SoylentNews - User contributions [en]

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2024-12-10T17:27:18Z

Admin:

Talk:Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-10T17:21:08Z

Admin: /* This is another discussion on the talk page */ new section

== This is a test discussion on the talk page ==

testing [[User:Admin|Admin]] ([[User talk:Admin|talk]]) 17:20, 10 December 2024 (UTC)kolie

== This is another discussion on the talk page ==

testing 2 [[User:Admin|Admin]] ([[User talk:Admin|talk]]) 17:21, 10 December 2024 (UTC)kolie

Talk:Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-10T17:20:49Z

Admin: /* This is a test discussion on the talk page */ new section

== This is a test discussion on the talk page ==

testing [[User:Admin|Admin]] ([[User talk:Admin|talk]]) 17:20, 10 December 2024 (UTC)kolie

Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-05T00:27:06Z

Admin:

<markdown>
### Enhancing Moderation with the Flag Comment API and Comment Audit Features

In the ever-evolving landscape of online content moderation, maintaining a balance between free expression and community standards is crucial. To address this, a new feature has been introduced: the **Flag Comment API Call**. This tool is designed to empower administrative users with high security levels to manage comments more effectively and in full support of website policy.

### API Examples
** Example Python Client **

[API Example: Python](https://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/API_Example:_Python)

**Comment Audit Feature:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=get_comments_audit&cid=&limit=
```

**Flagging a Comment:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=flag_spam&cid=31675&spam_flag=1&mod_reason=test%20for%20jan&redacts=%28%3F%3C%3Dtest%20of%20%29.%2A%3F%28%3F%3D%20This%20is%20only%20a%29
```

**Suggested Regex Strings:**
- `(?<=before ).*?(?= after)`
When applied to "this is before and this is after," results in "this is before ########### after."

#### Flag Comment API Call

**Key Features:**
- **Administrative Access Only:** This feature is restricted to users with high security levels, ensuring that only authorized personnel can flag comments.
- **Toggle Flag:** Administrators can set a flag on a comment to either "on" or "off." When flagged "on," the comment is hidden and replaced with placeholder text. When flagged "off," the original comment is restored.
- **Audit Logging:** Every invocation of the flagging action is logged in the `comment_audit` table, capturing the time, moderator, and reason for the action.
- **Reason and Redaction:** The API call requires a reason for flagging and can optionally include regex fields for redacting specific parts of the comment.

**Impact on Comments:**
- **Visibility:** Flagged comments are hidden from view and replaced with placeholder text. Once the flag is removed, the original comment becomes visible again.
- **No Other Modifications:** The flagging action does not affect other website functionalities.

**Redaction Usage Context:**
- **Common Practice:** While flagging a comment is envisioned to be common practice within the site policy and framework, redaction is not anticipated for routine moderation and thus an ancillary concern. Instead, it is envisioned for the removal of severe violations such as CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) or doxxing.

#### Complementary Feature: Get Comment Audits

To enhance transparency and accountability, the **Get Comment Audits** feature has been introduced. This feature allows all users to access the audit logs of flagged comments.

**Key Features:**
- **Public Access:** Available to all users via the provided API endpoint.
- **Hold Timer:** A hold timer is calculated for each comment ID (CID). This timer is set to 24 hours after the last entry in the `comment_audit` table for that CID, regardless of the flag status. During this hold period, the comment text is not shown.
- **Audit Details:** The audit log displays the entered moderation reason, log entry ID, moderator UID, date/time of moderation, spam flag value, and CID.
- **Current Values Displayed:** The fields shown for comment and redacts show the current values, not the ones at the time of flagging. If the hold period has expired, the comment text is shown minus any redactions, along with the redaction regexes. If still within the hold period, a message indicates the remaining hold time.

### Impact of the Hold Timer in Comment Audits

1. **Hold Timer Not Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer has expired.
- **Impact:** The comment text is displayed in full, minus any redactions specified by the regex fields. The redaction regexes used are also shown.

2. **Hold Timer Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is still active.
- **Impact:** The comment text is replaced with a message indicating how long the comment will be held. The redaction regexes are not shown during this period.

3. **Hold Timer Active with High Security Level (Seclev > 100):**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is active, but the user has a high security level.
- **Impact:** The comment text is shown minus any redactions, similar to when the hold timer is not active. Additionally, the redaction regexes are displayed, and an extra field indicates when the hold will expire.

By understanding these scenarios, users can better interpret the information provided by the Get Comment Audits feature and the status of comments under moderation. This ensures transparency and clarity in the moderation process.

**Purpose:**
- **Transparency:** Users can see every invocation of the flag comment action, promoting transparency in moderation practices.
- **Detailed Information:** Provides comprehensive details about each moderation action, including the reason and the current status of the comment.

By integrating these features, the platform aims to enhance moderation capabilities while maintaining transparency and accountability. The Flag Comment API Call and Get Comment Audits work together to ensure that comments are managed effectively, with clear records of all actions taken. This approach not only helps in maintaining community standards but also builds trust among users by providing visibility into the moderation process.
</markdown>

Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-05T00:26:19Z

Admin:

<markdown>
### Enhancing Moderation with the Flag Comment API and Comment Audit Features

In the ever-evolving landscape of online content moderation, maintaining a balance between free expression and community standards is crucial. To address this, a new feature has been introduced: the **Flag Comment API Call**. This tool is designed to empower administrative users with high security levels to manage comments more effectively and in full support of website policy.

### API Examples
** Example Python Client **

[[API Example: Python]]

**Comment Audit Feature:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=get_comments_audit&cid=&limit=
```

**Flagging a Comment:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=flag_spam&cid=31675&spam_flag=1&mod_reason=test%20for%20jan&redacts=%28%3F%3C%3Dtest%20of%20%29.%2A%3F%28%3F%3D%20This%20is%20only%20a%29
```

**Suggested Regex Strings:**
- `(?<=before ).*?(?= after)`
When applied to "this is before and this is after," results in "this is before ########### after."

#### Flag Comment API Call

**Key Features:**
- **Administrative Access Only:** This feature is restricted to users with high security levels, ensuring that only authorized personnel can flag comments.
- **Toggle Flag:** Administrators can set a flag on a comment to either "on" or "off." When flagged "on," the comment is hidden and replaced with placeholder text. When flagged "off," the original comment is restored.
- **Audit Logging:** Every invocation of the flagging action is logged in the `comment_audit` table, capturing the time, moderator, and reason for the action.
- **Reason and Redaction:** The API call requires a reason for flagging and can optionally include regex fields for redacting specific parts of the comment.

**Impact on Comments:**
- **Visibility:** Flagged comments are hidden from view and replaced with placeholder text. Once the flag is removed, the original comment becomes visible again.
- **No Other Modifications:** The flagging action does not affect other website functionalities.

**Redaction Usage Context:**
- **Common Practice:** While flagging a comment is envisioned to be common practice within the site policy and framework, redaction is not anticipated for routine moderation and thus an ancillary concern. Instead, it is envisioned for the removal of severe violations such as CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) or doxxing.

#### Complementary Feature: Get Comment Audits

To enhance transparency and accountability, the **Get Comment Audits** feature has been introduced. This feature allows all users to access the audit logs of flagged comments.

**Key Features:**
- **Public Access:** Available to all users via the provided API endpoint.
- **Hold Timer:** A hold timer is calculated for each comment ID (CID). This timer is set to 24 hours after the last entry in the `comment_audit` table for that CID, regardless of the flag status. During this hold period, the comment text is not shown.
- **Audit Details:** The audit log displays the entered moderation reason, log entry ID, moderator UID, date/time of moderation, spam flag value, and CID.
- **Current Values Displayed:** The fields shown for comment and redacts show the current values, not the ones at the time of flagging. If the hold period has expired, the comment text is shown minus any redactions, along with the redaction regexes. If still within the hold period, a message indicates the remaining hold time.

### Impact of the Hold Timer in Comment Audits

1. **Hold Timer Not Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer has expired.
- **Impact:** The comment text is displayed in full, minus any redactions specified by the regex fields. The redaction regexes used are also shown.

2. **Hold Timer Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is still active.
- **Impact:** The comment text is replaced with a message indicating how long the comment will be held. The redaction regexes are not shown during this period.

3. **Hold Timer Active with High Security Level (Seclev > 100):**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is active, but the user has a high security level.
- **Impact:** The comment text is shown minus any redactions, similar to when the hold timer is not active. Additionally, the redaction regexes are displayed, and an extra field indicates when the hold will expire.

By understanding these scenarios, users can better interpret the information provided by the Get Comment Audits feature and the status of comments under moderation. This ensures transparency and clarity in the moderation process.

**Purpose:**
- **Transparency:** Users can see every invocation of the flag comment action, promoting transparency in moderation practices.
- **Detailed Information:** Provides comprehensive details about each moderation action, including the reason and the current status of the comment.

By integrating these features, the platform aims to enhance moderation capabilities while maintaining transparency and accountability. The Flag Comment API Call and Get Comment Audits work together to ensure that comments are managed effectively, with clear records of all actions taken. This approach not only helps in maintaining community standards but also builds trust among users by providing visibility into the moderation process.
</markdown>

Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-04T19:24:00Z

Admin:

<markdown>
### Enhancing Moderation with the Flag Comment API and Comment Audit Features

In the ever-evolving landscape of online content moderation, maintaining a balance between free expression and community standards is crucial. To address this, a new feature has been introduced: the **Flag Comment API Call**. This tool is designed to empower administrative users with high security levels to manage comments more effectively and in full support of website policy.

