Slashdot Subscribers Now See The Future 1018
So while subscribers won't see news posted at the last minute before everyone else, most of our stories will be available to them 10-20 minutes before everyone else. This means they can click through and beat the Slashdot Effect.
Another possible feature addition that we're discussing is to allow subscribers to post during this window. We haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. Since subscribers are still subject to all the same restrictions as anyone else in the forums, they could still be moderated into oblivion if they were jerks about it so it's probably not subject to all that much abuse, but this is still something we're only considering. Feel free to discuss it in this forum, or to contact me with opinions.
A couple of notes here:
- Subscribers have a variable on their subscriptions preference page that tells us how many banner ads they wish to "Spend" per day. This number must be at least 10 for you to be eligible to see the Mysterious Future plum. This means that your $5 subscription will last 100 days- or, $15-20 a year.
- You also need to hit the checkbox to disable ads on the Index. Once you hit your Max Pages for the day, you will see ads again, but you will also be eligible for the plum.
- These notes will be clarified on both the subscriptions page and in the FAQ very soon. Your feedback will help us decide how best to explain this since it's not exactly black & white here. Give us a couple weeks and it should all be blazingly obvious from the documentation how everything works.
In closing, this is a new feature and we appreciate all your feedback, both good and bad. We decided to implement this after tons of feedback from you, and we're really excited about it. This is a really great incentive for users to subscribe, but it also can give subscribers a chance to alert us in advance if stories have mistakes in them. We'll likely be expanding this sort of functionality in the future.
Now please go subscribe and help support Slashdot!
Update To clarify the timing. Right now the mysterious future is set to 20 minutes. That number is not a promise tho, since a story posted 11 minutes before "Air time" would be seen slighter later. A story posted 30 minutes in advance will be visible 20 minutes early.
Hah! First! (Score:5, Funny)
But... (Score:5, Funny)
WOW! (Score:5, Funny)
-34th post!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Great! Now I can see dupes before they are posted! (Score:5, Funny)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Future Messages? (Score:5, Funny)
Old news... (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot does metaphysics! (Score:2, Funny)
Hey we're all friends here (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
No. Only information wants to be free. Slashdot has managed to avoid that for a looong time.
seeing the future of slashdottings (Score:1, Funny)
But... (Score:4, Funny)
So compelling!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Must find my credit card, quick!
Doubt it (Score:4, Funny)
Wait a second! (Score:3, Funny)
(as promised)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hah! First! (Score:5, Funny)
FPP: First Paid Post!
and
FUP: First Unpaid Post!
All it takes is a few trolls with some available cash...
Rich people can afford things shocker! (Score:3, Funny)
Beta version (Score:3, Funny)
You don't know how relieved I am since I just thought something had changed in the Matrix and they were onto me, y'know....
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:unfair (Score:2, Funny)
I can see how you might think that, but it's not true. In point of fact, the average Slashdot user believes that only other people's information (or music, or movies, or software, or news stories) should be free.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Think of it, http://boobies.slashdot.org/
Re:Rich people can afford things shocker! (Score:2, Funny)
Corrupting the time line (Score:5, Funny)
BSD section? (Score:5, Funny)
The BSD section is already red. How would stories from the future be posted to the BSD section?
I can see the replies already to this post: "*BSD is dying; it has no future!"
Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)
My only tech problem used to be trying to crimp patch cables, now I have to worry about reading slashdot right.
Re:Hah! First! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:WOW! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Future Messages? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Make Money Fast! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:/. effect? (Market opportunity) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
That's a silly thing to say in a comment with a score less than 3. I guess it's working.
Re:Ummm... (Score:1, Funny)
I should hit the next person who does it with an invisible green hammer.
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
Soko
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
actually, if you got rid of the people who troll in posts, you also lose a lot of your readership. Many of us who enjoy trolling also enjoy the articles, but find most of Slashdot comments to be insipid and either don't think too highly of Malda, or at least don't rank him in importance to be above the average user. This is just another way to piss off old and new users alike, just like fuzzy karma and the obfuscated moderation percentage summaries.
New DDoS Alert Service Unveiled Today (Score:5, Funny)
Web site operators worldwide are encouraged to sign up for advance notice of port-80 DDoS attacks. "If you see it coming," said co-founder Hemos, "at least you have a chance to take down your web site before your ISP prepares a gigantic bill for that web site you put up to show your friends what you've been doing with your Lego kits."
Slashdot is a subsidiary of OSDN is a subsidiary of VA Software Corporation.
Re:Reasons for not subscribing. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:/. effect? (Score:5, Funny)
netsaint plugin (Score:4, Funny)
So does this mean... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:/. effect? (Market opportunity) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Reasons for not subscribing. (Score:2, Funny)
Never a truer word was written...
Wait wait wait!! (Score:2, Funny)
t-h-i-s.....w-i-l-l....n-e-v-e-r...
- OrbNobz
Yours legs are stupid. - Zim
read the links? (Score:4, Funny)
It's nice to know that people will actually be reading the links in this Mysterious Future.
OT: Ebay sale (Score:2, Funny)
Future Crime Department (Score:2, Funny)
Your Karma has gone down 2 level(s) for the future posting of goatse.cx links
If /. Really Wants More Paid Subs... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
Uh-Oh (Score:5, Funny)
Oh wait... You're talking about a slashdotting... At first you sounded like a Microsoft rep warning me that Win2K won't be officially supported anymore and I'll have to migrate the entire IT department to XP.
Whew. (for now)
Re:But... (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds like a scene from a Keannu Reaves movie... (Score:3, Funny)
I can imagine the phone conversation now:
Unsuspecting Web Host: Um, hello?
Commercial Web Mirror: Dude... you've got 30 minutes until 1 million angry Slashdotters pummel your server into a pile of slag... What do you do?
Unsuspecting Web Host: [click]
New meme (Score:4, Funny)
adj., describes the state of having your webserver grind to a halt four times in a day as the Total Farkers, then the Farkers, then the Total Slashdotters, then the Slashdotters, are thrown a link to one of your webpages.
Additional Subscriber feature.... (Score:2, Funny)
Uh oh.. (Score:2, Funny)
Doesn't this suspiciously sound like Micro$oft-speak? For example, when Gates says something ridiculous like "We're implementing DRM and palladium because that's what our customers want."
I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right Taco? :)
Wow, $15-20 / year... (Score:2, Funny)
I guess that's why the future is "mysterious".
Re:Hah! First! (Score:5, Funny)
I see. So if the subscribers were allowed to post early then we'd start off with a higher quality of posts, instead of those from people who don't read the article. Except for you, of course.
Re:Circumvention? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uh-Oh (Score:5, Funny)
New /. motto (Score:4, Funny)
Slashdot: bringing you the news, before it happens.