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Soapbox 6
By rickyjames, Section News Posted on Mon Oct 04, 2004 at 02:21:28 PM PST
Hi, everybody; welcome to "The Soapbox". 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. If you're a member, I'd recommend clicking "+Hotlist" (top right), which will create a new box that will display future comments. This is the place to be to get the latest SciScoop news and gossip. You can also sing our praises here, or give us a piece of your mind by posting a comment to this item. Previous Soapbox comments: The Soapbox: May 2003 The Soapbox: June - Dec 2003 The Soapbox: Jan - Apr 2004 The Soapbox: Apr - Jul 2004 The Soapbox: Jul - Oct 2004 The Soapbox: Oct 2004 - Apr 2005

Soapbox 6 | 68 comments (68 topical, 0 hidden)

Re: Paul Dirac (5.00 / 1) (#55)
by gypsysoul on Tue Mar 01, 2005 at 02:15:40 PM PST

and his science/poetry quote, 3/1/05--

Anybody who could explain quantum mechanics must have just somehow missed Robert Frost's assessment of poetry: "Poetry makes you remember what you didn't know you knew."

Of course it does. And what could be simpler than that? :-)

Janra! What Gives? (none / 0) (#1)
by rickyjames on Mon Oct 04, 2004 at 02:29:13 PM PST

I clicked on the "display in section only" and here it is on the front page...

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

check your display preferences by janra, 10/05/2004 03:48:01 AM PST (none / 0)

That was it... by Drog, 10/05/2004 04:25:23 AM PST (none / 0)

Speaking of things changing... (none / 0) (#4)
by Sweetwind on Tue Oct 05, 2004 at 04:48:48 AM PST

As recently as the day before yesterday, the "SciScoop Scoop" box would correctly show me ("could have been seen by ... and Sweetwind and "...) but last night and today it is only showing ULFs and cloaked users. My cloaked checkbox wasn't checked, but I tried checking it and unchecking it again, to no effect.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone else's nick in there since before yesterday.

Ha! mtigges instantly proves me wrong! by Sweetwind, 10/05/2004 04:50:57 AM PST (none / 0)

You're Not Wrong... by rickyjames, 10/05/2004 08:08:28 AM PST (none / 0)

Try this by Drog, 10/05/2004 09:06:46 AM PST (none / 0)

Huh? by rickyjames, 10/05/2004 10:15:49 AM PST (none / 0)

Weird... by Drog, 10/05/2004 01:57:43 PM PST (none / 0)

I have the same choices by janietta, 10/05/2004 04:27:27 PM PST (none / 0)

try it now by janra, 10/06/2004 04:02:13 PM PST (none / 0)

should be fixed now by janra, 10/07/2004 05:43:08 AM PST (none / 0)

Hey! I'm Back! by rickyjames, 10/07/2004 07:48:36 AM PST (none / 0)

no upgrades by janra, 10/07/2004 08:25:49 AM PST (none / 0)

OOOOOOOOooooooooo............ by rickyjames, 10/07/2004 10:29:28 AM PST (none / 0)

Hey Sweetwind (none / 0) (#11)
by rickyjames on Wed Oct 06, 2004 at 02:13:25 PM PST

I changed the Interview to News so it would show up on the (or at least my) front page - you can change it back after it slides off the bottom of the front page. Umm...was it supposed to show on the front page anyway as Interview or does only News do that???

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

I dunno? by Sweetwind, 10/07/2004 04:36:37 AM PST (none / 0)

Making Non-Editorial The Default (none / 0) (#18)
by rickyjames on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 10:03:59 AM PST

Jamra, there's a discussion elsewhere that stories and comments should NOT be posted for editorial comment by defult as they are now, and I agree. Could you rig things so that checkbox on the story submission page is empty? Tks.

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

that's hardcoded by janra, 10/22/2004 03:54:24 AM PST (none / 0)

Okay by rickyjames, 10/22/2004 04:11:06 AM PST (none / 0)

Dropping Daily Averages (none / 0) (#21)
by rickyjames on Wed Nov 10, 2004 at 01:18:47 AM PST

If you click on our "stats" link on the menu bar, how come our "daily average visits" for November has dropped to around 600 from around 1300-1400 for each of the three months before that? That's a pretty serious readership drop, any newspaper would call a staff meeting on such news and so here's ours. What's going on? We get on Slashdot and now we're shunned or is that a paranoid delusion? And how come the "daily average pages" number is up, almost doubled, in Nov compared to the other months? What, if anything, can / should we do about these numbers?

