungrateful, but many of his recent comments have come across in a very bad way. I thought about replying to the Breitbart argument, and I read those comments. I didn't want to pile on, and didn't think my comments would be helpful there. I've tried to exercise restraint in my criticism, and I don't take posting such criticism lightly.
I have contributed money to the site, including as recently as a few months ago. I don't remember exactly when I subscribed most recently, but I'm pretty sure that it's counted in the current funding cycle on the front page. If not, it would have been last fall, shortly before the near year. It hasn't been the only time I've given SN money, either. I'm sure there are users who contribute more, but I do the best I can given my financial situation.
But like I said, just as staff members work for free, the community also works for free, and we contribute our time and money as we are able. We do the best we can in terms of subscribing, submitting stories, moderating, and posting worthwhile comments. When someone contributes a story, even if they haven't edited it, and just submit the entire article via IRC, they're genuinely trying to help the site. It might be more work if it's a long block of text, but that user is genuinely trying to make a useful contribution. Perhaps there isn't time to edit it in the short term, but if it's not time-sensitive, it could be held for a time when the queue is low and there's time to edit the story. Most of your community members are doing the best they can, I assure you. If more people had the time available to them to edit their submitted stories carefully or actually become editors or work elsewhere on the staff, I suspect they would have done so.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hubie on Thursday May 19 2022, @02:50AM (1 child)
I appreciate your responding back. With my response I wanted to give people a general idea what goes on with the editing process. Back in the Slashdot days I used to contribute a story on occasion and would have them rejected, so I stopped suggesting any (and in those late 90s early 2000s they weren't hurting for stories). When SN opened for business, I pretty quickly submitted a story and it was very quickly rejected (looking back on it, it was an interesting (to me, at least) topic with a pretty poor lead-in written by me with an implied assumption that people would follow the link and read the story). My initial response was similar to some of the comments I've seen here ("they said they wanted help, so I sent in a submission and it was rejected, so I said forget it"), but after I got over that initial feeling of rejection, my next ten or so submissions were taken. I just wanted to let people know that it happens, and maybe they're right in that there's not a great reason it didn't get picked up, but don't let that discourage submitting. The story topics themselves aren't what's the most interesting part to me and I easily find a lot of these stories on my own. What I like, for instance, is there will be something like one of takyon's hardware/processor release update stories, and I've stopped seriously following hardware quite a while ago so outside of this site I wouldn't have even read the whole headline before I moved on to something else, but here I will click in and end up coming away with three suggested alternatives for the Raspberry Pi I can't buy, and which alternative is best for running a home multimedia setup or something.
I hope my previous comment didn't come off sounding like a complaint that the submitters aren't doing their job. I think we all appreciate the stories ending up in the queue in any form and the editors will do the best job they can on them. I've looked at a story and thought "that'll take a lot of work and I don't have time for that now" only to come back later to find one of the other editors took care of it. I'll just reiterate to any who are interested that all my interactions with the editors, including a lot of training time, has been nothing but class and that they take their roles seriously.
(Score: 1) by Ironrose on Sunday May 22 2022, @06:55AM
hubie might be a keeper. Only thing, do not interact with soylentils. This was TMB's mistake, and now janrinok's. We want transparency, not whining.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bart9h on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:32PM
Does it matter if the story was covered by the green site? I, for one, completely stopped going there a short while after this site was running.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:40PM (1 child)
After submitting maybe a dozen tech stories more interesting than the average and not a single one published I gave up. Go pull from the rejected subs pile and let us know when that gets low.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:30PM
Same here. Tried. Was ignored. Fuck that; find your own stories.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:42PM (31 children)
More spam mod abuse https://soylentnews.org/meta/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=49318&page=1&cid=1245899#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:28PM (17 children)
Read the conditions attached to the Decision regarding aristarchus' ban - it clearly states that all input from aristarchus is Spam. He signed the comment.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:41PM (16 children)
With that explanation why would anyone invest their time and energy on this site? Ideological gate keeping, tolerance of racism and treason, and betrayal of the site's stated purpose for existence. Your crusade is really showing everyone your true authoritarian nature. Aristarchus deserves some of it for their sock puppeting and alleged doxxing, but at this point you're looking a lot like Ahab.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 18 2022, @11:26PM (15 children)
Because they're not aristarchus? Some of aristarchus's tricks (like the repeated doxxing) I wouldn't call an investment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:21AM (14 children)
See? You try to contribute, and counter the alt-right nonsense and juvenile libertarian fantasies, and you get accused of "tricks" by a poster of bad faith. I could see how many would loose faith, and be cowed by the flagrant cuckolding of honest Soylentils, but keeping up the fight is important, to win the culture war over female body types, with said soft and fluffy khallow.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 19 2022, @11:05AM (13 children)
I see it more as contributing in good faith. And then some bad faith whiner accuses me of "alt-right nonsense and juvenile libertarian fantasies" rather than acknowledging the years of aristarchus's bad behavior.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:24PM (12 children)
Aristarchus spewed a lotta crap over the years but was much better than say ethanol-boiled. That said you're no innocent either, you routinely ignore reality in favor of economic growth and a blind faith that science will come up with a solution for any problems. You try hard to soumd objective to generate an attitude of confidence, but like most people who do so your confidence is built on quicksand of facts. Glass house, stones, don't do it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:09PM (8 children)
I'd call it an informed confidence not blind faith. But then, I'm paying attention to what actually works[*] in the world.
