Rob Malda Answers Your Questions

Last week hundreds of you posted questions for Slashdot's CmdrTaco, AKA Rob Malda. Today we present his answers to 10 of the highest-moderated questions. CT: You can continue to sign up for 10 year anniversary parties but we're already working on shipping shirts so you won't be able to get a care package... but you can still try to run for the big grand prize by just taking videos of pictures or just doing something cool at your parties to prove that we should have been there.

1) Question: Trends (Score:5, Interesting) by vinn (4370)

You've probably followed more news stories and trends over the past decade than just about anyone else.

Based on that, what are your predictions for the next 10 years?

Some technology is obviously going to die a quick and painful death. Some of that technology will be good and some deservedly bad. What's going to catch on? What has staying power? Google has been a golden child the last few years, will that continue? Are there any big turnarounds coming? Who's got good stuff in the pipeline? Don't you dare tell me 2008 is the year of Linux (and I know you won't) - we've both been hearing that marketing crap for the past 10 years.

CmdrTaco:

I don't think I have a particularly unique perspective on these matters. We all read the same Slashdot. What we'll see is mostly obvious: Smaller, Faster, More Portable, More lawsuits, less individual rights. The year of Linux is long passed. Linux will have a strong position on the server for a long time, but as GNOME and KDE bickered with each other, Apple came along and gave the world a great desktop UNIX. It's sad, but true, and there's a huge lesson to learn there. It'll be interesting to see how long Google will be the golden boy- that just can't last forever, can it? I just hope that when the future gets here, we still have the right to copy our own data, and take apart and hack our own gadgets.

2) Have you any regrets? (Score:5, Interesting) by cOdEgUru (181536)

Have you ever regretted starting Slashdot, or investing so much of your time into this site? Did any actions by your peers, by the community or by your colleagues, as a result of a story posted on Slashdot or related to one, made you ever regret your decision to start Slashdot.

CmdrTaco:

Sure. Running Slashdot under the umbrella of a publicly traded company is a huge challenge. A company is a beast that must always eat more... and some people think that making a number for this quarter is so important that it means sacrificing ideals that might hurt you next quarter. Like if I put 15 ads on the page tomorrow, we'd make a lot of money for 3 days and then most of you would leave, and so we'd have great revenue for a week and then no revenue ever again.

So, much of my job is making decisions and fighting with other people at the company to make sure that there still is a Slashdot worth reading next year and the year after that. And advertisers would simply like to buy stories... now, contrary to what conspiracy theorists accuse us of, we don't sell stories. And it quite honestly hurts me when people accuse us of it. But it's scary to know that some folks in the company would be quite happy to do it, completely selling out the integrity of the site to get a bonus. I guess thats a big part of why I stay here: I think Slashdot matters and at least when I'm here I can try to keep it on the path.

3) In and out of Slashdot. (Score:5, Interesting) by pavon (30274)

These are probably pretty cliche questions, but I am interested in the answers.

What is a normal day at slashdot like? How much time do you spend improving slashcode vs picking stories vs the normal computer admin tasks vs other stuff. How are the workload/responsibilities split up among the different staff members? How has this changes over the years?

I also remember back in the old days, the work you did with Enlightenment, as well as the animated short you made (Duckpins?). I was wondering if you get the chance to do much programing outside of slashcode, or what other hobbies you spend your free time doing now (besides being married).

CmdrTaco:

I have a couple of different jobs. One is posting stories- on a day where that is my primary responsibility, I might get in at 7:30 a.m. and read submissions and post them until early afternoon. During this time I might reject a few hundred submissions, post a half dozen stories, and of course try to keep up on my email. Beyond that, I have a number of meetings (a monthly author meeting, a weekly coder meeting, and countless random other meetings for marketing/sales/etc.). I always have chat windows open with various members of the company discussing whatever projects are outstanding.

It's not that different from when we started, except that 10 years ago I would have a terminal window open with code, now I have a chat window open with coders, and 10 years ago I would post stories, and today I have a chat window opened to a group of people who can all post stories.

I read every story posted. I read discussions when the subject matter is particularly interesting. But after that, I make sure that everyone is working on the right stuff, and that things work the way I want them t o work.

These days my time for hobbies are limited, but when I have time I play video games or just goof around with software or hardware. Pretty much all of my free time is consumed by Zachary, the currently 12 lb. terror that exploded out of Kathleen last August. He's awesome.

4) Okay, I'll bite (Score:5, Interesting) by Skyshadow (508)

Something I've been sort of curious about for ages:

Can you talk a little about how you experienced some of the dotcom insanity, specifically as it unfolded here at Slashdot? For a while, it seemed like Slashdot was about to become wunderkind central -- the sale to VA, the infamous ESR post about uber-wealth, etc. I'd be interested to hear about how that experience translated from your side of the ball.

CmdrTaco:

I was seriously buffered from most of the dot com boom. I lived in Nowhere, Michigan so I only saw it when I went to SFO or NYC or Boston for a tradeshow or a meeting. It wasn't until it disappeared that I realized how big it was, and then only by absence: to go to an office building and see row after row of empty cubicles... it was sad.

Slashdot didn't change that much during that era. We added a few writers and a few coders. We bought a few new servers, but even today we run a very lean operation on the production side of the site. Basically 2-3 coders and 2-3 writers replaced me working 20 hour days.

