Quote from earlier thread that did not get greenlit:
I would tender a realistic offer if such were possible, It would be nice to have it in user control mode again. All staff would be fired immediately and the place would be run on a volunteer basis. Income (after paying back the purchase price) would go solely to the updating of the site. I would work on automating listings based on the firehose as the default with moderators being able to change that. I would get rid of the silly post limit. Any income lef
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @04:14PM (#50199279)
You've basically just described SoylentNews, a Slashdot clone that appeared when the Slashdot Beta shit really started heating up.
And you know what? I think it's clear that it's an absolute hell-hole that's worse than Slashdot today, even!
That community is small. It's small because many of the regular users there are best described as obnoxious extremists. They naturally drive away most normal users with their toxicity.
The few remaining normal users tend to get modded out of the community quite quickly, merely for daring to express ideas that the extremists dislike.
The submissions are affected, too. Many of them are pretty much identical copies of submissions that appeared on Slashdot hours or days earlier. The original submissions are typically from the extremists, and usually focus on some obscure and minor political controversy somewhere, typically without any relevant connection to science, or mathematics, or technology, or computing, or software. Good stories don't have a chance at making the front page there.
We don't need the same sort of toxic environment developing here at Slashdot. As bad as things may seem here, they are nowhere near as bad as at SoylentNews, in my view. At least there are some normal users here. Letting the extremists run the show here, too, would just drive away these normal users, resulting in yet another imbalanced, biased environment where moderation is used to attack people with original or controversial opinions.
Nah, we'd already be starting with the community and not from scratch. The goal would be keeping folks happy by providing them what they wanted and leaving it at that. I am a member at Soylent though I have not gone in ages. I do not think it would be anything like that. I mostly believe this because it is not a starting community but a community as a whole.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @05:38PM (#50199913)
Looks like somebody's afraid of Soylent News. Your +5 post seemingly came out of nowhere, with no prompting. How about letting your users go there and see for themselves just how "extremist" it is?
" And you know what? I think it's clear that it's an absolute hell-hole that's worse than Slashdot today, even! "
No flags, no articles masquerading as stories, no users who are corporate sockpuppets as there are here.
" That community is small. It's small because many of the regular users there are best described as obnoxious extremists. They naturally drive away most normal users with their toxicity. "
It's small because the users are real, not corporate sockpuppets, and the community is still growing. It has a long way to go but it's already better than this place.
" The few remaining normal users tend to get modded out of the community quite quickly, merely for daring to express ideas that the extremists dislike. "
People don't get modded out of the community. They may be modded down, like here, but SN doesn't permaban people for expressing unpopular opinion like Slashdot does.
" The submissions are affected, too. Many of them are pretty much identical copies of submissions that appeared on Slashdot hours or days earlier. The original submissions are typically from the extremists, and usually focus on some obscure and minor political controversy somewhere, typically without any relevant connection to science, or mathematics, or technology, or computing, or software. Good stories don't have a chance at making the front page there. "
There is some overlap, but the more political stories encourage discussion from all (dissenting viewpoints included) and your assertion that stories are not about math/tech/computing/software are complete bullshit. As examples, this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] and this [soylentnews.org] all in the past 2 days alone.
" We don't need the same sort of toxic environment developing here at Slashdot. As bad as things may seem here, they are nowhere near as bad as at SoylentNews, in my view. At least there are some normal users here. Letting the extremists run the show here, too, would just drive away these normal users, resulting in yet another imbalanced, biased environment where moderation is used to attack people with original or controversial opinions."
There are plenty of "normal" users at Soylent News, in not only the unextreme sense but the "real-and-not-a-corporate-sockpuppet" sense. And most importantly, there aren't any corporate sponsors or advertisers who have a stake in deciding what can or can't go into and be modded down in the discussions. Now, whether or not SN will sell out to Dice in another 15 years, I can't say. What I can say is that a lot of the assertions you are making are bullshit, and you should leave it up to the few remaining non-corporate-sockpuppet users you have to decide for themselves.
Signed, -- A Longtime Slashdot and now Soylent News Reader
I would mostly agree with parent. Soylent is fine execpt the community isnt big enough so the comments are barely there or worth reading, the name is kind of bad and the stories are routinely just old enough to be yesterdays news on Slashdot or Hacker news.
