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Hi Guys, Soylent's Editors do a lot behind the scenes to keep the community going. As a gift idea for them this year, please consider submitting lots of stories over the next two days to get the queue nice and full. Then they'll be able to schedule in their appearance on the home page ahead of time and take Christmas (or Hanukkah) off to spend time with their friends and families.
If you've never submitted a story before, here are guidelines for composing a story submission. You submit it here.
My own method is to find tech/science articles from SN's RSS-bot or a dozen other sources like the BBC or sciencenews.org, grab the title, and a couple of paragraphs that communicate the gist. Often I'll add a quip, question, or note of my own, but that's up to your personal taste. It's easy and takes under 5 minutes per story.
Thanks for reading, and have a happy holiday!
[Ed Note: The week between Christmas and New Years is always slow for submissions and time is a precious commodity for all of us. The more subs in the queue, the further out we can get the story queue, and the more time we have to spend with our loved ones. Any help you can give would be appreciated!]
Hopefully you will have noticed a number of new editors that have appeared to help keep this site running. They have been active for over a week but you might not have noticed them if you have been enjoying the Thanksgiving Day holiday, or just spending money during Black Friday (which seems to last longer each year!)
Snow, Charon, FatPhil, Fnord666, and GreatOutdoors have completed their training and are busy making their contributions to the team, and there are several more volunteers who will begin training in the near future. I hope that you will welcome them and keep them busy by providing more and varied submissions for them to battle with. They have already significantly reduced the strain on the editorial team and we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief back here. Thank you for volunteering guys!
I will put this to you, the community, in a very straight, simple (hopefully understandable) way.
The editorial staff is a small, hardworking group. There are currently about 5 of us that are actively pushing stories out on a regular basis, and we need help.
We humbly come to you, the community, to solicit for a volunteer or two. We will provide all the necessary training, at a cost of just 3 easy payments of $999.99US, or entirely free if you apply before 1 Apr 2099.
For that pittance, you can expect to learn:
In all seriousness, we all are busy and have lives. So do you, and we get that, but for this community to continue to thrive, we need a little fresh blood on the editorial staff. Some of us have been at this since the site went live almost 3 years ago (janrinok and martyb have posted over 3000 articles EACH). To put it in perspective, the site has only run about 14,500. Some of us came on almost a year later, but like any organization, there has been attrition, and we need to replenish.
We are starting to see some of the tell-tale signs of burnout, and to avoid that, we need your help.
If you are interested, please feel free to reach out in the comments below, via email ([nick] at soylentnews dot org), or hit us on IRC. If we aren't there (we all LOOK like we are logged in all the time due to the bouncer, but we may not actually be there), /join #editorial and leave a message — we will get back to you.
Remember, it isn't all doom and gloom! Working on staff, you will be on a team with a fantastic group of REALLY smart (myself excluded) people. I can honestly say I have made some really good friends from this experience, and I've even gotten to meet one of the guys in meat space. It is something that I am truly glad I took advantage of when the opportunity came around.
Thanks for listening, and with a little luck, we will see one or two of you pretty soon.
Live Long and Prosper,
-cmn32480
[TMB Note: Seriously. You really don't want me having to pick stories.]
[Update: see this comment below if you've expressed interest in volunteering.
So, as per usual, I like to occasionally check the pulse on the community to make sure that people for the most part are happy and satisfied with the day-to-day operation of the site. For those of you who are new to the community, first, let me welcome you and explain how these work.
When I open the floor to the community, the intent is to provide a venue to discuss anything related to site operations, content, and anything along those lines. I actively review and comment on these posts, and if one issue pops up multiple times in comments, I generally run follow up articles to try and help address issues the community feels is important before someone decides to take rehash and form a spinoff. Feel free to leave whatever thoughts you want below.
In contrary to my usual posts, I don't have that much to say to this, so to both the community and editorial team's relief, I'll cut this off right here before it becomes Yet Another NCommander Novel.