[*] "works" doesn't mean "works perfectly with no drawbacks whatsoever".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:44PM (7 children)
None are so blind, as khallow.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday May 19 2022, @11:01PM (6 children)
I've gone through this exercise with many(?) AC. An AC suggests I could be wrong in some way without giving any evidence - often not even the slightest detail. I point out how useless that approach is. They double down.
That is self-defeating since at best, they convince nobody new and at worst unconvince a few people through the juvenile argument and transparent bad faith of their argument.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @02:35AM (2 children)
Sorry, you are thinking of Barbara J. Hudson.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 20 2022, @04:47AM (1 child)
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:40AM
WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY, KHALLOW!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:32AM (2 children)
Oh plenty of peoole have pointed out how you're wrong only for you to pull out bullshit oil funded science that contradicts what the oil companies admitted to knowing in the 70s. Other topics too, so now there is no point wasting time finding sources and arguing back and forth while you smugly just ignore whatever you want. Poor khallow, annoyed people have stooped taking them seriously and trying desperately to make your critics out to be the failures. Typical of rightwing libertarians like yourself. By any chance did you participate in Trump's insurrection?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 20 2022, @04:45AM (1 child)
You serious? First, I doubt you're right about what the oil companies knew in the 1970s. There's been this propaganda game to allege that the oil companies knew about catastrophic climate change way back when. But when you actually look at the evidence, you find that's a ridiculous exaggeration of the truth. Basically, oil companies knew back then that climate change could be a problem in the future. That really is all we know now, though there is evidence of modest climate change now. It has changed surprisingly litle.
In other words, they probably would have been just as shitty examples as the one concrete example you choose to provide in years.
Yet another example of your ignorance in this matter. Where's the evidence?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @05:12AM
khallow! Adults are having a discussion here! You can pipe up later, after most have gone home. M'kay?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 21 2022, @02:13AM (2 children)
Unless, of course, he was Ethanol-fueled too. The MO was similar - create a fake personality with exaggerated political leanings. It might be amusing to pretend to be two posters with radically different viewpoints.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:50AM
Unless, it was khallow who sockpuppeted both aristarchus and Ethanol_funneled, to accentuate the positive, and decentuate the negative, and just say it's all up to the richies. Khallow could be doing that. He is enough of a bad faith soylentil that I would not put it past him. Or maybe SN is just simulation by a trans-meta-dimensional beings to see what happens when you let teenaged libertarians post, um, too much? Callouses? Hair? Curious minds want to know, khallow!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @07:56AM
It would be even funnier, if you signed this post "aristarchus". Do it, khallow!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:25PM (12 children)
How do you know that this AC who claims to be aristarchus is actually aristarchus? Is not aristarchus banned, and therefore unable to post? I find this spam mod troubling, and suspect it is more the content of the post than the spurious attribution that is the cause for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @09:47PM (5 children)
Um, because he signed it?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:05PM (4 children)
Perhaps you are unaware that anyone can put any tag they wish on a post? I, as an ex-officio Head Editor emeritus, wish all you stupid lefty users would just shut the fuck up, and let us get on with our Brietbart adjacent alt-right love fest!
Sincerely,
janrinok
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:28PM
I'm the real Janrinok and do not appreciate spoofing of my venerable name. Someone olease spam mod an AC, I've lost access to my password manager but she should be home soon.
Sincerely,
Head British Editor Janrinok
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:12PM (2 children)
Nobody cares enough to spoof him out of the blue. Especially to argue a point that aristarchus would argue anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:38AM (1 child)
By the law of of rightwing projection that means you've been busy spoofing aristarchus. Gads, ari may be obnoxious but you rightwingers are just straight messed up.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 20 2022, @04:45AM
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:04AM (5 children)
Here is a crazy idea... I am just spitballing here.
