We are running very short of time for creating a new site. We have one member of staff who has already volunteered for a post on the Board; other staff are already busy with their existing roles. We are looking for an additional 2 community members who wish to serve on a temporary Board so that we can create a new company and purchase the data, domains and other assets from the current site. But perhaps I should explain a little further....
The Board should, as a minimum, consist of 3 people, A Chairman, a Secretary and the site's Accountant. These people will be named at the creation of the new company and will each assume one of those formal roles. There are implications to this. Firstly, the company data is not publicised widely but we can make no guarantee that it will always remain hidden from public view, either by a change in US law or by, for example, the action of an hacker. Therefore, any volunteers must be prepared to waive his/her anonymity although as things stand it should never actually be compromised. Secondly, this is a temporary post. The latest draft of Bylaws is a very good starting point but it has become apparent that they are not perfect. There will be changes required to the Bylaws and, when they have been changed and accepted by the Community, all posts on the Board must be filled by people who have been elected by the community. You could, of course, stand for election at that time if you so wish.
Currently, we are only looking at putting names to roles so that we can create a company. Your experience and skill level are not the most important aspects. We will employ an professional accountant to produce the annual formal account reporting and it will not simply be left to our own 'Accountant'. Rather, the role is one of providing checks and balances for any expenditure and the management of the site's accounting records.
How long the 'temporary' role will last is not something that we can currently forecast. But I would estimate it to be weeks or months rather than a long term responsibility.
I think any sensible person would agree that we cannot simply pass control of the site and finances to unknown people so we must limit applications from those who have held an account for at least 6 months and have contributed to the site. The staff will treat all applications as sensitive data and we will only refer to individuals by their user name in any discussions or at subsequent meetings. We will, of course, need to know your true identity and contact details for the creation of the new company.
This is a chance for us to move the site to a new start and to ensure that we can provide continuity of stories each day for everyone to enjoy. We will all be involved - Board, staff and community - in producing new policy documents that are a reasonable balance between discussions and freedom of speech. We are almost at our 10th birthday. Many people did not expect us to reach our 1st birthday. I would like to see the site looking forward to many more birthdays to come.
We can only achieve this with your help. The are approximately 250 unique accounts, excluding ACs, active on the site each week although not all commenting in stories. We are only looking for 2 volunteers.
If you wish to volunteer please send your email giving your username to admin@soylentnews.org with the word "volunteer" in the subject. All emails will be treated in the strictest confidence. Time is of the essence so please don't delay in contacting us should you wish to volunteer.
UPDATE: 31 Jan 2004: We have the volunteers that we need to create a new company, many thanks to them for stepping forward. However, if you feel that you have something to offer and you wish to volunteer also then please do so.
There is still some preparatory work to be done but I am doing that as quickly as I am able within my current time limitations.
Another point worth noting which may, or may not, be related is that the number of active accounts has gone over the 300 mark for the first time in many months. There are probably many more who are lurking or posting solely as AC.
janrinok
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday January 28 2024, @09:19PM (6 children)
I'm wondering about how to separate a volunteer username from RL name/info/data.
Maybe email under your username so that the username can be confirmed, then all other emails go to RL email address and the first email is deleted permanently?
Then, at least a username can't be connected with RL name for doxing the username???
Give me 2-5 years and I'll be retired and probably have time to volunteer: as it is, i don't have time to sleep. :/
Thank you to all involved: it would be sad to see the SN name disappear, though.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Sunday January 28 2024, @09:24PM (5 children)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2024, @10:08PM
I'm not sure I understand. There has to be communication between the Board and everyone else (staff and community). The most secure way (least likely to be compromised) is for everyone to use your nickname. NCommander, k0lie and others who have been happy to reveal their true identity have each done this. I'm not sure why you should feel that you have to be detached from your site history but, I suppose, that we could always kill one account and create a new one under a different name to replace it. But then nobody in discussions would know who you had been - and reputations count for a lot IMHO.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday January 31 2024, @05:01PM (3 children)
I'd guess if I was worried about this, I would simply sign up with my current nick, which would then be tied to my real name, then just create a new account.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:56PM (2 children)
Then all your previous posts would be tied to your real name.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Thursday February 01 2024, @03:32PM (1 child)
Gee, I'm glad I posted only stuff I'd also say to your face. Preferably at a distance where you can't punch me, but otherwise...
