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Apparently, if you'd believe the Linux community, you'd be hard-pressed upon where to place the blame. You see, the Linuxist Manifesto's number one rule is to lie to protect the best interests of Linux. No self-respectable Linux zealot would insult or place blame upon AMD, because AMD's philosophy centers around tackling American Corporations with their Asian sweatshops, selling their chips at bargain-basement prices like the Red Menace Commies do with their Wal-Mart shit.

So, right about now, you're probably thinking that the zealots are clearly in a dilemma. Who are they going to blame? If you have a prediction before I tell you, the poll is on the right. Or maybe the left. Either way, take your pick.

You'd think that the parasitic community would place blame upon Microsoft, right? Alas, Microsoft has had the bug patched since September 2000. Not only that, Windows XP , the latest in the suite of high-powered, stable operating systems from Microsoft Corp., has this patch built in. That's right, built in. Keep in mind that Windows XP was released in October 2001, over three months ago. Meanwhile, no one knows what the hell Alan Cocks has been doing since then, since he hides under the cloak of secrecy. nVidia has been informing users via tech support, even to the Linux community, how to fix the problem for months now. Clearly the blame is upon Alan Cocks's shoulder, but to place the blame where it is rightfully justified is inexcusable in the Linux community. The drones are in disarray.

The actual bug occurs when Linux users contract the Tux Racer virus via KEmail. When first run, Tux Racer enables a feature in your third-world sweatshop AMD processor called "extended paging." Now, I know you're probably thinking that this sounds like some sort of Nokia feature. Well, you're wrong. It's yet another feature that AMD illegally hacked from Intel. It allows your browser to seamlessly view pages up to 4Mb in size. Before its introduction in the early days of the Intel Pentium processor, web pages were broken up into 4K segments, because any pages larger would freeze the computer. That's why Microsoft didn't invent Javascript until after the Pentium, every time they went to use it, their pages exceeded 4K, and henceforth froze the computer. Intel came to the rescue with the Pentium line of chips, and, as usual, AMD got out their super high tech Asian hacking tools and "reverse-engineered" (code-name for 'illegally hacked') Intel's technology. Thus, users of the inferior AMD Cyrix Kx86-2 Now! processor could also view large web pages without crashing. So why did no one notice that pages larger than 4K would crash AMD processors? Well, Microsoft has had a fix for 16 months, like we mentioned earlier. But why did no one from the Linux community notice? Well, apparently, there does not exist a page devoted to Linux that is more than 4K in size. Since most of the Linux installations out there denounce color as 'feature bloat,' all Linux pages follow an unwritten oath to suck. Believe me, they all do.

So, for the good of Linux, you may now disperse. Head off to various tech sites and continue blaming Microsoft for not telling you sooner. Your community will thank you.

2002-01-21 15:09:06 Slashdot censorship (yro,slashdot) (rejected)

I suggest this story in light of the past events that took place on Slashdot forum . There is a story on Kuro5hin about this as well. It should come to everyone's attention that there are some issues with Slashdot moderation system as well as other issues, such as story posting. I suggest we discuss these issues in this story post. As a public forum, we can at least try and be civilized and pretend that public means democratic. I believe the stories posted on Slashdot should be voted for by Slashdot users, I think that Slashdot editors should not distance themselves from this community.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

How small will these be in 5 years?

In 5 years they won't even be luggage, they'll be like large wristwatches. In 10 years you'll have them in a ring on your finger. In 15 years you'll need a truck for the electron microscope.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

"What I can't believe is that this issue is taking on a rediculous magnitude. I don't understand why anyone of the staff doesn't say something like 'sorry guys, that was maybe not too kewl, we'll create a permanent thread where you can bitch about /. all you want', or something like that."

Agreed. I think that's what has resulted in this issue gaining such grassroots support. It's because of the fact that the issue was a strong critique of the Slashdot system, and the editors won't even deign down to speak to the mere consumers that pay their rent. The arrogance that they've displayed is just unbelievable. Rather than addressing the serious and legitimate issues raised, they prefer simply to mod the whole thing down with no explanation. When they finally do respond on K5's thread, they do so from a high and mighty horse, full of contempt, apparently offended at the notion that mere readers might attempt to suggest that the system is not perfect and calling them 'idiots' 'who won't contribute anything of value anyways'.

Why is it so damn hard for them just to be willing to discuss the way things are run with the people who are part of the system? And CmdrTaco's arrogance about this site and its readers is also legendary. Is finding people who think they know best for everyone and aren't afraid to let them know a job requirement for becoming an editor? Why is it that the editors are so loathe to talk to their own site's visitors directly on the forums, so that we know what they're thinking?

