SoylentNews

That is just as true today as it was then. We are in a similar position to that in which we found ourselves 9 years ago. Software is having to be rewritten and repackaged. It is still based on software written 10 years before we even went live. It works but has a specific set of requirements that are becoming increasingly more difficult to meet. Hardware is being restructured necessitated by the changing economic circumstances that we as a site, individuals, and a community are having to learn to live with.

To say that it has not all been smooth sailing would be an understatement. The world and our community have changed far more than anyone could have envisaged in those first few weeks and months. The site has had to change also - sometimes to enhance what we offer each other as a community and at other times to prevent all of the good work being undone by a small number of people, one result of their actions being to drive away a significant proportion of our community. But here we are - a bit battered and bruised but preparing to move forward while meeting both legal requirements and community expectations as we do so.

Being in the same situation that we found ourselves in 2014 means that NCommander's words are just as relevant today as they were back then. We rely on the community to help us in exactly the same way. We would like to rebuild the community and we can do that with your help by word of mouth. We still rely on your submissions, comments and moderations so please continue to make them. And we are also in need of people who are willing to give a small amount of their time to a wide range of tasks that are necessary to keep the site operational. There is no specific commitment of time or effort - just to contribute whatever you are comfortable with. Get in touch and let us know what interests you, and we will look for a role that will meet those interests wherever possible. If we find a match then we will both benefit but if not there is no commitment on you to join the team.

As I write this we are trying to introduce 2 new volunteers to the sys-ops team, and possibly another editor in the next few weeks - more on that once they have found their seats!

However, if nothing else, please keep doing what you have been doing to support the site - your comments and views are what makes this site what it is. The site is nothing without the community.

Jan

The biggest problem is that most of the backend is undocumented. I wrote some documents in the early days of the site, but by and large, the site was mostly maintained by individuals who are no longer active on staff. The internal TechOps wiki was woefully out of date, and even I find myself struggling to know how the entire site is put together. Considering it's been online for over 9 years, and was a bit of a rush job out the gate, well, you know, it happens. I think at some point at the decade mark, I will want to chronicle more about SN's history, but let's first make sure we've got a site when we get there.

By and large, I'm not involved in the day to day operations. janrirok has been, and is, at this point the de facto project leader. My role with SoylentNews these days is kinda vague and undefined, since I stepped down privately in 2020, and then stepped back last November. I also find myself very uncertain if I want to even be involved at all, but, ultimately, I was here at the start, and while SoylentNews was always a collaborative project, I left a mark on both what this site is and will be that has persisted over the better part of a decade.

As such, I feel personally obligated to get SoylentNews to the best shape I can possibly get it, and give it the best chance of success I can give it. However, we're in the uncomfortable situation that we have a dated Perl codebase running on undocumented infrastructure that has been creaking along with no major reworks in almost all that time. You can imagine I've been having a fun time of this. Most of the relevant information mostly exists in my head, since I was the one who got Slashcode running all those years ago.

Right now, my biggest victory is I managed to get us off MySQL Cluster, and onto a more normal version of MySQL which drastically reduces memory and disk load in favor of slower load performance.

Moving forward, the solution is to have a reproducible deployment system, likely based around Docker, or possibly even Kubernetes, with all aspects of rehash (the site software) documented. We use GitHub to handle site development, and I think it would be in our best interests to integrate a full CI pipeline for both development and production environments. While implementing this, I also intend to entirely redo every aspect of the backend, complete with proper documentation, so something beside me can actually maintain it. After that, it will actually be practical for SoylentNews to survive past a single person, and we can have a more serious discussion on what the road forward looks like.

I do realize that the last few months have had a lot of ups and down, mixed with excitement and disappointment. I can't really say for sure where we're going, but you know? I want us to reach that decade mark together, and then we'll figure out where we're going beyond that.

Until next time,

~ N