Slashdot Mirror
Letter to the Community on Andover/VA Merger
The letter from Larry Augustin and Bruce Twickler:
The Internet is the original free software application. This has been repeated so often we can easily think of it as an empty truism. It's not. It's a rich, vital, and growing truth that still defines the way Linux companies do business today.
Linux flourished because it was born into the Internet world. This was a world of global, instantaneous communication, a world in which a developer community could explode from dozens to hundreds in a matter of weeks, and from hundreds to millions within a few years. That vibrant community made possible the incubator we know now as the open source development model.
But Linux also flourished because the Internet into which it was born was a small enough place for Linus' voice to be heard. The Internet of 1991 had fewer developers. Those developers had little difficulty finding each other.
Today's Internet is a vast place. Whether it will be a vast resource or a vast obstacle depends on our ability as developers to organize. We need a place to bring people together, to enable developers to find one another. But to call it a portal greatly understates the challenge. We're aiming for nothing less than the hub of services that accellerate and empower the next generation of open source development. We need a gathering place to:
- enable open source developers to reach one another
- create the forums where the open source model will evolve
- define and proclaim our values as a community
- drive open source to the cutting edge of future software develoment
Bringing together Andover.net with VA Linux's Open Source Infrastructure Business Unit gives us a great opportunity to empower open source's most important community sites. We are also bringing their story full circle. Themes, Freshmeat, and Slashdot each started as community sites run on an all volunteer basis. We're giving them an opportunity to work together once again. More than that, we're giving them the resources to play an enduring central role. By bring Andover together with VA, we're assuring the future of these important community sites.
This group is a separate business unit, because it will live independently from VA's core systems business. VA has proven this can be done in Linux.com and SourceForge today. Andover too: Slashdot never stopped running articles about SourceForge even while Andover was building Server 51. What matters to the community gets covered, regardless of where it comes from.
In this new structure, the VA sites will plug into the Andover management team, and the whole group will report to Larry Augustin directly.
We're here to serve the open source community. Period. If we ever fail or fall short in that mission, please don't hesitate to remind us. Thanks in advance.
Larry Augustin, CEO, VA Linux Systems (lma@valinux.com)
Bruce Twickler, CEO, Andover.net (bruce@andover.net)
Trolls flourished because it was born into the Slashdot world. This was a world of global, instantaneous communication, a world in which a flamebait community could explode from dozens to hundreds in a matter of weeks, and from hundreds to millions within a few years. That naked and petrified community made possible the incubator we know now as the karma whore development model.
But Trolls also flourished because the Slashdot into which it was born was a small enough place for MEEPT!s'' voice to be heard. The Slashdot of 1998 had fewer flamebait posts. Those first post trolls had little difficulty finding each other.
Today's Slashdot is a vast place. Whether it will be a vast resource or a vast obstacle depends on our ability as karma whores to organize. We need a place to bring trolls together, to enable flamebait to find one another. But to call it a portal greatly understates the challenge. We're aiming for nothing less than the hub of services that accellerate and empower the next generation of karma whore development. We need a gathering place to:
Bringing together Andover.net with VA's Infrastructure Business Unit gives us a great opportunity to empower the trolls most important community site. We are also bringing their story full circle. Natalie, Grits, and First Post! each started as community trolls run on an all volunteer basis. We're giving them an opportunity to work together once again. More than that, we're giving them the resources to play an enduring central role. By bring Andover together with VA, we're assuring the future of these important community trolls.
This group is a separate business unit, because it will live independently from VA's core systems business. VA has proven this can be done in Trolls.com and Slashgrits.com. Andover too: Slashdot never stopped receiving posts about Open Source Man even while Andover was building Server 51. What matters to the troll community gets posted, regardless of where it comes from.
In this new structure, the VA trolls will plug into the Andover management team, and the whole group will report to Larry Augustin directly.
We're here to serve the karma whore community. Period. If we ever fail or fall short in that mission, please don't hesitate to remind us. Thanks in advance.
Larry Augustin, CEO, VA Trolls Systems (lma@vaTrolls.com)
Bruce Twickler, CEO, Flamebaait.net (bruce@flamebait.net)
seen any mention of CopyLeft on slashdot ever since andover bought ThinkGeek? i rest my case.
Well I saw the word "empower" but I didn't see
"synergy". I'd give it a 50, Dick.
Your PHB
I post occasionally... just statistically very rarely. I've posted over 4000 stories, but less than a thousand comments.
But I get a bonus point when I post. Haha. Its my little reward for writing all this damn code ;)
This morning my Karma was 32. Now its 36. I whored myself up 4 karma this way. Muahahahahahahah!
(The reality is of course that this story means a lot to me. My usual reply to 'do you post comments' is no... unless I'm qualified. On most subjects I'm simply not... but on this one, well. I'm probably the most qualified person in this whole damn discussion to talk about Slashdot and how it will be affected by the merger ;)
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
VA won't change Slashdot because changing it would hurt it. Hurting it would hurt their standing in the community. Leaving it *alone* gives them a revenue stream via selling ads... plus the added bonus of supporting yet another community project.
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
that's really funny. I like that line - I'm going to have to appropriate it.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Excuse me for being skeptical, but do you have any evidence for your claim?
And just to irk you I'm going to Karma whore this comment too. Try logging in sometime you'll like it. Don't worry we won't tell anyone that you're behind the microsoft.com firewall and using IE5 to browse here.
The "go read something else" comment is not just my feelings but just about everyone at Slashdot who has to deal with flame mail telling them that they sold and Slashdot is controlled by big business and yadda yadda yadda. Now obviously it is counter productive for us to piss off our audience and make them leave, so we aim to please but from this side of the fence I can't help but speak up when I see people ranting about the Andover mothership sending signals to Slashdot's brain implants telling them what stories to post. It's not the way it works, and if things do start to go in that direction due to business pressures then you won't be seeing my rants posted anymore because I will stop reading this web site, and delete the bookmark and I will let management know that they have ruined a good thing. From here within the mothership I don't see that day coming anytime soon. If you think that day is already upon us well whatever, it's really not up to us, it's up to the Slashdot authors to make this site interesting, that is what they are paid to do.
In short we provide the infrastructure to keep these sites running and grow.
>For instance: What about the advertising? Will Slashdot and Freshmeat
:) ]
>still accept (under reasonable terms) advertising from VA's
>competitors?
[Gee, I don't have to toss off disclaimers when I post as an economics professor rather than a lawyer
They really don't have a choice in this type of industry. Look at televesion. When the big 3 networks still dominated, it made sense to stay separate--If NBC ran an ABC ad, NBC would lose about half as much as ABC gained, making the price of an ad prohibitive (since NBC would need to cover its losses).
Now look at the world with most people having cable. Cable stations regularly advertise on one another--the station running the ad gets the revenue, but only a small fraction of the people watching the advertised program would have been watching that station anyway, so the loss is minor.
The web is closer to the second situation. Yes, VA could lose sales from a competitor's ad, but the lost sales get broken up among VA, IBM, Dell, etc.
