Special Interview: Rob Malda and Jeff Bates 364
The Andover.net IPO quiet period is finally over. A lot of you have had questions about Slashdot; what's happening, what's going to happen, and so on, that we weren't allowed to answer. Now those questions can be answered, and no one can answer them better than CmdrTaco and Hemos. They're already starting getting stacked up with interview requests from other media, but we decided that you, the loyal Slashdot readers, deserved first crack at them. Submitted questions will be selected by moderators and the usual hangers-on and will be submitted Wednesday afternoon EST. Answers will appear Thursday. (Friday is reserved for Steve Wozniak, who unquestionably deserves a day all to himself!)
The sale of Slashdot/Blockstackers is public info (Score:2)
BTW - This is all public information.
The total consideration that will be paid is valued at $8.5 million and the maximum contingent consideration payable is $3.5 million. All consideration has been or will be paid to BlockStackers, Inc.
Under the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement between BlockStackers, Inc. and Andover.Net, dated as of June 18, 1999, Andover.Net purchased those assets of BlockStackers relating to the Slashdot.org web site for $1.5 million in cash paid at closing and maximum future cash payments of $3.5 million payable over the next two years contingent on the continued employment of two key employees.
Maximum future stock consideration of $7.0 million is payable over a period of two years following this offering. For the purposes of these issuances, the number of shares of common stock to be issued is determined using an assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share.
In June 1999, Andover.net acquired substantially all of the assets and assumed certain liabilities relating to the Slashdot.org web site from BlockStackers, Inc. Slashdot.org is the largest online community for Linux/Open Source developers providing news, commentary, information and reviews.
The amount of stock consideration that is contingent on the achievement of performance milestones relating to traffic on the Slashdot.org web site and the continued employment of the key employees of Slashdot.org will be recognized upon the achievement of these milestones.
EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS
Robert Malda In connection with its acquisition of Slashdot.org, Andover.Net entered into an employment agreement with Robert Malda, a director of Andover.Net, on June 28, 1999, for a term of three years.
Mr. Malda is entitled to customary employee benefits.
Under the terms of the employment agreement, Mr. Malda has agreed that during the term of the agreement he will not participate in the management of any entity which is in competition with Andover.Net.
There is even more detail available and I have no intention of spotlighting Rob, so I'll leave some of the digging to you readers!
Re:ACs (Score:2)
> Can't think of anthing to say, but screw you.
> Age doesn't change the quality (whether high or
> low) of my posts.
No one said age did. "Adult" has nothing to do with age. Never has, really. A 30 year old can be childish and a 12 year old can offer mature insight.
Would you prefer the term "Mature Individuals" instead of "Adults"?
Re:Are you changing the domain? (Score:2)
Legally, this place needs to change it's domain to slashdot.com -- there's money going into Rob & Jeff's pockets, guaranteed.
Legally, there's no difference between
The difference is a matter of convention, not law. It's reasonable for slashdot to not follow convention because:
* People are used to the current DNS name
* There is no pressing reason to switch
* The slashdot.com [slashdot.com] domain is owned by someone else (A Chris Richardson, in California).
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Re:SlashDot, Andover, and Wall Street (Score:2)
(alan == user id 347)
Something for Rob:
Dude, I'm still sorry about the ketchup in the box thing, I swear it wasn't my idea!
As for a question, I'm wondering what you guys see as the next BIG things to watch for as far as software, technologies, and people. Anything that you guys (who see most of this stuff come in) feel will hit it big in the next bit?
Agreed (Score:2)
The problem is, of course, what to do about the problem. Slashdot could revert to an unscored setup, but then the signal to noise ratio would be unbearable.
I've been advocating the implementation of "super moderators" for a while now -- a small group of hand-picked moderators who would act kind of like the Supreme Court of moderation. They could do things like yank Natelie Portman or "line noise" posts, assign points to posts at will, etc. You'd have to find the right people -- people who are both extremely good at handling power and who can step back and make "good" calls about unpopular points of view. It would also have to be closely supervised and reviewed, but I think it'd work.