### API Examples

**Comment Audit Feature:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=get_comments_audit&cid=&limit=
```

**Flagging a Comment:**
```
https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=admin&op=flag_spam&cid=31675&spam_flag=1&mod_reason=test%20for%20jan&redacts=%28%3F%3C%3Dtest%20of%20%29.%2A%3F%28%3F%3D%20This%20is%20only%20a%29
```

**Suggested Regex Strings:**
- `(?<=before ).*?(?= after)`
When applied to "this is before and this is after," results in "this is before ########### after."

#### Flag Comment API Call

**Key Features:**
- **Administrative Access Only:** This feature is restricted to users with high security levels, ensuring that only authorized personnel can flag comments.
- **Toggle Flag:** Administrators can set a flag on a comment to either "on" or "off." When flagged "on," the comment is hidden and replaced with placeholder text. When flagged "off," the original comment is restored.
- **Audit Logging:** Every invocation of the flagging action is logged in the `comment_audit` table, capturing the time, moderator, and reason for the action.
- **Reason and Redaction:** The API call requires a reason for flagging and can optionally include regex fields for redacting specific parts of the comment.

**Impact on Comments:**
- **Visibility:** Flagged comments are hidden from view and replaced with placeholder text. Once the flag is removed, the original comment becomes visible again.
- **No Other Modifications:** The flagging action does not affect other website functionalities.

**Redaction Usage Context:**
- **Common Practice:** While flagging a comment is envisioned to be common practice within the site policy and framework, redaction is not anticipated for routine moderation and thus an ancillary concern. Instead, it is envisioned for the removal of severe violations such as CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) or doxxing.

#### Complementary Feature: Get Comment Audits

To enhance transparency and accountability, the **Get Comment Audits** feature has been introduced. This feature allows all users to access the audit logs of flagged comments.

**Key Features:**
- **Public Access:** Available to all users via the provided API endpoint.
- **Hold Timer:** A hold timer is calculated for each comment ID (CID). This timer is set to 24 hours after the last entry in the `comment_audit` table for that CID, regardless of the flag status. During this hold period, the comment text is not shown.
- **Audit Details:** The audit log displays the entered moderation reason, log entry ID, moderator UID, date/time of moderation, spam flag value, and CID.
- **Current Values Displayed:** The fields shown for comment and redacts show the current values, not the ones at the time of flagging. If the hold period has expired, the comment text is shown minus any redactions, along with the redaction regexes. If still within the hold period, a message indicates the remaining hold time.

### Impact of the Hold Timer in Comment Audits

1. **Hold Timer Not Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer has expired.
- **Impact:** The comment text is displayed in full, minus any redactions specified by the regex fields. The redaction regexes used are also shown.

2. **Hold Timer Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is still active.
- **Impact:** The comment text is replaced with a message indicating how long the comment will be held. The redaction regexes are not shown during this period.

3. **Hold Timer Active with High Security Level (Seclev > 100):**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is active, but the user has a high security level.
- **Impact:** The comment text is shown minus any redactions, similar to when the hold timer is not active. Additionally, the redaction regexes are displayed, and an extra field indicates when the hold will expire.

By understanding these scenarios, users can better interpret the information provided by the Get Comment Audits feature and the status of comments under moderation. This ensures transparency and clarity in the moderation process.

**Purpose:**
- **Transparency:** Users can see every invocation of the flag comment action, promoting transparency in moderation practices.
- **Detailed Information:** Provides comprehensive details about each moderation action, including the reason and the current status of the comment.

By integrating these features, the platform aims to enhance moderation capabilities while maintaining transparency and accountability. The Flag Comment API Call and Get Comment Audits work together to ensure that comments are managed effectively, with clear records of all actions taken. This approach not only helps in maintaining community standards but also builds trust among users by providing visibility into the moderation process.
</markdown>

Feature: Administrative Moderation

2024-12-04T19:15:21Z

Admin: Created page with "<markdown> ### Enhancing Moderation with the Flag Comment API and Comment Audit Features In the ever-evolving landscape of online content moderation, maintaining a balance between free expression and community standards is crucial. To address this, a new feature has been introduced: the **Flag Comment API Call**. This tool is designed to empower administrative users with high security levels to manage comments more effectively and in full support of website policy. ###..."

<markdown>
### Enhancing Moderation with the Flag Comment API and Comment Audit Features

In the ever-evolving landscape of online content moderation, maintaining a balance between free expression and community standards is crucial. To address this, a new feature has been introduced: the **Flag Comment API Call**. This tool is designed to empower administrative users with high security levels to manage comments more effectively and in full support of website policy.

#### Flag Comment API Call

**Key Features:**
- **Administrative Access Only:** This feature is restricted to users with high security levels, ensuring that only authorized personnel can flag comments.
- **Toggle Flag:** Administrators can set a flag on a comment to either "on" or "off." When flagged "on," the comment is hidden and replaced with placeholder text. When flagged "off," the original comment is restored.
- **Audit Logging:** Every invocation of the flagging action is logged in the `comment_audit` table, capturing the time, moderator, and reason for the action.
- **Reason and Redaction:** The API call requires a reason for flagging and can optionally include regex fields for redacting specific parts of the comment.

**Impact on Comments:**
- **Visibility:** Flagged comments are hidden from view and replaced with placeholder text. Once the flag is removed, the original comment becomes visible again.
- **No Other Modifications:** The flagging action does not affect other website functionalities.

#### Complementary Feature: Get Comment Audits

To enhance transparency and accountability, the **Get Comment Audits** feature has been introduced. This feature allows all users to access the audit logs of flagged comments.

**Key Features:**
- **Public Access:** Available to all users via the provided API endpoint.
- **Hold Timer:** A hold timer is calculated for each comment ID (CID). This timer is set to 24 hours after the last entry in the `comment_audit` table for that CID, regardless of the flag status. During this hold period, the comment text is not shown.
- **Audit Details:** The audit log displays the entered moderation reason, log entry ID, moderator UID, date/time of moderation, spam flag value, and CID.
- **Current Values Displayed:** The fields shown for comment and redacts show the current values, not the ones at the time of flagging. If the hold period has expired, the comment text is shown minus any redactions, along with the redaction regexes. If still within the hold period, a message indicates the remaining hold time.

### Impact of the Hold Timer in Comment Audits

1. **Hold Timer Not Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer has expired.
- **Impact:** The comment text is displayed in full, minus any redactions specified by the regex fields. The redaction regexes used are also shown.

2. **Hold Timer Active:**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is still active.
- **Impact:** The comment text is replaced with a message indicating how long the comment will be held. The redaction regexes are not shown during this period.

3. **Hold Timer Active with High Security Level (Seclev > 100):**
- **Scenario:** The hold timer is active, but the user has a high security level.
- **Impact:** The comment text is shown minus any redactions, similar to when the hold timer is not active. Additionally, the redaction regexes are displayed, and an extra field indicates when the hold will expire.

By understanding these scenarios, users can better interpret the information provided by the Get Comment Audits feature and the status of comments under moderation. This ensures transparency and clarity in the moderation process.

**Purpose:**
- **Transparency:** Users can see every invocation of the flag comment action, promoting transparency in moderation practices.
- **Detailed Information:** Provides comprehensive details about each moderation action, including the reason and the current status of the comment.

By integrating these features, the platform aims to enhance moderation capabilities while maintaining transparency and accountability. The Flag Comment API Call and Get Comment Audits work together to ensure that comments are managed effectively, with clear records of all actions taken. This approach not only helps in maintaining community standards but also builds trust among users by providing visibility into the moderation process.
</markdown>

API Example: Python

2024-12-04T16:48:51Z

Admin: Created page with "<pre> import requests # URL and parameters for login login_url = 'https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=auth&op=login' login_payload = { 'nick': 'replic8tor', 'pass': 'apassword' } # Post the JSON payload to the login URL response = requests.post(login_url, json=login_payload) print(response) # Check if the login request was successful if response.status_code == 200: # Extract the cookie from the response cookie = response.cookies.get_dict() print(f'..."

<pre>
import requests

# URL and parameters for login
login_url = 'https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl?m=auth&op=login'
login_payload = {
'nick': 'replic8tor',
'pass': 'apassword'
}

# Post the JSON payload to the login URL
response = requests.post(login_url, json=login_payload)
print(response)
# Check if the login request was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
# Extract the cookie from the response
cookie = response.cookies.get_dict()
print(f'Successfully logged in. Cookie: {cookie}')

# URL and parameters for the subsequent API call
subsequent_url = 'https://dev.soylentnews.org/api.pl'
subsequent_params = {
'redacts': '(?<=test of ).*?(?= This is only a)',
'm': 'admin',
'op': 'flag_spam',
'cid': '31675',
'spam_flag': '1',
'mod_reason': 'test for jan'
}

# Make the subsequent API call with the cookie
subsequent_response = requests.get(subsequent_url, params=subsequent_params, cookies=cookie)

# Check if the subsequent request was successful
if subsequent_response.status_code == 200:
print('Successfully made subsequent API call.')
print(subsequent_response.json())
else:
print(f'Failed to make subsequent API call. Status code: {subsequent_response.status_code}')
else:
print(f'Failed to log in. Status code: {response.status_code}')
</pre>

Updates

2024-12-04T05:20:05Z

Admin: Admin moved page Updates to Historic:Updates

#REDIRECT [[Historic:Updates]]

Historic:Updates

2024-12-04T05:20:05Z

Admin: Admin moved page Updates to Historic:Updates

{{archival}}
Below is an archive of updates surrounding the initial launch of the main site.

