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Soapbox 1
By rickyjames, Section News Posted on Mon May 19, 2003 at 05:11:24 PM PST
Hi, everybody. Welcome to "The Soapbox", also known as the "Site News" link in the Suggestion Box on the homepage. Think of this posting as a permanent "letter to the editor" page, the watercooler we can all gather around from time to time and just chat. This the place to come to get the latest updates, news and gossip about what rickyjames (that's me) is up to now in making ongoing changes to this site. When I add new general site info to this posting as an update I'll change the date in the homepage Suggestion Box, so keep an eye out for that. This "Soapbox" posting is also to give you a place you can leave me or anybody else a piece of your mind if you feel like it. If I get enough pieces of everybody else's mind, maybe I can put them all together into a whole one. E Pluribus Unum. The Soapbox: May 2003 The Soapbox: June - Dec 2003 The Soapbox: Jan - Apr 2004 The Soapbox: Apr - Jul 2004 The Soapbox: Jul - Oct 2004

Soapbox 1 | 74 comments (74 topical, 0 hidden)

I miss the "New Section Stories" box (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Sweetwind on Tue May 20, 2003 at 02:33:43 AM PST

There used to be a box on the lefthand side of the front page, entitled "New Section Stories" or something like that, which had a list of the latest section-only stories so you could see from the front page what was new in the sections. That box went missing when you started the revamp, I guess, but if you could recover it I think it is very useful. I'd rather be able to see everything from the front page and not have to hit the sections.

Um, as a matter of fact, I'm not sure how to hit the sections any more. The "everything, news, stories, reviews (etc, I've forgotten what other sections there are)" links are also gone. Are you doing away with the sections? I can tell that the front page is not "everything" because this story (Soapbox) isn't showing up on the front page. I realize you are in the middle of revamps so maybe this is just a transitional thing, but I thought I'd mention it. :-)

About Shuffling The Boxes... by rickyjames, 05/20/2003 04:47:43 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

A few comments by Drog, 05/20/2003 12:57:33 PM PST (5.00 / 1)

Store link replaced with soapbox link by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 07:05:46 AM PST (3.00 / 1)

Text ads by Drog, 05/21/2003 07:57:38 AM PST (3.00 / 1)

Also... by rickyjames, 05/26/2003 01:56:20 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

In The Past 30 Days | NNN new comments by Bob, 05/26/2003 09:37:56 AM PST (3.50 / 2)

Oops. by rickyjames, 05/26/2003 10:40:32 AM PST (3.00 / 1)

How About This... by rickyjames, 05/25/2003 07:16:54 AM PST (none / 0)

Editing stories? (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by Bob on Tue May 20, 2003 at 07:30:34 PM PST

I was just wondering if there is any way for the author of a story to edit it after it's been posted. I've noticed on the stories I've posted so far, someone seems to be going in and inserting typos after I submit them. :-) (Like changing "Neptune" to "Neptune's" or moving the word "reliably" then adding a space between it and the comma that follows.)

Not that I mind the stories being edited (it's very nice to have someone looking them over and fixing mistakes) but it kind of bugs me to see little errors like that pop up when they weren't there originally, and then to have no way to fix them. :-) It's really just the "not being able to fix them" bit that bugs me. As I'm not familiar with Scoop (this is my first exposure to it), I don't know whether this ability is simply not inherently present, or if I'm just not seeing how to do it (some kind of "Edit" link that I've missed).

