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First, The kudos to Rob, et al: Way to go. There are very few collabarative discussion groups of this size _anywhere_ which do not suffer from the problems people have are complaining about: excessive noise, moderators "playing favorites", and overworked moderators. You are pushing toward a brave new world. : ).

Even places like Photo.net with similar daily hits to slashdot do not have this sort of borad-based moderation in place... Phil Greenspun, database-backed web design guru, might be interested, in fact.

A few thoughts:

1) Although nothing makes up for the versatility that humans have for moderation, perhaps an adaptive scoring system could be added on: functions like "set score += 1 if post contains 'linux'" or "set score = -10 if post contains 'luzer'" implemented on a per-user basis would be more expensive, but even more valuable than the current system. In this way, the moderators scores could be taken as a base. Those who are happy with the moderators, and only want to make sure they see their own posts at the top have an easy road ahead of them. Likewise, those who feel the moderators are fascist pigs.

2) The scoring system has one strong benefit people do not seem to be mentioning: Conscientious moderators encourage better, and more posting. My goal is clear: Get ratings of 3-4 on all my posts! Additionally, I am more motivated to post knowing that if my post is good, it will reach a wider group of people.

The broad-based scoring implements a small free market economy of ideas: the posters of dreck can continue in their ways, (reaching fewer and fewer people) while those who want a voice will be forced to value their fellow /.'ers time and intelligence.

Thoughts?

Here's a link to an amusing little site (albeit biased) about how Bill made his fortune. Enjoy!

Well, Jon's right on the money as far as his assessment of the available linux books. For a really insightful and occasionally scathing analysis of the state of the computer publishing industry, check out The book behind the book behind the book..., on Philip Greenspun's Web Tools Review.

Well, Jon's right on the money as far as his assessment of the available linux books. For a really insightful and occasionally scathing analysis of the state of the computer publishing industry, check out The book behind the book behind the book..., on Philip Greenspun's Web Tools Review.