As for the ESR post, I found it very embarassing. I'm of the Gen-X/Grunge era. I cling tightly to my flannel shirt and would never publicly make such a boastful post. Even today, I hate marketing Slashdot. I dislike doing press for Slashdot. I've always felt that if we do a good job, people will read, and there's no reason to hype the site. This is anathema to corporate life, which is why we do things like the 10-year anniversary thing. The only reason we're doing it is that I really felt that after 10 whole years it was worth a bit of reflection.

Personally, the bubble made it possible for me to own my own home at a time in my life when most people my age were living in 1-bedroom roach motels, or worse, with their parents. I'm thankful for that. But when the bubble burst, it took with it my dreams of having a private jet or something, and I was left with a job that pays really well doing something I like.

When the bubble burst I learned a lot and realized that I had made a number of mistakes a long the way. Lessons learned, I guess. It would have been nice to have zillions of dollars, but there are other things that are more important.

5) Silly Question (Score:5, Interesting) by LiquidCoooled (634315)

I assume that through the ether you have met Kevin Rose, but do you two get along or is it pistols at dawn?

CmdrTaco:

Yeah, I met him when I did an interview on some TV show I guess he was hosting. He seems like a sincere guy, and I have no problem with him.

People love to paint rivalries between Slashdot and whatever website they think we are battling at the moment, but I really resist the urge to compare Slashdot to sites like Digg. We do different things and serve different audiences. There's crossover to be sure, but to shoot a guy in low sunlight seems kinda silly.

6) What is this crazy tags thing? (Score:5, Interesting) by Reality Master 101 (179095)

Considering the FAQ hasn't been updated in almost a year, could you explain exactly what tags do these days? At one time, it seemed to be a vote-based system, now I have no idea how tags show up on articles. Frankly, since I didn't understand it and my tags didn't seem to affect anything, I gave up on using the feature.

Could we get a definitive answer to how tags work?

CmdrTaco:

I don't know exactly how 'Definitive' this is... but 'tags' is just an experimental system for us. We're using it for ideas on how we could improve moderation and firehose ratings. We're using it to see what ways people will try to screw with the system. Tags are very open-ended and are therefore used for many things. People use them for opinions, abuse, classification, and sometimes just as an attempt at wit. The system can be all of those things, but when we see abuse we definitely try to stop that.

Basically the way tags work is that you add words that you think are cool. If many people tag similarly, those tags appear on the articles. You can use tags to be informative (a tag like 'slashdot' on this story would make sense since I'm talking about Slashdot) or to provide helpful feedback to editors ('dupe' or 'typo' for example). It's very open ended, and as long as your tags are beneficial to others, we like seeing them.

I don't want to narrowly define tags, either: Sometimes a silly witty tag rises to the top. It may reflect an opinion or a joke, but thats ok as long as it's not mean. At the end of the day, we're learning a lot from how people use tags- knowledge that we're using to make firehose better, and ultimately to make moderation better.

Under the hood, we've actually ported moderation to tags... so now we can more easily expand moderation to incorporate aspects of tagging. The issue here is that we have 2 major differences between moderation and tags: moderation has a very limited domain of tags, and you are very limited in how much/how often you can moderate. So we can't simply flip a switch and use tagging instead of moderation, but many of the tools and rules overlap nicely. Personally I think it's probably the most interesting aspect of what we're playing with on the site. We're not doing tags like anyone else, and I think that's what is fun about it.

7) Most-visited sites.. (Score:5, Interesting) by B5_geek (638928)

What "Top-5" websites are in your daily/hourly must-read rotation? (Not counting RSS)

CmdrTaco:

I only really read the internet via the firehose and via RSS, so I guess I can't really answer this question. I think that if you read Slashdot's firehose, you don't really need to read any other tech news publications since it will contain the best of all those other websites. So the sites that I read beyond the direct Slashdot subject matter tend to be comedy websites or comics... these days Penny Arcade and XKCD are my favorite comics although my feed has a dozen more. Also things like Cute Overload or College Humor. If it's tech news, the firehose has it covered... but if it's funny, well I need to work to get that.

8) Thoughts of giving up? (Score:5, Interesting) by martyb (196687)

When were you most tempted to give up?

Dealing with a bunch of creative, resourceful, tenacious, stubborn, and sometimes outright hostile nerds, I'm sure there were MANY times when you were tempted to just give up on the whole thing. e.g. page-widening trolls; Church of Scientology; Microsoft source code, or even the release of slash code to the community and the barrage of insults.

I'm really glad you held on and persevered, but I'd like to know why.

CmdrTaco:

When the shitty days come, I really wonder why I do it. Hate mail in my inbox. Flame in the forums. DDoS attacks. Sales/Marketing pressuring us to do something stupid. Or the more standard stuff that goes along with being part of a company- paperwork and bureaucracy etc.

I can usually handle the user problems... I've come to understand that if you do anything successful you will create some percentage of fans... and as a subset of fans, you get anti-fans. On one level it's flattering: This is a person so passionate about your work that he will spend hours trashing you in any forum possible. It's crazy... it can really hurt if you let it, and sometimes it does.

I've pondered leaving many times over the years but I always come back to wanting to make this thing work. I really like Slashdot and think it's a better site with me here than away. I can't imagine what others would do to it if I left!

