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Slashdot Turns 5 692

As much as I avoid discussing Slashdot on Slashdot, I figured I'd just take a moment to say that Slashdot is 5 years old now. I've written a Journal Entry with a few more comments on the subject. And yes we know we jumped the shark about a week after we registered the domain name, but we just don't care! Here's hoping we're here 5 years from now doing exactly the same thing with the same folks. (As a side note, due to a data importing bug, we really don't know exactly when we made our debut, but I spent september 97 putting the site together... and when we went live, we didn't even have comments for the first week or so!)
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Slashdot Turns 5

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  • And Now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GypC ( 7592 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:02AM (#4366375) Homepage Journal
    You get comments almost immediately! First Post!
    • Golden Age (Score:5, Funny)

      by baldass_newbie ( 136609 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:29AM (#4366585) Homepage Journal
      we didn't even have comments for the first week or so!

      Is this the 'Golden Age of Slashdot' that I hear so much about?
  • by BoBaBrain ( 215786 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:02AM (#4366377)
    when we went live, we didn't even have comments for the first week or so!)

    A whole week before a "First Post" appeared. Bliss.
  • by idiotnot ( 302133 ) <sean@757.org> on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:03AM (#4366381) Homepage Journal
    They didn't buy a Super Bowl ad.
    • There. Better. Too much time in bash lately.
    • by pez ( 54 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:49AM (#4366713) Journal
      In all seriousness, I'd like to submit that the secret of /.'s success is this: users first.
    • Good one! That was definitely a contributing factor but as far as I can tell slashdot was one of the first sites on the web to get threaded discussions right. I mean the child-parent relationship between comments. Sounds pretty obvious but there are still a hell of a lot o half arsed discussion sites out there that have a flat layout for comments that makes it hard for the reader to follow the discussion. This and the fact that the crowd that slashdot caters to essentially comprises of avid internet users is definitely a big contributor to the s site's success.
      • Well shit, (Score:3, Interesting)

        by CaptainZapp ( 182233 )
        I wanted to moderate a couple of really funny posts, but can't let that one uncommented:

        but there are still a hell of a lot o half arsed discussion sites out there that have a flat layout for comments

        In an earlier life, when I was a DECcie we had a corporate network with maybe 100000 users and we had this groupware thingie called VAXnotes. Of course DEC couldn't sell it for shit, but it had a huge impact on the company internally.

        The software was rather primitive. You installed it and created a conference on your box. The format went something like SLSHDT::COBOL for example, discussing the finer arts of Cobol. SLSHDT was the DECnet node, where it resided (limited to 6 chars, but those where the good ol' days).

        Within the conference everybody could create an entry and after that it was just one flat stream of comments.

        There where confererences for every product and every obscure piece of software which this company manufactured and produced. That was nifty, because if you had a Cobol question it wouldn't take an hour until somebody from Cobol engineering jumped in with a knowledgeable and comprehensive answer. But the most interesting part of the whole system where the EI (employee interest) conferences, which ranged from cats through tarrot over DEC issues (HUMANE::DIGITAL) up to Soapbox (damn! I can't even remember the node name...).

        While it was primitive from a "layout" point of view I have never since experienced the power that a network can have on its participants. They where some really, really smart people bitching and flaming away, but sticking together whenever required. At one time we even pledged to get the best hated Soapbox contributor (Jamie, who was a very fat git, NOT!) to a boxbash in Bawston from Reading, UK.

        It was also around that time (1993) when a really, really smart engineer (let's call him Dan K) mentioned something he was working on, something that would change the world, something so fucking (he didn't say fucking, since that was verboten) revolutionary it would blow us out of our socks. He couldn't really mention what it was, but it was later marketed under the term WWW.

        Yep, it was a primitive form of discussion, but it didn't matter, not at all and it was one of the aspects in DECs culture, which made this company so great!

        It saddens me until today, that one of the most important companies in computer history was sold off by a slick guy with a bad hairdo to some box-assembling marketing organisation in Texas.

  • by DarkHelmet ( 120004 ) <.mark. .at. .seventhcycle.net.> on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:03AM (#4366383) Homepage
    Happy Birthday Slashdot!