[Note: this is not Microsoft bashing!] On the other hand, if Microsoft bought andover, it would make economic sense (though violating antitrust law) not to take adds for Red Hat, etc.--each copy of Linux shipped preinstalled due to the add would pretty much mean one less windows sale.
Yes, thereis the common ownership. But you regualrly see adds that cross it, or ads for cable on broadcastchannels, etc.
Then again, there's the Disney channel, which is a 24/7 infomercial for the Disney Empire, which breaksfor 34-40 minutes of programming/hour
Now the up-to-date slash code is (finally :-) available, there is no way anything can stop /. from existing. Yeah, the site at slashdot.org could die, and Rob/Hemos/JonKatz/whoever might stop writing for it, but that wouldn't matter too much. Rob et al. put a lot of work into it, but I think /. was mainly the result of a web site being in the right place at the right time. If someone (VA/Microsoft/whoever) took this site down, another one would spring up very quickly, particularly since it is obvious that you can actually make money doing this, as well as having fun and serving the community.
Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
As far as clicking through for the good of the supporters, I think that you should maybe redirect your good natured visiting to the community projects we'll put into rotation.
Chris DiBona
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Promoting OSS and the community in general boosts VA's bottom line. You see, it's in their best interest for OSS software to succeed.
;-P
1) General PR boost for sure.
2) VA doesn't just sell hardware. They also deal with SUPPORT. Lotsa free software, and they can offer charge support.
3) They consult. They consult *BIG* time. They offer solutions using software that's free to them, and pretty much just rake in the cash for doing so.
They do have something in it for them, it's just not as simple as, get paid for doing this. It indirectly affects their other sources of income.
Example. They'll probrably be one of the first vendors to release an IA64 system, simply becouse of their funding of IA64 capabilities in the Linux kernel. No one paid them to do it, but in the end, they make alot of cash for it. They also get looked at as the 'experts' in the areas.
It's all in the residuals, man..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Slashdot is still an independant entity, and will always remain so. They can't just 'change' or 'eliminate'. It'd be breach of contract. Now, I'd love to see a copy of this contract, becouse yes, there has to be something in there for them, but based on what Rob & Hemos have said, they can't change slashdot.
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Ever since Andover bought Slashdot, the quality of the articles and of the comments have dropped dramatically. Perfectly valid and interesting stories are being rejected in exchange for stories relating to Linux and Microsoft. There would be at least 100 comments in the 0 and -1 range.
:)
The only change I've noticed is that there've been far fewer quickies posted (which is a shame; I liked those). Whatever changes you may have noticed aren't Andover's fault anyway; they have no editorial control, remember?
The server's performance has also slowed. It would be frequently be down and would take a long time to get any sort of HTML back from them.
Here, you have a point. However, the reason behind that is the same reason for the increase in trolls. Slashdot's simply getting more famous, and because of that more "good" people are coming on, but so are more "bad" people. Slashdot is by definition Slashdotted every day, but as the crowds keep getting bigger even Slashdot's servers won't be able to hold up forever. That's when it's time to get new ones, and Slashdot will be getting those anyway.
Geez; eventually Slashdot will probably have to run on a Beofulf cluster of servers
If VA gives Slashdot some servers and some more bandwidth to host it on, and at the same time help with making the environment over here cleaner, then go ahead. Otherwise, I think both Andover and VA have overstated their welcome, and Slashdot should split off from the combined company and run indenpendently, just like the old days.
VA is giving Slashdot new servers, and I'd imagine more bandwidth too. But how can they make the envorioment cleaner? There are ways to do it, but no one here at Slashdot seems to want to take those steps.
And Slashdot is rune more or less independently anyway. Come to think of it, I can't figure out what Andover ever got out of the deal, besides being able to say that they'd bought Slashdot.
The whole idea behind editorial independence is that advertising and editorial are unrelated. So I'm not worried about Rob and Jeff suddenly becoming VA 'stooges' - I trust them to keep the site's content on target and fair. I expect they will show bias towards some stories, that's inevitable with humans deciding what gets posted. But I think that the bias will be the same personal bias they have already (Rob'll post anything about Pete Townshend, for instance - and Jeff is a nano nut. And expect more AIBO stuff).
Advertising is a different case, but if VA wants revenue they'll take ads from all comers, including Copyleft and Penguin Computing. Because if they only take ads from VA and ThinkGeek, they're not affecting what we read per se, or the editorial side of Slashdot at all. They're only affecting the ad sales folks, and VA's overall revenue. Remember, they serve ads at semi-random, with Adfu (last time I checked). Unlike the dead tree publications, there asn't really any association of ads with stories. If I load the same page twice, I'll get two different ads. If I open up PC Week to the same page twice, I get the same Microsoft ad each time.
Think about it, folks - it really just means more money for VA if they take ads from all comers, and less if they don't. But that's not Slashdot's problem until and unless Rob and Jeff leave (and even then it may not be an issue) - and then some Slashdot clone'll pop up and take their place immediately if Slashdot itself goes down the chute.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
That's the big problem with embracing a religion, rather than embracing "the best".
Uhh, choosing always to embrace the best is a religion.
--
Ian Peters
Unless /. were run by robots and had no ISPs to offend, it has always had constraints. If they hadn't sold to Andover, they'd have to be their own business managers and would have had less time to handle the geek side of /., so the Andover buyout preserved the geek side of /.
/. to stay static, never changing. You'd guarantee the geekiness and lose the future. You'd lose relevancy as the world changed, and /. would become worthless as a resource.
/. equivalent for the telegraph age that refused to change when the telephone came in.
If you think the Andover buyout was teh beginnig of the end, then you must also want
Imagine a
--
Infuriate left and right
I wish they would use Oracle, and then maybe they wouldn't have to flush all the past stories and comments (i.e., the whole database would be searchable). I would imagine the reason they do that is that MySQL is not known for scaling up to large databases.
Unfortunately, Slashdot probably feels they need to use Open Source no matter what, even if that means using inferior software. That's the big problem with embracing a religion, rather than embracing "the best".
Interestingly, MySQL is not open source.
--
bgphints - internet routing news, hints and ti
I remember back when you could suggest that something be changed or mention something you didn't like without someone throwing a fit at you from the parent company to go read something else.
<RANT>
And I remember back when you could come to Slashdot without the posters throwing a fit about the integrity and honesty of the people running the place after every little thing they did.
These complaints are neither suggestions to change or even just mentions of things disliked... they're full out attacks on the guys at Slashdot because they decided to sign on to a larger mothership so that the wouldn't have to stand in line at the unemployment office or bag groceries.
I mean, I see all manner of conspiracies and garbage about how Slashdot is under mindcontrol now, but I don't see the evidence. "Watch and see what stories *don't* get published," I'm told. Well, what the hell kind of evidence is that? There are hundreds of stories the mainstream press miss every day. Blah blah blah...
What it comes down to, I often think, is that these guys are making money and you're not. What's wrong with making money at something you've done right. Yeah, yeah, you were here in the beginning and where's your check. Well, sorry, you didn't start the site, you didn't maintain the site, you didn't have the idea, and you didn't take all the flack. I think these guys deserve what they got.