The thing is that every now and then we do something important. Like really important. We break a story, or house a discussion that changes a mind. I think that we serve an important role on-line. We're a pub where people gather to talk about the days events, and I think this has tremendous value. I think I still am here because there's a community here that I like. And besides, it beats flipping burgers.

9) Infrastructure (Score:5, Interesting) by blhack (921171)

Can you give us any insight into the hardware/platform that slashdot runs on? How many servers does it use? What did you code it in? (a half drunk, coked-up deaf guy screaming HTML into a tin can on a string?) How much bandwidth does it use?

I know this is more than one question, but my MAIN question is just: "What does it take to run slashdot, hardware/software/bandwidth wise?"

CmdrTaco:

We'll actually have a lengthy discussion of exactly this before the 10-year anniversary stuff is done. But in short, we're talking about a dozen dual CPU web-heads, 4 quad CPU mega database boxes. We share bandwidth with SourceForge, so we don't use much bandwidth... Slashdot doesn't host video or many pictures so we're fairly cheap. The code is all at www.slashcode.com so you can download it and play with it for yourself. It's all Perl/Apache.

10) What are the biggest threats to /. success? (Score:5, Interesting) by rjamestaylor (117847)

Slashdot is successful by any measure. You've certainly pioneered many things we now take for granted. Many "slashdot killers" have been attempted and failed or found a different niche. What are the biggest threats to /. success today and going forward?

CmdrTaco:

I think the single biggest threat to Slashdot is for us to try to be something we're not. We are NOT CNet. We are not Digg. We are not Wired. We are not Reddit.

Those sites have many things that define them... from the source of content to the method of content selection, to the sorts of business partnerships and types and quantity of advertising on each of those sites, each has a sort of place, and Slashdot isn't exactly any of those things.

The future success of Slashdot depends on us understanding what Slashdot was for the last 10 years and how to continue to be that in the future. The names change, but the fundamental underlying joy of technology shouldn't.

We need to know who you guys are, and what you want, and try to give you what you want in a website, but without selling out what Slashdot has been. We have a decade of legacy now... our single biggest threat is to ignore our past and try to be whatever is popular today... but that's not to say we can't change.

We need to incorporate many of these popular ajax/web2.0 technologies and ideas- our readers deserve the improved browsing experience. But it's a careful balance between taking what is good about what is available today, and blending it with what has worked about Slashdot throughout our history.

It's a mistake for us to want to be CNN or the Wall Street Journal or to spend our days chasing after Digg, or Reddit, or Kuro5hin, or whatever site follows them. We strike our own path. We'll never be the #1 traffic destination on the net, but we're still regularly a great website, and one that I'm proud to continue to be part of.

-- Pants are Optional

Comments

"Threat" response

[rjamestaylor]

Our single biggest threat is to ignore our past and try to be whatever is popular today

AND

We'll never be the #1 traffic destination on the net, but we're still regularly a great website, and one that I'm proud to continue to be part of.

These answers definitely satisfy me. I'll be around, too...even with the preposition-ending sentences, etc. :-)

Re:"Threat" response

[spun]

These answers definitely satisfy me. I'll be around, too...even with the preposition-ending sentences, etc. :-) Ending sentences with a preposition is an outrage up with which we will not put.

And I sure hope Slashdot will be around for another ten, at least. I'll be here.

Re:"Threat" response

[Anonymous Coward]

...even with the preposition-ending sentences, etc.

I'm tired of the prescriptivist notion that prepositions can't end sentences. English isn't Latin. In Latin, prepositions were paired with their object by explicitly combining the two into one word. That's not the case in English. The notion that English should imitate Latin in that respect ignores the fact that it results in much more awkward sentence structure, as so brilliantly evidenced by the oft-quoted Winston Churchill line.

Quite often, when grammar is concerned, people tend to ignore the fact that there is often a quite valid descriptivist point of view in deference to a nonsensical prescriptivist doctrine. To me, the ending-sentences-with-a-preposition issue seems like the most valid of those cases.

Re:"Threat" response

[Gulthek]

"This is the sort of English up with which I will not put." --Churchhill (apocryphal)

Re:"Threat" response

[ignavus]

I hate those sentences, too, kind of. And the prepositions they end with. I understand what you are on about.

Re:"Threat" response

[QuickFox]

Mod parent funny!

Re:"Threat" response

[maxwell demon]

Preposition-ending sentences are something not to be afraid of. They are something the web is actually full of. So if those are constructions you want to avoid looking at, the net is a place you should not get your texts from. Therefore if web sites are a source you want to get information from, those sentences are something you should really put up with.

He didn't answer my question.

[iknownuttin]

So I'll ask again:

Since you were part of the Internet boom of the late 90s, you're obviously worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So:

What's your favorite jet?

Which supermodel is the best in bed?

I really need to know because I have no life and I need to vicariously live through famous people.

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[sgant]

Actually, he's beyond that. He skipped the supermodel dating and the jets and all that and went straight to the weird Howard Hughes era.

I picture him shuffling into the Slashdot control center wearing a bathrobe and slippers and posting a few items that of course are all dupes before Zonk or someone else catches him, slaps his hand, then leads him back to his room.

