The SCO Boomerang and the Strength of Linux

karvind writes "PJ of Groklaw has written an insightful article on benefits flowing from SCO's litigation: GPL stands up in court, the community bonded more tightly than ever, encouraged increased support for FOSS and last but not the least heightened awareness of the benefits of using GNU/Linux systems. Article is also on Yahoo and NewsFactor."

Comments

The winds of change....

[JBjornsson]

Dear Slashdot users,

I'm an IT / technology fan and have been a slashdot lurker for quite a few months now. I'm interested in improving the site and recently myself and a group of investers have been in discussion with the guys at Andover. We have made them an offer they cannot refuse - In short, we are planning to buy Slashdot. It is much in need of a makeover and if all goes to plan here are my ideas so far:

- Website look and feel change: Come on, it's no longer 1998 guys.
- Bring the site in line with current web standards as is suggested here.
- Keep the current line of editors but base their continued employment on their performance and a quarterly vote by readers. If an overwhelming amount of readers want a particular editor to leave then their opinion will be taken into consideration. On the other hand we could go for a completely new team of editors - what do you guys think?
- Dupe prevention scripts. This has been requested time and time again and now it will be implemented.
- Remove the karma system. All this has done is make karma whoring a competition. It is ineffective and a waste of time.
- Remove the moderation system. I don't really feel it adds anything: for example I see too many posts moderated out of sight just because the poster's opinion is not in line with Slashdot group think.
- Less intrusive adverts. I'm considering google text adverts as a replacement to the current ads.
- Make slashdot more international: I know it has traditionally been a US-centric site but it would be good to see more of a balance of articles from around the globe.
- Roland Piquepaille - articles linked from this guy's blog have to go. So far as I can see he adds no content to articles and we may as well have them from the original source.
- No more subscriptions: Everyone from now on will be treated equal and enjoy the same features without having to pay.
- More user features: Enhanced profile (similar to Fark perhaps?), longer sigs, image attachment to posts (up to a certain size and only after a user has made a certain amount of posts, say 50?)

I would appreciate any further suggestions from readers - either leave a reply to this, or drop me a line.

Thanks and hopefully I'll provide more news soon :)

-Dr Jöran Bjornsson
j.bjornsson@gmail.com

Re:The winds of change....

[wayland]

Suggestion #1: Get Slashdot to post an article on this after you buy them out, and you will get much better quality responses.

<i> - Bring the site in line with current web standards as is suggested here.</i>

Please do :).

<i>- Keep the current line of editors but base their continued employment on their performance and a quarterly vote by readers. If an overwhelming amount of readers want a particular editor to leave then their opinion will be taken into consideration. On the other hand we could go for a completely new team of editors - what do you guys think?</i>

Keep the ones we have, but base their performance on their actual editing. They loose points for poor spelling/grammar, and dupes. They can regain a very few points for posting an article which gets over 1000 comments. After a few months, the better editors will give you an idea of what is possible, and you can tell the others to lift their game or get out.

<i>- Dupe prevention scripts. This has been requested time and time again and now it will be implemented.</i>

How about dupe detection scripts, with extra points being lost by editors who don't use them. If they really want to post a dupe, make them link to the previous article in the summary.

<i>- Remove the karma system. All this has done is make karma whoring a competition. It is ineffective and a waste of time.
- Remove the moderation system. I don't really feel it adds anything: for example I see too many posts moderated out of sight just because the poster's opinion is not in line with Slashdot group think.</i>

The two above are pretty much tied together. If the moderation system goes, I'll probably head elsewhere too (technocrat?). To me, part of the value of Slashdot is that the lurkers occasionally come out of the woodwork when their own company/project is discussed. I suspect other lurkers like the mod system too. There are plenty of unmoderated forums out there.

<i>- Make slashdot more international: I know it has traditionally been a US-centric site but it would be good to see more of a balance of articles from around the globe.</i>

If you do this, it'd be great if you could put them in categories. I personally would skim everything, but it would mean that the people who like Slashdot the way it is could continue using it that way.

<i>- Roland Piquepaille - articles linked from this guy's blog have to go. So far as I can see he adds no content to articles and we may as well have them from the original source.</i>

Is someone submitting the original sources?

- More user features: Enhanced profile (similar to Fark perhaps?), longer sigs, image attachment to posts (up to a certain size and only after a user has made a certain amount of posts, say 50?)

1. Postflood
2. Post images (goatse)
3. Profit!!!

With the image attachment, if you keep the karma/mod system, possibly you could allow it to people who have had excellent karma for months, but I think this is your most widely hated suggestion.

HTH,

Re:Annoying and Compulsory RMS Troll

[flacco]

I don't have any use for time that I could be taking a shower!

it's perplexing to me, this "stallman doesn't bathe" meme. does having long hair automatically make you filthy?