And as for Slashdot getting warped by the mothership-- don't you think that if that happened in any real noticeable way, that it would sink in a week's time, if not sooner? Live by the open community sword, die by it.
And if you can agree with that, don't you think that *possibly* someone at Andover and now VA might realize that? And if you can agree with *that*, don't you think that the people who bought the site might want its value to continue to be valuable, even if they're greedy bastards (not saying they are)? And if you can, finally, agree with that, why should Slashdot change for any other reason than that the guys in Holland, MI want it to?
</RANT>
Great to see a non-profit organization do so well for their bottom line ;?.
Seriously folks, Linux is BigBinis(TM) now. This is not your happy home hacker OS anymore. You all may say 'oh but it's open still,' and you would be right, but that's not the issue. The suits are reading Slashdot.ORG reading sites that have some open app development and think 'how can I make money off this?' And they are; and...they...are...
Believe it...
So what are your happy home hacker OSes? GNU/HURD, OpenBSD and a few others in the background. FreeBSD and Linux are now officially suit fodder.
What's my point?
Don't be suit groupies...
David Letterman used to really rip on General Electric when they bought NBC. He would call them pinheads, and quite a few Top 10 lists bashed GE, albeit in a somewhat humourous way ("They new guy invented a longer lasting lightbulb - lets kill him"). Perhaps this will be the same situation.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
slashdot.com isn't really being used for anything, it only redirects to www.liason.com.
Bah. Can you say "cybersquatting"? I think we should encourage andover to sue. This is *not* like the etoys case.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Yeah. Ten years ago, eh? That was about the time they ruined it (IMHO) by making too complicated with all that [sys0.syscommon.syswhatever...] clustering stuff.
The classic version 4.2 was the best I reckon. Smooth and simple. Running on a big bulky VAX 11/750 with a couple of huge RA81 drives. You could fry your breakfast on those mothers!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
A buyout *is* a merger. It's virtually impossible for two companies to have identical valuations, so one company is always larger than another. Stock from one company is swapped with another and sometimes cash is paid as well.
/.?
This was not a *hostile* takeover and the board of both companies approved the merger. Board members from both companies will exist on the new company.
Why aren't you screaming everytime someone refers to the AOL/Time Warner merger? Or virtually every other merger reported on
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
Simple,
;-)
VA wants to develop server platforms and other hardware. This costs a lot of money. Let us be fair, they are too small to get that money from hardware sales and services only if they remain with the current size. See SGI (who actually owns a stake in VA) example with Visual Workstation. So their only chance to achieve their objective is to get bigger.
In order to do that they need investor's money. In order to get it they need a portfolio that will attract investors. So no cutting slashdot and freshmeat loose. Forget it.
Why don't they do this? You tell me.
Told ya
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Andover bought Slashdot, the quality of the articles and of the comments have dropped dramatically.
/. got more popular, it attracted it share of trolls and whiners. /. for quite a long time now, and I haven't noticed much of a difference in the content. Sure their tastes have changed slightly, but I don't remember any massive change since the Andover announcment. What I HAVE noticed is an abundance of whiners that came here somehow expecting that every story would interest them, then going off and bitching everytime someone posted a story that they didn't think belonged here.
First off, I would love to hear the logic behind the conclusion that Andover somehow made comments worse. I would say that as
Second, I've been reading
Perfectly valid and interesting stories are being rejected in exchange for stories relating to Linux and Microsoft.
Hate to spoil your illusions, but this site has been running storied about Linux and Microsoft since it's birth. Perhaps we WANT to see stories about Linux and Microsoft. Perhaps that is why it's so popular...
The stories were interesting and valid to YOU, and perhaps others as well, but the maintainers of this site didn't think so, and chose other stories instead of them. You will just have to live with that kind of disapointment in your life, as NO news service reports EVERYTHING it gets.
The server's performance has also slowed.
Or perhaps the site has gotten more popular and the server has been dishing up more content? Nahhh, there must be some conspiricy. I'll be Andover.net forced them to move everything over to old 486s so their CEO could have all of Rob's server hardware.
Slashdot should split off from the combined company and run indenpendently, just like the old days.
Since you seem to remember the old days so well, could you please enlighten me as to what has changed so drastically that you take exception to?
Finkployd
I agree with most of what you have stated, but I would submit to you that slashdot has NEVER been completly without biases (indeed, I don't know if anything EVER has been). Rob and Co. have always had their own agendas, interests, and beliefs. This is not a bad thing, in fact it has made slashdot what it is today. They have always defended some companies and groups, and I have yet to see them do anything inconsistant with they way they operated before (ie, some inexplicable about-face on some issue)
Finkployd
Will slashdot move to a .COM domain? It has been a long time since slashdot could claim to be a non-commercial organization.
He made a point to sell slashdot to a non-linux company... specifically rejecting VA, so I understand.
And, no matter how much he says that he has a solid contract, people are now going to be questioning the integrity of his site, and of him personally, because of this.
VA probably won't make money directly with this "fusion" of the open-source world. However, VA does make money off of open-source software. So, anything they can do to help make that software better improves their business.
Juiced? Or Not?
So they responded with a letter from the head(s) of the corporation, and if you read some of the posts, you'll notice that Hemos, Chris Debona (who went to bat for all of us at the DeCSS fiasco in California), and others are posting to continue in that same voice of assurance. And from my point of view, the quality of those assurances doesn't sound like they're trying to put us back to sleep -- they are offering intelligent commentary on the reasons why they don't want things to change either.
Other posters talk about how the positive values held by a company trickle down through the whole workplace environment, and yet at least half of the posts so far in this thread continue to whine about the perceived changes, how /. will never be the same, etc.
Get a life folks, and try for once to start the day with a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude). Change is the nature of the universe, and /. is/not cannot be simply a mouthpiece for a single company -- because for the most part, we are the voice of this community.
Unless someone has a better suggestion for how to let /. continue to grow (including bandwidth, etc.), than to have corporate ownership, quit whining, okay?
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
You own nothing.
In fact, you own less than nothing.
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
Ever since Andover bought Slashdot, the quality of the articles and of the comments have dropped dramatically. Perfectly valid and interesting stories are being rejected in exchange for stories relating to Linux and Microsoft. There would be at least 100 comments in the 0 and -1 range.
The server's performance has also slowed. It would be frequently be down and would take a long time to get any sort of HTML back from them.
If VA gives Slashdot some servers and some more bandwidth to host it on, and at the same time help with making the environment over here cleaner, then go ahead. Otherwise, I think both Andover and VA have overstated their welcome, and Slashdot should split off from the combined company and run indenpendently, just like the old days.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
Ever thought of switching to Oracle as the database engine? I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard it's being used in several large Internet portals to great success. It's not free howerver :(
:)
If VA gives you a raise you can go ahead and buy it for Slashdot. Slashdot using Oracle if very unlikely, as it's closed-source and I know how everyone goes nuts at closed-source products.
