Slashdot Mirror

In Geeknet's financial results last quarter, ThinkGeek's revenue is growing and looks like the most profitable part of the business. The media sites (Slashdot, Sourceforge, and Freecode), on the other hand, are producing less than 1/3 of the revenue of ThinkGeek and are decreasing. So it looks like Geeknet is trying to focus on the more profitable pieces and extract whatever value it can from the media sites (dumping Slashdot to focus on Thinkgeek).

As to what it mean for Slashdot, I think we'll just have to wait and see.

According to http://investors.geek.net/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=697536. Group Revenue for 2012-Q2 is $23.1M.

Is the summary about your own company wrong?

his name goes to his geek.com email address.

Actually.. it's geek.net, ie the company that owns slashdot
http://geek.net/

Geeknet Inc.

Actually if you did own Geeknet stock now would be a very good time to sell if you think that the stock will tank. It is when a stock has already lost a lot of it's value that you would be glad you didn't own any, not right before it loses it's value.

http://investors.geek.net/

But there is no way that Slashdot will call attention to this in a regular story:

http://investors.geek.net/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=672629

Excerpt:

FAIRFAX, Va., May 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Geeknet, Inc. (Nasdaq:GKNT), the online network for the global geek community, today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the Company and its advisors to explore strategic alternatives with respect to its online media business, including the SourceForge, Slashdot and Freecode websites. The Company and its advisors will evaluate a range of options to maximize shareholder value, including, but not limited to, a potential sale of the Company's online media business, investing additional capital to expand the online media business, or other possible transactions involving the online media business.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120510/MM05555LOGO)

Ken Langone, Chairman and CEO of Geeknet, stated, "After much discussion, our management team and Board of Directors have decided to begin a formal review of our media business to realize the full potential of these valuable assets and maximize shareholder value. With more than 46 million total unique visitors last month, our media properties have a large community of engaged users and we are committed to creating the best online experience for them."

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this source in any way; just a very satisfied user.

Check out the free EULAlyzer which can be downloaded from: EULA Research Center. EULAlyzer works on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and 7.

Example: I took a look at the Privacy Policy for /. which is located at: Geeknet Privacy Policy . "(Last Updated February 29, 2012) (Effective Date May 24, 2008)"

EULAyzer summarized as:

"Details: The license agreement above has a high calculated Interest ID. It's rather long, and there were a high number of detected 'interesting' words and phrases."

The "Flagged Text" Called out the following, each of which can be expanded:

• Advertising
• Privacy: ID Number
• Privacy: Web Bugs
• Promotional Messages
• Third Party
• Web Site Address
• Without Notice

Each of these are expandable. Each expanded item provides an "Interest Level" graph and a link to its place in the License Agreement Text.

PS: I've lurked on /. since before there even were UID numbers, but privacy concerns delayed my signing up. I'm quite frankly surprised at how extensive the policy is and that just shows me how much has changed since the olden days. I should probably check other on-line site's policies to see what's new there, too.

This sounds pretty slippery to me, not sure how often it changes, I never even looked at it before:

http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

Geeknet, Inc. comprised of the internet sites Geek.net, Sourceforge.net, Slashdot.org, ThinkGeek.com, and freecode.com (the "Sites"), provides the information and services on the Sites to you, the user, conditioned upon your acceptance, without modification, of the terms and conditions of use applicable to such Sites. Your use of any of the other Sites constitutes agreement with the terms and conditions of use set forth herein (the "Terms"). Before using Geeknet Sites, please carefully read this agreement relating to your use of Geeknet Sites. By using Geeknet Sites, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, please do not use Geeknet Sites. Geeknet reserves the right, at Geeknet's sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms periodically. Such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified agreement to the website unless provided otherwise (e.g., when implementing major, substantive changes, Geeknet intends to provide users with up to fourteen days of advance notice). Your continued use of the Geeknet Sites following the posting of changes to these Terms will mean that you accept those changes. Use of Geeknet Sites constitutes full acceptance of and agreement to the Terms; if a user does not accept Geeknet's Terms, he or she is not granted rights to use Geeknet Sites as defined herein, and should refrain from accessing Geeknet Sites. Geeknet reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any or all Geeknet Sites (or any part thereof). Geeknet shall not be liable to any user or other third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance except as expressly provided herein.