Their Twitter feed, which is where I get my news feeds, also puts these really annoying lame "from the deptâ attempts at humor in the tweets instead of just the title of the story and the link:
You have to admit, your post does sound a little, well, angry and extremist.
How about letting your users go there and see for themselves just how "extremist" it is?
Do... do we have some way of stopping them?
People don't get modded out of the community. They may be modded down, like here, but SN doesn't permaban people for expressing unpopular opinion like Slashdot does.
I think what he meant is that people get tired of being modded down all the time and leave.
What I can say is that a lot of the assertions you are making are bullshit, and you should leave it up to the few remaining non-corporate-sockpuppet users you have to decide for themselves.
Now you have to admit, this smells of extremism. The hostility. The defensiveness. The strong emotional statements that don't seem based in reality. OTOH, I'm almost certainly a corporate shill who can be ignored? Because Slashdot.
Soylent got really bad for a while, with the MRAs and other right-wingers in full control, but it's got a lot better lately too. In fact, in some ways it's actually better than Slashdot for some types of story. For example, there was a recent story where GamerGate came up, and people were able to post about the harassment without being modded into oblivion.
It's a young site, there are growing pains, but it's certainly nothing like as bad as 8chan/4chan/the depths of Reddit, or even Slashdot on a bad day.
You've basically just described SoylentNews, a Slashdot clone that appeared when the Slashdot Beta shit really started heating up.
SoylentNews never aspired to be anything like slashdot. Instead NCommander stated clearly "SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism", which just resulted in it becoming HuffingtonPost with discussion, instead of a/. replacement.
The only direct replacement for/. that appeared was PipeDot. "pipedot intends to be a better slashdot". https://pipedot.org/comment/2C... [pipedot.org] Unfortunately, the word hardly got out, and readership over there is pretty low.
SoylentNews never aspired to be anything like slashdot. Instead NCommander stated clearly "SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism", which just resulted in it becoming HuffingtonPost with discussion, instead of a/. replacement.
So it's like DailyKos, only with SlashCode instead of Scoop?
"SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism"
"Journalists" are the people who flunked out of Calculus, and couldn't get admitted to the English Department. So they transferred to J-School, where hanging out at the Lit Tables in the student union (No Nukes!, etc.) counts as homework.
Really?
Can't say as I've had the same experience. The site is pretty small compared to slashdot. Are you thinking of pipedot? (disclaimer: I haven't looked at pipedot in a good few months and have no idea how things are there ATM; they may be awesome, they may not. Check that out too!)
Anyway, feel free to test the waters at soylentnews.org
If your personal experience is that it's as bad as this AC suggest, just delete your account and don't go there again. Simple.
It strikes me that the userbase of SN has a very strong international makeup, with a substantial portion having a pronounced anti-US viewpoint. SD seems largely US or at least pro-US, and also a fair representation of right-of-center viewpoints. On SN you're some kind of weirdo if you don't join the mob raking the US over the coals for everything. Moderation reflects this bias.
But SN has a better ratio of signal to noise, and a higher user IQ, or at least far fewer assholes with an IQ of 50 or under.
I definitely enjoy the differing opinions on Slashdot and hope that doesn't change.
If an article about some controversial subject comes up, you can be sure that people from both sides will post their views. If, for example, the subject is gun control in the US, you'll have one post from someone proclaiming the Second Amendment as sacred and not to be trampled upon by the federal government, another post from someone calling on the feds to round up all guns and melt them into a giant "peace sign" statue", a
Whenever the subject is gun control in the US comes up, I skip over it the next submission. Same arguments being made on the same sides. People talking past each other. Same goes for most politics stories. Not just this, but I come here for news for nerds stuff, not what political person said about another political person.
You've basically just described SoylentNews, a Slashdot clone that appeared when the Slashdot Beta shit really started heating up.
And you know what? I think it's clear that it's an absolute hell-hole that's worse than Slashdot today, even!
That community is small. It's small because many of the regular users there are best described as obnoxious extremists. They naturally drive away most normal users with their toxicity.