Just my 2 cents
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
.. with the cable advertising analogy: The ownership structure of cable channels differs fundamentally from that of traditional broadcast (VHF 2-13 in the US mostly) channels in that many cable channels share common ownership. So, seeing an ad for, say, TBS while watching CNN isn't really a case of CNN's management accepting an ad from a competitor - it's all Time Warner. They may have some internal accounting thing where "money" moves, but it's not a competitive relationship from management's point of view.
I can't recall an instance of seeing, say, an ad for an ESPN program (Disney) during, say, a segment of CNN/SI (TimeWarner).
The ads that local cable operators can sell may subvert this a bit as they'd see anything that promotes more viewing as a plus - I don't know - in my area, TW owns the local cable operator too so I wouldn't see this behavior if it exists.
Besides, Stallman foresaw all this years ago. Folks would figure out how to do Open Source as a business model, and start making money at it. Now people like you get your shorts in a twist because people are actually making money doing what it is they wanted to do all along.... This is not wrong, this is called success.
More power to'em.
Not just your browser. Also check Kit's user info. He's posted 5 comments or so in the past few weeks, and all of them started, and ended (so far) with +4, with no moderation attached.
It's a bit suspicious. I dunno. Paranoia paranoia paranoia.
To the comments that +6 is a bug, it's not, per se. There have been other +6 comments in the past (only 1 that I can remember) and the user preferences page specifically mentions the possibility of -2 (or lower) posts. So -5s are also quite plausible (Lots of people just keep moderating down the same post).
But....what about this one? +4, with no reason?
It seems unlikely. The other ones were the result of extreme moderation on each end, this one seems to have absolutely no explanation behind it.
I know it's quite easy to set this up (it's a single modification in a mysql table), since I've given myself an automatic +51 on my own slashsite before. So someone explain it to me. Does he have access to the slashdot mysql tables? It's not modifiable through backslash (at least not in the distributed slash code), and as far as I can tell, it really does require access to the MySQL server.
Is Kit Cosper a l33t haX0R?!
Or was he given access to the tables? Or did Rob&Crew just give him 4 by default?
Somehow I doubt a VA employee would be exploiting a bug, if one even exists.
Just my thoughts...
-Ed Fisher
this
Let me start by saying THANK YOU for reading and responding to a comment. (actually, you may always read--but there's no way for us to know that if you don't respond). You need feedback frm us to know how the site is working, but we also need feedback from YOU to know that we make a difference.
As for the specific items:
1&2) Editorial control. I note that you DON'T say whose idea Roblimo and Emmett were. I'm sure you guys will have veto power as provided in your contract, but as others have pointed out that doesn't preclude bias.
3) No, I DO have less of a guarantee. Corporate-ownership has ruined many a good thing in the past, therefore there is reason to doubt that corporate-ownership in the present case will be a good thing. Without out something to counteract that doubt we feel more uneasy. A guarantee is only as good as the holder feels about it.
4) It will be interesting to see what (if any) difference there is among how you'd like Slashdot run, how VA would it run and how it actually ends up running. I urge you to think long and hard about how equitable your relationship with VA is (or any owner for that matter). This applies especially in the case were you are an independent business unit. The question boils down to: "If we're so independent, why do they want to own us?"
--
Java banners:
Bad for users because Java kills Netscape
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
So Larry and [Insert Andover Drone's Name Here] have a "vision" of how "the community" should work, eh? Great. And if it doesn't work out that way, what happens to Slashdot? Or what about if their "vision" changes (or gets clouded by money)?
Let's face the facts here: Slashdot is a business unit. If that unit doesn't serve it's purpose, it will be changed or eliminated. The current (stated) purpose is as a forum. What happens when the (primary) purpose is to make money? Or advertising?
Sure, Slashdot has a contract to keep "editorial control". Has a lawyer looked at this contract? Does the contact guarantee that you get to choose the editors? (for instance, where did Roblimo and emmett come from?)
Most importantly: what contract/guarantee do we have that our interests are being served?
A better plan, IMO, is for VA Linux to spin-off Slashdot into it's own business. That keeps the media out of the hands of the corporations as it should be. If they (or anyone) is concerned about how Slashdot will support itself, they (or anyone) can contribute money to a (blind) fund. This solution is fully compatible with the letter we just read, so if the plan is rejected we know there are ulterior motives.
--
Java banners:
Bad for users because Java kills Netscape
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
Advertising revenues.
They may not be able to control what is posted, but they do own the site, and they will make money from that little banner ad at the top of the page.
LL
"If you are falling, dive." -Joseph Campbell
.
+&x
In short, the reason Slashdot has "changed" is because the authors interests are changing.
/. expands and gets aquired repeatedly it seems as if new "editors" or whatever you call them keep getting added. Who gets added after VA takes over?
/. has lost its editorial independence, at least in theory. You said it yourself "Times are changing", /. has moved beyond unbiased story posting. CT even mentioned it in the Andover takeover, paraphrased "We wanted to sell out to a non-Linux company." Too bad Andover didn't have the same sense of independence.
Aren't the authors also changing? I saw something posted by ?HeUnique? the other day. As
And you just showed one of the problems about ranting, freudian slips..
I case you haven't noticed there have many things posted here that upper mamagement would rather see posted but what can they do about it?
I'm guessing you meant to put a "not" in there somewhere...
The simple fact is that
Until I see strong evidence (quite a bit more than AC postings) of problems I won't let it bother me and I'll still reload, if only to add my voice to the cacophony of crap that eventually lead to some decent discourse. But you guys aren't media virgins anymore, you've been around, you have stock options on the compaines you report about, they also pay you monthly.
At the very least we in this country should have learned to be suspicious about where we get our news and how much to trust it. Now I just have to add another level of b.s. detection and hope you guys fight the good fight.
+&x
As an investor, let me assure you that I'm quite pleased. VA's revenue streams now include hardware sales, advertizing and e-commerce through Think Geek. But that's not the important part. The reason I'm an investor (and that I keep kicking myself for passing up The Letter) is that they're doing all of the right things to build the community. They're trying to be the next Sun Microsystems, and just take a look at what Sun's done over the last 10 years....
Personally I think this guy has got it right, not for the content, he could have raved about Natalie Portman or ranted about M$ (well, he did) or whatever, what he has done, perhaps in not the nicest way but certainly one of the most convincing, is assure me that people at Andover are human, they're people, they rant, they act like kids, just like me sometimes (possibly right now :/
The point is, they're not out to rule the world any more than I am. Actually, thats a scary thought. They're probably out to rule the world less than I am. They're young, probably idealistic, certainly in this case, and therefore not likely to swing for the "whatever it takes to get money" etc garbage that the world-weary find all too easy.
The most confidence a company can give me is that they're just like me. I know what to expect then.
You can't win a fight.
It's an advertising thing.
We're a growing community of geeks with decent income. Most of us are probably able to afford systems from VALinux, so, I bet their plan involves us seeing how well the VA systems work for our favorite website.
You don't see people going crazy like this when Compaq donates many machines to schools and libraries.