    You've taken five years away from my life and I want them back now!

    If not, the penguin gets it :P

    • by mjwise ( 476 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:14AM (#4366480)
      You've taken five years away from my life and I want them back now!

      *Hans Moleman voice* oh...I'd only waste them.
      • by troc ( 3606 )
        and with a user # of 476 we might even believe you ;)

        I remember when this was all just binary data.... oh wait, um.

        Troc
    • With a 6 digit UID I doubt slashdot took five years of *your* life ;)
  • by qurob ( 543434 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:03AM (#4366387) Homepage

    That are not corporate sites, like Microsoft.com, etc

    I'm talking...ad-supported.
    • Blue's News [bluesnews.com]

      It's not quite as popular as /., but it's a pretty widely respected gaming news site.

      As Blue's tagline says: "Established 1995. Over an eighth of a billion visitors since 1997."

      AnandTech [anandtech.com] and Tom's Hardware [tomshardware.com] are also up there.

      Frankly, a lot of sites have been around since 1997. Find some non-university/corporate sites that have been around for 10 years with (relatively) high hit counts and it's more meaningful.
  • Happy birthday!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chrysalis ( 50680 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:04AM (#4366391) Homepage
    Slashdot is the site I spent 90% on when I'm connected to the internet. It's the first thing I read every day.

    Slashdot is a source of info, of pure fun and of substancial debates.

    Congrats, Mista Taco!

  • by jzs9783 ( 612647 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:05AM (#4366394)
    I would like to thank you for passing the day for me while at work. My boss would like to thank you for wasting his money.
  • Where's GIS? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by randomErr ( 172078 ) <ervin,kosch&gmail,com> on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:07AM (#4366406) Journal
    Geeks In Space is what really brought people here.

    How about a birthday special guys?
  • wow. (Score:4, Funny)

    by nuhonda ( 256188 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:07AM (#4366409) Homepage
    now i can out geek all the geeks i know, by telling them i have the same birthday as slashdot.

    woo-hoo.
  • by conduit4 ( 589726 )
    Since theres an article about Slashdot on Slashdot, does that mean Slashdot is going to get Slashdotted?
  • Hmmm... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by netphilter ( 549954 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:08AM (#4366415) Homepage Journal
    On a related note, it would be interesting for someone to study the effects of /. on society, along the same lines as this story [slashdot.org]. I don't know about anyone else, but /. tends to be one of my greatest joys and frustrations all in one. The ability to voice your opinion in such an open manner can have a staggering effect, and I would be interested to see a study trying to quantify exactly what that effect is.
    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @11:56AM (#4367896) Homepage Journal
      Well, I used to know where it was. Somewhere on microsoft.com, there was a list of key terms related to the web, and the "slashdot effect" was a key term. Yep, on Microsoft's webpage, it mentioned that the slashdot effect was when a page gets a lot of hits shortly after being posted on a popular news site. The term was thought to have come from a news site slashdot.org, or something...

      ~WIll
  • Great effort, to have surivived so long.

    Well done.
  • How many? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MouseR ( 3264 )
    How many registered users are there anyhow? Any count on active heads as well?

    Sometimes, I feel like an old geezer having a user ID of 3264, when I see user IDs in the 6 digits range.
    • Heh. Yeah, looking at my u#, I can help but think about how many hours of my life I've spent posting and reading here.

      shit.

      I'm never getting that time back, am I?

      Oh, well ... you can't take it with you!

    • is that you treasure your little four-dig. "Why... in my day..."

      It's this weird unspoken thing that low-digit users here are like elders. Their posts carry that little extra weight, like the withered old geek has just stood up at the town meeting, or something equally rediculous.

      Anyway, if anyone needs me, I'll be in a bar, trying out my new /. come on lines. Course my karma's excellent, baby. I ain't no troll. Now come here for a sec, you've gotta click here to log in.
    • It was just recently pointed out to me that I had a 4 digit ID. It really meant nothing to me before then.

      I am happy to have been a part of something that has lasted this long. Watching it grow was something special.

