Slashdot Mirror
Ask the Man Behind the Legend - Cowboy Neal
After many reader requests, we're finally getting around to interviewing the famed, mysterious CowboyNeal. He's more than a poll response, you know. He's the guy you go to if you have problems with your Slashdot user account -- or if you just generally need a cheerful face on a day you're feeling a little down. But who is the "real" CowboyNeal? Here's your chance to find out. Post questions below. We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated ones to Da Man and run his answers as soon as he gets them back to us.
Seriously, linear karma is stupid. IMHO, we need a 2-D or 3-D karma system, to represent the different types of post and style.
eg: Someone with +50 might be a very funny poster, but lousy on facts or a troll at times. By having something like +50/-25/+4, with the first being "interesting/informitive", the second being "funny", and the third being "social", that would give you a much better picture of the poster.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
It was the summer of 1983 and I was on the beach on Majorca, two weeks of holiday in between shuttling tourist groups back and forth from Akron and Paris. That was my cover job, anyway. My real job, the one that bought the house in Majorca, in fact, was mule, hauling meth from the States in boxes marked "feminine napkins" and bringing Chinese "tourists" with fake papers back from Corsica.
On my last trip, the one before retirement, I was busted. A lanky dude with hair like Kris Kristofferson, what must have been a 15-gallon hat, and dusty iguana-skin boots was sitting there, pants at his ankles, using my beach house toilet and pointing a sawed-off shotgun at me in the doorway.
"Don't move, dude. And don't drink the water in Guayaquil."
My question: was that you, Cowboy Neal?
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
I think it would be very cool if all slashdot submissions went into a queue where the community could decide what news should be posted. The community ownership of the news that already exist would only improve in my opinion if you did this, and your moderation/meta-moderation system already seem adequate to accomplish the task. Would you consider opening up /. further with this sort of change?
-- Solaris Central - http://w
Simple question.
What's the best thing that happened to you since Slashdot started? Conversly, what's the worst?
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That's not what I meant.
Rob's working on Animefu, Hemos does work on Everything 2, and Nate's the brains and looks behind Everything In General.
What keeps CowboyNeal busy when he's not keeping Slashdot running, or mixing some tasty tunes in his recording studio?
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how to invest, a novice's guide
How confident were you during the Andover buy-out? Was it one of those situations where you felt it was a "good deal" or was it "the only deal"?
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what your favorite breakfast cereal is.
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
Any thoughts on why Hemos' houses keep burning down?
-=-
Computer geek for hire. Reasonable rates. Email me.
What poll in which you were an 'option', did you find most amusing/entertaining?
What was the most depressing?
-- Chris Chabot
"I dont suffer from insanity, i enjoy every minute of it!"
The first one is about Slashdot while the second one is about you.
1. What was life like with Rob and Jeff in "real life" before Slashdot was aquired by Andover? I'm a Geeks in Space fan and it always sounded like you guys were the best of friends - especially the Kurt bashing part. Did you guys go to school together, how did you come into the picture?
2. Why are you so cool? Do you do special yoga exercises every morning to be so cool? Do you drink a special formula to be so damn cool?
Thanks and when's the next Geeks in Space?
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All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
What is your favorite poll that you were a part of? And would that be a poll you nearly won?
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Gonzo Granzeau
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
I'm sure that when you first became associated with Slashdot, you had ideas (maybe fantasies is a better term) about what /. would be like in times to come. Did it even come close? Do you think back and try to identify some singularity, some single moment when you chose Door #1 and in retrospect would now go with Door #2?
Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What drives you to get up and go out into the hard, cruel world and face the legions of trolls and misanthropes you know you're going to have to face during the day? What's the motivation? (Hey, could be worse: I could be asking this of Katz!)
How often have you posted anonymously? do you have a pseudo handle? Have you ever trolled?
Are you getting bored with slashdot? What is the biggest screw up that you did to the site that we never found out? Have you ever used "super moderating power" to mod down posts attacking slashdot editors...? What is your favorite pizza topping and sandwich?
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
really, the Slashdot crew is thinking of us when they gave us a kharma cap.
You probably remember the first time you got a positive moderation, it felt pretty good, like, Wow someone likes my work.
When you past 10 kharma points, it was nice, not as good as the first point though.
When you got your first +5 moderation, you were on a high, though not as much as your first points.
When you got 26, and could post with the +1 if you wished, it was special, but still, not as good as the first time.
Face it, kharma is a drug. It's never as much fun as your first time, and if there was no cap, you'd keep setting inane goals (when I get to triple digits I'll stop, I'll have all the kharma I'll need, when I get 200 I'll stop...) to feed your kharma jones, and end up spending all your time reading Slashdot and gathering kharma, trying to recreate that first kharma high.
That becomes ugly real fast, you become a bona-fide kharma-whore. Trust me, Taco has seen the bad sides of severe kharma-whoredom, and he is thinking of us when he instituted the cap.
George
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How did you become tangled up in this Slashdot thing with that CmdrTaco guy? How did you guys meet?
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Perfect knowledge and the ability to avoid unintended consequences, what is the one thing you would add to or remove from Slashdot? Would you edit the mod systems, make everyone ACs, or perhaps send all the trolls here?
It may not be just, but it is fair, and that is more important.
Seeing as in most Geeks in Space episodes Anime quotes and quips spew forth from you, I think we the listeners (and deranged readers) should see exactly how your background in anime developed.
When did you really get into Anime?
What was the first anime movie/series you watched?
Are there any in particular that stick out as being particularly good or "close-to-home"?
If you could be any anime character, who?
Have you seen The Lain?
.cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
So, for those of us who are too lazy to look for ourselves, is there some code so that, when you look at the polls on /. the last response just says "Me"?
My other
And yes, I know 5 - 10 years is an eternity.
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Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
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We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
Why don't you yourself ever post any stories, Cowboy Neal?
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Since you're probably the only one with real access to all the user records, you're the one to ask:
Who among us is the current Karma Whore King, and what is their score?
Is there a maximum amount of karma one can earn?brAnd finally, is there a cutoff level where you auto-post at 3 or above?
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Let me give you the lowdown
/tma
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Like a lot of people, I bet, I frequently look at my user info page to see if there have been responses to my posts, and what moderations I have received. Would it be possible to provide a Slashbox with that information on the main page?
I see far too many obvious trolls being given accounts.
Just today I saw a new poster, Patrick McCrotch. Now, seriously, Pat McCrotch, do you think that's real?
For the sake of Slashdot, please stop the spread of trolls, and don't give them accounts. Please work with the FBI to track down the trolls that are ruining Slashdot, and have them be quietly captured in the dark of the night and locked in a warm cell with Christina Ricci styled nymphomaniacal fembots until they die of dehydration!
Thanks!
I've been following CowboyNeal's career for years, reading everything he writes, watching all of his movies and eating all of his cooking. Now I finally have a chance to ask him the question that's been burning me up inside: What's Taco really like?
Seriously, can you give us a breakdown of how much time each editor spends actually reading the site they nominally run? Like, time spent clicking on user comments?
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Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
who would win in a fight? You or Taco?