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Before we get totally entrenched here...

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  Before we get totally entrenched here... wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-09 13:37 +0000
    Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... Lance Orner <lance@orner.invalid.net> - 2014-02-09 18:54 +0000
      Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-09 19:54 +0000
        Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... TrueSatan <true_satan@fastmail.co.uk> - 2014-02-09 20:19 +0000
          Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... cykros <cykros@devio.us> - 2014-02-11 23:41 -0500
            Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-12 10:44 +0000
    Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-10 09:51 -0500
    Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... "Elizabeth T. Knuth" <eknuth@csbsju.edu> - 2014-02-11 01:09 -0600
    Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... John Brownalt <deconfliction@filteredperception.org> - 2014-02-11 11:27 +0000
      Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-11 09:34 -0500
        Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... deepmagicbeginshere@gmail.com - 2014-02-11 06:49 -0800
        Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-11 16:51 +0000
          Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-11 09:04 -0800
            Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-12 13:22 -0800
        Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... cykros <cykros@devio.us> - 2014-02-11 23:45 -0500
    Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-02-26 00:01 -0500
      Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... sagebump <outersend@gmail.com> - 2014-03-03 09:33 -0800
        Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-03-03 12:05 -0600
          Re: Before we get totally entrenched here... RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-03 19:49 +0000

#160 — Before we get totally entrenched here...

Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? I know that someone mentioned this earlier, relative to the difficulty of getting new groups created. I only ask because a typical day on Slashdot involves much more than miscellaneous computer-related discussion. We're a community with pretty wide-ranging interests. The common theme, though, is that we're fairly ner
dy and obsessive... thus the old tagline for Slashdot, "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters".

So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? I never used it back in the day, but according to the following, its original charter falls fits us almost perfectly.

"http://www.powerusenet.com/blog/2007/08/featured-newsgroup-altnerdobsessive.html"

Don't get me wrong... I'm perfectly happy to stay here at comp.misc.

Any thoughts?

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#161

On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? 

Since "comp.misc" is an old newsgroup which must be on every server,
and has no existing traffic, it looks like a good place to me.  Since
the Slashdot crowd tends to talk about technical topics, this would
seem to fit the charter of "comp.misc", or at least whatever charter
there was at the beginning of time.

::Still dusting of my .slrnrc file::

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#162

On 2014-02-09, Lance Orner <lance@orner.invalid.net> wrote:
> On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? 
>
> Since "comp.misc" is an old newsgroup which must be on every server,
> and has no existing traffic, it looks like a good place to me.  Since
> the Slashdot crowd tends to talk about technical topics, this would
> seem to fit the charter of "comp.misc", or at least whatever charter
> there was at the beginning of time.
>
>::Still dusting of my .slrnrc file::

Also, there are other groups that would fit other traditional sections
of Slashdot, but we'd risk being too spread out.  For example:
alt.privacy  roughly corresponds to Your Rights Online, there are
vintage OS groups, too many (crappy) politics groups to count, and so
on.  I can imagine branching some topics out to those other newsgroups,
but my preference is to try to get the gang to 'assemble'in one single
place until we've got something approaching critical mass.

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#163

RS Wood wrote:

> On 2014-02-09, Lance Orner 
<lance@orner.invalid.net> wrote:
>> On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn 
<ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Is this the "right" newsgroup to 
"take over"?
>>
>> Since "comp.misc" is an old newsgroup 
which must be on every server,
>> and has no existing traffic, it looks 
like a good place to me.  Since
>> the Slashdot crowd tends to talk about 
technical topics, this would
>> seem to fit the charter of 
"comp.misc", or at least whatever charter
>> there was at the beginning of time.
>>
>>::Still dusting of my .slrnrc file::
> 
> Also, there are other groups that would 
fit other traditional sections
> of Slashdot, but we'd risk being too 
spread out.  For example:
> alt.privacy  roughly corresponds to 
Your Rights Online, there are
> vintage OS groups, too many (crappy) 
politics groups to count, and so
> on.  I can imagine branching some 
topics out to those other newsgroups,
> but my preference is to try to get the 
gang to 'assemble'in one single
> place until we've got something 
approaching critical mass.

