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Oracle Breakable After All
Billy writes "Unless you've been living in a cave, you've seen Oracle's Unbreakable campaign (Can't break it. Can't break in.), which was kicked-off by Larry Ellison personally at Comdex last November. Now U.K. security researcher David Litchfield says you can break in, thanks to at least seven different security holes in Oracle 9i, according to this SecurityFocus story. Oracle's top security manager is quoted as saying that "unbreakable" doesn't really mean unbreakable, or something."
Moderation seems restrictive. Is it really necessary?
Goals
1.Promote quality, discourage crap.
2.Make Slashdot as readable as possible for as many people as possible.
3.Do not require a huge amount of time from any single moderator.
4.Do not allow a single moderator a "reign of terror."
From the FAQ
Bitchslap of the century
WOOOOOOOO!!!
I read every damn comment, and couldn't find a single one rated above 0!!!
As far as the parent goes....hehe
Offtopic=75, Flamebait=1, Troll=3, Redundant=2, Insightful=15, Interesting=50, Informative=12, Funny=2, Overrated=2, Underrated=5, Total=167.
Welp, I read slashdot every once in a long while, but this is enough. I read it for the laughs, but this is kind of sad. Anyway, its time for everyone to remember, even though no one will ever read this post:
This little tidbit about the internet.
Everyone on slashdot has a journal.
I suspect that if Taco or any other member of the Slashdot crew comments about this post it will go something like this.
"We were just doing our jobs. The only reason the thread kept getting slapped down was because a vast conspiracy of moderators were actually trolls who managed to accumulate a large amount of karma, and now have launched this attack on Slashdot."
Well the only thing is if they were really die-hard trolls then they would be posting far more annoying page lengthing posts acsiii art and such. They also wouldn't waste time trolling an article that is over 24hours old. The only explaination is that something or someone has gone terribly wrong.
Oh, what the heck, I'd sure like to see if a script goes through to mod all replies down again. I'm sure I'll get a message if/when it does - but I just don't have the time to keep reloading the thread to see.
Wheeeee
First, your thread isn't going to get bitchslapped unless you continue to make a stupid ass out of yourself posting and starting tons of useless threads through tons of accounts. Did you not consider that perhaps your comments are not as Funny, Clever, Insightful, or Interesting as you thought? I recall your post on using the cowboyneal result as a poll popularity and relevance indicator. I thought it was indeed particularly interesting (though I don't know if you came up with it or not), which is why I modded it up (not just because everyone else modded it up!) You know, my life is not over if an interesting post gets moderated down to 0 and I never see it. The system isn't going to be perfect, but at least it's going to keep me from staring deep into someone's anus 99% of the time.
Sure, the moderation system is a little funky, but it is designed to keep penis birds and goatse.cx out of the browsers of the folks that don't want to see that shit. I really disagree with folks who say that it's fundamentally broken or that we'd be better off without it. I suppose we'd be better off without threaded comments too, or user accounts, or a discussion board, since all of those things have inherent disadvantages and cause people a lot of problems.
Return slashdot to the day when it was the lone taco posting one or two stories a day (if that) and there was no discussion! What are you smoking? Boring vs. slightly broken but still interesting on the whole -- I'll take door #2, Monty.
What i DO think, though, is that there are better ways to mine useful relevence and popularity data from the database than by only using the moderation/metamoderation system. As a simple example, let's take a comment I recently posted (you can easily find it if you want to -- I don't post under 30 different names) that as of last count has recieved over 30 moderations. Obviously some people thought it was interesting, and probably a good discussion topic, since it gets at people on both sides of the fence. The idea is to use data like this in conjunction with the score of the post in conjunction with the metamoderation data, in conjunction with the user's karma could easily bubble the truly good posts to the top.
I've been around here a pretty long time. I remember (as a longtime reader even at that point) when slashdot opened up the user account signup. I told my friend and he registered (#245). At any rate, I don't even begin to see your point, unless of course you are just one of the true trolls. In which case, I salute you for provoking such a long response from me. I just wasted a lot of time!
Cheers,
~GoRK
True, the parent post wasn't absolutely accurate, but didn't you find the apparent -1 Offtopic bitchslap script situation meaningful? This isn't being used to keep the Goatman's ass away from squeamish citizens, it's being used to devalue the people who disagree.
And it's probably hit you, too.
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Please mod this amazing little record-setter up!
LOOK, the parent here was meant to be put ontopic and was hit... read the jornal of the main poster (not the direct parent, rather the grandparent) to discuss this crap!!!
exposing slashdot's true visage.
Suddenly it doesn't seem so strange anymore, why
Jon Katz is still employed here after his crazy
essay about the Afghani downloading DIVX onto his
Commodore. It just confirms that the whole site
is run by idiots who have sold out, just like
they're always accusing others in industry of
doing.
This comment is posted a couple of days after the
thread started. Let's see if it's still
ROBo-modded-down. As another poster stated,
reaching 50 karma was a personal goal. Now I
don't give a skinny rat's cock anymore.
Shame of Slashdot
We've broken 200 actual moderations - I don't think the bitchslapping gets counted in there (I'm posting this so the history lessons will have a time frame for much of this). If this isn't a record, I don't know what is.
Yes, it is obviously time something was done about the moderating situation. Is it impossible to have a user-run moderating system? Isn't that what Slashdot is? Today's events seems to deny that, and the editors or administrators seem to be taking active part (or at least have done so through the moderation rules coded) in making sure that the "users" don't get out of hands with their new-found moderating freedom.
A poor example (well, it's actually a good example, but of a Bad Thing) of both censorship and external control over public discussion -- something that the open source movement has tried hard to push aside.
I sincerely hope you come to your senses.
-- Matt Ryall
I hate to point this out, but you have just been unfairly moderated down to -1 as well.
/. is and you have highlighted it. There is no wat you opinion should have been moderated down.
