I think the editors or owners of Slashdot are either 1) Trying to increase viewership by appealing to a lowest denominator (Star go boom! Big word scary! Chemicals are mean! Vroom vroom car!) or 2) Trying to deliberately weaken the readership for purposes I can only speculate that. That second theory is bolstered by the clumsy rolling out of 'features' during the past few weeks - breaking things that once worked, adding new features that don't, and in general doing their best to make the site almost more tr
I have no inside information, but it's apparent to me that Slsahdot is trying to be the new 'Facebook' or 'MySpace' for geeks. Or something. I'm expecting any day now the ability to add tacky photos, weird fonts and poor layouts to your journal pages.
Furthermore, I think that much of the original geek crowd is gone or mostly in lurk mode. So they are doing their best to attract a younger audience.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Friday June 12, 2009 @12:08AM (#28304289)
Furthermore, I think that much of the original geek crowd is gone or mostly in lurk mode. So they are doing their best to attract a younger audience.
I don't think they're gone, and lurk mode depends on your definition of it. If I'm sitting around with a bunch of geeks talking about non-technical stuff, I don't think that makes it lurk mode so much as everyday conversation. When we have technical discussions on here, the level of discussion isn't the same as a professional journal but it's very impressive for a public forum filled with a diverse technical audience. It's still a common occurrence where I see posts on here that give me insight on an issue that I may never have otherwise come across; there are even fairly profound anecdotes.
I also tend to guess that people remember the olden days as being better than they were. I think the signal to noise in replies has gone up, but moderation takes care of that. The stories, well, frankly I've been here ten years now and I don't remember a time where people weren't groaning at a lot of the stories. I wasn't as regular of a reader back then, but I certainly remember vitriolic replies to every Katz story I saw.
A lot of times I see people whine about stories on here, it's seems to be myopic assholes who expect slashdot to cater to exactly their tastes to the detriment of everyone else -- and expect top shelf journalism despite it being free and them making little to no contribution of any type at all. I've seen complaints about technical stories, hard science stories, what I would call soft science interest stories, stories about new products, lots of the stories about nerd or geek culture. There's really very few types of stories that seem to be without complaint; if slashdot went the blameless route, it might have three stories a week and it'd miss a shitload of stuff that's quite interesting if you're a person who's actually curious about the world. If you want to complain about the quality of the actual writing, then I suggest you submit more stories with high quality writing -- this is a user-driven site after all.
However that doesn't mean that there aren't things that/. should fix. Your post is a case in point, a helpful realist perspective on the situation, but because you posted AC it stands at score 0, while the comment 'Having "journal pages" was bad enough.' unbelievably stands at score 2. The cause? Very simple, AC's start moderated at 0 instead of 1, which means even most moderators will not see them, so often they don't get moderated up even if they're good, or only after most readers have moved to the next
You can always just turn it off for yourself. That's what I do.
Anyway, what did you not like about my post? It was intended to draw the types of comments the parent posted. I wasn't so much interested in griping as finding out what other people really think.
Many of us who moderate have a rule not to moderate any AC, no matter how insightful. As per the moderation suggestions, I browse at -1 to undo any inappropriate downmodding. But I won't touch an AC because I believe my upmods are reserved for those registered and logged in.
It has been so long since I fiddled with my settings, I cannot say if my view is the default or not. But I don't recall only browsing at 1 or greater.
I would like rid of the AC post all together. It makes a great way to flame without getting a Karma hit. That and I think people should stand behind what they say. On Slashdot your not going to go to jail for what you post so protection from the man really isn't a good reason. Of course a lot of people will not agree with me and that is fine. They have their views and I have mine.
Slashot is a moderated user site with an agenda of open source.
Slashdot doesn't have an agenda of open source. Maybe it used to, but not anymore. If it does seem like open source is posted a lot, it's because, well, open source is in the press a lot. Companies are cutting costs with the economy and one of the most popular methods employed is by rolling out new open source strategies.
Yeah, Jon Katz was... special. I just looked him up on wikipedia - seems like he went on to write about dogs. I especially liked how it says that his books "[...] have been met with a hostile reaction in segments of the border collie community. [...] Critics have faulted Katz for a fundamental lack of understanding of the dogs [...] criticism of the author intensified after he gave away his second border collie and had the first put down for behavioral problems."
Wow, Great Summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it THAT slow of a news day, or could no one else possibly outdo this clown of a submitter?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the editors or owners of Slashdot are either 1) Trying to increase viewership by appealing to a lowest denominator (Star go boom! Big word scary! Chemicals are mean! Vroom vroom car!) or 2) Trying to deliberately weaken the readership for purposes I can only speculate that. That second theory is bolstered by the clumsy rolling out of 'features' during the past few weeks - breaking things that once worked, adding new features that don't, and in general doing their best to make the site almost more tr
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I have no inside information, but it's apparent to me that Slsahdot is trying to be the new 'Facebook' or 'MySpace' for geeks. Or something. I'm expecting any day now the ability to add tacky photos, weird fonts and poor layouts to your journal pages.