==Updates==

'''2014-02-18 16:33 UTC:''' Taking a break (Feb 18, 2014 11:26AM EST)

This is largely a duplicate of a status further down.

I'm putting together a manifesto and vision statement to answer everyone's questions regarding the future of the project. Briefly, the community will choose all aspects of the project including the business model.

I'm planning on first giving the community the opportunity to choose a permanent name, then the business model, then I'll start implementing the model (incorporating or whatever) while we sort out the rest of the issues.

I have warmed to the notion of non-profit, and would like to set before the community a list of notes and observations to provoke discussion. I'm hoping to write this coming week and publish by next week or the week after. (Still lots of things to do!)

I'm not able to follow all the threads or forums, so if anyone asks, please pass this along.

I've asked the system developers to '''take a break''' for at least a week. People are tired, and if we don't let people slow down we'll lose them (this has already happened). Maybe some light bug fixing if you feel up to it, but otherwise I want people to be rested.

Let's let the editorial team find their stride, everyone get everyone familiar with the system, and pick up on it in about a week.

Regarding development, it's always been the plan to do things properly: install good infrastructure, have testbed systems for debug and research, and have people who coordinate and curate the process. It's hard to choose commanders from a pool of 60 people who you only know by E-mail and have just met. We've been lucky so far, but I still don't have overlords for dev and style.

Also of note, ''I'm'' tired and was hoping to coast along with dev. I'm addressing individual registration issues at a leisurely pace, so if you've E-mailed a problem it'll get done eventually.

--John Barrabas John (at) SoylentNews (dot) org

'''2014-02-17 20:44 UTC:''' I'm correcting problems. (Feb 17, 3:44PM EST)

I'm correcting individual registration problems when I can. My plan is to address wide-reaching issues first, then hand-fix problems on an individual level to get everyone going.

We're getting an SSL cert, which should eliminate the "Untrusted" popups. The cert process can take up to 24 hours.

We've installed an SPF record in the zone file, which should prevent your provider from flagging registration E-mails as spam. Check the spam filter rules in your individual readers to see if they need adjusting.

Of roughly 900 users so far I have registration errors from less than 10, so we're doing pretty well for first rollout in such a big project. Teething problems.

-- John

'''2014-02-17 06:23 UTC:''' We're up and running! (Feb 17, 1:23AM EST)

Soylentils rejoice! And welcome to SoylentNews.org - we done went live!

We deliver the best community-sourced news for nerds. A grassroots platform powered by submissions from our readers, we draw attention to those stories on the web which are important to everyone - especially nerds. We also provide a soapbox for discussion, allowing the
community to comment without mandatory registration.

We are mindful of community sentiment, and do not bend to overreaching corporate agenda. We want to be your source for news about technology, art, science and politics.

We are the new kid on the block and are adapting quickly to satisfy our community's needs. We look forward to exceeding your expectations and pushing the boundaries of web experience. And we will make no changes without community support.

Thank you everyone for your help and support! It's been a long, arduous, frustrating effort, but the rewards are definitely worth it.

...and we're ''not done yet''!

----

'''2014-02-16 22:57 UTC:''' Adding MX records (Feb 16, 5:57PM EST)

I am adding new MX records to the zone file in preparation for first launch. Mail may be unavailable for a few minutes (the TTL is 30 min). If you get E-mail bounce messages, please try again in an hour or so.

--John Barrabas

'''2014-02-16 13:32 UTC:''' Reposted from the site:

So, since this site went up three days ago, we've made tremendous progress in getting this site up and functional, and many of you gone above and beyond to try and give us content and provide meaningful comments. I'm completely blown away to say the least. I've got some big news to share, and a list of site improvements made over the last few days. Read on for more details ...

Moderation: IT WORKS! I finished implementing the algorithm last night, and purging slash of the old one so they won't conflict. The new algorithm is somewhat of a radical departure from the old one. I won't go into full details in this post, but there's a good write-up in my comments here.

Comment Counts: Got these working (again). ACs will only see a static HTML page which is updated every once in awhile. Logged-in users get the dynamic index which should have up-to-date counts. The fix is a bit wonky, so it might snap again. Let me know ASAP as the moderation scripts depend on this number being present (and correct!)

Theme: As you may have noticed, the site looks less ass. Due to the heroic efforts of audioguy, Paul, and others, we've gotten a steady stream of CSS fixes to make the site look and feel more consistent. Its not perfect (Firefox still has width issues), but its a fair improvement. This is one of the last major launch blockers

Topics: Finally got them implemented after we snapped the site in two last night. For the moment, they're all sharing the same icon, so it seems kinda unimpressive, but hopefully we'll have the art assets sometime soon to get them in place. Editors will notice I updated the labels to make them a bit clearer; two important notes on this: For an article to show up you MUST have "The Main Page" in the topic list (slash will complain if you don't have it).

Signoff Requirements: A new feature of SoylentNews requires that editors must have a peer sign-off an article before it can be displayed to the world. Slash has some limited support for this, and I got it working last night. For editors, stories are now marked in red and state "unsigned" on the index if only one person has edited it. Right now, this check is not enforced, but I plan to hopefully address that soon. For the moment, editors can future date and use the buddy system to get things checked off properly so we can have consistent formatting and quality.

Other Changes: I stripped out some of the dead features that I probably won't have time to fix before launch like OpenID login, and fixed the admin spellchecker. I also have a couple of ideas to get varnish going I need to bounce off Robin.

-- NCommander

'''2014-02-16 04:40 UTC:''' Expanded Alpha (Feb 15, 11:40PM EST)

We are expanding our alpha test to 100 users (from 70) over the next 24 hours. Stay alert for ways to get in on the action! Check the IRC Channel for details! ##altshashdot on freenode.net I am passing out about 2-3 approximately every hour.

-- Mattie_p.

'''2014-02-16 04:26 UTC:''' The plan is coming (Feb 15, 2014 11:26PM EST)

I'm putting together a manifesto to answer everyone's questions regarding the future of the project. Briefly, the community will choose all aspects of the project including the business model.

I'm planning on first giving the community the opportunity to choose a permanent name, then the business model, then I'll start implementing the model (incorporating or whatever) while we sort out the rest of the issues.

I have warmed to the notion of non-profit, and would like to set before the community a list of notes and observations to provoke discussion. I'm hoping to write this coming week and publish by Friday next or the Monday after.

I'm not able to follow all the threads or forums, so if anyone asks, please pass this along.

--John Barrabas John (at) SoylentNews (dot) org

'''2014-02-15 17:30 UTC:''' Alpha Test (Feb 15, 2014 12:30PM EST)

Greetings, fellow Soylentils. As of right now, we have 20 articles posted on the alpha test site and about 60 registered users, who have produced over 150 comments so far. We're slowly increasing the number of Alphans on a daily basis. The best way to get invited is to participate somewhere, either in the forums, the IRC (##altslashdot on freenode.net), or on the wiki page. Contribute articles via the forum. Make suggestions. Etc. Anyway, I'd ask everyone to carefully read the [[Alpha_Bugs|Alpha Bugs]] page, particularly the Introduction to Alpha, it will give you information that will help you become an Alphan. Thanks for reading. --Mattie_p

'''2014-02-14 09:50 UTC:''' Status (Feb 14, 2014 4:50AM EST)

Started mod system rework. Here's my writeup on thoughts from the test site:

As the to-do list of tasks continues to be whittled bit by bit towards launch, one large item remains: distribution of moderation points. While I wish I could reuse the existing Slash code, the fact is that this code is completely inappropriate for a site smaller than Slashdot. So, I've been working with a couple of users in chat to rework the underlying math so that mod point distribution actually works in a reasonable way. If you're interested in the potential algorithm behind this, read on. Be warned, it is a bit dry and technical.

The current thoughts are that slash should enforce that a specific number of mod points must ALWAYS be in circulation, and in the hands of our potential moderators. Without going into too much detail, we're running off the assumption that the total number of moderations applied in an article should approximately equal the number of comments. To account for inactive users and for the constant flow of new articles/comments, twice as many mod points will be distributed.
Have I lost you yet? To reiterate, two mod points must exist for every comment in active articles. As far as problems go, having too many mod points in circulation is far preferable to too few. If you don't understand why, I recommend trying to find +5 posts on other slash sites like Slashdot Japan or BarraPunto.

Here's an example:
Assuming that we have two articles with approximately 200 comments each, that means we need to have 800 points in circulation. However, if we stuck with the old Slashdot method of 5 points to a user, we'd end up needing to have 80 people read an article and not comment on it. Obviously, that's not going to work, and as we have more articles/comments, that number will only increase.

Instead, we'll limit the number of moderators to approximately 30% of active accounts who haven't moderated relatively recently. In this context, active means that you have logged in within the last 5 days. The process_moderators script will calculate how many mod points are currently in circulation, how many need to be in circulation, and how many, if any, it needs to add to the pool. It then looks at the list of eligible moderators, selects 30% of them, and hands them out. To prevent moderation fatigue, we'll cap the maximum number of points a user can receive, and by the same logic, also set a minimum. I don't know about you, but I'd be a little annoyed if I found I had gotten a whopping 1 whole mod point.

This should allow a relatively fluid system, and I hope, allow us to have something very similar to the moderation system we've all grown to love. I'm open to suggestions or even radically different ideas on how to improve this below.
[[User:NCommander|NCommander]] ([[User talk:NCommander|talk]])

'''2014-02-14 02:50 UTC:''' Status (Feb 13, 2014 9:00PM EST)

We just modified the DNS a little. It'll take awhile for the changes to propagate through the net. I bumped the TTL down to 30 minutes (from 3 hours), so future changes should go pretty fast. There may be some intermittent problems for a short while.

We're not going live ''just'' yet, but we're comfortable letting more people in. Slowly I turned, step by step...