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[iknownuttin]

He skipped the supermodel dating and the jets and all that and went straight to the weird Howard Hughes era.

Yeah, but, with those long fingernails, how does he use a keyboard?

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[spiderbitendeath]

Are you kidding? He's from Michigan, he'd go the Henry Ford route. He'll shuffle in from a long trip, see the brand new product/code they want to surprise him with, he'll proceed to destroy it and anyone that had anything to do with it. Just to show that he is still in control, that it's still his baby.

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[mstahl]

I need to vicariously live through famous people.

Then maybe you should set your sights a little higher?

I have no life

Oh.... My bad.

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[j-pimp]

Are you kidding? He's from Michigan, he'd go the Henry Ford route. He'll shuffle in from a long trip, see the brand new product/code they want to surprise him with, he'll proceed to destroy it and anyone that had anything to do with it. Just to show that he is still in control, that it's still his baby.

Could you provide a link to the Henry Ford story this was based on?

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[moderatorrater]

posting a few items that of course are all dupes before Zonk or someone else catches him [and] slaps his hand... They must have been really, really bad dupes.

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[colmore]

Insane billionaire is the ultimate lifestyle yes.

Why live like you've got something to prove when you can own your own dimension of reality and nobody can tell you you're wrong?

Re:He didn't answer my question.

[Anonymous Coward]

If we are talking about Henry Ford Jr., "Autobiography" by Lee Iacocca is a good start. Crazy stuff went on at Ford in the '60s and '70s.

Question: what was the "infamous ESR post"?

[sharp-bang]

Hopefully something silly about the New Economy. I need a good laugh.

Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[Skyshadow]

It would have been nice to have zillions of dollars, but there are other things that are more important.

"Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable crying in a Porsche than a Hyundai."

Interesting to read that the Slashdot editor felt disconnected from the Dotcom thing... When I was living in Wisconsin, honestly hanging around this site and reading the posts people were making is part of the reason I was so eager to move out to the Bay Area (wish I could have picked a better time; July 2000 turned out to be kind of rough). I suppose I just figured that being here at, well, wunderkind central, it would have been like being plugged directly into the horse's mouth (or potentially the other end).

Guess it's just more proof that Your Mileage, lifewise, May Vary.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[sbchasin]

"Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable crying in a Porsche than a Hyundai."

My Hyundai is quite comfortable.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[lbmouse]

"Money can't buy happiness..."

That may be true, but it can buy a jet ski and have you ever seen anyone frowning on a jet ski?

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[cayenne8]

"Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable crying in a Porsche than a Hyundai."

My Hyundai is quite comfortable.

Next...try the Porsche. Very nice....and is still comfy taking a sharp turn at 60mph+ without braking.

:-)

Money may not buy happiness (debatable), but, it sure makes misery a whole lot easier to live with.....

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[WilliamSChips]

no, but i've seen people in ABJECT TERROR. that might've been the velociraptors though.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[Anonymous Coward]

My Porsche is quite comfortable, and has a little gadget to dry your tears for you.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[Scrameustache]

Money may not buy happiness (debatable) I'll say it again: Hookers are NOT "happiness"
They're just fun ;)

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[Provocateur]

I also heard that the uber-luxury Porsche's defogger can clear fog off runways of major airports for takeoff.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[GPL Apostate]

A lot of people frown AT jet skis. I've done so from a canoe. Weighted fishhook tossing is discouraged but tempting.

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[rs79]

" Next...try the Porsche "

Once. Porsche has the poorest recurring ownership of nearly any car, that is people who buy them don't often buy another. Price out some parts or god forbid an engine rebuild and you know why.

Get an 80s Mercedes. Cheap parts and they run forever. Mine has half a million miles on it. And it's the cheapest car to maintain I've ever owed.

You don't need to be rich to own one either. You can hell because ESR has one. 'Cept the dork bought a vergasser and not a diesel.

Klatta klatta klatta klatta...

Re:Thanks for the answer, TacoMan

[cayenne8]

"Once. Porsche has the poorest recurring ownership of nearly any car, that is people who buy them don't often buy another. Price out some parts or god forbid an engine rebuild and you know why."

I did...I owned an '86 911 Turbo...had it a month and blew the engine....$14K right there...ouch!

I lost it in Katrina. Yep..it was fun when it ran, but, whew...I invented some 4 letter words when it didn't.

Oh dear.

[bombastinator]

I fear the reference to "things at cool parties you should have been to" is going to solicit at least several photos of someone's junk.

Re:Oh dear.

[fbjon]

Is that computer junk, or the more dangly kind of junk? Just don't make it both, please.

Re:Oh dear.

[bombastinator]

You forgot the chinese sailing vessel. That's my personal double entendre candidate.

"My Junk is 50 feet long"
"Normally it runs real smooth, but it's broad in the beam so if it gets rough theres a lot of wave action"
"It's incredibly durable. The under work is solid teak"

You can go on and on like this.

Just avoid things like "My junk was made in Hong Kong" and you should be OK.

Re:Oh dear.

[bigstrat2003]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0418.html

You're welcome. :)

Re:Oh dear.

[nacturation]

Is that computer junk, or the more dangly kind of junk? Just don't make it both, please. I believe you're referring to a dongle?

Thanks.

