Outline:

History
What is the focus of this site?
Who are you guys?
WTF is "street meat"?

How Satanosphere works:

How do I post stuff?
Why would I want an account?
Let's say I have an account. How do I modify my account and what can I modify?
What if I forget my password?
Why do we have two different emails?

Site Rules:

What happens if I want to submit a story?
What makes a really good story?
Who can I contact about a problem with a story or link?
How is the site organized?
What's the difference between a Diary, Story and Column?
How do the comments work?
I don't like what someone is saying about my story. Can you delete his comments?
Why can't I find something I'm looking for?
What does "+Hotlist" mean?

About Satanosphere:

History:

The name Satanosphere was used for this site quite by accident. It derives from an old metal band that the Captain and matt were in in the early 90's (Pudenda. What do you mean you've never heard of 'em?). Satanosphere was the name of a song. To wit:

You will run and hide in fear!
From my Satanosphere!

The Captain secured the domain name for fun one day (so no one else would, ya know). He had set up a server with an internet connection for a local (read: Olympia, WA) business. We were drunk and bored one day (March 30, 2001) and he decided to run Apache on it (web server software).

Then (drunken Captain), "Hey, let's make a damn website!"

(Drunken matt) "Uh, ok."

So, after acouple hours of monkeying with different software packages, we settled on Scoop, a fine package made by the nice people over at our cousin site, Kuro5hin.org. It ran fine on our first server: a Pentium 120. Don't ask.

Later, we moved the databases onto a Sun box, working in conjunction with the P120. Later, we graduated to a dual PII-333 (add 'em up: 666) server that worked great, until we had to move onto the giant machine we're on now.

What started as a drunken joke has turned into something that, acording to one fine review, "Sounds hokey, but it's actually an excellent site..."

What is the focus of this site?

Well, it started out to be a site for all your rants, rumors, computer stuff, advice, pleas for advice, and "interesting" things on the Internet. It's been described as "Commentary, News, and Humor about the Absurd, Disturbing, and just plain Inexplicable." And that suits us just fine.

But that doesn't mean that's what it is. It's a living, breathing, user-formed community, in the purest sense of the word. It's a place where everyone can be in charge. It's a mutual crossing of electronic Socialism and Democracy. It's a place for people who really like to use their brains. You won't see a bunch of crap on the Satanosphere. (Or, if you do, it will be with heaping amounts of comments berating it.)

It's a place that exists for the users, through the users. It's a place to share ideas, thoughts, news, and to celebrate the people of the Internet that make the World so diverse (and often times, ridiculous).

The only thing that is off-limits is poetry. We really, really hate poetry. Especially quasi-goth crap. But, we'll allow it in the diaries, if you insist. Just don't insist too much.

Who are you guys?

Well, Captain Tenille (jeremy) is the fellow who runs the server, set up Scoop on it, and so forth. When he's not here, he can frequently be found roaming around kuro5hin. He also is the one who registered satanosphere.com on a whim a while back, and didn't know what to do with it. He also intends to start poking at Scoop's innards in the near future. :-) Actually, he's been working as a Scoop developer for quite some time now.

matt (Matt) is the guy who did most of the graphics, and came up with the idea of making Satanosphere a site for the kind of stuff we like hearing about. He's a Mac geek. He's a Pisces, ample, 6' tall, good looking. He likes long walks on the beach and cuddling with a good movie. (No, he doesn't.)

WTF is "street meat"?

You really should read this story: I suppose I should clear up this "Street Meat" thing

How the site works:

How do I post stuff?

Click on "submit story" to submit a story. Then, as other users log on, they will read it and, hopefully, vote on whether or not they like it. If they do, if will get posted. Also, if they like it enough, it will get posted to the front page.

By the way, when entering links, please use the "target" tag in your HREF. After your URL, enter target="_blank" before the close bracket. That will open your URL in a new window. We like it better that way.

It should look something like this:

<a href="http://www.asspants.net" target="_blank">AssPants</a>

The software that runs the site is fairly picky about the quotes and slashes and stuff, so when you hit the Preview button make sure you hover over, or actually click on the link to make sure it goes where you want.

If you'd like to know more, the nice people at Webmonkey have put together a very simple tutorial that will teach you the basics. We will not be turning your URLs into links! It's not that hard, learn it at the above address.

Or, just teach yourself this little song!

less-than A space HREF equals
quote yourURL quote
space target equals quote
underscore blank quote
greater-than
the text you want the link to say
less-than slash a greater-than

Just keep in mind that to post anything, you need a free account. It's easy and takes just a minute to make one.

Why would I want to sign up for an account?

If you sign up, you get let in on a whole lot more of the site. Like you'll be able to rate comments, vote on stories, see who else is online at the moment, post your own stories and comments. That sort of thing. It's really cool. Oh yeah, and as long as you're not a real dickhead, we'll love you forever.