Like I said in my post you're trolling (stalking me as ac as usual on your part - so 'courageous' of you, lol (not))?

Per my subject-line, that's an awesome point!

(Now, whether the rest of girlintraining's post is TRUTH or not? It doesn't affect me adversely either way, but it was indeed, interesting (and things like that do happen)... so, I take it @ face value).

* After all - it's not like girlintraining's trying to sell me the brooklyn bridge here... & when you get your license to practice psychiatry, then, you're not guilty of libeling me (which is again, breaking the law).

APK

P.S.=>

"BTW, what's up with you and trannies? First you had a thing for tomhudson, now girlintraining. Trying to tell us something Alexa? - by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12, @03:18AM (#39323951)

Who said girlintraining's a tranny? I never saw that.

Plus, tomhudson pulled the same crap you are on me now, stalking/harassing me by ac replies, AND, telling others to do so with her/him:

"Wait until he starts on another kick, then reply to him as an AC. It's the new meme". - by tomhudson (43916) on Sunday May 09 2010, @08:29PM (#32150544) Homepage Journal

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1646272&cid=32150544

"HOWTO: trolling the hosts file guy in one easy step The next time you see a post by him, just reply anonymously. And to really mess with his head, reply anonymously to your anonymous post, disagreeing with your first anon post (extra points if you claim in the second post that you're him - that REALLY sets him off). He'll accuse you of being me by tomhudson (43916) on Saturday April 16, @01:38PM (#35841122) Homepage Journal

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2086424&cid=35841122

"if you're going to tell this guy to stop spamming his hosts file crap, make sure you do it anonymously by tomhudson (43916) on Saturday April 16, @12:45PM (#35840680) Homepage Journal

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2086920&cid=35840680

That's breaking the rules here on this website's use-policy in fact:

---

SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

---

Especially doing as tomhudson did, by inciting others to do so as well as breaking laws in 'stalking/harassing' others online (plenty of fools like yourselves are obviously either mentally troubled, or juvenile kids) - in fact?

You're doing JUST what tomhudson said to do, stalking/harassing me by ac replies, & this has been going on for months, to what avail? None - other than you're looking like some sick nutcase...

... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk/b

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

FROM -> http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... proofs are all here:

You spent 8 hrs. trolling n stalking apk yesterday here http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39307779

You even started with "shut the fuck up hairyfeet" here (stalking as ac as usual) http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39308499

(And everyone has seen how you think apk = hairyfeet in those links too.)

The other link by hairyfeet himself also actually proved he's not apk here where you also accused hairyfeet of being apk http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2559120&cid=38298896

Who's the mental case here? You, clearly.

I also saw you say you can't see ac replies there too http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2717169&cid=39309981

and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

2. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

By using Geeknet Sites, you warrant to Geeknet that you will not use Geeknet Sites, or any of the content obtained from Geeknet Sites, for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use the Geeknet Sites automatically terminates

your SourceForge Content is not obscene, lewd, lascivious, excessively violent, harassing, libelous or slanderous,

your SourceForge Content does not endorse or promote racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual, and does not discriminate, incite harassment or advocate harassment of any group or individual;

http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

APK

P.S.=> Stalking & harassing hairyfeet, myself, and doubtless others makes you guilty vs. the above, as well as your threats on my phone#, where I live, etc. a couple posts back... and stalking & harassing others online IS against the law not just here, but the REAL law... end of conversation, sleep well if you can for the next few 'whatever' you only did this to yourself... apk

It takes retarded exaggerations and steals our comments.

It only steals them if you post as AC. Otherwise the remain your comments, freely posted, and ultimately your own responsibility, and they appear here because you GAVE them to Slashdot, not because they stole them.
Step away from the keyboard and nobody gets hurt.