Then it's not really a slashdot clone (assuming what you say is true). I mean, the site may be a clone, but for most of us the community is what makes it what it is. Without the community, the thing as a whole is not a clone.
I can second this-- this has been my experience as well. Its not really that they are socialist extremists, but, their intolerance of anyone who is not.
"The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of
course you never do."
-- Gregory Bateson
Can the new buyer be worse than DICE? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
One can only hope that things will get better.
Re: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Quote from earlier thread that did not get greenlit:
I would tender a realistic offer if such were possible, It would be nice to have it in user control mode again. All staff would be fired immediately and the place would be run on a volunteer basis. Income (after paying back the purchase price) would go solely to the updating of the site. I would work on automating listings based on the firehose as the default with moderators being able to change that. I would get rid of the silly post limit. Any income lef
You just described SoylentNews. (Score:5, Interesting)
You've basically just described SoylentNews, a Slashdot clone that appeared when the Slashdot Beta shit really started heating up.
And you know what? I think it's clear that it's an absolute hell-hole that's worse than Slashdot today, even!
That community is small. It's small because many of the regular users there are best described as obnoxious extremists. They naturally drive away most normal users with their toxicity.
The few remaining normal users tend to get modded out of the community quite quickly, merely for daring to express ideas that the extremists dislike.
The submissions are affected, too. Many of them are pretty much identical copies of submissions that appeared on Slashdot hours or days earlier. The original submissions are typically from the extremists, and usually focus on some obscure and minor political controversy somewhere, typically without any relevant connection to science, or mathematics, or technology, or computing, or software. Good stories don't have a chance at making the front page there.
We don't need the same sort of toxic environment developing here at Slashdot. As bad as things may seem here, they are nowhere near as bad as at SoylentNews, in my view. At least there are some normal users here. Letting the extremists run the show here, too, would just drive away these normal users, resulting in yet another imbalanced, biased environment where moderation is used to attack people with original or controversial opinions.
Re: (Score:1)
Nah, we'd already be starting with the community and not from scratch. The goal would be keeping folks happy by providing them what they wanted and leaving it at that. I am a member at Soylent though I have not gone in ages. I do not think it would be anything like that. I mostly believe this because it is not a starting community but a community as a whole.
Re:You just described SoylentNews. (Score:4, Interesting)
Looks like somebody's afraid of Soylent News. Your +5 post seemingly came out of nowhere, with no prompting. How about letting your users go there and see for themselves just how "extremist" it is?
No flags, no articles masquerading as stories, no users who are corporate sockpuppets as there are here.
It's small because the users are real, not corporate sockpuppets, and the community is still growing. It has a long way to go but it's already better than this place.
People don't get modded out of the community. They may be modded down, like here, but SN doesn't permaban people for expressing unpopular opinion like Slashdot does.
There is some overlap, but the more political stories encourage discussion from all (dissenting viewpoints included) and your assertion that stories are not about math/tech/computing/software are complete bullshit. As examples, this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] this, [soylentnews.org] and this [soylentnews.org] all in the past 2 days alone.
There are plenty of "normal" users at Soylent News, in not only the unextreme sense but the "real-and-not-a-corporate-sockpuppet" sense. And most importantly, there aren't any corporate sponsors or advertisers who have a stake in deciding what can or can't go into and be modded down in the discussions. Now, whether or not SN will sell out to Dice in another 15 years, I can't say. What I can say is that a lot of the assertions you are making are bullshit, and you should leave it up to the few remaining non-corporate-sockpuppet users you have to decide for themselves.
Signed,
-- A Longtime Slashdot and now Soylent News Reader
Re: (Score:3)
I would mostly agree with parent. Soylent is fine execpt the community isnt big enough so the comments are barely there or worth reading, the name is kind of bad and the stories are routinely just old enough to be yesterdays news on Slashdot or Hacker news.
Their Twitter feed, which is where I get my news feeds, also puts these really annoying lame "from the deptâ attempts at humor in the tweets instead of just the title of the story and the link:
Razer Acquires Ouya Software Assets, Ditches Hardware fr
Re: (Score:2)
Would you mind translating that drivel into something intelligible? Did you bother previewing?
Re:You just described SoylentNews. (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to admit, your post does sound a little, well, angry and extremist.