NCommander installed FusionForge on the dev site. It comes with MediaWiki (the same package as this), forum software, project management, and integrated bug tracking. It's pretty nice. It's the same package that runs SourceForge, so it'll be familiar to many people.

There's not a lot of discussion on the forums about which bug tracker to use, so absent any wailing and gnashing-of-teeth, I'd like to go with his choice. If people don't like this, start a protest and we'll talk.

'''2014-02-13 18:08 UTC:''' Status (Feb 13, 2014 1:08PM EST)

NCommander, our chief architect and hero, who has been putting in marathon days since Friday, is taking a much-needed "mental health day". We are idling in test mode (a few editors, the systems team, the alpha-test group) for at least a day while people catch their breath.

Varnish, our web accelerator, is not passing site cookies back to the user so we've disabled it for now. This means that the site is working, just not able to handle any sort of high-traffic load.

It's been pointed out that the wiki is a bad place to manage bugs. I agree completely, but for the first day it tends to avoid duplicates and it was only for a day or so anyway.

There's been some discussion among the ''system'' group (about a dozen people) about bug trackers, but that decision should really come from the ''dev'' team (30 or more, on the forum). The dev team should start discussing what they'd like to see for bug tracking on the forums. I'll monitor the thread and take consensus opinion (if there is one), or make an executive decision.

Please keep in mind the full scope of project bug tracking. System has suggested bug tracking be split into two sections - a mantis install, easy and user-friendly, used for overall site issues, and GitHub for technical issues which might be more appropriate for engineering bugs. Also, we intend to release the code open-source, so GitHub could field technical issues from other sites using our interface.

Food for thought.

'''2014-02-13 05:33 UTC:''' Status (Feb 13, 2014 12:33AM EST)

A select few editors, dev, and system types are working through the system finding bugs. User registration works, there are stories on the front page, comments and replies. A screenshot of testing from last night is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52836172/2014-02-13-SN-aplha.png

We could use a temporary bug tracking system that's easily accessible by the users (ie - not requiring onerous registration). Can anyone hook us up?
: How about "Bug:" namespace here on wiki? [[User:Yahwotqa|Yahwotqa]] ([[User talk:Yahwotqa|talk]]) 00:45, 13 February 2014 (MST) <=== Done
:: If you expect more reports, I suggest using something structured like [[Template:Bug]] (example use in [[Bug:Testbug]]). Expand the template however you see fit. :) [[User:Yahwotqa|Yahwotqa]] ([[User talk:Yahwotqa|talk]]) 02:07, 13 February 2014 (MST)
::: Technically, this solution still requires registration (since anonymous editing is disabled on the wiki), and I don't think it would be able to handle some usual features of bug trackers like being able to list issues and filter them by stuff like their status. [[User:FunPika|Fun]][[User_Talk:FunPika|Pika]] 04:22, 13 February 2014 (MST)
:::: I created a [[Bug tracker]] page for figuring out what we want to do. [[User:FunPika|Fun]][[User_Talk:FunPika|Pika]] 05:23, 13 February 2014 (MST)
: Why temporary? We should just get a proper bug tracker in place then even in the future when someone notices a quirk they can report it. One of the big issues with /. was people were constantly complaining about bugs with no way to tell if they were being addressed. How long were people complaining about unicode support? [[User:Vanderhoth|Vanderhoth]]

: ''Later we want to have recommendations and properly choose a system that's well suited. At present, we don't want to spend time on things not directly related to bringing the system up. -John''

E-mail me: John (at) SoylentNews (dot) org

'''2014-02-13 02:40 UTC:''' Status (Feb 12, 2014 9:40PM EST)

Freenode is complaining "Server is full" and not letting me into chat, so this is a '''guess status''' :-)

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help test the system this evening. At the last minute, the team found a nest of bugs that effectively broke the moderation system, so testing was put off until 10:PM EST, and then later was put off until Thu.

* Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it himself.
* Any project can be estimated accurately once it’s completed.
* The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
* A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected
* A well planned project only twice as long as expected.
* Schedules are made to be broken
* Work expands to fill the Time. Cost expands to meet the Budget.
* The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time. The last 10% takes the other 90%.
* The only certainty in a project is uncertainty
* On time, on budget, on spec – pick 2.

'''2014-02-12 13:24 UTC:''' Status (Feb, 12 2014 8:24 EST)

'''WE HAVE A FIRST POST'''

From the site:
I know its been a long wait, but we've been steadily moving towards launch. With luck, you're reading this on the main index of the site, which means we've gone, and haven't gone mad in the process. Now that we're here, we hope to have made the wait worth it, but we depend on everyone in the community. To make this site a success, we depend on each and every single user even if its just from passing word of mouth. Remember, every single user can submit stories, moderate, and contribute to discussions all at the same time, and that's what makes us unique. May I be the first to welcome you to your new home.

[[http://imgbin.org/index.php?page=image&id=16708]]

'''2014-02-11 20:01 UTC:''' Status (Feb 11, 2014 3:01PM EST)

We have a working system, and two people fixing the CSS (sadly, none for sphinx). As far as I can tell, we're trying to get the high-bandwidth aspects of the site running: Varnish, MySQL configuration options, and such. We want the system to be able to withstand a tsunami of visitors 10 meters high.

The system team has been working around the clock to get things running, and I mean that literally. I have to as-much-as order people to break off at night and go to bed. They *really* want to see this thing work. Send them some love in chat if you can.

Note that these are not "deadlines", nor do I particularly care if we miss them: We're reporting when we "predict" things will be ready. The first 90% of the project is done, now we're working on the remaining 90%.

Stand by for launch...

P.S. - Check out the logo

'''2014-02-11 17:01 UTC:''' Need some sphinx help (Feb 11, 2014 12:01PM EST)

We still need [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_(search_engine) sphinx (search engine)]
expertise, so if you are familiar with this package, please E-mail me:

If you want to send the project lead a message: John (at) SoylentNews (dot) org

'''Quick Update:'''

* We upgraded the hosting by two tiers
* The System team is working on installing SlashCode. They are busting their collective tails to get this site up for us. Hopefylly, soon!
* This *might* be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.

Talk:TodoList

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gpl2

On the topic of team collaboration, where is everyone based? It would be fun and potentially helpful to have a map with pins in each of the countries or timezones represented by the staff. With that background information, you can use a tool like xkcd's comic 1335 to find advantageous meeting times between staff. In the near term, while the site is still getting up on its feet, meeting as a full team at least weekly seems like a good way to keep everyone in sync, motivated, and raise issues before they become catastrophic. Team leaders can also contribute mightily to coordination in between the all hands meetings. [[User:AnonymousCoward|AnonymousCoward]] 4:55 14 March 2014 (UTC)

TodoList

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{{archival}}
This is a todo list of items that currently don't fall under any Teams or Strike-teams. Visit the '''[[TeamPages|Team Pages]]''' for Team-related information.

==Staff Organization==
*TOS and Privacy Policy
*Setup Not-For-Profit

*Regular status updates with key leaders
*password sharing, multi-factor protection
**truecrypt files
**[http://point-at-infinity.org/ssss/ ssss Secret Sharing] was suggested

==Business/Legal==
*Solicit legal advice:
**Requirements for keeping logs of user activity
**How to respond to DMCA takedown requests
**Identify the legal (copyright?) implications of cross-posting (reposting stories posted elsewhere)
*Incorporation Model-dependent items:
**Marketing - Do we do it? how do we do it?
**Ads?
*social media, do we want to pursue it? who? How?

To do

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{{archival}}
This appears to be archival, '''check: [[TodoList]] or [[Development]]''' instead.

[[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)?
::Why can't we have an advertising cookie with things we are in the market for? I.e. if I'm in the market for a computer, I see computer-related ads. If I opt out, then I don't see any ads. An interest-centric (not user centric) cookie. <=='''+1 Insightful'''
:::OK, this is brilliant and adds agency to a necessary evil, should seriously consider trying something like this.
* 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

The Slashcott

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'''The Slashcott (boycott) is getting attention'''

* Show your support for the "Get rid of Beta" crowd by avoiding Slashdot during the week of February 10-17
* Slashcott, Week 2, officially begins Monday, February 17th, 2014 and runs through the 23rd.

:A selection of Slashcott/Beta comments from around the web.......

::* http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/slashdots-new-interface-could-kill-what-keeps-slashdot-relevant/ <=== Nice article by Ars
::* http://spallshurgenson.blogspot.com/2014/02/tragedy-of-commons-redesigning-social.html <=== A good summary of the situation
::* https://community.republicwireless.com/thread/23151 <== "How not to treat your community"
::* http://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2014/02/biting-hand-feeds-less-boycotting-slashdot-org-1-week
::* http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/442346-trouble-at-slashdot
::* http://beta.slashdot.org/submission/3326505 <== "The Individual Midnight Thread"

Synced servers

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{{archival}}
Altslashdot would be run on a number of independent web servers, which would utilise some syncing protocol in order to serve exact copies. The syncing would likely be cheap, because the number of such servers would be substantially smaller that the number of users.

The possibility of running a server would be open, in a hope, that a relatively large number of these would eventually be created. "Hub" sites might exist, that would redirect to the least--loaded servers.

Beside sharing hosting cost, the architecture would enable the exclusion of a rogue server.

== Comments ==
I'm no programmer, but isn't this how USENET worked?

Yes, it is similar, but we would need much more than Usenet, like safe user base and moderation. And it all would need to be tunneled through corporate firewalls, which often allow only web traffic.

:USENET was a great way to distribute postings, but it had the flaw that every USENET provider had to carry copies of all the messages for all hosted groups, leading to a lot of redundancy and a huge bandwidth burden syncing updates every day. If I were doing USENET today, I'd have designated "home" servers for each group, with all other servers caching updates for subscribers. [[User:Mfnickster|Mfnickster]] ([[User talk:Mfnickster|talk]])