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Re:YES! (Score:2)
Re:SlashDot, Andover, and Wall Street (Score:2)
Re:No AC's allowed..... (Score:2)
--
*Ahem* Inside jokes in the code (Score:2)
Assuming that you're not the paragon of Mature and Uberprofessional Coding Practices, I'm sure you have more than a few sections of rather...blistering observations. Seeing as how this is News for Nerds, evil Perl most assuredly counts as Stuff That Matters. I'd like to see some segments of code before they were "Sanitized for Our Protection".
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Adding more staff/resources? (Score:2)
Any thought given to having a few full-time moderators? Just another take on the editor issue, really.
If no, is part of the concern libel/liability if you do add more editorial supervision to the content?
sPh
What would you do differently? (Score:2)
If you could change 1 or 2 things about what you have done with slashdot.org, what whould you change, and why?
Re:Slashdot Source Code (Score:2)
Are you accepting volunteers yet???
Sorry, not anymore. I accepted one beautiful volunteer, and now she's positively reluctant to even let me interview additional applicants! Go figure.. *g*
Re:Slashlag (Score:2)
Some might claim that Slashdot will then be in the control of the Moderators (of which I participate, if given the chance.) However, I argue that it would give Slashdot readers (of which I am an avid one) more control over what stories they see. Of course, the Slashdot crew would and should have ultimate control of what gets posted, but at least we'd have an opportunity to tell the crew, "Hey, this story is lame. It's not geek stuff. It's not news for nerds and it certainly doesn't matter."
Moderate this up. (Score:2)
Intangable Assets... (Score:2)
How about defaulting moderators to browsing at -1? (Score:2)
The idea is, if those with mod points want to view an article at 0 or higher, they would have to change it manually. This would assist moderators who browse at higher levels and would probably help balance out positive moderation somewhat. Since you mention it in your moderator guidelines, I figure it would be appropriate to put it in the code. How about it?
Re:Your HTML coding drives W3C bonkers (Score:2)
(Creeps off to run his home page through weblint...)
Re:Your HTML coding drives W3C bonkers (Score:2)
Re:Your HTML coding drives W3C bonkers (Score:2)
Re:Are you changing the domain? (Score:2)
Hey, if sunsite can change, I think we'll survive a Slashdot move, as well.
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I would like to see how others metamod me (Score:2)
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How to cure these blues (Score:2)
It's gotten to the point that I can actually rley on useful comments and get info from them.
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Re:Newest release of slash? (Score:2)
Re:Slash 0.4 (Score:2)
Bah, use Emacs and the latest GNUS (gnus?), it has an interface that makes slashdot articles look like a news group, etc etc..
I haven't posted back from it yet, but it *looks* cool :), and it's great for reading articles. (Gnus scoring on top of slashdot scoring... :)
Re:Slash 0.4 (Score:2)
:) Pack the bowie knife and listen up, it's in the Latest release of GNUs (5.8.2 I believe).
Errr, I'd check but at the moment, the gnus homepage [gnus.org] appears to be replaced with a list of RFC's...
Re:Slash 0.4 (Score:2)
The slash-help mailing list. Home of the embittered would-be open-source slash contributors.
"Moderation is good, in theory."
-Larry Wall
Other Projects (Score:2)
I know you're both nominally involved with Blockstackers [blockstackers.com] and the Everything [everydevel.com] project. My question is, to what extent? Are you funding this, or letting your more involved roommates slide on the rent, or are you actively involved in the design, testing, and coding?
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Re:The software's not that valuable (Score:2)
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Re:The software's not that valuable (Score:2)
Personally, I rarely pay any attention to banner ads at all, and the only way for a hardware or software seller to get *my* business is to be indexed effectively in my search engine of choice (at present that's google).
Some people commenting on this list have implied that Andover had difficulty getting the IPO because they still don't have the revenue to justify the share price they want. How can this be? Surely they had a *plan* in mind when they bought Slashdot? Was their plan simply to jump on the bandwagon and hope that someone else would figure it all out later?
I wounder how many internet companies filing for IPO's have done so in the knowledge that their business model was a pipe dream, and with the intention of using the capital thus raised to build a *real* business?
It's kind of reminiscent of the old story about the soup stone.
