Slashdot Mirror
Would You Attend a Slashdot Convention?
J.J. Lee asks: "I must say that I'm truly touched. I've just read some of the peoples' response to the System Administrators - College or Career? posting and I found it very encouraging that people have posted selfless, useful, encouraging and helpful advice to a complete stranger. I've been a Slashdot devotee for about a year now and I know this wasn't the first time I felt proud to be in such a community. The responses (for the most part) were well though out and had a genuine concern for this young fellow.
Would the Slashdot community be willing to come together for an annual convention or event? If so, what would be the theme and what talks would a convention like this have? Just thought it might be great to meet some people and get to know each other on a non-virtual level."
I've been doing Ask Slashdot for somewhere close to 5 years, and it's been one of the best experiences of my life. I sure wouldn't mind meeting some of the faces behind the nicknames (particularly this "Anonymous Coward" chap), what about you? If not a huge convention, would local
get-togethers be more your speed?
No.
No. No nono no.
No. No no no. No no nonono. No no.
No.
-No.
I wouldn't go because:
a. It's probably not near me
b. I'm too poor to travel
c. I don't like other people, especially in person
d. I'm embarrassed enough to be here
e. I'm just lazy
f. I don't want to make myself available for easy capture.
g. I don't have time
h. Other: _________________
Please select your answer(s) above and submit your response.
Hey, at some conventions they have games like "Spot the Narc" or "Spot the Fed". WE could have games like "spot the hidden goatse.cx link", "Who is the most Anonymous Coward?", pin the first post on the troll, etc.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
...the people I've berated over the years promise not to try and kill me at the convention.
"And like that
At night, after the conference, we could go out and pick up a couple of Karma Whores...
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Convention center booked for Slashdot Convention. Unlucky town immediately slashdotted out of existence. Story at 11.
Though, I personally would not need the trailer.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Sure if it's in Ann Arbor. I live here anyway:)
/. confrence. Would it be just a get together or would there be topical discussions.
Acutally. It would depend on the theme. I go to confrences to learn or to network. What would be the purpose of a
"as plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee" - Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. (One man's humorous is another mans flamebait)
group of nut cases?
Naw...
but if it happens, make sure that
a) there's food
b) there's firefighters to cut down on the need for the asbestos underware.
It would probably be a good vessel on which to piggyback a keysigning party.
But that's about all it would be good for, IMHO. I certainly wouldn't make a special trip for it. I doubt many would.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If you can convince my boss to send me.
Pretty much, to me a slashdot convention sounds a lot like communism: if you could ever get it to work the way you thought it was supposed to, everything would be great...but that's not ever going to happen. Slashdot is undoubtedly a great community, and one that I'm happy to be a part of, but I believe that a community like Slashdot could only exist in an environment like the internet and trying to turn it into a more conventional (no pun intended) community would only lead to ruin.
What I'm saying here is that Slashdot is about up-to-date nerd news, and letting all the nerds who come here every day say what's on their mind (even the trolls). If ever there was a convention, letting everyone have their say would have to go right out the window, and then I don't see that it would be much different than any other tech convention. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, I just don't see this working out well in the end.
I have to say I am somewhat suprised by the first few responces, asside from those which suggest sex with farm animals. I thought the Slashdot Community would have been a little more anxious to be as sociable and helpful in person as they are online. But then it hit me. The Slashdot Community consists of a really diverse range of people, most of whom i wouldn't really like to meet. There's everything from 13 year old script kiddies to 60 year old unix gurus, and everything inbetween. And that diversity that would make a "reunion" a little weird is what makes Slashdot such a sucessful online community. There is something for everybody on Slashdot. Although this has been a source of complaint in recent months ("What has happened to Slashdot?!?" and "This made front page?!?") I believe that because of the diverse nature of the followers Slashdot has to be the best source for news and tech talk on the net. Tristan
Yawn.
Dear god, no.
GNUs lash.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
Some other thoughts:
Schedule it a half a year in advance so that I can book tickets and time off.
Book it in a reasonably-priced hotel, or at least near reasonably-priced hotels (like $100/night or less). I pay for conferences out of my own pocket, which means I never attend conferences.
Pick a city that's an airport hub, and central to the U.S. (Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis) so that airfares are cheaper, instead of the obvious and expensive cities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco. And when considering what's an expensive air fare city, think of flights out of smaller towns, not comparing L.A.-->Baltimore tickets.
In short, do this so that the great unemployed can afford to go, and can make contacts. Don't do this as a moneymaker. I've chaired conferences before. I know what they cost, and I know how much money they can make. I also know how easy it is to make them affordable.