They Aren't Typos by gypsysoul, 05/21/2003 03:55:59 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

On gerunds and infinitives by Bob, 05/21/2003 07:43:47 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

The Noun/Gerund by gypsysoul, 05/21/2003 10:45:32 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Wow... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 11:32:42 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Abracadabra... by rickyjames, 05/20/2003 10:49:59 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

Wow! by Bob, 05/21/2003 12:32:26 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Now That You're An Editor... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 04:47:11 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Your left or my left? by Bob, 05/21/2003 08:59:19 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

D'Oh, you're right, it's right... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 11:12:10 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

re: Editing stories? by Sweetwind, 05/21/2003 08:13:24 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

"Someone seems to be inserting typos" by Bob, 05/21/2003 08:29:19 AM PST (4.00 / 1)
Similarities.... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 09:00:16 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

OK, Time To Come Clean About Editing... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 08:56:21 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Backups? by Bob, 05/21/2003 09:08:27 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Re: Backups by Drog, 05/22/2003 02:26:21 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Re: Backups by Bob, 05/22/2003 08:25:45 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

just out of curiosity (5.00 / 2) (#39)
by Alan Von Fan on Sat May 24, 2003 at 02:04:42 AM PST

what does the 'Review Hidden Comments' link actually do?

Let's find out. by Bob, 05/24/2003 02:06:11 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

It shows the comments that were rated zero. by Bob, 05/24/2003 02:08:16 AM PST (5.00 / 2)

well thanks for clearing that up by Alan Von Fan, 05/24/2003 03:57:18 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

I don't think anyone else has asked... (5.00 / 1) (#72)
by Alan Von Fan on Sat May 31, 2003 at 01:09:59 AM PST

...so I will. Any word on what we can expect on the Interviews front?

Actually, That's been Discussed... by rickyjames, 05/31/2003 03:00:17 AM PST (4.50 / 2)

Clock Problem? (4.50 / 2) (#7)
by Bob on Wed May 21, 2003 at 02:03:13 AM PST

Yesterday I noticed it was possible, through the "prefs" link to set a timezone, so I set it to CDT (my timezone).

However, I believe there may be something wrong with the system's clock, since the story I just submitted at 7:57 AM CDT shows it was submitted at 06:04 AM CDT. That seems a bit off. Does everyone else see this same thing? I am pressing "Post" on this comment at exactly 8:03 AM CDT, so we'll see what happens.

Weird by Bob, 05/21/2003 02:08:55 AM PST (5.00 / 1)
Yeah, I've noticed there's a clock issue, too... by rickyjames, 05/21/2003 02:42:01 AM PST (5.00 / 1)
Yup, it's a bug by Drog, 05/21/2003 03:23:56 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

FastCounter? (4.00 / 2) (#27)
by absurdhero on Fri May 23, 2003 at 09:50:10 AM PST

Whats with the microsoft fastcounter up at the top? Is this temporary? Why do you need a visible counter in the first place? And why use an external counter service when you can have one running on scifitoday with whatever features you need?]

Thanks for clearing this oddity up :)

About the Counter - Let's Discuss... by rickyjames, 05/23/2003 10:30:19 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Lack of comments by Bob, 05/23/2003 02:00:10 PM PST (5.00 / 2)

yes, and maybe by Alan Von Fan, 05/23/2003 03:19:42 PM PST (4.00 / 2)

Comment ratings by Bob, 05/23/2003 11:42:48 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

yup, yup by Alan Von Fan, 05/24/2003 12:33:57 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

FAQ by Bob, 05/24/2003 12:55:07 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

How'd you find that? by Drog, 05/25/2003 01:43:34 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

The Secret Path by Bob, 05/25/2003 08:45:26 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Thanks by Drog, 05/26/2003 03:59:10 AM PST (3.00 / 1)

My gut feeling is... by Alan Von Fan, 05/24/2003 01:55:09 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

The Nature of a Comment by Bob, 05/23/2003 11:26:31 PM PST (4.00 / 1)
Fastcounter by absurdhero, 05/24/2003 07:46:05 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

One Other Thing... by rickyjames, 05/23/2003 10:38:45 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Google Strikes Again On Soldier Nanotech (4.00 / 1) (#32)
by rickyjames on Fri May 23, 2003 at 05:39:45 PM PST