      I guess I feel like an old-geezer. I complain like a 90 year old about repeat posts, assholish responses, and boring crap that doesn't belong on the front-page. But with a 4 digit ID that's my right god damn it ;)

      Have a happy birthday!
  • by Theodore Logan ( 139352 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:08AM (#4366420)
    Feels like more, and I wasn't even here from the beginning (although this wasn't my first account).

    Five years of
    • AYBABTU
    • Can you imagine a beowolf cluster of these?
    • Natalie Portman naked and petrified
    • Hot grits (down your pants)
    • First post!
    • goatse.cx
    • Page widening
    • BSD is dying
    • Author Stephen King dead at 54
    Like I said, feels like more...
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:09AM (#4366434)
    "We've posted nearly 30,000 stories. Deleted a million submissions. Served half a billion pages." ..and brought thousands of servers worldwide to their knees.
  • by NeoSkandranon ( 515696 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:10AM (#4366441)
    Wonder who got the first First Post?
  • by AppyPappy ( 64817 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:10AM (#4366445)
    Hauling Down And Stomping Websites For Over 5 Years.

    Every webmasters nightmare.
  • Repeat? (Score:5, Funny)

    by smnolde ( 209197 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:10AM (#4366446) Homepage
    I can't wait for someone to submit this story in a week and it gets posted again.
  • wow (Score:2, Insightful)

    by tps12 ( 105590 )
    It's amazing to see how far we've come in such a short time. Five years ago we were all still using Linux 2.0, Microsoft was in court with Apple over the look and feel of Windows for Workgroups (well, some things never change, I guess), and Monica Lewinsky was in the papers every day (hey, not news for nerds, but we all live in real life, too...sometimes!).

    Many of us slashdotters have grown as well. From humble beginnings to the dizzying heights of the dot.com boom to the unemployment line (and mom and dad's house again). But it gives us more time to hack on Free Software, so bring it on!

    I'd just like to say "thanks" to Rob & the gang who put in long hours on /code and this site--there's nothing like it anywhere else on the web--and to the great community that makes /. so special. You guys are the best friends (and friends of friends!) a lone hacker could ask for, when he isn't debugging perl in vi!

    Here's to hoping the next half-decade is as good as the last. Cheers.
    • I remember back in the day when Slashdot would post stories about degenerate companies that used proxies and firewalls to block people from certain sites and when evil corporations would censor their bulletin boards to erase any dissension. It was a heady time, full of youth and idealism.

      But I'm glad to see Slashdot has matured since then. Now they realize that sometimes banning someone's netblock is just plain necessary when that person is posting non-factual information. If some innocent net neighbors are gagged for a few days, that's simply the price we pay for informational freedom. And deleting posts, while morally abhorrent, is the only way to keep ourselves from accidentally reading a 3 page long "taco snotting" FAQ.

      Thank you, Slashdot, for making the trains run on time.

  • Any record of the first site to be slashdotted?
  • With one of the top stories on the same date five years ago featured again.
  • WayBackMachine (Score:3, Informative)

    by internet-redstar ( 552612 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:12AM (#4366457) Homepage
    Nice to have a look with www.archive.org to the old days of slashdot!

    Here is the oldest archived one [archive.org]

    Happy Birthday Slashdot!

  • Congrats! I sure hope that you last another 5 five years. But is the site profitable? Could it stand on its own? Could you guys buy it back if VA decides to shut it down?
  • Seeing as how it looks like everyone will have to get a post in on this story, I might as well join the club.

    Just for old times sake, anyone still have that "History of the World According to Slashdot" post still floating around?
    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @09:10AM (#4366856)
      from here [novarese.net]
      OT: History of the World, part N+1 (Score:4, Funny)
      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12, @08:12PM EDT (#25)

      2.5 million B.C.: OOG the Open Source Caveman develops the axe and releases it under the GPL. The axe quickly gains popularity as a means of crushing moderators' heads.

      100,000 B.C.: Man domesticates the AIBO.

      10,000 B.C.: Civilization begins when early farmers first learn to cultivate hot grits.

      3000 B.C.: Sumerians develop a primitive cuneiform perl script.

      2920 B.C.: A legendary flood sweeps Slashdot, filling up a Borland / Inprise story with hundreds of offtopic posts.

      1750 B.C.: Hammurabi, a Mesopotamian king, codifies the first EULA.

      490 B.C.: Greek city-states unite to defeat the Persians. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the Greeks "get it".

