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from the I'm-so-meta-even-this-acronym dept.
jcd writes:
"I'm rather excited to get going with Soylent and to watch it grow. Nay, help it grow. I have lurked in /. for more than a decade (note: I'm not the same username over there, I know, how sneaky), and always wished I could have been involved with the beginning. So this is a great opportunity, and I joined as soon as I saw what Soylent was doing. Not to mention the fact that I felt right at home with the old style. It's very comfortable.
So here's a question for everyone. Are we going to be the same as slashdot? A clone that focuses as entirely as possible on tech related news? Or will we branch out to other topics? I'm interested to see either way. I posted a comment to this effect in one of our two existing polls, and it may be a community-wide assumption, but I do think it merits a discussion."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SyntaxError on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:13PM
I was going to submit a story about the Ukraine falling into civil war, but stopped myself because it didn't seem to have anything to do with technology. Then today I noticed someone posted under the guise of a Reddit story which mad it technical by association.
Even if you guys decide to keep it strictly technical, other topics will sneak in. So I advocate you embrace that fact and get it over with :)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:21PM
I think if we can stay away from 'xyz but with a computer' we will be doing way better by a long shot. For example someone using a computer to stalk someone. Or using a computer to commit a crime. Kinda techy but not really. Just basically being a criminal but now with a computer.
Also I think we should reign it in a bit with the arm chair lawyering. I enjoyed watching the IBM/Novell/SCO thing. But it got really out of hand.
It seems many stories on /. seemed to be little more than to get people pissed off and yelling at each other. For example should CEO pay be tied to some %. How in the world does that have anything to do with tech other than our paycheck? This is natural for a for profit 'news' company. If it bleeds it leads.
They will sneak in. But if we can keep focus we will bring in a decent crowd.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:28PM
I cannot say that Ukraine's troubles are news for nerds; however it is certainly stuff that matters. Nerds may be primarily focused on technology, but it would be a poor advice for them to keep fiddling with bits and bytes while the world around them descends into chaos and civil war (as it's happening right now in Ukraine.) These are important things.
There is no need to overdo it (or anything else, to that matter) - but it is OK, IMO, to have a thread where those who have an interest may discuss the events. If you are not interested... don't click there. The good part of SN is that it is not as remote from the people as /. was. /. always was a 3rd party, a company that someone else built, and where someone else set the rules. If SN implements voting on stories, this whole issue will be history - bad, uninteresting submissions will be simply voted out.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by oodaloop on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:49PM
And can't we just tag stories Political, Technology, Apple, YRO, etc and be able to block article with certain tags? So if it's tagged Political and Technology allow it, but block if it just has the tag Political? With something like this, we could please multiple crowds at once.
Many Bothans died to bring you this comment.
(Score: 1) by isostatic on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:14PM
>If SN implements voting on stories, this whole issue will be history - bad, uninteresting submissions will be simply voted out.
Isn't that digg?
The original place was What Interested Taco, which seemed to coralate with what interested me. The kind of people that have time to sift the crap looking for good stories tend to be the kind of people that vote up kitty pictures.
SN needs editors. Perhaps a system where we can vote away editors after 6 months would be ok, but on a story by story basis I want someone else to sift the thousands of submissions loping for stuff that interests me, not what interests group think.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:24PM
SN is not catering to an 'audience' but to a membership who want to contribute to a discussion with other like-minded individuals on a range of technical, scientific or related subjects; I think that point was made clear on /. a few weeks ago. It will only survive with the support and contributions of everyone who wants to see it do well.
Anyone can volunteer to be an editor, although I know that effort is being put in to train those who have already volunteered so even if you do stand up don't expect to be given a job the next day. It might happen, but it might not. But if you want to able to 'fire' them at will then you also have to be prepared to step up to the plate and show others how it should be done. By all means provide critical feedback - they have asked for it and genuinely want to receive it. To be able to 'fire' them because they didn't provide the stories that you wanted to read - I think that is unreasonable.
Nobody gets paid on SN, and some people are working very long hours for the 'fun' of it. There is no-one with the 'time to sift the crap looking for good stories' but they can process good submissions from us, the readers. I believe that a small contribution from each of us will go a long way to making this a success.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by SecurityGuy on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:04PM
Nah, I agree with stopping yourself. One of the things I liked least about /. was reading something on CNN, MSN, or whatever, then reading it on /. If I don't get something from this site (or Slashdot) that I don't get from those sites, I won't have a reason to come here. Tell me about the "stuff that matters" that they don't.
Any nation falling into civil war is a big deal, but there are plenty of sites that cover that already.
(Score: 1) by bucc5062 on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:16PM
True in a sense. But there can be a "nerd" discussion within that framework. Being a "nerd" is not just one who lives in a basement, pounding out code, hacking the NSA and eating Doritos (hyperbole, yes). I figure that term can apply to social sciences, political sciences, and other less techy realms.
Take for example your comment about civil war. Today I heard a professor on NPR talking about hwo the conflict in the Ukraine was the precipice upon which hung the new cold war. Holy crap I thought, that's big, but the reporter just blew over it and kept talking/asking about Putin. Now me, I'd liek to dig into that idea. That is brain food. That is something to discuss and hopefully hear from experts that can confirm the idea. Is the world on the brink of a Cold War, now with Russia over the Ukraine?
Not a question to answer in this thread, but it would make a great topic article I feel. I'm a software developer, but political science and social science is not just about which party is fucking us more, it is and can be about the world we live in. That is news for Nerds and one I'd love to see on SN.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1) by isostatic on Thursday February 20 2014, @06:09PM
The Original Place covered non-techie news. Columbine was an early one, but there was a nerd angle there.
September 11th 2001 was the day that changed, and while the fledging sites of cnn and the bbc failed, TOP stayed up and kept those of us without a tv informed.
However that was a unique moment in news and internet history.
I'm afraid that the Ukraine issue (which does slightly affect me more than the average slashdotter - bumped into a colleague at heathrow heading that way to film it this evenong) is not something of the scale is like to se on a site for news for gloop, stuff that tastes
(Score: 2, Insightful) by forkazoo on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:14PM
Personally, I consider the Ukraine to be a very interesting story, and it certainly has some "Your Rights Online" type implications. IMHO, the big thing is how it gets handled when we stray from the "science and technology" focus. Personally, I would be annoyed by "Look at the dumb selfies posted by the Ukrainian protestors" as a news story. On the other hand, I would be quite happy to see something like, "An analysis of the history of Ukraine to put the current situation in context." Fundamentally, tone matters more than topic if something is "News For Nerds." A press release saying that new CPU's make the Internet faster isn't really news for nerds, despite the fact that microprocessors are a traditionally nerdy subject. But, in depth analysis of psychological reactions to images of My Little Ponies, with pre- and post-pony raw MRI scan data available for download, would indeed be even though it is about a children's cartoon.
So, bring on the protests. Let world news stories hit the front page. If something matters, then it matters. Just don't post a puff piece to fill the space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @03:34AM