Update: The staff is in conversation with the buyer right now. More to follow, but at this point it looks to be a benevolent benefactor from the community. More to follow as we get it.
SoylentNews community:
As you know, there is not a lot of information available right now. Barrabas reports that he has sold the Soylentnews.org and associated domain names, and successfully transferred them, but neither the buyer's name nor the terms of that sale have been disclosed. As spokesperson for the staff of the site during this time, we would like everyone to know the following:
Our current backup plan is to revert to the li694-22.members.linode.com where the site is actually hosted. If we need to go there for any reason, we will try to notify the site in advance. If it has to go down or we are forced down, we'll be there. We will rebuild the database with some downtime and work from there.
We will send out a mass email to all users from the database informing them of this step should we need to do so.
We do not plan to implement this yet. We (the staff) did not advocate the buyout, but will try and work with the buyer if possible. We do not know the terms on which the domain name was sold.
We the staff will still operate the site, in its current condition on linode, until the community can vote on a new name. Depending on the buyer, we hope we can consider keeping the name the same as an option.
Until we know more information, we would like everyone to remain calm, collected, and civil, while we sort through these issues. Thank you
~mattie_p
Related Stories
Update: 10 March 2014 20:20 UTC. Follow here for the latest.
Update: 10 March 2014 19:10 UTC.
At this point Barrabas reports he is exchanging email with the buyer but refuses to say anything. Until we hear from them, we have to hope for the best but plan for the worst. If this link goes down, please go to the linode site where we will regroup. We will use that link as a fallback if necessary.
Update: 10 March 2014 18:30 UTC.
Barrabas reports in IRC he has received funds for the site and has sold the domain name. The terms of this sale, as well as its buyer, have not been disclosed. We await additional information. If you have information on this, please contact us at admin @ soylentnews . org
Update: 10 March 2014 16:30 UTC.
Due to NCommander's personal involvement with the situation he is recusing himself from negotiations. I (Mattie_p) am currently working with the staff to figure out how to address this incident. We have posted a poll which is available and should show up shortly on the front page.
Original text:
We've been held hostage by John:
Working with NCommander
Am I The Bad Guy
Right now, I can't write a coherent response properly (I'm writing this from a Mac Store right now as some sort of response was necessary). Despite John's offer, we never used the Linode's he purchased for hosting slash, and the two services (forums and wiki) that were hosted on them were migrated. I had hoped that this would have been a private issue between me and John, to be handed by email with a proper agreement, but the site itself is now at risk.
Right now, I'm organizing a response with out staff now, but I won't be home for several hours so MrBluze is currently handling the crisis. He can hand off to mattie_p when he returns, or myself when I have proper net access again. John's offer does not reflect myself or any of the staff here, nor does he have what he says he has. The web server, dev server (fusion forge), and database were always hosted on Linode's on my personal account. John DID have access to the Linode account which was revoked when he left staff, but to my knowledge never had the root password or shell accounts on any of the boxes. That access was revoked. It is possible he has a copy of the database, I do not know for sure. He does not at this moment have access to any of the hardware powering the site. He does however control the DNS register and can possibly yank the site from under us. If that happens, I can send a mass email to every user account to inform them of what happened, and where we are now. We supposedly have until Friday until John drops everything in the trash unless someone pays him $2000 USD. As per the posts, I was willing to pay him, but I had some issue with the expenses as written (my emails are genuine, as is the email I received from John), but I'm currently in Asia, and have no practical way to send him a check until I return to the continental United States on Sunday; I informed John of this on IRC originally.
We're currently in scramble mode to try and organize a new name, and getting migrated as soon as possible. I was serious when I said I was done with the drama but it appears John isn't. I'm personally sorry to have to inflict this on the community, and if you wish to leave us, I shall not blame you in the slightest.
I promised that we, the staff, would provide a quick status report after all the drama on Monday. The site issues today delayed that, and I thank juggs in IRC for reminding me of my promise. We've been very transparent and we want to continue that trend. Most of the comments we've seen have been encouraging of this method. However, we hope the transparency will result in less drama and in more productivity in the future.
On Tuesday, 4 March 2014, Barrabas, the "Man Behind the Curtain" resigned from his position. In his resignation, he retained ownership of the domain Soylentnews.org and associated domain registrations, as well as certain accounts on linode.com, our host. (See our article on backup plans.) Read more inside.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by dast on Monday March 10 2014, @03:50PM
What's the real nature of the beef? What is B's issue? Just that he wants $$? Some deeper motive?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @03:54PM
something about centos,dicks and ubuntu
(Score: 1) by Taco Cowboy on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:26AM
When I first came here, I felt the name "soylentnews" was kinda awkward, I still do.
If there is going to be change, why don't we start a vote (community wise), for a more suitable name for this site ? After that, we can register for a domain, and stick with it.
That site will be owned by the community, run by the community, - and funded by the community.
No matter if it's centos, ubuntu or whatever, they are merely technical issues. What we need is a site that caters for the community, that's all !
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bryonak on Monday March 10 2014, @04:22PM
I've been around since day 1 on the Wiki and then IRC, but not actively involved (time constraints) so I'm not privy to all internal communication. Still, here's my take:
John Barrabas made clear that he wanted to run the site as a business, everyone was well aware of that, but almost nobody really agreed. Most people preferred a community driven, open leadership akin to the bazaar model.
John is (was) highly motivated and skilled enough both socially and technically to pull up quite an impressive organisation from ground up, but the people who followed were more skilled than him especially with technical regards, and soon got "authority by competence" say over where the project should go. This lead to conflicts with John's enterpreneurship.
There were some incidents like the CentOS vs. Ubuntu choice for the hosts, or the expenses for a gift for the most prolific technical contributor (NCommander), or the buying of .cn and .jp domain names without community feedback. But these are _not_ big problems in and of itself, it's rather that the trouble they caused were symtpoms of the clash between John loosing control over his baby to a majority of contributors who didn't like the direction he was going in, yet still came aboard, and started changing course. I'm fairly certain that up to yesterday, every decision he made was in good faith and supposed to help realise his vision of a $10m website. It's just not what his staff wanted.
