SoylentNews - User contributions [en]

Historic:Migration of users from Slashdot

2014-02-08T12:38:05Z

Hedgie:

== 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 build, which would allow for safe and authorised migration of nicks of willing users.

If anyone would want to register on Altslashdot 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. 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)?

== 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?

== 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.

SoylentNews

2014-02-08T02:22:38Z

Hedgie: /* Telling the world about AltSlashDot.org */

'''Site Migration'''

Over the course of the next 24-48 hours, the site will be in the process of migrating to a new server as part of the upgrade mentioned below.

During this upgrade, all or part of the site (including wiki, forums, and email) may become unavailable at times. Please be patient and we'll finish this upgrade as soon as possible. Thank you!

----

'''To the tsunami of volunteers... thank you!'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a day ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].
A statement of functionality (turn into a requirements document?)--- [[FeatureList]]

If you would like to volunteer, please go to AltSlashdot.org/Forum and register as a forum user. There will be forums to discuss various topics: style, content, code, and so on.

* Go to AltSlashdot.org/Forum and register a user
* Go to your user panel (UL corner of page) and then "Groups" tab
* Add yourself to whichever groups you are interested in

Can anyone admin their forum? Let me know & I'll bump up your permissions.

We're starting to get spam on the wiki. (*sigh* - that didn't take very long.) Would anyone like to admin the wiki? It shouldn't take much work - just the admin details.
*To kill all spam we might use [[CryptoPayment]]

Start thinking about what you would like to see at the site.

If you want to send me a note:

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==Status==
* Forums are available at AltSlashdot.org/Forum
* We upgraded the hosting by two tiers - this should fix the problems people were having yesterday accessing the system.
* The System team is working on installing SlashCode. If all goes well, we expect to have a working system by Monday. Everyone believes this goal is achievable.
* The site now has forums with four user groups: Code, Content, Style, and System.
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==
* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost

==ToDo==
[[SlashcodeTodo|Slashcode Todo list]]

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==
*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]
*[[SlashcodeTodo|SlashcodeTodo]]
*[[Migration of users from Slashdot]]
That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==

* I've picked up the domain altslash.org, and I'm looking to be a part of a join effort to create a slashdot alternative more in the style of the classic slashdot system. I picked up this domain simply because a lot of the alternatives being discussed (e.g., altslashdot.org) may end up being the target of a trademark dispute. The "trademark" for altslash.org would be altslash, with the "dot.org" being merged into .org. It reads the same way as the original "slashdot.org," but looks very clean in my opinion. If anyone wants to setup a group to use altslash.org instead, let me know.

* Have you considered talking with Bruce Parens? He had a site called "technocrat.net" that some people from slashdot were quite fond of not too long ago. It seems some people on slashdot are already trying to get him to re-launch it. I don't know if the two of you would have compatible goals or not, but it might be worth sending him an email. He has a parking page up on technocrat.net right now that has his email address on it.

* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think.--[[User:Hedgie|Hedgie]] ([[User talk:Hedgie|talk]]) 18:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

There are no doubt legal as well as moral objections to content scraping, but when you say "...they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community...", well, for over 15 years *we* have been that community and if not for us there would be some former college students who used to have a little hobby site.--unitron

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

** Scraping Slashdot is pointless. It's been said many times, the discussion is the thing, not the articles. Considered purely as a news site, Slashdot is CRAP, always has been. Speaking of discussion, a Wiki is about the worst discussion medium I can imagine - is there anywhere we can move this to? - Mike Baranczak, 2014-02-07

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

* I ([[User:Bryan|Bryan]]) also plan on making a slashdot-inspired site. The website will be called "Pipedot" and be reachable at [http://pipedot.org/ pipedot.org] or [http://pipedot.com/ pipedot.com]. The motto will be "News for nerds, without the corporate slant." Get it? A pipe character looks like a slash without the slant! However, I plan on creating my own software instead of using slashcode/mediawiki/etc so it may take a while to get feature complete with slashdot classsic. (Why? Because I've always wanted to scratch that itch. Duh!)

* I think it would be best to just go over to Usenet. It is distributed, uncensorable, scales extremely well, the infrastructure is already in place, and it works. No Javascript, no business models, nothing but pure text-mode comment goodness. [http://www.eternal-september.org Eternal September] is free and works well, but does not allow binaries. That's fine, we have magnet links these days. EDIT: comp.misc is the new Slashdot. It's official now. Join us there and keep it free as in FREEDOM!

* relevant slashdot stats from 2011 [[http://www.dbasoul.com/2011/992.html]]
**5.5 million user visits per month.
**7,000 comments are added every day.
**Over 9 million pages views daily.
**Over 21 million comments.
**Average monthly bandwidth usage is around 40-50 mbit/sec (450GB/day)

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==
Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23

That is surprising, I posted several times today and did not get anything. I wonder if it had something to do with the Beta submission. - Nightbrood

I've posted loudly, angrily, reflectively, snarkily, thoughtfully, sarcastically, and in many other different ways today (classic and beta). Yet, I've not been banned. - cervesaebraciator

== Features ==
What features worked and what features did not work during the lifetime of Slashdot? I would like to create a section about this but there's no link to do so.

IE: Feature that worked was the karma system allowed users to voluntarily disable the advertisement, made them feel happy even though it did nothing different for the business.

Feature that did not work: Adding a sponsored poll / slashvertising

I'm trying to list out all the critical features of Slashdot plus some clarifications and minor changes here: [[FeatureList]]

==== Confessions Of an Ex-SLASHDOT BETA user ====

Day 1: It wouldn't stop, the redirecting. At first I thought it was malware. Had my first drink in a long time.

Day 2: Barely had the strength to carry on as the BETA REDIRECTIONS continue.. trying not to talk to hallucinations at the bar and in the bathroom which laugh at me about these redirections.

Day 3: Discovered the BETA redirections were random, and while at first they looked somewhat usable, when I looked at me and my monitor screen in the mirror, a horrible woman with flesh hanging off of her body looked back, trying to lead me into a dance as the word BETA appeared across her rancid breasts.

Day 4: These BETA corridors go on FOREVER! On the plus side, I've taken up disassembling vehicles to corner this BETA beast and sacrifice myself rather than lead others to discovering it. I ate some red snow.

Day 5: Finding it harder to concentrate. I've ate some more of the red snow. The taste is starting to grow on me.

Day 6: This typewriter is the only entertainment I have, apart from throwing things at the walls, trying to get some response from the BETA which is now taking over my mind.

Day 7: Hahahahahha! Would you believe it? I'M STILL BEING REDIRECTED TO SLASHDOT BETA PAGES! AHAHhahahaah! Type, type, ding, ding! Wooo!