      399 B.C.: Socrates is convicted of impiety. Despite the efforts of freesocrates.com, he is forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock.

      336 B.C.: Fat-Time Charlie becomes King of Macedonia and conquers Persia.

      4 B.C.: Following the Star (as in hot young actress) of Bethelem, wise men travel from far away to troll for baby Jesus.

      A.D. 476: The Roman Empire BSODs.

      A.D. 610: The Glorious MEEPT!! founds Islam after receiving a revelation from God. Following his disappearance from Slashdot in 632, a succession dispute results in the emergence of two troll factions: the Pythonni and the Perliites.

      A.D. 800: Charlemagne conquers nearly all of Germany, only to be acquired by andover.net.

      A.D. 874: Linus the Red discovers Iceland.

      A.D. 1000: The epic of the Beowulf Cluster is written down. It is the first English epic poem.

      A.D. 1095: Pope Bruce II calls for a crusade against the Turks when it is revealed they are violating the GPL. Later investigation reveals that Pope Bruce II had not yet contacted the Turks before calling for the crusade.

      A.D. 1215: Bowing to pressure to open-source the British government, King John signs the Magna Carta, limiting the British monarchy's power. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".

      A.D. 1348: The ILOVEYOU virus kills over half the population of Europe. (The other half was not using Outlook.)

      A.D. 1420: Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press. He is immediately sued by monks claiming that the technology will promote the copying of hand-transcribed books, thus violating the church's intellectual property.

      A.D. 1429: Natalie Portman of Arc gathers an army of Slashdot trolls to do battle with the moderators. She is eventually tried as a heretic and stoned (as in petrified).

      A.D. 1478: The Catholic Church partners with doubleclick.net to launch the Spanish Inquisition.

      A.D. 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in what he believes to be "India", but which RMS informs him is actually "GNU/India".

      A.D. 1508-12: Michaelengelo attempts to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling with ASCII art, only to have his plan thwarted by the "Lameness Filter."

      A.D. 1517: Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the church door and is promptly moderated down to (-1, Flamebait).

      A.D. 1553: "Bloody" Mary ascends the throne of England and begins an infamous crusade against Protestants. ESR eats his words.

      A.D. 1588: The "IF I EVER MEET YOU, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS" guy meets the Spanish Armada.

      A.D. 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu unites the feuding pancake-eating ninjas of Japan.

      A.D. 1611: Mattel adds Galileo Galilei to its CyberPatrol block list for proposing that the Earth revolves around the sun.

      A.D. 1688: In the so-called "Glorious Revolution", King James II is bloodlessly forced out of power and flees to France. ESR again triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".

      A.D. 1692: Anti-GIF hysteria in the New World comes to a head in the infamous "Salem GIF Trials", in which 20 alleged GIFs are burned at the stake. Later investigation reveals that mayn of the supposed GIFs were actually PNGs.

      A.D. 1769: James Watt patents the one-click steam engine.

      A.D. 1776: Trolls, angered by CmdrTaco's passage of the Moderation Act, rebel. After a several-year flame war, the trolls succeed in seceding from Slashdot and forming the United Coalition of Trolls.

      A.D. 1789: The French Revolution begins with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the Bastille.

      A.D. 1799: Attempts at discovering Egyptian hieroglyphs receive a major boost when Napoleon's troops discover the Rosetta stone. Sadly, the stone is quickly outlawed under the DMCA as an illegal means of circumventing encryption.

      A.D. 1844: Samuel Morse invents Morse code. Cryptography export restrictions prevent the telegraph's use outside the U.S. and Canada.

      A.D. 1853: United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrives in Japan and forces the xenophobic nation to open its doors to foreign trade. ESR triumphantly proclaims that Japan finally "gets it".

      A.D. 1865: President Lincoln is 'bitchslapped.' The nation mourns.

      A.D. 1901: Italian inventor Guglielmo Marcoli first demonstrates the radio. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich immediately delivers to Marcoli a list of 335,435 suspected radio users.