[AltGrendel]

Thanks for answering all of that. The one I'm really looking forward to is the hardware article, whenever you get to it.

Re:Thanks.

[jfmiller]

No, You are not. I am however more interested how the 'webserver with database back-end' thing works for a site with this much load -- that is what have you done besides just through hardware at the problem.

Re:Thanks.

[Scrameustache]

Thanks for answering all of that. The one I'm really looking forward to is the hardware article, whenever you get to it. Meh, I'll wait for the dupe.

"Surprised by Wealth"

[Skyshadow]

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/10/0821224

At least from my perspective, this one post almost completely destroyed his influence in the community. There's an object lesson in there someplace.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[moderatorrater]

Did the bubble pop before he could cash in?

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[sharp-bang]

Ah yes, now I remember reading this back then and wanting my five minutes back. Now, it's even funnier. Thanks for the memories!

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Stanistani]

According to my back-of-the-envelope calculations, if he held on tight to his shares he still scored almost a million. Of course I don't know what the tax ramifications of the initial high stock price were.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Anonymous Coward]

I never bothered to check the actual length of the LNUX lock-in, but even if it was on the short end his shares were likely worth less than 50% of what they were when he wrote his story.

If it was a 180 day lock or longer they were down to around $30 (from over $200) by the time he could sell.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Red Flayer]

Of course I don't know what the tax ramifications of the initial high stock price were.

Zip. You pay taxes on gain from sale of assets. No sale == no gain.

Of course, I've always suspected that one reason for the precipitous drop in price of that stock was that people like ESR were unloading their shares for whatever they could get. I'm sure what he got for the shares he sold was much more than the price low, and much less than $300 :)

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[moosesocks]

Did the bubble pop before he could cash in?

Before I answer your question, I'll add some context from ESR's original article (emphasis is mine):

The first part of my answer is "I'll do nothing, until next June". Because I'm a VA board member, under SEC regulations there's a six-month lockout on the shares (a regulation designed to keep people from floating bogus offerings, cashing out, and skipping to Argentina before the share price crashes). So it's not strictly true that I'm wealthy right now. I will be wealthy in six months, unless VA or the U.S. economy craters before then. I'll bet on VA; I'm not so sure about the U.S. economy :-).

Pause for laughter......... Done? Let's move on....

The day ESR's rant was written, VA opened at $266 a share. Pretty impressive, no? By the end of the day, it was worth $218. For his claimed 150,000 shares, that's just shy of $40 million. In just a few hours, he'd "lost" $7.2 million.

Fast forward 6 months to the time he was able to legally sell it, and we discover the definition of hubris.

Assuming he cashed out his entire portfolio out the first day possible (which I doubt he did), he would have made a "paltry" $5.1 million.

Continuing the trend, you soon discover that you'd actually need a logarithmic plot to properly visualize the rate of VA's demise from a high-end server manufacturer into a company that makes a halfway-decent frontend for CVS (and Slashdot). To give an idea of how much of a disaster it was, I should point out that logarithmic plots aren't typically used in the financial industry.

Assuming he never cashed out at all, today he'd have just shy of $400,000 in VA stock.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Hoi Polloi]

According to the article he had to hold onto them for at least 6 months after the IPO. I wonder what the price per share was by that point.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Stanistani]

It dropped down to 45 cents/share at about that point.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[spencerogden]

Actually, logarithmic plots are often used in finance. The scale accurately portrays the effects of compounding. Only problem they are usually used on the way up...

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Ash Vince]

At least from my perspective, this one post almost completely destroyed his influence in the community. Why?

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[moderatorrater]

I think the word you're looking for is "exponential."

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Moderatbastard]

Zip. You pay taxes on gain from sale of assets. No sale == no gain.

Not so sure that's true, I've heard stories of people who owed tax on options that they never made a dime off, because they were underwater before they could even exercise them.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[greg_barton]

At least from my perspective, this one post almost completely destroyed his influence in the community. There's an object lesson in there someplace.

Yes. It's "the community continues to have an adolescent attitude towards ESR."

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[ctrivedi]

ESR Wealth Clock

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[koehn]

Wrong. In fact, a whole lotta people in ESR's situation ended up with stocks that were worth less than their strike price (the price they paid to exercise their options and buy the shares) by the time their lockout ended. The IRS still wanted its money though.

Imagine ESR had options on 100,000 shares at $10/share. On IPO day say he exercises his option to buy the shares. Now he has to cough up $1,000,000 to the brokerage to buy them. Of course, the shares are worth a bunch more than $10, so the brokerage takes its million bucks in shares. ESR ends up with somewhat less than 100,000 shares, depending on the value of the shares at the instant the brokerage took its cut. ESR has now sold some of his shares in spite of the lockout (this is legal), and owes the IRS a ton of capital gains tax on his 1999 return.

For the truly unlucky whose shares were worth more than our hypothetical $10 by the time the lockout ended, they were truly up a creek: the owed the IRS a huge bill for exercising shares that were worth less by the time they could sell. IIRC there was an amnesty for those caught up in the mess.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[HardCase]

Inverse logarithmic?

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[toadlife]

Yes. It's "the community continues to have an adolescent attitude." Fixed that for you.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[porcupine8]

Aw, 1999 is so cute. I wanna pinch its widdle cheeks.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[nahdude812]

It dropped to $36.74 on the 6-month-versary. For his 150,000 shares that's still a valuation of $5.5 million.