The whole point was to show how broken the moderation of
For the record, I tend to agree with the parent post. Maybe it was a troll, but hell, a troll is not necessarily wrong, is it?
Offtopic=92, Flamebait=2, Troll=4, Redundant=3, Insightful=18, Interesting=56, Informative=15, Funny=2, Overrated=2, Underrated=11, Total=205.
Oh come on, this is beyond a joke and as for every comment in this thread, worthwhile or not being bitchslapped, it's wrong.
There is no excuse or justification for it.
Jesus H. Well, each and every subsequent reply to this topic is down at -1. Interesting.
Well, technically, we were offtopic. I have enough karma, I couldn't care less. I still maintain that it's not broken. What we didn't get was an editor bitchslap (which seem to come more and more these days) If /. still allowed for the hidden sid's, this wouldn't be a problem, since we could actually use an appropriate forum for the discussion. I still maintain that the purpose of the moderation system is to filter the crap out and it does a good job of it. In an oracle security discussion, what I posted was crap. It doesnt belong smack in the middle of the oracle discussion.
~GoRK
this post is starting at +1. Slashdot editors can bite my shiny metal ass for being hypocritical censoring fucks
It appears the so-called 'robo-moderation' has ceased entirely. Several newer posts remain above the -1 moderation, and the parent exists at (+1, Interesting) as of this time.
What you posted first and now is a worthwhile point that should be seen and does not deserve to be slapped. You are making good points that I might even think in general is correct.
.... someone, I dont know. There must have been hundreds of mod points wasted to knock the entire thread to -1, time and time again. Someone is deliberatly bitchslapping each post and thatr is not right. I notice good ontopic posts hit too.
However, I would also maintain that an offrtopic post is not necessarily a bad one. Nor is a troll either in some cases. A really good troll might be insightful or interesting. What I would say the moderation system should be doing is filtering the crap floods. I have no issue that those should go into the bit bucket. As it says in the Moderator FAQ, we should be concentrating in findiong the good stuff and bringing it to the surface.
What I believe is the issue now of what seems to me to be an attempt to hide soemthing that has become unsavory to
Like you, I have been here for a few years. My karma is maxed out and I enjoy being here. But to me, whatewver is going on is just not right, because this is supposed to be a siter where free speech is encouraged above all. Mate, there aint any here in this thread now.
~ Darth Turbogeek
The problem isn't directly due to the /. crew, but down to the moderators, people like me.
:P
We're lazy. I generally only skim the top of each story, and therefor only see items that have already been positively moderated.
The obvious solution is to change the sort order when someone is a moderator. Although the moderation guidelines suggest browsing at -1, I doubt people do it.
Being a moderator should have a random comment order, threaded, all posts shown. IMO, of course
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
down in the ring of Karma. My sig looks so puny now. I'm sad.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
Perhaps people with moderation points should only be able to use them if they are browsing at -1. That might solve some of the problems
No, logged in people are modded down faster because they are seen by more people (since they have score of 1 automatically, while anonymous posters have 0). Calm down, your conspiracy theories are fun, but only to a certain extent. It then just becomes annoying.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26264&threshol d=-1&commentsort=0&mode=nested&cid=2859676
I think the fact that so many people are posting and moderating on this story shows that it's a concern many people feel about the moderating of comments on slashdot, and not something that should just be disregarded (e.g. "Go elsewhere if you don't like it here!"). It a genuine attempt to improve the situation, or at least bring it to light...-- Matt Ryall
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
This entire thread breaks my heart.
/. community, and open-source fanatics around the world, please fix the moderation system.
I'm sorry, I don't have much karma, I generally don't have many new things to add to discussions once they hit the frontpage and people have posted, but I'm sacrificing what I've got.
For the sake of the
I find this whole thread quite hilarious. Let's watch that karma burn, baby....
[insert] Obligatory karma burn comment
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Hey, cool, I'm one of the posters in the example thread for how crap the current moderators are. I'm a post pointing out that the earlier moderations were unfair, making reasonable comments, and even made an on-topic comment. Of course, that earned me a mod down until a benevolent mod put me back up.
I've been a mod three times (all in the last few weeks for some reason), and I have never abused my power like that. I read the moderator guidelines, which SPECIFICALLY say "concentrate on modding up, not down". I will typically make about 4 mods up, and one down (who is invariably a clear troll), and try to make the ones I mod up sensible ones not already modded super-high.
People, those of you who want good modding, I suggest you meta-moderate at every chance. Not only does it scrutinise the mods of others, but it would appear to me that meta-moderating a few times significantly increases your chances of being given a moderator status, allowing you to continue the work.
update comments set karma=-1, reason="offtopic" where sid=26315
update comments set karma=-1, reason='offtopic' where sid=26315
I sugest a fully fledged top-level thread for this subject.
Judging from the huge ammount of moderation now going into the parent post (215 at last count), i would say this subject is important to a lot of people (whether they agree or not).
You can now burn my Karma points
I suppose +5 posts are less likely to be "folded" away than +4 or +3 posts when a thread is long. Hence a random moderator is more likely to see it. Alternatively, perhaps some moderators browse with a positive threshold, daft though that may be).
Why on earth is that post showing up as "flamebait"??? I see only three moderation points for "flamebait", over 100 for "offtopic", 64 for "insightfull", 20 for "informative"... what's going on here?
because it was last moderated as flamebait.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Hot damn! 135 replies and 203 moderations just on the parent!
Anyone know the record for moderations on a single post?
232 as far as i know
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Being a moderator should have a random comment order, threaded, all posts shown. IMO, of course :P
I disagree.
I've often seen someone post an interesting or insightful link or point to a story as an AC or at a score of 1, only to have someone post the same exact thing at a starting score of 2. The former is ignored, the latter is moderated up to 5.
Why?
Because, as you say, few moderators browse at -1.
And while I agree entirely that moderators should be forced to read at -1 (I do all the time anyway, moderating or not), I disagree about the order being random. Otherwise people could karmawhore by just cutting and pasting earlier insightful comments and hoping they show up first to a moderator.