John made concessions along the way and stepped down in the end, but in hindsight it's fairly clear that this constellation couldn't have worked anyway.
I hope this is a fair account towards John. He's definitely not a bad guy, though his knee-jerk reaction in the last hours, although born out of frustration, was immature. But I wish him the best in his research and thanks for all the hard work!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by song-of-the-pogo on Monday March 10 2014, @04:31PM
Thanks for what appears to be a fair and measured summary.
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by buswolley on Monday March 10 2014, @04:38PM
The thing is, I would not be against a profit driven website, if it respected the community.
subicular junctures
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @05:02PM
I would vote for nonprofit, but with staff drawing a fair wage for part-time or full-time contributions. Note this may need to include pay raises over time since no one should be stuck in a deadend job just to please me.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Kell on Monday March 10 2014, @06:46PM
I agree - we've all just been burned by a company that put profits ahead of its patrons (that's why we're here!) and I think few of us are willing to set ourselves up for the same damn thing to happen again. Bizarrely, that tree has bourne its awkward fruit sooner rather than anyone expected.
Scientists point out problems. Engineers fix them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Non Sequor on Monday March 10 2014, @07:28PM
I'm the AC you replied to and I just want to double down on the idea that, while I don't like the idea of a site like this being another corporate asset, that doesn't mean that it can't be a means for a small group if people to make a decent living. The community should not demand martyrdom from the people running the place.
If barabbas had laid out for the community the number of hours he anticipated committing to the site per year and what he was hoping to be compensated for that, he probably could have gotten it with a Kickstarter as long as it wasn't too outlandish.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kell on Monday March 10 2014, @09:39PM
I do agree with your points*. To clarify, please don't think that I was advocating that site operators not turn a profit - it's merely a case of the initial intent of the website. Going into a project planning to make money results in a different outlook from creating a community site that happens to turn a profit. Making money isn't inherently bad, if you're going into it saying "This will be a business that delivers a dividend" and everyone else is saying "Let's make something cool for like-minded people" the impedance mismatch will invariable lead to drama.
*While I think about it, I've seen far more constructive discussion, feedback and (gasp) even consensus on SN than I ever saw in 10 years on Slashdot. It was a rare rare thing there to ever hear someone say "That's a good point, I never thought of it that way", but here it seems to happen much more readily. I am enjoying the smart, earnest conversation!
Scientists point out problems. Engineers fix them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Non Sequor on Monday March 10 2014, @10:00PM
I agree with the stuff about the community here. I remember some of this from turn of the century era slashdot, (although there were more trolls back then).
It seems like there should be a way to make this more permanent. Slashdot may have suffered from being a part of the dotcom era. After the ad rates fell off their peak, they ended up chasing different strategies for dealing with that which never left me comfortable that it could keep going forever. Slashdot was a community oriented site, but it was always being forced to jump through hoops to justify its existence to external forces.
So now, can a site like the slashdot of old operate continuously just by continuing to justify its existence to its community? Drama aside, I think the answer is yes, provided that goal is put front and center.
(Score: 2) by umafuckitt on Monday March 10 2014, @04:38PM
I too hung around from the start, but dropped out of IRC after a few days, and this is my take on it too.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @05:47PM
bashbeta .org .org .org .org .org
bashalpha
alphadot
solyentalpha
alphatech
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Preston on Monday March 10 2014, @09:22PM
It's worth nothing that John seemed to be very against the idea of incorporating as a 501(c)(3) and establishing a charter to protect both the volunteers and the organization itself.
I've contributed what I can however I feel it is impeccable that an operating agreement be established to protect the assets of the site.
(Score: 1) by fx_68 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @09:33PM
Some where on the black vein highways of America......
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Monday March 10 2014, @03:52PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Random2 on Monday March 10 2014, @04:09PM
While I agree about disappointment in how this has played out on all sides (but thanks for keeping us informed), I'm hesitant about the name change.
Soylent's young, people are still learning about it. What we need now is some stability so things can continue to grow. That comes with keeping the name and giving the time for it to spread; changing now greatly risks upsetting the momentum that SN's built.
As an example, I almost missed joining SN completely. I was passively following Altslash during the boycott and didn't notice when the site changed names. Boy was I confused for a few days, luckily noticing a post on 'the other site' linking the two together. Changing names now would be like that all over again, but with 3 names instead of 2.
If we're forced to change names because of legal dickery then that's what we'll have to do, but ideally we should strive to let things settle and grow with what we have now.
If only I registered 3 users earlier....
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Taco Cowboy on Tuesday March 11 2014, @07:48AM
I remember watching that movie several decades ago, and although this site is young, perusing the namesake of some really old movies only adds to the baggage of the site.
If it's possible get a name that can better reflect the collective geekiness of the community.
Slashdot became the "in" thing for many of us older geeks partly because it's '/.' - something odd enough for the world but comfortable enough for us geeks.
(Score: 1) by blackest_k on Tuesday March 11 2014, @08:53AM
A name change is much less of a problem if you can redirect from the current name and in that you have some continuity and nobody finds(?) the site gone. Doing a runner or a midnight flit is something else entirely.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Barrabas on Monday March 10 2014, @03:52PM
Consider waiting to talk to the new owner. He seems like a nice person.
And the real beef is that I had to get away from these people. The meanness was unbearable.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by dast on Monday March 10 2014, @03:53PM
I suppose I can understand. What are you doing from here?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @09:25PM
Writing books. First one up: Domain Squatting for Fun and Profit!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Monday March 10 2014, @03:58PM
Can you at least tell the staff who the new owner is, if not announce it publicly? Was secrecy really a part of the deal you made with him?
That's what I find disturbing -- that you sold the site to somebody without anybody running the place having any clue about the sale before, during, or after. I'd really appreciate if you could, if only as a flavor for the peons who appreciate what you started, lay the suspense to rest.