I think he was giddy with the idea that he was worth so much money when he wrote his original post. And I don't think it was probably giddy of the "I'm rich, RICH!!" sort, but of the "My philosophies have been proven true, TRUE!!" sort. I think he wanted to say to the world, look, there is merit in the insane babble I've been preaching over the years. That's the sense I got from the post.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[mollymoo]

From reading ESR's post (I've done no further research) he makes it sound like he was given actual shares, not options.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[koehn]

Those would count as taxable income based on the value of the shares, and would probably put him into a the 35% bracket. Still, it sounds like it turned out okay for him.

Re:"Surprised by Wealth"

[Breakfast Pants]

We must go at least 12 months, because I'm sure he would have tried to have only had to pay capital gains. If he didn't, the 'paltry' 5.1 million was more like ~3 million after tax, though if he did hold out 12 months, he ended up a little worse off.

That last one is SO dead on...

[Opportunist]

Never try to be what you ain't. No matter if something else takes off and soars. Chances are it's just the usual FOTM (or year), the hype will go and then you have neither attracted any of their audience (why go to the copy when you can have the original?) nor will your old audience be there anymore, because they were with you not despite but because you're not that other FOTM site/company/game/application/younameit.

Time and again it's been shown that things go from bad to worse when you try to imitate. Whether you take search engines that try to imitate Google or MMORPGs trying to imitate WoW, all they accomplished was to lose rather than gain audience.

Looking forwards to another 10 years of /.

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[gangien]

I agree, I was glad when I read this line

I think the single biggest threat to Slashdot is for us to try to be something we're not. We are NOT CNet. We are not Digg. We are not Wired. We are not Reddit.

I hope /. never becomes them either.

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[edittard]

We are NOT CNet. We are not Digg. We are not Wired. We are not Reddit.

I hope /. never becomes them either.

Why bother, it's easier to just steal all their stories.

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[Anonymous Coward]

[Shrug]

He just wants to avoid a -1 Redundant for the whole site. :-)

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[Opportunist]

That's rich. On a page where the majority of readers doesn't care about intellectual property...

Generally I prefer reading one page that has all the information (and already filtered out the crap) than reading through 10 pages, only to realize that 99% of the content there is PR spin. So yes, I do actually prefer reading all the "stolen" stories here. Saves me a lot of time, and it's even free.

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[edittard]

Huh? Are you saying that they filter out the crap here?

Re:That last one is SO dead on...

[Opportunist]

Makes you wonder just how much crap there has to be in the "news" today, hmmm?

Re:Question: what was the "infamous ESR post"?

[abigor]

Oh, it's much worse: http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/10/0821224

What a goofball.

videos of picture

[Anonymous Coward]

do we really need to make a video of our pictures or can we submit pictures themselves?

Prepositions

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you like preposition-ending sentences?

He probably shouldn't have said that.

[Valdrax]

People use them for opinions, abuse, classification, and sometimes just as an attempt at wit. The system can be all of those things, but when we see abuse we definitely try to stop that. Ehrg. I personally wouldn't have accepted responsibility for policing that tags. People frequently troll in the tags, and some are often left standing in such a manner as to reflect certain biases and slant the discussion one way or another.

Take for example, the recent story on using TCMS to provoke feelings of religious awe tagged with "nosuchthingasgod" or other more offensive tags (which *have* been removed).

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[nuzak]

I don't much find "nosuchthingasgod" offensive, but I have a hard time believing any significant number of people actually tagged it that way. So Taco, coders, editors (hey, I guess I have faith in something after all), please do us a favor: whatever clever thing you're doing with tags that makes it other than a sheer "most tagged" metric, please just stop it. It's not working. Really, it isn't. Your doing tags "different" is making tags very much broken.

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[Anonymous Coward]

The "nosuchthingasgod" seemed like a troll to me. But you must remember that atheism (well religion hating) has become a popular attribute to this demographic. Look at all the Richard Dawkins dross that hits digg regularly. So it's entirely possible that this tag was a popular one. I think that there is a handful of people who work at deskjobs at a company that hit refresh on Slashdot, so they could be gaming tags as well.

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[Anonymous Coward]

But you must remember that atheism (well intolerance to invisible-man believers)

There, fixed that for you.

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[smellsofbikes]

It's only broken if you consider it an end product. If it's research, well, the most productive research is when you come up with unexpected results. Seeing which tags come up, mapping the rise/fall, getting some idea of how quickly a tag becomes visible through repeated, autonomous additions, then seeing what happens after it becomes visible and people can either reinforce or fight it, is all valuable data for a replacement or update to the tag system. Things that don't break don't get improved.
I'm reminded of a story about fighter aircraft development. When looking at a list of all the parts of the aircraft that were breaking, some people suggested making all those parts stronger, but other people suggested that all the parts that weren't on the list were overdesigned and needed to be rebuilt lighter to get better performance out of the fighter. It depends on what you need from the process.

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[Anonymous Coward]

would "bowdownandsupplicateorburninhellforalleternity" be more in line with the message you want to get across? There's just a critical mass of people sick of being told some invisible man in the sky hates them so much that they're going to suffer forever and ever unless they "accept his love" and of course hate the right people. Of course the REAL believers dont say that etc etc, yeah blah blah.