Have Taco and Hemos screwed us over in the past? No. If they do, then we have every reason in the world to badger them, but until then, lay off. Give them a chance.
The bonus applies to anyone with a karma over like 25. (I have it, but don't use it usually, I'm using here to show you that I have it too even though I work for a company unrealted to either company.) It is not any kind of special perk.
Myddrin
When she whines, everybody hears it. And Mom and Dad are none to happy with you.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
I can really understand concern about this change -- there are already reporters such as Andrew Leonard over on Salon (who has been a good friend to open source) who believe that at least the appearance of editorial independence has been permanently compromised.
But I can understand some other things as well. Slashdot has always basically been the web site that Rob and Jeff and friends have kept going with bailing wire and Perl for similarly minded crazies. As one of those crazies, I have always tried to be a little grateful to the guys for letting the rest of us come in and play too.
It is very easy for the average slashdotter (many of whom are students) to urge: "Don't touch that Evil Money -- stay pure and poor, just like the good old days!!!" I know no better way to kill something that to try to prevent it from changing. Some of the most pathetic "sights" on the net are those whining that USENET, or GOPHER or whatever is just not what it was and is being "ruined" by all the changes that the newbies bring (I have lived through the imminent death of USENET about three times now) that we need to ACT NOW! to "save" it. Anything you can save by keeping it fron changing is only good for taxidermy.
Slashdot (along with the grits, MEEPTs, firsts, and Natalie Portman) continues to evolve, and the bridge crew here has to evolve as well and make the best lives for themselves that they can -- and that is what we are talking about here. Jeff and Rob and so forth risked their own resources and time to get this thing started, and it is up to them and their buisiness partners to work things out the best they can. So cut them (just a little) slack, OK?
And at the end of the day, the future of Slashdot is not really up to them, it it up to us. If Slashdot ceases to be independent, we'll know fast enough -- things generally aren't that subtle. The slash tarball is available, there are more than one or two Perl hackers around and we haven't run out of bandwith or IP addresses yet. If it is time to move on, we will find somewhere to go, or build it ourselves, in good open source fashion. Just like many of us moved from USENET to here.
And then there are you guys, who are a part of the community. You can be quite churlish at times (see the whole "I smack bitches who mail asking for source" thread ;-), but you guys do go "into the trenches" to answer our questions (witness now).
:-) :
My greatest (and pretty much only) complaint related to slashdot has to do with the incompotence of whomever was responsible for the webcast of the beanie awards
I wish you'd had 3 camera guys at the Beanie awards. Your camera director needed to be faster on those transistions, you needed to get the robot a microphone, and you needed to have better instructions to the men.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I'm remineded of a few days ago when a certain slashdot bug which let the img tag through (and led to image trolling), led to a lot of -5s.. More than 45 comments were below -1 ;-)
Another time was when someone had a +6 remark, back in December. Perhaps a burp on the part of one of the webserver's ram chips, or a genuine influence?
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Nuts to you. Linux.com's layout is horrible. You have to learn that eye-candy, content, and layout are often mutually exclusive. If you want some semi-linear layout that has downright insanely large amounts of graphics, you'd end up pissing off a fair portion of the audience and nuking Rob's bandwidth. He and Hemos wouldn't be able to apt-get their Debians (or some such)!
If you really want to get look at HTML 2.0, go stair at some cardboard. It has the proper colourant, and remember that images and tables and such did not exist then.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
- Many of the stories posted are neither news, nor do they matter. Particularly compared to the things that get left out to make room for the stuff that doesn't matter.
There are one or three really interesting things throughout the day. The- Of late it seems that
/. is about the last place to publish a story. So even when it would otherwise qualify as "news" and it really does matter, it's old news by the time you see it on /.
As head count goes up, so do comments, story submissions, scalability problems, etc. If you don't like it, leave.- Stories with massive inaccuracies, incorrect/broken links, misspellings, mind-bogglingly poor usage of the language. Or just down-right incorrect usage.
I stopped picking on people's grammar and spelling about the same time I grew up. Maybe there's a correlation? Really. This is nitpicking of the worst sort. It is not beneficial, nor will it help Jeff's language skills. As for broken links, you can get some free karma by fixing it for those who can't figure out how to fix it.- Slashdot performance, well... sucks. Poor response times. Site just not responding for minutes or tens-of-minutes at a time.
*cough* 1,000,000 page views / 24 hours -- that's 695 page views a minute, or 12 page views a second (aprox). If you consider that a page view requires loading of several images, plus database queries, etc, you'll see why this happens. It's going to get better as VA Linux helps sponsor- Of course:
/. could lower its load a bit by turning the default for comments back to "Threaded" from "Flat." Thus obviating the need for those of use who don't see the need for a /. "account" from having to hit the machine twice every time we go to comments. (Gotta wonder who came up with that idea.)
Oh, god. Not an "account" -- you might get "karma" or be able to filter the stories, and fix other things you've been bitching about. Gee, if you weren't able to complain about- The so-called "moderation" system, well... sucks. Geek/nerd/hacker wanna-be types
It works well enough that your (mostly spurious, but a few had some merit) comments made it to my +1 threshold. And then, there is meta-moderation -- which does address this further. The accountability is there, it's just anonymous (like you). That doesn't mean it's nonexistant.down-moderating anything they don't understand or that appears to deviate from the One True Way Of Open Source.
This seems to be a case of, "I like to complain and not do things that I could easily do that would save me effort," AFAIKT.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
"If these stories have no interest to you then please go read something else. No one is putting a gun to your and making you read this web site."
/. and this really isn't about them I guess. I remember back when you could suggest that something be changed or mention something you didn't like without someone throwing a fit at you from the parent company to go read something else.
I wasn't going to complain about
Actually it looks like they ahve a running gpl or the most recent out of date version (something like 2 versions behind the current one).
penguinicide... when jumping out a window just won't do.
......is when he says "*we'll* accept advertisers who are competitors.....". Up till now I've been under the illusion that Rob, Hemos et al have been the ones choosing the advertising, and it always seemed that they were choosing well, perhaps even stuff that they endorsed or thought was interesting. I can't say that every ad interested me, but they all seemed to compliment the idea behind /. quite well. While personally I have a non-click-through policy I would occasionally click a banner on /. to support a site that I love. Now that they don't need the revenue and I've built up in my mind the idea that it's not endorsed stuff so much as bought adverts I don't think I'll ever click-through again.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama
Oracle is faster than you might think. You do have to architect it correctly, however, and that primarily means keeping connections open. I agree that starting the gears turning is a slow process, but once you've got them spinning, it can really move data.
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Interestingly, MySQL is not open source.
Hmmm; you are correct. I forgot they only GPL'd a very old version. I wonder if they stick with MySQL out of some sort of momentum, or if they would consider using Oracle?
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I don't know; maybe I'm weird but I just don't feel this emotional connection to Slashdot. It's a very vibrant community, I enjoy the discussions, but it's just a web site. To be honest with you, I think it's comments like yours that give people like Jon Katz an inflated sense of their own importance. Sites like this do have an effect, but it's an aggregated effect of all the various discussion sites. Slashdot is just one tiny piece of that effect.
And if Slashdot should die, another site will rise and take its place.
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Oracle on the other hand is as much as 14x slower than MySQL, and has serious performance issues with things like connecting to the database. You absolutely must use database connection caching to get acceptable performance. Not to mention the obscene pricing...
I agree on connections, and really agree on the price, but I have to say the 14x thing is pretty exaggerated. As usual, it depends on what you're doing, and I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a slew of operations that Oracle is 14x faster than MySQL (large databases come to mind).
The fact is that Oracle is pretty much the standard for very large web sites. I mean, I wouldn't use MySQL for a "real" web site where I cared about the data (like an e-commerce application), since MySQL doesn't support commit/rollback.
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I wish they would use Oracle, and then maybe they wouldn't have to flush all the past stories and comments (i.e., the whole database would be searchable). I would imagine the reason they do that is that MySQL is not known for scaling up to large databases.
Unfortunately, Slashdot probably feels they need to use Open Source no matter what, even if that means using inferior software. That's the big problem with embracing a religion, rather than embracing "the best".
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everything is proceeding as i have forseen....
mergers are good in some cases, bad in others. this one looks like a good idea.
jon
-- http://www.cerastes.org
Your purchase of Andover and thus Slashdot has turned into a giant publicity problem for your company. What's more, it's called our attentnion to something we didn't realize before: you also own freshmeat, themes, and sourceforge. You are buying up Open-source community infrastructure, and by the simple fact that you are a publicly-traded company, you are obviously doing this because you want to profit from it! I shudder to think of how.
If you want to serve the open source community, and in so doing garner lots of positive publicity for yourselves, I advise you to do the following:
- Arrange for a well-publicized second release of Slashcode, while you still own Slashdot. This will make you perceived as a company that favours the open-source idea, in that you're publicly releasing some of your most valuable IP, and in so doing, giving news sites that compete with this one a head start.
- Sell Slashdot to Rob & company for $1, and keep the rest of Andover for yourselves. This will make it abundantly clear, even to those who do not read or trust corporate-lawyer-written contracts, that you have no intention of controling the OSS community's news organizations. What's more, it will be so dramatic as to once again distract us from your ownership of lesser infrastructure like Freshmeat, Themes, and Sourceforge, which can thereafter be more freely manipulated toward your own ends, given your company's rock-solid reputation thereafter for respecting the freedom of OSS infrastructure.
No doubt we will continue to read more of your PR department's consoling press releases on this site. Meanwhile, I anxiously await a tangible response from you to our community's concerns.One thing that I think needs work is a bit of feedback on the submission rejected process. We toss an article at you, and see it later as "rejected" the next time we go to post a story.
If we knew WHY something is rejected, we would have a better opinion on whether it was being FAIRLY rejected. Rejected articles should show in our status page, and should at least have a checkbox of rejection reasons or possibly commentary by the reviewer.
Then we could decide on whether you were being biased in story selection.
Personally, I consider Red Hat legitimate but overvalued, LinuxOne a scam, and VA Linux somewhere in between.
For those of you in Silicon Valley, the authors of "The Internet Bubble" are speaking at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park this Wednesday evening. I recommend this to anybody who thinks investing in this outfit is a good idea.
Anyway, take it as a compliment that /. is so popular, you guys have done a good job. We are here now because we enjoy being here. As you said, we do have a choice, If the attraction goes away so will we, we know you know this, but hopefully you also realize that being flamed by the staff is not what keeps us here.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Didn't you sort of slide around the question?
As long as you and Rob are here. . . Seems sort of non-commital.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
I agree. Although I've only been around here for about 18 mos, My perspective is that the whining level has gone down (the troll level has gone up), and I guess one of the pitfalls of having a popular site is that the communication spreads to each extreme. Even with the increase in negative posts, I think the positive posts have increased at the same rate.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Haha, are you insinuating that we are a bunch of whiney spoiled brats, who scream and yell when we don't get are way?
We are.
Thanks for the update.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
you know it! ;-) was waiting for someone to see that long-forgotton error message style ;-)
last time I touched a DEC box was over 10 yrs ago. that's about the time I switched over to unix - and never [seriously] looked back since.
still, VAX/VMS holds a lot of nice memories for me. I still miss the inherent versioning in the filespec format ("filename.ext;version"). and the fact that any file can be prefaced by its nodename, so sort of an 'automatic NFS' kind of reference:
node::disk:[dir.dir.dir]file.ext;ver
man, I really miss all that. but unix is a nice close second ;-)
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
yup, 4.2a to be exact; the last 'true' vms. before all the license 'pak' crap.
otoh, clustering is now making a come-back. it was way ahead of its time (15 yrs ago) and you can argue that even the most advanced unix-like systems still don't do failover and clustering (and cluster aliasing) as well as was architected in VMS.
--
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
now back to your regularly scheduled unixTalk..
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
at any rate, I'm at a loss to understand why my post was moderated down as flaimbait! it was clearly meant as humor.
ok - so I won't quit my day job and go on the road, touring comedy clubs. but still... ;-)
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
As long as you guys keep yakking, you keep us honest. We can't reject the ideas of the community because you have the freedom to say what you please right here in the comments. The fact that this debate is occuring out here in the public proves that that Slashdot can continue to be open and independant.
As long as people continue to post on Slashdot, that'll be true. It has very little to do with anything that I do.
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
That said, VA has about 3 people spending some amount of time on the case and we are trying to decide exactly how much we want to dedicate to the cause and such.
As far as a counter suit goes, that's more a question for the EEF in my mind, as they are the central organizing body in this case .
Chris DiBona
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
/. is not now what is was and it never will be again, just as Linux is not now what it was. The main thing here is that that doesnt matter. That that they have grown into is also interesting, although less so to me.
What's important is this:
If they grow in a positive way, we'll all stay here and hang out.
If they grow to suck, we'll bail. We'll make another one just like it.
A bad change in editorial policy would be seen as censorship, and as we all know, the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
%phrase-e-overquota: system quota exceeded on use of OpenSource term.
Aha! A VMS geek! You poor fellow...do you realize the damage you are doing to your career? You have to escape from this baroque cul-de-sac of computing while there is still time. Before you are forced to cut down the tallest tree in the forest with...a herring!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
So, VA just wants to do all this for the OSS community for free does it? How does it plan to make money doing this? I am sure that their investors will want to know.
As a hardware vendor it is clear how VA adds value to a free and open platform, Linux and its associated tools. Now they want to help out the developer community. It is nice that they want to help nature open source development, but something in the back of my mind just has to wonder, what's in it for them?
-josh
~> whois slashdot.com@whois.networksolutions.com
[whois.networksolutions.com]
The Data in Network Solutions' WHOIS database is provided by Network
Solutions for information purposes, and to assist persons in obtaining
information about or related to a domain name registration record.