Day 8: The hallucinations are actually real! Would you believe it? They have offered to help me if I agree to work for them. I'm thinking about patenting this delicious red snow, the taste is unreal!

Day 9: Having black out sessions where I cannot remember large passings of time. Found some makeup, thought I'd paint a joker smile on my face to amuse the people only I can see!

Day 10: Productive today, part of what I wrote for my new screenplay:

I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slas

(drops of blood on paper)

(obligatory reference to parsing HTML with regex over on stackoverflow)

== Shameless plug for myself ==

Would appreciate some eyeballs and thoughts on this while it's still available

http://slashdot.org/submission/3324011/a-modest-proposal-re-beta-vs-classic?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose

== Telling the world about AltSlashDot.org ==
I don't know what John wants as far as advertising this page but I'm sure he wants as much exposure as possible. Please mention altslashdot.org as much as possible. It seems like the word is spreading (about 15,000 overnight?) good job everyone! Any idea on how and where to make sure people know about this project, please post them here?

> I'd send a note along to Ars Technica & BoingBoing. That would get some attention.

> Anyone have a Reddit account with a reasonable activity level?

SoylentNews

2014-02-07T15:58:29Z

Hedgie: /* Telling the world about AltSlashDot.org */

'''To the tsunami of volunteers... thank you!'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a day ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].
A statement of functionality (turn into a requirements document?)--- [[FeatureList]]

If you would like to volunteer, please go to AltSlashdot.org/Forum and register as a forum user. There will be forums to discuss various topics: style, content, code, and so on.

Start thinking about what you would like to see at the site.

If you want to send me a note:

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==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 on installing SlashCode. If all goes well, we expect to have a working system by Monday. Everyone believes this goal is achievable.
* The site now has forums with four user groups: Code, Content, Style, and System.
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==
* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost

==ToDo==
[[SlashcodeTodo|Slashcode Todo list]]

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==
*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]
*[[SlashcodeTodo|SlashcodeTodo]]
*[[Migration of users from Slashdot]]
That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==

* Have you considered talking with Bruce Parens? He had a site called "technocrat.net" that some people from slashdot were quite fond of not too long ago. It seems some people on slashdot are already trying to get him to re-launch it. I don't know if the two of you would have compatible goals or not, but it might be worth sending him an email. He has a parking page up on technocrat.net right now that has his email address on it.

* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think.--[[User:Hedgie|Hedgie]] ([[User talk:Hedgie|talk]]) 18:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

There are no doubt legal as well as moral objections to content scraping, but when you say "...they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community...", well, for over 15 years *we* have been that community and if not for us there would be some former college students who used to have a little hobby site.--unitron

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

* I ([[User:Bryan|Bryan]]) also plan on making a slashdot-inspired site. The website will be called "Pipedot" and be reachable at [http://pipedot.org/ pipedot.org] or [http://pipedot.com/ pipedot.com]. The motto will be "News for nerds, without the corporate slant." Get it? A pipe character looks like a slash without the slant! However, I plan on creating my own software instead of using slashcode/mediawiki/etc so it may take a while to get feature complete with slashdot classsic. (Why? Because I've always wanted to scratch that itch. Duh!)

* I think it would be best to just go over to Usenet. It is distributed, uncensorable, scales extremely well, the infrastructure is already in place, and it works. No Javascript, no business models, nothing but pure text-mode comment goodness. [http://www.eternal-september.org Eternal September] is free and works well, but does not allow binaries. That's fine, we have magnet links these days. EDIT: comp.misc is the new Slashdot. It's official now. Join us there and keep it free as in FREEDOM!

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==
Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23

That is surprising, I posted several times today and did not get anything. I wonder if it had something to do with the Beta submission. - Nightbrood

I've posted loudly, angrily, reflectively, snarkily, thoughtfully, sarcastically, and in many other different ways today (classic and beta). Yet, I've not been banned. - cervesaebraciator

== Features ==
What features worked and what features did not work during the lifetime of Slashdot? I would like to create a section about this but there's no link to do so.

IE: Feature that worked was the karma system allowed users to voluntarily disable the advertisement, made them feel happy even though it did nothing different for the business.

Feature that did not work: Adding a sponsored poll / slashvertising

I'm trying to list out all the critical features of Slashdot plus some clarifications and minor changes here: [[FeatureList]]

==== Confessions Of an Ex-SLASHDOT BETA user ====

Day 1: It wouldn't stop, the redirecting. At first I thought it was malware. Had my first drink in a long time.

Day 2: Barely had the strength to carry on as the BETA REDIRECTIONS continue.. trying not to talk to hallucinations at the bar and in the bathroom which laugh at me about these redirections.

Day 3: Discovered the BETA redirections were random, and while at first they looked somewhat usable, when I looked at me and my monitor screen in the mirror, a horrible woman with flesh hanging off of her body looked back, trying to lead me into a dance as the word BETA appeared across her rancid breasts.

Day 4: These BETA corridors go on FOREVER! On the plus side, I've taken up disassembling vehicles to corner this BETA beast and sacrifice myself rather than lead others to discovering it. I ate some red snow.

Day 5: Finding it harder to concentrate. I've ate some more of the red snow. The taste is starting to grow on me.

Day 6: This typewriter is the only entertainment I have, apart from throwing things at the walls, trying to get some response from the BETA which is now taking over my mind.

Day 7: Hahahahahha! Would you believe it? I'M STILL BEING REDIRECTED TO SLASHDOT BETA PAGES! AHAHhahahaah! Type, type, ding, ding! Wooo!

Day 8: The hallucinations are actually real! Would you believe it? They have offered to help me if I agree to work for them. I'm thinking about patenting this delicious red snow, the taste is unreal!

Day 9: Having black out sessions where I cannot remember large passings of time. Found some makeup, thought I'd paint a joker smile on my face to amuse the people only I can see!

Day 10: Productive today, part of what I wrote for my new screenplay:

I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slas

(drops of blood on paper)

== Shameless plug for myself ==

Would appreciate some eyeballs and thoughts on this while it's still available

http://slashdot.org/submission/3324011/a-modest-proposal-re-beta-vs-classic?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose

== Telling the world about AltSlashDot.org ==
I don't know what John wants as far as advertising this page but I'm sure he wants as much exposure as possible. Please mention altslashdot.org as much as possible. It seems like the word is spreading (about 15,000 overnight?) good job everyone! Any idea on how and where to make sure people know about this project, please post them here?

