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A Semi-Anonymous Crutchy writes:

Join #soylent @http://chat.soylentnews.org/ to play some asynchronous rock/paper/scissors with other SoylentNews lurkers and staff. Asynchronous rock/paper/scissor is basically a game that records all your rps choices, and as players throw in their next rounds, they get played against your previous turns.

The bot named 'exec' is hosted by one of our (generally) trustworthy editors (cmn32480) and includes the '~rps' command to play.

~rps
Outputs syntax and online help link.

~rps r
Adds rock to your account's sequence.

~rps p
Adds paper to your account's sequence.

~rps s
Adds scissors to your account's sequence.

~rps rank
Outputs current ranking to http://ix.io/nAz

You can also submit multiple turns in one command, which is useful if you're a new player. The script will trim the sequence to the current maximum sequence length of all players, plus one (to gradually advance the available turns). Example: ~rps rrrrpsrpsrpssspss

Note, there is also a random delay requirement between turns, so you can try playing with a bot but you will need to allow for this mandatory delay.

You can play from any channel that 'exec' is currently in, or private message the bot to hide your sequence from prying eyes.

Players are tied to NickServ accounts, so to play you must register with NickServ. This is easy to do and most IRC clients can automagically identify for you with minimal fuss. This is to keep your game from being manipulated when you're offline.

Ranking is based on a handicap that balances the number of wins with the number of turns played. This is so that a new player who gets a win doesn't secure top spot just because they have a 100% win rate.

The script is certainly not perfect and is gradually evolving, but it has reached a point where I think it is at least stable enough to enjoy. There are also lots of other asynchronous rock, paper, scissors games out there on the interwebs.
Check out the source code for the IRC bot game script here if you're curious or would like to contribute: https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/blob/master/scripts/rps.php

When you hop on IRC to play, be sure to say 'hi'. We don't bite... much :p

Original Submission

martyb writes:

It passed without fanfare, but this very site recently passed an important milestone... SoylentNews celebrated its two-year anniversary!

On Wednesday February 12 2014, @07:28AM our very first article was posted: Welcome to SoylentNews! and then, on Monday 2014-02-17 at 02:06:00 UTC, we announced our presence to the world at large: Welcome to the World of Tomorrow... Today!

There were some who thought the site would fail right from the start. Yes, there have been some significant challenges along the way. Thankfully, the community has pulled together and given the support needed to keep this site running as a going concern.

The support has come in many forms. Of course, there is the financial side where people have subscribed or purchased SoylentNews swag. We are also grateful to those who submit stories, post comments, and perform moderations. Others post journal articles and comment on those. Still more are active on our IRC server. Then there's our very own Wiki. There are those, too, who mention our site to family and friends.

On an entirely different level we have the folks who maintain our servers, front ends, code base, site, mail, and the like. Others handle behind-the-scenes organization and communications tasks.

For those who joined us at the outset, you may recall that site crashes were a regular occurrence. Now, most of our downtime is due to either site upgrades or reboots of our systems by our hosting provider.

For those who may no be aware, this is all brought to you by volunteers who freely give of their free time and energy to make this all happen for you, our community.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big "Thank-You!" to all who have helped us get to where we are today. Some helped at the outset and moved on, others have been with us from the start, and still others have joined more recently. We would not be where we are today without ALL of you!

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

It's a slow news day so far, so it's time to talk about user to user messaging. There are two main questions I see here that we need to answer as a community:

1. Do we even want user to user messaging?
2. Should we use the existing messaging system or fire up an xmpp server or what?

The first is pretty self-explanatory. I've heard arguments for both sides. Yeah, it's convenient but it could also cut down on comment participation if you can just message someone directly.

The second is a little more open. The pros for web-based messaging on the site are it will take almost zero work since we already have a system in place for sending messages. The cons include it could take up to five minutes for a message to be delivered (this can be tweaked but not really made instant) because we only process the message queue that often and not being able to use your instant messenger of choice. I know AJAX is likely to come up for this in particular but we'll be needing a proper AJAX dev before we go down that road.

For XMPP the cons include not being able to have spaces in names so we'd have to keep a mapping of usernames in the db and check that there are no nick collisions before allowing creation of that XMPP account. The pros being instant delivery plus you could use any XMPP-friendly instant messenger and do voice/video chat as well if you like.

I know we're going to get a lot of tangents going here but please do try to answer both questions as well.

takyon: How does IRC (which includes private messages) stack up against these options?

Original Submission