One man's dross...

Re:He probably shouldn't have said that.

[Hexact]

I know it's completely OT but I have to respond.

FYI, in general atheists don't hate religion, they just don't care about it. But just like in any other group, there is a small sub-group of activists that do hate religion. Just like there is a sub-group of religious people that hate atheists. One thing is for sure, most religious people don't and can't understand atheists and atheism.

Re:Hmmm

[Valdrax]

You failed, Mr. 11.

Re:Question: what was the "infamous ESR post"?

[shawnmchorse]

Here ya go, ESR's "musings on sudden wealth" after VA Linux's IPO at the end of 1999:

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/10/0821224

I remember reading that when it was first posted, and yes it's much more amusing now. From the Wikipedia entry on VA Linux:

VA Software is notable because of its IPO on December 9, 1999. The shares for the IPO were offered at $30, but the traders held back the opening trade until the offers hit $299. LNUX later popped up to $320, and closed their first day of trading at $239.25, a 698% return. However, this high-flying success was short-lived, and within a year the stock was selling at well below the initial offer price, in a classic example of the dot-com stock market bubble. As of 2005, this is still the most "successful" IPO of all time. The stock price reached an intra-day nadir of 54 cents on July 24, 2002. It then soared more than 1000% to an intra-day high of $6.38 on September 11, 2003. As of November 26, 2006, the stock closed at $4.64.

About Tags

[NickFortune]

Thanks for the answer (and question) about tags. I've often seen the sig (I forget which user it is) that tells people how tags should be used, (they are for searching, not for giving opinions, apparently), and I've always thought that was the wrong way to look at it.

But it isn't the done thing to comment on .sigs, and anyway, it wasn't that important.

But since the subject is raises, I really like what Slashdot, (and the Slashdot readers) do with tags. I like humour of many of the tags; I like being able to look at a story and see - not "what I'm supposed to think" as someone once suggested - but because they give a quick insight into how the readers as a whole view the story. And I like the way that tag use is still evolving here; I like that we're being creative with the channel.

Anyway, I just thought I'd offer some positive feedback on the subject.

Re:About Tags

[Chapter80]

My opinion about tags (based on how they are used on other sites) is to link like objects. For instance, if I wanted to read all the articles that were about "slashdot", I could use the "slashdot" tag as a way to find them.

Using the tag "yes" and "no" is pretty worthless in my book. Those tags just allow me to search for articles that had yes or no questions in them. And often, the article is tagged with both "yes" and "no" (and sometimes "maybe"). Worthless!

Re:About Tags

[NickFortune]

mmm.... but isn't the whole Web 2.0 (dubious term, I know) idea that users get to feed their input back into the system in unexpected and creative ways? I mean, Slashdot already has a search function, and a "meta" category for Slashdot related stories.

Using the tag "yes" and "no" is pretty worthless in my book.

Of course, if you wanted to do research into which subjects has proven most controversial on /. over a given time period, you could always search for articles tagged both "yes" and "no". Hard to see how anyone would get a reasonable metric for that, otherwise.

That said, I don't tend to use tags for searching, at least not on Slashdot, anyway. But really, if you control the tags too much, you just wind up with a parallel set of keyword/section labels. I think it's much more interesting to leave it to the community and watch how they use them.

Re:About Tags

[debianlinux]

I strongly concur with this point of view. The headlines and summaries tend to be rather sensational or misleading. The tagging invariably offers insight on the true nature of the article as well as the overtone of the discussion to follow. It has made my Slashdot reading far more efficient and enjoyable. I no longer find myself reading through the drivel of flames and baseless speculation. IMO, Slashdot's tagging is the biggest leap forward for the site that I have witnessed in these past 10 years (yeah, I lurked without an account that long; it's my MO for any discussion site).

kdawson

[Anonymous Coward]

As I'm sure most of us knew it would be, despite the fact that it was rated 5, the question as to why kdawson was kept on as a moderator despite the constant low quality of his work and the barrage of complaints against him was completely ignored.

I myself was quite irritated to see that this was the case, and I hope that the attention that this question received in the original request for questions post has brought this issue to a greater light amongst /. staff. Hopefully, in the months to come, kdawson's work will improve, and if not, I will be very annoyed that this was not addressed by Rob.

(Posted anonymously because I saw what happened to the anti-kdawson posts to which I'm referring, which seemed awfully suspicious to me.)

Re:kdawson

[east coast]

Posted anonymously because I saw what happened to the anti-kdawson posts to which I'm referring, which seemed awfully suspicious to me

Vee are miles from vhere anyvone can hear you scream. At least anyone who cares!

Muahahahahahaha

Re:kdawson

[Anonymous Coward]

(Posted anonymously because I saw what happened to the anti-kdawson posts to which I'm referring, which seemed awfully suspicious to me.) I metamodded a troll post to the one you're referring to unfair, and was extremely happy to be so fortunate as to be able to do that.

Oh, and posting AC for the same reason.

Re:kdawson

[Skater]

You could just remove him as an editor in your profile and never see another story by him. What's the problem?

I don't understand. If you don't like kdawson's stories, don't read them. Slashdot even gives you an option that makes it really easy - click on Preferences, then Home Page, then uncheck the box next to kdawson.