Thanks,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dast on Monday March 10 2014, @04:00PM
Seriously. That's what I was waiting to hear? Why keep the new owner private? Does said owner want it private, explicitly?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mrbluze on Monday March 10 2014, @06:19PM
I don't trust any of this and I hope I am pleasantly proven wrong.
Do it yourself, 'cause no one else will do it yourself.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:15PM
So ... someone who gives in to your temper tantrum and pays you money seems like a nice person to you. Good to know.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Skarjak on Monday March 10 2014, @04:17PM
Thanks for starting this whole thing. It's unfortunate your involvement had to end like it did, but I can see why you'd want to bail.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:18PM
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
(Score: 1) by dast on Monday March 10 2014, @04:25PM
/me shakes head.
Why can't we just all get along? No need to burn bridges on the way out!
Good luck with whatever you do, B. Keep us informed!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:33PM
I actually was being nice. I was warning him about the door.
(Score: 5, Informative) by buswolley on Monday March 10 2014, @04:41PM
+2 for being funny, -3 for being a douche.
subicular junctures
(Score: 5, Funny) by moondrake on Monday March 10 2014, @04:24PM
Does he work for DICE?
(Score: 3, Funny) by cornholed on Monday March 10 2014, @04:48PM
Worse yet, if you're following the conversation in IRC, he's probably a lowly 4 digit!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:25PM
They were so mean that you had to undercut your own 1 week 'deadline'? Sorry chum, I'm not buying. I was just a neutral lurker before you pulled this shit; now I just want to see the community get the hell away from you. Take whatever you got for the domain and go stuff it.
(Score: 2) by umafuckitt on Monday March 10 2014, @04:25PM
Owner of what, exactly? What has been sold? Just the name? The name and the databases and everything? What?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @05:11PM
Apparently just the domain name.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @06:27PM
The way this had played out has proven that the devs and the rest of the people building the site were right in their assessment of barabbas.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sigterm on Monday March 10 2014, @04:40PM
Mr Barrabas,
Regardless of what has happened, I wish you the best for the future. You started a Good Thing here, and I thank you for it. A lot of people have been very happy here, and hopefully will continue to be.
So you took the big chair, and it turned out that leading and managing a very demanding project involving strong personalities was a bit more than you had bargained for. You were brutally confronted with your shortcomings as a leader, and like many, you didn't take that too well, did you? Well, better luck next time, because if your life unfolds like that of most people, this will not be the last "vote of no confidence" you'll experience, in one way or another. It's just the way things work out sometimes.
I don't know if you could have done anything differently. I don't know if anybody could in your shoes. I do wish you'd moved on without making such a spectacle, though, because it has done some harm to the project and caused serious, unnecessary damage to your reputation. Your latest actions have served to portray you as a petty and vindictive person, and I don't think that's accurate at all.
I find it very difficult to believe that this last skirmish was all about getting your $2000 back, or that you were all that angry and upset over Michael asking (quite reasonable) questions about your expenses. My guess is it really hurt to be deposed as leader of what you considered *your* project, right? And that you believe you've been treated extremely unfairly, considering the enormous effort you've undoubtedly put into this site. That's understandable.
But really, if you wanted SoylentNews to be your personal pet project, you should have hired people to do all the moderation and the technical work. Because you see, everybody else considered this a community project, with the "Soylent News is People" tagline and all. And in a community project, one person doesn't get to call the shots, and sometimes the peasants revolt. That is their right, and they may have reason to do so in may cases.
Anyway, I believe the site will live on. I really hope they remove the posts about this conflict once it's all over, because in retrospect it will just look petty, unprofessional and generally ridiculous, although I must say I've appreciated the openness while it was going on.
By the way, unless there are some e-mails, chat logs or phone calls which contents have not yet been made public, your comment about "meanness" seems unwarranted and, well, a bit mean, actually. Do you really thing the others involved in this project are acting out of malice? Honestly?
But I refuse to end this post with a negative remark. Again, thanks a lot for your efforts in making this place a reality, and the best of luck to you in your future endeavors!
(Score: 2) by snick on Monday March 10 2014, @05:25PM
The "spectacle?" [dev.soylentnews.org]
Proper decorum? [dev.soylentnews.org]
Yeah, yeah ... from there it turned into a proper food fight, and in the end everyone has managed to befoul themselves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @07:05PM
I hope it stays. people are not pretty, plastic, idealised versions of people. this site should reflect everything back at us; warts and all.
if we remove the rough edges, we should also be willing to remove the reason why the site was formed in the first place, and anything negative said about dice and slashdot.
however, without knowing our history we will likely repeat it. what happened may be distasteful, but this is who we are.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday March 10 2014, @10:24PM
I agree with the wise AC. Removing posts surrounding an internal conflict would tell us that the management is willing to censor... today this, tomorrow who knows what? And that's contrary to the spirit of the community.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @11:13AM
That was a great post, but I wanted to chime in on the question of removing these posts for appearance's sake. I think it's valuable for all of us, young and old, to have windows into the chaos that attends the birth of great projects, and also projects that failed. Not one person's memoir of what happened, written after the fact, but the actual transcript of what was actually said. Then we as a community can take a deeper look at the process and come up with best practices.
As it is, most people in the world who have never started anything and who grouse about what has already been started, have no clue how hard it is. They only regard the technical issues and say, aha, if only they did this, or changed that! They have no idea that the minute you need to work with others to accomplish a project 99% of the difficulty becomes managing the human element, not only in others but also in yourself.
