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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
(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.