Slashdot Mirror

That new format was slashcode

It's never run slashcode. It ran Squishdot, which was a Slash look-alike, but that was a long time ago. The most recent version of the site (the last few years) ran on Ruby code that Bruce wrote himself. He even had the source available for download.

No, they aren't running Slash, they are running Squishdot, which is a Slash clone built on top of Zope.

Sorry to say, dude. But your site is rather crappy. Besides the bad visual "design" it took over a minute to load about 4k of text.

I am willing to improve it, I just need more constructive and detailed feedback.

Okay, I justed tested, and it took eleven (11) seconds to load from off site. That's not too bad considering it's DSL.

The design is slashdot based (using squishdot), so I'm not sure what's bad about the visual design, but then, I've never been much of a visual designer.

you dont have it in Plone, but there is a Zope version which is called Squishdot, have a look at:
www.squishdot.org
I myself did www.gimp.de with squishdot and it works great. There was some work on a CMF-based version called Swishdot, you have to ask Chris Withers about it. (CMF is Zope's Content Management Framework on which Plone is based). regards
Juergen

We're about to try a different way of communicating with the client about project status and issues. We're going to use a blog system, allowing posts and responses to issues as they arise. We plan on using Squishdot in Zope.

A full-blown problem tracking system is more than we need, but email makes it somewhat more difficult to ensure that everyone involved can see and participate in a whole thread about an issue. We can also set it up so people receive an email to notify them when someone has added to the thread. We could even set it up as an RSS feed as well, (though we don't plan to use this feature).

Email just doesn't seem to be the most effective means of making sure everyone in a group is on the same page. We'll see how the blog approach works out.

(p.s. do I get mod'd up for posting the first real comment?)

This seems like a good place to mention Squishdot, a weblog product for Zope. Its claim to fame is that it looks quite like Slashdot, though it is missing some features.

If you're looking to build a stripped-down slashdot-like site, Squishdot and Zope may be the answer.

Bulletin boards with searching and querying
Dynamic news pages
User-definable home pages

Don't only look at Zope but some of the addons. Squishdot may handle the Bulletin board and news pages. Most of your work may already be done.

I developed a helpdesk call logger and resources page in a day using Zope.

You'd lose, because truth is an absolute defence. Regardless of whether or not you think the GPL is a good thing, it's obviously viral. That's precisely the right word to use. The GPL is like a grabby child that says "if you play with one of my toys, then I own your toy". No wonder businesses stay away from it.

I'm not slamming the GPL. I think it's a fair deal in many circumstances. As somebody else already said, it's really just a formalized code trade. But there's lots of times when you need to be able to retain control of your original code for business reasons. Or even purely selfish reasons. In those cases, code released under the GPL automatically disqualifies itself from use. Software released under freer licenses like Zope or Squishdot is much more useful because it allows you to retain control over derivative works.

think its time to port slashcode to python..

It has already been done -- see Squishdot -- and there are quite a few sites running customised versions of it.

-bp

If you need to be able to grow to form a huge community, then you'll need slashcode.

But if you are talking about a few thousand visitors per day, you should look into any of the following slash-alikes:

• PHPslash
• Squishdot
• ThatPHPware
• scoop
• SlashJ
• sips
• localecho
• twig
• ASPslash
• phpweblog

Methinks this would have been a better question to ask on Slashcode.org instead of here on Slashdot itself.

Slashdot is (for good reasons) the biggest and most populare forum on-line.
However if Microsoft and the like think taking down Slashdot would kill the open source movement, or even drive it under ground they are sadly mistaken.

Slashdots very own Slashboxes are stuffed with content from other forums.
There are sevral forum programs out, Slashcode Blade Squishdot Scoop and of course my own ZenToe

Of course there are many I missed... :(
In any case...
Each of thies represents a Slashdot like web forum. Slashcode itself is Slashdot, Squishdot is Technocrats, Blade is made by and for "The Stuff" and of course my own ZenToe is by me for me and my own forum.

All of thies are open source as such any given open source web forum can pick and chouse the best for his or her needs [ZenToe being easy but would crash and burn in any sort of attack].
It might be posable to develup some sort of commen post arrangment between forums and forum programs. Just a standard handoff system implented in Perl, PHP and Zobe so it could be easy to pass posts between forums. As such a distributed Slashdot.
(Starts scribbling stuff down) Hay if anyone wants to work on this just drop me e-mail I'm sure at least CmdrTaco of Slashdot and Bob of TheStuff would consider this and I can say I Felinoid of Meowpawjects love the idea (of course it's mine so I have to) :).
Anyway however things come down... Slashdot is certenly importent and losing it would hurt the community very badly but it wouldn't have anywhere near the impact Microsoft and the like might be expecting....

stuff accesses just as easy to the web surfer, no matter where it's located.