But, and here's the rub, the replies are generally on topic relative to the thread.
Offtopic isn't truly accurate. Mod down the parent to preserve that precious S/N ratio, but modding down EVERY SINGLE RESPONSE is intentional punishment of those who dare speak.
I was ever so slowly accumulating karma. A point here, two points there, the occasional (and unexpected) four points. I was at, what, ten points? Considering the fact that I tend to say things that piss moderators off, this was a minor accomplishment.
I read every single reply to a topic that catches my eye. I browse at -1 without visible moderation because I trust my own ability to determine what is worth reading and what is not. Moderation has no effect on what I can see. But it has an effect on what I can say, if not what I will say. This is fair - I have my own website if I need to speak. But the way it is done, out of accordance with the Slashcrew's professed ideals, with extreme disrespect and arrogance, is wrong.
Down to my last point or two...
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Hello,
the thread is in the metamod already!
I just declared 10 Offtopic moderations of this thread unfair - I suggest everybody does the same.
Yan
Obligatory on-topicness-attempt: The fact that Oracle has a security hole is no big news - *every* software has one. Of course, the more a company brags about SW invincibility, the more people laugh at it when it turns out to be full ob *bleep*. Remember Adobe's unbreakable font format?
I think this line's only filler
I hereby throw my sig at your dutiful service.
Not that I have much karma to burn in the first place...
--- Sigs are dumb.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=120, Flamebait=3, Troll=4, Redundant=3, Insightful=22, Interesting=72, Informative=16, Funny=3, Overrated=2, Underrated=18, Total=263
What is the crime so great that this just disappears?
This is a test of the moderation being done to this thread. I have messaging enabled for moderations, and I will report how this post gets moderated. I hypothesize that this post will receive 2 (-1, Offtopic) moderations at the same time, bringing it to -1.
--
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
by U2
I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one
Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across a dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall
Sunday bloody Sunday
Sunday bloody Sunday
And the battle's just begun
So many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trenches dug within our hearts
And mothers children brothers sisters torn apart
Sunday bloody Sunday
Sunday bloody Sunday
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long
Tonight we can be as one. Tonight. Tonight.
Sunday bloody Sunday
Sunday bloody Sunday
Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Wipe your blood shot eyes
Sunday bloody Sunday
Sunday bloody Sunday
And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and tv reality,
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die
The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
Sunday bloody Sunday
Sunday bloody Sunday
... and here are the results for 2 seperate posts:
Moderation of "Re:The first Slashdot troll post investigation" 01-18-02 10:20 AM
Moderation of "Re:The first Slashdot troll post investigation" 01-18-02 10:20 AM
and
Moderation of "Re:The first Slashdot troll post investigation" 01-18-02 10:43 AM
Moderation of "Re:The first Slashdot troll post investigation" 01-18-02 10:43 AM
chilling....
Insightful (+1) @ 12:50 p.m.
Offtopic (-1) @ 12:50 p.m.
Offtopic (-1) @ 12:50 p.m.
Offtopic (-1) @ 12:50 p.m.
Now for part two I will set the messaging to "Web messages" and see if this makes any difference.
--
FR1ST -1 'FR1ST -1 PS0T' PS0T
Ok - one more. This'll take me from 44 to 41 karma. I've been wanting to reduce my karma for a while now, but don't like trolling -- however given that anything posted to this is being modded down by a 'punishment' script, I can reduce karma without guilt :)
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=130, Flamebait=3, Troll=4, Redundant=3, Insightful=24, Interesting=76, Informative=17, Funny=3, Overrated=2, Underrated=20, Total=282.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
Wow...most posts get a few moderations...yours got 291!!!! And everything in the thread (135 posts, last I saw) was modded down to -1....seems a little suspicious. What's really great is that while 133 mods were 'off topic', only 4 were 'troll' and another 4 were 'flamebait'. The majority of mods were for 'informative' and 'interesting'. Damn good study :). Don't mind my anonymous posting though...
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.
Sing along with me now, kids...
I can't believe the posts today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one
Auto-bitchslaps for the thread we write
Leave a string of minus ones tonight
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
And the battle's just begun
So many lost, but tell me who has won?
The posts we've made within our hearts
And karma whores and trolls and people torn apart
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long
Tonight we can post as one. Tonight. Tonight.
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Wipe your blood shot eyes
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and CT reality,
And today the posters cry
We write and troll while tomorrow they die
The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jamie won
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Sing along with me now, kids...
I can't believe the posts today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long? Tonight we can be as one
Auto-bitchslaps for the thread we write
Leave a string of minus ones tonight
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
And the battle's just begun
So many lost, but tell me who has won?
The posts we've made within our hearts
And karma whores and trolls and people torn apart
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long
Tonight we can post as one. Tonight. Tonight.
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Wipe your blood shot eyes
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and CT reality,
And today the posters cry
We write and troll while tomorrow they die
The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jamie won
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
Wednesday bloody Wednesday
I'm going to do another experiment to see what mod results we get. I shall post a number of responses to this post and see how they get modded via web messaging. I hypothesize that each post will simultaneously be modded down to (-1).
First test response
Second test response
Thanks for the comic relief, man.
Let's all sing it in unison.
Why is it the trolls and crapflooders are always the ones who complain about moderation? You spew your misinformation and crap all over Slashdot and then you claim to be improving it!
That said, I disagree with pretty much every point in your post:
Forgive me if I don't buy the whole "Slashdot Editors are opressing us trolls" bit. Cry me a fuckin' river.
IHBT
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
This isn't the solution to the problem. If there are more trolls & crapflooders than insightful posts, its not just a coincidence. Obviously, something has gone wrong with slashdot (perhaps the choice of articles? Perhaps something else).
But adding aggressive moderation and (corruptible) absolute rule is only making the problem WORSE. More people are becoming trolls and crapflooders because of it.