Woohoo, here we go again. Remember I said on Thurs afternoon that Google News picked up two of our stories and we proceeded to get 25,000 hits in the couple of hours before we crashed? Well, in an incredible stroke of luck, the SFT/SciScoop (we're changin' over pretty soon, folks) writeup on the MIT Soldier Nanotech Lab got picked up by Google as the lead source on that story as of about 11PM Central time and in 20 minutes we've gotten over 100 hits. Because it's so late there doesn't seem to be a big surge like yesterday so maybe we'll have a nice steady flow of hits. What's cool is that I didn't write the story TRYING to follow something Google had already started on (OK, I admit it, that was what I did on the HP robot story) but instead wrote it up because I read the USA Today story over breakfast and just thought it would be a neat story for us. Within 30 minutes of my posting it tonight, Google went from no mention on the subject to us beaing lead source out of about 25 versions from other media outlets. Saturday is usually a slow turnover day on the Google Sci/Tech page, check here to see how long we stay listed this weekend. I hope it's a long time. Google News is so cool...

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

Counter divergence continues by rickyjames, 05/26/2003 01:51:37 AM PST (5.00 / 1)
Six hours later, counter data is all screwy... by rickyjames, 05/23/2003 11:26:14 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

1982? 850? by Bob, 05/24/2003 02:18:14 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Silly Me.... by rickyjames, 05/24/2003 05:53:14 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Albert Einstein, Apparently Revisited (4.00 / 1) (#49)
by Bob on Sun May 25, 2003 at 12:09:40 PM PST

How did my Albert Einstein story (from May 21) get changed to a date of May 25, and get bumped to the top of the front page? That's very odd.

Wow, You Are Fast - I Just Did That by rickyjames, 05/25/2003 12:13:42 PM PST (5.00 / 1)

Makes sense by Bob, 05/25/2003 12:19:57 PM PST (5.00 / 1)

Google ran the story before too by Drog, 05/25/2003 01:57:01 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

(Real-Life) Vacation (4.00 / 1) (#53)
by Bob on Sun May 25, 2003 at 11:22:06 PM PST

Unfortunately for SFT/SciScoop (and fortunately for me), I'll be leaving early Tuesday morning and will be gone until June 3 on vacation, so my story on the solar eclipse and my comment on What makes a theory scientific will probably be my last major contributions here for the next week or so. I'm sorry this means pushing Ricky back into the inenviable position of having to write all of the stories while also trying to retool and relaunch the site, but hopefully someone else will be able to help out a bit while I'm gone, and post a couple of stories.

Anyway, I wanted to post this comment so that you would not be worried that I have left the site permanently and won't be back, after being here for just two weeks. Rest assured that I have every intention of picking up where I left off when I return. :)

Have fun, please come back! by rickyjames, 05/26/2003 01:15:34 AM PST (4.00 / 1)
Welcome Back Bob! by Sweetwind, 06/04/2003 07:15:22 PM PST (4.00 / 1)

Another Day, Another Google Server Crash (4.00 / 1) (#65)
by rickyjames on Wed May 28, 2003 at 06:57:40 AM PST

For the record, we were pretty much down from about 10:30 AM Central to 12:45 PM Central Wed because once again we got Main Source Top Story Front Page on Google News (Atlantic Asteroid Splashdown) and the server choked after 750 - 1000 quick hits. Same thing sorta happened last Thurs with the Mars Orbit Photo story. We WILL get these growing pains behind us and we WILL go on to be the Fox News of Science. Except, of course, we WILL be Fair and Balanced....

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

Some Numbers To Share (4.00 / 1) (#70)
by rickyjames on Fri May 30, 2003 at 10:02:49 AM PST

Friday afternoon 5/30, tabulating some of our stats, pretty interesting stuff, thought I'd share. We Are Growing. First four were on Google. Next three are military oriented that got passed around at West Point via email (I think, I got some nice emails). The rest are just good solid hits in the past two weeks on our most recent stories. I can remember March/April when half our stories had under 50 hits and only a quarter were over 100 hits. Of course, I/we are consistently using the split page now forcing front page readers to click to get the full story too, so now everybody is getting counted and not just RDF headline readers like before. This is definitely helping our click per visit statistic over on Alexa, as are literally thousands of total additional hits not counted here going into various comment levels now that we're getting comments. We are blasting off, I think...