SoylentNews

2014-02-07T15:57:55Z

Hedgie:

'''To the tsunami of volunteers... thank you!'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a day ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].
A statement of functionality (turn into a requirements document?)--- [[FeatureList]]

If you would like to volunteer, please go to AltSlashdot.org/Forum and register as a forum user. There will be forums to discuss various topics: style, content, code, and so on.

Start thinking about what you would like to see at the site.

If you want to send me a note:

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==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 on installing SlashCode. If all goes well, we expect to have a working system by Monday. Everyone believes this goal is achievable.
* The site now has forums with four user groups: Code, Content, Style, and System.
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==
* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost

==ToDo==
[[SlashcodeTodo|Slashcode Todo list]]

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==
*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]
*[[SlashcodeTodo|SlashcodeTodo]]
*[[Migration of users from Slashdot]]
That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==

* Have you considered talking with Bruce Parens? He had a site called "technocrat.net" that some people from slashdot were quite fond of not too long ago. It seems some people on slashdot are already trying to get him to re-launch it. I don't know if the two of you would have compatible goals or not, but it might be worth sending him an email. He has a parking page up on technocrat.net right now that has his email address on it.

* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think.--[[User:Hedgie|Hedgie]] ([[User talk:Hedgie|talk]]) 18:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

There are no doubt legal as well as moral objections to content scraping, but when you say "...they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community...", well, for over 15 years *we* have been that community and if not for us there would be some former college students who used to have a little hobby site.--unitron

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

* I ([[User:Bryan|Bryan]]) also plan on making a slashdot-inspired site. The website will be called "Pipedot" and be reachable at [http://pipedot.org/ pipedot.org] or [http://pipedot.com/ pipedot.com]. The motto will be "News for nerds, without the corporate slant." Get it? A pipe character looks like a slash without the slant! However, I plan on creating my own software instead of using slashcode/mediawiki/etc so it may take a while to get feature complete with slashdot classsic. (Why? Because I've always wanted to scratch that itch. Duh!)

* I think it would be best to just go over to Usenet. It is distributed, uncensorable, scales extremely well, the infrastructure is already in place, and it works. No Javascript, no business models, nothing but pure text-mode comment goodness. [http://www.eternal-september.org Eternal September] is free and works well, but does not allow binaries. That's fine, we have magnet links these days. EDIT: comp.misc is the new Slashdot. It's official now. Join us there and keep it free as in FREEDOM!

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==
Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23

That is surprising, I posted several times today and did not get anything. I wonder if it had something to do with the Beta submission. - Nightbrood

I've posted loudly, angrily, reflectively, snarkily, thoughtfully, sarcastically, and in many other different ways today (classic and beta). Yet, I've not been banned. - cervesaebraciator

== Features ==
What features worked and what features did not work during the lifetime of Slashdot? I would like to create a section about this but there's no link to do so.

IE: Feature that worked was the karma system allowed users to voluntarily disable the advertisement, made them feel happy even though it did nothing different for the business.

Feature that did not work: Adding a sponsored poll / slashvertising

I'm trying to list out all the critical features of Slashdot plus some clarifications and minor changes here: [[FeatureList]]

==== Confessions Of an Ex-SLASHDOT BETA user ====

Day 1: It wouldn't stop, the redirecting. At first I thought it was malware. Had my first drink in a long time.

Day 2: Barely had the strength to carry on as the BETA REDIRECTIONS continue.. trying not to talk to hallucinations at the bar and in the bathroom which laugh at me about these redirections.

Day 3: Discovered the BETA redirections were random, and while at first they looked somewhat usable, when I looked at me and my monitor screen in the mirror, a horrible woman with flesh hanging off of her body looked back, trying to lead me into a dance as the word BETA appeared across her rancid breasts.

Day 4: These BETA corridors go on FOREVER! On the plus side, I've taken up disassembling vehicles to corner this BETA beast and sacrifice myself rather than lead others to discovering it. I ate some red snow.

Day 5: Finding it harder to concentrate. I've ate some more of the red snow. The taste is starting to grow on me.

Day 6: This typewriter is the only entertainment I have, apart from throwing things at the walls, trying to get some response from the BETA which is now taking over my mind.

Day 7: Hahahahahha! Would you believe it? I'M STILL BEING REDIRECTED TO SLASHDOT BETA PAGES! AHAHhahahaah! Type, type, ding, ding! Wooo!

Day 8: The hallucinations are actually real! Would you believe it? They have offered to help me if I agree to work for them. I'm thinking about patenting this delicious red snow, the taste is unreal!

Day 9: Having black out sessions where I cannot remember large passings of time. Found some makeup, thought I'd paint a joker smile on my face to amuse the people only I can see!

Day 10: Productive today, part of what I wrote for my new screenplay:

I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slashdot BETA!
I cannot opt out of Slas

(drops of blood on paper)

== Shameless plug for myself ==

Would appreciate some eyeballs and thoughts on this while it's still available

http://slashdot.org/submission/3324011/a-modest-proposal-re-beta-vs-classic?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose

== Telling the world about AltSlashDot.org ==
I don't know what John wants as far as advertising this page but I'm sure he wants as much exposure as possible. Please mention altslashdot.org as much as possible. It seems like the word is spreading (about 18,000 overnight?) good job everyone! Any idea on how and where to make sure people know about this project, please post them here?

NewName

2014-02-07T02:30:02Z

Hedgie: /* References to Slashdot, Beta, Dice, etc. */

''We need a new name''

''I agree with everyone who has suggested a name different from "AltSlashdot".''

''So far, none of the suggested alternatives seem to be popular (I considered "ForkSlashdot" and discarded it :-).''

''I think the best course is to get things up and running and then hold a name contest. A community effort should make this task easy.''

''We don't have to do this immediately. "AltSlashdot" is significantly different from "Slashdot", and we won't be poaching any of their stories or (as much as practical) style.''

''If things go very well, the new site might be up and running by Monday (Feb 10). Giving some time to settle in, we could have the contest in two weeks or so. If everything goes well...''

==Name change discussion==

killbeta.org?
diebetadie.org?

unitron

* Really, I'm sold on AltSlashdot, but I just want to make sure that there will be enough Natalie Portman.

''If we turn a profit by the end of the year, I'll put a Natalie Portman link on the front page.''

* Can we somehow get Cowboyneal back? Can we plan some evil way to get him fired from his current job and desperate enough to come back reestablish the Slashdot community as its tribal leader?

== New Name ==

SlashUsr as in /usr

SlashHome as in /home

SlashVarLog as in /var/log

Name it "DotDotSlash" as in cd ../

I vote for hashbash as in #!(/bin/zsh)

On similar lines to the above, hashdot, abbreviated '''#.'''