The upshot of all this has to be that unless businesses like Andover manage to find a completely new revenue model *very soon* that no-one's even thought of yet, their investors will surely wake up and realise that their trendy internet stocks have no underlying value.
Rob and Hemos may well find that they're running Slashdot as a hobby again before the year is out; if Andover owes them money they should try to get hold of it while they still can. Though they're probably going to get worthless stock options instead, that seems to be the way these things work. Everybody's paying each other in promises these days.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Astroturfing and /. (Score:2)
Re:On Karma (Score:2)
Your posts were meant to be mindlessly inane all along, just to prove how flawed the moderation is?
In that case, good job, man.
Silly me thought that you were under the impression that your posts really were insightful.
Re:Here's two questions (Score:2)
and not all kernel contributors get their due credit. and there's no clause saying if i host a site using linux, that i have to mention the fact, or anything... i think if you beleive what you're saying, you're letting rob set a double standard for himself.
SO many people here whine when a company opens it's source but creates a new almost opensource license... Corel linux is GPLed, but that didn't stop people from saying they were violating it when they didn't release the source to their beta immediately and for everyone.
I can give example after example about this, if you desire... Consider Rob payed for his time on slash... in case you didn't notice he's worth at least a few million dollars now... and if that's not enough for him, well, he shouldn't have even mentioned the GPL in his licensing page... Because it's no where near it.
Re:Development issues (Score:2)
Isn't it about time the moderation abuses and "first posters" are addressed?
Funny... "First post"ing can be considered an abuse of the posting system. Moderation is the answer to that. I read at threshold 1, and never see that stuff.
Widespread moderation led to abuses, and thus meta-moderation [slashdot.org] was born. Enough meta-moderation, and an abusive moderator will lose enough karma to be unable to moderate anymore.
Are you suggesting that these systems (moderation and meta-moderation) are totally ineffective? Or are their specific weaknesses you see in them, for which you want fixes?
How about moderation communities? (Score:2)
I usually set my comment level at 3, mostly for time reasons (I don't usually want to spend time reading more than 10-20 comments). One thing I don't like at that level is a kind of uniformity of tone and opinion. I like to read wildly opposing opinions: in combination they're often more useful, not to mention more stimulating, than endless "slashdotically correct" prose.
So here's my idea to fix that, based on the Amazon.com feature: "people who purchased this book also purchased...", which I often find useful.
Everybody can moderate, though, like today, only selected people's moderation gets used for the "general" slashdot comment scores. Now that you get everybody's opinion on various comments, you can determine groups of similarly minded moderators (you can also use meta-moderation input for this). You could then propose a view of slashdot moderated by people who think like me, or rather, who think about thinking like me. There'd always be the option to return to the general mass-view, of course.
This would encourage high-quality moderation and possibly return us to the more personal, small-scale slashdot experience we use to have. Moderation would be more spontaneous, selfish, and less ponderous. Groups might evolve for the politically correct, the humor-seekers, the crude, those who value originality, facts, who knows what? Possibly these self-generating "communities", once identified, could be very valuable, and maybe make you even more money, but I'm sure you'd see that as a side-effect of a neat idea.
k a i
Re:ACs (Score:2)
Re:Slash 0.4 (Score:2)
Password protected, and users have access levels, so some can do everything (100000 access level or something) while others can do almost nothing (any access level >1 IIRC).
The 100000 level allows them to add sections, links, stories, modify posted stories, etc. It all uses mysql, through the DBI perl module.
I tried to get it working decently, but to no avail. The code is messy, but it works. I, too, am waiting for a 0.4 release, just to play around.
PHPSlash is not bad at all, but it's very alpha (beta?) and isn't really very functional. There are other, similar web-based alternatives, but most don't have the versatility of slash.
slash code [slashdot.org]
-ed fisher
Re:Slash 0.4 (Score:2)
-Chris
Re:+1 posting (Score:2)
To the person asking if giving yourself a +1 gives you +1 karma points, no it does not (thankfully).
Re:On Karma (Score:2)
I emailed Rob on this very issue a while back and his response was that if those posting on defult 2 aren't insightful, etc, then the moderators should moderate them "-1 Overrated". The problem is that moderators do not do this often enough. But the fact remains that they shouldn't have to. Users have the option to not give themselves a +1 bonus and normally just opt to get a default score of 2, because people want to be "heard". Since a lot of people browse at threshold 2, this guarentees their comment will be seen.
