Scoop (software)
Encyclopedia
Scoop is a content management system
(CMS) originally developed by Rusty Foster
. Scoop's focus is on collaborative publishing, and its feature set is geared toward encouraging user contributions and participation. Scoop is written in Perl
and runs via mod perl
on Apache
web servers with a MySQL
database backend. Distributed under the GNU General Public License
, Scoop is free software
. The latest version released was 1.1.8 in 2007. It is no longer developed.
and was designed to allow user submissions of content much like Slash, another somewhat similar CMS. But where Slash and its flagship site, Slashdot
, relied on a small group of editors to decide what content was actually published, Kuro5hin and Scoop aimed to allow moderation by the users themselves. Scoop's solution was to introduce a "moderation queue" where submitted stories would be visible to registered users, and where users could vote on whether a story should be published; a story which garners enough positive votes to cross a (configurable) "posting threshold" will become publicly visible, and a story which collects too many negative votes will be deleted.
Scoop takes the same broad, collaborative approach to comment moderation
as well; where other systems only allow a particular group of superusers to moderate comments, or allocate temporary moderation privileges among users, Scoop allows all registered users to moderate comments.
Scoop is configurable, allowing nearly any feature to be activated or deactivated; and extensible, new features can be written in Perl and integrated into Scoop as "boxes" which are stored in the database and editable from Scoop's web-based administration interface or from a specialized "boxtool".
Although Scoop was originally designed and deployed for kuro5hin, it has since been put into much broader use. Although many Scoop-powered sites today are oriented toward political discussion (for example, the American left-wing on-line community Daily Kos
is a prominent Scoop site), Scoop can be found in use in a variety of areas, but improvements to the software appear to have ceased in 2006. Specialized Scoop hosting is available from a number of companies.
For site administrators, Scoop is customizable; Scoop can be configured to use any, all or none of the following features:
Content management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
(CMS) originally developed by Rusty Foster
Rusty Foster
Lawrence Calvin Foster III, commonly known as Rusty Foster, is the founder of Kuro5hin, and the creator of Scoop, a collaborative media application used by several websites. He is widely known in the weblog community for running a donation drive which netted over US$39,500...
. Scoop's focus is on collaborative publishing, and its feature set is geared toward encouraging user contributions and participation. Scoop is written in Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
and runs via mod perl
Mod perl
mod_perl is an optional module for the Apache HTTP server. It embeds a Perl interpreter into the Apache server, so that dynamic content produced by Perl scripts can be served in response to incoming requests, without the significant overhead of re-launching the Perl interpreter for each request...
on Apache
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
web servers with a MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
database backend. Distributed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, Scoop is free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
. The latest version released was 1.1.8 in 2007. It is no longer developed.
Overview
Scoop was originally developed for use on Kuro5hinKuro5hin
Kuro5hin is a collaborative discussion website. Articles are created and submitted by Kuro5hin's users and submitted to queue for evaluation. Site members can vote for or against publishing an article and, once the article has reached a certain number of votes, it is then published to the site...
and was designed to allow user submissions of content much like Slash, another somewhat similar CMS. But where Slash and its flagship site, Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
, relied on a small group of editors to decide what content was actually published, Kuro5hin and Scoop aimed to allow moderation by the users themselves. Scoop's solution was to introduce a "moderation queue" where submitted stories would be visible to registered users, and where users could vote on whether a story should be published; a story which garners enough positive votes to cross a (configurable) "posting threshold" will become publicly visible, and a story which collects too many negative votes will be deleted.
Scoop takes the same broad, collaborative approach to comment moderation
Moderation
Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted...
as well; where other systems only allow a particular group of superusers to moderate comments, or allocate temporary moderation privileges among users, Scoop allows all registered users to moderate comments.
Scoop is configurable, allowing nearly any feature to be activated or deactivated; and extensible, new features can be written in Perl and integrated into Scoop as "boxes" which are stored in the database and editable from Scoop's web-based administration interface or from a specialized "boxtool".
Although Scoop was originally designed and deployed for kuro5hin, it has since been put into much broader use. Although many Scoop-powered sites today are oriented toward political discussion (for example, the American left-wing on-line community Daily Kos
Daily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
is a prominent Scoop site), Scoop can be found in use in a variety of areas, but improvements to the software appear to have ceased in 2006. Specialized Scoop hosting is available from a number of companies.
Features
Scoop's has a story- and comment-moderation system, a and other features are available. For users, Scoop offers a number of features:- Individual weblogsBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
or "diaries" which bypass story moderation and post to a separate section of the site. - Polls which may be attached to stories and diaries.
- Per-user "hotlists" allowing users to keep an eye on particular items of interest to them.
- Per-user file uploads and sharing.
- Per-user calendars, both public and private.
- User submission of RSSRSS (file format)RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
feeds from other sites, which can be viewed from Scoop's built-in news aggregator. - Configurable views; users may choose to display or hide certain page elements (such as lists of users online, new diaries, RSS feeds, etc.), and have a number of options for how stories and comments are displayed.
- Submission of stories and comments in plain text, in HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, or using a simple text-to-HTML "autoformat" system.
For site administrators, Scoop is customizable; Scoop can be configured to use any, all or none of the following features:
- Moderation of stories and comments by users, with configurable values and thresholds for posting or deleting stories and for hiding negatively-rated comments.
- An optional "edit queue" which allows stories to be discussed and modified before proceeding to voting.
- A configurable "autopost" algorithm which determines whether to post or delete a story which remains in moderation beyond a set period of time.
- Syndication of site content via RSS.
- Delegation of responsibilities via a user permission system, allowing the definition of single users or groups of users with any desired level of access.
- Site subscriptions with configurable feature incentives (using built-in payment processing), allowing users to support the site.
- User-submitted advertisements.
- Site themes which allow an administrator to change both a site's look and feel and the content it offers.
- CachingCacheIn computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
of content to reduce server loads. - Automatic archiving of older content and closing of comments on out-of-date stories.
- Built-in spamSpam (electronic)Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
control, and throttles to prevent malicious flooding of content. - Configurable macros for use in stories and comments.
- Fine-grained control over what HTML elements may be used in user submissions.
- Templating system for page design and layout.
- Reuse of code and content via "blocks" which can be included in any part of any page.
- Administrative logging for accountability purposes.
- Web-based administrative interface which can be themed to match user-visible areas of the site and offers control over all site features and configuration.
- Extensibility via the box system.
- Documentation including installation procedures (though this is no longer maintained, see external links).