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Well, it's been a bit of time since the last time I posted, and well, I had to think a fair bit on the comments I received. It's become very clear that while I'm still willing to at least help in technical matters, the effort to reforge SN is much higher than I expected. In addition, given the, shall we say, lukewarm response I got to my posts and journal entries, well, I'm clearly not the right person for the job.
I think at this point, it's time to figure out who is going to lead SN going forward. After my de facto stepping down in 2020, the site has, for want of a better word, been a bit listless. At the moment, no one on staff really has the cycles to take that position on. A few people have expressed interest in the position, and I've talked with Matt, who is co-owner of the site about this. By and large, whoever fills the seat will have to figure out what, if anything, needs to change in regards to moderation policy, content, and more.
If you're interested in potentially fulfilling the role, drop me an email at michael -at- casadevall.pro, with the subject of "SN Project Leader", and include the following:
- Who you are
- What you want to do with the site
- How you intend to do it
- Why do you want to get involved
I'll leave this call for candidates open until December 14th, at which point Matt and I will go through, and figure out our short list, I'll talk to editors, and solicit more comments from the community. I'm hoping to announce a successor in early January, and formalize the transition sometime in February, which will be the site's 9th anniversary.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 06 2022, @03:42AM (5 children)
1. Illegal crap is deleted, doesn't need any fanfare. Illegal is illegal, and if in doubt, you should err on the side of safety.
2. Spam may or may not be legal so you don't have that safety net to rely on when deciding whether to delete it. You do have the PG-13 rating to use. Almost no one would object to the deletion of that goatse spam. You would get nearly universal approval. If that objective is stated clearly, I would say go for it. Other spam is - - - debatable. The mod system has been and/or is being discussed. If the members could spam mod a post to negative leventy-leven, no one would ever see the spam, unless they actually went looking for it.
Virtually all other censorship is, and always will be wrong.
And, the reason I brought up censorship is, it was mentioned in the other meta post by Ncommander. The man stated pretty clearly that he wanted to introduce censorship to the site, above and beyond what the law demands, and above and beyond any PG-13 or R ratings might require.
It is appropriate, when recruiting a sysadmin, to find out his/her views on the subject of censorship.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday December 06 2022, @08:09AM (4 children)
Which is where your comments should have been directed. They would have been at home here https://soylentnews.org/meta/article.pl?sid=22/11/20/0342250 [soylentnews.org] or https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=22/11/12/1229226 [soylentnews.org] where the matter was first raised, and the justification for it explained.
It is the community's views on censorship that are important - the leadership and administration of this site have always tried to serve the community. It is not done for self aggrandisement. Actually it is a pretty thankless task which will always fail to please somebody. We give everybody as much freedom as is allowed in the journals, but even that might have been against the site's own interests.
If the community decide that journals containing extreme political views from either side of the spectrum should not be permitted then that is what the administration should be attempting to achieve. Politics was not a topic for the first year or two of the site. There is NO inherent right of freedom of speech on the internet. We can choose to host whatever is decided is suitable. Ask Google. Twitter, Facebook or any of a multitude of other web sites that are around today. The First Amendment limits the US Government's powers and nothing else.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 06 2022, @01:33PM (3 children)
As so often happens, my original post above has served as a lightning rod. Modded down, modded up, back down, and up. The community is voting . . .
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday December 06 2022, @02:57PM
Except this isn't the discussion that will count. That discussion is still to come.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Tuesday December 06 2022, @07:34PM
Clearly we need to put your post inside a magnetic field: at this rate it could generate enough energy to power the SN servers!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pTamok on Tuesday December 06 2022, @09:34PM
It's not a meaningful vote, as it is so easy to game. The disclaimer on the polls applies.
It is an indication of how strongly some people feel about the topic, but (strong) feelings and rationality make strange bedfellows. Being 'liked' by people and feeling good about your opinions doesn't necessarily make them error-free.