Look, most of the world knows I'm an antisocial bastard. There are a couple people who can stomach that and who enjoy being around someone who doesn't blow sugar up their ass. I tentatively call these people "friends". Funny enough, my friends also know that they can rely on me and that I would actually go out of my way to make sure their problems vanish.
If you can deal with that, welcome. If you cannot, fuck off. I'm not here to hold hands, I'm here to solve problems.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 01 2024, @06:08PM
Glad you are glad.
In that case my comment is somewhat moot.
But I thought I'd point it out in case it *did* matter to you.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2024, @09:31PM (2 children)
What would be the anticipated weekly time commitment? I would be interested, but I have a full schedule already and I wouldn't want to become a problem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Sunday January 28 2024, @09:38PM (1 child)
Indeed, what time commitments are required for the roles?
Does timezone matter?
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2024, @10:01PM
Timezones are not really important. We recently have been having meetings of people on several continents. It might not always be convenient for everyone but for a Board of 3 I would have thought it not too difficult.
As for how much time is required - every person on the staff gives as much time as they want but no more. You, like us, would give as much time as you are prepared to give and there shouldn't be any pressure applied to expect more from you.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 1) by oregonjohn on Sunday January 28 2024, @10:02PM (3 children)
I got this when trying to email you:
(expanded from ): user
unknown
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday January 28 2024, @10:10PM
That bounce only applies to one name on the list - I cannot access my email at the moment (I am in bed!), but I will let you know in about 9 hours time if I haven't got your email. -- JR
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday January 28 2024, @11:51PM (1 child)
It was a test: all emails bounce. The address is not valid. Those who are only mildly interested give up. Only those who are truly interested come here and insist.
You pass! When can you start?
(Score: 1) by oregonjohn on Wednesday January 31 2024, @05:52AM
LOL
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 28 2024, @11:20PM (13 children)
This place has turned into a slightly less insane Gab. "Free speech uber alles" without some kind of check doesn't work, for the simple reason that it becomes a matter of who can spend the most time posting the fastest, and fanatics are a lot more likely to do so.
Just. Let. SN. Die. Please, let it go. It can't be governed effectively. It's been choking on its own metabolic waste for ages now.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Touché) by khallow on Monday January 29 2024, @01:34AM (6 children)
Two questions: why the need for the check? And in what kind of conversation does posting the fastest matter?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 29 2024, @01:59AM (5 children)
1) Because with no checks at all we'd end up crapflooded with spam and disinformation. The signal-to-noise ratio goes down the shitter.
2) "Flooding the zone," Hallow. Don't pretend you don't understand this. You're one of the problems on this site, due to your complete lack of humanity and inability to view reality as anything but a series of amoral transactions.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Touché) by khallow on Monday January 29 2024, @02:24AM (4 children)
Notable spammers have been effectively dealt with and the spammer journals placidly do their thing without bugging us. Disinformation gets attacked rather aggressively when it rears up. It's not perfect, but nobody else does it perfectly. Are those really the checks you miss?
Uh huh. When I talked [soylentnews.org] about my humanity and personal morality, you then pigeon-holed it as "of a consequentialist bent" and have since acted as if that never happened.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 30 2024, @02:32AM (3 children)
Your problem is hypocrisy: you consistently fail to live up to your professed moral standards, and worse, you will not be swayed or change your behavior when it's pointed out to you how and why you fail. I'm also a consequentialist (everyone is, since all three moral systems reduce down to one another), but I put what little money I have where my mouth is.
You? You are a walking exemplar of evil, defined as "treating people as things and things as people" or, more accurately, "treating people as means and things as ends." This is the root of all evil. "Love of money is the root of all evil" is only a specific case. Your post history speaks for itself. My suspicion is that you are genetically a psychopath and simply do not have some of the neural machinery necessary to function socially.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 30 2024, @12:54PM (2 children)
The pointing out has to be sane first. Here's a couple of examples.
pulling a claim [soylentnews.org] out your ass that libertarians believe something contradictory:
Blaming my alleged "libertarian buddies" [soylentnews.org] for the infectiousness of covid:
One can't show hypocrisy when one can't get it even remotely right in the first place. It's an exercise in futility.