Furthermore, I think that much of the original geek crowd is gone or mostly in lurk mode. So they are doing their best to attract a younger audience.
Re:Wow, Great Summary (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think they're gone, and lurk mode depends on your definition of it. If I'm sitting around with a bunch of geeks talking about non-technical stuff, I don't think that makes it lurk mode so much as everyday conversation. When we have technical discussions on here, the level of discussion isn't the same as a professional journal but it's very impressive for a public forum filled with a diverse technical audience. It's still a common occurrence where I see posts on here that give me insight on an issue that I may never have otherwise come across; there are even fairly profound anecdotes.
I also tend to guess that people remember the olden days as being better than they were. I think the signal to noise in replies has gone up, but moderation takes care of that. The stories, well, frankly I've been here ten years now and I don't remember a time where people weren't groaning at a lot of the stories. I wasn't as regular of a reader back then, but I certainly remember vitriolic replies to every Katz story I saw.
A lot of times I see people whine about stories on here, it's seems to be myopic assholes who expect slashdot to cater to exactly their tastes to the detriment of everyone else -- and expect top shelf journalism despite it being free and them making little to no contribution of any type at all. I've seen complaints about technical stories, hard science stories, what I would call soft science interest stories, stories about new products, lots of the stories about nerd or geek culture. There's really very few types of stories that seem to be without complaint; if slashdot went the blameless route, it might have three stories a week and it'd miss a shitload of stuff that's quite interesting if you're a person who's actually curious about the world. If you want to complain about the quality of the actual writing, then I suggest you submit more stories with high quality writing -- this is a user-driven site after all.
We should get rid of the AC -1 modifier (Score:2, Interesting)
However that doesn't mean that there aren't things that /. should fix. Your post is a case in point, a helpful realist perspective on the situation, but because you posted AC it stands at score 0, while the comment 'Having "journal pages" was bad enough.' unbelievably stands at score 2. The cause? Very simple, AC's start moderated at 0 instead of 1, which means even most moderators will not see them, so often they don't get moderated up even if they're good, or only after most readers have moved to the next
Re: We should get rid of the AC -1 modifier (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
You can always just turn it off for yourself. That's what I do.
Anyway, what did you not like about my post? It was intended to draw the types of comments the parent posted. I wasn't so much interested in griping as finding out what other people really think.
Re: (Score:1)
Nevermind on the last part. I didn't see the post you were talking about until later.
Re: (Score:1)
Many of us who moderate have a rule not to moderate any AC, no matter how insightful. As per the moderation suggestions, I browse at -1 to undo any inappropriate downmodding. But I won't touch an AC because I believe my upmods are reserved for those registered and logged in.
It has been so long since I fiddled with my settings, I cannot say if my view is the default or not. But I don't recall only browsing at 1 or greater.
Re: (Score:2)
I would like rid of the AC post all together. It makes a great way to flame without getting a Karma hit. That and I think people should stand behind what they say. On Slashdot your not going to go to jail for what you post so protection from the man really isn't a good reason.
Of course a lot of people will not agree with me and that is fine. They have their views and I have mine.
Re:We should get rid of the AC -1 modifier (Score:5, Insightful)
If you get rid of AC you'll get rid of lots of noise, true.
you'll also get rid of people who post inside info...
-nB
Re: (Score:2)
Yea sure like it is hard to make an account to leak. Besides do you really listen to "Inside info from an AC on Slashdot?"
Talk about iffy at best.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You should check back once in a while, that 0 is now a 5.
Seems like it works to me. :)
Re: (Score:2)
Very simple, AC's start moderated at 0 instead of 1, which means even most moderators will not see them
Wrong solution for what has been a suggestion from the first day moderation was added - moderators should read at -1.
There are not too many posts from Anonymous Cowardons that I want to mod up when I have mod points, but sometimes I do.
Re: (Score:0)
Digg is a user moderated site
Slashot is a moderated user site with an agenda of open source.
Re: (Score:1)
Slashot is a moderated user site with an agenda of open source.
Slashdot doesn't have an agenda of open source. Maybe it used to, but not anymore. If it does seem like open source is posted a lot, it's because, well, open source is in the press a lot. Companies are cutting costs with the economy and one of the most popular methods employed is by rolling out new open source strategies.
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdot has always had an agenda of open source.
(...we're for it.)
Re: (Score:1)
The more things change, the more they sta
Re:Wow, Great Summary (Score:4)
Re: (Score:-1)
Hey, Taco, wanna be asshole buddies?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You must be new here... ;)
Re: (Score:0)
You must be new here... ;)
Where is the "+1 Chutzpah [reference.com]" mod?