Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Subscription Update
By far the biggest complaint that we heard was from users who either hate paypal, or simply don't want to mess with it. I'm not going to go into the politics of that issue here, but it's a valid complaint. As we've explained countless times, we picked paypal first because it was simple and quick and planned to support credit cards directly as soon as we worked the kinks out of the system. And now that's happened. I'm still interested in other payment mechanisms and I'm open to suggestions as to what they might be.
Complaint number two was from people who didn't like the metered subscriptions. Again, this is a very valid complaint. I've already explained why it was essential that we impose some sort of limits, so what we've implemented is a new option called Max Ads. What it does is limit the number of pages you choose to view ad free on any given day. By default, that is 10. So even if you view slashdot 20 times a day, your $5 subscription will still last 100 days with the default setting of 10 Max Ads. Of course, you can up that number too.
Subscribers still have the ability to choose what page classes you suppress ads on. Simply hiding ads on Articles and Index, but seeing them on Comments is enough for the vast majority of readers to never hit the default Max Ads settings. At those settings, the subscription fee for a year on Slashdot would be on par with a typical magazine.
So far we've been really pleased with the turnout: 2% of our logged in users have chosen to subscribe, and we really hope that number will increase since such a huge number of readers expressed support for the subscription system, but distaste for paypal.
As we explained earlier, a large part of our decision to suppress banner ads was so that we could start accepting other ad formats, but give users an option to support Slashdot, without seeing these new ad formats. These other ad formats are highly desirable and should allow our sales folks to get contracts that we would otherwise be ineligible for. Web Advertising is a highly competitive field, and these ad formats make it possible for us to compete.
The last thing I'm mentioning here is Subscriber Plums. We have a variety of things that subscribers will eventually have access to. We're certainly open to reasonable suggestions, and we'll announce them as they come online. As I've said before, we won't be taking away things from non-subscribers, just rewarding those who are throwing quarters into the guitar case. More on these plums at a later date.
Thanks to the subscribers, as well as to those who click on our ads and support us by supporting our advertisers. You guys are helping to ensure that Slashdot sticks around for a long time.
$0.70 a day, you too can join in the millions to help out the poor, starving /. editors.
Karma? Karma? I don't need no stinkin' karma.
How about an option to hide the always annoying, never clever CowboyNeal option in the poll? That'll get some people subscribing...
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Great, Rob, throw this out while the blackout is going on, so the "hard-core" discussion mongers won't be able to contribute. :)
I do wish you'd list what kinds of Subscriber Plums will be out there, though. I'm kinda-sorta waiting to see "what's in it for me" before I subscribe; if you wait too long I may just get used to the big fattie ads and not care about subscribing.
Just my feedback, without a name since I am kinda-sorta supporting the Great Slashdot Blackout.
I think one of the main things that attracts people to slashdot is that it is not commercial and there is a sense of community (a very twisted one at that). Slashdot is a great FREE site and thats as far as it goes. I wish you guys all the success but I really don't think it will make much money. Slashdot is never consistent (which is a terrible business model) , so how can you expect to make a business out of it? Business involves planning and consistency. I for one don't want to pay for a service that at is heart is free and should always be free.
I miss the banner ads! Can't you make the slashdot logo link, jump, and wiggle?
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
From what I could tell on the IRC conversation, the /. editors promised to avoid Flash ads. I have noticed a few in the past couple of weeks, along with the "extra-big" sized banner ads on the top. Has anyone seen a statement where they said they would start accepting Flash ads now?
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
You just got $5.00 out of me. :-)
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Nah, the credit card option's been on the subscribe page for about a week now. They only just got around to announcing it today.
rOD.
Rod Begbie done this, and he's not
One of the things I would be really interested in if I choose to become a member is something like the google zeitgeist. It could show things like browsers used to connect, number of hits by time of day, OSes used to connect etc. The google Zeitgeist in a way is a snapshot of what the google searchers are most interested in at a given point in time. A similar system for slashdot could be a very interesting snapshot of the geek/nerd community.
-F
At the intersection of computation and biology.
I for one don't want to pay for a service that at is heart is free and should always be free.
Uh...OK. How about we host it on your server?
-Waldo Jaquith
Here are some of the reasons...
Nope; it just showed up for an hour in the middle of the night, during a code refresh about a week ago. But has been absent from then until about 20 minutes ago. You were probably one of like 3 people who saw the dang thing last week :)
What's the /. owner's take on ad blocking software?
I think that it's becoming much more common.