      A.D. 1911: Facing a break-up by the United States Supreme Court, Standard Oil Co. defends its "freedom to innovate" and proposes numerous rejected settlements. Slashbots mock the company as "Standa~1" and depict John D. Rockefeller as a member of the Borg.

      A.D. 1929: V.A. Linux's stock drops over 200 dollars on "Black Tuesday", October 29th.

      A.D. 1945: In the secret Manhattan Project, scientists working in Los Alamos, New Mexico, construct a nuclear bomb from Star Wars Legos.

      A.D. 1948: Slashdot runs the infamous headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." Shamefaced, the site quickly retracts the story when numerous readers point out that it is not news for nerds, stuff that matters.

      A.D. 1965: Jon Katz delivers his famous "I Have A Post-Hellmouth Dream" speech, which stated: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the geeks of former slaves and the geeks of former slave geeks will be able to sit down together at the table of geeks... I have a dream that my geek little geeks will one geek live in a nation where they will not be geeked by the geek of their geek but by the geek of their geek."

      A.D. 1969: Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the moon. His immortal words: "FIRST MOONWALK!!!"

      A.D. 1970: Ohio National Guardsmen shoot four students at Kent State University for "Internet theft".

      A.D. 1989: The United States invades Panama to capture renowned "hacker" Manual Noriega, who is suspected of writing the DeCSS utility.

      A.D. 1990: West Germany and East Germany reunite after 45 years of separation. ESR triumphantly proclaims that Germany "gets it".

      A.D. 1994: As years of apartheid rule finally end, Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. ESR is sick, and sadly misses his chance to triumphantly proclaim that South Africa "gets it".

      A.D. 1997: Slashdot reports that Scottish scientists have succeeded in cloning a female sheep named Dolly. Numerous readers complain that if they had wanted information on the latest sheep releases, they would have just gone to freshsheep.net

      A.D. 1999: Miramax announces Don Knotts to play hacker Emmanuel Goldstein in upcoming movie "Takedown"

      A.D. 2000: On January 1st Microsoft NZ web site is first to announce that they have survived year 21000 bug. Slashdot community rejoices and lots of people swear the new millennium starts next year. ESR agrees that /. "gets it".

      A.D. 2001: Mozilla release is expected during this millennium, although plans are to integrate it with the upcoming linux-2.4.0-test92-pre17-ac3.1-25.9, which would mean a slight delay.

  • I hope that signing the birthday card isn't considered redundant!
  • Slashdot's only been around for 5 years? whoah. I can't believe that I've been reading slashdot for almost the entire life of it. And when I got here there were already plenty of people. Let's hope it still here 5 from now!
  • Friend of mine from SGI casually mentioned slashdot to me when we were having lunch (always tried to sneak past the security to get a bite to eat at the SGI cafe).

    Been a reader since. Sometime later on, I got bored a bit from the quality of the articles and I went over to Kuroshin, but though I liked the idea, the community participation was nowhere near this. And ofcourse, the slashdot effect. Who doesnt like the feeling of not being able to read the article, two seconds after the story get posted ?

    I didnt go for paid subscription..yet. But if there comes a point that Slashdot cannot go on without our support, I would definitely shell out whats needed.

    Most of all, more than slashdot, I love reading the comments (sorry Jon Katz, the average joe here can beat you hands down when it comes to writing with wit). And I am sure, if anyone could make an effort and scour through the countless articles, theres more than enough material here to fill ten books of tech humor.

    The reverence the community has towards its pioneers, the absolute scorn we have for BillG, i have to say this - it is the people who maketh the slashdot.

    Happy Birthday!
  • What do you think is the best /. has brought to you? I mean: why is the site so popular with many people? Is it the moderation system, the layout, the various 'departments' the news always comes from, or CowboyNeal?
  • Thanks for not making this a repeat story ;-)

    Great site guys, this is my favorite site for news and, as posted last month, the best place I found for 9/11/01 information last year.

    Keep up the good work and say hi to "The Don Knots Guy" for me! I miss that troll :(
  • by MarkedMan ( 523274 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:15AM (#4366488)
    Here is a link to the first posting available on the Wayback Machine.