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

Hmmm by apsmith, 11/10/2004 06:49:00 AM PST (none / 0)

unnatural by Sweetwind, 11/10/2004 10:29:38 AM PST (none / 0)

Looking into it by janra, 11/10/2004 09:18:57 PM PST (none / 0)

For the record... by rickyjames, 11/11/2004 03:15:28 AM PST (none / 0)

we^2 by janra, 11/11/2004 07:26:00 AM PST (none / 0)

OK by rickyjames, 11/11/2004 08:10:25 AM PST (none / 0)

Command bunker by apsmith, 11/11/2004 08:03:25 AM PST (none / 0)

only one "visitor" by janra, 11/11/2004 08:24:36 AM PST (none / 0)

New server (none / 0) (#30)
by apsmith on Tue Nov 30, 2004 at 06:21:51 AM PST

For those who might have had trouble getting in last week and the week before, sciscoop was moved to a new server all on its own around US Thanksgiving, and now seems to be running much better. Think we should have more of a front-page announcement about this, with apologies?

Join us at the National Space Society and help open space to everyone!

Hofstadter (none / 0) (#31)
by apsmith on Mon Dec 06, 2004 at 03:26:19 PM PST

Today's quote being from him - I've admired him for years. I remember I was at Indiana University for a year as a postdoc, and one of the things I worked on turned out to be related to a fun paper he'd published as a young physicist - the Hofstadter Butterfly. I never quite got around to publishing my own version of his butterfly, though I thought it was just as pretty. I also never got up the courage to look him up while I was there, even though we were in the same small town in Indiana. Oh well...

Join us at the National Space Society and help open space to everyone!

re: Hofstadter by Sweetwind, 12/07/2004 09:34:30 AM PST (none / 0)

help at sciscoop.com is bouncing (none / 0) (#33)
by Sweetwind on Sun Dec 12, 2004 at 07:32:35 AM PST

Hey folks, we need to fix this! I'm at my wit's end because rickyjames' email (at email.com) is full and so I can't even email him about it :-)

help@sciscoop.com SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<help@sciscoop.com>: host sciscoop.com [69.55.227.197]: 550 5.1.1 <help@sciscoop.com>... User unknown

Fixed? by apsmith, 12/13/2004 02:39:31 AM PST (none / 0)

Yes! Thanks Janra!! by Sweetwind, 12/13/2004 05:35:24 AM PST (none / 0)

Moderate Submission page (none / 0) (#36)
by Sweetwind on Tue Dec 14, 2004 at 08:05:26 AM PST

In between the Intro Copy and the Extended Copy of the submitted story is a clump of white space. For most stories that is a perfectly good indicator of where the Intro/Extended division is. But sometimes there's a submission with a bunch of whitespace in it already, and it can be hard to tell what's going on. Not a major concern, but it would be nice if it were more clear-cut.

Is it possible to modify the page to put some kind of doodad between the two sections? Maybe a row of asterisks, or "--end intro, begin extended copy--"? And/or some indication if the Extended Copy is empty.

Lot of Downtime? (none / 0) (#37)
by pythor on Mon Jan 10, 2005 at 01:06:00 PM PST

I keep getting "Not Authorised" errors when I try to browse to Sciscoop from the Slashdot link, and or my bookmarks. Any idea what's going on?

Seems fine for me by apsmith, 01/11/2005 02:25:44 AM PST (none / 0)

Will do... by pythor, 01/13/2005 03:35:16 PM PST (none / 0)

EMAIL by apsmith, 01/14/2005 04:58:25 AM PST (none / 0)

mail comments to author (none / 0) (#39)
by mtigges on Tue Jan 11, 2005 at 10:44:47 AM PST

Recently a story went up which had a question regarding its copyright. The question went several days with no answer. Perhaps pre-post comments, especially editorial could be mailed to the author if they're not anonymous? Mark.

Delete (none / 0) (#43)
by apsmith on Fri Jan 14, 2005 at 05:08:58 AM PST

I've just been deleting these too. I followed some of the links (I have a mac, tee hee) and they're just some random Chinese site as far as I can tell. I think it's trying to boost their Google rankings more than anything else. Somewhat creative, but pointless if we just delete them. They've probably set up some sort of robot that does this for scoop sites.

Join us at the National Space Society and help open space to everyone!

I've been deleting them too by Sweetwind, 01/14/2005 08:40:59 AM PST (none / 0)

Actually by apsmith, 01/14/2005 03:40:19 PM PST (none / 0)

Yeah, just delete them by Drog, 01/18/2005 02:06:21 AM PST (none / 0)

Two things (none / 0) (#46)
by Sweetwind on Mon Jan 17, 2005 at 05:22:24 AM PST

1. This problem is actually good news! -- doesn't it mean that seach engines are finding SciScoop a valuable source of reference, and assigning high rankings to its external links?