And the much smaller subset of people who actually take the plunge and start something mostly have no idea or reasonable expectation of what they're in for. They mostly focus on operations and building structures, and that is itself so all-consuming that the human element of managing a team can destroy you if you don't have a thick skin. Nobody will want to do it the way you want (this is a hobgoblin of volunteer projects, nonprofits, anything where nobody's getting paid to do it your way), and there will always be that one guy who's an insufferable pain in your ass, always tearing you down to your face in front of others, and you think, if only I could push that guy out everything can spring forward; except, it doesn't, because the minute you succeed in doing that, you upset everyone else and somebody steps in to fill his shoes. So defensively you start to turn off your emotions because they're draining you dry. You take actions that are unilateral or treat people brusquely because you just want to get. something. done. for. once. without infinite bickering. Then you either start down the dark path of turning into a Machiavellian dick or you get out.
Then you get the peanut gallery of people who are third party to the bickering chiming in with, "Can't we all just get along?" as though it's a simple matter of sitting down, holding hands, and singing kumbaya.
And man, it's not. It's really not. So it is valuable to have this stuff remain in the historical record so this amazing community of geeks, nerds, scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and really smart people can examine the dynamic itself and hack it.
Let's hack it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dcollins on Monday March 10 2014, @05:38PM
"And the real beef is that I had to get away from these people."
The even more-real beef is that you demanded getting paid off first. Getting away from these people came in a distant second to that priority, eh? (Hint: I have walked away from groups and investments like this by saying "keep everything you've got, I want nothing but a clean break".)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @06:02PM
I don't think that's a fair way to put it. The payment is a reimbursement for Barrabas' startup expenses (server rental, etc.). Supposedly he paid 1 year ahead, and I expect he has the receipts. He made the 1 year commitment, but obviously doesn't need the servers without the website. IRC logs were posted where the new leader agreed to take over "the startup costs" together with the leadership position. Afterwards the new boss realized that he doesn't need the particular server configuration that was rented. Seems like buyer's remorse, and he decided not honor the agreement, claiming that the old boss was holding the site hostage. Technically that's true, but also understandable given that the agreement was to transfer leadership and expenses together.
It's amusing that the expenses include an mp3 player that was a "gift" from the old to the new boss.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @06:38PM
He wasn't going to be "not paid" but was queried because things were unclear and there needs to be accountability, but this provoked an escalation and this cynical sale at a profit. This is not about the money, this is about ensuring the project doesn't succeed without a yoke around its neck. Bad bad.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cwix on Monday March 10 2014, @07:32PM
While I agree that this has turned into one giant clusterfuck, you certainly could have waited a bit before you upped the crazy.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday March 10 2014, @10:21PM
I'm hoping for a smooth transition that goes well with what we've already built here. But I do have to ask why you didn't offer it to the other folks working on the site before selling it to an outsider?
(Score: 2) by gottabeme on Wednesday March 12 2014, @06:25AM
I think it's worse than that:
http://dev.soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/04/061 7219&tid=8 [dev.soylentnews.org]
> Barrabas
> I could easily walk away from the project with no regrets. Before SoylentNews, I liked my life *a lot* and would go back to it in a heartbeat. I wouldn't be like Hitler: a sad, broken man living out the rest of his life in South America, brooding over broken dreams.
> If the crowd is *absolutely sure* they want to rush the machine guns, I'll quietly hand over the keys and retire. Nooooooo problem!
I'm sorry, but after saying that, I don't think asking for reimbursement can be justified.
(Score: 1) by Reziac on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:21AM
Yeah, after reading a whole bunch more of the soap opera, I think "worse than that" is indeed the case. I've seen this sort of "take my toys and go home" before, and there's no cure for it but to eject the hoarder. :(
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @11:33PM
So from where I'm sitting you're mean too. You would have eventually got your $2000 bucks (maybe even more if you could justify it) from the current bunch one way or another but you didn't wait and sold the domain to someone else, knowing very well what that means.
NCommander is no angel (taking over like that) but you talking about meanness is pot and kettle, and merely trying justify your revenge.
(Score: 1) by Khyber on Monday March 10 2014, @11:42PM
"The meanness was unbearable."
So was your selling us out.
But that's what I get for trying to trust a man with the name of a legendary THIEF AND MURDERER.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 1) by Eunuchswear on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:44PM
And your name is a reference to a place known for massacre and treachery?
Watch this Heartland Institute video [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Khyber on Thursday March 13 2014, @12:43AM
Actually, I took it from the knife made to pierce armor.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 4, Funny) by marcello_dl on Monday March 10 2014, @03:54PM
so chaotic
much infight
very buyout
wow
Seriously, SN fate is becoming an interesting piece of news itself. It's not entirely a bad thing, even if I'm sure it is not intentional. Good luck I stay tuned ;)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by rev_irreverence on Monday March 10 2014, @04:04PM
The skeptic in me wonders if this is all a bunch of brilliantly staged marketing to quickly foster a sense of "community" at SN. Is Barrabas even a real person? Has any one met him in real life?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by marcello_dl on Monday March 10 2014, @04:07PM
> Is Barrabas even a real person?
I tell you, we should have freed the Nazarene instead.
(Score: 1) by sgleysti on Monday March 10 2014, @10:37PM
Let us wash our hands of this matter.
(Score: 2) by linsane on Monday March 10 2014, @05:28PM
I can almost imagine it worthy of a news story on T.O.P. ... genius marketing indeed
(Score: 1) by suxen on Tuesday March 11 2014, @10:06AM
> Seriously, SN fate is becoming an interesting piece of news itself
I am suprised it has not become a story on (*). yet
(Score: 1) by CoolHand on Monday March 10 2014, @03:55PM
hopefully we can have the chance to buy the name at a reasonable cost (to at least aid in an orderly transition to a new name if nothing else)..
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Monday March 10 2014, @03:55PM
...is just settle back with a nice bowl of popcorn and wait for it to all settle out.
And for that endeavor I can only heartily recommend a Whirley-Pop. You'll never go back to that microwaved abomination full of aromatic carcinogens again....
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 5, Funny) by rev_irreverence on Monday March 10 2014, @03:57PM
I'd like to suggest AltSoylentNews.org as the new domain name.