I tend to agree with your assessment. It 
seems folly, to me, to splinter more than 
we have to at what is an early stage for 
this life after Slashdot.If this is a 
more widely held view then it would allow 
us to take our time and to petition 
whomever such things are best directed 
towards (perhaps those who can offer 
direction on this might post?) for 
appropriate new categories.

 It isn't something to hurry over but it 
would be interesting to see proposals for 
a suitable new category tree structure.

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#280

On 02/09/2014 03:19 PM, TrueSatan wrote:
> RS Wood wrote:
> 
>> On 2014-02-09, Lance Orner 
> <lance@orner.invalid.net> wrote:
>>> On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn 
> <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Is this the "right" newsgroup to 
> "take over"?
>>>
>>> Since "comp.misc" is an old newsgroup 
> which must be on every server,
>>> and has no existing traffic, it looks 
> like a good place to me.  Since
>>> the Slashdot crowd tends to talk about 
> technical topics, this would
>>> seem to fit the charter of 
> "comp.misc", or at least whatever charter
>>> there was at the beginning of time.
>>>
>>> ::Still dusting of my .slrnrc file::
>>
>> Also, there are other groups that would 
> fit other traditional sections
>> of Slashdot, but we'd risk being too 
> spread out.  For example:
>> alt.privacy  roughly corresponds to 
> Your Rights Online, there are
>> vintage OS groups, too many (crappy) 
> politics groups to count, and so
>> on.  I can imagine branching some 
> topics out to those other newsgroups,
>> but my preference is to try to get the 
> gang to 'assemble'in one single
>> place until we've got something 
> approaching critical mass.
> 
> I tend to agree with your assessment. It 
> seems folly, to me, to splinter more than 
> we have to at what is an early stage for 
> this life after Slashdot.If this is a 
> more widely held view then it would allow 
> us to take our time and to petition 
> whomever such things are best directed 
> towards (perhaps those who can offer 
> direction on this might post?) for 
> appropriate new categories.
> 
>  It isn't something to hurry over but it 
> would be interesting to see proposals for 
> a suitable new category tree structure.
> 

Coming up with a general guidelines/FAQ document could lead to some
useful conventions that allow one group to be used while allowing for
some organization.  For instance: using top level new threads as
categories, and thread level out for article postings, with anything
beyond that falling under "comments".   Use of different subjects for
comments rather than "re: <insert parent subject here>" to allow for
easier skimming.  Things in this vein.

As for the group we pick, I'm not really sure that it matters so much,
provided that A) it's not an already occupied group, and B) it's not
full of spam.  People coming to us will be mostly coming from mentions
on web sites anyway, rather than happening across us perusing the usenet
hierarchy...it is still 2014, after all.

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#292

> Coming up with a general guidelines/FAQ document could lead to some
> useful conventions that allow one group to be used while allowing for
> some organization.  For instance: using top level new threads as
> categories, and thread level out for article postings, with anything
> beyond that falling under "comments".   Use of different subjects for
> comments rather than "re: <insert parent subject here>" to allow for
> easier skimming.  Things in this vein.
> 
> As for the group we pick, I'm not really sure that it matters so much,
> provided that A) it's not an already occupied group, and B) it's not
> full of spam.  People coming to us will be mostly coming from mentions
> on web sites anyway, rather than happening across us perusing the usenet
> hierarchy...it is still 2014, after all.

I like the idea of guidelines but suspect Usenet is too chaotic to
really enforce this kind of thing.  But we can try as a community to
behave.

As for mentions on web sites, I got one published this morning here:
http://www.ngrblog.com/slashdot-usenet/

It's the Newsgroups Review website and gets decent traffic from people
interested in trying out Usenet.  Hope this is helpful, not harmful.