If it works, make it an annual event, and pick the same location/city/weekend each year. We can then plan better, and "accidentally" be at a customer site, or on layover, in that city at the right weekend.
Does the pope shit in the woods?
Hell yeah, I'd be there, because they'd hand out karma like candy.
I'm sorry, but how someone could be proud to be part of a 'community' such as what is found here on slashdot is completely baffling to me. As such for most online 'communities' across the internet. How one can feel companionship from complete strangers that you have never met, will most likely never meet; and will furthermore most likely never want to associate with in real life is beyond logical comprehension.
Slashdot has degraded seriously over the years, this sort of 'community' just does not scale. I'm not refering to serving horsepower here, as the software and hardware actually scales quite well. I'm talking about the fact that such a comminity [in a sense] could not possibly scale to the level that you really have personal attention and the true sense of belonging with your peers. Of course, one could theorize that the system is merely made up of many smaller communities contributing to the great hive of slashdot. This is where the problem arises though, is that these microsystems do not generally follow geographic lines. In the real world , communities usually only form through geographical constraints, unlike the online counterparts.
What I am getting at, is that trying to bring real world contact and sense of community involvement over into the real world would more than likely end up becomming a dismal failure. The chances are slim that your microcommunity fits within a local geographical boundary; and if it does, then there may be some serious problems.
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
- Slahdot Network Administration and Security Security conference
- Slashdot Internet and Web Services conference
- Slashdot Program and Design conference
Of course they will all be in the same room at the same time, but that will be just a coincidence. Should make it easier to justify at leastI'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
All the trolls could bring printouts of goatse man and stick them in people's faces.
We could mourn Stephen King together...
Sounds like fun.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Chicks
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
Ok, Slashdot, I know, it's tempting, extending and leveraging the brand, opening new sources of revenue, and everything. And also it would be cool to have all those people meeting each other. But, no. /. audience is way too diverse and geographically stretched to be a real community. What would the /. convention be, beer bash cum Star Treck with Linux with anti-MPAA activism with cool science and bits of space exploration and the Mars Society on the top of it ? Sorry, but it would be a mess. Conventions are always a mess, but there it's just too much of a mess.
/., no imperial overstretch please please please. Lots of good companies die like that and I want to have you around for a few more years. Other companies do the right thing and carry on minding their core business without grandiose delusions and nicely evolve this so precious core. Typical example : Dolby. If new revenue is what's you're after, you should rather consider selling/maintaining Slashcode to/for companies. No kidding. Internal customized /. could be a great product for knowledge sharing.
/. is a great marketing database to identify small highly motivated audiences on specific subjects, and doing things the right way (asking the permission first for instance), you may even succeed to do that without being offensive.
And also, dear
And, if you really want to extend in meatspace, you should rather consider small conferences. With just a wiff of data mining,
My $.04678 (inflation is a bitch).
SNS Not Sig
Subscription revenue not what you thought it would be?
How much were you hoping to charge for tickets, paraphernalia, etc.?
we could have an online convention... and call it "slashdot"
Meeting in person sounds like a high school reunion... brag brag brag blah blah blah and a few lucky winners have sex only to find out that their partners have misrepresented themselves... He is not really a millionair and she is actually the goatsex man.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
The moment every panel begins, the room echoes to a deafening squeal of "FIRST POST!", the trolls argue and whine incessantly, the cops are called to settle the Linux/BSD rumble, anyone self-identifying as a Windows admin is branded "tool of Gates" with a branding iron improvised from a hotelroom coffeemaker, JonKatz is hung from the ballroom ceiling and used as a pinata, the hotel's network crashes under the load of Snow Crash-inspired gargoyles walking around transmitting live webcam footage from everywhere simultaneously - not to mention the raging hackwars across the hotel network and the perpetual Unreal/Quake tournament. Noo...
I would go to a local get together. What do you loose by going? But I am a broke college student so no big confrences for me.
"The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm; usually because they could not walk" Nietzsche
I'd prefer a local event - I know there's other folks in the Baltimore area.
I think it would be neat to have presentations or workshops that were decided upon in the same way as interview questions...let people submit their ideas, good ones get modded up, and somebody (who? haven't figured that out yet) picks a set from the 5s.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Trolling on slashdot might be fun, but only real men can troll ACTUAL face-to-face discussions!
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Find a small town, clearly too small to handle hundreds of thousands of conventioners.
:)
:)
Don't make any reservations, and make no effort to alert the local authorities or businesses of any such gathering. Only announce the location at the last minute (but give general area ideas so people can choose to go or not).
Everyone bring at least one computer, and if necessary a portable generator in case massive attempts at leeching power from elsewhere fail. Wireless networks might seem convienent here, but there would be a certain charm to actually running cat 5 cable all over the place.