Stories from former Slashdot users

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[[Confessions of an Ex-Slashdot Beta User]]

[[Banned from Slashdot]]

[[Dice is killing Slashdot]]

SiteTopic

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This is a short discussion regarding the "Topics" in slashcode.

As is stands now OldSlashdot has the following categories on the front page.
*'''Ask Slashdot'''

*'''Book Reviews'''

*'''Games'''

*'''Idle'''

*'''YRO'''

*'''Cloud'''

*'''Hardware'''

*'''Linux'''
** perhaps we should add a Windows and OSX category as well or just call this Operating Systems. I'm a Linux user at home, but it seems one sided to have only a category for Linux. We should try to be unbiased when possible.

*'''Management'''

*'''Mobile'''

*'''Science'''

*'''Security'''

*'''Storage'''

Is this the same format people would want on a new site? Expand the list, or focus more on fewer categories?
Combine where possible (i.e. Storage and Cloud may fit in some larger category ??)
Additions:
* Alternative Energy
* General Current events ?
* Developers
* Digital Currency/Bitcoin? - is anybody really interested in Bitcoin as much as the /. editors seem to be?
** Seems to be a bit of a buzz around this. Just like someone above said, maybe these "subject of the day" things can be combined in to a single category. Things like Cryptocurrency, Cloud, etc.
* Making ?

SignificantNumbers

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Numbers significant to geek culture:

*2600: 2600 hertz, the tone used by a blue box to gain control of telephone networks
*1337: "leet speak" for "elite"
*6667
*42
*23
*22
*80
*119
*cat /etc/services: ... obviously =)

Request for update on Slashcode

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{{archival}}
Thread archived from [http://forums.soylentnews.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11 forums]:
<hr>
'''Applesmasher''': Anyone who is currently working on getting slashcode running - can you let us know what you have discovered in terms of tricks, gotchas and prerequisites?

This information will help the systems side get the server ready to roll by Monday.
<hr>
'''mbadolato''': I got Slashcode up and running 2 years ago. I do still have the VM I used (on VMWare Fusion) and I ran it last night. The site loads but it is very problematic. Links simply don't work (404s), some pages don't render correctly (Apache error directives when loading assets), etc. I didn't do much with it when I got it set up, other than look around a bit at the parts that would work. There was a lot of borkage.

From an email I sent to John yesterday:

1) It needs mod_perl 1.x and apache 1.x. I think I just grabbed a copy of Debian 6 as those older packages were still easily supported there. They may be installable on more modern versions but I'm not as familiar with Linux distros (I use FreeBSD, and there were a ton of issues getting them running on a modern FreeBSD distro).

2) The slashcode distribution had issues. Like you said, it hasn't been updated since 2009. And even at that, I'm not entirely sure what state it's in. I got the default site up and displaying, but some links, pages, functions etc, simply did not work (i.e., click a button to do something and nothing happens (no page reload, no new page, no form, etc). Could be javascript issues, I didn't research). There were also problems with the SQL file, as it was written for older versions of MySQL. I did manage to update it for MySQL 5.5 and got the data loaded.

I just uploaded the distribution with my changes to github. Again, I didn't do much, just some basics to get slashcode installed and running. I don't recall details about the install other than going through their readme etc. I do recall asking CmdrTaco a question about the admin backend, but he wasn't really able to help.

The distribution is at https://github.com/Cybernox/slashcode and the development branch is where my few minor changes are. Feel free to grab it to have a starting point for the MySQL stuff at least.

<img src="http://i59.tinypic.com/sdmfm0.png" /> 
''Running code on my vm, taken last night''
<hr>
'''applesmasher''': That's better than a kick in the teeth, anyway.

Could you identify any particular reason that those ancient versions of the environment code were required? Anything we could work around or fix?
<hr>
'''mbadolato''': The code is built around mod_perl 1. It's been a while since I've done any dev in a mod_perl environment, but IIRC, the transition between v1 and v2 (and likewise the changes required for apache v1 vs v2) would require code changes. I could be mistaken, however. I have not looked at the code enough to know how simple or difficult it would be, nor do I have any recent work with mod_perl to remember what is entailed
<hr>
'''applesmasher''': Maybe hitting the target of Monday will be acceptable on version 1, with a high severity bug for an upgrade.

Thoughts?
<hr>
'''Vanderhoth''':
<blockquote>Thoughts?</blockquote>
AHHHH!!!!! **Throws laptop across the room** 
Stupid Slashcode!!
<hr>
'''neaqix''': <blockquote>applesmasher wrote:
Maybe hitting the target of Monday will be acceptable on version 1, with a high severity bug for an upgrade.

Thoughts?</blockquote>
The problem is, the Monday release will be heavily visited and lots of people will make a first impression out of it.

Also news sites might make a small bubble out of it, with some sensationalistic headline of course.

Perhaps it should not run in Perl at all and we should pick some other software and adapt it? I am not thinking about anything that could fit right now...but I'd rather use a mockup built overnight than go with some tremendously broken software on Monday
<hr>
'''applesmasher''': I think that people returning will be driven by the quality of the stories and editing.

As long as we do a good job on that, some code breakage will be forgiven.
<hr>
'''neaqix''': <blockquote>applesmasher wrote:
I think that people returning will be driven by the quality of the stories and editing.

As long as we do a good job on that, some code breakage will be forgiven</blockquote>
Yep. I checked the demo, looks promising
<hr>
'''lukeshep''': Hi there, just shout if testers are needed, I'm sure there are a bunch of interested lurkers who know how to file a proper bug report. Harness us!

Good luck

[[Category:Archived forum threads]]
[[Category:Development]]

PureContent

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{{archival}}
== Synopsis ==

A central site would handle content, but would not distribute it massively as HTML. Instead, a streamlined "pure content" would be provided to a number of web servers, which would "skin" the content with whatever they would like. The servers might compete with their skins, but they might also put ads if they would wish. Anyway, it would be the users, which would decide which web server to choose.

In this way, the cost of running the central server would be reduced, and the main cost - bandwidth and HTML generation, would be distributed to the community.

== Technology ==
Dedicated protocols would likely be the most efficient ones, when it comes to minimising costs of running the central site.

The central site would need to provide full contents of a story '''only''' to a "new" server. Then, only diffs, in the form of e.g. single moderations and comments, would suffice.

The central site would be obliged to provide regular dumps, so that it could be replaced, if users vote to do so. The dumps might be made from scratch only e.g. once a month. Then, only differential dumps would be made, only e.g. once a day.

== Costs ==
The cost or running the central server would likely me minimal. A single moderation per second and a single comment each 10 seconds probably indicate quite a busy site, yet in terms of CPU and bandwidth usage, such values are almost negligible.

The dumps might be mirrored, for further decrease of costs.

ProposedSolutionForTheCommunityPoll

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[[CommunicationSystems]] - parent

This is just a proposal, a starting place. It is meant to be amended as needed. IF you wish to amend it, put a comment at the end of this page with your name (and maybe a number) as a proposed amendment, in the form: change OLD TEXT to NEWTEXT. This way we can discuss the 'audioguy amendment 1' etc. and even vote on them if needed.

The problem roughly divides into two parts, which I think of as the 'Social Part' and the 'Technical Part' so these are dealt with separately.

== The Social Part ==
* We need to have peoples permission to email them for the voting. That permission will be obtained in this fashion:
** On Monday,SOMEDATE,UTC a notice on Soylent will go out that on Thursday,SOMEDATE,UTC a copy of the user database will be dumped.
** Anyone who has You/Preferences/Messages/DailyHeadlines set to to 'E-mail' at that time will be considered to have registered to vote and given their permission for us to email them ballots.
** Anyone who does NOT wish to participate should make sure their You/Preferences/Messages/DailyHeadlines is NOT set to E-mail on Thursday,SOMEDATE,UTC. After Thursday,SOMEDATE,UTC the preference can be set back to whatever is desired.

* A normal internal staff poll will be held for the name.
* The results of this poll will not be made public yet.
* The top five names in that poll will be reserved.
* The first stage community poll will go out (asking for submissions of names).
** What goes out as the proposed choice for this purpose will simply be the existing name.
* These names are collected, and the first poll is done on this list (which may be quite long).
* The results of that poll will be totaled, and the top five choices determined.
* The submitters of those top five choices will be contacted, and asked to provide a note promising to allow us to use the name.
* If the submitters have not already done so, we will reserve those names.
* The runoff poll will now go out to the community, but this time will include the top five choices of staff, and the top five choices of the community. (all already reserved by this point)
* At this point, the staff will have a second full vote on the same ten items the community voted on.
* The result of this vote, and the community vote, including its runoff, will then be published.
* The staff vote is the final decision. We have to live with this. But it is expected the community will have a powerful influence on the final staff vote.

== The Technical Part ==
* The existing staff poll code will be forked and installed under a new user, after at least one full test of the staff system is completed, to find any problems with the existing code.
* The database dump referred to earlier can be created from a simple script that selects the needed fields from the main db, and copies that over to the staff server for use.
* The system will, using that db, create an md5sum of the username, userid, useremail, passwordhash, and the specific poll id used (the one identified on the staff poll setup page as 'Poll Identifier'). This creates a unique user id that is non sequential, hard to guess, unique to each user, and unique to each poll.
* Code will be added to add the ability for the poll system to send each user a unique email (with their identifier, the md5sum mentioned above). I have code already which can be modified slightly for this purpose. It just reads through the database sends each email with its special id, taking the addreses and ids from the database.
* On the receiving end, procmail can be used to extract the user identifier from each email. Each email can then be saved under that identifier. This will prevent people from voting twice - each time an email is received it will overwrite any previous emails, so only the last will count. (All emails will also be copied elsewhere so they can be checked for cheaters later, if desired). This approach has the side benefit that it allows people who change their mind to do so, provided they do so before the votes are totaled.
