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[[FAQ|Frequently Asked Questions]]
This is a home for information about how '''[http://soylentnews.org SoylentNews.org]''' was started, and the vision for it.


'''Site Announcements'''
==About SoylentNews.org==


Welcome to the '''[http://soylentnews.org SoylentNews.org]''' Wiki.


If you are having tech issues with the forum software, please Email Joel: soylent (at) finite (dot) ms
We deliver community-sourced news and discussion. This is an, grassroots effort powered by article submissions from our readers, volunteers, and our forked version of [https://github.com/SoylentNews/slashcode slashcode] called [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash 'Rehash'].  We highlight stories on the web which are important to everyone - especially nerds. We also provide a soapbox for discussion moderated by the site's patrons, and allow anonymous discourse as there's no mandatory registration needed to comment.


It's not certain whether we will be able to rollout on Monday as planned, but it's not out of the question either. Expect a rollout status update, late Monday
We are mindful of community sentiment, and will not bend to overreaching corporate agenda. The goal is to be an excellent source for discussion and news about technology, art, science and politics.


The slashcode group has been working very hard to get things up and running. SlashCode is 5 years old, heavily dependent on older revs (Apache, Perl, MySQL), and ran as root
We've incorporated as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (similar to a non-profit) as we feel our mission to provide a platform for news dissemination and relevant discussion is not only essential for mankind, but also a legal right (i.e. freedom of press, freedom of speech) in some places, and these are liberties which we aim to protect.


Check out the [http://imgbin.org/index.php?page=image&id=16688| look and feel] of the new site!
Though the site is young and there are [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues bugs], we are improving and adapting to satisfy the community's needs. We look forward to pushing the boundaries of web experience and are committed to involving the community on all major decisions.


----
==Get Involved==


This project is run entirely by the community and there are many ways to contribute. Here are some of the many ways to participate:


'''To everyone involved... THANK YOU!'''
*'''[http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl Submit a Story]'''
** Try joining the #rss-bot channel in [[SoylentNews:IRC|IRC]] for story ideas
*'''Volunteer'''
** Get in touch with the '''[[Development|Development Team]]''', especially if you know perl
** Reach out to one of the other '''[[TeamPages|Teams]]''' (we have openings for many skill sets)
** Contact the relevant person: '''[[WhosWho| Who's Who?]]'''
*Hop on to '''IRC:'''
** #Soylent on irc.soylentnews.org/6697
** [https://chat.soylentnews.org/ Webchat]
** [[SoylentNews:IRC|IRC Wiki Page]]
*'''Bugs''' and Features:
** [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues/new Submit a bug or Feature Request]
** [[Suggestions|Add a Suggestion]] - larger projects to tackle for the future
*'''Tell Somebody''' A friend, a colleague, any major news source....
** Do what you can to [[Spreading the word|get the word out]]
** You could participate in [[The_Slashcott|The Slashcott]]


We are building a news site alternative to Slashdot. We have started only a few days ago, and this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.
==Contacts==


The idea is to build a news aggregation site that delivers what's important - better articles, less fluff, and all the functionality you expect from the moderation system. We are still looking for volunteers so stop by the boards and the IRC and let us know you want to help!
A list of people working on this project:
===[[WhosWho| Who's Who?]]===


* The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]] <br>
== Useful Links ==
* Some business planning is [[Business|here]] <br>
* A statement of functionality (turn into a requirements document?)--- [[FeatureList]]


*[[Submission guidelines]] - best practices for story submissions
*[[Story Style]] - a guide for editors on article formatting
*[[Development]] team page
**[https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash Code Repo] - The Slashcode fork repository for this project on GitHub
** <strike>[[DevelopmentVMHowto]] - How to get our code setup in a VM</strike>
** [[SlashDocumentationIndex]]
*[[UserExperience]] team page
**[[Style]] - some of this info needs to be merged/moved/organized into/with [[UserExperience]]
**[[CssWork]]
* [[SystemAdministration|System Administration]]
*[[Finances]] - Breakdown of our proposed spending
*[[Licensing]] - ideas about which license to use for our slashcode fork
*[[Staff_Meetings|Staff Meeting Logs]]
*[[SoylentNews_PBC|SoylentNews PBC]]
*[[SoylentNews_Site_Policy|SoylentNews Policy]]