But I do understand your example of "retarded exaggerations". *cough*.

http://geek.net/privacy-statement

ENFORCEMENT

In the event Geeknet becomes aware that the security of a Site has been compromised or userâ(TM)s personally identifiable information has been disclosed to unrelated third parties as a result of external activity, including but not limited to security attacks or fraud, Geeknet reserves the right to take reasonable appropriate measures, including but not limited to, investigation and reporting, and notification to and cooperation with law enforcement authorities. In the event of a data breach, Geeknet will make reasonable efforts to notify affected individuals if Geeknet believes that there is a reasonable risk of harm to the user as a result of the breach or if notice is otherwise required by law.

If a user has comments or questions about Geeknet's privacy statement, please contact:

Email: legal@geek.net
Telephone: 1-877-Geeknet (877-433-5638)
Fax: 703-839-8611

APK

P.S.=> Guess who just got sent an email, & got a phone call as well, with your "Alexander Peter Kowalski was raped" post here -> http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2619084&cid=38693866 & you posting my address & personal information here without my consent too? apk

Why should I be the one submitting patch there? Slashdot has full-time editors and coder(s) working on the site. They turn in a hefty sum of cash every month too, especially considering their advertisement rates. Slashdot makes enough money to improve this site by themselves.

oddly enough their support forum is called "Community Support Forum"... shouldn't that be "Proprietary Support Forum" now?
http://www.scientiamobile.com/forum/

Also, Scientiamobile itself is in breach of SourceForge's Terms of use (they use SourceForge for file distribution!) because the Terms state:

http://geek.net/terms-of-use
"Except as otherwise expressly permitted by these Terms, any Code submitted to SourceForge.net must be licensed to Geeknet and other licensees under a license that is: compliant with the Open Source Initiative ("OSI")'s Open Source Definition (http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd) or certified as an "OSI-Approved License" (http://opensource.org/licenses)."

imho, the license that they are using now is in COMPLETE VIOLATION with sourceforge's terms.

i already submitted an abuse report with sourceforge for this... but i'm not sure if only one abuse report is enough

Here's a little more information from our legal folks:

A: Earlier this year, we went through a pretty robust process to receive our Truste certification which covers privacy, security and safe harbor (our privacy policy is located at ADD LINK). We are continuing to look for ways to improve our security controls and protect user personal information. We did fully disclose an incident early in 2001 and the details and what we did about can be found at: http://sourceforge.net/blog/sourceforge-attack-full-report/

They also recommended that I point you to our corporate privacy policy, here: http://geek.net/privacy-statement

I think most of your post is probably spot on.

However, according to Geeknet's latest quarterly statement, ThinkGreek's revenues and margins held steady from the previous quarter, and are notably higher than last year.

I think most of your post is probably spot on.

However, according to Geeknet's latest quarterly statement, ThinkGreek's revenues and margins held steady from the previous quarter, and are notably higher than last year.

What is the point to this change? Obviously, to generate additional income for /.

What is the benefit for the users? There's currently nothing stopping virtually anyone from creating an account and adding their 2 cents.

What is the benefit for the queries? Currently, the accepted questions are necessarily broad, to be of interest to more users. Is this change going to lead to a (few/lot/googolplex) more queries being accepted, or to the existing volume of published queries getting more actual expert responses (IAAL, IAAMD, IAAEE, IAADBA, etc)?

According to their most recent quarterly statement, Geeknet as a whole is still losing money, albeit at a much slower pace than last year. Their gross margins are up, and they seem to have kept operating expenses steady. I guess we'll see if the added "media revenue" gets them over the hump without unduly pissing off existing readers.

You don't need to click on the banners. Most sites are being paid by impressions, not clicks. This includes Slashdot too.

Just once I'd like to see a "corporation". What do they look like? Are they tall? Short? Fat? What language do they speak? Where do they live?

"Corporation" is like "they". When you don't have an argument for anything, you just blame it on "They" or the "Corporations".

Corporations are people, private individuals, working together towards a common goal, producing and selling a product. You bitch about Corporations polluting, you are really bitching about individuals doing their jobs. Don't like trucks? Don't blame the corporations, blame UAW. They are the fuckers building them.