* A check will be added so that any duplicates WITHIN the same email will also be dropped.
* A check will be added so that emails sent for the wrong phase will be dropped. (procmail)
* The code will be more heavily armored against badly formatted emails (I am already testing this).
* The regex will be tightened up to match, specifically, domain names for this particular poll. These follow a regular, predictable format.
* It is suggested that the names people submit all be under the .com first level domain, this will help remove dups. Alternately, this could be done in the code by strippimg off the endings. This would preclude the submission of 'cute' names like 'news.foryouand.me', however.
* The totalling etc should be pretty usable as is.
* Step '4. Send the first real poll out' will need to be split into two steps for the public poll. Currently it automatically grabs all the submitted poll questions, sorts and selects them, and immediately sends them out as the first poll. This is fine for small staff polls, but could be a disaster for polls with possibly hundreds or thousands of items. We need a break to do a quick manual check, 'just in case' so our computer does not send out 3000 'mistakes'. ;-)

=== Stuff requiring others help to make this happen ===

* Everyone needs to be signed up for the staff poll so that final testing can be done.
* It would be nice if we could use a virtual subdomain for this (easy for the users to remember). Needs to go into domain name. (I need to look up what was decided abou this earlier)
* If someone who is more up to date in their knowledge of mysql/sql could help with the database query, it would be faster than I could do it. (needs data from two tables, and one field may be a bitfield we need to extract a value from)
* The modifications to the vote sytem will need to be tested. Fortunately all the staff is also registered on the main site, so this can be done with this subset of users. Will need people to participate in a test poll or two.

== Proposed Amendments, Changes ==
(put your proposed changes here)

* After reading the editors discussion in staff list, I am feeling my original permission plan is flawed. This probably needs to be something that requires an active step by the user - the problem with the Daily headlines idea is that it is on by default. Looking at other possibilities.

* Attempt to use a tag in sig field aborted...
* NCommander added a checkbox to main site for this, yeah! Problem solved.

== Final Finished Plan ==

=== The Social Part (final) ===

* We need to have peoples permission to email them for the voting. That permission will be obtained in this fashion:
* A new checkbox has been created in the users section of the main site, called 'Willing to Vote'
* Users checking this box are indicating they wish to participate in the next vote, and giving us permission to email them the voting forms at the email address they used so sign up for the site.
** On Monday,SOMEDATE,UTC a notice on Soylent will go out that on Thursday,SOMEDATE,UTC a copy of the user database will be dumped.
** Anyone who has You/Preferences/Homepage/'Willing to Vote' checked at that time will be considered to have registered to vote and given their permission for us to email them ballots.
** Anyone who does NOT wish to participate should make sure this checkbox is unchecked. (It is off by default).
* A normal internal staff poll will be held for the name.
* The results of this poll will not be made public yet.
* The top five names in that poll will be reserved.

* The first stage community poll will go out (asking for submissions of names).
** What goes out as the proposed choice for this purpose will simply be the existing name.
* These names are collected, and the first poll is done on this list (which may be quite long).
* The results of that poll will be totaled, and the top five choices determined.
* The submitters of those top five choices will be contacted, and asked to provide a note promising to allow us to use the name.
* If the submitters have not already done so, we will reserve those names.
* The runoff poll will now go out to the community, but this time will include the top five choices of staff, and the top five choices of the community. (all already reserved by this point)
* At this point, the staff will have a second full vote on the same ten items the community voted on.
* The result of this vote, and the community vote, including its runoff, will then be published.
* The staff vote is the final decision. We have to live with this. But it is expected the community will have a powerful influence on the final staff vote.

* The time frames for each step will be three days plus a possible buffer day per step.
* The staff vote can happen at the same time as the community votes, these do not have to be sequential.

Original Content Proposal

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Historic:Original Content Proposal

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{{archival}}
Original Content Proposal by Dopefish

8/24/14

Hello everyone. As a quick sidebar, I realize that some of you are wondering where the heck I ran off to for the past few months. I was on a sabbatical from all Internet activities for the summer. I have since returned and am in the midst of moving house once again.

Enough about me. I just wanted to post to the wiki real quick with a general proposition to the editorial team for consideration. As a means to better compete with the other green site, I was hoping that we could embark on some original content in addition to the basic news aggregation that we carry out on a day to day basis. Personally, I've been itching to getting back to writing product reviews and opinion pieces on the state of technology (or other topics we might touch on, such as Science, Politics, etc.

I would want to see SN become a one-stop-shop type of site without adding any considerable level of bloat. One school of thought thinks it would be wise to keep SN as-is, but include a sister site containing the editorial pieces that we can create from time to time. However, such a hard seperation could prove cumbersome, with current visitors having to deal with yet another URL and content page. What would be preferable would be to interweave editorial bits along side with news we report on, albeit with a modified color tag or some other filterable designation so that, if the logged-in reader is so inclined, can collapse and expand the editorial section at will if he or she desires to have a more classic other green site experience.

'''EDIT: nexuses (aka "Sections") would likely solve above problem satisfactorily. They are an upcoming feature as soon as we obtain wildcard certs (waiting on incorp details)''' [[User:Mrcoolbp|mrcoolbp]] ([[User talk:Mrcoolbp|talk]]) 00:07, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

I propose this concept for two reasons. One, who doesn't like to write original content? It will be empowering and will help us to further engage in the community by providing salient information with opinions, advice and whatever else tied with it. But more importantly, I think the second reason would be to eliminate any editorializing on our news aggregation bits. One thing the other green site does a whole lot of is linking to a news story, then twisting details around just enough to encourage clickbait. If we can eliminate that but then give editors and contributors a place to write about various musings, it could help to draw that line about what is fact, and what is opinion.

If anyone has any ideas that could be applied towards this proposal to further it along for consideration, please let me know. I also would like to see what LaminatorX's thoughts would be on this and how we could work the logistics out to keep the site clean, informative and engaging. I wouldn't suggest contributors write about anything willy nilly, and there would be an approval queue for original content, much like there is for the linkback bits.

Thank you all for your interest and I look forward to your responses.

~Dopefish

On the old Is it Legal question

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{{archival}}
Thread archived from the [http://forums.soylentnews.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=61 forums]:
<hr>
'''Appalbarry''': Hi everyone, since this has come up a few times, here's what I've been trying to get across.

Regardless of whether you're talking Fair Use, or Copyright, or liability for what people post to the site, it's not enough to just say (with or without IANAL) that you believe that it is legal, or that you're not liable.

'''None of those things matter unless you can pay for the lawyers to fight for you.'''

Many years ago I (and the organization that I managed) was sued for libel. We were in the right, and the suit was dropped long, long before it went to court.

Despite that the legal bills ran to something like $50,000. For a frivolous suit that was abandoned.

We were lucky. We had insurance to pay the lawyers. If we didn't we would have had no choice but to bend over, take it up the butt, and apologize to a seriously slimey evil idiot.

I'll repeat, this is not a movie, and Matt Damon isn't going to handle the case for free for you like he does in the movies. If we wind up being sued we will need to either get a real lawyer or grovel and hope that that will be enough to make the problem go away.

Which is why it's really good business to be careful, err on the side of caution, and work very hard to not do stuff that could potentially get us into expensive trouble.

Again, it's not just a question of "Is it legal?" It's a question of "Can we afford the lawyers to fight the fight?"

Right now, and for the foreseeable future the answer is "No, we can't."
<hr>
'''Gaaark''':
I agree with this... are we ready if we got hit with a Cease & Desist? '''Do we have a plan?''' A backup plan?

If we start hurting Dice, will we have to fold if they send a letter/lawyer?

[[Category:Archived forum threads]]

Non profit idea

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{{archival}}
Thread archived from [http://forums.soylentnews.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=44 forums]:
<hr>
'''VLM''': Willing to go non-profit? WRT business topics might want to think incubator-ish services that will take care of all legal and financial stuff for you. SPI does all the legal-financial stuff for three dozen FOSS-ish projects (most famously Debian) and if its mutually acceptable ( if ! ) then I could see a news service living underneath SPI... they can own the trademarks and cut the checks and all that boring stuff. There are probably other incubator-ish services which could help. If this doesn't work out, well that's OK too, just wanted to throw an interesting idea out there.

I am not speaking for anyone, just mentioning I know of the work of one highly competent and trustworthy FOSS support organization, which might, or might not, be strategically useful.
<hr>
'''keplr''': I really like the idea of a non-profit. It seems like the only way to guarantee that management won't change and eventually be replaced by people who are willing to make the same changes which ruined Slashdot. I think it fits the overall spirit of the community better, also. Not that making a profit is a bad thing, but it's good to have spaces which aren't explicitly commercial (like Wikipedia, Debian, et al). The sort of people who are drawn by that ethos are the kind of people you'd want on a project like this.
<hr>
'''Cactus''': Non-profit doesn't mean people can't get paid for their work, just means that anything over operating costs can't be given as bonus to owners or board members, or investors. Excess cash is kept by the organization to feeds it's growth and projects.