2. Logged in people are modded down faster than anonymous cowards. You really mean to say that logged in trolls are modded down than anonymous trolls, right?
Anonymous needs to be looked at first. Logged in trolls usually get -1 fast, so anonymous needs to be checked first (plus, when people have karma and want to troll, they click the infamous "post anonymously" button).
3. Once you have a karma of -4 or -5, your posts have a score of -1 by default. Who cares? Once a post is -1, it can't be modded any lower, so why would someone bother modding it down even further. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here, but you make no sense.
When someone logs in here first, they may not know the etiquette of slashdot posting, and after 1 (yes, just ONE) down moderation, they auto-post at 0. Its hard to recover from something like that.
4. Substituting Windows for BSD to make a Windows is Dying post is not clever. The only people who would think the sex with goats post is funny are the trolls themselves. But again, subjective.
Just try and bash windows. Make it semi-on topic. You'll gain all the karma you want
5. Now this is really funny. You are going back to a poll which took place before there even was moderation. How could people even know they didn't want what is here today?(hint: it wasn't even an option).
True, but this is a poll that needs to be redone to see what the community wants now.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
OK, this is an interesting thing, so allow me to splurge some karma.
You might be starting what could possibly be the first successfull grassroots campaign at Slashdot.
Keep up the good work, but don't over do it. There's a difference between harassing the system and fighting it.
Sigh. Parent modded down to 0 in exactly 4 minutes. And here go a few more karma points.
There's Slashdot for ya.
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.
Why is everything being modded down in an effort to make it invisible? Are people actually feeling threatened by this?
Wow... it took less than two minutes for the above to be modded down. Someone's having a pissy fit.
Haha, Everbody keep up the good work on this thread.
Try browsing this thread at -1. How many posts do you see about "sex with goats", "Windows is dying", etc. at score: -1? Damn few.
Dozens of legitimate, upstanding, non-troll users have posted hundreds of supportive messages. Obviously a VAST majority of the slashdot population resents the editorial micromanagement going on here.
In the FAQ, moderation is described as being by the users, for the users. But it has become clear that editors can and will reverse any moderation that they dislike.
I'm not saying the editors are intentionally evil, but at least some of them are incredible control freaks. That's why the top post keeps getting modded down. This is some editor's way of saying "this is our site, and we're in charge here."
At this point I'm ready to say, fine, you can have your site. Just don't expect me to come here ever again. It's hard to leave because slashdot used to be so good. But somehow between the trolls and editors it is really getting ruined.
You suck huge cock.
yeah! the admins of slashdot is fucked up again... censorign everyone..
-- Note: These Comments are Generated by ME! Not You! ME!
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.
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || http://AdTerrasPerAspera.com
And whoever just modded me offtopic just proves that the person who originally started this thread is actually right. Say no to censorship!
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || http://AdTerrasPerAspera.com
This is the utmost bullshit.
/. and throwing this up as a front page story to get some sort of an official recognition? It's times like this that I think the trolls are right in referring to the VA Software employees in charge of /. as janitors.
The number of low UserID users being modded unconditionally down to -1 in this thread, people with no history of trolling whatsoever... is amazing.
The number of people attempting to moderate this post up and make it heard... is amazing.
The number of people putting this post in their sig... is amazing.
What's it going to take? Is it going to take someone else hacking
Now wipe up this post like the shit you think it is, and prove us all further right. You know, the parent post by itself could not sway as many people as your blatant abuse of power has swayed. If you had just let it get pushed up and replied to, it would have died a quiet death. Maybe a couple dozen replies, archived at +3 or so, referred to by a few dissenters for a couple of months but otherwise ignored. But by attempting to silence it, you've made a martyr of this post, you utter morons. Go back and take a history lesson, janitors.
I just realized something. If we get enough replies to this story, it WILL become part of the hall of fame. Keep it up!
In fact, I think that we should do this. Hell, I think that we should send some reading material to the janitors. Teach them some history that they'd be interested in.
They would love to see that.
Will this be moderated down into oblivion?
can you smell it?
I hope all of you happy campers have submitted a story about this?
Censorship on Slashdot
Would someone please explain to me why I just got modded down to -1 here? I'm posting anonymously for fear of being struck down by a mod who can't stand criticism. What I said may not strictly be on-topic about Oracle, but as far as the discussion of moderation practices, I think I made a VERY reasonable post. I wasn't flat out insulting, or being rude, I made reasonable suggestions.
This is the third time that I have spoken out against mods abusing their power, and every time I have attempted to be as reasonable as possible, yet this seems to result in me getting modded down. It seems mods can't stand criticism, and it's much easier to silence the critics by killing their karma, rather than to moderate properly.
The reason for the 'piling on effect' is that highly rated posts are visible, therefore more people read them.
you'd think a comment that is probably THE most modded post deserves better than this.
A men... I agree with you on so many levels - I'm glad someone speaking out about the community interest in this message comes from someone else who isn't judging this based on the content of the interesting post. I invite you to post to my journal - in a reply to the post I listed a few questions I'm interested to see people's responces to.
Wheeeee
Oh, what the hell, I'm Spartacus too. I figure I deserve a karma hit for submitting the most recent copy-protected CD story.
You do realize that if you metamod more than 2 comments as unfair, all 10 metamoderations are thrown out? And if you do more than 5 unfair, you lose karma. Weee. So much for "policing" the moderators....
Ahhh, just as I suspected. Moderated down in under 5 minutes. Nice job guys, good thing you don't have a life, nothing better to do than spend your friday nights moderating on a nerd website! Woohoo! Censorship rules!
Don't worry, one day you'll get laid. And I'm sure all that pr0n you've watched will come in handy.
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...
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.
Spend all your mod points on this thread.
I'm expecting Terry Pratchett to write a book about this any day now, it's right up his alley.
(I decided to post in this thread, even though it undoes all my moderation, as moderating appears to be a completely pointless action anymore.)