22048 hits beginning 5/22 on Mars Photo
09073 hits beginning 5/28 on Asteroid Splash
07831 hits beginning 5/23 on Nanosoldier
07153 hits beginning 5/22 on Red Dwarf

04211 hits beginning 5/26 on First Av Accident
04180 hits beginning 5/26 on San Fran Nuke
03075 hits beginning 5/21 on HSS Sound Gun

02541 hits beginning 5/26 on Solar Eclipse
02502 hits beginning 5/19 on Soapbox
01840 hits beginning 5/21 on Extinct Lang
01822 hits beginning 5/27 on Chimps As Humans
01632 hits beginning 5/18 on Quant Entang
01461 hits beginning 5/24 on SARS
01139 hits beginning 5/20 on Dog Steriliz
01134 hits beginning 5/25 on Phasers
01113 hits beginning 5/27 on Playstations
00959 hits beginning 5/29 on CIA / WMD
00900 hits beginning 5/25 on Etruscan Book
00818 hits beginning 5/20 on Cancer Noses
00805 hits beginning 5/25 on Einstein
00511 hits beginning 5/28 on Android Extacy
00511 hits beginning 5/23 on HP Telerobots
00428 hits beginning 5/21 on Mad Cow
00432 hits beginning 5/18 on San Jose Space
00403 hits beginning 5/28 on Geisha Review
00294 hits beginning 5/18 on Neptune
00273 hits beginning 5/20 on Knockout Rats

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

fantastic by Alan Von Fan, 05/31/2003 01:08:18 AM PST (4.00 / 1)

Daily Digest? (none / 0) (#60)
by Sweetwind on Tue May 27, 2003 at 04:20:54 AM PST

Not that I want to whine or anything :-), but just to let rickyjames know that I am subscribed to the Daily Digest (you know, "Receive Email Story Digest:" on the User Preferences page is set to "Daily") and the last one I received was the 22nd. I miss them!

Ummm... by rickyjames, 05/27/2003 04:45:22 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Call off the hounds! by Sweetwind, 05/27/2003 10:20:43 AM PST (none / 0)

Same problem as the new user signup by Drog, 05/28/2003 04:29:51 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Aw, Man... by rickyjames, 05/28/2003 06:49:43 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Sneak Peek At Where We're Going... (none / 0) (#66)
by rickyjames on Thu May 29, 2003 at 11:45:37 AM PST

OK, folks, we're really gonna do this SciScoop changeover for better or worse Real Soon Now. Drog has made a BEAUTIFUL logo, wait til you see it. I've scrubbed and updated the FAQ pages, so you can check those out and let me know if you find anything else that needs tweaking. The only major thing left that I want to do is finish up a long list of a LOT more links I've been working on to beef up the RDF science headline feed box...

Last but not least, a few hundred links (seriously) are now up on the links page, along with some text about the next thing I'm gonna do to hopefully improve SciScoop, once I get the logo changed and we become a Serious Journalism Site (ha ha ha).

Actually, we really ARE getting pretty good at getting picked up by Google News as a significant news source. We got 20,000+ hits on our Mars Photo story, 8000+ on our Asteroid Impact story (and both would have been who knows how high if the server hadn't choked, a problem we hopefully have fixed) and literally thousands of hits on several of our other stories this week. What science journalist WOULDN'T want to write a story or two every now and then for SciScoop with readership potential like that each and every 24 hours? Hopefully our best submissions are still ahead. Stay tuned.

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

Some FAQ comments by Sweetwind, 05/30/2003 03:59:32 AM PST (5.00 / 2)

Thanks for the Proofreading by rickyjames, 05/30/2003 04:47:42 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

some more FAQ comments by Sweetwind, 05/30/2003 06:03:55 AM PST (5.00 / 1)

Soapbox 1 | 74 comments (74 topical, 0 hidden)

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