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| '''A little less terrified...''' | | This is a home for information about how '''[http://soylentnews.org SoylentNews.org]''' was started, and the vision for it. |
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| 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.
| | ==About SoylentNews.org== |
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| | Welcome to the '''[http://soylentnews.org SoylentNews.org]''' Wiki. |
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| 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!
| | We deliver community-sourced news and discussion. This is an, grassroots effort powered by article submissions from our readers, volunteers, and our forked version of [https://github.com/SoylentNews/slashcode slashcode] called [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash 'Rehash']. We highlight stories on the web which are important to everyone - especially nerds. We also provide a soapbox for discussion moderated by the site's patrons, and allow anonymous discourse as there's no mandatory registration needed to comment. |
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| | We are mindful of community sentiment, and will not bend to overreaching corporate agenda. The goal is to be an excellent source for discussion and news about technology, art, science and politics. |
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| 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.
| | We've incorporated as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (similar to a non-profit) as we feel our mission to provide a platform for news dissemination and relevant discussion is not only essential for mankind, but also a legal right (i.e. freedom of press, freedom of speech) in some places, and these are liberties which we aim to protect. |
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| | Though the site is young and there are [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues bugs], we are improving and adapting to satisfy the community's needs. We look forward to pushing the boundaries of web experience and are committed to involving the community on all major decisions. |
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| The proposed business model is [[Finances|here]].
| | ==Get Involved== |
| Some business planning is [[Business|here]].
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| | This project is run entirely by the community and there are many ways to contribute. Here are some of the many ways to participate: |
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| I'm particularly in need of people who can:
| | *'''[http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl Submit a Story]''' |
| | ** Try joining the #rss-bot channel in [[SoylentNews:IRC|IRC]] for story ideas |
| | *'''Volunteer''' |
| | ** Get in touch with the '''[[Development|Development Team]]''', especially if you know perl |
| | ** Reach out to one of the other '''[[TeamPages|Teams]]''' (we have openings for many skill sets) |
| | ** Contact the relevant person: '''[[WhosWho| Who's Who?]]''' |
| | *Hop on to '''IRC:''' |
| | ** #Soylent on irc.soylentnews.org/6697 |
| | ** [https://chat.soylentnews.org/ Webchat] |
| | ** [[SoylentNews:IRC|IRC Wiki Page]] |
| | *'''Bugs''' and Features: |
| | ** [https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues/new Submit a bug or Feature Request] |
| | ** [[Suggestions|Add a Suggestion]] - larger projects to tackle for the future |
| | *'''Tell Somebody''' A friend, a colleague, any major news source.... |
| | ** Do what you can to [[Spreading the word|get the word out]] |
| | ** You could participate in [[The_Slashcott|The Slashcott]] |
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| * Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c)
| | ==Contacts== |
| * Edit story submissions
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| * HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair
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| | A list of people working on this project: |
| | ===[[WhosWho| Who's Who?]]=== |
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| 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?
| | == Useful Links == |
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| | *[[Submission guidelines]] - best practices for story submissions |
| | *[[Story Style]] - a guide for editors on article formatting |
| | *[[Development]] team page |
| | **[https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash Code Repo] - The Slashcode fork repository for this project on GitHub |
| | ** <strike>[[DevelopmentVMHowto]] - How to get our code setup in a VM</strike> |
| | ** [[SlashDocumentationIndex]] |
| | *[[UserExperience]] team page |
| | **[[Style]] - some of this info needs to be merged/moved/organized into/with [[UserExperience]] |
| | **[[CssWork]] |
| | * [[SystemAdministration|System Administration]] |
| | *[[Finances]] - Breakdown of our proposed spending |
| | *[[Licensing]] - ideas about which license to use for our slashcode fork |
| | *[[Staff_Meetings|Staff Meeting Logs]] |
| | *[[SoylentNews_PBC|SoylentNews PBC]] |
| | *[[SoylentNews_Site_Policy|SoylentNews Policy]] |
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| Contact me if interested
| | == Similar Projects == |
| | * [http://pipedot.org/ Pipedot] - A complete re-write that uses a modern codebase and sports a clean look |
| | * Usenet newsgroup comp.misc - [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.misc on Google Groups], [http://squte.com/ on Squte], [news:comp.misc via newsreader application] |
| | * [http://technocrat.net/ Technocrat] - (now defunt) News site presented by Bruce Perens |
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| John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org
| | == Archive == |
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| AltSlashdot Discussion:
| | [[Archive]] -- An archive of obsolete pages/discussions that occurred before launch |
| Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/
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| ==Status==
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| * We need a new name, see [[NewName|New name discussion]]
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| * Probably won't be non-profit, see [[Finances|business model]].
