SoylentNews May Not Be Shutting Down June 30th (soylentnews.org) 47
After announcing a shutdown, SoylentNews' NCommander has "had very long discussions with a member of the community...who has been negotiating to try and keep SoylentNews operational, and help provide a realistic plan for both rebuilding the site, and migration..."
He has offered help in the form of hosting, capital, and helping coding a replacement for rehash. He has convinced me that there are enough people in the community that it might be possible to pay down the technical debt.
I was asked to formally take the gun off SN's head, since it doesn't help recruit volunteers if there's a death sentence.
I am more than a little reluctance to do this, simply on the basis that there has been a long history on this site of saying "we'll do X", and then X never happens. The situation was also discussed prior with Matt, and quite a few other people before I finally made the decision after it became clear to me that the situation had become completely untenable. I spent weeks looking for an alternative before I finally resided myself that there were no other viable options. But sometimes you can be wrong, and sometimes you can get outside help.
One of my cited reasons for shutting down SN was that calls for help were left unanswered. However, said call finally got answered and came at the 11th hour, and as an unsolicited DM by someone who wanted to see the site go on. We have been discussing this at length since Monday, in a conversation that at this point has been longer than everything said in a private, staff channel for the last six months. So, I accept the possibility I can be wrong. More specifically, I hope I am wrong.
So, ultimately, I will put my faith in someone I have never met before. It might be absurd sounding, but that is ultimately how SN started. A bunch of people who never met coming together to make a replacement for Slashdot.
There's more details in NCommander's post, but it ultimately announces "I will take steps to keep SoylentNews going past the 30th...
"I guess we'll see if miracles happen twice.
I was asked to formally take the gun off SN's head, since it doesn't help recruit volunteers if there's a death sentence.
I am more than a little reluctance to do this, simply on the basis that there has been a long history on this site of saying "we'll do X", and then X never happens. The situation was also discussed prior with Matt, and quite a few other people before I finally made the decision after it became clear to me that the situation had become completely untenable. I spent weeks looking for an alternative before I finally resided myself that there were no other viable options. But sometimes you can be wrong, and sometimes you can get outside help.
One of my cited reasons for shutting down SN was that calls for help were left unanswered. However, said call finally got answered and came at the 11th hour, and as an unsolicited DM by someone who wanted to see the site go on. We have been discussing this at length since Monday, in a conversation that at this point has been longer than everything said in a private, staff channel for the last six months. So, I accept the possibility I can be wrong. More specifically, I hope I am wrong.
So, ultimately, I will put my faith in someone I have never met before. It might be absurd sounding, but that is ultimately how SN started. A bunch of people who never met coming together to make a replacement for Slashdot.
There's more details in NCommander's post, but it ultimately announces "I will take steps to keep SoylentNews going past the 30th...
"I guess we'll see if miracles happen twice.
Untitled (Score:1)
that is ultimately how SN started. A bunch of people who never met coming together to make a replacement for Slashdot.
I hadn't known about this site before the /. news popped up.
After briefly visiting it, as a new visitor, all I can say is it looked like a badly written, largely abandoned clone of Slashdot. I looked at polls and made me chuckle. "When do you take down the Christmas tree?". Wow.
I also created an account, my account ID is 29769. I would assume that's how many registered members exist on that website after... 30 years.
Apologies if I offend anyone, but I don't think the world would lose much if the website dis
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Untitled (Score:5, Funny)
Are you trying to insinuate the SolentNews web site we all saw spawn and grow in 2016... is 30 years old?
It's what ChatGPT told him.
Re: (Score:2)
My bad, I must have misread this text: "I will take steps to keep SoylentNews going past the 30th..." - and my brain autocompleted with "year", while it should have autocompleted with "...of the month".
Still, the point stands, including that small correction. 7 years old website with 304 visitors per month. Not looking good.
There is an Internet-wide change (Score:2)
Discussion forums are shrinking and closing all over.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, and it sucks.
Everybody and their dog moved to Facebook groups, because it's cheaper, and much worse too.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Untitled (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
All of those, while nice things, seem to be stuff nobody deeply cares about, otherwise everyone would have switched already.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
After briefly visiting it, as a new visitor, all I can say is it looked like a badly written, largely abandoned clone of Slashdot.
Eh, AFAIK it's a fork of slashcode that fixes things like UTF8 support. It spawned off when Slashdot tried to replace the desktop site with that beta everybody hated (the mobile version now).
Re: (Score:2)
SN sprang up because of the slashdot beta debacle. Same with pipedot which saw even less traffic and folded up years ago.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
I read and posted on SN for a while, but eventually, I found the relentless posting from the MAGA-types to be too much to stomach and I stopped going there.
Before I left, there was also frequent criticism of /..
Look at the comment count of many of the stories on SN. If it goes away, IMHO, little will be lost.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I read and posted on SN for a while, but eventually, I found the relentless posting from the MAGA-types to be too much to stomach and I stopped going there.
That was what drove me off, too. I only wish the MAGA-types from here would fuck off to there where they could be happy with their own kind.
Re: (Score:1)
I only wish people that disagree with my political opinions would fuck off so I no longer asked to justify my inane views.
And it would have been very honest of you to say so, but instead you went full hypocrite and suggested that you don't feel that way.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I am not the one wishing for people I disagree with to get removed from this site.