These two problems need to be corrected (I admit, I'm not helping that matter with this post) by us, not CmdrTaco or Hemos. However, since this seems unlikely given the amount this site has grown since I started reading, I'd just like to see an option to only view posts that have been moderated up, and nothing else. Right now, when I read at threshold 2, 80% of the posts are from people who have a default of 2. So I have to still weed through posts to read those people have deemed "interresting" or "insightful", etc. By only showing posts that have been moderated up, I can see only what I want, and even view AC posts that got moderated up to 1, but that I would normally miss browsing at 2. This option shouldn't have to be made because we should be able to control ourselves, but given the way things have been going, I think it's a quick solution that could solve a few of these issues (just a few tough
Has slashdot remained pure? (Score:2)
For example, you have a rather weak sounding disclaimer and there is a ton of editorial content in the messages that are posted. Yahoo has been involved in several cases where companies have felt wronged by anonymous posting. Do you worry that somebody could try to sue? Have you taken measures to help track down posters, even ACs, in the event that somebody wants to track down a poster of negative comments? I know several sites that do IP tracking and some cookie stuff to try and keep track of the anonymous people. You guys have had a strong record for defending anonymity and making changes to try and keep anonymous posting viable, has Andover or wealth changed any of that? You're a much bigger target now, has that changed anything? (I'm not trying to learn ways to circumvent things or anything, I'm just curious if you guys are really totally free to operate as normal, if you are then I will be the first to say that you may have the greatest job on the planet.) If Bolomag Corp. (Big Oranization with Lots Of Money And Guns) wants to track down that AC that said their products were unsafe and dropped the law suit word, would you help them? What if it was believed to be a Bolomag employee? I think this consists of one question.
Secondly, I view slashdot and a pretty cutting edge weblog/pseudo-portal. It has really defined the medium to me. I've watched over the years as slashdot has gone from a nerd news index (meta-news?) that essentially pointed to news articles that were about developments that nerds would find interesting in to more content development with the Katz articles, book reviews, and features and interviews and then customizable content with the slashboxes and the custom page creation. Slashdot is becoming a media. Is there any pressure to direct that? Alternatives to the weblog (irc.slashdot.org?) haven't really surfaced but do you think that there will be pressure to move slashdot to the "next thing" when it does? Andover has a hot commodity and they clearly wouldn't want it to lose its edge anymore than they would want to ruin it by making it corporate.
Then third, how does the editorial process work? From the viewer's prespective, slashdot seems to be fresh, interesting, prograssive and it is continually being adjusted and tweaked. Does someone have ultimate say over what is done? Is it a democracy? Have there been any big rows? Is there a policy or plan for when there is desire to do something that isn't "slashdot?"
Re:Signal to noise (Score:2)
I'm afraid I can't agree that the discussion content improving over time, I wouldn't make any claims for having read slashdot since day one whenever that was, but I have been reading for a long time and I'm stating my opinion here. I don't expect it to coincide with everyones. I certainly am not moaning.
I agree with you that moderation has solved certain problems but I feel it has created others. I have certainly seen examples of posts moderated severely by moderators who seem to not have understood the posters point or merely disagreed with its content. The "anyone praising Microsoft is a troll" syndrome.
I don't believe there is any perfect solution to any of these issues, but there is always room for improvement, and as we have been using the current solution for a while now I merely wished to know what the slashdot guys felt about the current posting standards, the moderation system and any plans to modify it further, given the much higher levels of traffic the site now attracts.
I'm sorry that my original post seems to have given you so much offence.
News for who? (Score:2)
Standing Forums (Score:2)
Re:Signal to noise (Score:2)
My observation has been that as the net gets bigger, the more chaff that must be sorted through to get to the wheat. It happened to Usenet, it'll happen here - if left unchecked.
What sort of ideas do you have to stop this? (I think the moderation is a good idea, but, as already shown, at some critical mass, it too is overwhelmed.)