But if you don't wish to be spam modded for signing your posts as Aristarchus... Then perhaps you shouldn't sign your posts as Aristarchus?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:44AM (4 children)
You fail at 3-d
printingchess. Obviously the AC is not the real aristarchus, but only signing as aristarchus to confirm the "narrative" of the rouge aristarchus that doxxed the Runaway1956, by revealing that Runaway was actually FYN, 1-13. But by pretending to be aristarchus, he gets a spam mod thrown on a particular IP portal, from a specific VPN or TOR exit point, in order to sensor the Soylentils using this same point. Clever, too clever by half, since we all know that the AC doing this must be, . . . wait for it! janrinok himself! Yes, the plot is revealed, and now we know all about the SoylentNews basement under the pizzeria, in Talinn, and the adrenochrome. If only we had the real aristarchus back, then things like this would not happen.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @04:12PM
Of course that crafty AC always knows which VPN and TOR exit nodes the others are using. And selecting a different VPN or TOR exit node will not thwart the the AC... who obviously has psychic powers.
Only those of similar cognitive ineptitude would fail to notice the glaring holes in your tale fabricated with Dunning-Kruger incompetence.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 20 2022, @04:48AM (2 children)
Interesting what people think (I use the term loosely) is clever.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @05:15AM (1 child)
They know your IP hash. They know your preferred female body type. They know where you work. They know where you come from. They know who you voted for, in the last precedential election. If I were you, khallow, I would tread more gingerly. Especially if you do not get humor.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 20 2022, @05:23PM
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 18 2022, @12:10PM (1 child)
What's that URL for the RSS feed, again?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 18 2022, @12:11PM
Nevermind. It's this: https://logs.sylnt.us/%23rss-bot/index.html [sylnt.us]
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 18 2022, @01:08PM
Thank you for your efforts!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:04PM (7 children)
I have no idea what upstart is or how to use it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:30PM
The submission page [soylentnews.org] on the site works just as it has always done. Upstart is on IRC for those who prefer to use it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:59PM (5 children)
Upstart was a good attempt. But systemd is what all the distros were required to standardize on. So use systemd to help the editors.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:02PM
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:40PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:17PM (2 children)
Actually, I did understand the difference. I probably should have put some subtle clue in that joke.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @02:05AM (1 child)
Another problem with the current editorial staff: near complete lack of humor. (FatPhil has some, but tends Republican.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @11:03AM
I too find FatPhil has some lack of humor.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:26AM (3 children)
I find it remarkable that places like ArsTechnica can report about the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) 2001 build+source leak but the "buck feta" aka the "green site" hasn't published anything about it AT ALL!
Kind of strange, I don't knooooooooooooooooow. (twilight zone music plays)
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:59AM (2 children)
Well, we covered it on here [soylentnews.org] 5 days ago so I am not sure why you bothered to raise it again?
Not every computer user is a gamer, so perhaps that is not the community other sites are targetting.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:02PM (1 child)
Back in the day, on the green site, a common excuse which was herd was: I would be running Linux, but all my games only work on Windows.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:13PM
Now days its more like "nearly every game on steam plays natively in linux thanks to dxvk" and I only boot my windows partition for that rare game that still doesn't work.
After a few more years it's just "I deleted my windows partition, it kept fucking up the boot loader. Those other games just aren't worth it."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @11:42AM
The comments are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex negativity and murder-death-kill will foam up about their waists and all the trolls and fascists will look up and shout "GIVE US SUBMISSIONS!"...and I'll look down and whisper "No."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:09PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=796Klha0Ny0 [youtube.com]
oh. and will smith should have apologized immediately to his kids, his wife, chris rock, black men everywhere, black people everywhere, rich people everywhere, and everyone else for witnessing his self-involved attack on a world that refuses to be about him. roughly in that order.
oh. and China is commiting genocide. and they plan to take over russia whenever putin is out of the picture (although they will probably be fairly subtle about it).
plenty of things worthy to talk about, except that on this site most signals are drowned out by noise.
as it will always happen in any "online community" where anonymous posting is allowed.
are you going to say that what I proposed is not on topic for this "nerdy" website?
well, if many people here are technically oriented, probably programming experts, then they should be delighted at a chance to study the effects of having human brains on planet earth, since human brains are an extremely efficient neural network (technically some billionth iteration of a self-assembled molecule complex). and programming is all about neural networks, isn't it? and all we want is more neural networks on planet earth.
PS: for all my complaining about noise crowding out the signal, I have to admit I feel better after throwing all of that up.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:21PM (5 children)
Please be kind to the editors.
Make your submission ready for publication without any work on their part, other than reviewing it.
