Slashdot Mirror
On Collaborative Weblogs
fernand0 writes "The 5th International Symposium on Online Journalism has dealt with some blogging issues (see the Symposium Research Papers). One that can be of interest for Slashdot readers is When the Audience is the Producer: The Art of the Collaborative Weblog (pdf). There, four collective weblogs are examined: MetaFilter, Plastic, Kuro5hin, and Slashdot, and some discussion is done about the different ways of collaboration that emerge from these sites."
I have been very impressed with ./'s moderation system, though. Plus Slashdot allows anyone to post what they want - so it can be read for humor and for knowledge. Entertaining and informative.
Would Wiki not be considered a type of collaborative weblog?
It happens a lot (too often) that Wiki is forgotten... in so many discussions on internet technology... when it's probably as r/evolutionary as email and chat. Maybe not, tho, maybe blogs are better, and maybe wikis are flawed in a way that they deserve to be ignored... not sure...
Does /. really count as a weblog anymore? For that matter, do any of the sites mentioned? It's a hard call - BoingBoing and similar sites seem to fit the bill for collaborative weblogs far better than discussion forums like /. I think the sites listed have really moved beyond weblog status. They really seem to be closer to forums and aggregators. This isn't a bad thing - it's just different and may require independant analysis. They've grown beyond (and in many cases existed before) what is commonly considered a weblog these days.
Interestingly, this month's Wired had an article on weblogs / nanopublishing and highlighted a variety of collaborative weblogs, likely as a tie-in to the conference.
"Be proud to be a fighter" - Martial Arts Adage
"wiki" is the term i prefer over "blog" which is just a buzz word for a wiki that is focused upon a specific application (logging or journals)
but since the underlying concept is that of "group colaboration" regardless if it is being used to log daily events or to track issues on a group project and allow people to come together in new ways. Wiki's are the only way to go.
TWiki being among the greatest examples.
Probably because of the Journals ???
where topics are discussed and debated
a [web]log is the modern equivalent of a diary except publicly accessable, since when has public discussion ever been part of a diary ?
that the report is in PDF but they are talking about the web
try HTML if you want people to read your article on the Internet
instead of that disgusting Adobe PDF format, you might as well post a swf flash file if we are going down the route of plugins and third party formats to read goddam TEXT on the internet
i guess some people never realised what PDF is supposed to be for
Apparently all these years that I've been using the words 'procrastinate' and 'waste of time', I really could have used 'colloborative weblogs'. It makes it sound like you're doing something useful.
The problem with sites like those mentioned is what they call the purple monkey syndrome. Take a monkey from a social group and dye his fur purple. When you put him back, the other monkeys will throw him out of the tree. Because he's different.
:-)
This behavior can most distinctly be seen on Metafilter, a site I don't even bother to participate in. If you are not (1) radically liberal and (2) distastefully sarcastic, you are not welcome there. As soon as your opinions become known, your remarks, no matter what the topic, will be met with derision and hostility.
This is both not as bad and much worse on Slashdot. It's not as bad because there's more diversity of opinion here, but it's much worse because Slashdot's "moderation" system makes it possible for unpopular opinions to be literally silenced, pushing them down below the threshold of visibility.
Collaborative content sites quickly become exclusive oligarchies.
Down with democracy.
I write in my journal
I think of Slashdot more as a comment site where users can post news. Sure, the news blurbs are the starter, but the meat of the action is in the insightful, interesting, flamebait, troll posting that occurs after. The news stories that have little potential for political/social commentary get far fewer comments than anything to do with YRO, black-box voting, etc.
In this respect, I don't think of Slashdot as a blog, but more of an indicator(s) of what the Slashdot-reading crowd, which is a tech-heavy bunch, is thinking. This is closer to a BBS than a Blog.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
The problem with E2 is that users 'own' whatever they post. You have a ton of nodes that, while good, haven't been updated in years and nobody really visits them. E2 is really just a stupid contest to see who can get the most points. People try to be real witty so they can game the system and gain more powers. The editors also tend to be insular and elitist, in contrast to Wikipedia's almost fanatical permissiveness and acceptance of new contributors.
Slashdot has been considered a "weblog" for as long as the word has been around.
It certainly started out as one, and remains firmly in the weblog format: Snippets of news or something, posted frequently and in inverse chronological order.
It also has public comments, like thousands of other weblogs. It's just that the comments section happens to be bigger then average, but there are other weblogs that often reach into the hundreds of comments.
Weblogs aren't just "journals", by any stretch of the imagination. The link I give as my homepage is my "weblog" and the last time I had a "journal-style" entry was on my birthday two years ago.
If Slashdot isn't a weblog, then nothing is.
Alternatively, at what point since it started did it cease to be a weblog? The only major difference between Slashdot's second week of operation and now is the comment load; the format is the same, the news is the same, the stupid comments by the editors are the same.
I'd suggest visiting forums where you find people with shared interests. The key is to find someplace big enough that it won't die out, but not so huge that you can't get to know people.
The Geek Culture forums are pretty good, if skewed toward Mac and Linux fans, and there's a Slashbox option. CNet's Builder Buzz community was great back in the day and is still pretty good in its user-created reincarnation, Hiveminds. If you've got a favorite TV show (or one you love to hate), check out the smaller show forums on Television Without Pity.
Your fantasies contain the seeds of important concepts.