2. rickyjames, could you delete/modify your comment so it doesn't provide more free advertisement for the culprits?

OK by rickyjames, 01/18/2005 06:01:12 AM PST (none / 0)

SciTopics page (none / 0) (#49)
by Sweetwind on Mon Jan 24, 2005 at 09:09:25 AM PST

When I click on the SCITOPICS link, some of the icons are missing (not found). Then if I try to click links on that page I get foreboding forbidden errors "Forbidden - You don't have permission to access / on this server/-- Apache/1.3.31 Server at www.sciscoop.com Port 80". Seems to be something funny about the "Stories by Topic" page?

fixed! by janra, 01/24/2005 07:56:25 PM PST (none / 0)

The Edit Queue (none / 0) (#51)
by mtigges on Mon Feb 07, 2005 at 05:07:11 AM PST

Long ago I promised that if we opened up the Edit Queue I would use it for my submissions. Unfortunately there was an unforeseen problem. When I use it, I have no idea how long to leave the submission there. If people are making comments, and changes are made, then it's easier, but if no comments are made then one really has no feedback. For instance, chad has a submission right now that I would vote to post, but it's in edit. I should be able to indicate to him that it's IMO ready. Is there a way to do this in scoop? Perhaps a fwd-vote, so that the submittor knows that the submission has been perused without comment?

On k5 this isn't an issue because of the masses of readers, but here the community is small enough that we might need more tools.

Mark.

two possibilities by janra, 02/07/2005 06:46:30 AM PST (none / 0)

Science Search Rank (none / 0) (#53)
by rickyjames on Wed Feb 16, 2005 at 11:48:22 PM PST

I was poking around on the Internet (boy, there's a redundant statement about me if ever there was one) and came across a site called Science Search. They have a list of 29 science blogs rated by votes and I'm happy to report SciScoop was rated number 2 of 29 with a rating of 7 out of 10 stars by 1100 voters. The only science blog rated higher than ours is the one by David Bradley. While I'm flattered, I'm also a little distressed and frustrated; if we're doing so great, where's all the commenters and posters like Slashdot's got? Is this as good as a science blog gets?

The glass is half full. The glass is half full. The glass is half full. There is no spoon.

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

Actually tied for 2nd by apsmith, 02/27/2005 02:23:37 PM PST (none / 0)

random accolades (none / 0) (#56)
by dbpubs on Tue Mar 08, 2005 at 04:45:58 PM PST

Just wanted to let you folks know you have done a fine job with the design of this site; it is one of the most easily navigated places I've found, for viewers and authors. Well done!

Two things (none / 0) (#57)
by barakn on Sat Mar 12, 2005 at 05:15:59 AM PST

What happened to the March stats, and isn't the soapbox getting a little full?

Room for soap by barakn, 03/12/2005 05:28:35 AM PST (none / 0)

It's such a smoothly running ship! by apsmith, 03/14/2005 02:29:57 AM PST (none / 0)

stats by janra, 03/12/2005 02:43:52 PM PST (none / 0)

I asked for Stats by barakn, 03/19/2005 09:02:02 AM PST (none / 0)

two stats pages by janra, 03/19/2005 04:54:02 PM PST (none / 0)

That should have been obvious by barakn, 03/21/2005 08:01:55 AM PST (none / 0)

March 22 (none / 0) (#64)
by gypsysoul on Mon Mar 21, 2005 at 12:54:58 PM PST

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICKYJAMES :-)

Re: March 22 by mtigges, 03/21/2005 05:23:29 PM PST (none / 0)

The new look (none / 0) (#66)
by barakn on Sat Apr 02, 2005 at 04:26:55 AM PST

needs some work, as some of the normal sciscoop graphics are no longer loading. And I despise the Amazon ad. I liked sciscoop because the ads didn't distract from the articles.

graphics? by apsmith, 04/02/2005 08:00:42 AM PST (none / 0)

This Edition Of Soapbox Is Hereby Closed (none / 0) (#70)
by rickyjames on Mon Apr 11, 2005 at 11:52:00 PM PST

OK, we're going to close this edition of Soapbox - this happens occasionally to keep it from getting too long. You want to do a few things to keep up with us:

Go to the top of this very page and click the -Hotlist link (visible to you if you are a SciScoop member)
Click on SOAPBOX on the main menu bar to get to the new Soapbox
Click on the +Hotlist link on the new Soapbox page (visible to you if you are a SciScoop member)

See you on the new Soapbox page! Keep writing and let's all stick together!

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

try site news by janietta, 04/13/2005 07:39:20 AM PST (none / 0)

Soapbox 6 | 68 comments (68 topical, 0 hidden)

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