Make sure all your lickable clinks are in good working odor.
If possible have something short, light and clever to say. Bonus if it has dark undeertones.
There are few editors, but lots of us submitting them. Do a bit of work to lighten their load.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:16PM (1 child)
Parent's spilling chicks out, so we can publish.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:52PM
Don't use fowl language because it is not suitable for most porpoises.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:25PM (2 children)
Reminding them that Breitbart is not a reputable source isn't exactly raking them over coals or anything....
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:55PM (1 child)
Evaluating the reputability of news sources should be done with a grate deal of
circumcisioncircumspection.To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @11:11AM
FTFY. Grated dill is great on news aucers
(Score: 4, Interesting) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:37PM
I applaud those who submit stories here while finding the gold among the dross.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:38PM (24 children)
is a virtue for a government, not so much for a private platform.
SN's worship of free speech absolutism, by definition, has attracted a few self-starters and idealists, most of whom run and contribute to the site (thank you for your idealism and effort).
It has also attracted, by definition, those who post the most venomous and repulsive things imaginable here because they wore out their welcome everywhere else.
And still others who spend their whole lives and energies arguing about everything, not for reasons, but to simply argue. Ad hominem. At volume 11. All the time.
If you can put up with the latter two groups, good for you. Most normal (what some of you here mistakenly think of as hopelessly weak) people I know are emotionally dissipated by those types.
The green site may be safely in this site's rear-view mirror, but the destinies of Voat and Parler are clearly visible on the road ahead, and have been for some time.
This site is more precious -- and its existence is more tenuous -- than you think. Please treat it as such. Consider 'taking off your shoes and not dirtying up the carpet' when you visit.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:23PM (23 children)
What absolutism? We ban people who break the rules and editors choose the stories. (perfect target for that CDA 230 repeal!)
People are not using that term correctly if they think SN meets it! We may be less heavy handed than larger sites but the nature of humanity quickly put an end to all that high falutin' talk of unfettered free speech without consequences.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:39PM
A group of ((people)) frequently called out disparagingly here might disagree with you. Maybe they're just too sensitive, given their historical treatment elsewhere.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:51PM (20 children)
Runaway should be banned for his comment about 50 million dead progressives to save his kids from a future of brown people. Thst is straight up hate speech and pro-violence terrorist speech. Since he is still here pushing lies and division it is clear you are wishful and optimistic about SN. Like real life hateful conservatives get kiddie glove treatment while angry liberals get shit on. If the rules were evenly applied at least we could have a conversation about how to move forward.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:29PM (12 children)
Liberals have always been able to express their political views in their journals - just as the conservatives have the right to do the same in theirs. You have never explained how one side demanding that the other side be silenced is 'free speech'. If what somebody has said or written is illegal then why have none of you taken legal recourse against them? And if it is not illegal - then he or she is perfectly entitled to say it, aren't they? Doxing and, by implication, intimidation by threats is, however, something that we do not accept.
Nobody has been banned from this site for expressing any particular political view point. Usually, we do not even read the journals; there are far more important and productive things for me to do on this site. I most certainly do not favour nor support any of the political views usually expressed in the journals. I think you are each as bad as the other.
It is, I assume, your country's politics that has fallen to such a state, the rest of the world is just sitting back with the popcorn. It is up to Americans to decide how to shape their own country. It's like when the neighbours argue - we try not to get involved.
Now this is getting very off-topic, so if you want to continue start a thread in your journal please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @07:21PM (4 children)
I admit that after Buzzy left things got a little better, and seems like you eds decided to stop most political stories. Before that rightwing articles would regularly be accepted. So it is better now but far from perfect, and it would be nice if you'd stop evading for once and accepted responsibility instead of bouncing it around between the communities fault, not enough volunteers, and excuses why you allow certain abuses and reverse others. It isn't full blown rightwing nutter, but the bias exists. Again, why would anyone put forth effort for an authoritarian "community" site that has very little community value and little to no control over site content? More accurately, Soylent News is staff people.
"Start a thread in your journal"
Where is the AC journal? Why don't you start a journal for community ideas instead of pawning it off as usual? Tell you what, I'll meet you in the middle. Make me a staff account and I'll post journals
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:34PM (3 children)
Much of the racist, misogynist, and anti-science crap posted by "conservatives" on this site poses a clear and present danger, whether of incitement, misinformation, or normalization. Ari used to call these out, but now he is gone, so they have increased and become brazen. Fortunately, apc seems to have gotten carpal tunnel syndrome, and Runaway has been busy replaying the vid of the Buffalo shooting, so posting by both of them has decreased.