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
What's even funnier is that they've started modding down on-topic posts in this thread, presumably to keep the parent from being seen.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Nowadays there is clear and insultant abuse of troll, flamebait and offtopic moderation. One can be moderated as troll for the following reason :
=>Use of irony
=>Not being politically correct
=>Not agree with replied post
=>Not agree with slashdot policy
=>Making a joke the moderator doesn't understand
=>Well, saying almost anything meaningful
Similarly, flamebait is used for ridiculous reasons, mainly whenever one explains a moron he should revise his math classes or know what he's talking about. Sometimes I cannot even figure out why it's being quoted flamebait.
Of course, to criticize slashdot moderation is a guarantee to get an immediate -1 offtopic and maybe be put on their black list. And then they complain about censorship.
Fuck you big time slashdot moderators !!! No one else in the world deserves it more than you !!! And moderate me down as much as you like !!!
--Martin
nuff said
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
The goatse guy for president. Win one for the gaper!
Why not use this buried thread to conduct an ongoing discussion on some topic or other? Or even better: Use this thread as a parasitic forum sucking the vital fluids out of a pustulant wound on slashdot's boil encrusted butt.
Muwahahaha..
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Hi --
I'm having a hard time getting my Cisco 2611 router to obtain a DHCP address on it's eth0/1 interface. A tech said do this:
interface ethernet0/1 ip address DHCP
but it didn't work.
Any suggestions?
TIA
Love Slashdot!
No: only to -1.
This post is on-fucking-topic to the last post. Do not mod it down as off-topic, bastards.
as I was planning to write up a moderation HOWTO as I woke up this morning, so lousy has been the moderators' performance in the past few weeks.
I always browse at -1, Nested and find a wealth of stuff hidden in the trenches. Every now and then I see some brilliant posts suspiciously modded down. Why?
Because Slashdot's current moderation system has revealed itself to be unworthy and broken. Because Slashdot needs a Kuro5hin-style moderation system.
As for the trolls - you all are doing a great job. Yes, that also goes for the fantasy story posters, ASCII artists etc. A little off-topica is refreshing every now and then. What are we, a conformist culture in the breeding?
My best wishes for the future.
I know this post will burn my karma. I am proud; it's for a worthy cause.
--
CD
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
What is the current Cisco O.S.?
The last few months I have been doing some research into the trolling phenomenon on slashdot.org. In order to do this as thoroughly as possible, I have written both normal and troll posts, 1st posts, etc., both logged in and anonymously, and I have found these rather shocking results:
* More moderator points are being used to mod posts down than up. Furthermore, when modding a post up, every moderator seems to follow previous moderators in their choices, even when it's not a particularly interesting or clever post [slashdot.org]. There are a LOT more +5 posts than +3 or +4.
* Logged in people are modded down faster than anonymous cowards. Presumably these Nazi Moderators think it's more important to burn a user's existing karma, to silence that individual for the future, than to use the moderation system for what it's meant for : identifying "good" and "bad" posts (Notice how nearly all oppressive governments in the past and present do the same thing : marking individuals as bad and untrustworthy because they have conflicting opinions, instead of engaging in a public discussion about these opinions)
* Once you have a karma of -4 or -5, your posts have a score of -1 by default. When this is the case, no-one bothers to mod you down anymore. This means a logged in user can keep on trolling as much as he (or she) likes, without risking a ban to post on slashdot. When trolling as an anonymous user, every post starts at score 0, and you will be modded down to -1 ON EVERY POST. When you are modded down a certain number of times in 24 hour, you cannot post anymore from your current IP for a day or so. So, for successful trolling, ALWAYS log in.
* A lot of the modded down posts are actually quite clever [slashdot.org], funny [slashdot.org], etc., and they are only modded down because they are offtopic. Now, on a news site like slashdot, where the number of different topics of discussion can be counted on 1 hand, I must say I quite like the distraction these posts offer. But no, when the topic is yet another minor version change of the Linux kernel [slashdot.org], they only expect ooohs and aaahs about this great feat of engineering. Look at the moderation done in this thread [slashdot.org] to see what I mean.
* Digging deep into the history of slashdot, I found this poll [slashdot.org], which clearly indicates the vast majority does NOT want the moderation we have here today. 'nuff said.
Feel free to use this information to your advantage. I thank you for your time.
Why is everyone getting modded down on this?
Let's see how quickly I get modded down...
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Count me in too. This whole thing is ridiculous -- karma is worthless in a corrupt system.
How to Lobby Politicians http://www.zeta.org.au/~aldis/lobby.html
O.K., I'll start:
Mr. Frin the Fawn looks at you wih a puzzled expression.
Frin: Not take tea? Why, tea is the best thing for you in such a case.
Nancy: It's just that the leaves always get stuck in my teath, you see.
It's coming soon!
Now, I have to apologize for my previous post that criticized the parent. Although I still disagree with the specific points you made, now I see the light. This really is an abuse of editor moderation. Sure the editors can mod down trolls, but as far as I know, regular users have always been able to post to offtopic threads without being modded down. Bitchslapping an entire thread and moderating down valid posts is indeed excessive.
There. I was a man and admitted I was wrong. Think we'll ever get the same from the editors?
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Well as long as we're all committing ritual karma suicide, I'll join in and say.... 99% of the "Funny" posts are FUCKING LAME. Posters should quit trying to show the world how funny they are with their stupid and predictable little jokes - they aren't funny. If you don't have anything "informative" or "insightful" to say, don't bother posting.
To be fair, that could also apply to your post, mr poopy pants
Hello,
no, apparently I didn't realize it. If that's really so, then metamod is total bullshit. Still, it's in line with Jamie's K5 post ("all comments must be on topic" + slashdot editors decide what stories and topics are => all coments must conform to the will of slashdot editors). And I really thought this was a nice site..
However, I did not lose any karma due to metamod - just on the post (two -1 in five minutes).
Anon now as I have little karma left..