    ALIGN attribute: Wayback [archive.org] It is from Dec 21st, 1997 and talks about how Netscape may be in danger from Internet Explorer. Can CmdrTaco pick 'em or what?

    • I like the way the image alt tag says, "News for Nerds on the Stuff that Matters." Not quite as catchy at that point. :)

    • This Story talks about how the new HTML 4.0 specs are bad for NS because while they are lagging in complaince, IE4 is already almost fully ready to go with the new standard.

      I think I'd spell check the first post made on a new web site.
    • Here is a link to the first posting available on the Wayback Machine.

      Actually this post: SGI releases V2 VRML browser [archive.org] is actually a day older.

      You'll notice from the URL that its article number is 297 and the Netscape/MSIE article is number 304. 297 was the lowest article number to work using that URL format. Also, the oldest previous articles page [archive.org] also lists the SGI article as the oldest listed article.

      My guess is 12/21/97 was the first time they archived the site and either /. hadn't kept a copy online, or there was no active link (or chain of links) from the main site to any older articles for the archive spider to find.

  • whe it went live.
    when the first story that had >100 comments.
    when the first troll appeared.
    when the first post crap started.
    when the hot grits appeared.
    when we were blessed (should I use that word?) with goat-you-know-who..(ICK!)
    when the fist bout of taco-bashing started..

  • We've posted nearly 30,000 stories. Deleted a million submissions.

    Wow, a 3% acceptance rate. Considering the signal to noise ratio in the discussion, that's pretty good!
  • Just wondering how everyone heard about slashdot and got "hooked". I remember I first heard about it during my internship in the summer of '98. (So I guess that makes me a vetran slashdot reader). Anyway, a linux consultant geek came in and showed it to me. When/why/where did you first start reading slashdot?

  • Here is a link to the first posting available on the Wayback Machine. Wayback [archive.org]

    It is from Dec 21st, 1997 and talks about how Netscape may be in danger from Internet Explorer. Can CmdrTaco pick 'em or what?
  • Please excuse me, I'm just an ignorant non-native english speaking buffoon, but what the hell does "jumping the shark" entail, and how did slashdot jump the shark?

    Other than some ridiculous mental imagery (jumping on sharks? eh? *shrug*) I have nothing with this metaphor/proverb/whatchamacallit. Please clue me in.

  • Why do you avoid discussing Slashdot on Slashdot? Are you afraid of getting Slashdotted?
  • by umStefa ( 583709 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:21AM (#4366534) Homepage
    That's Interesting, that corresponds with a slow drop in productivity of the Tech sector...

    Hmmm
  • by md17 ( 68506 ) <james@james[ ]d.org ['war' in gap]> on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:21AM (#4366535) Homepage

    Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door--that way Lumberg can't see me, heh--after that I sorta space out for an hour.
    Yeah, I just read Slashdot [slashdot.org], but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

    Thanks Slashdot! Happy B-Day from all the Peter Gibbon's in this world!
    • This is exactly how my work week goes, except I come in 30-35 minutes late through the side door. I just finished writing 8 lines of code that I had completed in my head at least 8 days ago, and I figure I'm done for the week.
  • How about a series of links highlighting great moments in Slashdot history?

    * The first "First Post"
    * First Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac vs. vi vs. emacs flamewar
    * First post lamenting broken business models
    * First post by Wil Wheaton
    * Posts removed by the Scientologists
    * Jon Katz making sense in the pre-September 11 and pre-columbine world.

    Any more suggestions?
  • I think for keeping Taco gainfully employed she should buy us (each, not collectively, it is cold and flu season) a beer at the next /. meetup in Ann Arbor!
  • by richlb ( 168636 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:24AM (#4366551)
    I started scanning /. about three years ago. I had just started with a new company, and no other company I had worked for previously allowed lowly employees like me internet access. With slow dial-up at home, this data pipe into my work computer was amazing.

    I found /. through some mention in a Canadian magazine I had purchased at an airport. Now, I'm not techno-geek, but I'm also not a techno-phobe. Yes, I have Windows. But yes, I run Mozilla. I'm kind of "middle of the road" when it comes to computers.