As for the eds, if they are unaware of the reputation and reliability of news sources, and look at the US as "neighbors", perhaps SN just needs better editors? This "Meta" posting is a major faux pas!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @09:56PM (2 children)
You seem to be confusing individual user's journals with the front page of SN. Journals are not the responsibility of the editors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:36PM
Gee whiz Paw, I dint know each comment wan in der journal!?! Wowee, what amazing tekmwahlogical magic!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @12:24AM
So-o-o... maybe omit them from the front page then. Or is it too technical to comment out that line of code?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:51AM (1 child)
Nothing is more hypocritical than a Brexiter living in France.
(Score: 4, Touché) by quietus on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:56PM
Janrinok is not a Brexiteer, as far as I know. Maybe you should change that statement to "Nothing is more hypocritical than an anonymous coward trying a personal attack".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @08:00AM (4 children)
If they haven't been killed by Runaway and his Ilk. Don't understand how admin can let slide outright death threats, and then get their panties all up in a legal bunch over an alleged case of doxxing. Of course we all know who Runaway is, where he lives, and what gay bars she hangs out in, with the SilverWing parked outside.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 21 2022, @09:45AM (3 children)
In the past people have threatened to inform the FBI, or local LE, or whatever. As far as I know it hasn't happened.
You also claim that "we all know who Runaway is". But if you have all this information why haven't YOU done anything about it? You are content to try to get others to do what you are too frightened to do yourself. So perhaps it is now time for you to put up or shut up, but we all know you will continue on here to try to incite others because you either haven't got all the information that you claim to have or you are just a coward.
You think you are untraceable - but recall when you first joined the site? You, like many others, were not so circumspect with your personal information then. The rush to anonymity and the use of VPNs hadn't really started on this site. The evidence you claim to have is in our database, and you would leave yourself vulnerable to the FBI or LE having your information too. Many people have made threats of violence in the past. Some of our community have supported such threats either in comments or by moderation. I hope that they have also considered the consequences of what you are suggesting. If a judge demands that we hand over the database contents it will be all of the database contents - not just the bits that you think somebody should take a look at.
Some people have suggested that we should all go out and 'punch a Nazi in the face'. Isn't that an incitement to violence too? We have plenty of rejected submissions containing similar material from 2016 onwards - the majority from named community members. No denying who sent them is there? And we must not forget the doxing evidence that would also be revealed.
If your defence is that you are exercising your right to freedom of speech - then surely that defence can be applied to everybody, not just those who share your own extreme views.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:46PM
While the basic point of ideological consistency regarding free speech is valid you mostly just express your complete inability to distinguish between violent rhetoric like "punch a nazi" and terrorist rhetoric like "50 million dead progressives" and other murderous comments. Additionally, your attempt to frighten with consequences for others should the FBI investigate is VERY troubling as to the type of person you are. If you were my boss I'd quit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 22 2022, @07:17AM (1 child)
Runaway/janrinok do not seem to be aware that they are under the jurisdiction of EU law. janrinok's threats are toothless, and pointless? So, SN has kept IP addresses from the very beginning, despite all claims to the contrar? Nice to know, but a bit too late. And, who is this you are talking to, janrinok? The White Whale? Whose identity are you threatening to expose? And you propose to connect early users to current ACs? For criminal prosecution? Go have butt-sex with Runaway, for that one. I am not aristarchus, I have never been aristarchus, but still I challenge you to support the original values of SoylentNews, and not to fall back to your British Military Conditioning, Seargent Major! Marching Up and Down the Square! [youtube.com]
EU law. ICC. Serious shit, not American bullshit.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday May 22 2022, @09:50AM
Runaway is an American - he is not under EU jurisdiction. The site is registered in Delaware, USA, also not EU jurisdiction.
I am under EU jurisdiction which is why it is not my problem to inform US law enforcement that an unidentified user of our site wishes to accuse another user of posing a non-credible terrorist threat. How would anyone realistically kill 50 million people? Are nuclear weapons that freely available in the USA?
I have not threatened to expose any identify - reading comprehension fail. I've pointed out that any compromise of the database would reveal everybody's personal information and activity on the site.
I have not said that I am addressing any particular user. What makes you think that I believe you to be somebody else?
We have such a small number of ACs connecting to the site when compared with most internet sites and most of them pick IPs which tend to be unique to them. Some choose VPNs in obscure places. How many other connections do we get from those VPNs? None - their IP is unique. Some change IPs within the same VPN - the subnet hash remains unchanged and unique. Even within the US there are very few collisions between IP addresses. The best bet for ACs would be to connect from the SAME IP address or via TOR then we cannot tell ACs apart. But apparently not many people seem to have thought of that.