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#197

On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 13:37:36 -04-59 (UTC), wjwlsn
<ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:

>Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? I know that someone mentioned this earlier, relative to the difficulty of getting new groups created. I only ask because a typical day on Slashdot involves much more than miscellaneous computer-related discussion. We're a community with pretty wide-ranging interests. The common theme, though, is that we're fairly ner
>dy and obsessive... thus the old tagline for Slashdot, "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters".
>
>So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? I never used it back in the day, but according to the following, its original charter falls fits us almost perfectly.
>
>"http://www.powerusenet.com/blog/2007/08/featured-newsgroup-altnerdobsessive.html"
>
>Don't get me wrong... I'm perfectly happy to stay here at comp.misc.
>

I swear I remember seeing an alt.slashdot once-upon-a-time, but it
isn't in my newsfeed anymore.

Of course, since many of the free services don't offer the alt.*
hierarchy at all, it's sort of a moot point. 

Still, so long as we aren't too stringent about "this is slashdot just
on usenet" comp.misc seems appropriate for most topics we're likely to
discuss (e.g., pretty much anything relating to computers and
technology). Various YRO and political topics technically would fall
outside the newsgroup's charter but I think that's forgivable,
especially since it's not as if this corner of Usenet was being used
for anything but spam anyway.

So count that as another vote for staying with comp.misc

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#235

On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 13:37:36 -04-59 (UTC), wjwlsn wrote,

> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? I know that someone mentioned 
> this earlier, relative to the difficulty of getting new groups created. I 
> only ask because a typical day on Slashdot involves much more than
> miscellaneous computer-related discussion.

alt.geek looks like a ghost town. That's a possibility. The question is 
whether most news servers would carry the alt.* groups.

Greetings, fellow Slashdotters in exile!


-- 
Elizabeth T. Knuth
http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/
Slashdot Beta delenda est!


---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com

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#244

On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? 
>
> So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? 
>
> Any thoughts?

Here is my candidate list- (though I agree that since these are 
more or less all ghost towns, sitting here on comp.misc for a
couple weeks until someone like, complains or something, seems fine)

alt.cyberspace.rebels
alt.fan.usenet
misc.headlines
misc.news.internet.discuss

Cheers,

-dmc

(and vote "NerdNewsNet" for the SoylentNews.com name :)
http://www.soylentnews.org/wiki/index.php?title=NewName

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#251

On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:27:25 +0000 (UTC), John Brownalt
<deconfliction@filteredperception.org> wrote:

>On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? 
>>
>> So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? 
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>
>Here is my candidate list- (though I agree that since these are 
>more or less all ghost towns, sitting here on comp.misc for a
>couple weeks until someone like, complains or something, seems fine)
>
>alt.cyberspace.rebels
>alt.fan.usenet
>misc.headlines
>misc.news.internet.discuss


The alt.* newsgroups aren't really a good options. Most free
news-servers exclude the entire alt.* hierarchy, and some of the
commercial servers do as well. And I don't want to push people towards
google groups (argh, what it does with line lengths!).

The misc.* would work, but - damn it! - slashdot is (mostly) tech
geeks and hanging out in the comp.* hierarchy seems more appropriate.
Most of the discussion will likely be appropriate anyway and - to be
honest - I don't think anyone much cares if it is not anymore.

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#252

misc.news.internet.discuss sounds like a good match. On the other hand, if noone is going to complain about comp.misc, this seems fine.

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#258

> The alt.* newsgroups aren't really a good options. Most free
> news-servers exclude the entire alt.* hierarchy, and some of the
> commercial servers do as well. And I don't want to push people towards
> google groups (argh, what it does with line lengths!).
> 
> The misc.* would work, but - damn it! - slashdot is (mostly) tech
> geeks and hanging out in the comp.* hierarchy seems more appropriate.
> Most of the discussion will likely be appropriate anyway and - to be
> honest - I don't think anyone much cares if it is not anymore.
> 

It seems AIOE, Albasani.net, and Eternal-September are the biggest and most well-known free providers and they all offer the alt hierarchy (though not the binaries).  Solani.net is less well known but also covers the alt hierarchy.

I like the other suggestions though.  Let's give it a month and then decide if it's time to move to greener pastures.

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#261

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:51:45 AM UTC-5, RS Wood wrote:
> It seems AIOE, Albasani.net, and Eternal-September are the biggest and most well-known free providers and they all offer the alt hierarchy (though not the binaries). Solani.net is less well known but also covers the alt hierarchy. I like the other suggestions though. Let's give it a month and then decide if it's time to move to greener pastures.