BinBash as in /bin/bash

SlashNot?

bangslashdot.com .net .org (!/.) Reference from /. article: Re:Boycott (Score:2)
by somenickname (1270442) on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @08:47PM (#46169131)
Just registered bangslashdot.com/net/org (!/.) in case Slashdot needs to be forked to a new site. Will happily sell the domain to a more capable web-type for the exact price I paid (with the stipulation that I get a low UID).

* Consider a '''name change'''. If you're serious about this, then the name "AltSlashdot" will run you into legal trouble down the road, since Slashdot/Dice/etc. will sue for Trademark infringement (and will have a solid case). Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~tpaudio tpaudio] suggested [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46170795 "Plusdot"]. Another idea (mine) is to call it "divergence" or "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergence divergence operator]"... the logo would be the mathematical form of divergence, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabla_symbol nabla] symbol followed by a dot (which looks like an augmented "slash dot"). --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].
** I agree with JustinOpinion, any name with "slash" or "dot" in it will put us in the crosshairs of Dice's lawyers, and we do not want that. "Divergence" is nice. --[[User:Sir Garlon]] 16:36, 2014-02-06 (EST)
** Perhaps altslash.org? Sounds far enough from slashdot to avoid problems, but close enough to clue in any refugees. [[User:Max Hyre|Max Hyre]] ([[User talk:Max Hyre|talk]]) 08:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)
** I'm gonna vote for '''divergence''', I think the name along speaks to the community as to why we want something different/better than the aim of SlashFail Beta. (keick)
** Vote for '''divergence''' also for the same reasons as mentioned above (Qwade)

* I agree that AltSlashdot is hard to pronounce, but wasn't that the idea behind h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-o-r-g (that is should be hard to pronounce)? [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:41, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* The name "AltSlashdot" does not "mouth" well. May I suggest "Slashfork"? --[[User:Koen|Koen]] ([[User talk:Koen|talk]]) 08:52, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* How about betterthanbeta.org or similar? After all, we all know what created this. Another option would be some meme-based thing, like frostyhotgrits.org. Actually, frostyhotgrits.org would be both unique, and make most Slashdotters feel right at home. Greets, Iskender (1040286) [[Special:Contributions/86.50.93.164|86.50.93.164]] 09:39, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* backslashdot.org. Backslash. Back to basics. Back to the old school. Hell yea.

* can we get one of those new top-level domains, like .bank, except instead get .dot? Then name it SlashSlash.dot ;-)

* I second the person who suggested dot-dot-slash (../). Going up a directory is like going "back", which is the purpose of the new site - going back to how things used to be.
** This does seem to be the clear winner. Though backslash.com (which appears to be a parked domain) would work well too, since it's not *immediately* obvious legally that we stole the name (back slash dot com) from slashdot. Too bad dashdot.com and slashdotdash.com are both real in-use sites. slashdotdashdot.com appears to be parked, though.
**I second backslash.com if the domain can be obtained. ../ would be the subtler option, and I'm in favor of it.

* May I suggest HashBang (#!), I think it has a slightly better ring to it than hashbash
** I think anything with "#!" is probably going to be too close to Crunchbang Linux. They use that exact shorthand symbol. - Cactus

* Some fantastic ideas: SlashStar (/*), SlashSlash (//), ShebangShebang (#!#!), HotGrits, SovietSlashdot, DotSlash (./), DotSlashDot (./.), GNU/Slashdot (GNU//.), GNS (GNS = "GNP's Not Slashdot", and GNP = "Grits on Natalie Portman"), CowboyNeal.net, RoblimosOrphans.org, BangBangBang (!!!), CarrotSlashSlashSlashDot (^\/\.), YoungPastyHonkies.net, NoDiceSlashdot, SlashReset (/Reset), Carrotdot (^.), SlashHash (/#), PurpleTaro, CowboyNealOption, DennisRitchieIsGod.com, Ctrl-H (^H), Ctrl-C (^C), HGNP (Hot Grits on Natalie Portman)
* *.onion

* altslashctrl -- sort of gets the point across

* nodice.org and no-dice.org are unfortunately not available. -- [[User:Stderr dk|Stderr dk]] ([[User talk:Stderr dk|talk]]) 12:00, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* dicetoss.org is available

How much would dice holdings sell the classic slashdot.org site for? They can keep SlashTV, SlashBI, etc.

* I think the name should be kept to two syllables or less. Some of my favorites: dotdot (..), notdot(!.), backslash (\). Although it may be better to define the site based on what it is (is there any vision here other than 'slashdot classic'?) rather than what it isn't (slashdot beta). If this gains traction, it will be on its own merits and not because it forked slashcode. Maybe something like hashtech (#tech)? Works for old school IRC nerds and twitter hashtags.
** Not that I'm a particular fan of social media, but I do like #tech.
** +1 for '''backslash'''. Sounds like backlash, refers to Slashdot, and still a keyboard character. Apparantly, the domain BACKSLASH DOT ORG is for sale: [http://backslash.org/] (Moderator - 189749)
** +1 for backslash here..

* How about BangDot or KillDot? It sounds similar, but it is different enough than nobody will be able to claim it leads to confusion.
* How about Tildedot? h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-dot-tidle-dot-dot-org? (keick)
** Or maybe !|.org? BangPipe :) (keick)

* Can we stick these in a table please? With a column that indicates their status (taken - in use / taken - parked / available)? It also makes sense to group them into classes like: anti-dice, recognisably-similar-to-slashdot, novel. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:07, 6 February 2014 (MST) (FatPhil)

* I vote for hashbang.com unfortunately it seems that someone is parked on it. (Githaron)

* I think it has to be of the same spirit as slashdot. Taco wanted it to be confusing for people to type into a browser after hearing it h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-org. I suggust something in that vein, tuned to the current mobile app store. I'd suggust something like the PlayAppStore. You'd sound like an idiot trying to explain it to someone else: go to playappstore

* Or we could go really go back to chips & dip, the previous name of slashdot,
it looks like the domain name has expired when i did a whois search. I liked the idea of using hashbang but like someone else pointed out it is used...

* I second both "chips and dip" and "dotdotslash" as clever alternatives. Divergence is second tier but I will also support it if no other alternatives gain traction.

==Name Options==
Please add ideas to these tables. Where possible, note if the URL is available. Consider adding your username to the 'votes' column.