We don't care who you are or where you are. We simply don't want to know. We just need to know where to return each HTTP request that you make - just like every other site on the internet. In your own particular case, your IPs are unique - they change regularly but no-one else on this site ever uses them. We don't store them or save them. We save hashes of them which would require a rainbow table to decode them. Do you know how big a rainbow table would be for IP4 and IP6 addresses? It would be impossibly huge and take billions of years to create.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:36PM (3 children)
I find Runaway's comment to be in unbelievably poor taste, inappropriate in any forum anywhere, hateful, and racist.
I find such a remark to be extremely poor judgement for someone who embraces the right to bear arms. I expect someone with a firearm to be someone that is very stable, in control of their emotions and doesn't have fantasies of killing people who politically disagree with them. Or to support killing people because they exhibit an insufficient amount of hatred for brown people.
In short, I expect someone with a firearm to be a "good guy". That's what they always want to portray themselves to be.
I don't like to react like the queen: off with their heads! I could see such a remark being said in the heat of a moment without any actual intent to commit any violence. Yet such a statement is born from internalized fantasies of such things otherwise it would not be said even unintentionally.
I will be more observant for that in the future. I don't know the entire history of SN.
I do believe that anyone promoting free speech absolutism may (unwittingly or deliberately) be creating a venue for extreme right wing POVs that would not be allowed on other platforms. So they flock to these free speech absolutist venues. There are some things like 8chan that even Cloudflare would not tolerate. This free speech absolutism is a naive fantasy IMO, and one that Elon Musk does not yet recognize as such. It is only a question of where everyone's boundaries are, not whether they exist.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:57PM
Thanks.
I suspect you've got a high acceptance rate because you consistently seem to engage in good faith, which includes doing the work needed to submit a good sub.
Appreciate your high quality of discourse, and hope it spreads contagiously here. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @02:20AM (1 child)
That may be the most naive shit you've ever posted.
CLUE: bad guys always have guns. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and the list goes on, right on up through Biden.
CLUE: your definition of 'good guy' is probably lacking something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:48PM
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @09:58PM (2 children)
Was this reported to the SN administration? The email address is right there on the site.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:24PM (1 child)
It has been discussed many times with SN staff, but they fall back on Free SPEEEECH! Runaway even admitted to sock puppeting long ago and staff did nothing until recently when the sock puppet war reached some tipping point.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:26AM
And some, so I have heard, given the inaction and even positive support for such violence as promulgated by Runaway, sought to reveal his actual location, so that any Soylentils that might be in danger of this unhinged RWNJ could take defensive measures. One in particular took the lead on this, and has been banned for his efforts at public safety. Some of you can sleep more soundly, knowing where the bad man lives. We all own a debt to aristarchus, for defending Soylentils, when the admin and editorial staff would not. He has my thanks, and my respect.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:42PM
#FreezerStarchus!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @03:46PM (27 children)
What are the general guidelines of what types of articles to submit?
I've personally (not that you know it, given Anonymous Coward) submitted several stories over the past few months. However, none of my articles were published, so I gave up on submitting because I didn't know the types of articles this site wanted, and I felt like I was wasting my time.
(For reference, the most recent one I had submitted the news about the leak of the "Roe v. Wade" and how the Supreme Court in the US is poised to remove the right for abortion.)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:09PM (21 children)
Find interesting science stories such as this one:
Peculiar Parasitic Fungi Discovered Growing Out of Rectum of a 50 Million-Year-Old Fossilized Ant [soylentnews.org]
That one's less than a year old.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:17PM (20 children)
I personally very rarely mention my own rejected submission. It is perfectly reasonable to reject an otherwise noteworthy story for purely subjective reasons. Editors are human and do not share the exact same interests as me.
It's only when a legitimate concern about the editorial quality of a submission gets blamed on my lack of submission that I mention that I do submit stories they just get rejected all the time.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:04PM
I have an 84% accepted rate. God only knows why?
I think I look for stories that are interesting as a geek, or if not interesting, then amusing, or sometimes even outright funny conversation pieces.
Something that will attract comments.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:38PM (4 children)
You currently have a 77% acceptance rate - I think that 'all the time' is a bit of an exaggeration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:54PM (3 children)
Maybe they are not logged in for all submissions? If editors are biased towards submissions from registered users, and worse specific users, then you've got problems to sort out.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:45PM (2 children)
There is no difference in how submissions from a username or from an AC are processed. If the submission has been made via 'upstart' on IRC we cannot tell the difference.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:11PM (1 child)
Unless they are aristarchus submissions! Those get deep-sixed post haste, and with extreme prejudice and malice aforethought. SN missed a bunch of really interesting articles, that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:55AM
I am quite sure that the irony of a "Redundant" mod on this comment is not lost upon aristarchus. #WeAreAristarchus! #Freearistarchus!
