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from the prevention-goes-a-long-way dept.
So, every once in awhile, if things have been quiet, I like to pop a post seeing what the general feelings of the community are towards the site, seeing what we could do better, etc. I think its been a few months since the last time I posted in Meta, so I think this is a good time to get a pulse on the community, and provide a venue to get any feedback (good or bad).
On the staff side, I know things have been relatively quiet over the summer due to most of us being busy with life and such, which is why we haven't made a major site upgrade since the original rehash upgrade at the end of May. For myself, I've been working at a new job, and dealing with a fair bit of non-Soylent related things to the point that I really only have the time or energy to post, and occasional check in, and I'd like to thank the rest of the staff, and mrcoolbp in particular for holding down the fort for me.
Anyway, in contrast to my usual posts, I'm going to cut this off here, and will be looking forward to your comments below.
73 from NCommander
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @09:56PM
The "pending stories" queue looks like a possible anti-feature to me. After an editor approves a story and puts it into the pending queue, do other editors look at the story and make improvements? If not, then the only thing the queue is doing (as far as I can tell) is adding a delay before the story appears. I see that as undesirable, unless the intention is to discourage people from posting about current events.
I think the site runs on EST, and the time is currently around 17:00. In the pending queue, a story is being delayed so it won't appear until after 3:00 tomorrow morning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @10:45PM
Minor correction: I was off by an hour. The site seems to be on Atlantic time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by n1 on Tuesday November 17 2015, @11:21PM
The pending stories (I believe) is there to show what stories are coming to avoid duplicate submissions in the abyss between the submissions list and the main page.
The reason there can be a lot there is because editors are not 'on-duty' at any given time. The idea is to have a story checked by two editors before it goes live, as you suggested, to improve the content or resolve any outstanding issues so we try to make sure there are new stories on the main page regularly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @01:16AM
I like the pending stories list for that reason but sometimes you can't tell by the title alone. Is there any particular reason why regular users/ACs can't see the body after a story is accepted?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @03:52AM
Sometimes you can view an accepted submission via the Google cache. [googleusercontent.com]
The Wayback Machine is useful once in a blue moon. [archive.org]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:32AM
So crutchy won't write a script to scoop Bender on every story with his own bot.
Seriously though, we don't allow future stories to be read because they can and do get moved around a lot, majorly edited, or even outright shitcanned while they're in the queue. A story's not remotely guaranteed to be in its final form until it's visible on the main page.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Wednesday November 18 2015, @01:36AM
The site runs officially on UTC, but you will see the times in whatever time zone your account has set, I believe.
The pending story queue allows for a few things to happen:
1) Another editor can look over the story, check the links again, and make improvements if necessary. This happens pretty much daily.
2) It allows submitters to see what has already been accepted into the queue, thus preventing what will likely be a declined submission.
3) It allows the editors to pre-program the articles that are going to display.
The last point is the only one that I feel is not pretty self explanatory. Keep in mind that we are volunteers. All of us. The editors, the devs, the sysadmins, the board, and all the rest of the cogs that mesh (pretty harmoniously as a general rule) to make SoylentNews work. Everyone of us takes time away from our jobs, families and personal lives to keep things running. I can say (speaking only for myself) that I don't mind. I rather enjoy it, and see it as more a labor of love than anything else.
But, because we are all volunteers, there is no guarantee that there are editors on duty around the clock. We try our best, but it just isn't possible. Don't let the Authors page [soylentnews.org] fool you, there are not very many active editors, but we are always looking for volunteers! [soylentnews.org]. So the way it goes is that we will front load the story queue in our spare time. Some times we can only push one or two stories. Sometimes we see Herculean efforts that get entire days posted and ready to go out. On a Thursday not too long ago, one editor pushed out the entire weekend worth of stories. This allows us to have lives. Wives, kids, jobs, taking care of loved ones, paying the mortgage to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.
Sorry for the long answer to a short question.
In other news, the staff agrees on giving you feedback for declined submissions. It has already been written, and is sitting on Github waiting for the next site update, as far as I know.
We hear you when you gripe about the story selection, or something that I screwed up as an editor. It lightens my heart when any member of the community constructively critiques what we do. It means you care. And that is a place I want to continue being a part of.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday November 18 2015, @04:29AM
After an editor approves a story and puts it into the pending queue, do other editors look at the story and make improvements?
Emphatically, yes. As n1 mentioned, stories require two signoffs before being posted to the main page. The pending stories list is where that second sign off happens. What's more, there can be discussions between editors over various stories in the pending queue, and changes made.
I think the site runs on EST, and the time is currently around 17:00. In the pending queue, a story is being delayed so it won't appear until after 3:00 tomorrow morning.
It's GMT, actually.
Stories are scheduled so they don't all come out at once. This is done on purpose to keep a relatively even flow of stories throughout the day.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday November 18 2015, @04:32AM
cmn32480 did a much better job explaining. Please mod his comment up and consign mine to oblivion.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr