VA/Andover Complete Merger

chrisd sent us the press release and says "Now, it is completely okay to blame every percieved failing of Slashdot on VA. I'd like to say that VA understands that Slashdot only has value so long as it is left free." My comment is the same as always: our editorial independance is legally guaranteed under no matter who owns us. Slashdot will suck just as much as always, and there's nothing anybody can do about it! Seriously, VA has a bunch of good guys, but the editorial staff is looking forward to not really having much to do with them *grin*.

Comments

Oh well

[konstant]

When I first became addicted to slashdot, it must have been a lull period, because there didn't seem to be many discussions about Linux or quite so many vindictive articles attacking MS (my employer). The reason I started browsing, and the reason I keep coming back, is that I love to talk and argue about ethics and science, and we get those thing aplenty here.

It seems inevitable to me that some day Linux will no longer be the cool topic it is today. There will be another OS, maybe Hurd, maybe something else, that will be the focus of the adulation and the ecstasy so many of you pour out. But while tastes in operating systems will evolve, we now know that slashdot will not. It's owned by a Linux company. It will be about Linux until it goes off the air.

As long as I get my fix of straight talk and tech, I'll be happy to type slashdot.org in my browser, but I do mourn a little bit the passing of true independence from the site. The slashdot editors may be right that they have editorial independence when it comes to each individual story, but they have yet to flex their purported muscles when it comes to a major topic shift on the site. I wonder how receptive VA would be if CmdrTaco suddenly became infatuated with FreeBSD!

-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!

Re:slashdot guys

[cascadefx]

It doesn't matter, they have a lot of $$$. I want to see them donate money to open source projects.

While I shouldn't respond to this (heck, I couldn't see it until I lowered my slashdot crap filter), I will.

With my, until now, casual viewings of slashdot over the past 2 years, even I know that they have already given money to the Open Source movement. Although, slashdot is not, per se, a Linux/Open Source site exclusively (hey, they have articles about science and books too, check them out sometime), they have embraced open source in three distinct ways (an example that I can borrow from church):

1. Their Time: The guys at Slashdot have devoted endless hours envangelizing (in a good way) Linux and Open Source in general (not to mention /. coding hours, but we'll get to that next). I am sure their participation in this exercise alone has brought both end users and actual coders to Open Source. Someone might come here because they hear it is a cool site ( despite rumors to the contrary on how much it sucks ), but they leave at least exposed to an idea that is put into active practice on this and other projects maintained by the /. crew. For this they should be given a pat of the back.

2. Their Talents: The /. guys have released the complete source of this site to the world at large under an Open Source license. Many, many hours have gone into created one of the more interactive news sites on the web and the fruits of that labor are available to anyone who is interested. For this, too, they should be given a pat on the back.

Finally, 3. Their Tithes: What was the first thing that these guys did, when they got the Andover money (well, maybe it was second or third, but it was up there)? After paying some of their volunteers, they gave thousands of dollars to the code and groups in the Open Source movement that they had a lot of respect for in the form of the beanie awards. Once again, for remembering the community that supports them, they should be given another pat on the back.

For these reasons, your post is way off base, and I am sure you already knew that. I just wanted people reading your post, who didn't understand this (perhaps a first timer) to realize why this is actually flamebait.

Proposed remedy to /. dominance

[laborit]

With the recent merger of VA systems and Andover.net, Slashdot has gained an unreasonable degree of dominance over the web discussion market, claimed the Justice Department Wednesday. Negotiations are continuing between Andover lawyers and government officials, but a current plan would break Slashdot up into a number of competing operations, each in charge of one of its flagship products:

Slash: News for nerds
Dot: Stuff that matters
org: Hot Grits

A press release from CmdrTaco claims that they are cooperating with the Justice Department, but do not feel that criticism of their business as monopolistic is warranted. As competition in each of their major areas, Taco cited Kuro5hin, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the work of Jesustussinheadface.