====References to Slashdot, Beta, Dice, etc.====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| AltSlashot
| Alt/.
| altslashdot.org (registered by us)
| ''Trademark issues!''
|-
| AltSlash
| Alt/
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| AtSlash
| @/
|
| ''.org appears open. "I read it at atslashdotorg"''
|-
| ForkSlashdot
|
|
|
|-
| SlashFork
|
|
|
|-
| SlashNot
| /!
|
|
|-
| BackSlash
| \
|
| Slashdot actually has a subsection called 'backslash'.
|-
| KillDot
|
|
|
|-
| KillBeta
|
|
|
|-
| DieBetaDie
|
|
|
|-
| BetterThanBeta
|
|
|
|-
| NoDice
|
|
|
|-
| DiceToss
|
|
|
|-
| NoDiceAllowed
|
|
| Domain Available
|-
| ColonSlash
|
|
| Because it looks funny (suggested on reddit)
|}

====Typographic/Computer Puns====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| '''''DotDotSlash'''''
| ../
|
| As in "cd ../" ... also implies going back or up a level
|-
| HashBash
| #!(/bin/bash)
|
|
|-
| HashBang
| #!
| URL taken (parked domain)
| Possible confusion with Crunchbang Linux?
|-
| HashDot
| #.
|
|
|-
| DotDot
| ..
|
|
|-
| NotDot
| !.
|
|
|-
| BangDot
| !.
|
|
|-
| BackDot
| \.
|
|
|-
| BangSlashDot
| !/.
| Available to us (registered by Slashdot user somenickname (184564)).
|
|-
| TildeDot
| ~.
|
|
|-
| BangPipe
| !|
|
|
|-
| SlashStar
| /*
|
|
|-
| SlashSlash
| //
|
|
|-
| ShebangShebang
| #!#!
|
|
|-
| CaretSlashSlashSlashDot
| ^\/\.
|
|
|-
| CaretDot
| ^.
|
|
|-
| SlashHash
| /#
|
|
|-
| PlusDot
| +.
|
|
|-
| BinBash
| /bin/bash
|
|
|-
| SlashUsr
| /usr
|
|
|-
| SlashHome
| /home
|
|
|-
| SlashVarLog
| /var/log
|
|
|-
| divergence
|
|
| The name represents how we're going in a new direction. Also, the symbol could be the mathematical divergence operator: a 'nabla' followed by a dot, which looks like an 'augmented' version of a slash followed by a dot.
|-
| HashTech
| #tech
|
| Has dual IRC and hastag meanings.
|-
| PlayAppStore
|
|
| "Slashdot" was meant to confuse neophytes reading it aloud; the modern equivalent would be calling a site something like "PlayAppStore".
|}

====Memes====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| CowboyNeal
|
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| Natalie Portman
|
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| HotGrits
|
|
|
|-
| FrostyHotGrits
|
|
|
|-
| Cyborg Bill
|
|
| ''Was this the right term?''
|}

NewName

2014-02-07T02:28:35Z

Hedgie: /* References to Slashdot, Beta, Dice, etc. */

''We need a new name''

''I agree with everyone who has suggested a name different from "AltSlashdot".''

''So far, none of the suggested alternatives seem to be popular (I considered "ForkSlashdot" and discarded it :-).''

''I think the best course is to get things up and running and then hold a name contest. A community effort should make this task easy.''

''We don't have to do this immediately. "AltSlashdot" is significantly different from "Slashdot", and we won't be poaching any of their stories or (as much as practical) style.''

''If things go very well, the new site might be up and running by Monday (Feb 10). Giving some time to settle in, we could have the contest in two weeks or so. If everything goes well...''

==Name change discussion==

killbeta.org?
diebetadie.org?

unitron

* Really, I'm sold on AltSlashdot, but I just want to make sure that there will be enough Natalie Portman.

''If we turn a profit by the end of the year, I'll put a Natalie Portman link on the front page.''

* Can we somehow get Cowboyneal back? Can we plan some evil way to get him fired from his current job and desperate enough to come back reestablish the Slashdot community as its tribal leader?

== New Name ==

SlashUsr as in /usr

SlashHome as in /home

SlashVarLog as in /var/log

Name it "DotDotSlash" as in cd ../

I vote for hashbash as in #!(/bin/zsh)

On similar lines to the above, hashdot, abbreviated '''#.'''

BinBash as in /bin/bash

SlashNot?

bangslashdot.com .net .org (!/.) Reference from /. article: Re:Boycott (Score:2)
by somenickname (1270442) on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @08:47PM (#46169131)
Just registered bangslashdot.com/net/org (!/.) in case Slashdot needs to be forked to a new site. Will happily sell the domain to a more capable web-type for the exact price I paid (with the stipulation that I get a low UID).

* Consider a '''name change'''. If you're serious about this, then the name "AltSlashdot" will run you into legal trouble down the road, since Slashdot/Dice/etc. will sue for Trademark infringement (and will have a solid case). Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~tpaudio tpaudio] suggested [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46170795 "Plusdot"]. Another idea (mine) is to call it "divergence" or "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergence divergence operator]"... the logo would be the mathematical form of divergence, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabla_symbol nabla] symbol followed by a dot (which looks like an augmented "slash dot"). --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].
** I agree with JustinOpinion, any name with "slash" or "dot" in it will put us in the crosshairs of Dice's lawyers, and we do not want that. "Divergence" is nice. --[[User:Sir Garlon]] 16:36, 2014-02-06 (EST)
** Perhaps altslash.org? Sounds far enough from slashdot to avoid problems, but close enough to clue in any refugees. [[User:Max Hyre|Max Hyre]] ([[User talk:Max Hyre|talk]]) 08:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)
** I'm gonna vote for '''divergence''', I think the name along speaks to the community as to why we want something different/better than the aim of SlashFail Beta. (keick)
** Vote for '''divergence''' also for the same reasons as mentioned above (Qwade)

* I agree that AltSlashdot is hard to pronounce, but wasn't that the idea behind h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-o-r-g (that is should be hard to pronounce)? [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:41, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* The name "AltSlashdot" does not "mouth" well. May I suggest "Slashfork"? --[[User:Koen|Koen]] ([[User talk:Koen|talk]]) 08:52, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* How about betterthanbeta.org or similar? After all, we all know what created this. Another option would be some meme-based thing, like frostyhotgrits.org. Actually, frostyhotgrits.org would be both unique, and make most Slashdotters feel right at home. Greets, Iskender (1040286) [[Special:Contributions/86.50.93.164|86.50.93.164]] 09:39, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* backslashdot.org. Backslash. Back to basics. Back to the old school. Hell yea.