I've never bothered to install ad blocking software, but I recently upgraded my firewall software (zonealarm) and it came with new ad blocking features. I figured, what the hell, turned it on, and wow! It's really nice. I wouldn't want to go back to browsing without it.
I think that this is the beginning of a trend and we're going to see ad blocking software built in to anti-virus software, web browsers, etc...
Slashdot's moderation system is pretty good and pretty unique. How about pushing the envelope a bit further?
How about an option where subscribers can see all the stories submitted and vote on them? The highest moderated stories could the bubble up to a "subscriber selected" page, viewable by all. The editors could then decide if the subscriber selected stories were good enough for the front page mix.
I could expand on this, but I want to post this before the thread runs to 400 posts. You get the idea. Subscribers want control. Push the envelope!
-Russ
Me
- Spell check the articles even if you didn't write it.
- Use proper grammar.
- Make edits if the submitter mispells something, has poor grammar, or screws up the links.
- Make sure the links go to the right place.
- Remove unnecessary links. We don't need to link to CNN's home page every time we write the letters "CNN." Just link to the article or issue at hand.
- Before accepting an article, search your own damn site to ensure that it's not something you've approved to post before.
Do all of this and you'll have my money.Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
I am abstaining from the blackout because I think it is fundamentally misguided.
I like the Slashdot moderation system. It is the best system I've seen for handling the turd-tossers who want to ruin resources like Slashdot. They are not prevented from tossing their turds, they just get modded down to -1. Anyone who wants to examine their faecal projectiles can browse the comments at -1. (Have you tried that lately? Can you imagine trying to read a discusssion if you couldn't block that shit?)
- Have a picture
I suggest that when /. stories are approved, they be visible only to subscribers for 15 minutes. During that time, posting would be locked, so subscribers wouldn't dominate the discussions. It would be a Bad Idea to let people who pay have an edge in the debate.
/. effect shuts down the affected sites.
/. I'm sorry, but I'm cheap, and that's the reality of the situation.
The idea behind the suggestion is that subscribers would be able to actually read the stories before the
This is the only thing I can think of that would induce me to pay for
First i think you mean some sort of check card, right? a debit card usually requires a pin number entered. (ie-> going to the grocery store or an ATM machine) Secondly, i think a credit card is more appropriate for online transactions because once those bastards get their little mitts into your account, the money is gone. Using a line of credit to make the purchases, i think you have a bit more security against fraud, as the ccard companies will back your purchase, and fight for your case should something arise. Either way, do you _really_ want mr. taco to have your special 16 digits in some file somewhere? you know how those people are!
"i can never say no to anyone but you"
but I think Members should be able to read stories first. Have a 10 minute delay for non members.
Maybe "Gold" members will have the smallest delay.
Only people that are logged on will have first posts. Its not likely people will pay money to be the first troll.
Value added. Slashdot members will be more likely to see sites before the slashdot affect.
This may also help to lower peak website traffic on linked sites.
easily implemented code.
and most importantly, Because I said so :-)
Print out the email receipt that comes with your subscription, and tack on the $5 to your next expense report. After all, doesn't your company pay for subscriptions and training materials? Odds are they won't balk at the $5, and if you've ever sent your coworkers a juicy news item via a Slashdot link, then you're totally justified. I bet your boss won't even blink at it - $5 for this is a much better value than a magazine subscription.
What's your damage, Heather?
Another sign it's a troll: All the words in the post are properly spelled!
Next we'll be seeing guys claiming to be Hemos and Jamie posting comments here...
Best Slashdot Co
There's definitely something peculiar going on... I have metamod every day and quite decent karma, yet I haven't been given mod points in months. OTOH, a friend of mine who never posts seems to get mod points every three weeks or so. Hmmmmm...
I'm philosphically opposed to putting in what I think of as "exclusionary" features - but perhaps early story reading is a good thing. Dunno. Need to think about it. But I understand your point about not subscribinig just for no ads.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
I completely agree. I have a weekend subscription to the New York Times, and I can't tell you how many times they've double posted articles on the same tired topics: the Mideast conflict, the bad economy, boring art, police brutality, etc. I've already read about each of these issues at least once! Man, it's almost as if news, or history even, has a way of repeating itself!
A far, far easier way to avoid the /. effect is for /. to simply keep a local (local to /. and the andover colocs) cache of the page. Link to that instead of to the actual site. The /. network is set up for that much load; a home enthusiast's cable modem isn't.