I don't do what is alleged above. It's merely your fabrication. And once again, you speak nebulously of the "post history" without mentioning a single post from that alleged history. My bet is that the rational person could search the tens of thousands of my posts without finding a single serious example of your allegation above.
Finally, psychoanalysis is a terrible way to analyze mere disagreement. Critical thinking has much better tools for doing that.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 31 2024, @01:57AM (1 child)
Why do I need to point out specific turds to note that your entire post history is shit? We all know what you are by now. I know you won't ever change, and it's not my intention to try to get you to change. This is all for anyone unfortunate enough to come across your posts without knowing what kidney of critter you are.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2024, @01:15PM
At this point, you haven't shown any of it is shit despite having had many years to do so. One of the linked arguments I presented above is from four years ago - you didn't show anything then either. If merely insisting something were true worked on SN, then we'd have many conflicting conspiracy theories going off at the same time.
You need to warn "anyone" who already knows what I am and thus, need no warning? That's called "cognitive dissonance".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Monday January 29 2024, @02:02AM (1 child)
It doesn't seem all that bad to me these days, but then I don't usually look at Runaway's journal entries anymore. :)
Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
(Score: 5, Informative) by turgid on Monday January 29 2024, @08:13AM
It's much better since they banned ACs from the front page stories. Before that it was getting unusable.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Interesting) by turgid on Monday January 29 2024, @08:11AM
It will be interesting to see what Putin Bots we get this year on the run-up to the election. If Trump gets back in, Putin gets to keep Ukraine.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 31 2024, @04:25PM (2 children)
If you don't like it, stop looking. This applies to pretty much all of the internet, even "big" sites like Google have alternatives.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 01 2024, @04:56AM (1 child)
You haven't noticed I've barely been posting over the last several months?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 01 2024, @07:22PM
I've noticed, and I miss your posts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2024, @11:33PM (5 children)
Speaking of accounting, this was something that stood out to me:
It does look like you need an accountant for sure because how much is (being) spent on hosting for SoylentNews.org on a monthly basis to serve these 250AUs/week?
I have a Raspberry Pi that can serve that and still not get hot...
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday January 29 2024, @01:40AM (3 children)
It's paying for a reliable connection to the internet, redundant servers, and a test server. Might still be overpriced though. I haven't been too concerned about something that only costs a few thousand every six months.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday January 31 2024, @05:46PM (2 children)
Three low powered vpcs, $200 a year tops.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 31 2024, @07:03PM (1 child)
VPC? VPCS? Please explain. I might be interested in one myself.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Thursday February 01 2024, @10:09AM
VPS, or Virtual Private Server. Basically hosting space on a shared server, where the service provider offers you something akin to, but not completely equal to, root access to a virtual server.
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Monday January 29 2024, @08:43AM
I think that you will find that many of the staff agree with you. That is why we want to change how the site is managed and controlled, hence a new start. The community should be deciding how their money should be spent based on good advice from those who know about such things. That is not currently the case. The community and staff have little say at the moment.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by dw861 on Monday January 29 2024, @02:21AM (4 children)
So this is an encouraging development. As always I'm cheering you on. Thank you, two volunteers. I regret that I can't be one of you right now.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 31 2024, @04:31PM (3 children)
I'm glad we got the volunteers, and more responsible real life people are generally better than fewer, however...
In my first job we needed to establish regulatory compatible procedures, and in our industry that amounts to what they call "six signature culture..." every document requires six signatures before it is officially accepted by the SOPs. At the time we barely had 6 employees, counting the contractor janitor. As a result, I frequently "wore many hats" and signed many R&D documents for three or four roles. Apparently that is common in our industry where there's a very dichotomous split between tiny startup companies and massive buyout farms. The SOPs are basically designed by and for the massive tens of thousands of employees buyout farms, but the little companies rarely have six technically oriented people available to fill the technical roles listed in the SOPs.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:56PM (2 children)
We are aiming for the absolute minimum of Board members to comply with legal requirements. They are names that have to be divulged during the business incorporation.