(Score: 1) by acid andy on Monday March 10 2014, @04:04PM
Very good! Or how about AltAltSlashdot.org?
(Score: 5, Funny) by tempest on Monday March 10 2014, @04:21PM
AltDelSlashdot.org - no Ctrl because apparently no one has the control.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Monday March 10 2014, @04:43PM
alphadot . org
subicular junctures
(Score: 1) by sjames on Monday March 10 2014, @07:23PM
I vote doublebuckyslashdot.org
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Monday March 10 2014, @04:40PM
I remember when christmas island withdrew the registration for goatse. I would imagine its still available for re-registration? But I am scared to look, you know, just in case.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Monday March 10 2014, @04:43PM
comp.misc.org? Continuing the theme of semi-intentionally confusing names?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday March 10 2014, @10:50PM
OMG! Ponies?
Front row seats for the downfall of modern civilization. Who could ask for more...
(Score: 1) by Soruk on Tuesday March 11 2014, @11:04AM
How about peoplesrepublicof.org
(Score: 5, Informative) by melikamp on Monday March 10 2014, @03:58PM
(Score: 2, Funny) by james_covalent_bond on Monday March 10 2014, @04:20PM
Rumors!
I, for one, welcome our new owner overlords from dice. Welcome back to where the community is!
(Score: 0) by crutchy on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:36AM
i wish it was mattie_p. he's a nice bloke that seems to have his head screwed on right.
(Score: 5, Informative) by gringer on Monday March 10 2014, @03:58PM
John has written another journal post [dev.soylentnews.org]. It's fairly short, so I might as well copy it here:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Peristaltic on Monday March 10 2014, @05:49PM
All snarkiness aside, if the amount of "meanness" John experiences is going to be the primary criteria by which he evaluates his committments to busines and academic projects... until he learns to handle it, the boy is likely to experience a long, tough path as he moves forward.
(Score: 5, Funny) by everdred on Monday March 10 2014, @04:05PM
We finally have a name!
We don't take no shit from a machine.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by dilbert on Monday March 10 2014, @04:11PM
lots of similarities between the dirty laundry here, and the garbage there. We get an added sense of meaning if this place blows up like the Death Star...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:11PM
li694-22.members.linode.com is people!
(Score: 1) by ksarka on Monday March 10 2014, @04:33PM
Yes. You just made me blow air out of my nose real loud!
Sadly I'm out of modpoints for this..
(Score: 3, Funny) by everdred on Monday March 10 2014, @04:36PM
Quick, someone register li694-22.members.linode.com.org! ;)
We don't take no shit from a machine.
(Score: 1) by rts008 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:45AM
Yes AC, I'll grant that was pretty funny. Well done.
Instead of felling happy though, now I just feel old....
(Score: 5, Insightful) by elgrantrolo on Monday March 10 2014, @04:23PM
Better than that: we have a new meme!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @04:50PM
I actually like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10 2014, @05:37PM
li694-22.org is still available if you want to buy it.
Vote with your money they says !
(Score: 1) by everdred on Monday March 10 2014, @05:57PM
We don't take no shit from a machine.
(Score: 1) by kbahey on Monday March 10 2014, @06:59PM
How about calling it li694-22.org?
Or by its nickname: li694.org?
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning [2bits.com].
(Score: 2) by Daniel Dvorkin on Monday March 10 2014, @07:25PM
Pronounced "Lithium 694", perhaps?
Pipedot [pipedot.org]:Soylent [dev.soylentnews.org]::BSD:Linux
(Score: 1) by kbahey on Monday March 10 2014, @07:31PM
Fine by me.
I thought it is a real isotope, but when I Googled it, turns out some music band or something.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning [2bits.com].
(Score: 1) by Taibhsear on Tuesday March 11 2014, @11:12AM
Or just "Lithium News: Because you can't help going among mad people."
A la Lithium [wikipedia.org] and Lewis Carroll.
(Score: 2) by gottabeme on Wednesday March 12 2014, @06:45AM
I actually really like this idea.
(Score: 2) by Daniel Dvorkin on Wednesday March 12 2014, @02:38PM
Ha! Yes, that's excellent.
Pipedot [pipedot.org]:Soylent [dev.soylentnews.org]::BSD:Linux
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gringer on Monday March 10 2014, @04:18PM
As others have said, these sorts of dirty backroom politics happen all the time when you have a group of people get together and try to agree on things. The only difference is that SN has chosen to make the internal politics very public.
I know that people don't like hearing about these things, but I consider such exposure to be a healthy state of affairs, and appreciate the attempts to be open about company business.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Lukehasnoname on Monday March 10 2014, @04:19PM
Aye. It's always tough to get people together on something and quiet. Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Congress.
(Score: 2) by Random2 on Monday March 10 2014, @04:22PM
Maybe if they worked more than half the year...
If only I registered 3 users earlier....
(Score: 1) by captain normal on Monday March 10 2014, @04:43PM
Maybe if only we could get congress to air their dirty laundry out in public.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday March 10 2014, @10:54PM
"Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Congress."
OK, that's just crazy talk....
Front row seats for the downfall of modern civilization. Who could ask for more...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by snick on Monday March 10 2014, @04:29PM
bullshit
I've worked on happy projects and stressful projects. I've worked with people I've liked and respected, and I've worked with people I ... didn't like or respect. I've been in meetings where you could cut the tension with a knife. But I have never in my life had to deal with the comic opera antics that open source and "community" projects seem to wallow in.
FTFY
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sl4shd0rk on Monday March 10 2014, @05:06PM
Eh.. actually, this kind of thing happens daily in the business world. If you haven't run into any project crises caused by personality conflicts, mis-communications, misunderstandings, differences of opinions, or simple douchebaggery, then you should really get your managers to write a book because they could make millions on how to effectively herd cats.
Fact of the matter is, being third party to this kind of thing is useless for anything other than observation and mop-up. If anything, ranting about "comic opera" and applying offensive labels to people is typical water cooler antic for those who aren't able to express themselves effectively in a group.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Khyber on Monday March 10 2014, @11:47PM
" But I have never in my life had to deal with the comic opera antics that open source and "community" projects seem to wallow in."