* can we get one of those new top-level domains, like .bank, except instead get .dot? Then name it SlashSlash.dot ;-)

* I second the person who suggested dot-dot-slash (../). Going up a directory is like going "back", which is the purpose of the new site - going back to how things used to be.
** This does seem to be the clear winner. Though backslash.com (which appears to be a parked domain) would work well too, since it's not *immediately* obvious legally that we stole the name (back slash dot com) from slashdot. Too bad dashdot.com and slashdotdash.com are both real in-use sites. slashdotdashdot.com appears to be parked, though.
**I second backslash.com if the domain can be obtained. ../ would be the subtler option, and I'm in favor of it.

* May I suggest HashBang (#!), I think it has a slightly better ring to it than hashbash
** I think anything with "#!" is probably going to be too close to Crunchbang Linux. They use that exact shorthand symbol. - Cactus

* Some fantastic ideas: SlashStar (/*), SlashSlash (//), ShebangShebang (#!#!), HotGrits, SovietSlashdot, DotSlash (./), DotSlashDot (./.), GNU/Slashdot (GNU//.), GNS (GNS = "GNP's Not Slashdot", and GNP = "Grits on Natalie Portman"), CowboyNeal.net, RoblimosOrphans.org, BangBangBang (!!!), CarrotSlashSlashSlashDot (^\/\.), YoungPastyHonkies.net, NoDiceSlashdot, SlashReset (/Reset), Carrotdot (^.), SlashHash (/#), PurpleTaro, CowboyNealOption, DennisRitchieIsGod.com, Ctrl-H (^H), Ctrl-C (^C), HGNP (Hot Grits on Natalie Portman)
* *.onion

* altslashctrl -- sort of gets the point across

* nodice.org and no-dice.org are unfortunately not available. -- [[User:Stderr dk|Stderr dk]] ([[User talk:Stderr dk|talk]]) 12:00, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* dicetoss.org is available

How much would dice holdings sell the classic slashdot.org site for? They can keep SlashTV, SlashBI, etc.

* I think the name should be kept to two syllables or less. Some of my favorites: dotdot (..), notdot(!.), backslash (\). Although it may be better to define the site based on what it is (is there any vision here other than 'slashdot classic'?) rather than what it isn't (slashdot beta). If this gains traction, it will be on its own merits and not because it forked slashcode. Maybe something like hashtech (#tech)? Works for old school IRC nerds and twitter hashtags.
** Not that I'm a particular fan of social media, but I do like #tech.
** +1 for '''backslash'''. Sounds like backlash, refers to Slashdot, and still a keyboard character. Apparantly, the domain BACKSLASH DOT ORG is for sale: [http://backslash.org/] (Moderator - 189749)
** +1 for backslash here..

* How about BangDot or KillDot? It sounds similar, but it is different enough than nobody will be able to claim it leads to confusion.
* How about Tildedot? h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-dot-tidle-dot-dot-org? (keick)
** Or maybe !|.org? BangPipe :) (keick)

* Can we stick these in a table please? With a column that indicates their status (taken - in use / taken - parked / available)? It also makes sense to group them into classes like: anti-dice, recognisably-similar-to-slashdot, novel. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:07, 6 February 2014 (MST) (FatPhil)

* I vote for hashbang.com unfortunately it seems that someone is parked on it. (Githaron)

* I think it has to be of the same spirit as slashdot. Taco wanted it to be confusing for people to type into a browser after hearing it h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-org. I suggust something in that vein, tuned to the current mobile app store. I'd suggust something like the PlayAppStore. You'd sound like an idiot trying to explain it to someone else: go to playappstore

* Or we could go really go back to chips & dip, the previous name of slashdot,
it looks like the domain name has expired when i did a whois search. I liked the idea of using hashbang but like someone else pointed out it is used...

* I second both "chips and dip" and "dotdotslash" as clever alternatives. Divergence is second tier but I will also support it if no other alternatives gain traction.

==Name Options==
Please add ideas to these tables. Where possible, note if the URL is available. Consider adding your username to the 'votes' column.

====References to Slashdot, Beta, Dice, etc.====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| AltSlashot
| Alt/.
| altslashdot.org (registered by us)
| ''Trademark issues!''
|-
| AltSlash
| Alt/
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| AtSlash
| @/
|
| ''.org appears open. "I read it at atslashdotorg"''
|-
| ForkSlashdot
|
|
|
|-
| SlashFork
|
|
|
|-
| SlashNot
| /!
|
|
|-
| BackSlash
| \
|
| Slashdot actually has a subsection called 'backslash'.
|-
| KillDot
|
|
|
|-
| KillBeta
|
|
|
|-
| DieBetaDie
|
|
|
|-
| BetterThanBeta
|
|
|
|-
| NoDice
|
|
|
|-
| DiceToss
|
|
|
|-
| NoDiceAllowed
|
|
| Domain Available
-
| ColonSlash
|
|
| Because it looks funny (suggested on reddit)
|}

====Typographic/Computer Puns====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| '''''DotDotSlash'''''
| ../
|
| As in "cd ../" ... also implies going back or up a level
|-
| HashBash
| #!(/bin/bash)
|
|
|-
| HashBang
| #!
| URL taken (parked domain)
| Possible confusion with Crunchbang Linux?
|-
| HashDot
| #.
|
|
|-
| DotDot
| ..
|
|
|-
| NotDot
| !.
|
|
|-
| BangDot
| !.
|
|
|-
| BackDot
| \.
|
|
|-
| BangSlashDot
| !/.
| Available to us (registered by Slashdot user somenickname (184564)).
|
|-
| TildeDot
| ~.
|
|
|-
| BangPipe
| !|
|
|
|-
| SlashStar
| /*
|
|
|-
| SlashSlash
| //
|
|
|-
| ShebangShebang
| #!#!
|
|
|-
| CaretSlashSlashSlashDot
| ^\/\.
|
|
|-
| CaretDot
| ^.
|
|
|-
| SlashHash
| /#
|
|
|-
| PlusDot
| +.
|
|
|-
| BinBash
| /bin/bash
|
|
|-
| SlashUsr
| /usr
|
|
|-
| SlashHome
| /home
|
|
|-
| SlashVarLog
| /var/log
|
|
|-
| divergence
|
|
| The name represents how we're going in a new direction. Also, the symbol could be the mathematical divergence operator: a 'nabla' followed by a dot, which looks like an 'augmented' version of a slash followed by a dot.
|-
| HashTech
| #tech
|
| Has dual IRC and hastag meanings.
|-
| PlayAppStore
|
|
| "Slashdot" was meant to confuse neophytes reading it aloud; the modern equivalent would be calling a site something like "PlayAppStore".
|}

====Memes====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Rendering
! URL
! Comments/Votes
|-
| CowboyNeal
|
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| Natalie Portman
|
|
| ''Trademark issues?''
|-
| HotGrits
|
|
|
|-
| FrostyHotGrits
|
|
|
|-
| Cyborg Bill
|
|
| ''Was this the right term?''
|}

SoylentNews

2014-02-07T01:57:21Z

Hedgie:

'''A little less terrified...'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a couple of hours ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The summary of the financial model is: People who help run the site will get an annuity ''in perpetuity''. This means that the annuity will survive after the death of the recipient, it can be inherited, and so on.