How about letting your users go there and see for themselves just how "extremist" it is?
Do... do we have some way of stopping them?
People don't get modded out of the community. They may be modded down, like here, but SN doesn't permaban people for expressing unpopular opinion like Slashdot does.
I think what he meant is that people get tired of being modded down all the time and leave.
What I can say is that a lot of the assertions you are making are bullshit, and you should leave it up to the few remaining non-corporate-sockpuppet users you have to decide for themselves.
Now you have to admit, this smells of extremism. The hostility. The defensiveness. The strong emotional statements that don't seem based in reality. OTOH, I'm almost certainly a corporate shill who can be ignored? Because Slashdot.
Re: (Score:1)
Soylent got really bad for a while, with the MRAs and other right-wingers in full control, but it's got a lot better lately too. In fact, in some ways it's actually better than Slashdot for some types of story. For example, there was a recent story where GamerGate came up, and people were able to post about the harassment without being modded into oblivion.
It's a young site, there are growing pains, but it's certainly nothing like as bad as 8chan/4chan/the depths of Reddit, or even Slashdot on a bad day.
Re:You just described SoylentNews. (Score:5, Informative)
SoylentNews never aspired to be anything like slashdot. Instead NCommander stated clearly "SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism", which just resulted in it becoming HuffingtonPost with discussion, instead of a /. replacement.
The only direct replacement for /. that appeared was PipeDot. "pipedot intends to be a better slashdot". https://pipedot.org/comment/2C... [pipedot.org] Unfortunately, the word hardly got out, and readership over there is pretty low.
Re: (Score:1)
SoylentNews never aspired to be anything like slashdot. Instead NCommander stated clearly "SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism", which just resulted in it becoming HuffingtonPost with discussion, instead of a /. replacement.
So it's like DailyKos, only with SlashCode instead of Scoop?
Re: (Score:1)
"SoylentNews intends to be a source of journalism"
"Journalists" are the people who flunked out of Calculus, and couldn't get admitted to the English Department. So they transferred to J-School, where hanging out at the Lit Tables in the student union (No Nukes!, etc.) counts as homework.
Re: (Score:2)
Soylent News seems to be a Fark/Reddit replacement with Slashdot moderation.
I want a Slashdot replacement (news for nerds) with Slashdot moderation.
Re: (Score:2)
I just read through the comments (only 16...) on an article about smart meters there.
The comments seemed pretty similar to here, but sparse. In any case, I signed up for an account because "yet another site sale."
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It strikes me that the userbase of SN has a very strong international makeup, with a substantial portion having a pronounced anti-US viewpoint. SD seems largely US or at least pro-US, and also a fair representation of right-of-center viewpoints. On SN you're some kind of weirdo if you don't join the mob raking the US over the coals for everything. Moderation reflects this bias.
But SN has a better ratio of signal to noise, and a higher user IQ, or at least far fewer assholes with an IQ of 50 or under.
Both si
Re: (Score:2)
I definitely enjoy the differing opinions on Slashdot and hope that doesn't change.
If an article about some controversial subject comes up, you can be sure that people from both sides will post their views. If, for example, the subject is gun control in the US, you'll have one post from someone proclaiming the Second Amendment as sacred and not to be trampled upon by the federal government, another post from someone calling on the feds to round up all guns and melt them into a giant "peace sign" statue", a
Re: (Score:1)
We were all, at one point anyways, nerds on Slashdot. Nerds first, and anything else besides.
That's changed somewhat as Slashdot became perceived as being an 'IT' site. But it still holds in the best threads and topics.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You've basically just described SoylentNews, a Slashdot clone that appeared when the Slashdot Beta shit really started heating up.
And you know what? I think it's clear that it's an absolute hell-hole that's worse than Slashdot today, even!
That community is small. It's small because many of the regular users there are best described as obnoxious extremists. They naturally drive away most normal users with their toxicity.
Then it's not really a slashdot clone (assuming what you say is true). I mean, the site may be a clone, but for most of us the community is what makes it what it is. Without the community, the thing as a whole is not a clone.
Re: (Score:2)
I can second this-- this has been my experience as well. Its not really that they are socialist extremists, but, their intolerance of anyone who is not.