SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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!
Some History:
The history of this site has been well documented in our prior birthday announcements.
I've collected links to them for those who would like to take a walk down memory lane or to learn of how we got our start. It is worth mentioning here that preceding the creation of SoylentNews was a SlashCott, a boycott of the slashdot site where participants pledged to not access slashdot at all during the week-long period of February the 10th through the 17th. The first paragraphs of our 5-year anniversary post describes things quite well... Enjoy !
- Welcome to the World of Tomorrow... Today!
- SoylentNews is One Year Old!
- Happy Second Anniversary to SoylentNews!
- Three Years In - What Has Happened and How we Got Here
- Happy Birthday to SoylentNews -- Four Years Old!
- SoylentNews is... FIVE YEARS OLD!
Staffing:
I am happy to announce our editorial team has a new member spiraldancing who has been getting up to speed and has already posted several stories. And... we have two more who will be going through training as soon as some free time appears in their schedule.
Helping Others
SoylentNews is not just all about ourselves. Several members have joined together to help medical researchers examine the causes of protein misfolding which is of interest to medical research into Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and many forms of cancer. Please see my Journal Entry for details on what has been done and how to sign up!
Statistics:
Since this site went live, over 950,000 comments (WOW!) have been made to over 30,700 stories and 4,760 journal entries. Along the way, the community made just shy of 650,000 moderations to those comments. We now have over 9,500 registered nicknames, too.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SemperOSS on Sunday February 16 2020, @09:53PM (1 child)
To the hard-working "staff" of the great SoylentNews: Thank you for your hard work, your dedication and not the least for the good spirit, here and on chat!
Please keep up the good work as I look forward to another many birthdays.
I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:45PM
Agreed. I love this blog, I like the more old school chat format that's better suited for more in depth discussions (compared to all the newer stuff that's more intended to give you a bunch of information at once, maybe accept a few comments, and move on with little further discussion), and I like the user submitted aspect of the blog as well.
I still miss the old school message boards that either aren't around or aren't that popular anymore though (and have mostly been replaced by blogs). But this is a blog, not a message board, so I digress.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:13PM (6 children)
You losers still here?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:17PM
Idiot! The sewage too needs a place to collect.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:19PM (1 child)
>You losers still here?
says AC, basically, the most prolific poster.
PS happy birthday SN
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @01:43AM
I am AC, hear me roar.
Numbers too great to ignore.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bart9h on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:33PM
Yep.
And so are you.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:56PM
Us losers. You included ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @01:26AM
'dang'?
You have the wrong website, sweetheart. He's the HN moderator.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Sunday February 16 2020, @10:28PM (2 children)
where does the time go....
(Score: 4, Funny) by DavePolaschek on Sunday February 16 2020, @11:21PM
Yeah, it’s been six years. Only feels like half a decade or so.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @05:32PM
It has come to my attention that some people actually post to SN on their personal time. Evidence of this is that there are posts on evenings and weekends. This must stop immediately!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Kell on Sunday February 16 2020, @11:04PM (6 children)
Fuck beta!
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Monday February 17 2020, @01:30AM (1 child)
And their website is *still* garbage on mobile.
You have to force it to load desktop and if then select the classic view to get rid of the slider comment loader nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday February 17 2020, @03:00AM
Or just disable javascript.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday February 17 2020, @02:05AM (1 child)
A handful of times over the past 6 years, I've wandered over to the Green Site to see if things have improved.
They haven't.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Monday February 17 2020, @02:42AM
I removed it from my rss due to the spam/troll to comment ratio. That seems to have improved somewhat, today at least!
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Monday February 17 2020, @08:13AM
Damn right! It was the one egregious change that broke the camel's back and gave us both this site and pipedot. I'm glad that both are still around; it's like a pleasant little pocket of (relative) calm to get away with the other insanity on the net.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @08:25AM
For all those that are tempted by 'Fuck S/N': remember, it's only 6 years old, you know what this makes you (grin)
(Score: 2) by aliks on Sunday February 16 2020, @11:16PM (1 child)
Soylent Green is People
To err is human, to comment divine
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @08:13AM
But not in a copyright infringing way.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 16 2020, @11:17PM (3 children)
Also, thanks for not turning this site in to an eye-raping fuckfest like most web sites these days.
