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SoylentNews founder resigns

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  SoylentNews founder resigns wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-03-05 21:52 -0500
    Re: SoylentNews founder resigns RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-06 08:52 +0000
      Re: SoylentNews founder resigns Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-06 10:30 +0000
        Re: SoylentNews founder resigns Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2014-03-06 14:18 +0100
          Re: SoylentNews founder resigns RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-06 18:41 +0000
            Re: SoylentNews founder resigns Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2014-03-06 22:53 +0000
    Re: SoylentNews founder resigns Koen <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-03-07 13:20 +0000
      Re: SoylentNews founder resigns RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-07 16:01 +0000

#1279 — SoylentNews founder resigns

Unexpected development at SN just a month after going live.

"I can no longer sustain the level of activity needed to run Soylent news,
and so I have resigned as leader.

In the end, I was literally begging people to step back and let the site
"just run" for a few days while I caught up... alas, to no effect. Issues
must be resolved "right here and right now" continuously throughout my day
with no end in sight.

NCommander has taken over as project lead - he has access to everything
from the registrar down. I understand he has a different vision for the
project, which will soon be revealed.

I'm sorry to leave like this, but there's really nothing for it. I'm going
back to my AI studies, which happen at a more leisurely pace.

John Barrabas

(And yes, this was an amicable transfer of power. There's no hard feelings
on my side.)"

http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/06/0238207


--
I drive a '74 AMC Hornet in my dreams. Also, I really like cheese.

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#1282

On 2014-03-06, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Unexpected development at SN just a month after going live.
>
> "I can no longer sustain the level of activity needed to run Soylent news,
> and so I have resigned as leader.
>
> In the end, I was literally begging people to step back and let the site
> "just run" for a few days while I caught up... alas, to no effect. Issues
> must be resolved "right here and right now" continuously throughout my day
> with no end in sight.
>
> NCommander has taken over as project lead - he has access to everything
> from the registrar down. I understand he has a different vision for the
> project, which will soon be revealed.
>
> I'm sorry to leave like this, but there's really nothing for it. I'm going
> back to my AI studies, which happen at a more leisurely pace.
>
> John Barrabas
>
> (And yes, this was an amicable transfer of power. There's no hard feelings
> on my side.)"
>
> http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/06/0238207
>

Interesting!  I hadn't seen this.  So, digging into the bag of "wild-ass
guesses":

1. This kind of project takes up more time and energy than he had imagined, and
he burned out.  I mean, the IRC channel and a lot of the comments were full of
users looking for improvement, change, and so on.  It's endless and if he
hadn't been mentally prepared for it, it probably overwhelmed him.

2. He took the project as far as he could get it.  There are 'start up' people
and 'maintenance/management' people, and maybe he was more of a start up
person, who now finds the fun is gone.

3. He realized he was out $1000 of pocket and the community wasn't naturally
going to let him figure out a model that lets him earn it back.  Suddenly it's
not the thrill of a renegade website - it's a thing with expenses and that's
not fun.

I wish him well, anyway, and can certainly appreciate where he's coming from.
I expect the comments to be full of "hey, we're a community, we needed to vote
on the next leader" or some crap.  And I'm a little more than curious to see
what NCommander's new "vision" is going to be (there don't seem to be many
visions to choose from out there these days).  I understand from the IRC
channel and elsewhere NCommander did a lot of the hard coding to get that
crusty perl up and running.  Maybe he was a more natural fit?  Interesting
times.

Meanwhile, Usenet is free, or $10 per month to an NSP - certainly, a far cry
from a website that has to pay for all its own bandwidth. 

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#1283

On 2014-03-06, RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> wrote:

> Meanwhile, Usenet is free, or $10 per month to an NSP 

Or E10 a *year* to News.Individual.Net

-- 
Today is Setting Orange, the 65th day of Chaos in the YOLD 3180
"Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The
Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are
Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath"

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#1290

On Thursday 06 March 2014 11:30, Huge conveyed the following to 
comp.misc...

> On 2014-03-06, RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> wrote:
> 
>> Meanwhile, Usenet is free, or $10 per month to an NSP
> 
> Or E10 a *year* to News.Individual.Net

news.eternal-september.org is free of charge, but registration is 
required, and binary groups are not supported.

aioe.org is free of charge, but is filtered out by many due to it being 
a preferred news gateway for trolls and paid shills.