Yan
Well just my 2c...
... Now I come back every 2-3 months ... and notice that nothing has changed.
...
...
I USED to be an active membre of Slashdot
And thank god for this troll investigation
It's clear that I quit because I felt like my hard work never "paid off"
Imagine taking 2-3 hours reading all the threads, taking notes and making sure you don't say something redundant.
Now imagine taking another 2-3 hours trying to write something smart, witty and to the point and making sure, above all, to bring ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.
All that work to get moderated to hell, with no respect whatsoever for all the time passed trying to contribute something significant!!!
And guess who gets all the points? Usually people saying something funny, or something really redundant but that repeat some prefab truths about the topic at hand. And from the length and content of their contribution, it couldn't have taken them longer than 15 minutes to type it, with only two fingers. Don't want to be too sour but this is the way people usually get promoted. There's no real appreciation for work or value, just strategic placement and self-serving action.
I'm not asking for any special treatment, I'm just asking for some respect, for me and other posters who take the time to respond; we all have lives to live and whatever we give to slashdot is heaven sent. It doesn't mean we should not be critical about the content of posts but that we should be appreciative about the amount of work that goes into them.
Until that happens, consider this my last contribution. It's sad. I really like Slashdot and I feel I have much time and effort to contribute. But I just hate sending all my hard work to the bit bucket.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=172, Flamebait=4, Troll=13, Redundant=3, Insightful=37, Interesting=98, Informative=27, Funny=5, Overrated=7, Underrated=30, Total=396.
For god's sake editors, grow up. Stop it. The more you bitchslap this thread, the more your pissing people off.
Taco, this is NOT your site. It is owned by Andover.net and I dont think they would appreciate their employees devaluing their property as the editors are right now.
Editors are employees, directly or indirectly. This is not your website to screw with. It is Andover.net's, or VASoftware, whatever their name is this week.
For this destruction of the good will, I would sack you if I was one of the owners of VASoftware, or whatever the hell it is. Now stop this stupidity.
have the editors finished with their little script?
it seems that there are posts with a score higher than 1...
hopefully the oracle post will get into the hof...
sreb
(397 at time of posting)
This discussion isn't posted on the front page, and it's modslapped to kingdom come. The only way to find it is if you are looking for it, or if someone sticks it in your face. Based on the number of times I've seen it in peoples sigs, that's happening left, right and center.
Fact is, this is an issue that a LOT of people here care about.
And the editors don't want the discussion to happen. Take it to a hidden sid where only five people can find it, they say. Well, people care, and this is the forum they find.
The continued downward moderation by editors is a grudge match against the users of this site. The fact that it is repeated so often on this single post (that is now irrelevant and doesn't affect at all people who don't care), and that so many of the most respected members of the community are involved, means that it is a fight against the users.
This is despicable. I am afraid that I am going to feel a part of this community until it ends, but I hope that many other members will take this opportunity to go elsewhere. The disrepespect shown by the editors is tremendous.
Even Slashdot wants to hide some things
- a primary focus on all things technical ("hard" technical stuff, not "this new cool gadget will be out real soon now! i want one!")
- frequent updates
- a good interface (nested view?)
- no moderation, or at least not an inherently broken one like
/. employs
- perhaps some kind of existing userbase
:)
?NO. Details of cold fusion would most definitely be labeled as Informative. Insightful posts are those that express an opinion.
I say we rally the troops for a anti-/. week. No reading and no posting on /. for a week in protest. Get as many people to do it as possible. Spead the word via The Register, etc. Basically milk it for what it's worth. If it's successful, maybe Taco and his cronies will listen; although since they have their heads so far up their collective assholes, I strongly doubt it.
I also doubt anyone can rally the troops to do such a thing in a wide enough scale to make a dent in the logs of /.. Perhaps some other call to action is required.
What kills me is that they're still bitchslapping this thread four days after it started. Makes me wonder if they ran out of tenticle pr0n to watch.
P.S. It seems that Taco & his "editors" (er, users) have blocked the ability to post anonymously from several well known anonymizing proxy servers. Well, screw you, Taco. I still got around it. You can't block them all!! Muahahaha!
This is a Foo!
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=187, Flamebait=4, Troll=17, Redundant=3, Insightful=43, Interesting=104, Informative=28, Funny=6, Overrated=7, Underrated=32, Total=431.
Wow. This post/thread is getting crazier by the moment. I am throwing my Karma and two cents on to the pile. At what point does this issue become interesting enough to start it's own topic? This should be the next Ask Slashdot subject!
-These aren't my pants.
Michael is a nazi faggot. For the good of mankind, kill yourself Michael.
Then Malda's rectum has already won.
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 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
-1 Interesting
This is quickly becoming a show of solidarity against the "moderators" of this thread. From what I can see, we're up to 733 posts (ironically, the same as the clockspeed of my P3 Coppermine). I can deal with the fact that the editors of Slashdot have infinite moderator points. I can deal with the fact that they can ban anybody they wish at a moment's notice. What I have a problem with is the simple fact that they have not made 1 single statement regarding this incident, and they continue to bitchslap the entire thread with Offtopic moderations, without any reason why. And furthermore, they still claim that it's a "user-moderated site". Bullshit. The users have given up on moderating this thread a long time ago. Now it's the hypocritical editors who keep this up. Keep posting, people. Let the voice be heard. Oh, and I was bitchslapped once, and never used a script to do it, in direct violation of the high-and-mighty FAQ. Hypocracy at its finest.
I just thought I'd donate some of my (much limited) karma to the cause.
Here goes...
The Day Our Eyes Were Opened
I just thought I'd donate some of my (much limited) karma to the cause . . .
Here goes...
The Day Our Eyes Were Opened
the upgraded m12-zp files for the alt. common "fly function" are the received con-executory variance for vlf limit(s)/(ations) while setting for capcitance majorum dinos plectus xp-14, [please note basic resonance patterns will emerge they do not cause any SERIOUS problems with your XMP-model, though the q-zax user might have a slightly higher impedance ratio...] zactor q-pleasance nogo schmoo-x14. Ps-om4 users could kick Pikkkard's asses, dudes. heh heh! #snort#//.