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @05:53PM (13 children)
With the exception of your last submission which I have already explained the reason for the rejection, the previous 5 rejections were entitled:
What made you think that they fit into one of our topics? They would be ideal in your journal however. You can complain all you like about the editors - nothing has changed in the way that we select stories for publication in the last 8 years or so. The standard topics are:
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:35PM
Does this all mean the ban on Hunter Biden's Laptop is lifted?
Over 120,000 Hunter Biden Emails Uploaded To Searchable Database [zerohedge.com]
How about life in this time of Great-Malaise, Whip-Inflation-Now, Build-Back-Better...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 18 2022, @08:38PM (1 child)
There have been more than a couple occasions where I have thought that a good topic would be: Space
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @11:18AM
Tabs FTW.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @09:49PM (9 children)
UN ousts Russia from Human Rights Council as evidence of atrocities mounts
- Nothing wrong with that article, shouldn't even be considered political. No real tech angle except to discuss the atrocities and how they were carried out.
DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state
- Very pertinent to SN and its supposed free speech values, but sure it is a political story. Seems like the kind of authoritarian papers please activity that most users here care a LOT about, but whatever.
President Donald Trump has been Impeached, Again
- This one definitely should be rejected.
Presidential election result no longer based on statistics.
- Possibly valid, doesn't seem overly political from the title, statistics is very nerdy!
Woman Charged with ‘Obscene Communications’ After Calling Her Parents ‘Racist’ on Facebook
- Exactly the kind of story that should be discussed on SN.
Thanks for the list. Other people had better rejected subs examples, but even yours demonstrate your rightwing bias. No criticizing the GQP! Fascism must not be deterred! Of course such censorship is always done by conservatives under the guise of civility only to have them turn around and be vicious savages. You haven't gone savage just yet Mr. Ed, but the criticisms seem to be getting you angrier by the day. If you actually tried to address some problems, even just starting an official conversation, it would be better than the constant blaming of the community when the community has effectively no say in how the site runs. Like every libertarian experiment you types find out that you just reinvent society after the authoritarian anarchy (ha wtf weirdos) collapses in on itself.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:33AM (8 children)
I selected examples from one username - I cannot help it if his rejected submissions all seem to be biased. And, by being so, they do not comply with the Submission Guidelines.
An official conversation about what? The site was created to meet the needs of those geeks and nerds who were driven away from the green site by changes imposed by the 'management', and/or who did not like the way the site was being monetized by Dice. The topics haven't changed since inception.
Some complained that they wanted the site to be more 'encompassing'. Well, none of the editors (at that time or now) fancied donating time to sorting out submissions regarding US politics, swapping recipes, hints and tips for quilt makers, open marriages and the 'lifestyle', fashion etc. So we provided journals where you can discuss any legal topic that you choose to discuss!. I fail to see how a discussion about that will change things but please start a conversation in a journal somewhere, let the editors know where it is, and I will certainly join in if I have anything constructive to add. Or make a proper submission asking the questions that you feel are not being answered and we might even have time to get it into this weekend's release schedule.
The problem appears to be that various people object to what others write in their own journals. I am amazed when, each weekend, everybody gathers around a journal that they know they will strongly disagree with and then start bickering about it. Do you also read all the press put out by the opposing political party? Do you also force yourself to watch their particular TV channel? Just stop reading the journals that you know you will disagree with - many intelligent people already have!
Now, if your argument is that you want a completely different site then what is stopping you from creating it? You obviously believe that there is a need for such a thing. We can provide you with the full code [github.com] and guidance on how to organise the various jobs that are necessary to support a site. You have seen how easy it must be because you appear to believe that we are merely being obstructive by not doing what you personally want. Why haven't you done anything? Is it that you simply want others to do your bidding in their own time and for free?
If we are going to change the rules then there are several things that you have to remember. There will have to be a vote that can be verified, so I will put the marker down now. No account created after uid 17236 will be eligible to vote (that is the highest uid as I release this comment). Only those with a username and logged in to the site will be able to vote - we have to have some way of confirming one person/one vote. There can be no AC voting. The last time that we did this (2015?) it took 3 months to organise and execute. and we had a lot more staff at that time than we do now. So don't expect a vote to be organised overnight. If changing the rules means changing the code - then it cannot be done. Remember, Perl programmers always work for free and are everywhere nowadays, aren't they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @07:23AM (7 children)
Nice topic change, the discussion was about article submissions. A big fu for skipping everything I said to piggy back your own rant about how hard things are. You poor baby, how do you do it?