Network Solutions does not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a
WHOIS query, you agree that you will use this Data only for lawful
purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this Data to:
(1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via e-mail
(spam); or (2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes
that apply to Network Solutions (or its systems). Network Solutions
reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting
this query, you agree to abide by this policy.
Registrant:
Chris Richardson (SLASHDOT-DOM)
345 S. Mathilda Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
US
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.COM
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Chris Richardson (CR2220-ORG) crichardson@2WIRE.COM
408-205-8643
Fax- 895-1335
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
hostmasterpacbellinternetservices (HO1937-ORG) hostmaster@HOSTING.PACBELL.NET
877-494-7261
Record last updated on 10-Jan-2000.
Record created on 17-Nov-1996.
Database last updated on 6-Feb-2000 16:13:57 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.HOSTING.PACBELL.NET 216.100.98.11
NS2.HOSTING.PACBELL.NET 216.100.99.11
To those worrying and windging about VA's ownership of /. - settle down. We have the Slash code, don't we? If things go down hill too far, I'm sure someone will light up a new community with the same format, on a different server, under different editorial control. That's the best thing about open source - it keeps everyone honest. Those with a vested interest are going to be even more scrupulous, since it protects thier investments.
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
In the many decades that I have been visiting /. ('bout a month after it changed from Chips n Dips, if memory serves correctly) I have *never* seen Rob respond to an article (that's not to say he never has, I just don't recall seeing it).
The one time I met Mr. Malda (summer 1998 Durham NC Linux Expo) he said, in response to a rabid fan/groupie as he autographed her backpack "All I do is post articles." Note that he never said he responds, just posts.
Flash forward to today. The High Commander has posted 5 (!) articles. Of course, they have all been moderated up. Which leads me to believe the following:
The VA Linux annexation of Andover was planned by an insider at Andover. Who, you ask? None other than Robert Q. Malda himself!
But what was his motive? I'll tell you. He needed an excuse to post a rely to an article. He knew this would get enough stirred up to justify his replying. So he coordinated with his secret operative at VA (I can't tell you his name, but I'll give you a hint: Geek with gun!) to leverage a synergistic buyout.
But the question remains--why would Malda even want to post a reply? High school, my dear Watson. If you've noticed, ALL of his posts have been moderated up (no doubt the work of that hemos person). I submit to you that CmdrTaco, aka Rob Malda, aka the Speaker of the Puruvian House of Commons, is a KARMA WHORE! Bwaa haa haa haaaaaa.
J.L. (feeling the energy from the 10 Penguin mints he downed courtesy of the fine folks at ThinkGeek)
Letter to the Community on Andover/VA Merger /. belives their own press. I'm saddened to even think they could assume so much power over the rest of the world.
For CHRISTS SAKES!! AGAIN I remind you big-headed average Joes that it was NOT a merger but a freaking buy out.
This is pretty sad when
This is rather sad...
If you lika me like I lika you...
Anybody else notice that the comment by the VA Linux guy above is scored to 4 without an "sum of moderation" remarks attached to the post?
Is it possible that "Kit Cosper", a VA employee, has the ability to score himself up to 4 without moderation?
Or, is my browser somehow dropping the information?
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
Subject pretty much asks it all... I understand that the contract keeps slashdot separate for now, but does it expire ever? What happens in VA wants to take control?
i just want to know, what EXACTLY does Andover.net do, besides buying up linux-related web sites? Are they simply buying them up to give them more sites to sell their advertising to? what gives? a co-worker of mine has suggested they change their name to HandOver.net, much more applicable to their business practices.
ERiAN
-
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This Post has been brought to you by the letter "E".
I think the key element to remember here, is that Slashdot is not being made by VA Linux, Hemos or CmdrTaco. Yes they facilitate the discussion, but Slashdot is only what it is because of the community around it. Microsoft could buy Slashdot, Hemos and CmdrTaco could leave, but the very moment the essence of Slashdot "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" changes, the nerds will vote with their feet/mouse and leave. Then this community would die and the value of it would turn to nothing. Jeff and Rob will get a couple of warnings from us and if they don't comply, we would leave... We would take the source code and start over somewhere else. This has been shown in the 5 years that I am on the Internet now. There is no one that can pressure us to come here and as soon as the essence of Slashdot changes no one will. Therefore if VA knows anything about shareholder value they won't change a thing.
Why did they buy Slashdot then, you ask? VA thrives on the efforts in the community. The only reason they can exist, is when the community keeps getting cooler stuff out. This is the only way to play catch up with Microsoft. Slashdot and all the other sites are a great way to organize the community and to make sure it has places to go to and discuss and focus its energy. You can see it in the letter..
Use Adsense for Charity
Five years later, both the WELL and the River continue to operate. The WELL is larger than the River, but the River keeps the WELL honest; if the WELL's management gets out of hand, its members can move to the River, which, by design, offers very similar services.
This strategy could work on Slashdot and Sourceforge. In fact, since the software behind both is open-source, cloning them would be easy. (The WELL ran a proprietary conferencing system, which made starting the River much tougher.) And the hardware is cheaper today.
So I suggest that someone who's into running servers look into bringing up the Slashdot and Sourceforge software, as an alternative to this new media conglomerate. A modest-size but stable operation would be enough to keep this new open-source media conglomerate honest. Take a look at the River and the Well, and see they did it.
Good questions - I can answer them: /always/ accept ads for competitor's to VA. Slashdot and the rest of the web sites are going to be in their business unit, and we're going to operate in much the same way. Frankly, the way the web advertising operates we want to get everyone we can, because we have all sorts of ad space to sell.
We will
Yeah, I'm that guy.
If VA only wants to help /. and make contributions to the OSS community, why doesn't it just cut Slashdot loose and support them via donations?
Think about it: If VA's being honest about their intentions, this would be a great move on their part. They'd regain the trust of the more paranoid /. community (like myself), they'd get a hell of a tax write-off and Slashdot could stop hearing about how it should be a .com and not a .org.
Why don't they do this? You tell me.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I was debating on posting this, but reading some of the posts below, I have to post this..
Guys, stop being so *DARNED* paranoid. VA is *NOT* buying Andover.net to control the media, in any sence of the word.
No, I'm sorry to tell you, there is no secret consiracy to control your minds, no smoke and mirrors, no implants in your brain to allow VA to control what you read on slashdot.
Why is it that at least half of the posts regarding any sort of corperation being involved in *ANY* sort of OSS boils down to "What's in it for them".
The major complaint that many OSS proponents have is that the 'suits' just don't get it, and their way of thinking is dated, and should be changed. It seems to me, that people asking the 'What's in it for them' question are using the same thought process that they claim to dread.
Did you ever maybee think that 'What's in it for us' is a sidebar?
OSS and it's surrounding community *CAN WORK HAND IN HAND*. That's right. The goals are not different. As a matter of fact, they overlap a whole lot. Companies want to get paid. If they can get paid for providing services someone else provides, and use those funds to enhance the comminity, so they can make more money, LIFE is GOOD for EVERYONE..