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].

I'm particularly in need of people who can:

* Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c)
* Edit story submissions
* HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair

Is anyone really good at getting big packages up and running? Slashcode has not been updated in several years (as far as I can tell) and it may be a little clunky at first. It's based on MySql, Apache, and perl. I have "passing familiarity" with these, but an expert could probably blast through it in a couple of hours... Another issue might be security vulnerabilities. Anyone want to audit the code?

Contact me if interested

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==Status==

* We need a new name, see [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.
* We won't monetize our readers (ie - we won't sell contact info to spammers)
* The site is intended to make money - in the same way Slashdot does (ads, merchandise, job postings)

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==

* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost
* I'm wading through SlashCode, learning the install procedures.

==ToDo==

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==

*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]

That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==
*Wait, I just read about slashcott! Are you saying you're all going to be gone on Feb 10-17?? Oh my, glory, glory days, we can actually read stories without being bombarded with you idiots blathering on about your principled stances about whitespace and font kerning.

* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think.--[[User:Hedgie|Hedgie]] ([[User talk:Hedgie|talk]]) 18:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

== Less Political Bullshit ==

Will your site have less global warming bs on it? That would be an improvement...

I think the climate change discussions land pretty squarely in the Science area. It's only "Political Bullshit" when people move it that way. - Cactus

It wouldn't be slashdot without hot-button topics generating hundreds of posts in areas on the more political charged side of science (global warming, nuclear energy, weapons, evolution, etc.)

[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080229083202/girlgenius/images/8/86/Dimoportrait.jpg|Yez!]

''Slashdot might cave and go back to the original layout, so where would that leave us?''

''I've noticed that the quality of articles on Slashdot has gone down a lot in recent years. Even if Slashdot goes back to the original format, I think we can make a much better site by having better articles.''

''I've some ideas on how to do this, but right now I'm pressed for time. Perhaps someone could start a separate discussion page for submission guidelines?'' - [[Submission_guidelines|here]]

:Yeah... no, your petty political censorship won't make for a better site. Thanks. [[Special:Contributions/159.45.129.14|159.45.129.14]] 14:42, 6 February 2014 (MST)

It used to be that slashdot had a 3 point system for categories. Show all, some, or none of each individual category. I think that's been lost over the years. Include whatever you want, just give me a way to filter it out. It looks like even real slashdot has lost that as time went by.

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==

Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23

== Features ==
What features worked and what features did not work during the lifetime of Slashdot? I would like to create a section about this but there's no link to do so.

IE: Feature that worked was the karma system allowed users to voluntarily disable the advertisement, made them feel happy even though it did nothing different for the business.

Feature that did not work: Adding a sponsored poll / slashvertising

SoylentNews

2014-02-07T01:34:17Z

Hedgie: /* Comments */

'''A little less terrified...'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a couple of hours ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The summary of the financial model is: People who help run the site will get an annuity ''in perpetuity''. This means that the annuity will survive after the death of the recipient, it can be inherited, and so on.

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].

I'm particularly in need of people who can:

* Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c)
* Edit story submissions
* HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair

Is anyone really good at getting big packages up and running? Slashcode has not been updated in several years (as far as I can tell) and it may be a little clunky at first. It's based on MySql, Apache, and perl. I have "passing familiarity" with these, but an expert could probably blast through it in a couple of hours... Another issue might be security vulnerabilities. Anyone want to audit the code?

Contact me if interested

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

General Slashdot Discussion:
Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org.
Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==Status==

* We need a new name, see [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.
* We won't monetize our readers (ie - we won't sell contact info to spammers)
* The site is intended to make money - in the same way Slashdot does (ads, merchandise, job postings)

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==

* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost
* I'm wading through SlashCode, learning the install procedures.

==ToDo==

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==

*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]

That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==
* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think.--[[User:Hedgie|Hedgie]] ([[User talk:Hedgie|talk]]) 18:34, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

== Less Political Bullshit ==

Will your site have less global warming bs on it? That would be an improvement...

I think the climate change discussions land pretty squarely in the Science area. It's only "Political Bullshit" when people move it that way. - Cactus

It wouldn't be slashdot without hot-button topics generating hundreds of posts in areas on the more political charged side of science (global warming, nuclear energy, weapons, evolution, etc.)

[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080229083202/girlgenius/images/8/86/Dimoportrait.jpg|Yez!]

''Slashdot might cave and go back to the original layout, so where would that leave us?''

''I've noticed that the quality of articles on Slashdot has gone down a lot in recent years. Even if Slashdot goes back to the original format, I think we can make a much better site by having better articles.''

''I've some ideas on how to do this, but right now I'm pressed for time. Perhaps someone could start a separate discussion page for submission guidelines?'' - [[Submission_guidelines|here]]

:Yeah... no, your petty political censorship won't make for a better site. Thanks. [[Special:Contributions/159.45.129.14|159.45.129.14]] 14:42, 6 February 2014 (MST)

It used to be that slashdot had a 3 point system for categories. Show all, some, or none of each individual category. I think that's been lost over the years. Include whatever you want, just give me a way to filter it out. It looks like even real slashdot has lost that as time went by.

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==

Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23

SoylentNews

2014-02-07T01:32:16Z

Hedgie: /* IRC */

'''A little less terrified...'''

I'm building a news site alternative to Slashdot. I've only started a couple of hours ago, this wiki is a temporary measure so that volunteers can coordinate and others can see what's happening.

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be - better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

The summary of the financial model is: People who help run the site will get an annuity ''in perpetuity''. This means that the annuity will survive after the death of the recipient, it can be inherited, and so on.

The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
Some business planning is [[Business|here]].

I'm particularly in need of people who can:

* Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c)
* Edit story submissions
* HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair

Is anyone really good at getting big packages up and running? Slashcode has not been updated in several years (as far as I can tell) and it may be a little clunky at first. It's based on MySql, Apache, and perl. I have "passing familiarity" with these, but an expert could probably blast through it in a couple of hours... Another issue might be security vulnerabilities. Anyone want to audit the code?

