Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Subscribers Now See The Future
So while subscribers won't see news posted at the last minute before everyone else, most of our stories will be available to them 10-20 minutes before everyone else. This means they can click through and beat the Slashdot Effect.
Another possible feature addition that we're discussing is to allow subscribers to post during this window. We haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. Since subscribers are still subject to all the same restrictions as anyone else in the forums, they could still be moderated into oblivion if they were jerks about it so it's probably not subject to all that much abuse, but this is still something we're only considering. Feel free to discuss it in this forum, or to contact me with opinions.
A couple of notes here:
- Subscribers have a variable on their subscriptions preference page that tells us how many banner ads they wish to "Spend" per day. This number must be at least 10 for you to be eligible to see the Mysterious Future plum. This means that your $5 subscription will last 100 days- or, $15-20 a year.
- You also need to hit the checkbox to disable ads on the Index. Once you hit your Max Pages for the day, you will see ads again, but you will also be eligible for the plum.
- These notes will be clarified on both the subscriptions page and in the FAQ very soon. Your feedback will help us decide how best to explain this since it's not exactly black & white here. Give us a couple weeks and it should all be blazingly obvious from the documentation how everything works.
In closing, this is a new feature and we appreciate all your feedback, both good and bad. We decided to implement this after tons of feedback from you, and we're really excited about it. This is a really great incentive for users to subscribe, but it also can give subscribers a chance to alert us in advance if stories have mistakes in them. We'll likely be expanding this sort of functionality in the future.
Now please go subscribe and help support Slashdot!
Update To clarify the timing. Right now the mysterious future is set to 20 minutes. That number is not a promise tho, since a story posted 11 minutes before "Air time" would be seen slighter later. A story posted 30 minutes in advance will be visible 20 minutes early.
this is too confusing to become successful.
Will this now result in a pre-/. effect? Maybe the subscribers will be nice enough to mirror /.-ed sites on their own sites before the rush, but I'm not holding my breath.
"Anonymous Coward" is for whistleblowers, not unpopular opinions.
If you see the article hours before most of slashdot readers, I think that yes, this will be a subscriber benefit. For the others a lot of discussions will start half full just when the article is widely available.
Didn't TotalFark already go this route? What's next, Slashdot Photoshop contests? *grin*
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
But..
Another possible feature addition that we're discussing is to allow subscribers to post during this window. We haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. Since subscribers are still subject to all the same restrictions as anyone else in the forums, they could still be moderated into oblivion if they were jerks about it so it's probably not subject to all that much abuse, but this is still something we're only considering. Feel free to discuss it in this forum, or to contact me with opinions.
I don't think that is a good idea. I think the fact that users can read ahead of time and then they can prepare their posts. This might make better prepared comments.
Actually, it would be, and AC's (unless they're logged in, posting anonymously) would be 30 minutes and 100 comments behind.....
I could start reading at zero again.
FWIW, I did subscribe. It wasn't much. I just wanted to get the ads out of the story pages. Banner ads don't bother me. I went back and checked before I posted, and I've still got like 400 out of the 1000 pages left. It's been worth it, I think, and this will just convince me to renew when the time comes.
(1) If a story gets pulled, lots of comments could already be posted. This would be pretty annoying if you had spent some time posting.
(2) Moderation is biased torwards early posters, and as such it would provide a disincentive for non-subscribers to post, thereby reducing the amount of discussion. This could be a good thing, since subscribers (hopefully!) provide more worthwhile reading.
well.. it seems to me that for a news orginization that promotes open source, there would be some sort of mentality that information should be free, to everyone, at the same same time, in the same context, etc.
Also what are the implications for karma whoring... how long before we have subscribers getting all of the karma(mirroring and other methods), and the non-subscribers all being modded redundant.
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
I'm a bit ambivilent about the early posting idea, since having an early post is directly related to the number of people likely to see your post, that "privilege" suddenly becomes a paid one. So people who might actually have something worthwhile to contribute suddenly have to become paying members.