It'll be the first physical slashdotting. And after witnessing such an event, it might give some perspective to what the poor sysadmins have to go through when they're the unlikely target.
Of course, I'm KIDDING!!!!! This would definitely NOT put geeks in a good light. But damn it sure would be funny.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
On the other hand, it would be fun to hurl pies at him . . .
In a heartbeat, just tell me where and when so I can book flights and somewhere to crash out.
The actual goatse.cx guy might show up.
Why not hold a mini convention the same weekend as a bigger convention we are lickly to be at anyways? Didn't OSDN have a party the day of the linux convention in San Fran 2 or 3 years ago? I remember something like that, well I remember alot of free booze the rest is blurry....
Anyways hold a get together one of the days of linux world, everyone would be in town anyways.(And for some people the company picks up the tab)
iRepairIT - iPhone, Mac, & PC Repair
The If I ever meet you in real life I will kick your ass! trolls Ive seen would suddenly take on a new meaning.
Liberty in your lifetime
you've obviously never been to a geek convention thing. clothes in general tend to be optional.
although you'd be better off wearing something plastic, hemp, or perhaps your home-made klingon outfit.
If so, what would be the theme and what talks would a convention like this have?
1) JonKatz needs a good cock-punching.
2) Why he needs it, cock-punching techniques for the new post-Columbine and post-9/11 world, the globalization of cock-punching, cock-punching from the middle east with a commodore 64...
--saint
just to see Cowboy Neal and find what poll option there is for him that time. (I would, however, be disappointed if the poll sucks... so think about that)
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
D
Ok, I'm not being fake or anything here, but I had a devil of a time trying to find enough to do in Vegas last year at Comdex aside from gambling. (and don't try to tell me all of you guys are any different.) Besides, a meal is expensable, but a $100 straight up on #17 black is definitely not (at least according to our CFO.)
At least at a slashdot show, there would be plenty of fun things to do, and I wouldn't have those IBM quacks trying to shoo me off their laptop-internet-connection even though I'd just walked up to it. Sheesh! can't a geek check his mail?
I like the idea of running the convention parallel with another one.. That way, I can make it a legit business expense!
Alvin...
...and I'd just as soon keep it that way.
No sig? Sigh...
Four years ago, I would have answered a resounding "Yes!". Today, I would answer an uninterested no.
Slashdot has becomed the shadow of it's former self; it is now a little more than a news outlet for me. It was'nt always the case. It had been a real community a few years ago. Notice my UID; I have been reading Slashdot for a long time ... back when CmdrTaco was actually taking part in the discussion.
If you want to see a real community in action, I suggest you check out Kuro5hin for the political/social stuff and ArsTechnica discussion forum for the technical stuff. These are real community in my mind; not glorified news outlet. They are not the only one; just two good examples.
:wq
You'll need a draw, something like free beer and a chance to win an uber-karma account with +3 for posts.
Also, do you have any idea of what goes on down Score: -1 and Score: 0 ? I only slum down there when I moderate.
Let me tell you, some of those posters give me the creeps.
I don't think I'd want to risk meeting them in person.
You'll definitely need some bouncers at the door.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I have *never* understood these geek type conventions. The whole place must reek of body odor and be exclusively male. *ick*
What is the point?
I'd go to a local meeting of Slashdotters Older Than Average.
Can I attend the same way I usually read Slashdot, in my underwear at 5AM with a cup of coffee in my hand?
On second thought, maybe a virtual conference would be a better idea.
Beta sux! Join the Slashcott! http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4760465&cid=46173047
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Honestly, I enjoy Slashdot: The Website quite a bit. I also find the idea of Slashdot: The Convention to be utterly terrifying.
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
At least in the reference scale of the parent post.
I'm going back to K-Pax dammit!
I will most definitely attend.
I trust that VA Software will reserve thousands of rooms at an expensive hotel, and reserve an expensive convention hall for the event. Also, I hope that VA Software spends tens of thousands of dollars on expensive, nearly nude booth babes, and pays for expensive and interesting guest speakers. It would be cool if there was some expensive entertainment as well -- some modern bands would be great. And I hope there's some really expensive, cool swag given away. Oh, and I hope VA Linux charters some planes as well, flying from most major cities in the US and the rest of the world.
Uhh... this is going to be entirely free, isn't it? You see, like most of the people who read Slashdot, I'm only 15 years old, and I work at McDonalds. I don't really have any money.
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
So that they can flame me in person ??
Gnomedex
...is to get involved more in local geek-related events. Just last week I went to the UK Palm user Group meeting and had a great time. Except that for once I felt I didn't have enough gadgets on my belt... ;-)
Head off to these, support them, and while you're there mention slashdot if you like.