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| * We won't poach from Slashdot. This includes articles and logos, also "style" to a reasonable extent.
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| * We won't monetize our readers (ie - we won't sell contact info to spammers)
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| * The site is intended to make money - in the same way Slashdot does (ads, merchandise, job postings)
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| Mailing list update Messages are [[MailingListUpdates|here]]
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| ==Done==
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| * Registered "AltSlashdot.org", also ".com" and ".net".
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| * Purchased hosting through BlueHost
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| * I'm wading through SlashCode, learning the install procedures.
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| ==ToDo==
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| [[SlashcodeTodo|Slashcode Todo list]] | |
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| * Install SlashCode on the production site
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| * Get some people to help with the site
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| * Run a contest for a better name
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| * Incorporate
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| * Consult a lawyer
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| * How to handle Advertising (necessary evil) - Opt Out, Limited, Standard ??
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| * Find and submit some stories
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| * Improved Mod/Meta-Mod/Story-Selection system to minimize required editor input
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| * Profit! ???
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| == List of Discussion Pages ==
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| *[[Finances|Finances]]
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| *[[MailingListUpdates|MailingListUpdates]]
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| *[[Submission guidelines|Submission guidelines]]
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| *[[Business|Business]]
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| *[[NewName|NewName]]
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| *[[SlashcodeTodo|SlashcodeTodo]]
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| That's all I see at the moment, please add more as you start or find new pages.
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| == Comments ==
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| * 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.
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| * 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)
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| * 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)
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| ''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."
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| ** 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)
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| ** 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]])
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| * 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.
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| ''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.''
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| **[[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
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| * 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:
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| ** http://www.discourse.org/faq/
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| ** https://github.com/discourse/discourse
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| * '''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)
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| * I like the comment on a Debian like project organization, also, maybe we can create a freenode IRC channel to further organize?
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| * see Freenode, #slashdot-refugees for real time discussion.
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| '''UPDATE:''' ''My proposed [[Finances|business plan]] should allay these fears.''
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| ''You make some good points.''
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| ''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.''
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| ''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.''
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| ''I've run businesses that use a lot of volunteer help, so I've got some experience there.''
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| ''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.''
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| ''I don't know what the answer is - it's something that we'll have to work out.''
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| * (I put in a topic with a suggestion on the discussion page so this doesn't get too cluttered. ~ElectricTurtle)
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| * 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)
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| * John@AltSlashdot.org seems to be bouncing. I'd like to help.
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| ''It's fixed now - please try again.''
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| ''(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.)''
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| * 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].
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| * [https://github.com/digilord DigiLord] - I would like to help
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| * 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)
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| * Re: combining efforts. User somenickname (1270442) has registered bangslashdot.(org|net|com) [[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4757113&cid=46169131]]
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| * 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.
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| == IRC ==
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| General Slashdot Discussion: Come on IRC channel #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org. Or use the web client: http://www.slashnet.org/webclient
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| AltSlashdot Discussion: Head to IRC channel ##AltSlashdot on irc.freenode.net, Web client is here: https://webchat.freenode.net/
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| == Banned ==
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| == Features ==
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Feature that did not work: Adding a sponsored poll / slashvertising
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