- Carl
<hr>
'''jkon''': We should totally do a DAC. Distributed Autonomous Corporation.
<hr>
'''Appalbarry''': Non-profits have been my business and/or employer for a few decades. I've started a few, run a few, and have advised a couple of hundred at various times.

(In Canada and the US, but the principles remain the same.)

A non-profit could make good sense for this project, and there are many, many non-profit publications both in dead-tree form and on-line.

A plus to non-profit is that you can (eventually) access many funding sources like foundations and other granting agencies. Downside is that you may find that your ability to make money from other sources might be compromised.

A plus to the non-profit structure is that your Board of Directors (the ultimate power) are elected by membership, and will be representative of that membership. Downside is that because your Board of Directors (the ultimate power) are elected by membership they can also be replaced at the drop of a (well organized) hat. Depending on your membership base you could wind up with a pretty unstable organization.

4. Before there is anything beyond a nominal amount of money involved you really need to pull together a group to discuss some essential points:

[list=]The overall goals - the Mission Statement. You should be able to boil this down to five or ten words. Having this down on paper, and available to all, will help to avoid a lot of confusion and tend to head-off people working at cross purposes. At this moment everyone thinks that they have the same idea, but trust me, they don't. [/list]
[list=]Bylaws - you'll need a set of Bylaws to tell you how to run the organization. Usually you can just grab a set of boilerplate Bylaws and tweak them, but you will need them. Warning: bad Bylaws can have far reaching consequences. Here's a nice looking discussion http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/269068/Charities+Non-Profits/The+15+Most+Common+Nonprofit+Bylaw+Pitfalls+How+To+Avoid+The+Traps.[/list]
[list=]Membership - one of the things that your Bylaws will define is who can be a member, how that happens, and what rights and privileges they get. This actually a big question. Who do you want as members? Anyone with ten bucks for a membership? Anyone who actually contributes content?[/list]
[list=]MONEY - someone has to be designated to spend the organization's money. Someone has to keep detailed records. Someone has to make decisions, both long and short term. At some point some people will need to get paid for their work. The more of these things you can sort out (develop policy) NOW, the easier it will be. Once there are a few thousand dollars in the bank it will get very hard to be entirely objective.[/list]
[list=]Planning - pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is fine, but really careful planning will save you a ton of money and heartache down the road. If this thing is going to grow beyond being a couple of people's pet project you really need to do some planning work that looks years down the road, and lays out at least broad strokes of a plan to get there.[/list]

I hate to say it, but e-mail really sucks for these kinds of discussions.

The people setting up this new venture should think really hard about how much time they can commit to over the coming months. Right now everyone is full of beta-induced enthusiasm. By the time summer rolls around that will have dissipated and it will all be real work.

And of course the internal bickering will have reared its head. Remember that people are coming to this because there's some element of Slashdot that they really dis-like. That negative attitude will tend to permeate things, and can get out of hand very fast.

The core group of (I'm guessing) five to ten people need to be very mindful that they'll need to expand that group fairly fast, and that will change both the functions and the atmosphere of the project. Having doe the homework listed above will go a long way to making sure that new people are thinking the same things as the founders.

It's critical for everyone to understand one thing: No-one is going to be entirely happy with everything that happens. If you can hit 75% you're doing well. Resign yourself to that and don't get hung up on the stuff that someone else chooses.
<hr>
'''cge''': I also run a non-profit, and would agree that it could be a very good option for the project. It's unclear to me that it would significantly limit funding, at least for options (donations, membership, advertising) that would be reasonable for the site.

As Appalbarry notes, however, a non-profit corporation wouldn't guarantee that management wouldn't change; non-profits are just as susceptible to takeovers as for-profits, they merely have a different form.
<hr>
'''CptCrunch''': Does Non-Profit allow the use of donations?
<hr>
'''mattie_p''': As wikipedia that question ;) .
<hr>
'''wbr1''': Great points applebarry.

I for one lean towards the non profit model. What I will add, is that since this is a community project, no matter which funding model becomes reality, many of your points still apply. The internal bickering being chief in my mind. Hell that may start with the non vs profit argument. We do need to at some point codify a general structure and means of resolving these issues. Since this project is in its infancy, I do not want to see it split into a bunch of opposing projects and flounder.
<hr>
'''Weeds''': <blockquote>Appalbarry wrote: 
...The overall goals - the Mission Statement. You should be able to boil this down to five or ten words. Having this down on paper, and available to all, will help to avoid a lot of confusion and tend to head-off people working at cross purposes. At this moment everyone thinks that they have the same idea, but trust me, they don't. ...</blockquote>
This is true be it a for profit or non profit.

[[Category:Archived forum threads]]

Talk:Moderation

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This looks incredibly complicated, but there are points in here worth considering......

If this is going to be the SoylentNews moderation page, we should pull the moderation stuff from the features page and include it here.

Moderation

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Historic:Moderation

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{{archival}}
What kind of moderation system? How it would handle communities of different size and homogenity? Discuss.

* Mostly [[Traditional moderation|traditional /. moderation]], with tweaks, though.
* [[Extended moderation|Complex variants]] for very "nerdy" sities.

(This is a subpage of [[FeatureList|Feature list, you can go back to see other features planned.]])

Migration of users from Slashdot

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Historic:Migration of users from Slashdot

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{{archival}}
'''Note: this was on the "Wish List" before the site launched. Plans to launch the site quickly ended up prevented us from implementing these ideas at the start. These would be extremely difficult to tackle at this point, and would require re-assigning nicks, UIDs etc.'''

== The problem ==
Slashdot users are a community, where users are known by nicks. Starting with a new set of nicks would disrupt the years--long network of acquaintances, etc.

== Preserving nicks ==
A simple system could be built, which would allow for safe and authorised migration of nicks of willing users.

If anyone would want to register on SoylentNews with a nick that already exists on Slashdot, the user would be presented with a generated key. The user would then need to post any comment on Slashdot, that would contain that key. The migrating user would then present a link to that comment in the registration form..

Then, we would know, that a user with a nick we know from Slashdot is really that user, and not a copycat.

All nicks used on Slashdot would be reserved to be taken by their respective user to the new site,
* either for a certain period of time (one year, for example);
* or without any limit, for late-comers, to avoid trolling, and to encourage nick-innovation among new users.

To avoid polluting the public forums, the user might attach the key to a regular comment, or post it in Journal instead

== Preserving UIDs ==
As above with Preserving Nicks, UIDs are a valued commodity.

It might seem too much to take the UIDs as well, but perhaps it would help in booting up [[Moderation|a new, better moderation]] scheme.

'''Example implementation'''. When AltSlashDot goes online, it should determine what the last registered UID on Slashdot is at that moment. That is the Cutoff UID.
* Anyone who registers will get an initial AltSlashDot UID, which should start at 1.
* They also get a Slashdot UID, which is initially null and won't be displayed
* Once someone confirms their account, their Slashdot UID should also carry over
* When posting, both UIDs should be displayed with ??? UI-- like halcyon1234(834388 /.) [2 alt/.]-- obviously in a UI that doesn't suck. =)

'''Suggestion''': 2 UIDs seems overly complex. Why not use the original Slashdot UID for those who verify them, and otherwise hand out new UIDs starting with (Cutoff UID +1)?

OP of UID-- I think Cutoff UID +1 would work perfectly, I agree 2 UIDs would be complex.

== UID Requirements ==
It seems a lot of people tend to lean towards 3 characters instead of 5 as from my understanding new slashdot requires 5 characters? Don't know if this is true but I think it would make people happy to have 3 character minimum.

== Password Requirements ==
Uppercase / alpha-numerical combinations as a requirement should die in a fire. What do you guys think?

* Necessary evil?
* Min password length, sure. [http://explainxkcd.com/936/ Correct horse battery staple], of course.
* Password expiry, no.
* Also, there should be no limitation on what goes into a password field. It's all going to be salted and hashed anyways.

== Copyright of content ==
Let's remember that the content on /. is likely protected by copyright, which also means its database of users and their posts. However, it doesn't seem like any search engine is getting into hot water for indexing users so I think we will be okay if a spider is built for reserving names.

* All posts are owned by the person who posted it. (Check the footer of Slashdot after the Slashcott). Wholesale spidering MAY violate some mysterious TOS or be interpreted as a DOS. '''However''', is there anything wrong with spidering the Wayback Machine?
** Using the Wayback Machine may be a better option altogether. There's a chance that Dice gets all lawyery about all of this and scraping anything from their site gives them a case. At the very least, they could block access attempts and jam up the migration attempt.

I have to wonder, maybe slashdot wouldn't be against giving us a dump of the database with uids, usernames, and hashed so that we could facilitate the migration, and maybe it could be a two way street so that they could "link" the accounts in some way? Perhaps someone could make it their diplomatic mission to see if that would be possible.
[[User:ModernGeek|ModernGeek]] ([[User talk:ModernGeek|talk]]) 00:01, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

MainSiteFAQPage

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Historic:MainSiteFAQPage

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{{archival}}
'''This is for review purposes only.''' This page is an html document that will be integrated into slash.
Feel free to make edits, please bold them (by using <nowiki>''' surrounding the text, i.e. '''this text would be bold'''</nowiki>) so I can easily integrate improvements back into the html doc. [[User:Mrcoolbp|mrcoolbp]] ([[User talk:Mrcoolbp|talk]]) 16:17, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

==FAQ==

===What is this site?===