My idea is that that they provide the 'administrative' face of the new company. They are there to meet the legal requirements for any incorporated company.
We then create another group (let's call it a Management Group) comprising of at least 1 Board member (but it could be all 3 of them), key members of staff (Team Leads and specialists), and elected community members. The real names in this group do not have to be revealed, they can continue to use their usernames as they do today. It is this group that provides the operational direction which the Board then implement, probably by delegating it back to the workers again. There will be community input at all stages.
So what is different? Well there has always been community input - whenever we had an issue that we as staff could not resolve then we have always asked the community. The change will be that the community will have an input far earlier than was previously the case and they will also know why decisions have been made. Secondly, there will not be weekly meetings, but meetings will be held only when required. Most communication can be carried out by emails and IRC channels just as we have always done. All formal meetings will be held publicly and fully minuted and recorded as is required by law. But all discussions will involve the elected community representatives who can represent community interests and can be witness to any decisions that are made.
Nobody is trying to do anything about taking control away from the community - in fact it is the opposite. There will be no oligarchs. The community will have more control. The 3 Board members will be elected from the community by the community. The community will also elect their representatives in the Governance Group. All of the site's assets will belong to the community. The Board will not be able to hold them to ransom. The community will need to approve to any action desired by the Board, other than for those actions dictated by law. All major decisions will be made by the community.
Now there may be problems with this approach, but for now it is enough to get us moving forward. The Bylaws that I am hurriedly trying to write to support this organisation will be changeable for a period of, say, a year or two, by a voted agreement of the Governance Group (which consists of all interested parties). After that time, the Bylaws will be fixed and be managed like they are in any other company i.e. by the Board.
I do NOT want this to become a discussion on any proposed Bylaws. I am simply trying to get a company established that can purchase the existing data and domains, and then move to adopting a more complete set of Bylaws and policy documents that the community are happy to accept for the future site. And we can all get on with doing whatever it is that we joined this site to do, whether that be just reading the stories, commenting. submitting stories, joining one of the teams, or writing in our own journals. And we can also work to grow the community again.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by rpnx on Thursday February 01 2024, @10:51AM (1 child)
What legal requirements are you speaking of? In the United States, you can likely just purchase the data as a sole proprietor.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Thursday February 01 2024, @11:39AM
Not if the seller will not sell it to a sole proprietor. The current board will only sell the data to another formally created company. What is theoretically possible does not come into it.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pTamok on Monday January 29 2024, @12:47PM (1 child)
As an exception to my self-imposed break from posting, I will let you know that I am not in a position to volunteer. Sorry.
I hope we get through this latest issue, but if not, thank you to all who tried, and contributed. I'm surprised by how few accounts are active, which makes my inability to volunteer all the more embarrassing.
I hope this is not the end, but if it is:
Valēte [wiktionary.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday January 29 2024, @01:33PM
There is no reason for you to feel embarrassed - you have supported this site for many years with your comments and participation in discussions, moderations and subscriptions.
Not everyone has time to give to the site. We understand that. I hope that we can keep this site alive and eventually return the community to a more healthy size. It will take time but we have done it before and we believe that it can be done again.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by inzkeeper on Monday January 29 2024, @04:10PM (14 children)
If you are incorporating in a particular country, do you need your volunteers to be from that country?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Monday January 29 2024, @04:56PM (11 children)
We will be incorporating in the USA - although where exactly is not completely decided. We are looking at Delaware for various reasons but if someone has advice that suggest we could be better off somewhere else then we may change that plan. But as we are in something of a rush then we might just have to go with what we have. Too much time has been lost debating and arguing things that are not that important. Lets get this sorted once and for all. We can change thing further down the track.
Initially, for the 3 Board posts, it makes things easier on the finances side if volunteers are also from the USA, but that does not preclude anyone from outside the USA volunteering. The US Government will probably want to know a lot about your bank accounts outside of the USA as a counter to money laundering fears etc. If that isn't an issue then please do volunteer!
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 1) by inzkeeper on Tuesday January 30 2024, @11:29PM
That makes sense. Hopefully you can find US volunteers.
But if not, feel free to contact me. Let's see if I can help out.