''' Get Involved '''
== Similar Projects ==
* [http://pipedot.org/ Pipedot] - A complete re-write that uses a modern codebase and sports a clean look
* Usenet newsgroup comp.misc - [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.misc on Google Groups], [http://squte.com/ on Squte], [news:comp.misc via newsreader application]
* [http://technocrat.net/ Technocrat] - (now defunt) News site presented by Bruce Perens


'''Hop in to IRC!''' - [[SoylentNews:IRC|IRC]]: ##altslashdot on chat.freenode.net ([https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=##altslashdot Webchat], we are growing in [http://irc.netsplit.de/channels/details.php?net=freenode&room=%23%23altslashdot strength!])
== Archive ==


'''Register on the forums''' - http://forums.SoylentNews.org
[[Archive]] -- An archive of obsolete pages/discussions that occurred before launch
* Go to forums.SoylentNews.org and register a user
* Read [http://forums.soylentnews.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=38&sid=e55255cb6dfe68b28c8cf5f2b9697a64| this] post if you are having problems. (Thanks MrGuy)
* Add yourself to whichever groups you are interested in
 
'''Slashcott''' Organized boycott of the Dice-owned Slashdot pages
* Show your support for the "Get rid of Beta" crowd by avoiding Slashdot during the week of February 10-17
 
'''Tell Somebody''' A friend, a colleague, any major news source....
*Do what you can to get the word out
 
 
'''Contact:'''
If you want to send the project lead a message:  John (at) SoylentNews (dot) org
 
 
'''Mumble (Voice / Text Server)''' : voice.whackperiod.org  <--- Does not appear to be working ??
 
==Status==
 
Check out the [[FAQ]]
 
* Forums are available at forums.SoylentNews.org
* We upgraded the hosting by two tiers - this should fix the problems people were having yesterday accessing the system.
* The System team is working on installing SlashCode. If all goes well, we expect to have a working system by Monday. Everyone believes this goal is achievable.
* The site now has forums with four user groups: Code, Content, Style, and System.
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.
 
Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]
 
== Site Name ==
We have a '''temporary''' name!
 
Thanks go out to everyone who made suggestions - some of them were
absolutely brilliant! For example, it hadn't occurred to me to choose a name based on a
non-English word, or a palindrome, or a puzzle. Many of the entries were quite clever.
(Adies, it took me more than a day to figure yours out. Bravo!)
 
I won't post the runners up because squatters might take the names before we hold the real
contest. We'll figure out a way to prevent this somehow - at worst case we can choose judges
and do it privately (like I did, but with more people).
 
Jerry had the winning entry.
 
The temp name is: '''SoylentNews''' with the tagline: '''SoylentNews is people!'''
 
Does this rock? It hits the trifecta of website goodness:
 
* Descriptive in a way that mundanes will understand (compare "photoshop" with "gimp", "Internet Explorer" with "Firefox", and "MediaPlayer" with "VLC")
 
* It's part of Nerd culture, a pun, and slightly twisted
 
* It's suggestive of being community driven
 
* It is attached to some movie about eating corpses and implies "News fresh as processed corpses" (??)
 
* Trademark issues
 
* We are getting some community flak on the name
 
This will be a hard act to beat. Start thinking up names for the contest, or throw your weight
behind this one. The contest will be held soon after we open the doors.
 
(And it was poutine (from IRC) who suggested we use a temporary name. Others may also have suggested it, but it was his post that I noticed. Be sure to thank him if you see him on IRC.)
 
==ToDo==
[[SlashcodeTodo|Slashcode Todo list]]
 
* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Typical(box with ads in the top-right corner)? 
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Provide a voting system to decide which articles hit the main page (Mod point related?)
* Find and submit some stories
 
== List of Discussion Pages ==
*[[NewName|NewName]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Finances|Finances]] -- which model would allow to minimise and/or distribute hosting costs
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[Monetization]] -- Duscussion on how to cover costs to make this thing happen (and grow)
*[[FeatureList]] -- Discussion of required/desired characteristics
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Content]]
*[[Style]]
*[[Migration of users from Slashdot]] -- How to handle Nicks and UIDs
*[[Licensing]]
 