So let's say I have an account. How do I modify my account and what can I modify?

Now why would you want to do that? Maybe you'd like us to keep up to date on your new email address, so we can let you know when your stories go up? Maybe you'd like to change your password? Maybe you'd like to have a clever signature on all your comments? Maybe you'd like to share your website with everyone?

Click on 'User Preferences' and go from there.

What do I do if I forget my password?

Well shame on you! There's a handy little Button called 'Mail Password' in the login box where you can let us know. Our super-intelligent software robots will take over from there, and if you've provided us with an email address you have access to, you'll soon be going crazy trying to remember your new Satanosphere password. When you click the link the robots will email you a new password. Simple as that!

Why do we have two different emails?

See it's all about staying private. You don't want the whole world full of evil spammers sucking your private email address up and offering you breast enlargement creams do you? Your real email is for administrative contacts (like losing your password), and the fake one is what users and spam robots will see when they check your user info. Some of us are clever and disguise our emails so that real people can actually figure out how to contact us, but so spam bots don't think it's a good address. That's a pretty good idea in my book.

Site mechanics:

What happens if I want to submit a story?

Once you've come up with something you think will make a good story, it's time to write it up. Click on the "submit story" link, and follow the guidelines on the page there. Make sure to pick your topic/subject carefully! See below for details.

When you've previewed and you like what you see, submit it. It then goes into the Moderate Submission queue (mod/sub) where it will be read and reviewed by your fellow members. There, they vote on your story. If it's well written and interesting, they'll see fit to vote that they like it. If it's really good, it will go to the front page. No one can see the votes of others until they've voted, and no one can vote more than once on a story.

Currently, a story with a score of 15 gets posted, and if more than 1/2 are for the front page, that's where it goes. If a score is -5, it drops, and no one will ever read it. Better luck next time.

What makes a really good story (or how can I avoid pissing everyone else off)?

There are a few different reasons why people vote the way they do. Some users vote the way they do just because of formatting issues. Others because they disagree with what you're trying to get across. Ultimately your content is what's important. Write about things you think others would be interested in, not just what you are. Come up with your own conclusions, and provide the links as a way of providing supplementing information, and see if you can get others to comment with you.

Good stories have 'facts', or stuff you got from somewhere and the your own thoughts/conclusions/questions regarding them.

Do not spam Satanosphere. Don't use the submit button to tell us about your band, the WinAmp skin you made, the animated .gif of Britney Spears taking it in the rear. Your story is subject to deletion before anyone ever gets to read it if that happens.

Do not cut-n-paste an article from somewhere else. A few quotes are fine, but plagiarism will not be tolerated. That's what links are for.

Speaking of links, we find the ones we like best are the ones where we don't have to go to the links to get what you're talking about. The phrase "check out this link" or "click here" should never be the text of a link, just so you know. If your links don't work, everyone will get pissed off, and then your story will die a horrible death. Or get fixed by someone with magical powers. If they can figure out where you were trying to link to. If they're not grouchy.

How is the site organized?

One of the most important choices you'll make when you post a story is where it will go, and how it will be grouped with other stories. Take a look at what kind of stories are already here by clicking on a story's Topic icon, and you'll see there are usually a bunch of other similar stories. Or browse through the various sections to get a bigger overview. Also be aware that people will sometimes have a hissy fit and vote your story down, and/or make bitchy comments to you before it gets through the moderation queue. Obviously the Section matters more than the Topic, since your story will forever sit alongside others like it in the Section you pick.

Sections:

• News - Everything about what's happening in the world we haven't heard of yet.
• Culture - Articles about society and what goes on away from our computers (scary!)
• Rants - Stories about these contradictory concepts
• Entertainment - Movies, Music and TV, and whatever else counts as you see it.
• Advice - There are things you know about that we don't. Share them.
• Sci/Tech - The Internet, Technology, Biology, things like that.
• Weird - This one should really speak for itself.

Topics:

• Advice/Things I've Learned - Share with us.
• Computin' - You're on a computer, you know something we don't?
• Crime - The things in the news that get people like O.J. in trouble.
• Evil - Duh.
• Death - Famous people die, and when it happens, we're here for you.
• Funny! - Make me laugh!
• Hippyshit - We hate this topic, but had to have it. Spirituality, crap like that.
• You heard it here first! - Scoop the rest of the web! Breaking news!
• History - Things happen, and some already have.
• Huh!? - For that which defies explanation.
• Internet - News about our medium.
• Interview - Talk to someone cool? Tell us about it.
• Sweet, life-giving booze - Our favorite topic, by far.
• Politics - They run our lives, we ruin theirs.
• Religion - See above, but with God in there somewhere.
• Reviews - Tell us about that movie/show/band.
• Science - The Future is Here!
• Sex!? - The weirdo fetishists are everywhere! And Scandals!
• Underground - Let us know about what's going to happen?
• Weird - Self defining, really.
• Punker than you! - Get hardcore!
• Music or Muzak? - Make some noise, yo.
• Horror! - We can't believe it happened!
• Camaro! - For stuff too weird or cool to go anywhere else. Named for our Bartender, Steve the Camaro.
• Satanosphere - On the subject of this very site.