Have you considered having a fee-for-service area on the site? As much as I hate this solution, increasing the cost of entry to forums like this tends to be a good filter - in that not many people want to pay to write about Natalie Portman's petrified first-posting beowulf ASCII cluster. And I would be willing to enter such an area, provided the costs of entry aren't phenomenal.
Unisys Licensing Relationship (Score:2)
Did andover.net pay Unisys to use GIFs on slashdot.org and its other sites? And, if so, why is a leading open source news site giving direct financial support to software patents?
Re:Moderators (Score:2)
Will /. readers get a letter? (Summary) (Score:2)
2) Will user data stay the same?
3) Will moderation change in any way, shape or form?
4) What restrictions do you business guys have?
5) Will Slash 0.4 be released?
6) Will the posting ability of AC change?
7) How well is Meta-Moderation working?
8) Will this change
Privacy, Copyright and Legal Stuff (Score:3)
Firstly, I assume you're running Apache, and it must be generating logs of some such (like, IP address, time stamps, etc.). Is this information stored, and for how long? (Also assume I am anonymous coward and do not accept cookies). If somebody posted something defaming someone else / some other company and they took Slashdot to court to find out who wrote it, would you actually give up the logs? Do you ever process these logs in any way (yes, I know they must be huge, but so are Amazon's and Yahoo's and they do it ...).
Under whose laws are Slashdot content governed? If the poster is in Australia, is it Oz laws that apply or is it those from somewhere in America?
Has anyone ever tried to sue Slashdot over content? (libel, etc.). What would be your reaction then, and what would be it now, and does Andover have a hand in this?
On a totally different note, here is a suggestion: If an Anonymous Coward actually manages to get moderated up, could their comment then rise up to 2 rather than 1, where it is lost in a barage of pointless digressions? I prefer to surf at 3 nowadays, so I miss all people with karma above 30 who set their default level to 2 and are no better than the ones posting at level 1.
On another note, who took the decision to wipe out the sudden growth of personalised sid=me, and why?
How are editorial decisions made, if at all? (Score:3)
Other folks have written about editorial independence and about the quality of the stories; this is an entirely different question. A related question would be: could you perhaps identify more clearly which items are news, which are columns, which are editorials, and which are fluff? Traditional (i.e., "dead") media is adept at giving this kind of context to their stories, and it would be most helpful to your readers.
Is Hemos ever going to become a physician? (Score:3)
Change of revenue stream? (Score:3)
Is there a scheme to move to something else? To move to subscriptions for certain features (e.g. making the ability to filter out AC posts or low moderation posts a subscription-only features)
Or maybe to do more commercial tie-ins - such as interviews with Major hardware manufacturers, or QA sessions with corporate sponsorship.
Or to boost the ad revenue by turning
Or, maybe andover.net is just looking to get bought out by one of the media industry's big players like VNU or Disney or ZD or whatever?
Let the readers decide? (Score:3)
My question: Is there some way we, the readers, could view a larger portion of the submitted stories whether they get posted to the main page or not?
Kind of an overflow buffer, if you will. Obviously, duplicates and nonsense stories referencing "grits" would have to be done away with, but I feel that Slashdot could provide much more information than it currently does. From the reader perspective, more quality content is definitely better and from a business standpoint, more stories equals more valid page hits for Slashdot. We would all benefit.
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"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Utopia (Score:3)
New Articles (Score:3)
Relationship Between Blockstackers and Andover.Net (Score:3)
For those of you not familiar with EDGAR, this is the on-line database that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provides so that investors have access to the legally required filings of companies that have gone public.
I played around with it today, and this is the most effective query that I could compose. You should be able to just click the following link and see all of the documents related to Andover. Some of these documents discuss the how nature of Rob's contract with Andover, the relationship between Andover and Blockstackers, and related subjects.
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/sr ch-edgar?ANDOVER+ADJ+NET [sec.gov]
--
Dave Aiello
Privacy and IPO (Score:3)
1.(l)User data.
2. Advertisements:
2.1. Are you going to continue to handle advertisements yourself?
2.2. Are you going to allow companies like doubleclick to handle advertising on slashdot?
Will slashdot integrate Andover.net? (Score:3)
Slashdot is, imho, more influential then all the sites Andover owns put together. Untill this linux/Open-source craze came along and Andover.net bought
Andover is now a public company, and as such it holds certain responsabilities to it's shareholders, growth being the most obvious one.