 
== Noteworthy Comments==
*Grabbed the Domain Names: AltSlashdot.org, Soylentnews.org
*Other potential website solutions
::Bruce Parens (created "technocrat.net") is aware of Soylentnews.org and is considering contributing  (Relaunch ?? stay tuned)
::/. user 'dotancohen' registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot (He is willing to coordinate and has cloud experience)
::Add info on PipeDot...[http://pipedot.org/ pipedot.org] by 'Brian'
::User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com)
::Usenet was also suggested as an alternative  'comp.misc is the new Slashdot'
*Scrapping content from old Slashdot suggestion made. benefits/drawbacks ?  Overall I think this is a thumbs down
::Content is easier to "find"
::Moral/Legal objections were brought up  (Even if it was initially "our" content)
::We should build our own brand
::Pointless to scrap, since it is the comments that draw people in
::Editors should be in multiple timezones to cleanup/improve/multi-source submissions for presentation to the main page
*Initial code build will be from Slashcode... Available (Git?),  Old:(5 years)  Workable:(maybe)
*Alternate choices for code base: Wiki, Discourse, Usenet
*Non-profit vs For-profit discussion should go here ( [[Business]] )
:: Debian style project organization ?
:: Community driven projects need strong leadership or they tend to flounder
*Codebase
:: Code should be in the public domain
:: Allow the entire website (Stories+Comments+Code)? to be created as a Creative commons work - codebase also available ?
:: AGPL
*Keep the former Slashdot community together
 
[[Comment History]]
 
== Comments ==
 
* Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization '''please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)
 
 
* relevant slashdot stats from 2011 [[http://www.dbasoul.com/2011/992.html]]
:::5.5 million user visits per month.
:::7,000 comments are added every day.
:::Over 9 million pages views daily.
:::Over 21 million comments.
:::Average monthly bandwidth usage is around 40-50 mbit/sec (450GB/day)
 
 
* From Hacker News on Slasdot: 'When you have the same group of minds selecting the content that gets seen, over the course of years, the users eventually get burnt out seeing the same type of stuff, chosen by the same people over and over again. The content becomes stale even if its fresh <--- A really good point
 
== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient
 
AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/
 
 
 
== Stories from former Slashdot users ==
 
[[Confessions of an Ex-Slashdot Beta User]]
 
[[Banned from Slashdot]]
 
[[Dice is killing Slashdot]]
 
 
== An interesting Idea ==
Check this out while it's still available.  feedback appreciated
* http://slashdot.org/submission/3324011/a-modest-proposal-re-beta-vs-classic?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose
 
== Telling the world about SoylentNews.org ==
*Please mention SolentNews.org as much as possible.
*It seems like the word is spreading (over 45,000 views in <1 week) Good job everyone!
**Any idea on how and where to make sure people know about this project, please post them here?
:::I'd send a note along to Ars Technica & BoingBoing. (That would get some attention)<br>
:::Anyone have a Reddit account with a reasonable activity level?<br>
:::The Register, Digg, Hacker News and anything else you feel would help get the word out there
* Contacted:
** The Register:: No word back
** Ars Technica:: Was passed along to one of the writers
** Hacker News
::: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7193251 Submission from when AltSlashdot just started]
::: Due for an update once we get an actual site up and running
:::: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7209927 Similar thread from today] [[User:Yahwotqa|Yahwotqa]] ([[User talk:Yahwotqa|talk]]) 10:05, 10 February 2014 (MST)

Latest revision as of 13:43, 30 August 2019

This is a home for information about how SoylentNews.org was started, and the vision for it.

About SoylentNews.org

Welcome to the SoylentNews.org Wiki.

We deliver community-sourced news and discussion. This is an, grassroots effort powered by article submissions from our readers, volunteers, and our forked version of slashcode called 'Rehash'. We highlight stories on the web which are important to everyone - especially nerds. We also provide a soapbox for discussion moderated by the site's patrons, and allow anonymous discourse as there's no mandatory registration needed to comment.

We are mindful of community sentiment, and will not bend to overreaching corporate agenda. The goal is to be an excellent source for discussion and news about technology, art, science and politics.

We've incorporated as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (similar to a non-profit) as we feel our mission to provide a platform for news dissemination and relevant discussion is not only essential for mankind, but also a legal right (i.e. freedom of press, freedom of speech) in some places, and these are liberties which we aim to protect.

Though the site is young and there are bugs, we are improving and adapting to satisfy the community's needs. We look forward to pushing the boundaries of web experience and are committed to involving the community on all major decisions.

Get Involved

This project is run entirely by the community and there are many ways to contribute. Here are some of the many ways to participate:

Contacts

A list of people working on this project:

Who's Who?

Useful Links

Similar Projects

Archive

Archive -- An archive of obsolete pages/discussions that occurred before launch

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