If you still can't find what you're looking for, Bono, try a Satanosearch. It works great.

What's the difference between a Diary, Story and Column?

Diaries: It might be a little confusing to even call them "Diaries." But basically this is your own place to write whatever you want. Within the (very sketchy) boundaries of Satanosanity. What we mean is, go ahead, rant and rave, divulge secrets, piss and moan, work on your novel, work on your therapy, work on your poetry creative writing. But listen well: do not use anyone's real name. You are responsible for anything you put there. And really, that goes for the whole damn site. You'll really, really get in trouble for doing that, and not from us. Trust us on this one. We really don't like having to talk to lawyers, so don't make us.

Stories: The bulk of what you see out there in the Sections, and on the Front Page. It's the basic stuff the site is made of. Users write them, they go through the Moderation Queue and then they end up either on the Front Page or in a Section.

Columns: These are different. They are the special stories that are written by our sort of "staff" if you will. We pick out a few Regular People like you because we really like what they write; we decide they should have the extra burden in their lives of trying to do it for us on a regular basis. We've gone through dozens of them since we started, and they've all either gone crazy, killed someone, or driven a car off the top of a cliff. If we like your writing enough, we might do the same thing to you.

How do the comments work?

The comments on this site are almost as important as the stories themselves. They allow the users to interact with each other and give point/counterpoint arguments.

If you have an account, you can comment on just about any damn thing on the site. If you don't have one, you can't.

Topical comments are when you would like to add a piece of relevant information, your experiences with a story, or anything you'd like to add about the story itself. This could be additional facts, or factual corrections; arguments about the point of view the story takes; personal commentary about the linked site, or the story itself...

Editorial comments are for individual stories: I liked it for this, I didn't for this, and so on. In some way, editorial comments are more useful for things like: pointing out that someone has a bad link in a story, or making suggestions about formatting or spelling. Think of editorial comments as the red pen marks your 8th grade English teacher made on your rough draft.

I don't like what someone is saying about my story. Can you delete his comments?

Yes we can, and no we won't. What you're talking about might be trolling, and it happens sometimes. Though we will delete deliberate trolls who are just making random trouble, we also know that sometimes people don't always get along. And that's ok.

As defined by a Usenet posting on alt.folklore.urban:

troll v.,n. 1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on the Internet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you do not fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are sizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they merely want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he is just a troll."

Trolling is not all bad, and not all good. A good troll can inject humour into a situation, point out (in a rather obvious way) the idiocy of someone else's statement, or cause people to recognize their own bad behaviors. These will remain posted, as we have no gripe with them.

Bad trolls make themselves look like total idiots. While trolling is frowned upon, it is a fairly common practice. It is worthwhile noting that a troll is more often a reference to a comment, rather than to the actual author. Authors that post a lot of troll comments tend to get headbutted off of bridges.

The worst thing you can do is bite the troll. They're giving you bait, and if you take it, you're just the idiot they're looking for.

Why can't I find something I'm looking for?

We've added archiving to Satanosphere to make sure that our server operates at the optimum level. Archived stories can't be commented on and so forth, but they still exist. When searching for a story more than 3 months old, you must click the 'search archive' box on the Satanosearch page. This will include older archived stories in your search.

What does "+Hotlist" mean?

You can save your favorite stories to your own personal hotlist by clicking the link. That way, you can track the progress of comments, polls, or whatever. Plus, it makes it easier to link to your favorite stories in emails and so forth. It's a good way to see the "Weeeeeeeee!" video without having to do a search for "Gonads."

This FAQ was written by your admins Captain Tenille and mattand Quacky, and site staff wndl, BugCatcher, Geek Foot, and Paul Shrug and is far from exhaustive. It will be updated from time to time, so check back once in awhile. If you've messed up something in a story, or if you have a question not addressed here, you can usually find one or more of us on a little IRC channel called #satanosphere -- especially during PST business hours. It's on the Slashnet network. Get yourself hooked up with an IRC client, and head on over sometime to chat. It's lively!

server: us.slashnet.org (if you're in the US, that is)
port: 6667 (the default)
/join #satanosphere
/mode yournickname +z (cloaks your hostname from bad crackers)