I suspect thought that a slashdot meeting in meatspace might kinda miss the point of an on-line community if you see what you mean.
One thing though, it is sooo wierd introducing yourself with your nick instead of your real name.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
How one can feel companionship from complete strangers that you have never met, will most likely never meet; and will furthermore most likely never want to associate with in real life is beyond logical comprehension.
You must be new here. By "here," I mean "the Internet" and possibly "the world."
Have you never been a part of a physical gathering of members of an on-line community? I've been to a half dozen since 1994, and they've been uniformly fantastic. That's the most common reaction to such events. You should try attending one. They're really great.
-Waldo Jaquith
See, we used to be unable to share information with and get opinions from collegues easily, so we'd all get together once a year to have a chance to interact with our peers.
Now, there's the Internet. We get to interact with our peers on a daily basis. Slashdot is a good place to do this WRT technology news.
Of course there are still conferences around, but most of them focus on in-depth sessions around narrow subjects. You can't do this well on the Internet, often because you're distracted, and often because the people who know are too busy to write about it. These conferences have increasingly fewer survey sessions, since the organizers know you've already read about that stuff on the Internet. You also have a networking benefit, since you get to meet others in your field face-to-face.
So, what are the in-depth sessions going to be at a Slashdot conference? Yeah. So, that leaves you with the ability to network with other people who probably aren't in your field. (What they have in common with you are that they read news.)
Therefore, the whole event devolves to the after-conference party. So, just do that. Have a Slashdot Party. Setup monthly parties in various locals, like the Mozilla parties or 2600 meetings. Interested people will go. But, outside of Woodstock, most people won't travel very far for a party.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'd like to meet some Slashers. But I was hoping it would take the form of a convention or something. (Break off into related groups. Debate, talk.) Something formal like.
In this part of the country, a local meet would probably turn out to be kinda lame. [Central US]
What would be even better is if it was something educational and related to my work (Solaris admin) that I could convince the company to send me to.
Yeah, I'd definately like to do a Slash thing.
I have always thought it would be good to have regional "Slashdot gatherings" held in low-cost hotels in low-cost places. I speak at LUGs fairly frequently, and most of the Slashdot readers I've met in person were good people, well worth knowing.
The ideal would be one-day or two-day things, probably on Saturday only or Friday/Saturday, not too intense, all in one room, with some sort of minor door charge if we can't get corporate sponsors to pick up the tab, plus whatever the hotel we choose charges for supper for those who want to have supper as a group Friday evening.
The schmoozing and meeting/greeting would really be the big attraction, with everything else secondary. Lots of places to sit and chat, that sort of thing. Mucho network access, preferably both wired and wireless, go for an attendance limit of 300 or fewer so it's convivial instead of showlike.
- Robin
Well?
Now, parking is another story...
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I mean, pop up the folk singers and toss up a few talking heads. Replace the smootie stand with some ultra-caffinated beverages, and throw up some wireless internet (oh wait, they already do that...) and you have something cheap and OH so scalable.
Special discount for folks who try to pass their hatchbacks off as "Heavy Camping".
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
What if you did two short polls:
1. Where do you live? (Of course, this will only be very rough, but it'll allow estimations of how many percent of Slashdot reader are not from the US)
2. What distance would you travel to come to the convention?
This is a brilliant idea. Why hasn't it been suggested so gracefully before?
I think we should try an annual Slashdot Convention in rotating cities so that different people can go each year (face it, air travel is expensive and we live in a big country!).
But, after the annual OFFICIAL convention, smaller local conventions should be held so that what was shared at the larger convention can be shared to all those that couldn't go.
This could become like a fraternity with smalled chapters in each major metro area or region.
Let's do it!
No, you haven't. Slashdot was first announced in late 1997. I can't remember exactly when, but at least I know the year. I was reading Chips n Dips prior to that.
Ask Slashdot didn't appear as a regular feature until considerably later.
You're a suburbanite.
I discussed this with a few friends a long time ago about how cool it would be if we could meet some of the people ehind slashdot kinda like Defcon.
alas, we never thought to post it I guess cause we felt like nobody would give a hoot.
looks like we were wrong
so yeah, organize it, I can guarantee 5 people from ohio!
Just kidding, I can only see the tons of people who'd come out of the computer closet long enough to see other geeks and then go back to their hole!
Maybe for starters do a joint event with someone else who knows what they are doing.
Like DEFCON or Burning Man (we could create the tower of Katz and watch it burn!)
Buffalo, NY area slashdotters? I know you're out there... bark here.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.