To do this Andover needs to exploite Slashdot's brand, as I see very little other value within Andover's arsenal. The current situation of Andovers stock is a good indication of pressure that might build on you guys to "sell out" in various ways (some of them might actually be good, IMHO) like expanding the focus of
how do you guys see Slashdot and that your small insignificate Andover part collaborating together, through this? what's going to happen? should I buy the stock or not?? (just kidding)
--------------------------------
Here's two questions (Score:3)
2) Has the andover.net acquisiton gone as well as you hoped it would, as far as making the site better?
slash code change. (Score:3)
jesse.
Re:Your HTML coding drives W3C bonkers (Score:3)
<rant quality="weary">
Is there really any other industry on earth that would put up with sloppy, incompetent, unprofessional workmanship just because it looked good on the surface? I mean, come off it. I like
And it isn't any sort of excuse to claim that the majority of websites (particularly expensive ones) are also produced by sloppy incompetents who wouldn't know what an RFC was if it fell out of a tree on them. This is true. We know it. We can do better. And if we can't do better, what claim do we really have to being techs?
</rant>
Re:Are you changing the domain? (Score:3)
Legally, this place needs to change it's domain to slashdot.com -- there's money going into Rob & Jeff's pockets, guaranteed.
Newest release of slash? (Score:3)
Katz... (Score:3)
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Moderating bad things up (Score:3)
I for one really like to be able to browse comments what are sorted by moderation, largely to get rid of the offtopic stuff, but it's gives a distorted view of what slashdot readers really think.
No AC's allowed..... (Score:3)
Then when a story was actually posted the comments on its validity as a story could be removed or available separately. This would also give people some lead time on their comments and allow those dedicated enough to do some real research.
Slashlag (Score:4)
For instance, oftentimes there will be a delay of as must as two days (as with the Uri Geller story) from the time that I see an article on Linux Today or another news site and when I see it here. I've been around /. for a while now, and this wasn't always the case.
Is this just a case of waiting for a "slow news day", or is it something more insideous like ANDN wanting to maintain some editorial control over /.? For that matter, has ANDN imposed any other constraints that we're not aware of? Are there any circumstances where you'd see yourself having to remove libelous posts or posts which violate SEC rules (read here: stock manipulation)? Or has Andover been a benevolant king which is dedicated to protecting the happy-go-lucky days of Slashdot using its deep pockets to keep your legal butts covered?
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A question for you (Score:4)
Quite Simply (Score:4)
- Xabbu
Re:Slashlag (Score:4)
Suggestion: make the incoming queue be a page which gets moderated. Then, the editors just have to pick from the stuff at the top.
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Development issues (Score:4)
Isn't it about time the moderation abuses and "first posters" are addressed?
Will we ever be able to moderate or score the articles themselves?
Source code (Score:4)
What license will it be released under?
Will it be immediately forked into "public" and "private" versions (i.e., will Slashdot be running the with patches submitted by users)?
If/When patches are rejected/not-applied to the main tree, will an explanation be given (similar to Linux) or will they just be dropped (similar to Slashdot story submissions)?
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BlockStackers? (Score:4)
J
Are you changing the domain? (Score:4)
(moderators: not meant as flamebait!)
A Question about Article Submissions.. (Score:4)
I do think there is one part of Slashdot that is still unfairly biased towards the site operators and their opinions. I'm sure Slashdot gets a few hundred article submissions per day, but we are limited to reading maybe 12-15 articles per day, and those are the ones which the folks in charge are interested in or what they think we are interested in. This is a commonplace system, but I still find fault with it, if the site is truly going to be an "open forum."
Is there any site reorganization in the works, or perhaps an expansion of the moderation system to include the approval and rejection of article submissions?
John
+1 posting (Score:4)
also, please don't take away AC posting, I've posted as an AC for privacy several times and think that everyone should have that right.
Slashdot Parodies (Score:4)
" A company can be judged by the size of their lawsuits "
On a personal note.... (Score:5)
One Definitive Day (Score:5)
Since the creation and subsequent explosion of Slashdot, what one day stands out in your mind as the most randomly odd of them all?