And that's why we've got a ton of Linux forks right now. Assholes can't get over themselves.
And that's why both Linux and Barrabas suck right now.
Perhaps they'll both get better as they grow the fuck up.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 11 2014, @09:27AM
both Linux and Barrabas suck
I won't argue WRT John, but the City of Munich has something they'd like to show you:
Over 95 percent of their machines run Linux.
They started with Debian, switched to Ubuntu, and now run LiMux.
They have complete control of the source code for the software they run on those boxes and they have saved over 10 million Euros so far.
"Suck" is the last word they would use.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2, Funny) by kstox on Monday March 10 2014, @04:26PM
I'm willing to donate this, as I got it for a project that fell through. At this point, it seems fitting to this situation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 12 2014, @01:30AM
I've got init.sh if someone wants to buy it ;)
(Score: 5, Funny) by FuckBeta on Monday March 10 2014, @04:34PM
Fuck Sale
On March 10, 2014, Soylent announced through a story that Barrabas has sold the Soylentnews.org and associated domain names.
Selling Soylent is a trend-following attempt to cash in on "news for nerds" sites, an approach that has led to less time for interesting technical discussion and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot values. Much worse than that, selling Soylent to an undisclosed buyer fundamentally breaks the trust of the community.
We should boycott soylentnews entirely during the week of Mar 10 to Mar 17 and tell the mystery buyer how we feel about the website sale.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is the sale until the buyer abandons the project.
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Sale
Commentors - only discuss Sale
http://dev.soylentnews.org/recent [dev.soylentnews.org] - Vote up the Fuck Sale stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
In the mean-time, Al Pacino summarizes what I personally want to say to the Seller [youtube.com].
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 2) by neagix on Monday March 10 2014, @04:53PM
I am with you bro'!
(Score: 1) by E_NOENT on Monday March 10 2014, @04:57PM
Nice piece of performance art here. Maybe I'm the only on who gets it...
Help! I'm trapped in a PDP 11/70!
(Score: 2) by everdred on Monday March 10 2014, @05:59PM
...because not a fuck is given?
We don't take no shit from a machine.
(Score: 4, Funny) by unitron on Monday March 10 2014, @08:14PM
Does this mean I have to coin "Soylentcott" as well?
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 1) by isaac on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:10AM
Soycott, obviously.
(Score: 1) by MrNemesis on Tuesday March 11 2014, @06:59AM
Are we going to start a cryptocurrency as well? If there's one thing SN doesn't have that its predecessor did, it's endless articles about emerging cryptocurrencies! :)
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Tuesday March 11 2014, @10:23AM
(Score: 1) by Soruk on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:33PM
Soybeans, anyone?
(Score: 0) by mwvdlee on Monday March 10 2014, @05:02PM
As for the name. I propose "FuckBeta" or perhaps "FBeta".
Lest we forget the reason this site was created in the first place.
(Score: 1) by FuckBeta on Monday March 10 2014, @05:15PM
Fuck Beta!
Never forget...
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 1) by bryan on Monday March 10 2014, @06:45PM
I've offered fuckbeta.org if they want it. But I admit it may border a bit on being NSFW due to the bad word.
(Score: 1) by tibman on Monday March 10 2014, @06:51PM
Pretty sure there is nothing to stop you from pointing that domain to their server anyways : ) Or heck, even back to the old site.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2, Funny) by dast on Monday March 10 2014, @06:59PM
Comments.
There, I wrote it. Are things better now? ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:24AM
Yes, they are, you moron. :)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by chewbacon on Monday March 10 2014, @05:20PM
What a damn hissy fit. I came here hoping to see continuity of news for nerds and stuff that matter. Now John has pretty much said "I'm losing and don't wanna play no more" and sells the video game console so no one can beat him. I was hoping this was an amicable departure in his part, but now I have the sentiment that he can go kick rocks. I don't care if people are being mean to you. Grow a fucking pair and be the better man if it's true.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by willie3204 on Monday March 10 2014, @05:47PM
I went one day without checking the site and this happens... Very sad indeed. I don't agree that anyone should have had to buy the domain off Barabbas but 2K is nothing for a start up...
It's sad the domain is now in the hands of an unknown. What assurances do we have that the past/current SN overlords all agree with each other? None. there is no structure here really at this point which I'm aware of. Maybe I should refer back to the appropriately timed Mordor hierarchy thread ;p
(Score: 2, Funny) by GeriatricGentleman on Monday March 10 2014, @06:47PM
Yeah - I take two days out, hid a dead spot at work this morning and came for a fix and look what has happened!
My worst moment came when I looked at the last posted article and it was Monday pm - it is Tuesday lunchtime for me - I thought the whole thing had been flushed while I wasn't looking.
I will join the party - $2k is not going to leave my kids starving. I have no wish to own anything, and don't have the nous or time to manage it anyway, but I would cheerfully donate it to the community if I had any idea how such a thing could be accomplished.
So if the new owner wants some financial love in return for providing some longevity and stability for the community...well, I am sure you will be able to find my email address - there must be others like me? A group could lower my individual contribution - for which my wife will be grateful! (hmm, to clairfy, she will be "bake you a cake" grateful, not "visit you in your folks basement" grateful!)
(Score: 2) by Random2 on Monday March 10 2014, @07:04PM
I recall several people mentioning that they'd be interested in donating to the project; the holdup is that the business plan hasn't been set yet and thus could get into some legal snafu if they started blindly accepting money (donations would technically be straight-up gifting money to an individual at the moment, which generally gets takes and has limits and all sorts of fun stuff).
For an extreme long-term view, I'm not sure the site could survive on donations alone; 'the other site's' hosting costs at it's peak were considerable. I suppose they could try to set up a trust fund or something to provide, but that has to come after they've got the domain and general business plan settled.