~ NCommander
Right, so there's currently a DDoS of our site specifically happening. Part of me is mildly annoyed, part of me is proud that we're worth DDoS-ing now. Since it's only slowing us down a bit and not actually shutting us down, I'm half tempted to just let them run their botnet time out. I suppose we should tweak the firewall a bit though. Sigh, I hate working on weekends.
Update: Okay, that appears to have mitigated it; the site's functional at a reasonable rate of responsiveness.
Update2: Attack's over for now. You may go about your business.
Since the launch of SoylentNews in February of 2014, there have been 274,870 comment moderations made against the 412,100 comments that our community has posted to our site. Who has posted the most comments? Who garnered the most up-moderations? The most down-moderations?
Such simple questions, but they led to a fun bit of DB querying. The results surprised me, and I thought others might be interested, as well. Most surprising to me was the assessment of comments from Anonymous Cowards.
[Continues...]
Who received the most moderations?
For better or worse, to whom did Soylentils direct their greatest moderation effort?
NICK | UID | TOTAL | DOWN | UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Mighty Buzzard | 18 | 2260 | 626 | 1634 | 1008 |
takyon | 881 | 2315 | 103 | 2212 | 2109 |
aristarchus | 2645 | 2494 | 615 | 1879 | 1264 |
c0lo | 156 | 2717 | 183 | 2534 | 2351 |
Thexalon | 636 | 3225 | 83 | 3142 | 3059 |
Ethanol-fueled | 2792 | 3447 | 1238 | 2209 | 971 |
VLM | 445 | 4401 | 346 | 4055 | 3709 |
Runaway1956 | 2926 | 4531 | 992 | 3539 | 2547 |
frojack | 1554 | 5855 | 593 | 5262 | 4669 |
Anonymous Coward | 1 | 78936 | 13002 | 65934 | 52932 |
The single greatest target of moderation was the "Anonymous Coward" with 78,936 moderations. This was followed by frojack, Runaway1956, VLM, Ethanol-fueled, and Thexalon who garnered over 3000 moderations each.
Who had the most down-moderations?
Here, only the number of down moderations was considered — it mattered not whether it was Flamebait or Troll — they all counted the same.
NICK | UID | TOTAL | DOWN | UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
VLM | 445 | 4401 | 346 | 4055 | 3709 |
Hairyfeet | 75 | 1620 | 387 | 1233 | 846 |
MichaelDavidCrawford | 2339 | 1513 | 387 | 1126 | 739 |
frojack | 1554 | 5855 | 593 | 5262 | 4669 |
aristarchus | 2645 | 2494 | 615 | 1879 | 1264 |
The Mighty Buzzard | 18 | 2260 | 626 | 1634 | 1008 |
jmorris | 4844 | 2144 | 753 | 1391 | 638 |
Runaway1956 | 2926 | 4531 | 992 | 3539 | 2547 |
Ethanol-fueled | 2792 | 3447 | 1238 | 2209 | 971 |
Anonymous Coward | 1 | 78936 | 13002 | 65934 | 52932 |
Once again, our prolific AC topped the list with 13,002 down-mods. Ethanol-fueled was the only other user who topped 1000 down-mods, coming in with 1238. Runaway1956 made a valiant showing with 992 down-mods.
Who had the most up-moderations?
In the eyes of the community, who most often received an up-mod? Again, no consideration was given for the nature of the up-mod — Insightful, Interesting, or Informative — all were considered the same.
NICK | UID | TOTAL | DOWN | UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
aristarchus | 2645 | 2494 | 615 | 1879 | 1264 |
Phoenix666 | 552 | 2184 | 80 | 2104 | 2024 |
Ethanol-fueled | 2792 | 3447 | 1238 | 2209 | 971 |
takyon | 881 | 2315 | 103 | 2212 | 2109 |
c0lo | 156 | 2717 | 183 | 2534 | 2351 |
Thexalon | 636 | 3225 | 83 | 3142 | 3059 |
Runaway1956 | 2926 | 4531 | 992 | 3539 | 2547 |
VLM | 445 | 4401 | 346 | 4055 | 3709 |
frojack | 1554 | 5855 | 593 | 5262 | 4669 |
Anonymous Coward | 1 | 78936 | 13002 | 65934 | 52932 |
Once again AC reins supreme with 65,934 up-mods. This was followed by frojack with 5,262 and VLM with just over 4000.