There ARE somewhat good reasons (though I disagree with them mostly) that they could use to justify what they did, and if they presented one of those, even though I disagree, I would say ok, it's their site. But what really gets me angry is that they respect their customers so little that they won't even respond.

'I was just reading [cnn.com / whitehouse.org / goatpornworld.com] and I saw this interesting article about [hamsters / midgets / lobsters] and thought "hey, that's similar to [The Space Shuttle / Doom3 / Your Mom]", but I just can't WAIT!!!'

Normally I'm interested in game-related stuff, but WHAT the HELL does a Farscape game have to do with anything? More importantly, why does it rank as an article on Slashdot? If I wanted GAME news I'd read a GAME related web site. If this is the direction you want to move /. in, then why don't you regularly post crud about every other game in development?

Oh, you say that you don't want to do that because you're not a game site? Well, duh.

Slashdot used to be full of interesting articles, stuff that was worth reading, but it's really been slipping recently - both in terms of the story selction, moderation and trolls etc.

Mod this how you want, as moderation really doesn't mean anything any more.

They can choose to view them as normal, or at +1 or +2 or -1 or -2 or not at all or whatever.

In your user settings you can set such modifiers for many of the moderation categories, like Offtopic, Funny, Flamebait etc. If you like Offtopics or Funnies or whatever, just give them a high modifier.

Try setting Offtopic to 6. Suddenly you'll find that a certain famous thread has everything scored +5 Offtopic. It looks funny, as if the persistent struggle of the editors modding all that material down were suddenly cancelled.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

• The post that started it all - by negativekarmanow. At the time of this posting, 506 moderations.
• K5 story on this subject
• An explanation by Jamie McCarthy. (posted on K5 for some reason)

And no, this is not offtopic. Read the links before you moderate.

Bart

• The post that started it all - by negativekarmanow. At the time of this posting, 506 moderations.
• K5 story on this subject
• An explanation by Jamie McCarthy. (posted on K5 for some reason)

And no, this is not offtopic. Read the links before you moderate.

Bart

Get your free ads on the scoop homepage! All you need is an easy to set up user account!

How many times do us in Australia have to say this...

This is Slashdot. You'll have to repeat it forever.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

this wouldn't be such a big issue, except that most people had the notion that it was a user-moderated forum. having editors monkeying around when they get results they don't like is akin to rigging the system.

secondly, the hypocrisy of the editors to go crying "CENSORSHIP!!" is so transparent when the editors act like petty dictators on their site.

It's amazing that thread is still getting posts and still getting modded up only to be slapped down again is indicative of how disgusted many users are about these shenandigans.

The irony here is just ridiculous.

There was a good discussion, replete with examples, about Chomsky putting ideology ahead of fact on a smaller (but very good) weblog called kuro5hin.org. Here's the link:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/10/19/204933/33

For best results, sort by score.

This post and the throttling the original poster gives to his challenger really undermined my trust in Chomsky's authority.

There was a good discussion, replete with examples, about Chomsky putting ideology ahead of fact on a smaller (but very good) weblog called kuro5hin.org. Here's the link:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/10/19/204933/33

For best results, sort by score.

This post and the throttling the original poster gives to his challenger really undermined my trust in Chomsky's authority.

The topic is Slashdot's moderation system. The original post is here and the discussion continues over at kuro5hin. See also Jamie's post @ kuro5hin.

The topic is Slashdot's moderation system. The original post is here and the discussion continues over at kuro5hin. See also Jamie's post @ kuro5hin.

I troll, and many of the comments you'll see in my history are full of lies-yet many also make points valuable enough to justify +5 ratings. While trolls and offtopics may not fit the editors' desires they are the way to generate interesting discussion and get people to start thinking. That's why I post misinformation and flawed logic, to make you think about why it's flawed, and by debunking it clarify the truth.

This is a goatsex link. Now let's pour some hot grits down our pants to celebrate this thread!

Slashdot is abusing its unlimited mod points to keep censoring this ENTIRE THREAD!

Even kuro5hin noticed it!

This might be offtopic, but it is important to do something about it!

I implore you, fellow slashdotter, to mod this up so that our voices might be heard, and so that the admins might finally reply to it instead of just shutting down our voices!