I am Canadian.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 31 2024, @04:35PM (7 children)
>We are looking at Delaware for various reasons
As long as nobody is putting more than beer money into the company, Delaware may be a good choice.
If anyone is investing significant amounts of money in hopes to at least possibly get some of it back someday, be forewarned: Delaware incorporation laws are nasty business strongly favoring the "big money" investors, basically permitting them to completely screw over any little investors they happen to have suckered into putting their money into the company.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:14PM (4 children)
There will have to be some money added to the fund just to get us up and running but I think there is a willing donor for that sum. Nevertheless, once the new company is up and running the site we will have to have another session of asking for subscriptions, while at the same time reducing our costs to the bare minimum.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:17PM (1 child)
That all sounds like beer money to me (soon to be pissed away with little or no desire for recovery...) No worries for that.
If the fantasy of becoming a top tier moneymaker destination website ever bubbles up again, Delaware incorporation is toxic juju for smaller investors.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2024, @07:07PM
I agree. Let's start small and see what happens. We can solve the big problems when they actually occur - but I am not holding my breath that we will ever see them.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:52PM (1 child)
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2024, @07:00PM
It works - but we may not get the money. I have not seen a financial update reflecting subscriptions since early last year. I would hold tight for just a while longer if I were you - but I hate to say that if you are determined to give money to someone ...
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by cereal_burpist on Thursday February 01 2024, @07:34AM (1 child)
I assumed Delaware was chosen for this reason. [soylentnews.org]
(Corporation Trust Center)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 01 2024, @08:33AM
It is also the one with which we have most the experience. But as I have said, if somebody presents a good reason for looking elsewhere then we will do that.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by rpnx on Thursday February 01 2024, @10:55AM (1 child)
Please for the love of Christ incorporate in Oregon.
Oregon is the only state without obscenity laws, and therefore the only "free speech" state.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 01 2024, @11:41AM
I don't think that we have had a problem with obscenity laws - except for 1 idiot who has tried to post links to CP.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by oregonjohn on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:01AM (1 child)
"Do I need to be a U.S. citizen or resident to start a nonprofit corporation? The short answer is no; there is no requirement that you be a U.S. citizen or resident to start a nonprofit corporation." https://www.legalnature.com/guides/do-i-need-to-be-a-us-citizen-or-resident-to-start-a-nonprofit-corporation [legalnature.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday January 31 2024, @06:11AM
Thanks for the confirmation - I have been told this now from several sources. However, the only person outside the States that I know personally and who has been involved in a US company has told me that he had to provide a significant amount of personal and financial information in order to serve on a board. Over here in Europe many are reluctant to share personal information with the US as there are few legal restrictions on how that information is used or subsequently shared.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Wednesday January 31 2024, @08:47PM (3 children)
Maybe I fell asleep or something. Obviously, the governance of the site is changing, but are you talking about changing the name and URL away from Soylent News as well? Or did I just mis-read this?
(Score: 3, Informative) by acid andy on Wednesday January 31 2024, @10:39PM (2 children)
So AIUI the domain names and URLs and content would stay the same if at all possible. It's a new site in the sense it will have new owners. I expect they don't know yet whether control of the existing linode hostings will be handed over as well. Maybe it will move to a new hosting. I may be wrong though, as I am not on the staff!
Welcome to Edgeways. Words should apply in advance as spaces are highly limite—
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 01 2024, @08:41AM
Acid Andy has covered most of it. But we also wish to restructure the Board and rewrite the policy documents which is the responsibility of the Board. As the current Board do not want to continue with the site, will not allow us to simply take over what we have, and only wish to hand it over to a 'company' then we are forced to go down that route. But while it presents a lot of unwanted hassle it does allow us to make a fresh start, involve the current community more in deciding the future direction of the site and restore control to them.
Whether we change the domain later or how we decide to organise the infrastructure is something that individual teams can look at, present their views to the community if necessary, and implement if the majority are happy to do so. We are, IMO, holding on to too much server capacity and paying more than we need to be for those resources. However, these are all decisions for the new site to make, not for me to decide now. I do not have that level of expertise!
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 01 2024, @07:27PM
Does anyone have a physical copy of the site's data? As opposed to a virtual copy in the cloud?