Sure, it's easy to blame a faceless entity, but I dare, you. Go up to a UAW worker and tell them they are polluting the planet and will be the cause of untold suffering. I bet you'll get to keep some of your teeth.

BTW, Slashdot is owned and run by a "corporation", Geeknet Inc.

Just because you know Google's ads and AdSense doesn't mean you know the whole online advertising business.

But instead of just talking without actual facts, why not look at what GeekNet (Slashdot's parent company) offers. For example Slashdot seems to be offering Standard Display advertisement, which is based on CPM (ad views) that go up to over $100 per 1000 views. Clicks doesn't matter. Then there is Poll Advertising, which costs $50000 a month, and Powerswitch, exclusively designed for Slashdot and goes at $90 per 1000 views. But don't let the facts get in your way.

Just because you know Google's ads and AdSense doesn't mean you know the whole online advertising business.

But instead of just talking without actual facts, why not look at what GeekNet (Slashdot's parent company) offers. For example Slashdot seems to be offering Standard Display advertisement, which is based on CPM (ad views) that go up to over $100 per 1000 views. Clicks doesn't matter. Then there is Poll Advertising, which costs $50000 a month, and Powerswitch, exclusively designed for Slashdot and goes at $90 per 1000 views. But don't let the facts get in your way.

Just because you know Google's ads and AdSense doesn't mean you know the whole online advertising business.

But instead of just talking without actual facts, why not look at what GeekNet (Slashdot's parent company) offers. For example Slashdot seems to be offering Standard Display advertisement, which is based on CPM (ad views) that go up to over $100 per 1000 views. Clicks doesn't matter. Then there is Poll Advertising, which costs $50000 a month, and Powerswitch, exclusively designed for Slashdot and goes at $90 per 1000 views. But don't let the facts get in your way.

Just because you know Google's ads and AdSense doesn't mean you know the whole online advertising business.

But instead of just talking without actual facts, why not look at what GeekNet (Slashdot's parent company) offers. For example Slashdot seems to be offering Standard Display advertisement, which is based on CPM (ad views) that go up to over $100 per 1000 views. Clicks doesn't matter. Then there is Poll Advertising, which costs $50000 a month, and Powerswitch, exclusively designed for Slashdot and goes at $90 per 1000 views. But don't let the facts get in your way.

Here's what you agreed with when you used /.

http://geek.net/privacy-statement
http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

"Web beacons

Geeknet uses web beacons from time to time. Such web beacons may be provided by Geeknet’s third party advertising companies to help manage and optimize Geeknet’s online advertising. To opt out of targeted advertising delivered by Network Advertising Initiative members, click here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp ... "

Here's what you agreed with when you used /.

http://geek.net/privacy-statement
http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

"Web beacons

Geeknet uses web beacons from time to time. Such web beacons may be provided by Geeknet’s third party advertising companies to help manage and optimize Geeknet’s online advertising. To opt out of targeted advertising delivered by Network Advertising Initiative members, click here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp ... "

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. Geeknet, Inc.

Since when have legitimate businesses allowed transactions with anonymous people? If you want my stuff, you have to pay for it, and I have to know to whom to send the stuff, and the banking system has to know whose account to debit before it can credit mine. Illegitimate businesses will continue not to require ID.

Your objection is nonsensical.

BTW, you're in agreement with a TOS you've probably never read by posting on /.

You're exactly right on popular != profitable. Has 4chan ever made a profit? Or for that matter, does slashdot? (ducks for cover)

Slashdot a.k.a. Geeknet a.k.a. Thinkgeek? Yeah.

And for the matter I'd imagine the ads on Slashdot are quite lucrative to a company wanting to reach our niche, so they probably pull a profit on their own.

I'm not reading your post. I'm reading Geeknet's retransmission of your post, which does not carry those terms. You agreed to their terms when you posted.

If I were actually bound by your terms, I could sue to have the objectionable items (probably all except deleting from the computer) nullified.

the more garbage I read on Slashdot the more I realize the teenagers who are dominating it today are not the teenagers of 20 years ago who were hacking in assembly on their Commodore 64.