No, I would not be impressed since it's routine for me -- as I mentioned I learn languages for fun. And no, you can't get much translated fast, unless you're thinking of routine translation of simple user manuals and such things. Scientific literature is vastly different. And in addition to this difficulty, the quality requirements are also vastly higher.

If you tried it yourself for just a short while you'd see. You might buy an issue of the German edition of Scientific American and see how fast you can translate to English. Then consider translating Nature and Science, which are much thicker and present material that is much more difficult to translate. Then consider getting all the specialized publications translated in medicine, surgery, astronomy, computer science, geology, mathematics, physics, paleontology, chemistry, meteorology ...

Don't forget the logistics and economics of printing and distributing the material every month.

Then there's the books.

Of course you'd divide the load. In fact you'd need to divide it among quite a few universities in each local language region. Many don't even have one.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Hey everybody, we're at Score -1 here! This is the cellar, this is slimy -1, this is the sewer! This level is for page-lengthening posts, for goatse.cx, for Taco-snotting. What makes you think you can post interesting and insightful and funny posts down at this level? No wonder you get modded offtopic.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

This post is relevant, and on topic.

Hey Mods, you may want to check out this post for a little insight between your legs.

Hey Mods, don't forget what everyone else already knows about you. Try:

Plastic.

k5.

This post is metatopic. Mod as will

This post is relevant, and on topic.

Hey Mods, you may want to check out this post for a little insight between your legs.

Hey Mods, don't forget what everyone else already knows about you. Try:

Plastic.

k5.

This post is metatopic. Mod as will.

certain replies

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.

But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.

When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.

Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.

Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.

From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."

Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.

A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.

You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.

Well, that's just my take on the matter.

The world of Linux is far more complex than the world of Microsoft, for many reasons.

And that somewhat chaotic complexity is part of the beauty snd strength of Linux.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

If Red Hat becomes part of Big Mainstream Media, this leaves a sort of vacuum, room for a new independent company similar to Red Hat. If somebody founds such a company, Linux can eat the cake and still have it.

Even without such a company, the independence isn't lost. There's lots of room for both mainstream and independence. Linux is strong -- and getting stronger.

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Many people here have made and interesting observation about the journal's that Jamie has pointed out. Journal's aren't easily viewed or found. There really should be a quick and easy links provided on the slashdot frontpage that take you to the ten most popular or most active journal's. Yeah Slashdot also has a way to add your own SID but how is anyone going to find it? Again maybe a link to most popular user created SID's.

I have a suggestion for everyone who doesnt like the /. moderation system (which seems to be a large percentage of the userbase), its the topic of this post in fact. Leave. I did it years ago (late 99 IIRC) and apart from the odd time I've followed a link back here (always going "yup, its just as shit as it used to be") I've never looked back. The moderation system isnt going to change. If Rob & co actually gave a flying fuck they would have done something years ago. All this shit over their moderation system is probably helping them no end. Everytime you post, mod, complain or whatever your generating more page hits, more ad views and putting extra load on their servers. They (or at least OSDN who does the /. ads) can then go to advertisers and go "look how popular this site is!!". They are probably scared that if they actually bothered to fix the moderation system and make all you guys happy then those stats would drop which would be detrimental. Either that or the "editorial" crew gets off on seeing all you lot whine so much.

Anyway, everyone please leave. All you crapflooders, FP'ers, penis bird copycats and all the other subcultures that have evolved here, just leave. This site is a wasteland, its been a wasteland for years now. Back when it had just started (before they had user accounts, I remember the controversy when they appeared) it was kinda fun and once in a while you actually saw something accurate, but now its just shit. So everyone leave en masse. You'll feel much better about it after a couple of weeks or so, I promise.

--
Nick
Time for another smoke methinks...

Actually, this is why I usually leave comments off when I use slashdot. The political correctness abuse is horrible. I suggest you try kuro5shin for a (usually) non troll/non political enviroment, or Adequacy for a more troll/offtopic friendly enviroment.

If your pupils are real geeks, your most important piece of equipment is a filter to make Slashdot and pr0n unavailable, else there's no way you can get their attention.
-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

If your pupils are real geeks, your most important piece of equipment is a filter to make Slashdot and pr0n unavailable, else there's no way you can get their attention.
-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Here's a quote from a Slashdot editor commenting on this thread:

If you're so dumb that you post off-topic comments and think it's horrible, evil censorship when they get moderated off-topic, then great, please leave Slashdot. Go away. I'm serious. You're an idiot and you won't contribute anything of value anyway.

So that's how they value their readers, that's how they value this massive readership concern for Slashdot.

