Weekly Update

by
in pipedot on (#3HV)
Updates for this week include:
  • Added an internal mail system. Users can now privately message each other using familiar email style (username@pipedot.org) addresses.
  • New captcha system based off of the textcaptcha.com service.
  • You can now submit stories as an AC without logging in.
  • You can now post comments as an AC without logging in.
  • Raised the default moderation score to 1 for non-AC comments.
  • You can no longer moderate your own comments.
  • Hide and Expand thresholds can now be saved in your account settings page.
  • Added icons to hopefully improve the visibility of certain functions (The syndication feed at the bottom of the page and the Reply button at the top of comment sections)
Reply 20 comments

Just letting you know ... (Score: 5, Insightful)

by seriously@pipedot.org on 2014-04-14 08:34 (#12A)

Given the small amount of comments I see on each article, I just wanted to let you know that, although not actively participating, I (and others I know) *really* appreciate the excellent work on this site, as well as its content. Thank you.

Keep going!

Re: Just letting you know ... (Score: 4, Insightful)

by omoc@pipedot.org on 2014-04-14 13:49 (#12F)

I second that

Re: Just letting you know ... (Score: 3, Insightful)

by useless@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 22:23 (#12Y)

Thirded! Thanks Bryan, great work.

Impressive rate of progress (Score: 3, Insightful)

by prospectacle@pipedot.org on 2014-04-14 11:14 (#12C)

How many people are developing this site? That's a good set of features for one week. I will maintain an active interest and try to comment more often as I think this is a worthy endeavour with a good foundation and great potential.

Those approval-voting "What features do you want" polls are also a great idea and I think everyone would win if you ran them regularly.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 2)

by cubancigar11@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 06:02 (#12J)

I offered to contribute to the codebase, but haven't got any reply so far. I am assuming it is a pet project of bryan. I still open pipedot every once in two days but I don't see any urgency to get this site into a sustainable form - there is no effort in building community, no effort in drawing-in new visitors and as a news website there is hardly any news or comments. Most people have moved on to SN as of now.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 4, Insightful)

by canorris@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 09:00 (#12K)

I disagree, Bryan is doing an excellent job of creating a robust, [mostly] feature-complete site. I have no understanding of his future intentions, but could see a community here flourishing once he has the code in a place he is happy with.

You may not realise this but the unwashed masses are a fickle bunch.

Call them in too soon and they'll turn up their noses and never come back.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 4, Interesting)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 12:05 (#12N)

Thank you for the offer to help. I did create a github organization and project like you asked and will start pushing pieces up over the next few weeks. The authentication code will likely be this week. My goal has always been to release more of the pipecode project once the distributed parts are close enough to work reasonably well. The idea is for anyone to be able to extract a tarball on a standard webserver and have a working pipecode setup. And linked to every other pipecode installation.

There is a bittorrent network with distributed hash tables and magnet links. There is a bitcoin network with a distributed transaction log. About time there is a distributed news network.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 2)

by tdk@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 18:29 (#12W)

About time there is a distributed news network

Are you suggesting that many instances of the pipedot code will be able to share comments and stories?
It's good news if you are.
I have proposed a network based on email to distribute comments and stories around websites. And as you may know, Usenet is mostly accessed through the web now, so is already a kind of distributed web news network. But if someone is prepared to do the work for a more modern system that would be even better.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 3, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-04-16 02:50 (#130)

Yes. I read your 3 part series. However, some of the links are broken. For example, is there a way to get a cached version of http://squte.com/whats-wrong-with-blogs ?

link fixed (Score: 1)

by tdk@pipedot.org on 2014-04-17 16:54 (#13Y)

Thanks for letting me know. This link is now fixed. I will try to fix the others in the next week.
How far have you got with the distributed network? Is it just an idea at the moment or have you written some code?

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 1)

by cubancigar11@pipedot.org on 2014-04-16 13:04 (#13D)

Thanks Bryan! Please don't take my comment as any kind of derision or pro-soylent/anti-pipe kind of trolling comment. I have particular interest in seeing slash rewritten using newer tech, a rewrite that stays true to the original discussion forum, which is why I am interested in pipedot (along with the fact that I have lower uid here :p). But I will ask one question: as I understand you are funding the website from your own. But as the website grows pipedot is bound to run into monetization. This way or the other we will have to have large (enough) audience for that to be possible. What are your thoughts about that?

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-04-16 18:22 (#13H)

I'd rather take the approach of ownCloud . Offer a usable example with reasonable limits on pipedot.org - then point advanced users to the GPL package. That way, if you want to upload gigs of family pictures to your pipecode blog, you will be using your own server and won't take away resources from the main site. News articles, friends lists, and karma tracking are still all linked in the network, but the burden of allocating hard drive space and bandwidth are distributed.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 13:59 (#12T)

I smell sour grapes. Maybe I'm biased because I've volunteered to help edit, but I think in the long run Pipedot is going to be more sustainable. Soylent might currently be bigger but I'm not impressed with the quality of the comments, and the never ending trying to sort out who is the boss and what the site's mantra will be is tiring, to say the least. I think your comment about "most people" is somewhat premature, as it's not a zero-sum game.

There's room for more than one news site out there - they will differentiate themselves, behave differently, and attract different or overlapping crowds. That's a good thing!

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 1)

by cubancigar11@pipedot.org on 2014-04-16 12:59 (#13C)

Well, I am still visiting pipedot regularly so, I don't know about what sour grapes. I am a C++ guy so it is not like I will be contributing a lot of the project. But again, there will be a need to fund the website and for that a critical mass needs to be achieved. That is what I was worrying about.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-04-18 18:41 (#14C)

I think those are valid concerns. I share them, actually. I *do* know that while these comment sections remain pretty sparse, the site is very easy to look at. I thought I'd be happy and nostalgic about early Slashcode, but I am now finding it visually jarring, and I am not sure why. Looks aren't everything, of course. Hoping the user/reader wins as 2014 unfolds.

old fashioned look (Score: 1)

by tdk@pipedot.org on 2014-04-18 20:16 (#14D)

The web's moved on a bit since slashdot was new. Anything without Ajax seems old-fashioned now.
Check out http://dev.soylentnews.org/ - they're experimenting with dynamic loading comments.

Re: Impressive rate of progress (Score: 3, Interesting)

by beldin@pipedot.org on 2014-04-15 23:19 (#12Z)

On the other hand: the site looks good and continues to look better, works well, and I haven't seen any posts here airing dirty laundry, nor is there a constant stream of "what should we do?" posts.

Basically, this site comes across as solid. Once the Bryan in charge feels code base and site are ready for it, he'll tell us.

(As an aside: feel free to comment more and feel free to submit more news stories)

AC stories and posting (Score: 5, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-04-14 12:29 (#12D)

I like that ACs are getting access to more features. I refuse to log in to any accounts while at work, but you're making it easy to participate. Thank you.

Icon "bug" (Score: 1)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-04-16 03:14 (#131)

When you resize the width of the browser to a very narrow window, the story icons float over the story title, and eventually over the links on the left, blocking them. I realize this is not something commonly done, so feel free to not consider it a bug. Tested on Windows 7 and 8.1 with the latest version of Firefox and Internet Explorer.