I don't think there's that many teenagers reading Slashdot, compared to a few years ago. Only half the readers here are under 34, and the advertisers don't even bother to give the under-18 figure source.

There are plenty of "at my work" or "at my college" posts, but not many "at school" ones.

How do you differentiate a DDoS attack from the usual slashdotting of a web site?

From a legal perspective you would consider intent and authorisation - at least, you would under English/Welsh law, specifically the Computer Misuse Act 1990. For this law to apply, the action must be unauthorised (or the accused unaware whether or not it is authorised) and the accused must intend to prevent or hinder access to some computer system.

The authorisation thing is a little tricky as general website use is a murky legal area (due to the web growing up without lawyers pawing all over it) - in a recent High Court case here, it was held that merely visiting a website could count as copyright infringement if the person browsing wasn't following the Terms and Conditions (even though they required visiting the site to see... yes, that doesn't make any sense to me either). In this case, the T&Cs of a website were found to be legally binding and the idea of an "implicit licence" was rejected by the court. As such, to not fall afoul of the Computer Misuse Act in terms of authorisation, there would need to be T&Cs on the site that specifically authorise /. ing, but not DDoSing.

Interestingly, /.'s Terms of Service (well, GeekNet's) - by which we are all bound - prohibits unlawful use (in section 2), but in this case, this would mean you couldn't know if /.ing or DDoSing was unlawful unless it was unlawful, which could lead to much fun for lawyers...

Having re-read your post, it occurs to me that you were probably asking from a technical perspective, in which case my answer is completely irrelevant. Damnit, I'm turning into a lawyer...

Really? And it ships for android tomorrow? Fascinating. Almost a coincidence.

I hope he wasn't too anonymous, and that Slashdot is able to cash the check he sent along with his submission...

Calm down, I'm sure it was just a random Slashdotter submitting an innocent link.

This site was established as a personal blog for whatever shit Rob Malda (CmdrTaco) found interesting or relevant. The fact that it's mostly technology stuff is purely because Rob Malda is a nerd, like most of the rest of us. But that doesn't mean it all has to be technical stuff.

Whatever Rob Malda's intentions were when he started this site nearly 14 years ago is of little relevance now. Rob doesn't own the site. Geek.net is the owner and it is managed by these people. Since Geek.net is a public company we can see exactly what they think Slashdot's purpose is. I quote from their latest annual report filing:

Slashdot serves technology professionals and technology enthusiasts with timely, peer-produced and peer-moderated technology news and discussion. Slashdot's lively and robust on-line conversations and interactions leverage its innovative comment and moderation system. Slashdot served 3.8 million unique visitors in December 2009.

That is what the owners and managers of Slashdot say the purpose of Slashdot is.

Legal stupidity is interesting and relevant to all of us, because you never know when this brain rot is going to affect you directly, through no fault of your own. Just because it's not a case involving computers doesn't mean a thing.

I know what you are saying, but there is enough legal craziness to fill a web site all on its own. I think it's important that we pick the stories that would be relevant to us, not just those that are sensationalist. For example, look at the original story. It gives a broad overview and that's it. There's no investigation and no discussion of the judges decision or why he or she might have ruled they way that they did. It's just newspaper filler.

Where a site like Slashdot could easily add value is to look up the case in PACER, preferably using a tool like RECAP for Firefox so that the public documents are then automatically uploaded to the Internet Archive. That would make the court documents available to everyone for free enabling all of us to read the judge's decision and rational as well as see what case law was cited for the decision.

The discussions on Slashdot are one of the site's strengths. Having this little extra bit of information would allow us to examine the real story behind this case and have a meaningful discussion about it. There are several practicing lawyers that post on Slashdot and they may be able to offer insight into the case. Instead, we can only argue about it from a position of ignorance and supposition. I don't get much value out of that, and so I and others complain. We complain because we care. We like Slashdot and want to see it improve. If the Slashdot team were willing to add this extra value then it's something I would gladly pay for.

More likely Slashdot does not undersand Web2.0.