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Slashdot Source Code (Score:5)
1. Post annoying reminders to every
2. Using the word "hypocrites" a lot
3. Slay the Andover Alien Masters and destroy their Mind Control Ray
4. Procure many beautiful women dedicated to the open source cause
5. Crack slashdot.org, download source code, leave kewl hAx0r d00d cracked page to brag from
6. Bribe Hemos
7. Get a lab insider to "innocently" copy code to an unclassified server
8. Dress up as Rob, go to Andover, claim "Hello, my name is CmdrTaco. I misplaced my copy of the Slashdot code, can I make another?"
9. Send the Slashdot gang a free case of beer.
10. Poison the beer, use the antidote as a bargaining chip.
11. Cry
12. Get Nitrozac to cry
complete the following sentences.... (Score:5)
"since the recent monster ipo we've found it much easier to pick up ________."
"in spite of it all, my parents still wish i would _______."
"if you had it all to do over again, the name of your site would be ________."
and lastly, i'm sure it's been asked a hundred times already, but what's you're favourite linux system call and why?
What happened to browser and os stats? (Score:5)
Slash 0.4 (Score:5)
"Moderation is good, in theory."
-Larry Wall
What About the Slashdot Story Submission Queue? (Score:5)
DeCSS (Score:5)
Lawyers (Score:5)
Re:Here's two questions (Score:5)
It seems strange that the "voice of the open-source community", as Andover has been built up to be in the rest of the media, can't get it's act together and release the source to slashdot on a timely basis. How hard can it be to copy a few Perl scripts into a directory, and export some empty tables from MySQL? Other people could attempt to document it, if you guys are too busy to deal with that.
Also, in as far as licenses go, it seems that Slashdot has it's own opensource license. It's based on the GPL, but requires you to use the slashdot logo if you actually use the code on a site, with the alternative of paying money.... That seems to fly in the face of the GPL and Opensource.
(It's funny... i was driving to work this morning and these issues popped into my mind for the last 30 minutes of the drive... show's a little about how interesting my life is, huh?
So anyways... put your money where your mouth is and provide us with slashes source on a timely basis and under the GPL, not the Slashdot Pseudo Public License.
Thanks.
Meta-Moderation. (Score:5)
Signal to noise (Score:5)
I am finding it less and less worthwhile and enjoyable to follow the discussions , as well as less coherent.
Have you any plans to further deal with this sort of thing, above and beyond moderation ?
Is it time for the end of AC posting, esp seeing as there is the post anonymously option ?
And lastly, do you find these trends a little depressing?
I know I do and I'm just a reader.
Direct reporting... (Score:5)
Your HTML coding drives W3C bonkers (Score:5)
Any idea if Slashdot's code will ever be cleaned up? Would open sourcing help things?
Re:ACs (Score:5)
Browse at +1, you'll see the comments. Browse at +2 (or better), you'll see a greater ratio of quality/comments. Just because there are more lame posts, doesn't mean there's less quality. Increase your browse level, and lower the signal/noise ratio.
The ACs are working very hard to disrupt threads with NATALIE/NAKED/COMMIE/GRITS posts.
Some do, some don't. I browse at +1, and see none of them (just those who reply to them, and are +1 -- but they're at the end of the comments). Rob has provided, in all his Wisdom, a way to avoid ACs -- but he will not silence them. It's his decision to allow, and your decision on what to read.
What plans do you have (if any) for bringing more adults into the slashdot fold and to try and make for a more inteligent discussion.
... No comment
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Editorial Independence (Score:5)
What will Andover be doing to make sure we can continue to trust that Slashdot Editorial policy is not in thrall to advertisers' concerns?
-Jordan Henderson
Karma Shares! (Score:5)
Oh, shit, Signal11 is gonna be rich. . . .