If only I registered 3 users earlier....
(Score: 2, Informative) by willie3204 on Monday March 10 2014, @07:10PM
he holdup is that the business plan hasn't been set yet and thus could get into some legal snafu if they started blindly accepting money
this this and THIS.
You said it better than i did in my original post. What's the business plan guys? Just because you do not plan on having a for profit LLC doesnt mean you shouldnt elect a board with official roles, take minutes (not just blog posts?), establish revenue streams (community or otherwise we'd like to know), and all the other essential things long term organizations do when they first are established. Since the guy in charge (or who owned everything??) is now gone, fire up whatever knowledge you've gleaned from work (or hell a fraternity) and start managing it like a real org. It'll breed a ton of confidence in the "community"
And ya.. I'm not volunteering any time or knowledge myself nor do I care to.. I'm leaching but I just want you guys to be successful long term! This is important.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Monday March 10 2014, @08:32PM
...by expressing my appreciation to John *and* all the others for all the hard work and long hours to get the site this far this soon.
I understand and have no problem with John wanting to get back whatever money he sank into this thing so far, but was it offered to the others before he accepted the offer from, if you'll pardon the expression, "an outsider"?
And was it ever established who it was that came up with the SoylentNews name and slogan? If so, I apologize for having missed it.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Monday March 10 2014, @09:01PM
Actually what we've seen here is pretty much the usual pattern for new not-for-profit entity. It just usually takes more than two weeks for the person driving the new organization to get pushed out the window and blamed for every problem.
Good on ya Barrabas [dev.soylentnews.org] - you managed to pull off something pretty damned amazing. I feel secure in saying that we would not have this site today if it hadn't been for you.
Now, for the rest of "staff," a little advice.
FOR GOD SAKE SHUT UP ABOUT BARRABAS AND WHATEVER HAPPENED!
You're sounding like spoiled children, and nothing will turn off people like this endless he said/she said whining. Ninety percent of people couldn't care less about internal bickering, and every time you raise it you just send them out the door.
If Barrabas wants a couple thousand bucks just give it to him, write it off, and move on. It's peanuts in the grand scheme of things, and getting this mess wrapped up quickly will be worth a lot more than that. Once again, ninety percent of people don't care, and especially don't care to listen to people bicker about eligible expenses.
Be careful what you wish for. Based on what I've seen in the last couple of days you folks on "staff" are probably heading a for a world of self-inflicted pain.
If you can force out the guy who started the project after only two weeks, you can bet dollars to donuts that at least some of the people on "staff" will find yourselves under similar pressure the first time that someone gets their shorts in a knot.
It's not about whether or not there were valid reasons (and at this point there's no way that anyone will ever know for sure); it's about establishing an organizational culture that says that leaders should be toppled at the drop of a hat.
A week ago I though that this site had a very good chance of surviving and thriving. Now, and I'm speaking after decades of non-profit work, I'd give it 50/50 at best.
It's now your choice: are you professionals, or children?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by willie3204 on Monday March 10 2014, @09:26PM
Exactly. Build some structure around this thing before you "staff" people eat yourselves alive.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday March 10 2014, @10:09PM
The amount that they seem to have spent on this is ludicrous. There are loads of open-source-friendly hosting companies that would love to donate the VMs in exchange for being able to say that they support a site like this. If they'd registered as a non-profit early, then the hosting company would be able to claim the 'loss' of the VM (at full retail price) as a taxable donation, and so would basically have the publicity for free. Registering as a non-profit is a bit tricky in the US, but a CIC in the UK is very cheap and conveys many of the same benefits (not the tax status, but the hosting company could still write off then VM donation as a loss, which amounts to effectively the same thing).
While we do seem to have some people who know about Perl, there's a sorry lack of leadership in this project. After the recent set of tantrums, I have little faith in NCommander to be able to manage people, so who do we have who can lead a community and not mess it up?
Here's a clue for anyone interested in the job: if you're being a good leader in an organisation like this, no one realises that you're doing it. It's not an ego-boosting job, because the only time people are aware of you is when you're doing it wrong. It can be very rewarding, as you see the things that you've created grow, but you can't do it for the recognition.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by willie3204 on Monday March 10 2014, @10:39PM
sudo mod above up
(Score: 4, Informative) by hybristic on Monday March 10 2014, @10:19PM
While I agree with you completely, where I see this differ is that a large majority of the people who actually got this site up and running are still around. Barrabas absolutely got everyone together, but I distinctly remember NCommander buying up the Linodes this site is currently on out of his own pocket, and all the technical work was done by himself and a few others, not Barrabas. Also, I don't think this was a couple of weeks to drive out the new leader. As someone that can speak to how the team was working before launch, Barrabas was the leader, but everyone took orders from NCommander. I know that the people I was working with are still there, minus zford. So I honestly don't think that its a serious concern that others will walk away from this project on a whim. I think this is more about dust settling.
(Score: 1) by willie3204 on Monday March 10 2014, @10:31PM
This site is not in need of a bunch of techies to maintain slashcode in order to make it successful long term. It needs a vision and a someone (or group) of people to execute whatever it is we're trying to do here. There has to be SOME leadership.
Having those original guys who put the site up is good but without any organization or means of maintaining long term support (money) we'll be on another new slashdot community soon...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hybristic on Monday March 10 2014, @11:18PM
I agree with you. I was simply pointing out that this might not be an issue with leadership as a whole, as in no one can lead, and no one is willing to be lead. Just that this leader was probably on his way out in the end, even if no one saw it initially. The dust from launch is finally settling, and now we see where the pieces landed. So now it's up to someone to step up and take charge with what they have. I don't know if anyone is up to the task, but I don't think that people need to be worried about getting forced out over petty issues which the GP was implying. I found the team to be competent and easy to work with for the most part, so if someone competent takes the reigns, I don't forsee any additional fallouts like this one. I could be wrong, my insights are not as up to date as they once were.
