Slashdot Mirror
McOwen Case Settled
ewilts writes: "Back in July, you ran a story about David McOwen, a computer adminstrator at DeKalb Technical College in Georgia, who was being charged for installing SETI software on school computers. This case has now been settled. See also the EFF press release
on McOwen's web site." Update: 01/18 16:11 GMT by M : It was software from distributed.net, not SETI.
While everyone has now seen the infamous troll research post on Slashdot, I fear many less are aware of a much more interesting comment made to the forum. I speak of a post by one Slashdot editor, Jaime. His original comments can be found here.
His post is a reply to a disgrunted reader who was claiming editors have unlimited moderation points. If this was the case, it could and almost certainly would lead to abuse.
Jaime states, "We do mod comments, yes, but we're fair about it."
First, thank you Jaime for finally admitting the obvious. One was always curious as to why so much was down at -1, were decent folks actually sitting around modding down score 0 posts to -1? Unlikely. Then came the the day when moderator points weren't being given out as some of you remember. This was over the course of a couple days, when maybe the highest modded comments were 3 for the whole day. But lo and behold, half the comments still somehow managed to get modded down to -1. I guess it was pretty obvous from that point.
Now back to Jaime's point. As a reader, I have a some questions. Why do the editors feel it is necessary to moderate posts with their unlimited priveleges? I think moderation works without them interfering. Let the real users decide what they want to see modded up. Why does it matter to CmdrTaco and company what posts are rated? Oh, that's right, they are now owned by the "premier" open source company, VA Linux.
Also, why should anyone believe the editors are fair about it? Jaime claims he is fair, that's one thing. But giving Michael Sims unlimited moderator points is like giving John Ashcroft secret military tribunals. Do you really want to trust him?
The rest of Jaime's argument is half-hearted rationalization. Trying to convince the users that for some reason, the moderation system is broken and they are just there to fix it. The argument borders on the ridiculous at times, saying how well the moderation system is working, just saving the users time, and the like. And about letting the users mod the good stuff up, that's a great idea. How about a positive only moderation system? That works wonders on "other sites". I think most people would agree that without unlimited points for editors, things weren't that bad at all. Browsing at +5 yields mostly intelligent comments. So what's the problem? This isn't about free speech or any of that tripe, its just about respect. Users made this site, like it or not. And the least Rob Malda could do is let them know the rules.
The system is completely rigged and phony. The editors are now on a rampage to completely slap down all who dare to question their mighty wisdom in modbombing this thread down. Good users who have stood up to this abuse are getting bombed too. The editors are cutting their own nose to spite their face. How much more foolish can they be before they realize they will lose their best and brightest readers?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/01/15/203249 &mode=thread
Doobie doobie do...
What would you think is a suitable punishment (for this nonviolent, victimless crime)? Anal rape?
You're both right! Amazing! The two of you must be congenital twins, both possessing deformities in your genitals and cerebral cortex. Wow. Incredible.
Mike & Tim. You need to talk to one another on an hourly basis. You guys are the biggest offenders of repeat articles. This was covered in the slashback yesterday...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Too many successful conferences, too many high-impact papers, too much acclaim and too much dope alone at home; a burnt out case. Slowly I withdraw from the real world and slip further into my nightmare as I imagine myself as unfeeling demagogue, for whom all that is left is the demonstration of power over his unthinking student and postgrad audience.
coulda sworn I saw this already
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Being a native Georgian (southwest Georgian for that matter...Albany - a REAL backwater), and a comparatively savvy technogeek, I am filled with horror. These idiot lawyers are going to do everything they can to make a name for themselves in whatever context they consider important, intelligence be damned. Of course, if in doing so, they drag the name of Georgia back into the yeehaw days (Gawrsh, Goober, that there computey-thang shor is makin' them nekkid wimmens look purty an' all. Gimme a chaw.), they don't care.
Georgia is full of intelligent, growing technologists - startups, academics, and all-around geeks. These barristers' motives are pure old-fashioned power plays, making a name for themselves and wielding power over those who don't respect them. Please don't consider all of us Georgians hicks; we geeks live in a meritocracy separate from these backwater jackasses we elect or appoint to office.
What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?
how does your father taste?
Also note that in nearly every jurisdiction there are tons of other laws that could apply, and thus the rapist would get a similarly large number of counts.
California for example says that sodomy (defined as anal penetration) with someone unwilling or underage (2 counts if they are both unwilling *and* underage) is a seperate crime. There are other, similar, laws that make various differentiations between very similar acts, so usually a rapist can still end up with 10+ counts and probably well over 30 years
There are to many CowboyModerators out there (no pun intended to CowboyNeal) who just shoot from the hip. I think that one major reason for this is the fact that many users think the mod system is broken.
I've always been opposed to the notions of "it was better before", "I miss the good old times" and so forth. But now finaly I am too getting there. I've been reading /. since 1998 and will probably continue, but I'm becoming more and more dissapointed.
I miss the time when you could yourself mark you post Offtopic by inserting an "(OT)" mark in the subject and the users mods understood that "Ok, it's marked offtopic" and let it be. If some users were interested they continued the thread, now what is wrong with that!? That was a perfectway to have spin-off discussions. I mean if you are discussing Transmetas Crusoe it's easy to start speaking of other processors and suddendly you are talking Z80-assembly!! What the hell is wrong with that!?
I hope this pos gets through and it will be interesting to see the moderations that will be done on this comment. Let me tell you that I'm NOT holding my breath... I'm starting to care less and less and kindof feeling a Golum-like transformation going on towards... dare I say it... trolling...
Propz to all downmodded Offtopicers...
$HOME is where the
-- silver_p
That is true! . . . (First Post - for me, anyway. No reason to mark me as a foe yet, my postings will improve!)
Why don't we just start crapflooding Slashdot? Every story, we'll post 300 comments about how the moderation is unfair, the trolling results, etc.
Nothing like fixing a problem by... um, making it worse, I guess...
All Hail The First Troll Post Investigation
Read at -1 to get the info.
And: PROPZ TO ALL DOWNMODED OFTOPICERS!
Rape is rarely reported, and even more rarely prosecuted in this country. The actual time served for convicted rapists is astonishingly short. Why you may ask? Well, all those really dangerous marijuana users have mandatory minimum sentences thanks to the federal war on drugs. All others get their sentences shortened/let out early because the prisons just won't hold that many people.
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
Terrorists? No. More like freedom fighters struggling against the last remaining Apartheid state. Isreal is no angel. Frankly, I think they deserve to suffer. If there was any justice in the world, they would have to excoriate themselves as much as the old government of south africa did with the truth and reconciliation commitee. And before you go whiniging on about me being an arab or liberal or whatever, no, I'm a white bread American dude whose a registerd libertarian. I'm just tired of giving MY money to people who use artillery on refugee camps.