I'm on board with this (wait a month and then decide). I felt the question had to be asked, but I don't really have a strong opinion on whether to stay in comp.misc, move to another group, or try to create a new hierarchy. Besides, if Dice caves and ditches beta (ha!), or if SoylentNews (or whatever the name ends up being) takes off in a big way, a lot of people may just leave the newsgroup. I hope people stick around though, because I really like the idea of having this kind of discussion group being independent from any single owner.

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#326

On 2014-02-11 17:04:12 +0000, wjwlsn said:

> On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:51:45 AM UTC-5, RS Wood wrote:
>> It seems AIOE, Albasani.net, and Eternal-September are the biggest and 
>> most well-known free providers and they all offer the alt hierarchy 
>> (though not the binaries). Solani.net is less well known but also 
>> covers the alt hierarchy. I like the other suggestions though. Let's 
>> give it a month and then decide if it's time to move to greener 
>> pastures.
> 
> I'm on board with this (wait a month and then decide). I felt the 
> question had to be asked, but I don't really have a strong opinion on 
> whether to stay in comp.misc, move to another group, or try to create a 
> new hierarchy. Besides, if Dice caves and ditches beta (ha!), or if 
> SoylentNews (or whatever the name ends up being) takes off in a big 
> way, a lot of people may just leave the newsgroup. I hope people stick 
> around though, because I really like the idea of having this kind of 
> discussion group being independent from any single owner.

While I doubt Dice will cave, and I also doubt that SoylentNews (or 
whatever) will gather enough steam to really draw people from Usenet, I 
don't intend to go (back) to either one.  Proprietary web forums have 
had their day, in my opinion, and I have seen enough of them ruined by 
over-zealous dictators, spam, marketing and political shillery, 
censorship in the name of and so forth, that I'd just rather stick to 
the original prototypical forum, Usenet.  It's also a philosophical 
stand - I don't think that I want to be contributing to the internet ad 
economy any more, and ultimately this is what most forums run on.

I sat in on an IRC chat on #altslashdot for a while, and it was clear 
that the goals they have in mind would engender the same kinds of 
problems that Slashdot (among other forums) has right now.

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#281

On 02/11/2014 09:34 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:27:25 +0000 (UTC), John Brownalt
> <deconfliction@filteredperception.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 2014-02-09, wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? 
>>>
>>> So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? 
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Here is my candidate list- (though I agree that since these are 
>> more or less all ghost towns, sitting here on comp.misc for a
>> couple weeks until someone like, complains or something, seems fine)
>>
>> alt.cyberspace.rebels
>> alt.fan.usenet
>> misc.headlines
>> misc.news.internet.discuss
> 
> 
> The alt.* newsgroups aren't really a good options. Most free
> news-servers exclude the entire alt.* hierarchy, and some of the
> commercial servers do as well. And I don't want to push people towards
> google groups (argh, what it does with line lengths!).
> 
> The misc.* would work, but - damn it! - slashdot is (mostly) tech
> geeks and hanging out in the comp.* hierarchy seems more appropriate.
> Most of the discussion will likely be appropriate anyway and - to be
> honest - I don't think anyone much cares if it is not anymore.
> 


While I'll stand in favor of not using the alt.* hierarchy for stated
reasons, I will point out that news.eternal-september.org is free and
caches a good chunk of the alt.* world.  Just in case it's something
folks in here happen to decide they'd like.

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#945

On Sun, 9 Feb 2014, wjwlsn wrote:

> Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? I know that someone mentioned 
> this earlier, relative to the difficulty of getting new groups created. I 
> only ask because a typical day on Slashdot involves much more than 
> miscellaneous computer-related discussion. We're a community with pretty 
> wide-ranging interests. The common theme, though, is that we're fairly ner
> dy and obsessive... thus the old tagline for Slashdot, "News for Nerds, Stuff 
> that Matters".
>
> So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? I never used it back in the 
> day, but according to the following, its original charter falls fits us 
> almost perfectly.
>
> "http://www.powerusenet.com/blog/2007/08/featured-newsgroup-altnerdobsessive.html"
>
> Don't get me wrong... I'm perfectly happy to stay here at comp.misc.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>
You can't create a new newsgroup until there's enough interest.  That was 
the case with the Big Seven, even when it became the Big Eight. The alt. 
newsgroups avoid that, but may not get good traffic.

