selfmodifier.org is up

selfmodifier.org is up!

Unfortunately, due to a limitation of redmine, you cannot create projects when you first sign in.

Email admin@selfmodifier.org if you have any problems.

Also, if anyone doesn't like my message in the front page then please suggest improvements.

Apologies to anyone who tried to email me in the last two days: it's been rather out of order, what with setting everything up.

selfmodifier.org finance

I'm going to have to start a blog for this. That would be a good way to push news updates.


Anyhoo, I'm going to see about getting charitable status. That will allow us to receive donations without having to get shafted by paypal, nor pay a business tariff.

Server is back online. I'll give you a shout when redmine is up.

selfmodifier.org upgrade

selfmodifier.org is receiving an upgrade at 15:00, so it can cope with redmine.

Grand opening should be this evening, at some point.

In the meantime, I'm going to write a little html frontpage. And order some electronics :)

redmine is slow

I got redmine all set up, but it's really slow - so slow I've had to take it down out fear the system would become unstable.

Gonna need to upgrade the server.

selfmodifier.org, take 2

Since we're going to use redmine, for technical documentation and all projects - assuming that works well (it might not crash until week 3...) - we don't need such a complex site as I thought. However we're still going to need a simple site that:

• Hosts static material: disclaimers, legal things, our mission!


• Publish a news stream - are there currently any technical faults with the site?


• Donate/shop, the second if we create anything legit enough to sell.


• Other things?

Sensory augmentation experiment log website, request for comments

selfmodifier.org shall be a website designed to support the aims and development of the "scrapyard transhumanism movement". It will:

• Document what exactly is happening, in a neutral manner. This will help explain the situation to outsiders.



• Improve safety, for anyone who may be interesting in trying out some of the ideas, by being clear on all methods used.



• Carry a disclaimer to show that this isn't medical science; that it's more like a mix of piercing and computer science; even then it isn't recognized by piercers. "Don't be an idiot."



• Make it easier for users to find information



• Make things easier for lepht, who is the only moderator of a blog which is the centre of a growing movement.



• Encourage community development.

It shall attempt to fulfill these aims, by meeting these specific requirements in software:

• selfmodifier.org shall be a collection of experiment logs on low-cost sensory augmentation.



• The site shall have three classes of user who are capable of modifying the site:


• registered users


• moderators


• site administrators



• Experiment logs shall only be submitted by registered members and moderators.



• On each log's page, it shall be clearly stated that it is not a safe piercing, or medical procedure. It shall also state that the work has not been peer reviewed by researchers. It shall state that it is the log of an experiment by a private individual, and that it is not an instruction manual on how to perform home surgery.



• Experiments will be structured as the most plain and simple scientific reports. Each may have:
  
  
  • Title
  
  
  • Abstract
  
  
  • Introduction
  
  
  • Method
  
  
  • Results
  
  
  • Discussion
  
  
  • Reference list
  
  
  • Appendices
  
  
  
• This format shall not be enforced by site design, but it shall be encouraged by the moderators.



• The moderations shall be able to ban users, and edit all experiment logs.



• Users may be promoted to moderators, and moderators may be demoted to users, or banned, by the administrators.



• There shall be a comment system, to allow users to encourage good work and discourage poor work.



• There shall be a search engine, and tagging scheme, to enable users to find experiment logs



• Registered members retain copyright of their experiment logs. They shall license them to the users themselves, using the GNU Free Documentation License.



• The site reserves the right to remove content and suspend services at any time.



• The site shall respect, and only respect, the legal authorities of the United Kingdom. I.E. the only people whom the administrators are obliged to obey, are the U.K. police.



• Since this is a fairly harmless site about implanting things into your skin, anything that is obviously illegal is also irrelevant content, and shall be deleted.



• All source code shall be made available under the GNU GPL.

gory website

EDIT: I have decided these ideas are not great - it just sounds so unscientific, which is exactly what people are complaining about. See the next entry for new ideas.

So I've decided to go ahead and make a website to host instructions for sensory augmentation. It will have several caveats, designed to minimize the site's involvement with Her Majesty's servants:

• It shall be clearly stated that the instructions on the site are not safe, and are not condoned by medical professionals nor anyone else. Readers should not attempt to execute the instructions. The instructions are only intended to provoke thought about the limits of human sensory perception or abilities.



• Users shall not be able to comment nor vote upon the instructions. Allowing this would imply that the site approves of some instructions.



• Articles shall only be submitted by registered members.



• Registered members retain copyright of the instructions. They shall license them to the users themselves: no instructions shall be the intellectual property of the site.



• The site reserves the right to remove content and suspend services at any time.

EDIT: this all looks a bit strict. Perhaps I better revise my ideas? After all, some people just post pictures of themselves chopping their own balls off online.