Not 100% accurate. The user might only see com instead of co.uk (or even better to), but ping times to faraway sites are bound to be lower because, for example, light moves only 299.8 km per millisecond. Latency produces slow loading sites, which turn off users who browse linearly and don't use Open Link in New Window aggressively.

I might also mention that Squishdot is available. It is a lot easier to set up than Slashdot and its code is a lot cleaner. It runs under Zope, using a modified Confera engine.

Rootprompt.org is all new code and written in PHP. However, slashdot has influenced a *lot* of websites, and several complete weblog packages. Recently I made the mistake of assuming that Technocrat.net was based on an early version of slash. I later learned that it was based on squishdot. Heck, lots of stuff looks like slash nowadays. (I have since corrected the error, as is suggested by the "updated" date ;).

It's the slashdot for Zope and it's up and running in 5 (maybe 4) mins.

I agree that /. is probably not the best venue for this sort of discussion. Somehow, because they're alive people think they understand Life. I think they could found a branch of sociology on why non-biologists think biology is simple and intuitively obvious while physics is hard.

I like the idea of a more biologist-centric /.-ish site. I'd be willing to help. My background is neurobiology.

Have you looked at Squishdot? It isn't as full featured as /., but it might be easier to deploy.

You should not forget about Squishdot (runs on top of Zope). While it still has a long way to go, it's quite usable. It runs on technocrat.net, if you want an example.

Thanks

Bruce

If he continues to ignore us, some of us may become inspired enough to do "slashdot" the right way.

Some people already have worked on rebuilding a Slashdot-like engine from scratch. Take a good look at squishdot. Squishdot is not implemented in Perl (good for quick hacks, ideal for small text processing jobs, unweildy for much else) or Java (bondage and discipline language far too platform dependant ("write once run anywhere" - on a few select platforms)) but instead in Python (not very fast at run-time, but development is fast and code is readable).

-=-=-=-=-

Don't be afraid of the merge. Just look how the History is being writen.

Linux exists despite MS, and today IBM adopted it.
The AOL/TW merge is only the Cathedral side of the mass-media production/delivery game.
We, /.ters should promote and write the Bazaar side of the History
We are the Reporters, Analists and Consumers of our own information and news. Just grow the base of the users of this /. model and promote it among other non Geek communities.
Every /.ter in a non technical company should compromise to create an internal company bulletin board. It's quite easy.
Go Zope grab your copy of zope in the desired flavor (Unix,...etc) and install the squishdot product. You will have an instant bulletin board that any one could use.
Let's help people to create, comment and use the information they really want.
Let's make true "News for NON Nerds Stuff that matters"

• Squishdot (Zope)
• DOINS (PHP/Perl)
• PHPSlash (PHP)

I understand both sides of the issue. It is Rob's code. No law says he has to release it. But, out of respect for the community in which he has become such an icon, he could at least be honest about it. If the code is heading for a close source, then say so. If it is truely going for open source, give us a target date. We have heard 'soon' since mid-1999 at least.

Odviously, Rob, you are taking a bit of flack for this, and you must see that inflamatory remarks like the '24 delay' comment don't help the situation, though I understand your frustration.

I also understand that you probably won't give us an target, but you may find yourself catching a bit less flack if you give us a bit more than just an undefined 'soon'. Give us a plan with some meat. Will it be released under a standard GNU? A modified GNU? Will we have to link to Andover as well as Slashdot? What features will be included and what won't (moderation, PGP keys, karma, etc.) in the initial 0.4 release? Give us some positive discussion on the topic instead of just voicing you frustration.

Here is some info on slashcode help and alternative code bases:

The slash-help mailing list is here. This list discusses the original slashcode 0.3, as well as non-Malda flavors of slash and the pro's and con's of each.

A forked version of the 0.3 code is availible here.

PHPSlash is being developed independently of the Malda crew. It can be had here.

A Zope version called Squishdot is also availible.

DOINS is also an alternative slashcode base, though I've not worked with it personally.