No, Mulder, that's not a little green man.. It's a little kid in a Halloween costume. Put DOWN the GUN..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
I think the motives are are much more subtle than that. The most likely short term reason why VA wants to own these sites is that it brings them positive PR. Being associated with them, particularly if they can allow the creative freedom to continue, is a big win in terms of credibility with the developers.
The big problem I see is that inevitable merger actions will likely happen over the long term. Linux.com is a competitor to /. and Sourceforge is a (IMHO superior) competitor to Freshmeat. Others will argue that there are differences between each pair but they both target similar markets. Money is insidious and as those that have profited lately from being aquired move on, I see linux.com and sourceforge becoming the more important.
While Hemos and Taco are quite vehement about keeping things the same, its important to note that thats people in mergers always say. These guys are young and they've now got lots of money. Over the long run, they'll start to have problems with their mgmt, probably small at first, but they'll build over time. Some day, it will just get to be too much and they'll strike out on their own again.
/. is not now what is was and it never will be again, just as Linux is not now what it was. The main thing here is that that doesnt matter. That that they have grown into is also interesting, although less so to me.
Frank W. Miller
Everyone keeps wondering... "How will slashdot cover VA fairly, now that VA will own slashdot?"
It seems to me that slashdot has a very large contingent of vocal readers, who seem to either 1) not understand US law or 2) refuse to accept US law.
How can things be made any more clear? Slashdot would never have been sold, except that Andover signed over all editorial control. And, now that VA is buying Andover, VA inherits Andover's assets, liabilities, and contractual obligations. VA can do no more under the law than Andover could.
If VA weren't obligated to abide by the terms of Andover's contract... then neither would Malda and Bates be obligated to give them their site. Don't you think that if corporate law allowed for one-sided nullification of contracts in a merger, someone would have noticed before now?
Example: See those slashboxes on the right side of the screen? Don't you think that, if Andover had true editorial control, that slashboxes for all Andover sites would be turned on by default?
In summary, don't be silly. It's unreasonable to think that anything will change editorially, because of this merger. If you don't trust that the contract selling slashdot to Andover is sound, then I don't really see why you sould trust anything at this site to begin with. Either you take Malda and Bates at their word, that their lawyers won an iron-clad contract, or you don't.
I know a bunch of you are worried about what will happen, and whether this is going to change things.
It will.
We're getting new servers. Seriously, things are going to stay the same - the backend will get some more power, but I'm still going to post Athlon stories, Red Hat stories and whatever else strikes my fancy. You know how to get in contact with us if soemthing seems out of place to you - and I trust that you will do so.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
For the most part, the Slashdot community is very bright. If they sense that something's up with the stories getting posted here, you can bet they'll either A) criticize the hell out of them, or B) go elsewhere.
I can't help but think that Rob was dragged kicking and screaming into this one, having rejected an earlier takeover offer by VA.
The thing that turns most people off is probably the money. In our unique community, there's more grassroots and community support/acceptance for a site run by a struggling college student and his friends than there is for a site run by a for-profit corporation. People like to side with the little-guy.
Like Rob said, VA is smart. I like to think that the community is smarter. If VA screws this one up, the Natalie Portman, grits, and Don Knotts guys will be the only people left posting here. I just hope VA is smart enough to realize that.
For instance: What about the advertising? Will Slashdot and Freshmeat still accept (under reasonable terms) advertising from VA's competitors?
Look, I know a lot of you think that this is a non-issue -- you either use ad-blocking software or ignore them or whatever. The reality is that advertising is still a powerful influence in the buying habits of a vast majority of the population -- again, why are Coke and Pepsi so big when Jolly-Good is less expensive? Ads can be effective, and your business cannot grow well without them.
I bring it up because it's a subtle way that VA could shift things in their favor. Frankly, I'm not worried that VA will start submitting their own articles or influencing the editors -- that would be way too obvious, and we'd see through that in a second. If they are going to influence what we see and hear in any way, it'll have to be something subtle like this.
Ideally, I would like to hear that a non-vested party (who owns no VA stock and who is not directly controlled by anyone save Cmdr. Taco) was put in charge of ad sales. Again, let me say that I'm not accusing VA (or any of the /. of Freshmeat crew) of having this planned, it's just something I could see happening. Ask yourself this, though: If you were VA, why would you want to own Slashdot and Freshmeat so badly?
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
In short, the reason Slashdot has "changed" is because the authors interests are changing. The world is changing. Times are changing. Holland Michigan was aqcuired by Microsoft/AOL/TimeWarner/VAndover/Viacom... whatever you want to believe.
Is Slashdot slower? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. We're always working on that. We're Slashdot junkies like you and we are just as many hops away from our servers as you and we are just as unhappy when Slashdot does not load fast so we're always working on making it faster. Maybe if some bozos would stop running bots to post psychotic fantasies about a certain actress the site would perform even better, but we strive to work around that.
In short if you don't trust that Rob and his gang really are controlling this site then you haven't been paying attention. I case you haven't noticed there have many things posted here that upper mamagement would rather see posted but what can they do about it? Not much. If the Slashdot authors think it is newsworthy and/or just plain amusing, then it gets posted despite managments uneasiness about it.
I'm sorry to rant but I can't help but let people know that the mothership here is not determining what gets put on Slashdot other which ads to run. Most of our VPs don't even read Slashdot. I realize most of you out there understand this already but for the few who don't I post my little rant.
I'll start with a few examples - the best is by the CEO of F-Secure (that produces F-Secure SSH, for example), Risto Siilasmaa. At a recent presentation, he talked about how they talk about their vision to their employees (even temporarily hired folks like telephone operators) . If the vision is believable, the people will buy it, and spread it forward (!) and even defend the company. Thus, it spreads like a virus. Is this a bad thing ? Not necessarily.
I, too, realized, that a certain vision has been sold to me. I used to work at Nokia - where the mantra "Nokia values" is highly valued. While I no longer work there, those "values" are the one thing I remember best. Have I been brainwashed ? No. It is simply that when you see these values applied to your workplace, you can see that they work. Regardless of whether those values are true or not, I nowadays speak positively of my former employer, and I am definitely biased.
Another example is, of course, our favorite software company - you know it - Microsoft. I might not like their vision - but they do have one. And you might have noticed that there are Microsoft employees that fiercly defend their employer.
So, we enter Andover.net and VA Linux. The latter is certainly doing brilliant stuff (well, the former doesn't really exist anymore) and certainly has a bright future ahead. I like that, and I am sure Rob, Hemos and folks like it too. But, taken into account what I said above, they already see things the VA Linux way. Knowing what is happening inside the company, some of the criticism that flows around seems very invalid. And they defend VA Linux. A little switch has been flipped in their brains, and it cannot be flipped back.
I do not think Slashdot will become a VA Linux marketing bulletin, but Slashdot is not, and will never be, independent.
%phrase-e-overquota: system quota exceeded on use of OpenSource term.
so as penance, you'll have to instead use the phrase:
ecky ecky ecky ecky pitang, zuboing!
instead of OpenSource.
I'm sorry, but it had to be done this way. we'll check back in a month to see if your problem is cured; and if so, your system quota will be restored to its previous value.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."