What happened to the old Sci-Fi News?

Yeah, “old” kinda covers it… For the long version of the story, hit “Read More” below. The short version is: I thought I’d try something new. Tell me if you think it’s cool or lame.

So, here’s the promised “long version.”


One of the things that always irked me about the old site is how, well, I’m the only one that ever worked on it. Going back since the previous remodeling around the start of this year, I’m the only one who put much into it. And all I’ve ever gotten out of it is a bit of weariness.


So, over the past few months, I was lucky enough to find someone who was willing to pay me to work on this new version of the site. (Well, not in as many words, but close enough.) This has all kinds of nifty feedback, better logging, user comments, and an ultra spiffy domain name to boot.


I figure, I’ll let this one sit up for a few days, see what happens. Go create an account and tell me what you think. If it reeks, I’ll pull the old version of Sci-Fi News back out. If it’s a hit, well, then we all win.

14 replies on “What happened to the old Sci-Fi News?”

  1. Program details available?
    Are there any details available about the available program code for the new site? (ie Perl, PHP3, etc?)

    Anyway, nice job. Maybe the chance for some interaction will help increase the visibility of the site.

    (By the way, is this the first “first post?”)

  2. PHP, baby.
    For the technically inclined: Yep, it’s PHP. (And yes, as soon as I clean it up a bit, so that I’m not deeply ashamed of it, the code will be available.)

    And yes, fiziko, you get “first post.” The Slashdot troll brigade would be proud. :-)

  3. It was the first and last time!
    I assure you, I won’t be “first posting” again. Trolls drive me nuts.

    I know next to nothing about PHP, but I’d like to learn. Perhaps I’ll use your (eventually) available code to help.

    If I come up with anything useful, you’ll get it. :)

  4. Why not Slashcode?
    I think I already know the answer, but my question is this; why not just use Slashcode? This already looks very similar..

    I think it looks way better than the old format, and from the little bit of poking around I’ve done, it seems to work very well.

    Great job!

  5. Why not Slashcode? Let me count…
    (Disclaimer: pure SF fans should skip over this comment now. I get all geeky here…)

    Slash is nice, but it’s big. It’s really big. mod_perl is big. The fine gentleman who’s been hosting my personal sites for the past couple years has no pressing desire to add another 128M of RAM to his poor little server just so it’ll all fit.

    Besides, “wrote whole site engine from scratch” looks much better on the resume than “installed pre-packaged code.” :-)

  6. new look – bureau42
    I think the new look is great. It looks “scientific”. The black background looks more like a technical paper such as blueprints and mirofilm prints. Much more sober if that is what science-fiction is. Good work. Thanksjeane15

  7. Another technical quesion…
    I’m trying out a few different ways to try and put paragraphs in my posts. (Two carriage returns don’t work, and this seems like the best thread to test technical stuff.) Break tag here:
    Did it work? Next, paragraph open/close tags:

    This is a paragraph.

    Did that work?

  8. Paragraphs
    For those of us who want paragraphs, use the following HTML tags:
    To start a new line, use <BR>
    A paragraph can be enclosed in <P> and </p>, assuming I remember how to get HTML to output less than and greater than signs…

  9. Yeah, it’ll get fixed someday…
    Heck, I think I’ll go do it myself now. :-)

    Okay, fixed. We call it beta-testing for a reason, my friendly lovely little guinea pigs… (cackle)

  10. Um, here’s what that meant.
    You can now just put blank lines in the middle

    of the paragraph, and they’ll show up in a manner that makes sense. I encourage everyone to try it by posting to OTHER threads, since we need more discussion everywhere. :)

  11. Please allow me the honor…
    Of requesting the first additional features…

    From Slashdot I’d like Older News. This is a biggy for me I never see the site as often as I’d like.

    And…how about those little Slashboxes with different sites in em’ ? Of course I’d like a selection of boxes on this site that have to do with SF.

    I really like Slashcode…but I have to agree it is big. What about the code from other sites like Kuroshin ? I don’t know anything about them.

    In general the new site looks great.

    Just to upset the applecart a bit…you are going to have to think about moderation or some such at some point…I’d start now unless you *want* to end up in the same pickle /. did.

  12. All site engines suck.
    Just trust me on this…

    I like K5, really I do, but it also requires mod_perl (as does the original Slashcode). Since I’m using a

    server that’s being shared with a LOT of other people, and it’s free, I’m obliged to not overload the poor machine. PHP is really my

    only choice here. I’d love to be using, say, phpSlash, but it’s just

    too bloody unstable.

    As far as comments and moderation go: Go look at the current comments counts. Whole bunch of zeroes. Unless/until people actually USE the damn site, it’s kinda unnecessary. (Besides, I’ve already planned for that; the database has various moderation bits already in there, just waiting for me to do something with ’em.)

  13. Possible bug?
    There seems to be a bug in either Netscape 4.75 for Linux or the code for the Bureau here. When I first come to the page, via Slashdot’s link, I am not logged in. If I reload, or click on any “Read more” or “Post a comment” links, I am recognized. If, instead, I click on “login” and login, I am still not recognized, although reloading from there works. Can anyone reproduce this behaviour with another browser/platform to see where the bug is coming from?

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