

Glenn Greenwald's news site, The Intercept, is up - kseistrup
https://firstlook.org/theintercept

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axefrog
Now that Glenn Greenwald has pretty much only himself to answer to, it'll be
interesting to see what he publishes that he might not have, had he stayed at
The Guardian. I'm a little concerned that his domain name firstlook.org is
hosted through GoDaddy. Anything particularly damning could have authorities
asking GoDaddy to take his domain from him, and the fact that his servers are
hosted in California provides a second potential point of government
interference.

~~~
amirmc
Greenwald's been asked, given how things seem to be, whether he would set
things up outside the US. ISTR he stated that the Constitution (and First
Amendment) still exist and the US is the most appropriate place for the NewCo.
I think it was in an interview with Kirsty Wark for Newsnight.

EDIT: I misremembered the exact words as he actually comments on press freedom
in the US. Here's the point in the interview.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f1Z...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f1Zvo8N3G94#t=599)

~~~
dublinben
The US might be a good place for the servers, but GoDaddy has proven to be an
unreliable registrar in the past. They should at least be using a provider
that supports a free internet.

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skywhopper
HTTPS by default with a good score from SSLLabs[1], a SecureDrop
implementation, and public keys posted for all of their staff. They clearly
are taking this seriously. Good for them.

[1]
[https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=firstlook.org](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=firstlook.org)

~~~
dmix
They are also looking into replacing Google Analytics with an open
alternative, such as Piwik.

[https://twitter.com/the_intercept/status/432970191308218368](https://twitter.com/the_intercept/status/432970191308218368)

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a3n
Notice the staff's about pages. They include public keys and other security
artifacts. That's different.

[https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/peter-
maass/](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/peter-maass/)

~~~
dublinben
>That's different.

Maybe for a media organization. Not for a technology organization.

[https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-and-board/](https://www.fsf.org/about/staff-
and-board/)

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MysticFear
I would love to see more serious news sites use tipping with cryptocurrencies.
I think it would benefit their bottom lines and help them become sustainable.

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genderup
FirstLook plans to earn money by selling technology solutions rather than
through its journalism (which is not for profit). With that in mind, one would
have expected something a little more 'innovative' on the technology side for
their first publication.

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morkbot
Seems that Hacker News' duplicate detection is seriously flawed, this was a
huge story yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7209397](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7209397)

~~~
hayksaakian
Slash at the end, in one, and not the other.

You could make the case that these would represent different resources on some
sites, although your point is correct.

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jere
> The editorial independence of our journalists will be _guaranteed_. They
> will be encouraged to pursue their passions, cultivate a unique voice, and
> publish stories without regard to whom they might anger or alienate.

When we speak about guarantees here it usually has a stronger meaning, but
even so, how could one guarantee anything like this?

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sshconnection
Someone should help him out with thumbnails...

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gkoberger
I was really hoping for something... more. This looks like a mediocre blog
template, not "the future of journalism on the web". (I don't think anyone's
actually claimed it will be, but given Greenwald's track record -- even before
Snowden -- I was hoping it would be.)

The second article
([https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/new-
ph...](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/new-photos-of-
nsa-and-others/)) is a bit closer to what I had imagined, although the lack of
cohesion across the site leaves a lot to be desired.

At the end of the day, though, I guess the only thing that matters is the
words.

~~~
Ronsenshi
I am glad that they are focusing on the content itself instead of fancy stuff.
Websites like The Verge or Polygon were exciting at first, but all that flair
and gradients got old really soon. I'd like to concentrate on words instead.
Sprinkle couple of images related to the text and i'll be very happy.

P.S.: I do think that Intercept could be a little bit more solid, less generic
design-wise with its own style.

~~~
dublinben
I can't even read the Verge except for their mobile site. The desktop
experience is so heavy and bloated, that I just leave before finding the
article I want to read.