Just because there's activity here now doesn't mean there will be activity 
when the thrill wears off.  Don't forget, people have left usenet, there 
hasn't been a steady flow into Usenet in a long time.  Prove there is 
value to yet another newsgroup by actually showing traffic here, and then 
it should be easy to get a newsgroup created in the Big Eight.  WHile 
everyone was gone, the rules have changed, no more voting, but you still 
have to prove the value of yet another newsgroup.

   Michael

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#1209

I don't think the problem is where to settle, whether it is here , Slashdot or somewhere else.  I think the problem is how to interact with the settlers, wherever they are.

This is why I built http://www.sagebump.com - to be able to get my RSS feeds and Tech related Newsgroups posts in one place, regardless of where the technocratic elite go. 

I am biased, ofcourse, it is my little puppy, and yes Sagebump is basically a buffed up weekend project, but hey, it does the job for me.


On Wednesday, 26 February 2014 05:01:04 UTC, Michael Black  wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Feb 2014, wjwlsn wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > Is this the "right" newsgroup to "take over"? I know that someone mentioned 
> 
> > this earlier, relative to the difficulty of getting new groups created. I 
> 
> > only ask because a typical day on Slashdot involves much more than 
> 
> > miscellaneous computer-related discussion. We're a community with pretty 
> 
> > wide-ranging interests. The common theme, though, is that we're fairly ner
> 
> > dy and obsessive... thus the old tagline for Slashdot, "News for Nerds, Stuff 
> 
> > that Matters".
> 
> >
> 
> > So what about something like alt.nerd.obsessive? I never used it back in the 
> 
> > day, but according to the following, its original charter falls fits us 
> 
> > almost perfectly.
> 
> >
> 
> > "http://www.powerusenet.com/blog/2007/08/featured-newsgroup-altnerdobsessive.html"
> 
> >
> 
> > Don't get me wrong... I'm perfectly happy to stay here at comp.misc.
> 
> >
> 
> > Any thoughts?
> 
> >
> 
> >
> 
> You can't create a new newsgroup until there's enough interest.  That was 
> 
> the case with the Big Seven, even when it became the Big Eight. The alt. 
> 
> newsgroups avoid that, but may not get good traffic.
> 
> 
> 
> Just because there's activity here now doesn't mean there will be activity 
> 
> when the thrill wears off.  Don't forget, people have left usenet, there 
> 
> hasn't been a steady flow into Usenet in a long time.  Prove there is 
> 
> value to yet another newsgroup by actually showing traffic here, and then 
> 
> it should be easy to get a newsgroup created in the Big Eight.  WHile 
> 
> everyone was gone, the rules have changed, no more voting, but you still 
> 
> have to prove the value of yet another newsgroup.
> 
> 
> 
>    Michael

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#1211

> This is why I built http://www.sagebump.com 
Looks good, it's got a similar feel to reddit and hacker news. 
Is there any way to add custom feeds with their own icon?  How about filtering by 
keyword?
is it possible to publish the aggregated feeds as a single feed?


-- 
regards
~tdk
View this thread at http://squte.com/node/4375#comment-15453

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#1215

On 2014-03-03, tdk <forum.tdk@squte.com> wrote:
>> This is why I built http://www.sagebump.com 
> Looks good, it's got a similar feel to reddit and hacker news.  Is
> there any way to add custom feeds with their own icon?  How about
> filtering by keyword?  is it possible to publish the aggregated feeds
> as a single feed?
>
>

Sagebump looks pretty cool - congratulations!  I love the idea of the
"Lazy Presets," although I'm sure everyone will complain about your
choices for different, unreconcilable reasons.  Looks like a fun
project, and the world definitely needs a meta-aggregator these days!

Yes, please add soylent and pipedot too if you can.  I had another look
at Slashdot today and was sad to see close to no articles that
interested me, and a quality of comment that was really poor.

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