    I've always found the content on /. to be at the very least interesting, and at the very most informative and entertaining. I've learned a lot about computers, programming and technology through this site. But I've also learned a lot about law, public opinion and other diverse topics.

    I may have missed the first two years, but I'll read for the next two to make up. Although I may not always agree with /. posters, it's frequently the most stimulating thing I read all day.

    Thanks, /. and the /. community.

    SIDE NOTE -- because of /., I've managed to use a lot of what I read to my advantage. frequently, my coworkers will come to me for problems instead of bothering with our slowwwwww IT dept!
  • You know Slashdot's been around a while when I can look at my UID and feel like a 133t old-timer...:-)

    Well done, everyone -- well done.

  • I guess that makes /. a Libra. . .

    How many years is that in Internet time?

  • by iapetus ( 24050 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:30AM (#4366594) Homepage

    Here's a link to the site [slashdot.org]. Strange they didn't provide one in the article. Perhaps they're afraid it'll get Slashdotted?

  • by Goenk ( 218485 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:41AM (#4366656) Homepage
    The first usenet posting (or at least the first i could find) that mentions slashdot seems to be this one [google.com] dated Nov. 11 - 1997. That seems to be fairly soon after the release IMO.
  • by The Pim ( 140414 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:42AM (#4366663)
    Remember how excited we got about google restoring old usenet archives? It's ironic, then, that old slashdot threads are all but lost. You can find and browse them only with some trouble, and searching is almost hopeless. (Have you ever wanted to find an old post of yours? How successful were you?)

    Early slashdot is just as valuable as early usenet, and I think we need to find a way to make it accessible. Isn't there some NNTP gateway code somewhere? Could slashdot export month-old stories for google groups to pick up? I bet the google guys would even help develop a new protocol if necessary.

    Most valuable of all would be to establish a mechanism that other web discussion boards could use, and encourage them to make their archives available. Imagine the power of all your favorite weblogs searchable through one interface. This would be a boon for users and net historians alike.

  • by pez ( 54 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:42AM (#4366664) Journal
    Who else remembers the days of Chips n Dips? :-)

    As one of the first /. readers, I have to say it's been incredible watching this site grow into what it has become. Congratulations Taco and the rest of the crew; you have not only created a wonderful destination for nerds interested in stuff that matters, but you have also at least in some part created an entire genre of sites. For this, we all thank you.
  • by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:43AM (#4366670) Journal
    Back when I was running Red Hat 4.2. I have 1300 comments (this is 1301). 1300. At approx 1 to 2 minutes per comment that's 20 to 40 hours spent commenting on slashdot. Shit. I want that day back!
  • Thanks goes to the people that puts a golden lining on the internet! Slashdot is the best site in the world for techies that wants to know.

    I wonder just how much Microsoft admires /. and envy it?
  • by Graymalkin ( 13732 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:44AM (#4366685)
    Funny how this appeared just above the "what is the net doing to you" article. That is some perverse synchronicity.

    I don't even remember my first post or when exactly it was I first registered. I used to think having a UID above 10,000 made me a Jonny come lately. Now I'm like the girzzled old man that shoos little kids off his front lawn. Maybe from now on I'll use a hose instead of my cane.

    Windows still sucks, Linux is still in beta, AMD makes chips worth buying, 3Dfx is no more, AOL is spelled EVIL, Apple is cool again, Be is no longer cool (sorry OpenBeOS guys), Netscape is abbriviated EVIL, Internet Explorer still sucks, Lord of the Rings was finally made into a movie, The Phantom Menace blew goats, Natalie Portman is still hot despite her lack of petrification, apparently all my base are belong to someone, the internet is now aplace where evil cool people hang out, being a geek still gets you beat up, slashdot has advertisements, Rob STILL doesn't acknowlege story submitters and user comments as being important in the slightest to the popularity of slashdot, Stephen King has died several times at various ages, and even I have imagined a Beowulf cluster of naked and petrified Natalie Portmans pouring hot grits down my pants.

    It's been a strange five years. If I didn't like the ride can I get a refund?
  • Est. 1997 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Coplan ( 13643 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:51AM (#4366722) Homepage Journal
    Over 2 million First Posts.
    Over 3 million servers stress tested.
    Over 2 million servers successfully slashdotted.