Thanks. I already know about those sites and am a frequent user there, and while /. sorely needs), spoil it for me. If you take that away, there just isn't
I appreciate their value, it's still not what I'm looking for; too much politics
or, IMHO, (pseudo-)philosophical pondering and meta-discussions (which, ironically,
is what
much left that'll get me through the boring hours at home/work and where I feel
I'm learning something instead of just spending time.
fp
Pushin' 'n dealin', shovin' 'n stealin'
... and don't meta-moderate either. If the editors want to have total control over moderation then let them have it. Perhaps when they get tired of having to do it all themselves, or tired of seeing most posts at 1 or 2, they'll realize that for moderation to work, first of all they need to trust their community's judgement. They need to other things as well, but that's the first step.
We're up to 453 moderations on the parent post now. Amazing.
It seems worthwhile to every now and then keep a running total of the current moderations on the parent. We're now at
Offtopic=197, Flamebait=4, Troll=20, Redundant=3, Insightful=53, Interesting=110, Informative=28, Funny=6, Overrated=9, Underrated=34, Total=464
The number of comments in the thread looks to be around 520, based on reading at -1 and grepping for comment headers.
I'm disappointed in the editors. The one time I heard them explaining the purpose of editor moderations, it was so that they could *assist* the user moderators. They wanted user moderators to be able to focus on modding up good posts, so the editors' philosophy was that they would use editorial points to mod down obviously bad posts, so that the user moderators wouldn't have to.
All in the name of saving user moderator points, so that they can put them to good use, right? Sounds good. Except here, where the editors have gone completlely crazy on trying to maintain the purity of on-topic discussion, and don't care how many user moderations they cancel out in the process.
Bleagh.
Just so you know.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26522&cid=2871 267
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!
I hope there are people keeping copies of this thread for posterity since Slashdot will erase it.
Amazing! From a moment ago, here's a celebratory quote of the even 500:
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=211, Flamebait=4, Troll=25, Redundant=3, Insightful=55, Interesting=120, Informative=29, Funny=7, Overrated=9, Underrated=37, Total=500
Slashdot editor chrisd has posted a comment on this. Also check the replies, they are interesting and insightful.
Damn I'm sexy. Great job negative karma now, maybe someone will actually listen to you now.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=213, Flamebait=4, Troll=25, Redundant=3, Insightful=57, Interesting=120, Informative=29, Funny=7, Overrated=9, Underrated=37, Total=504.
I don't have a lot of karma but I can spare a little.
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
The /. editors have missed the entire point of this thread.
JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN MOD US DOWN DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN SILENCE US.
There are sever problems with the moderation system. There are no IDEAL solutions, but we are trying to help you out here by pointing out the problems and possible solutions.
I'm posting with a +1 bonus, and not anonymously. Mod me down for being offtopic, flaming, or whatever. But get a fucking clue.
Bart
Go to your user settings and set the modifier for Offtopic to +6. Suddenly everything in this thread is scored 5 Offtopic! It looks great! It looks as if the editor's great struggle to keep all this material modded down had suddenly been cancelled!
:-)
We should all do this, as a manifestation, so the editors will think again.
Yeah, I know. Fat chance that the editors would care, even if they did interpret it as a manifestation, which of course they wouldn't do, even if a large number of people changed the setting, which of course isn't too likely.
But it's worth doing anyway, because it looks great on your screen
-
the moderators are not nazis like you all seem to think and they leave this thread as a nice little sandbox to let off some anger
-
they leave this thread open to lure all those regime critics into posting. then they know their names and can put them all into KZs.
(Posting macht frei)
-
same as above, but having their true email addies subscribed to every haxor's, pr0n, free gambling site. plus the ms bug-report list.
HECk thats even worse.
-
the poor slashcode hasn't implemented any methods to kill or close an entire thread, since it the design for true free speech was hardcoded soo long ago. (like in our constitutions)
now it's time for a "bug fix"... microsoft may want to help you
;)
yes. that felt greatModerators! Please mod up the replies to this post by Slashdot editor chrisd.
The replies are insightful -- and they're on topic!
If they're modded up, maybe the editors will even notice them! Who knows?
This sig needs improvement.
Very very interesting, I would like to see you perform similar research on the dynamics of teh Friend / Enemy system recently added to /.
Thanks for the fine posting.
Kza
Woo
Way to stick it to Malda!!!!
Well it has now ! 11:30 next morning.....
brrp. flup. wibble.
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
Your reference to the old /. poll would be a hell of a lot more relevant if it were asked today. There were only 1666 people voting in that poll. The 'Legend of the Rangers' poll from 1/19/2002 currently has over 13000 votes. When there were only a few thousand readers, a dozen moderators may have made sense, but with the tens of thousands of readers it becomes problematic just to set a number on them.
I do like the idea of meta moderation. I meta-moderate all the time (as well as moderate) and I find that on some days, all the moderation that I meta-moderate is downward. I usually follow my own meta-moderation rules of NOT meta-moderating posts that I would have responded too. It keeps me from meta-moderating based on the post rather than the original moderation.
I generally only moderate up since I find modding down to be a waste of points. It's just a personal preference of the moderator I guess.
Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
You don't think you were modded by someone who actually read your post and thought about it, do you?
It's been a couple days; I'm curious as to how much attention is still being paid to this thread. Will I be taking the three point karma hit? Will jamie decide to rip 150 points away in one fell swoop? Anyway, consider this my vote cast for "we need front page discussion on why the moderation system is broken and how to fix it". This thread is offtopic because there's no better place to put it, not because it didn't need to be said.
We had to set up an Oracle database recently. Works like a champ. It seemed pretty solid but big and it's unlikely that a pig like that will ever be totally unbreakable.