But anyway, that is not the point of this post. I just wanted to say that if they do allow early posters, that they should NOT allow these early posts to be anonymous. This should help keep the quality of the early posts up. Maybe even have another modifier that increases any negative moderation by 1, again to try make the privilage of early posting a true privilage and keep abuse down.
Maybe make the Slashdot mirror only for subscribers?
In a round-about way this is a bit like selling karma (something I think you've avoided).
Good show! Could I purchase 1.25 kg of enlightment please?
Perhaps now there will be a little bit of warning. When you start seeing the first referrals from slashdot on your web server, those are the subscribers -- the advance guard before the real assault.
if you pay more, you get more
unfortunate, but true
for healthcare, for the legal system, for media/ information
equality is an illusion
true in life, true in not-real-life internet communities
sad but true
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Information may want to be free but bandwidth is another story.
Try Kuro5hin. Reader supported (even the bulk of the ads are by readers).
I don't understand why folks are saying that SlashDot is selling out.
While you may not like the editors, they have t o be paid somwhow. Banner ads aren't what they used to be.
And how much does the computer equipment cost? The bandwidth?
And you gripe about those who pay get benefits and gripe about banner ads. I don't understand.
It costs a good bit of money to run a site like slashdot why should it be completely free?
"Another possible feature addition that we're discussing is to allow subscribers to post during this window."
This is a bad idea, because earlier posts tend to be moderated higher than later posts, simply because more people see earlier posts. This will give subscribers a much louder voice in the forums, while potentially degrading the quality of the discussion.
Having said that, my lack of subscription is for a very simple reason: it's not professional.
I won't subscribe until I never see a dupe or typo. Really, for all of our vaunted technology, if Slashdot cannot surmount these two very simple obstacles, it doesn't deserve any real monetary support. It just doesn't. And again, I say this as a real fan.
Fix that, Taco, and you've got my money. And maybe even a little more credibility.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure you look nothing like a line of text.
I just read over the subscription FAQ. I know we're geeks, but does slashdot need such a complicated subscription system?
The system seems to revolve around you buying add-free pages, and then spending a certain number of pages a day.
Get a grip Taco! Just make it ten bucks for a year's subscription with no ads and unlimited usage! Simple simple simple.
And if you think $10 isn't enough, think again!
---
I support spreading santorum
Maybe Slashdot will locally cache the sites they are about to slashdot.
I think people would be willing to subscribe to such a service.
As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
Good marketing, Slashdot! It reminds me of the Coke machine fiasco a few years ago. They tested machines that had temperature controls -- when the temperature got hot, it would automatically raise the price of the bottles. The media caught wind of this and had a field day. If Coca Cola had only beaten them to the punch and billed it as a "machine that discounts soda in cold weather", they'd have been heros.
"Slashdot subscribers - you get news quicker!" Sounds a lot better than "Cheapskates: you get delayed news!", doesn't it?
Josh Woodward
However we hope that enough of our users will think beyond that and try to support us. Programmers, Editors, OC3s and Racks of web servers cost money.
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
ISP's figured out a long time ago that people would rather pay for one month of unlimited access than a bucket load of hours that would probably take them over a month to use. People, like information want to be (feel) free.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Here's some easier ways of actually getting more subscribers without writing a single line of code.
Spell check.
Correct grammar.
News that is actually timely and relevant.
Lose the inane commentary from paranoid jerks like michael, who add nothing new to the discussion and only serve to trollbait the users.
Listen to the readers, instead of waiving all the criticisms as trolls.
Lose the moderation system. It doesn't work, and never has.
That's a good start to people paying. Run it professionally.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
If you don't let people post in the first 20-minute window, then the subscribers who see the post in that window probably aren't going to come back later to post. But these people are probably more likely to make quality posts overall. We wouldn't want the quality of posting to go down even further... And I'm not a subscriber so don't go thinking I'm personally biased here.
"TV is great! Every New Year's I make a resolution to watch more TV." - Ann Coulter
...to fix spelling, to check for dupes (HAH!) or even to reject the story outright!