Slashdot is a good old Web 1.0 site where users were not considered a monetiseable item. 10 years ago selling the personal information of your userbase was an anathema. Today selling your user information and extracting maximum value from them is the main and often only business goal of any site. A lot of web 2.0 outfits have no other function and no other business plan but to collect personal preferences (the more intimate the better) and sell them.

I only there was a way to extract information from /. users.
Maybe with a poll...

Tell me arivanov (12034)
Do you typically read about __ books per year?
1. 0 to 10
2. 11 to 20
3. 21 to 30
4. 31 to 40
5. 41 to 50
6. 50+

While you're at it, could you tell me... your level of job satisfaction, how 'smart' your cellphone is, the # of employees in your workplace, what kind of camera you use, how many LED lights you can see before you go to bed, how many icons are on your desktop, how many pieces of snail mail you get per day, the mileage of your car, the size of your display, and about 800 other details of your life?

These polls brought to you by Slashdot.org, a subsidiary of Geeknet, Inc.

if this is a slashvertisment for CougarLife

I dunno, but Slashdot's stereotype isn't a bad target demographic for the site. Perhaps they should buy a poll and see what their conversion rate looks like.

When Slashdot and Advertisements come together... Slashvertisements!

Nonsense, why anyone can submit a story to Slashdot!

It's not just social networking sites though. Virtually ANY site you use has one of these clauses, collects personal information about you that you expect to remain private. It's getting to the stage where if you want to use the internet (a large portion of it), you have to agree that the website can do whatever the hell they want with your data, even though they said they wouldn't.

Take slashdot for instance:

From http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

Geeknet reserves the right, at Geeknet's sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms periodically. Such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified agreement to the website unless provided otherwise (e.g., when implementing major, substantive changes, Geeknet intends to provide users with up to fourteen days of advance notice). Your continued use of the Geeknet Sites following the posting of changes to these Terms will mean that you accept those changes.

From http://geek.net/privacy-statement

Geeknet reserves the right to update and change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If Geeknet makes material changes to its privacy practices, a prominent notice will be posted on this web page. Each time a user uses the Sites, the current version of the Privacy Statement applies. Accordingly, a user should check the date of this Privacy Statement (which appears at the top) and review for any changes since the last version. If a user does not agree to the Privacy Statement, the user should not use the Sites.

It's not just social networking sites though. Virtually ANY site you use has one of these clauses, collects personal information about you that you expect to remain private. It's getting to the stage where if you want to use the internet (a large portion of it), you have to agree that the website can do whatever the hell they want with your data, even though they said they wouldn't.

Take slashdot for instance:

From http://geek.net/index.php/terms-of-use/

Geeknet reserves the right, at Geeknet's sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms periodically. Such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified agreement to the website unless provided otherwise (e.g., when implementing major, substantive changes, Geeknet intends to provide users with up to fourteen days of advance notice). Your continued use of the Geeknet Sites following the posting of changes to these Terms will mean that you accept those changes.

From http://geek.net/privacy-statement

Geeknet reserves the right to update and change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If Geeknet makes material changes to its privacy practices, a prominent notice will be posted on this web page. Each time a user uses the Sites, the current version of the Privacy Statement applies. Accordingly, a user should check the date of this Privacy Statement (which appears at the top) and review for any changes since the last version. If a user does not agree to the Privacy Statement, the user should not use the Sites.

That's pretty much boiler plate for any EULA or TOS. Here is Slashdot's version:
Geeknet reserves the right, at Geeknet's sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms periodically.
And that's in the first section of the TOS.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/address.html

http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/address.cfm

http://geek.net/about/contact1/

Trollin or just lazy? All are clearly accessible and informatively labeled.

Its all about taking 30secs to 2 mins to find it.

Google:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/address.html (Google.com - About - Offices)

Yahoo:
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/address.cfm (yahoo.com - Company Info - Our Address)

Slashdot (Geek Net):
http://geek.net/index.php/about/contact1/ (Copyright Notice at bottom - About Us - Contact Us)

Fabulis:
Requires a manual search of various records or articles to locate. And I've hit my 2 minute maximum attention span for a comment post, CLOSE THEIR ACCOUNTS! I COMMANDS IT!

Ahem.

cheers.