Maybe replace the link-to-cache with the link-to-real after 24 hours, or a week, or whatever. There's probably lots of tweaking possible here that I haven't even thought of, much less posted. My point is that /. has the capability to shoulder some of those slashdottings, at least briefly.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
you could contact small businesses, and say "hey, if you don't pay us $$$, we will post a story about you that will result in your entire years bandwidth allowance being used up by lunchtime!!!"
... would be access to the rejected bin. i pay $5 a month for full access to totalfark, and its worth it there. give access to the reject bin here, and you may well get more subscribers.
they get 20,000 subscribers they'll release the slashcode!
Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
There shouldn't be Flash ads - please e-mail me when you find one. I track down the 3rd party advertiser, and kick them in the jim-jams.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Just remove his articles, believe it or not, everyone doesn't think like you. Some of us have our own opinions on the matter and like to see what the crackpots have to say from time to time.
Try reading the stories. We're specifically ASKING what features it is readers want. We're not done with the system - we want input from you.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
And it hasn't been for over two years now. Why is this particular piece of FUD so hard to stamp out? Debit cards from Visa/MC have the exact same level of liability, specifically none, with no limitation on how soon you need to report the card lost/stolen.
Visa:
Card Comparison chart, notice that all the check cards are covered by Zero Liability.
Information on Visa's Zero Liability Policy.
Mastercard:
Debit MasterCard features, notice their own Zero Liability Policy listed.
Information on the MasterCard Zero Liability Policy.
Yet another subscription idea:
Take a page from online stock tickers, which show 20-minute delayed values for non-subscribers, and realtime information for subscribers. If Slashdot did the same, it would mean that subscribers have access to new articles 20 minutes (or some other reasonable value) before non-subscribers, allowing them to beat the Slashdot effect, plus the ability to post comments before everyone else.
This benefit could be used in conjunction with, or separately from the existing no-ads system for subscribers, and IMHO it would draw many more subscribers than the no-ads system.
"It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe."
I don't filter banner ads or banner icons, nothing. I'm not going to install programs of plug-ins in my browsers to censor content, even if they are ads. What I do and will continue to filter is pop-up anything. Not beacuse they are ads but because they annoy me and clutter my desktop.
I run a popular website with traditional banner ads (468x60 up top an a few 100x100 on the left sidebar). That's the way it was, that's the way it will be. The day an advertiser demands that I give them pop-up is the day they can look for a new place to put their ads.
In any case, I still think traditional banner ads are both more asthetic and more effective. The bigger and more intrusive an ad, the quicker it will be closed or scrolled over. And in the case of pop-up ads it's just too easy for users to disable them entirely.
In fact, I've been tempted to go to text-based ads. The main reason I don't is because I think they'd be TOO effective: users would actually see them as content rather than the advertisement that they are. I want to maintain a distinction. I think traditional banner ads are the right balance.
do you _really_ want mr. taco to have your special 16 digits in some file somewhere?
Good point, Sir!
Didnt sourceforge get r00ted not so long back? This is only one degree of freedom from slashdot, surely.
Which gets me thinking. What security measures are slashdot taking to keep my (important) personal data private? For what period are they keeping cc no's? Do slashdot have a data protection policy? Can I see it please?
Out of curiousity, who does /. use for the accpetance of credit cards?
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
No, his point is still valid.
The slashdot effect is usually worst with the stories at the top of the page. This is because this is the first story that everyone gets to see, whether they reloaded 10 seconds or 10 days ago. Usually, sites linked further down the slashdot homepage are back up, and the volume of traffic has slowed dramatically.
Therefore, the worst period of slashdot effect is probably half an hour or so after the story gets posted.
Furthermore, serving up stories to subscribers earlier than non-subscribers could actually reduce the slashdot effect, as not everyone would click on the link at the same time.
we now can directly accept Credit Cards in addition to paypal.
Watch out for paypal, here is my experience. That's not the end of it either. One class action suit is already in progress against Palpal, for exactly the things they've done to me, and another is apparently pending.
At least, include a warning not to give Paypal any more of your money than you are willing to kiss goodbye for an indefinite period, for no good reason.
There are alternatives, notably Billpoint which at least hasn't done anything evil to me yet.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
I think you're right there. How about if a Mod is made, they have to enter a reason as to why, or at least if it's moidded down. That way people can make their own judgement as to why it was modded down. I wonder how people'd respond to my posts if they saw "Flamebait: Doesn't hate Microsoft."
"Derp de derp."
I'll agree with that, although it'd be hard to make them provide a reason, it would definitely lend some weight to their decision if they put something. In addition, it'd make meta-modding a lot easier. Just a quick justification string, no longer than a sig would do it. Very good idea.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."