-- 
= Aragorn =

         http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157

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#1307

On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:18:49 +0100
Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> wrote:

> On Thursday 06 March 2014 11:30, Huge conveyed the following to 
> comp.misc...
> 
> > On 2014-03-06, RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> Meanwhile, Usenet is free, or $10 per month to an NSP
> > 
> > Or E10 a *year* to News.Individual.Net
> 
> news.eternal-september.org is free of charge, but registration is 
> required, and binary groups are not supported.
> 
> aioe.org is free of charge, but is filtered out by many due to it
> being a preferred news gateway for trolls and paid shills.
> 

Here's a plug for my current favorite: solani.org

Free like AIOE, but not as well known, so fast connections and good
service.  You have to register etc. but it doesn't cost anything.  I
know the guys running it and they're extremely nice individuals.

I also like individual.de and they're serious about filtering spam,
which is useful: they have the "cleanest" forums I know of.

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#1317

On 2014-03-06, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:18:49 +0100
> Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On Thursday 06 March 2014 11:30, Huge conveyed the following to 
>> comp.misc...
>> 
>> > On 2014-03-06, RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> wrote:
>> > 
>> >> Meanwhile, Usenet is free, or $10 per month to an NSP
>> > 
>> > Or E10 a *year* to News.Individual.Net
>> 
>> news.eternal-september.org is free of charge, but registration is 
>> required, and binary groups are not supported.
>> 
>> aioe.org is free of charge, but is filtered out by many due to it
>> being a preferred news gateway for trolls and paid shills.
>> 
>
> Here's a plug for my current favorite: solani.org
>
> Free like AIOE, but not as well known, so fast connections and good
> service.  You have to register etc. but it doesn't cost anything.  I
> know the guys running it and they're extremely nice individuals.
>
> I also like individual.de and they're serious about filtering spam,
> which is useful: they have the "cleanest" forums I know of.

I'll add my vote for Individual.net too; also Datemas and Albasani - the
latter another free service with a good reputation.

<http://individual.net/> <http://news.datemas.de/>
<http://albasani.net/index.html.en>

-- 
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
--  Whiskers 
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

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#1339

On Wed, 05 Mar 2014 21:52:33 -0500, wjwlsn wrote:

> Unexpected development at SN just a month after going live.
> 
> "I can no longer sustain the level of activity needed to run Soylent
> news,
> and so I have resigned as leader.
> 
> In the end, I was literally begging people to step back and let the site
> "just run" for a few days while I caught up... alas, to no effect.
> Issues must be resolved "right here and right now" continuously
> throughout my day with no end in sight.
> 
> NCommander has taken over as project lead - he has access to everything
> from the registrar down. I understand he has a different vision for the
> project, which will soon be revealed.
> 
> I'm sorry to leave like this, but there's really nothing for it. I'm
> going back to my AI studies, which happen at a more leisurely pace.
> 
> John Barrabas
> 
> (And yes, this was an amicable transfer of power. There's no hard
> feelings on my side.)"
> 
> http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/06/0238207

There is an update post from NCommander:

"As many of you have already read, John Barrabas resigned as head of 
SoylentNews, and I've taken over in his place. Many people who are not 
involved in Staff were likely blindsided on this, and the community 
itself deserves to have an understanding of the reasons and events 
leading up to this. This post exists to set the record straight.

I would like to make it clear, especially in hindsight, that the events 
leading up to this were not pretty, and that no one involved came out 
smelling like roses. Mistakes were made all around, tempers were lost, 
and to be frank, at times, I've conducted myself in a way that was not 
professional.

In the end, the changeover was amicable, and John and I are still on 
speaking terms with each other. This isn't intended as a bashfest, but 
rather as explanation to the community (along with those staff who were 
not directly involved) of why and how this change came about."

"http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/06/0728230"

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#1343

On 2014-03-07, Koen <koen.lefever@gmail.com> wrote:
> There is an update post from NCommander:
>
> "As many of you have already read, John Barrabas resigned as head of 
> SoylentNews, and I've taken over in his place. Many people who are not 
> involved in Staff were likely blindsided on this, and the community 
> itself deserves to have an understanding of the reasons and events 
> leading up to this. This post exists to set the record straight.
>
> I would like to make it clear, especially in hindsight, that the events 
> leading up to this were not pretty, and that no one involved came out 
> smelling like roses. Mistakes were made all around, tempers were lost, 
> and to be frank, at times, I've conducted myself in a way that was not 
> professional.
>
> In the end, the changeover was amicable, and John and I are still on 
> speaking terms with each other. This isn't intended as a bashfest, but 
> rather as explanation to the community (along with those staff who were 
> not directly involved) of why and how this change came about."
>
> "http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/06/0728230"

It's a pretty interesting read, and the IRC raw logs are enlightening,
too.  Another case of people with a common technical interest who
stumble over themselves on issues of management, leadership,
communication, and decision-making.  

It's still a great site, and the problems they hit have more to do with
the headlong rush into building a new site fast enough to catch the /.
exodus, than with bad will or malice.

I think Soy will survive, and hope so - I already like it quite a bit!

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