Read the entire comment and its responses. (It's over at Kuro5hin of all places. Why not on Slashdot?)

The funny thing is, I don't even agree with the post that started this. Moderation has flaws, so what? Editors can edit, so what? Nothing new there.

But there's a massive readership interest here! The editor's response to this massive interest is ridiculous. The editors themselves are doing the damage. If offtopicness is the problem, just put the damn subject on the front page! Then we'd have a discussion that is ontopic! With the readership interest that we see here, any professional journalist would do that. Journalism thrives on controversy, including debate on its own practices.

So why don't they put this on the frontpage? Ridiculous.

I suggest you put a link to this thread in your sig. It's interesting, it's worth discussing. And sigs aren't modded offtopic. (I think they aren't...)

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Here's a quote from a Slashdot editor commenting on this thread:

If you're so dumb that you post off-topic comments and think it's horrible, evil censorship when they get moderated off-topic, then great, please leave Slashdot. Go away. I'm serious. You're an idiot and you won't contribute anything of value anyway.

So that's how they value their readers, that's how they value this massive readership concern for Slashdot.

Read the entire comment and its responses. (It's over at Kuro5hin of all places. Why not on Slashdot?)

The funny thing is, I don't even agree with the post that started this. Moderation has flaws, so what? Editors can edit, so what? Nothing new there.

But there's a massive readership interest here! The editor's response to this massive interest is ridiculous. The editors themselves are doing the damage. If offtopicness is the problem, just put the damn subject on the front page! Then we'd have a discussion that is ontopic! With the readership interest that we see here, any professional journalist would do that. Journalism thrives on controversy, including debate on its own practices.

So why don't they put this on the frontpage? Ridiculous.

I suggest you put a link to this thread in your sig. It's interesting, it's worth discussing. And sigs aren't modded offtopic. (I think they aren't...)

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Here's a quote from a Slashdot editor commenting on this thread:

If you're so dumb that you post off-topic comments and think it's horrible, evil censorship when they get moderated off-topic, then great, please leave Slashdot. Go away. I'm serious. You're an idiot and you won't contribute anything of value anyway.

So that's how they value their readers, that's how they value this massive readership concern for Slashdot.

Read the entire comment and its responses. (It's over at Kuro5hin of all places. Why not on Slashdot?)

The funny thing is, I don't even agree with the post that started this. Moderation has flaws, so what? Editors can edit, so what? Nothing new there.

But there's a massive readership interest here! The editor's response to this massive interest is ridiculous. The editors themselves are doing the damage. If offtopicness is the problem, just put the damn subject on the front page! Then we'd have a discussion that is ontopic! With the readership interest that we see here, any professional journalist would do that. Journalism thrives on controversy, including debate on its own practices.

So why don't they put this on the frontpage? Ridiculous.

I suggest you put a link to this thread in your sig. It's interesting, it's worth discussing. And sigs aren't modded offtopic. (I think they aren't...)

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

Here's a quote from a Slashdot editor commenting on this thread:

If you're so dumb that you post off-topic comments and think it's horrible, evil censorship when they get moderated off-topic, then great, please leave Slashdot. Go away. I'm serious. You're an idiot and you won't contribute anything of value anyway.

So that's how they value their readers, that's how they value this massive readership concern for Slashdot.

Read the entire comment and its responses. (It's over at Kuro5hin of all places. Why not on Slashdot?)

The funny thing is, I don't even agree with the post that started this. Moderation has flaws, so what? Editors can edit, so what? Nothing new there.

But there's a massive readership interest here! The editor's response to this massive interest is ridiculous. The editors themselves are doing the damage. If offtopicness is the problem, just put the damn subject on the front page! Then we'd have a discussion that is ontopic! With the readership interest that we see here, any professional journalist would do that. Journalism thrives on controversy, including debate on its own practices.

So why don't they put this on the frontpage? Ridiculous.

I suggest you put a link to this thread in your sig. It's interesting, it's worth discussing. And sigs aren't modded offtopic. (I think they aren't...)

-1 Interesting ... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.

From QuickFox, even though I'm using a different nick.

Even in Swedish universities, fluency in English is required because of the literature. The reason quoted by the universities is the literature. This happens even though Sweden is among the richer Western countres and has extensive literature in most fields.
Certainly you can have all the basic schoolbooks in many local languages, and a lot of additional material too. But you can't have translations of every detailed study on every exotic bacterium or every unusual transistor tunneling effect.
Note that "literature" includes periodicals, they are essential.
The amount of scientific and technological literature is quite staggering.