How about putting a simple little form underneath the stories for these previews? Something like:
Story is:
[] dupe (enter orig. url: ______)
[] fake (rebuttal url: ______)
[] mis-filed (better section: {popup})
[] mirrored (enter mirror url: _____)
Misc. Comments: [__________________]
[submit comment to editor / author]
Something like this would make it trivial for people to immediately help with the editorial process -- as opposed to having to write up a full email, etc. Plus, by allowing previewers to voluntarily announce a mirror this way, a list of mirrors could be presented once the mirror goes live, right at the top of the article. (come to think of it, it might be good to keep a mirror link list / submission form for all users, even once it's posted...)
I'd even go so far as to maybe allow a subscriber another +1 bonus to karma, or maybe allow a subscriber a higher karma cap, or even let a subscribers post get modded to +6... but what do I know...
Features like letting people see stories early or giving them extra karma for money will cheapen and ultimately ruin the site.
Having money doesn't mean you are more intelligent, or have more important things to say. By giving people time to prepare their posts, or giving them higher karma for paying, we are saying that what they say is more important than other people.
Following these trends, ultimately the quality of slashdot posts will decrease, which is the whole reason for the moderation / karma system in the first place.
I'll be more likely to subscribe when I see:
Being able to see articles "early" just doesn't motivate me to send money.
All about me
I am a Total Fark susbcriber and the only reason I did it was to get access to EVERYTHING that was submitted.
... why not open up the whole queue for people to read? No comments, but at least let us check out what other people think is important and relevent.
The enjoyment in using Fark comes from the ability to see what other people think is unique and newsworthy.
Slashdot is a great clearinghouse not only for technical news, but of technical thought as well. How many times have articles been submitted that the editors don't think are relevent to their vision, but that I'll get value from?
Isn't that what Slashdot should be selling? Access to the stuff other people consider important?
When I read Taco's explanation about the early preview the only thing it does is:
1) Offer the community the ability to check dupes.
2) Offer a headstart on crushing a site.
If a site is going to get slashdotted what is the big deal if it's slashdotted by the first 100 or the last 100? It's still going to be slashdotted.
If anyone from the Slashdot editor team is listening
Right now your model is focused on avoiding ads. Why? Focus on the CONTENT and you'll do much much better.
Nah. How often is the site slashdotted before some karmawhore has pre-emptively de-slashdotted the site sometime in the first 5 posts? Pretty much always? So the /. effect doesn't really affect us that much - only the poor non-/. bastards trying to reach a site.
And this new deal is lame. Other than beating the /. effect, (which I obviously believe to be minimal), what do you get? You get to self-edit the site? Yeah, that's great - you can see firsthand just how half-assed half these editors are by which stories make it through and which don't. You can see *just how* outdated the site is from lag. And let me guess - they'll now make absolutely NO effort to post stories in a timely fashion, in an effort to drum up more "subscriptions." Sounds like a mob protection racket.
I'd even go so far as to maybe allow a subscriber another +1 bonus to karma, or maybe allow a subscriber a higher karma cap, or even let a subscribers post get modded to +6
Yep. Just in case the moderation system didn't quite suck enough already with people modding by opinion. Send Taco $10, get a permanant +2 - now *that* is the ultimate in karmawhoring! Yay!
All in all, I would have had more respect for a plea of, "I have no bandwidth, this site is about to /. ITSELF." That would have gotten me to cough up some ca$h. But don't give me this "pay money to get avoid having the version of the site that goes to shit" stuff. And how long until "subscriber-only" stories Taco?
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Sounds like the benefits of viewing stories before the /. effect kicks in only apply if there is a small number of subscribers. The more subscribers, the more slashdotting a link takes even before the story goes live. If the goal is to have everyone subscribe, then you just wind up with a pre-/. effect. So the more subscribers, the less incentive to subscribe. Or something like that.
as a subscriber, do i get to filter out slashdot ads.... like this entire story? ;)
my blog
I don't think it would REALLY be coercion... After-all, the webmaster COULD just remove the page... I don't think anyone will be going over their bandwidth cap if they are just serving up a "Click HERE to help pay for my bandwidth" page.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
There is a serious problem here. Slashdot discusiion will now be limited to slashdot subscribers only, for practicle purposes. I mean, in 20 minutes you get 100 comments, so the rest of us are at the bottom of the totem pole.