You are the one who can't read.
I said I wished they would leave, not be removed.
Your kind never could tell the difference between a voluntary action and force.
Re: (Score:2)
I said I wished they would leave, not be removed.
No, you called to action. It was clear that you wished someone made them leave. It was thinly disguised call for bans.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you called to action.
I called them to action. Learn to read.
It was clear that you wished someone made them leave.
I said no such thing. Learn to read.
It was thinly disguised call for bans.
I'm sure it would have been if you'd said it, because that's how your kind always operates. Cry about being canceled while trying to cancel everyone. You have no self-awareness, that's why you think it's a good idea to treat everyone like shit and then cry when they return the favor.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I found the relentless posting from the MAGA-types to be too much to stomach and I stopped going there.
So you will only patronize sites that will enforce your political ideology?
It's not ideology (Score:2)
Whether the COVID vaccines had Phase III trial results published is an objective matter of fact.
For reference, my reading covers the range from Huff Post to The Dispatch, with frequent side trips to Reason. But I stick to places that squelch trolls.
I also like places that stay on topic. The SN trolls would barge into any discussion and try to take it over like bikers taking over a bar.
Re: (Score:2)
Whether the COVID vaccines had Phase III trial results published is an objective matter of fact.
Even that isn't a settled issue, but you wouldn't hear about that if you stay in the echo chamber. Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer's vaccine trial [bmj.com]
Re: (Score:2)
It's a problem with every new platform that pitches itself as a free speech paradise. Most people are happy with the amount of speech afforded by mainstream sites, and actually like that the worst stuff is removed or hidden so that the site doesn't turn into a hellscape.
Voat, Gab, Parler, and many more fell into that trap. SoylentNews too it seems. Slashdot is one of the few places that allows almost anything but somehow managed to avoid it, after a few very bad years.
Gresham's Law (Score:3)
Bad posters drive out good.
Anti-vax crap, even (Score:3)
It's a large world and trolls are inevitable but some things easily proven false got modded up.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course there was frequent criticism of /.. The site was created because of criticism of /..
And, yeah, I remember our discussions about what should be done about people saying things you disagreed with. You can play all virtuous and shit over here if you like but the truth is that over there you were asking us to create you an echo chamber by burning all heretics. You are not the good guy, you are a wannabe tyrant.
Re: (Score:2)
It’s not 30 years old and seems to have traffic in the ballpark of /. additionally the people running the site are a lot more active trying to keep things nice compared to here.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you sure?
https://app.neilpatel.com/en/t... [neilpatel.com]
versus
https://app.neilpatel.com/en/t... [neilpatel.com]
Slashdot: 408,305 organic visitors per month
SoylentNews: 304 organic visitors per month
Re: (Score:2)
Not really sure but slashdot probably has a lot of lurkers that have come here for years and stopped posting when the quality went to shit. Soylent probably doesn’t have many users like that.
Re: (Score:1)
Present
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Untitled (Score:4)
For better or for worse, the slashdot code on github is ~15 years old. There have been very few significant updates to slashdot (the current website here) in the past decade but there have been a few, and they've never made it to github.
Soylent started with a great idea. They wanted to take the slashcode, launch it, fork it, update it, and make a better site. That didn't pan out. As you noted there are very few users there, though the user base here has been shrinking for years.
It's probably time to shut down both sites and just let the users go other places. It's a mystery of the universe how slashdot itself keeps going, and who is paying the bills. Most users here have adblocking of some sort turned on, so they aren't seeing the ads for Chinese shopping sites and conservative fundraisers. To the best anyone can tell there hasn't been a programmer employed at slashdot in over a decade, so the code is never getting updated or maintained here either.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's probably time to shut down both sites and just let the users go other places
--Fark off, n00b. Slashdot may be practically unmaintained and lightly managed, but both sites clearly still have value.
Re: (Score:2)
It's probably time to shut down both sites and just let the users go other places
--Fark off, n00b. Slashdot may be practically unmaintained and lightly managed, but both sites clearly still have value.
How very kind of you. Based on your comment history it doesn't appear you come here very often, other than to yell at people you disagree with. Your 3 digit UID was significant when this site was still growing; it's been shrinking for well over a decade now and the prestige of being an early member is largely gone.
This place used to be a tech forum that occasionally had a few conservative rants. Now it's the other way around. 20 years ago we would have laughed at the thought that the banner ads wou
Re: (Score:2)
Reddit ate our lunch and ran off. If your goal is to be the last person here please don't forget to turn out the lights.
Reddit has its place, there are some decent niche hobbyist type subreddits out there, but for discussion of tech news its a cesspool of groupthink and karma whoring. The best thing slashdot ever did was cap moderation at -1 and +5.
Other things I like about slashdot are the lack of an edit feature, and the fact that it displays comments chronologically by default, not in order of some inane moderation score. Oh and it's text-only. You want to post an image, host it somewhere else and post a link. refreshingl
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdot may be practically unmaintained and lightly managed, but both sites clearly still have value.
That's part of its charm. We don't need aggressive management, and browsing text on the internet is mature tech and doesn't need bloated "upgrades." I'm happy with it being left alone.
SoylentNews site took me back to the 1980's... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)