Rafe
V^^^^V
Critical Person Insurance (Score:5)
etc, etc, (thud)
jsm
Comment removed (Score:5)
SlashDot, Andover, and Wall Street (Score:5)
The Wall St. Journal, two weeks ago, devoted considerable space to the Andover IPO--strongly suggesting that the only perceptible value in the company was SlashDot, and demonstrating the unorthodox steps that Andover took to get the IPO underwritten. (Notably, the WSJ reports that when Andover initially tried to get underwriting it owed the two of you more money than the entire assets of the firm.) The WSJ has subsequently referred to Andover, by name, as an example of an IPO with a stratospheric share price, but no substance. Nobody, anywhere, has suggested that there is any commercial value to Andover other than SlashDot.
Much as I appreciate the sense of humor you have, and the contributions of the SlashDot community, it seems to me that the really valuable thing about SlashDot is the software--the database system that permits posting, moderation, meta-moderation, etc. It is a work of genius. And, a very valuable thing.
The Wall St. Journal has all but called Andover a bubble--(or, to be less kind, a pump 'n dump). The only way to prove them wrong is to achieve corporate earnings that support the current share price. The only real asset of Andover is SlashDot--and the only real asset of SlashDot is the software. And the software is supposed to be Open Source.
So how are you guys going to make earnings?
My Questions (Score:5)
1.) Right now slashdot is rather inefficient in that we download the same comments over and over again when rereading an article searching for new comments. Is there anything in the works to deal with this inefficiency or will we be allowed to toy with this in the slashdot source (if it ever comes out) and submit these modifications? Will an NNTP slashdot be considered to deal with this?
My second question has to do with Karma
2.) Is there a chance that the amount of Karma needed for a default posting of 2 be increased to at least twice the current value(25)?
I ask this because I already post at a default of 2, which implies I must be a knowledgeable member of the slashdot community which I do not believe I am. Especially considering the fact that it is relatively easy to spew dogma for a month or so and get 25 Karma then revert to one's true self (Signal 11 [slashdot.org] has proved the value of spewing dogma and karma whoring for triple digit Karma). I would feel more comfortable if the Karma needed for a default posting off 2 was higher so that there is more chance that the person posting is actually an intelligent member of the slashdot community who posts are interesting and insightful instead of a karma whore who has no true value to add to a discussion. Because of this I now read posts at a moderation of 3 or higher.
3a.)What is the slashdot official position on the phantom discussion groups e.g. Trolltalk [slashdot.org] or Moderation [slashdot.org]?
I notice that some of the early posts to these discussions have disappeared (probably archived);
3b.)How do I get to read the old posts to the phantom groups since there's no assosciated story to do a search on?
And finally I have only moderated once and this was about a month after I got an account. Since then I have not moderated...
4a.)I would like to know if this is because of the rule that users who view slashdot excessively don't get to moderate?
4b.)And if so exactly how many page views per day/week/month is viewed as excessive by whatever algorithm does the selection?
Personal life? (Score:5)
I guess this is a question for both of you:
How's life in meatspace?
Lets just lay all technical issues aside for a moment. I want to know Who You Are, as people, not webmasters.
We have a pretty good idea of the comings and goings of your professional lives, but what about your friends, family, and groupies? Mmmm... groupies.
I guess this is more of a request for a biography than any particular question, but don't let that put you off.
Oh, one other question: Any plans on visiting KLUG any time soon?
More "News for Nerds" Please... (Score:5)
I believe Slashdot got much of its "mature" geek following back when most of the headlines were apolotical in nature. A couple years ago, the biggest threads were generated while discussing new microarchitectures, physical limits of the lithography process, the size of the universe, and other *real* high-tech news. Since the stories were less subject to political debate, the S/N ratio was good. Now, the only "tech" stories are about nanotech (thanks hemos!) or the Aibo.
With Andover.net now owning Slashdot, am I just SOL? I know that most of the stories are going to be Linux/GPL/Open Source related, and that's fine. But please, Please, *PLEASE*, don't forget that many of your readers are well educated, and would like to spend time thinking about something new and exciting in the tech world rather than reading 500 posts ending with M$ $ucks...
Re:News for who? (Score:5)
Actually, in the beginning, /. actually posted stories on engineering, physics, space, philosophy and other topics that were actually interesting. Only in the last 12-18 months has it become a dedicated Linux/Open Source forum. I for one, would like it to go back to the "News for Nerds" theme, rather than the "Politics for Nerds" it is today.