As if the moderation system wasn't bad enough....
Maybe make the Slashdot mirror only for subscribers?
That would miss the point. The point of Slashdot mirroring content is not a service to the Slashdot readers, but to the poor sites that get linked. Limiting the Slashdot mirror to a small number of people wouldn't help at all.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to disallow A/C posting during the subscriber-only period?
Look, it's the spirit of the thing, y'know?
Go ahead and block slashdot ads if you want. I'd like to think slashdot isn't evil, like x10.com.
If you don't want to subscribe, don't. But I don't think it's virtuous to not subscribe, to kill ads, *and* to post saying "I'm bright - and you can be, too!".
Do the first two, and you're fine. The last makes you an anti-slashdot fanatic and you'll no doubt be visited by the proper authorities any time now (knock, knock...).
Just my $0.02. Very much tongue-in-cheek. CmdrTaco will be sending me the usual check for $0.02 at the end of this month...
Redundancy is good; triple redundancy is twice as good! - Me.
Well, if you allow subscribers to post against the story while it's still "plastic", you're going to get a lot of silly comments about errors in the story that are fixed by the time is hits the "present" and everyone else sees it.
But if you do let them post, at least make sure they can't post anonymously, please! That will at least keep the quality up (and punish the silly comment generators described above...).
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
can read it is basically what this plum means. I think it sucks personally. Why didn't you implement a cache system?
That's what was said above, they're considering it, they haven't implemented it yet.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
/. doesn't automatically send users to the /.ed webpages, /. just says 'you might want to go here'. Each individual user chooses whether they want to click the link, and the pages actually get viewed by an interested (?) reader. And who the hell is gonna sue over free publicity? If they didn't want anyone looking at their pages, they shouldn'ta posted 'em.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
if you allow paid subscribers to post comments in stories early you are asking for trouble. your moderation system does not work. whoever posts first always has the best chance of getting rated up no matter how stupid they are.
don't allow people to pay to sway the masses.
take a hint from kuro5hin, early posts into stories should only be -editorial- comments meant to make suggestions to the editors. they should disappear when the story goes live.
Heh?
/. day, and if you read /. only on weekends, you can't post helpful URLs).
/. readers). I can get up to 30 AC postings a day this way, but rarely go beyond 12.
/. intends to stop all URL posting or such in that window. You could even use PGP signing to verify such URLs and stories ahead of time and build a comment scanner to pick them up.
/..
There is nothing keeping a subscriber from posting as anonymous coward from another IP and MAC address on a different thread. I do this all the time albeit not as a subscriber, because I want to post as AC (I think it's hypocritical to categorize value of posts by previous posts--ideas count, not the reputation; you'd think all the geeks put down in high school would realize this by now but no...) but I hate the 10 limit/24 hour thing (that's like a comment a thread on a regular
I have 1 MAC/IP, and simply rotate the IP and machine connected to my cable modem (this doesn't always work, probably because it goes by the cable modem's MAC) or link into a relatives or friend's network and run a browser through there to do my posting (they are not
No amount of decent code can verify against this, unless
This is sort of a silly feature--typical how something generally community driven has evolved into haves and have nots based on all things, money. For all the anti-PAC and payola stuff out there, I find this hypocritical of those running
But hey, their site and other people's loot. They want to make people believe this is a worthwhile feature, all the stupidity to them and those that believe.
So, one plum is a next to useless feature, that will probably cripple slashdot if you use it, and the other is increasing a maximum on something that's a goddamn waste of time in the first place?
Although, I have to admit, in the face of non-subscriber features like "duplicate stories", "biased editor comments", "april-fool stories any time of the year", and "complete inability to learn fucking english", these plums come up a little sour.
This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
A benefit of this SHOULD be that paid subscribers should be able to mark a story as a dupe before it goes live, giving the editors time to take it down.