No one needs text that slowly fades in as a page loads, graphics that pop in from the left/right, embedded twatter feeds, giant constantly animating carousels (that can never be stopped in the off chance you actually want to look at a detail), links that can't be bookmarked because they are actually JS links, menus that are all hidden under a scripted "hamburger" button, a long page that looks like 20 totally different pages stacked on top of each other because mobile, layout that switches to a broken unmaintained mobile mode when in a window less that 1024*768... and I could go on and on.
Live long, and fuck beta :P
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2020, @11:53PM (1 child)
Seconded!!!
I love it here. Keep up the great work!
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday February 17 2020, @01:24AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by RedIsNotGreen on Monday February 17 2020, @01:42AM
qft
Site still looks nice. (Score: 5, Insightful)*New*
by SomeGuy (5632) Neutral on Sunday February 16, @11:17AM (#958932)
Also, thanks for not turning this site in to an eye-raping fuckfest like most web sites these days.
No one needs text that slowly fades in as a page loads, graphics that pop in from the left/right, embedded twatter feeds, giant constantly animating carousels (that can never be stopped in the off chance you actually want to look at a detail), links that can't be bookmarked because they are actually JS links, menus that are all hidden under a scripted "hamburger" button, a long page that looks like 20 totally different pages stacked on top of each other because mobile, layout that switches to a broken unmaintained mobile mode when in a window less that 1024*768... and I could go on and on.
Live long, and fuck beta :P
Reply to This
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RedIsNotGreen on Monday February 17 2020, @01:44AM (1 child)
thank you all and the scripts too for a nice community to be in. it took me a while to start journaling, but when i did, i actually got meaningful responses and feedback!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @04:43AM
Yeah, journaling is the real interesting part. Some of the more troublesome tend to leave others' journals alone. Plus the more long-form questions and answers allowed there allow for more digging in and detail.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday February 17 2020, @01:48AM
Happy Birthday SN, and keep up the good work.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Monday February 17 2020, @02:31AM (1 child)
Some of us were a little slow to sign up, but still appreciate the work done by you old-timers!
Buck Feta!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by martyb on Monday February 17 2020, @04:21AM
Appalbarry (66) wrote:
Says the guy with a UID... that is 10 less than mine!
Hey, waaaaaait a minute. Doesn't that mean that you are an old-timer, too? =)
Thanks for making me laugh! 😊😊😊
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday February 17 2020, @03:03AM
...and a sorrier bunch of los-- er, finer crew of journalists and commenters has never been seen!
Seriously, I'm still here because it works.... just right.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Monday February 17 2020, @03:59AM (3 children)
Thanks to everyone who makes this site go! Including all the admin staff and the users.
In answer to the question, "At the end of the day is this place worth it?" [tv-quotes.com]
--JMS
It's as good an answer as any, and applies here just as much as its original context. Even better, we've had a longer run than they did. With no end in sight!
Happy birthday SN!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Monday February 17 2020, @04:52AM
Whether by happenstance or chance, as I was reading your comment, this is the fortune displayed at the bottom of the page:
It seemed to me to be amazingly apropos the Babylon V quote you posted (btw, thanks for that!)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @05:35PM (1 child)
"My shoes are too tight." -- Londo Mollari
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 18 2020, @09:40PM
"...But it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance."
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1) by notrandom on Monday February 17 2020, @05:55AM
and thank you guys..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AnonTechie on Monday February 17 2020, @10:29AM
It is indeed very heartening to see this site celebrating it's 6th birthday. May SoylentNews and all its supporters be blessed with peace, good health and prosperity in the years to come. Have a wonderful birthday.
Cheers !!
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."