This is a community'''-'''driven news and discussion site, where you can submit interesting stories, and everyone can comment on them.

===Where did it come from?===

We had become dissatisfied with existing 'news for nerds' solutions but contrary to other project forks, we couldn't just change 'open' to 'libre'." In the spirit of Open Source, we set out to make a community-centric news site rather than just complain about corporate overlords. We forked a rather old public release of Slash, the code that runs Slashdot, and proceeded to modernize and improve upon it.

===Who runs it?===

It is currently managed by a small group of volunteers who maintain and operate the site. There are plans underway to replace this ad-hoc structure with a proper not-for-profit legal entity.

===How can I get involved?===

The simplest way to help the site is by submitting quality stories and leaving interesting comments. Without these, the site has little to offer the community. If you'd like to become more directly involved, visit the team pages and contact a team directly. Beyond that, hop on to our IRC channels and get to know the staff and learn about what needs doing. Volunteering is how this site was brought about, and there is likely something that meshes with your talents.

===Can anyone submit a story?===

Yes, of course anyone can submit a story. Please read the submission guidelines to increase the quality of your submission and subsequently improve its chances of being accepted.

===Can I submit a story anonymously?===

Yes.

===Do you only want tech news?===

We aim for around 70% technology and science stories with the remainder being a mix of content with general interest to our community. '''suggested for removal -NCommander'''

===Why didn't you post my story?===

This is a tough one.

We get many submissions every day. Our editors constantly go through these submissions, and try to select the most interesting, timely, and relevant items to post. There are probably as many reasons for stories to get rejected as there are stories, but here are some of the more common ones:

Badly worded or incorrect submissions
Broken or missing URLs
Confusing or hysterical sounding writeup
It might be an old story
It might just be a busy day and we've already posted enough stories
Someone already submitted your story
Your story just might not be interesting
Although the editing team works hard to clean up some of the messier and incomplete submissions (we get many with just a link or two and no summary), editors do not wish to put words in the mouth of the submitter. If the article is interesting but the summary is terribly written, it puts the editors in a difficult position, we may choose to reject it in this case rather than writing up a whole new summary. In other cases we may add significantly to the summary, though we try to indicate when we do that to avoid confusion.

===Why is your grammar/spelling so bad?===

We attempt to catch most of the spelling and grammar mistakes by having an additional editor sign off on each story, but with our limited resources that doesn't always happen, and certainly things do sometimes slip through. Feel free to point it out, we may even make corrections depending on the case.

===Why hasn't my story been accepted or rejected yet?===

Usually stories are examined within a few hours of their submission. Sometimes, however, it might take longer before it closes. Usually with things that aren't time dependent...there may be some delay there. So be patient.

===My story submission was "accepted"; how come I never saw it?===

Usually it's because you just need to be patient. Many stories are accepted, but not posted for a few hours (for a variety of reasons: to give existing stories some time to be read and commented on, or to have a second author give a second opinion on some detail).

===I submitted that a month ago!===

A lot of times, we don't use a particular story on a particular day, but at some later point, someone else submits it, and it ends up getting used. We have many people from across the globe working together to post things on here. What one of us finds stupid, the others might find interesting. Or it just might be the rest of the stuff that's going on that day. There are a variety of factors: the personality of the post, the quality of the submission, or even the quantity of stories already posted when your submission entered the queue.

===Where do I submit corrections or updates to previous stories?===

The best way to submit followups is just as if you were submitting any other news item: please use the web submission form (rather than email). However, if your story ties closely to a specific story that's already run (for instance, if you have an update about a situation which has changed since the last time it was mentioned), please include a link to the previous story to which you're referring, rather than merely alluding to it.

===I don't wish to log in because my tinfoil hat is very comfy, what am I missing?===

Logged in users have a variety of benefits on SoylentNews that are unavailable to users who don't bother logging in. Among these benefits are:

The ability to save user preferences from visit to visit.
Your own Journal in which to share your innermost feelings.
The ability to define Friends & Foes to aid in reading discussions.
A chance to participate in the Moderation System.
Posting in Discussions at Score:1 instead of Score:0 means twice as many people will see your comments.

===Why is someone else's User Name appearing on my User Page's Menu?===

This is not a bug. This is a feature! That name is the last user page (besides your own ;) that you have visited. This is useful when you want to hop around between your user info, and someone else's: to compare friends and foes for example. Your account has not been hacked, this is totally by design.

===How do I submit bugs?===

The bugs are tracked on github. You'll need a github account to submit a new bug. You can also email admin@soylentnews.org and we can submit one on your behalf. Either way, please include as much relevant detail as you can (i.e. UID, time, browser and version, OS, error message, and screenshots).

===Why can't I log into the Wiki?===

The wiki uses a separate account system from the main page, you'll need to create separate accounts on each site.

===Oh God, NCommander's Posts Are So Long, HOW DO WE GET RID OF HIS KEYBOARD?===

Early on the staff actually tried nuking NCommander's keyboard from orbit; this proved ineffective due to NCommander's brain/computer interface he had implanted back in 2007.

===I have a question that is not answered in this FAQ. What should I do?===

Email your questions to admin@soylentnews.org. We will get you an answer, and if it's a question we've seen before, we'll consider adding it to the FAQ.

Talk:MailingListUpdates

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Historic talk:MailingListUpdates

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Forum link does not seem to bring up a specific forum, or obvious content. I wont set up an account in that until I see this community in the tool.

MailingListUpdates

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Historic:MailingListUpdates

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{{archival}}
Also, [[IRC logs]]

'''Here are status updates sent via the mailinglist'''

Friday, 1:33 AM

The site now has forums with four user groups:

Code, Content, Style, and System.

Please go to the site and register as a forum user. There will be forums
set up for each group to discuss topics relevant to each section, and people
can participate in any forums of interest.

Start thinking of things you'd like to see at the site, do for the site,
and so on.

(Just register for now - it may take a day or so to get admins in place
and the actual forums set up)

Status:

We upgraded the hosting by two tiers - this should fix the problems
people were having yesterday accessing the system.

The System team is working to install SlashCode right now. If all goes
well, we expect to have a working system by Monday. Everyone agrees that this
goal is achievable.

This is all very exciting, and it's looking more and more like we're
going to get the community site we want!

Forums are here: AltSlashdot.org/Forum

Code - Javascript on the browser, some perl on the website.

Content - Submission guidelines, editing techniques, allowed/disallowed
behaviour, &c

Style - Look and feel, style sheets, layout and presentation

System - Server, SlashCode, daemons, routers, load balancers.

----

Thank you for volunteering to help AltSlashdot!

Life is coming at me pretty fast right now, so if there are problems please bear with me - I will make things right eventually. This E-mail was hastily composed, so if you think something is rude or short, please don't take offence.

1) If you want off of this list, let me know.

2) If you want to volunteer as editor *only*, please let me know. I'll put you on a different list for editors.

----

1) Making money

I've devised a proposed business plan that I think will get people excited. You can view it here:

www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=Finances

This plan addresses the issues of selling out in the future, making money, community support, and leaving me with an exit strategy in 10 years or so.

Summary: I plan to turn the profits form the site into $52,000 annuities for the employees.

2) New site name

I agree wholeheartedly with everyone that we need a new name. We only disagree on "when" we need it.

We can have a contest the first thing once the site is up, I promise! I'll even throw some cash in as a prize to get people interested.

For the near term, my focus is on managing all the volunteers and getting the base site working.

3) Slashcode help needed

If possible, I'd like the new site running on Monday. That means grabbing slashcode and bringing it to the host (BlueHost) and getting it to work, probably over the weekend.

I'll do this if pressed, but someone familiar with Apache, Perl, and MySql could do this much faster and free me up for other chores.

Someone willing to do this, and also some light maintenance over time, would be eligible for one of the annuities in the business plan (*if* that plan is feasible, legal, &c).

If this is something you'd like to do, and think you can do it over the next few days, please E-mail me directly.

----

Please review my goals below. I'm doing this as a business, which means I'm the "benevolent dictator". "For profit" or non-profit hasn't been decided yet.

At the moment, I'm swamped from all sides with things that need doing. Would anyone like to take over these aspects of this project?

1) Setup an initial community support structure
Chat room
Mailing list
Other things we may need

2) Manage the wiki pages (wiki.AltSlashdot.org)
a) Adding/removing users
b) Updating pages with status and progress
c) Adding content that reflects the plan, community decisions, and such

3) Figure out how to install SlashCode

The "initial support structure" thing is just that - setting things up initially so that people have a place to talk, post ideas, and whatnot.

Managing the wiki does not necessarily mean doing a lot of editing, there will probably be volunteers available.

My vision for the new site:

The purpose of the site will be to attract and keep readers.
I intend for the site to make money
I intend for the site to hire people, and be a good employer
I intend to listen to community feedback and do whatever makes the site better
There will be monetization; however, this is secondary to the primary goal, which is to attract and keep readers.
No user information will be monetized (ie we won't sell our user's contact info)
We won't poach from Slashdot

Monetization will be largely what Slashdot does now: advertizing, merchandise, and job postings.