Contact me if interested

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

General Slashdot Discussion:
Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org.
Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion:
Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

==Status==

* We need a new name, see [[NewName|New name discussion]]
* Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
* We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.
* We won't monetize our readers (ie - we won't sell contact info to spammers)
* The site is intended to make money - in the same way Slashdot does (ads, merchandise, job postings)

Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]

==Done==

* Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
* Purchased hosting through BlueHost
* I'm wading through SlashCode, learning the install procedures.

==ToDo==

* Install SlashCode on the production site
* Get some people to help with the site
* Run a contest for a better name
* Incorporate
* Consult a lawyer
* How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
* Find and submit some stories
* Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
* Profit! ???

== List of Discussion Pages ==

*[[Finances|Finances]]
*[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
*[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
*[[Business|Business]]
*[[NewName|NewName]]

That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.

== Comments ==
* I'm a professional web developer and can help. I was about to register a domain on my VPS to start something like this. If you want, I'll do what I can to help. I've built a few CMS from scratch and am downloading slashcode right now. Incidentally I'm a hybrid as I am also a digital artist (namely in UI). We need an IRC channel to talk about this I think. - Hedgie --[[Special:Contributions/180.194.245.249|180.194.245.249]] 18:04, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I don't know about other people, but I think I would be more liable to stick with an alternative if it scraped content from original /. in addition to whatever else you do. [[Special:Contributions/173.13.21.65|173.13.21.65]] 09:21, 6 February 2014 (MST)

''I'm against this. I don't consider it fair - they've put a lot of effort into building up their brand and community. If we are to succeed, we need to do it on our own merits."

** Scraping bad. Having editors dotted around the timezones that create their own better versions of the summaries, even if they contain just the same links as the /. story that inspired them, not bad. [[User:FatPhil|FatPhil]] ([[User talk:FatPhil|talk]]) 14:14, 6 February 2014 (MST)

** Agree with scraping bad. The general trend for the summaries has gone downhill badly over the past few years so better to have editors (re-)publish articles even if they use the same (or better) links ([[User:Qwade|Qwade]])

* Maybe a wiki is the best way to do this? I see you've started with slashcode, but that might be a misstep. You have noticed by now that slashcode hasn't been updated in many years, hence it will be way behind the current slashdot. I think you might be better off hacking a wiki into slashdot-style functionality.

''I agree, this may be a misstep (and this occurred to me independently of your note). My best guess is to attempt installing slashcode and see where that goes, and try for a new system if it's unworkable. We'll see.''

**[[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikinews]] is Wikimedia's attempt to turn a wiki in to a news site. Not sure how easy that would be to mold in to a more Slashdotty site

* If you don't want to use the old slashcode, have you considered looking at '''discourse''' as the site server? AFAICT, it's a reasonably new project which being developed intended to address the authors' perceived flaws in the status-quo of forum software. It's written in JavaScript, but it might serve as a starting point for a new codebase, or worth a look to get some inspiration:
** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
** https://github.com/discourse/discourse

* '''Do this as a non-profit, user-run organization please'''. From what you write it looks like you want replace the regime, not giving the users the control over the website. Why should we trust you not to sell the website to a DICE-like company after it becomes successful? I applaud your efforts to change things, but I really believe that a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Organization Debian Project] like institution that is both non-commercial and controlled/run by the community has a much higher chance of securing the goals we fight for right now in the long-term. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?

* see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.

'''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''

''You make some good points.''

''In my experience, community-driven projects don't usually do well. This is not to say that no such projects succeed, but the balance of probability does not favor group management.''

''There is a wide selection of projects which are successful because one person had a vision and the drive to make that vision happen - every successful business starts this way.''

''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''

''As far as selling the website, it's crossed my mind. I don't want to "sell out" and destroy the community, but it would be nice to have an "exit strategy". Commenting on Slashdot fun, but doing it as a day job will probably get tedious.''

''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''

* (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)

* Additional points: Make the whole website (including stories/comments) available under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-SA] to retain the [http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/RightToFork right to fork]. You should also reconsider the name. I imagine "AltSlashdot" could get you into all sorts of legal trouble, since it is very close to the "Slashdot" trademark. --[[Special:Contributions/141.84.69.20|141.84.69.20]] 03:20, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.

''It's fixed now - please try again.''

''(I created the E-mails through the registrar and tested them. When I pointed the DNS to BlueHost the E-mail target changed along with the web. Didn't expect that to change, so never bothered to check after initial test.)''

* Attempt to '''coordinate and combine''' the parallel efforts. E.g. Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~dotancohen dotancohen] has [http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757151&cid=46171009 apparently] registered the domain "slashdotan" and is looking to build a new Slashdot there. There are probably a dozen people hacking away separately on similar efforts. Competition is probably good, but combining efforts should be considered. --Slashdot user [http://slashdot.org/~JustinOpinion JustinOpinion].

* [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help

* I'm the dotancohen mentioned by JustinOpinion. I have some limited experience with Amazon Web Services to run cloud servers for sites with very dynamic load profiles. Altslashdot seems like the perfect application of that technology, as we can expect to get slashdotted at any time. I also agree that we should coordinate efforts, as the whole premise is to keep the /. community together. [[User:Dotancohen|Dotancohen]] ([[User talk:Dotancohen|talk]]) 08:38, 6 February 2014 (MST)

* Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]

== Less Political Bullshit ==

Will your site have less global warming bs on it? That would be an improvement...

I think the climate change discussions land pretty squarely in the Science area. It's only "Political Bullshit" when people move it that way. - Cactus

It wouldn't be slashdot without hot-button topics generating hundreds of posts in areas on the more political charged side of science (global warming, nuclear energy, weapons, evolution, etc.)

[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080229083202/girlgenius/images/8/86/Dimoportrait.jpg|Yez!]

''Slashdot might cave and go back to the original layout, so where would that leave us?''

''I've noticed that the quality of articles on Slashdot has gone down a lot in recent years. Even if Slashdot goes back to the original format, I think we can make a much better site by having better articles.''

''I've some ideas on how to do this, but right now I'm pressed for time. Perhaps someone could start a separate discussion page for submission guidelines?'' - [[Submission_guidelines|here]]

:Yeah... no, your petty political censorship won't make for a better site. Thanks. [[Special:Contributions/159.45.129.14|159.45.129.14]] 14:42, 6 February 2014 (MST)

It used to be that slashdot had a 3 point system for categories. Show all, some, or none of each individual category. I think that's been lost over the years. Include whatever you want, just give me a way to filter it out. It looks like even real slashdot has lost that as time went by.

== IRC ==
General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient

AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/

== Banned ==

Anyone else get banned from Slashdot? I did a few 'Fuck Beta' posts and a Beta submission, and apparently this was enough to get a temporary ban. - Robotron23