    Welcome to the home of the 1337 H4X0RS!

  • by Hard_Code ( 49548 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @08:51AM (#4366724)
    And now for some deeper analysis, courtesy of the University of Maine [maine.edu]:

    What are 5-Year-Olds Like?
    How I Move:
    • I enjoy activities requiring hand skills.
    • I draw a recognizable person.
    • I am skilled and accurate with simple tools.
    • I can sit still for brief periods.
    • I enjoy jumping, running and skipping.
    • I have adult-like posture in throwing and catching.
    • I have great physical drive.
    • I like dancing, am rhythmic and graceful.
    • I sometimes roughhouse and fight.
    • I am well coordinated.
    How I Think:
    • I am curious about everything.
    • I am ready for short trips into the community.
    • I know my family name and address.
    • I talk clearly about my ideas.
    • I am self-centered about my ideas.
    • I like to be busy making something.
    • I make a plan before starting a project.
    • My attention span is 12 to 28 minutes long.
    • I can carry over play interests for more than one day.
    • I play on a realistic level in dramatic play.
    • I readily use complete sentences.
    • I count 10 objects.

    How I Get Along:
    • I am becoming poised and self-confident.
    • I copy adult behavior and act grown-up.
    • I am aware of rules and define them for others.
    • I play in groups of two to five children.
    • I am less competitive than at age 4.
    • I am sensitive to teasing and get hurt feelings easily.
    • I like the companionship of adults.
    • I have to be right.
    • I am sociable and like to visit.
    • I may get wild, silly and giggly.


    Crafted with love by a fellow slashdotter! :)
  • by wackybrit ( 321117 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @09:06AM (#4366843) Homepage Journal
    My only main quibble with Slashdot is why aren't YEARS SHOWN ON STORIES!?

    It's great seeing 'October 01'.. but what year is that? Why do Slashdot stories not display the year? It's a pain in the ass when you search for an old story, but all you get is the date and not the year.

    Am I the only one who noticed this yet?
  • by Ricdude ( 4163 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @09:17AM (#4366908) Homepage
    As you can see from my user id number, I've been around here for a while. And I didn't even get an account for a while... Anyone with a lower id still around? What do *you* remember from 5 years ago?

    Reminiscing for a minute: Remember when...

    * the Enlightenment window manager was still using DR (development release) in the versions?
    * having to download 50 different graphics libraries to install Enlightenment?
    * the first time someone told you to run "ldconfig -v" ?
    * the first time someone told you to run "rm -rf /, as root" (or similar destructive advice)?
    * a time before GNOME vs. KDE, because there was neither?
    * you were the only kid on your block (in your school, at your job) who knew what an mp3 was?
    * big companies announcing Linux support was a big deal?
    * when XFree86 supported about 10 video cards?

    What else?
  • Oh sure... it's not so unique any more but that's because you guys turned back all the code for the site to the community so there are Slashdot clones all over the place. When I first stumbled across /. it was truly unique. It was the first interactive site I found that gave Linux users a place to come to for news about an OS that back then was pretty much unheard of. And then, miracle of the Web, we could even add to the articles!!!

    "Unheard of in 1997?" you ask. Let me give you an example. In 1997 my daughter was a sophomore at the local community college. In a computer course she was given an assignment to write a report on an operating system that was not made by Microsoft.

    Since I was her Dad... and I had used Linux since 1993, she wrote her report on Linux and I helped her. She did a great job but only received a B. The instructor wrote across her paper, "marked down because Linux is a nonexistent system". The instructor thought she had meant to write the report about Unix and got the name wrong!

    So if we've been pushy here on our forum we have good reason. Even now the rest of the media pretty much doesn't understand the Linux movement. They don't understand the "support" issue (I suppose hiring competent people is too much to ask). They don't understand the technical issues (two MS programmers were once given credit for "inventing" symbolic links). And, they don't understand the social issues (we're a community, dammit!).

    I am proud to be a Linux advocate and a /. user. And I want Slashdot to know it. Happy birthday.

    And thanks. :)

"Confound these ancestors.... They've stolen our best ideas!" - Ben Jonson

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