Let's try again.
Post a staff journal at least, gather feedback. Post another journal summarizing ideas, asking for more, and further discussion. Eventually you can run a vote.
Two items you should be able to do without a perl coder. Expand the moderation guidelines and post some rules of civility if you want this site to be less of a toilet. Next disable AC comments, anyone can make multiple accounts if they truly need a throwaway to make some comment. Otherwise there is no method to enforce site rules, and even then it is hardly a big deal when they can make a new account any time. Moderation karma also means nothing when anyone can post AC to avoid a karma hit.
Meh, I'm realizing it is pointless. SN code is too brittle and staff have little to no desire to change anything as you make very clear. No surprise you have a hard time finding people to help out.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:03AM (6 children)
Which topics should the rejected submissions go under? Oh, that's right - none of them. If people want to discuss politics then they can put them in their journals.
Feedback about what exactly? Why would we need a staff journal? Surely something as important as you are suggesting should be on the main page?
Was it any particular submission in question, or just the ones that you haven't mentioned so far?
As for the last quote - don't you think that the community might have views on this? No worry, I'm sure that they will all accept the suggestion of an AC who might be making his first ever posts on this site as far as they can tell.
So, let me get this right, you are getting 3 - 4 hour/day of my time for free and now you also want me to run a staff journal for some unclear purpose or function, rewrite the moderation guidelines and produce some 'rules of civility', you want me to disable AC commenting based solely on your decision, and this is all to do with 'article submissions'. Give me your address and I'll pop round and do the housework for you too. Excuse me if my laughing disturbs you.
How about you get a disposable account (as it is so easy to do), and start the discussion in your journal?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:30PM (5 children)
*yawn*
Speaking of whining, did you read the title of this story? You've got a real persecution thing going on, maybe time to stop working on SN if you can't handle feedback? Why would anyone volunteer when this is the attitude they get? Super duper boomer bullshit that no one wants to put up with anymore.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 20 2022, @05:42AM (4 children)
When can you start training as an editor please? It usually takes 3 - 5 hours of online training before you become productive but that varies on the individual. As we have already disabled your original account for moderation abuse you will have to create a new one with a permanent email address. Although all work is voluntary it does include weekends.
Several editors would appreciate a break but without a replacement it is not possible.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @06:05AM
So this is how it is going to be, eh? Beatings will continue until morale improves?
Moderation abuse, huh? You mean, someone modding down psychopaths like Runaway, or idiots like khallow? I have always been amused that the admin could so flippantly talk of "moderation abuse" with no criteria, though it seems vaguely biased against left leaning political views, who might downmod racists and fascists. And you think that disabling a soylentils account is going to encourage them to join your alt-right cabal? Right.
Some wish to help by getting you to recognize the right-wing slant of the site. This is the problem with Tech, and especially IT: They think they are so smart, and so objective, that they just cannot see the racism and misogyny of their worldviews. No wonder janrinok is so deeply disturbed by aristarchus, to the point of launching an indiscriminate barrage of spam mods at any AC that might possibly be the White Whale. Sad thing is, the disabled account most likely is not even the one janrinok is addressing, and aristarchus is all up in his feed.
"Permanent e-mail address"? What is that? AOL? Hotmail? Something "real"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @05:24PM (2 children)
Poor baby, can't even follow the actual topic. Dementia? Just old person crotchety? Still confusing who is who? Depends?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 20 2022, @06:59PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 21 2022, @04:52PM
That nerve's bame? Exasperation. Not my fault you can't stay on topic. After enough of your shifting goal posts to ignore topics mockery is all that remains. Grow a spine and stop avoiding, maybe with a better attitude you'll find it easier to recruit volunteers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:34PM (4 children)
The standard topics are:
See also the Submission Guidelines. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @01:16AM (3 children)
> The standard topics are:
> ...
> Mobile
When I have some time* I often submit automotive tech stories, as AC, and I usually take the time to edit them into something that I think is close to ready for the front page. Often the stories are found in automotive trade mags, which I read for work. I'll guess my acceptance rate is about 50%, not complaining about that at all.
I would like to know if "Mobile" is the correct topic? Or should I just use "News".
*Spring is busy for me: as well as work, there are lots of house-related things that get done now so my subs have slowed down for the last weeks.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:41AM (1 child)
You can use either topic - although you can only select one for your submission then we can allocate several topics to a story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @02:16PM
Thanks for clearing that up!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday May 19 2022, @02:40PM
We are grateful for the submissions that you do make - but you never have to apologise for those that you don't. Make the most of the weather!