Who had the highest net-moderation?
Putting it all together — subtracting the number of down-mods from the number of up-mods — who had the highest net moderation on our site?
NICK | UID | TOTAL | DOWN | UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
wonkey_monkey | 279 | 1754 | 117 | 1637 | 1520 |
maxwell demon | 1608 | 1786 | 55 | 1731 | 1676 |
Phoenix666 | 552 | 2184 | 80 | 2104 | 2024 |
takyon | 881 | 2315 | 103 | 2212 | 2109 |
c0lo | 156 | 2717 | 183 | 2534 | 2351 |
Runaway1956 | 2926 | 4531 | 992 | 3539 | 2547 |
Thexalon | 636 | 3225 | 83 | 3142 | 3059 |
VLM | 445 | 4401 | 346 | 4055 | 3709 |
frojack | 1554 | 5855 | 593 | 5262 | 4669 |
Anonymous Coward | 1 | 78936 | 13002 | 65934 | 52932 |
Once again, the shy but prolific AC tops the list with a net of 52,932 mod points. Only one other Soylentil was able to surpass 4000: frojack with 4,669. Two other Soylentils exceeded 3000: VLM with 3709 and Thexalon with 3059.
Who hath pointy horns?
Who managed to acquire the most down-mods as a percentage of all moderations on their comments? For a tie, number of moderated comments is the second sort field. Who is the devil in our midst?
NICK | UID | TOTAL | #DOWN | %DOWN | #UP | %UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
scarboni888 | 5061 | 1 | 1 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -1 |
MooCow | 6048 | 1 | 1 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -1 |
cybergimli | 436 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
rancidman | 769 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
rmdingler | 1038 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
SoylentsISay | 1331 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
stupid | 2631 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
contrapunctus | 3495 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -2 |
killal -9 bash | 2751 | 5 | 5 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | -5 |
Pfft, just a few minor imps around here. killal -9 bash topped (bottomed?) the list with 5 down-mods out of 5 moderations.
Who earned a Halo?
Whose comments had the best percentage of up-mods to total-mods? And in the case of ties, received the most up-mods? Who are the angels among us?
NICK | UID | TOTAL | #DOWN | %DOWN | #UP | %UP | NET |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dx3bydt3 | 82 | 69 | 0 | 0.00 | 69 | 100.00 | 69 |
romlok | 1241 | 70 | 0 | 0.00 | 70 | 100.00 | 70 |
Hawkwind | 3531 | 75 | 0 | 0.00 | 75 | 100.00 | 75 |
jdccdevel | 1329 | 78 | 0 | 0.00 | 78 | 100.00 | 78 |
rleigh | 4887 | 102 | 0 | 0.00 | 102 | 100.00 | 102 |
DrMag | 1860 | 103 | 0 | 0.00 | 103 | 100.00 | 103 |
SrLnclt | 1473 | 117 | 0 | 0.00 | 117 | 100.00 | 117 |
Joe | 2583 | 126 | 0 | 0.00 | 126 | 100.00 | 126 |
Aiwendil | 531 | 164 | 0 | 0.00 | 164 | 100.00 | 164 |
Here, it appears we've got a flock of angels, or at least people who know which way the wind blows. All folks listed here scored 100.00% meaning all of their moderations were up-mods. Aiwendil topped our list with 164, and we had 4 others — Joe, SrLnclt, DrMag, and rleigh — who each had over 100 such comment moderations... not even a single down-mod among them!
I must admit I was surprised to see the sheer number of positive moderations of AC comments, and the fact that 83.5% of those mods were positive.
[Update: Added two tables, one each for top percentage of down-mods and of up-mods. -Ed.]