I could never do the work that I do if I couldn't read English. Impossible.

Because of the extremely large volume of the world's scientific and technological literature, translating major parts of it to several thousand local languages is unfortunately not a realistic proposition.

-- It looks like I may perhaps not be able to continue this discussion, for reasons that I find quite interesting. Slashdot tells me:

"Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email jamie@mccarthy.vg."

And me such a serious guy. The reason seems to be
these

four

posts

of mine.

(There's also an interesting
Slashdot's editor's comment posted at Kuro5hin of all places.)

Amazing. I don't even agree with the original post. Anyway, now I'm using workarounds to try to post this anyway, that's why I have a different nick. Let's see if it works.

Well, if it ends, our discussion would have to end some day anyway. It's been interesting discussing with you. Have fun.

Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.

I'm not fond of Oracle. In fact, they may even be as sinister a corporation as people say. I wish they would own up to their failures. But so far at least they are not guilty of censorship.

Jamie: Of course we're not censors. We're only doing this to posters who are "off-topic".

MPAA: Of course we're not censors. We're only doing this to programmers who violate our copyright.

Ahh, the Great Karma Massacre of 16-01-2002. A day, my friends, that will incoporate and mingle with the folklore and history of this famous arena.

The day we learned the terms "Threadslap" and "Postslap".

The day the slashdot world learned of the all-powerful god-like powers of the editors. The day we learned these Slash Gods were not benign masters - like our beloved Tsorvalds - but more malignant, totolatarian entitites, with control-freakerish tendencies.

Who did it? Taco? Michael? Not Jon Katz, surely? Maybe CowboyNeal?

Yes, maybe the editors are rightfully wary of naval-gazing. Keeping things on topic - Science, technology, computers. But surely any organisation needs a certain level of feedback, interaction with customers and clients, re-direction of stratagies and goals.

I dont believe a huge overturn of the moderation system is required. If you change it, people will still complain. What I do have a problem with is negative inteference from the slashdot editors when anyone stands up to criticise them or their beloved system.

A breif history, for the uninformed:

In the beggining

And then news hit - elsewhere...

Then, the thread got bitchslapped to -1, by some evil SlashGod

And now, the Troll's first real campaign since Goatse...

Burning Karma to protect the rights of slashdot users everywhere since 16-01-2002

I am getting so annoyed at this. Everyone *thinks* that this was done by normal moderation means. I *know* it wasn't.

There were multiple posts, about 20 or so, just discussing the moderation system. They were scored between -1 and 5. I was refreshing the page about once every three minutes. It takes time for a post's moderation to change - moderations aren't done all that often. Then *BAM*, every post went to -1. In just a couple of minutes (a single page refresh). It wasn't until someone posted something that couldn't be bitchslapped to -1 for being offtopic (it was ontopic) that the 'users' had to keep this thread in check by hand.

The problem is, it now *looks* like it was moderated down using the standard moderation system (you know, those 5 points they give you). It *wasn't*.

Still don't believe me? -- Jamie admits modding offtopic posts with unlimmited mod points

It's made it to the front page of Kuro5hin.org - check it out here.

Under "Freedom & Politics" no less. It'll be interesting to see if we get a response from the editors now...

-Mark

Ahh, the Great Karma Massacre of 16-01-2002. A day, my friends, that will incoporate and mingle with the folklore and history of this famous arena.

The day we learned the terms "Threadslap" and "Postslap".

The day the slashdot world (and others)learned of the all-powerful god-like powers of the editors. The day we learned these Slash Gods were not benign masters - like our beloved Tsorvalds - but more malignant, totolatarian entitites, with control-freakerish tendencies.

Who did it? Taco? Michael? Not Jon Katz, surely? Maybe a new /. poll is in order?

Yes, maybe the editors are rightfully wary of naval-gazing. Keeping things on topic - Science, technology, computers. But surely any organisation needs a certain level of feedback, interaction with customers and clients, re-direction of stratagies and goals.

I dont believe a huge overturn of the moderation system is required. If you change it, people will still complain. What I do have a problem with is negative inteference from the slashdot editors when anyone stands up to criticise them or their beloved system.

Burning Karma to protect the rights of slashdot users everywhere since 16-01-2002

Thanks. Nice link.

For those of you reading at +2, nested or whatever, the parent to this post provided a real nice link.

Check it.

Burning Karma to protect the rights of slashdot users everywhere since 17-01-2001