(Score: 1) by willie3204 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @10:50AM
I hope you're right, hybristic. I also would like to make this my new home.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by naubol on Monday March 10 2014, @11:58PM
What I so dislike about your post is the implicit assumption that techies cannot have vision or possess leadership. There is also the assumption that this doesn't represent SN becoming more organized internally. If there was a split focus between power blocs, eliminating one might bring about the very results you are looking for.
(Score: 1) by willie3204 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @10:55AM
That's true and you're right naubol. I'm not saying techies cant have vision rather with so many techies worried about tech (ubuntu vs centos, really?) while the walls are crumbling around them it makes me wonder what exactly that vision is...
It would be nice if a leader or leaders were chosen quickly to get some confidence back.
(Score: 1) by naubol on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:28PM
Ahh, I get more where you were coming from. I am also concerned with where this site is going, because I want so very much for it to succeed. I am willing to give NCommander time to see if he can pull it off, because I found his emails to be calmer in tone (even though he cussed and Barrabas didn't) and more focused on the things I would care about from the site.
I think I interpreted that issue differently. NCommander's complaints do not seem directed so much at the OS issue but rather at the lack of communication. So, I think it is easy to say the instigating event was about which OS to choose for running the site, but his email seems to focus on the lack of discussion, mediation, and consensus building for which he was looking.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bd on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:33AM
I thought the same thing. But then I actually skimmed over the "dirty laundry" that was published and I was quite astonished. Really.
While Barrabas claimed afterward that he was forced out, basically the team just told him that a 12 people organization would _not_ like to have 6 managers (duh), and would like to be able to _communicate_ with the project leader. At all.
The project leader basically took the two launch weeks off and wondered why people were pissed. And self-aggrandizing and condescending statements by the "boss" are misplaced, at best, when the "boss" does not do his share of work. During the launch weeks, Barrabas was supposed to write a manifesto to lay out the vision for the site, as well as do the initial steps to incorporate SN. He did not achieve any of this because he claimed to be burned out due to the excessive amount of work he was supposedly doing for the site. After *two weeks*. And without being involved in the technical side of bringing up a slash-based site, or on the editorial side, as far as I can tell. A majority of the rest of the team discovered that the way decisions were made did not work, and asked the project lead to fix it. Barrabas wanted any decision delayed by a few weeks.
This was not a revolt. The organizational structure did not work, and they frankly told Barrabas that they wanted it fixed. They wanted concrete, grave and immediate problems with the way they had to work to be fixed, in order to be able to do volunteer work. As a result, Barrabas resigned "against his will".
I am happy to say that I have never had to endure _such_ a dud in a project lead position.
I think it was wrong to wash the dirty laundry like this. On the other hand I don't know if I would have had the integrity to write a nice follow-up post after such an experience.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BradTheGeek on Monday March 10 2014, @09:05PM
I have been slightly here (more or less) depending on time constraints since day one. When the fuck beta explosion happened I finally saw happening what I had envisioned for a while, and that was a splintering of slashdot. I wanted to be part of a new community, that was TRULY community driven. It is in my opinion the overly commercial nature of Dice that broke the community. That is why we 'mostly' did not want to drive this site down a similar path, and I concur with this.
If fact I was most in favor of a wikipedia/donation model rather than ant corporate/advertising/tracking interest having a say in editorial direction, design, etc and still am.
Regardless, when this all started, my brain excreted what I thought was a unique and unique name for the new community, and I registered that domain. Early on in the process I offered it to the John as an entry into whatever name we decided to keep. It never happened. There was some concern that it may be subject to trademark suits, however spurious and I for one would not want that to bring our fledgling community down. I hat that we are suffering such shit so early in our existence, but the domain I own is still offered to the community.
I will own it and sign an binding agreement not to sell it, or transfer it to a legal organization whose aims align with the community's as a whole. How exactly that would work out would need to be discussed.
Mattie_p et al, the name is here if it needs to be used. newslash.org
(Score: 1) by blackpaw on Monday March 10 2014, @10:19PM
newslash.org
New gay star trek porn? its one way to get more female scifi fans on site.
(Score: 2) by gottabeme on Wednesday March 12 2014, @06:48AM
Interestingly, it could also be pronounced "news lash", which sort of makes sense.
(Score: 1) by BradTheGeek on Wednesday March 12 2014, @08:43PM
That was part of the point!
(Score: 1) by hellcat on Monday March 10 2014, @09:41PM
Lots of high energy comments, but the new name slant could be the way to go. I vote yea for newslash - nice ring. But the name is secondary, it doesn't make the community. Something on the order of wikipedia would be good. FB.
(Score: 1) by TGV on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:47AM
Barrabas is an oddly appropriate name for this time of the year. Here is the text of Bach's St. Matthew Passion:
Evangelist:
At the festival the governor had a custom
of releasing to the people a prisoner, whomever they wished.
At that time he, had a prisoner,
one who stood out among the rest and was called Barabbas.
And when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them:
Pilate:
Which one do you want me to release for you?
Barabbas or Jesus, of whom it is said, he is Christ?
After a beautiful aria, "the people" choose Barrabas, and have Christ crucified.
(Score: 1) by Geezer on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:38AM
Betaspawned.org?
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
(Score: 1) by SleazyRidr on Tuesday March 11 2014, @11:06AM
People only ever say this when we should be losing our minds. What are they hiding!?
(Score: 2, Informative) by wantkitteh on Tuesday March 11 2014, @01:36PM
For about 10 minutes I couldn't resolve Soylentnews.org and had to go directly to http://li694-22.members.linode.com/ [linode.com] to get to the site. I take it something just happened?
(Score: 2, Informative) by amsterdam on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:07PM
What is in the name...
http://atnot.org/ [atnot.org] and http://slashstar.org/ [slashstar.org] are available to use.
If used, I will sponsor it as long as the website is active.
(Score: 1) by fx_68 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @09:49PM
Some where on the black vein highways of America......