Pushin' 'n dealin', shovin' 'n stealin'
This is just a random +2 post.
Will it be modded down? Let's find out!
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
Just for the record...
Offtopic=248, Flamebait=4, Troll=26, Redundant=3, Insightful=65, Interesting=145, Informative=32, Funny=7, Overrated=11, Underrated=44, Total=585.
The Day Our Eyes Were Opened
i just wanted to see if i'm still banned here,and the only reason i was banned was because i agreed with this topic and posted it in other threads...as i now have a neg-4 karma it might be better starting over or giving up on slashdot,if slashdot can't at least notice what people are saying and attempt to fix the issues then this site is nothing more than the editors playground not a news site or community message board.if i leave here i know i wont be missed,i'm not a key poster and i occasionally post a smartass remark or post a link if someone asks where something is but if slashdot starts pissing off the more prolific insightful posters then it will be it's own undoing
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.
btw..e-mailing jamie is a waste of time if you expect a response..
* Digging deep into the history of slashdot, I found this poll [slashdot.org], which clearly indicates the vast majority does NOT want the moderation we have here today. 'nuff said.
Actually, you found evidence that the people voting back then didn't like it; but only 1600 people voted on that poll.
And in the very next poll, only 20% don't like the proposed new system.
Feel free to use this information to your advantage.
But check it out first, because some of it is bullshit.
This whole thing is quite the shame.
Hey, editors! If your users are all off topic, is it they who are really off topic, or are you? At the very least you ought to give them some place to be on topic, if you want them to discuss it somewhere else. Otherwise we might all think that disucssion is not something you favor.
Even Slashdot wants to hide some things
In conjunction with it's suit against Microsoft, AOL/Time Warner/Pizza Haven/Walmart/Disney has named Slashdot as co-defendant for being "Just so Lame."
This sig intentionally Left Bank.
It's at 633 mod points so far... When it reaches 666 I wonder if that will signal the apacolypse?
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
I meta-moderate most days of the week, however I have yet to see _any_ moderations on this entire thread pass my way. wtf ?
Are some moderations excluded from the meta-moderation system ?
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=272, Flamebait=4, Troll=26, Redundant=3, Insightful=72, Interesting=158, Informative=32, Funny=8, Overrated=11, Underrated=48, Total=634.
How long till we reach 1000 ?
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
Hey, thanks for putting this together. However, on the topic of polls I would *much* rather have the current system instead of no moderation. Yes, its not perfect. Yes, there are great inconsistencies in the moderation. However, due to the volume of traffic and posts on here the moderation system is far superior to the alternative. I visit other flat sites with no moderation and read a bunch of crap posts. At least here I have a chance of an insightful comment rising out of the ashes. Anyway, you obviously put alot of work into getting this info together. Thanks again for doing that.
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
I also M2'ed two mediocre comments that were posted early in a thread as unfair, because they were not insightful in any way. They were painfully obvious.
Now, wasn't that a little unfair? I'm always very generous in meta-moderation, and very rarely say that an upward moderation is unfair. After all, what these mediocre comments said may have been painfully obvious *to you*, but can never underestimate the knowledge level of the general Slashdot reading populace.
(if you think I'm being harsh, wait until a subject comes up that you know well -- as in the recent article about Ogg for me. There is so much crap and rubbish floating around, that even an obvious post is worth an up-mod.)
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
It's not your fucking website, therefore you can winge all you want. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. If you don't like it then fuck off and go elsewhere. BTW, I've never had mod points, and have been moderated up and down. I may not agree with all of the moderation, but I live with it. Grow up.
what the fuck r u looking at nigga
1000 mod points or 1000 replys?
Burning karma is fun! Someone tell slashdot to stop censoring these posts. I can't believe they bitchslapped the thread so it automatically goes down, that's mega lame.
"I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
Alright...here's to karma burn!
Wow, the moderators went absolutely nuts on this one.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=353, Flamebait=4, Troll=27, Redundant=5,
Insightful=90, Interesting=196, Informative=48, Funny=10, Overrated=11,
Underrated=57, Total=801.
I think there should be clarification on Interstesting versus
Insightful. If I were to mod this post up (I agree with the
off-topics, it's a reply to a story about Oracle), I'd say it was
Insightful simply because it shows real thought based mostly in opinion.
If it was mostly stating facts and backing it up, or similar,
Interesting.
Help us build a better map!
"More moderator points are being used to mod posts down than up."
That could be indicative of nothing more than a low signal-to-noise ratio, which seems to be true of human society in general.
"Furthermore, when modding a post up, every moderator seems to follow previous moderators in their choices, even when it's not a particularly interesting or clever post."
You assume that all the points came from different moderators. A single moderator may just be burning off their mod points to get rid of them.
"There are a LOT more +5 posts than +3 or +4."
But are there more mod points spent on +5 posts than +3 or +4? Remember, a poster that gets modded up often gets a +1 bonus on their post. A poster that often gets modded up three times will already have a 2 point starting point.
"Logged in people are modded down faster than anonymous cowards."
Now you've flip-flopped. Where before you were talking about final score instead of points applied, here you're talking about points applied insead of final score. Logged-in posters tend to have a higher starting point (1 or 2) than ACs (0). You might want to take this into account before jumping to conclusions about moderators.
"A lot of the modded down posts are actually quite clever, funny, etc., and they are only modded down because they are offtopic."
It's been my impression that "Offtopic" means just that. Funny and clever are all well and good, but when you're looking for information and opinions it's more important that a post is in the proper category than it be funny or clever. The site's logo is "News for Nerds," not necesarily "Jokes for Nerts."
A post may very well warrant reading, but it belongs someplace else ("There's a place for everything and everything has its place."). For example, your post may be both interesting and informative, but it still has jack to do with Oracle and its security. People came here to read information about Oracle. If you wanted to target an audience interested in moderation debates, you've missed your audience by putting this post here.