I've seen some comments about slashsites not giving credit to Rob and Co. Please remember that these other versions of the code exist and are completely seperate. So, just because a site looks like slashdot doesn't mean its using Rob's code. That said, most of the non-0.3/0.2 sites are run by fans of Slashdot and so have links to it. Squishdot for example.

• PHPSlash
  DOINS
  SquishDot
  

squishdot.org is where you can find squishdot.

Haven't used it, but heard good things.

...j

The slash-help mailing list is here. This list discusses the original slashcode 0.3, as well as non-Malda flavors of slash and the pro's and con's of each.

A forked version of the 0.3 code is availible here.

PHPSlash is being developed independently of the Malda crew. It can be had here.

A Zope version called Squishdot is also availible.

I've seen some comments about slashsites not giving credit to Rob and Co. Please remember that these other versions of the code exist and are completely seperate. So, just because a site looks like slashdot doesn't mean its using Rob's code. That said, most of the non-0.3/0.2 sites also have mention and links to slashdot. Squishdot for example.

Here are my questions:

So far slashdot is the only site I know of that IS a self-moderating community. If other code bases begin creating moderation/metamoderation models, are they in danger of a Malda patient on metamoderation/karma or the self-moderating community concept? I think I can guess at the answer, but it would be good to have some official verbage on this from Rob.

Those of us actively working with slashcode 0.3 etc. understand the nature of beta and don't expect a 1.0 release. 0.4 would be fine even it is doesn't work, like 0.3 didn't when it was released. We will gladly fix it. Given the long period of time that 0.4 has been promised (check here for a post by Rob back in June about releasing 0.4 and here is one in August), the fact that the slash community is not likely to forget that promise, and the fact 0.3 has rather silly Y2K problems (see the slash-help list archive for fixes) will you, finally release SOMETHING or admit that the Slashdot code is in reality and practice close sourced beyond 0.3?

Would you please add a link to the slash-help mailing list mentioned above (http://projects.is.asu.edu/mailman/listinfo/slash -help) to the www.slashdot.org/code.shtml page?

If it hasn't exactly shown in this post, Rob does great code. My compliments! You have us hooked and we want more! -Temple

There are other Open Source alternatives to SlashDot, like SquishDot.

It uses the Squishdot System which is desinged to look and act like slashdot. Squishdot is written in Python and uses Zope.

Our web content manager
software is Zope. Zope is written in Python. The
weblog software that displays our articles is a Zope
component called Squishdot. It looks a lot like the
Slashdot software, but the software is entirely
different from Slashdot and it's expected to evolve
its own unique look and feel over time.

Without denegrating C-T's great work on the Slashdot software, I'd like to point out there's an Open Source weblog at squishdot.org. It's in quite an early state - looks rudimentary next to Slashdot, but it has a real Open Source Definition compliant license and releases are done reasonably often. Future versions will probably incorporate ZDiscussions, a component of Confera which is distributed on the zope web site, and of course the whole thing is built on Zope.

Thanks

Bruce

Zope is extensible in Python. The ACS is a large package of tcl code that accesses the AOLserver API (AOLserver is now also free as in speech). Both encourage a style of programming that is more maintainable than Perl. If you knew Perl already, I strongly doubt you'd have asked your question. That's actually a good thing -- the same things that make Perl great for simple one-shots make it tough for novices to maintain. Python (and to a lesser extent, tcl) is a great deal cleaner.

I didn't mention Java or Jserv -- there is a package called JetSpeed which the Java-Apache group has put out, but my initial reaction was that it was very slow. Don't take my word for it, though -- take a look and decide for yourself.

Don't be an idiot and lock yourself into Yet Another Uncaring Vendor. You can get support for Zope or the ACS direct from the developers (Digital Creations or ArsDigita respectively). If you choose to use mod_perl and postgres, you still can get professional support. With Lotus you can look forward to servers that don't write log files, proprietary APIs, flat file "databases", and other such niceties.

Don't buy into it.

I'm looking at a similar project and I think Zope and Squishdot (with bunches of customization) will fit the bill!!

http://zope.org

http://squishdot.org

Why can't Rob keep the current version of Slashdot in CVS so people ca....


Shut TF up and contribute to the Squishdot project. It's OpenSource.

Maybe you can make a /. clone better than slashdot. O I forget you can't code, how to I know that.


CY

Why can't Rob keep the current version of Slashdot in CVS so people ca....


Shut TF up and contribute to the Squishdot project. It's OpenSource.

Maybe you can make a /. clone better than slashdot. O I forget you can't code, how to I know that.


CY

Thanks

Bruce