Re:kdawson

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a viable solution, IMO. The problem here is that the submitters that get assigned to kdawson that will be punished if this happens. Someone might post a brilliant story and have it accepted by kdawson, in which case, if my understanding of the system is right, I and everyone else who adopts this suggestion would miss it completely. I would rather either have to slog through a dozen bad, poorly edited kdawson accepted stories to find the one good submission, or have kdawson fired (the best option, IMO) than risk missing that one great post completely.

Re:kdawson

[notreallyunique]

I don't understand the kdawson hate. I think one part of it is "gang up on the new guy", and another part is blaming his* for submission quality, which is not fair for any editor unless you look hard at the firehose from when they were working. Editing-wise, kdawson is my new favorite editor. kdawson seems to take a relatively liberal approach to editing and his posts tend to cut through a lot of the hyperbole that submitters pump up their stories with. Is it the journal posts? The enigmatic unlinked user name? The gender-neutral handle? The stylish lowercase letters? * Is he a he?

Ummmm... Wha?

[Soko]

Pretty much all of my free time is consumed by Zachary, the currently 12 lb. terror that exploded out of Kathleen last August. He's awesome.

o_O

Hopefully Zachary isn't 3 feet long with a rather elongated head...

Re:Ummmm... Wha?

[archen]

Sometimes you wonder what the difference is...

Re:Ummmm... Wha?

[idontgno]

I'm more worried about the little one's health. 14 months old and only 12 pounds!??!

Mebbe Comandante Taco meant "this past August". A 2-month-old can quite reasonably weigh 12 pounds.

Re:Ummmm... Wha?

[MsGeek]

Hopefully Zachary isn't 3 feet long with a rather elongated head...

And I hope he didn't sing the Telephone Rag after emerging, either... ^_^

Seriously...happy 10th Anniversary, /.

Ms. Geek

Rob who? Who is this guy?

[sgant]

Is he one of the ops here or something? Never heard of him.

Nah, I'm just kiddin...way to go Taco!

Re:Rob who? Who is this guy?

[empaler]

Oooh! I think you're the closest to my UID since I started noticing those (about a year or two ago)

Re:Rob who? Who is this guy?

[cide1]

Here's one closer.

Now I type something to get through the filter.

and nothing it is

[swschrad]

we now have a reference benchmark, folks! woo!

Re:Question: what was the "infamous ESR post"?

[po_boy]

maybe it's this one: http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/10/0821224

Comics

[trip11]

Rob, You talked about how XKCD and other comics are high up on your list of external websites to go to. Could I make the recomendation that you add them to the 'Funnies' slashbox? It seems to have been years since any links have been added (though maybe I'm the only one left who still uses it....) If you put your favorite webcomics onto it, I know I'd like to check out what you like. And if I can add my own $0.02 http://www.xkcd.com/, http://schlockmercenary.com/, and http://www.phdcomics.com/ are all 'geek' enough they would do well on the funnies slashbox.

Re:Comics

[polaris878]

I 2nd this suggestion, a comics section would be pretty sweet IMO

Re:Comics

[trip11]

Just so you're aware. There already IS a comics section, it's just become rather out of date IMHO. In you're preferences you can look at the slashboxes and there's one called "funnies" and one for "webcomics". Add them and they'll show up on your front page just like any other slashbox.

Re:Comics

[Odin_Tiger]

I'll second that. It never ceases to amaze me how unknown Schlock Mercenary seems to be in the wider geek world.

Re:Comics

[YodaYid]

I highly recommend PBF Comics. There are lots of comics that are funny - few that are brilliant. (I picked a very funny one pretty much at random. Also, not all the comics are SFW...)

Re:Comics

[The Queen]

And this may be too Mac-centric for /. but I also keep up with The Joy of Tech over at Geek Culture. I miss the Techno-Talking Babes of AY2K...

Re:Comics

[AaxelB]

I'd just like to thank you, I checked out Schlock Mercenary after seeing it sandwiched between two webcomics I approve of. Long story short, I got hooked and read all 7+ years of archives in three days, not including the two days this weekend I was without a computer. It's so awesome!

Thanks, Taco!

[ezh]

Hopefully /. will see the day Zachary will rule here... That said, /. needs constant intake of fresh blood, otherwise it will become stagnant and eventually vanish. People like to see their opinion counted, not just on comments. And to get this fresh blood one might need to change 10 year old concepts...

Re:Thanks, Taco!

[hawk]

I guess that would make him Lt. Burrito?

hawk

shooting

[monkeySauce]

There's crossover to be sure, but to shoot a guy in low sunlight seems kinda silly.

So... pistols at high noon then?

Another thank you

[CleverNickName]

I'm assuming you'll read this entire thread (I've done it both times I did ask me anything, so I'm pretty sure it's a geek thing) so rather than hope I make my way through the 'tubes into your inbox, I'll say it here: Thank you for Slashdot. Thank you for all the work and soul and energy and life you've put into this website and the community that it's created. Thank you for nurturing that community.

I say this for two reasons: As a low-level geek who has always felt like the dumbest one in the room, I've learned a ton here about hardware, open source software and philosophy, and the culture surrounding the technology I love so much. Slashdot has educated and inspired me, and that wouldn't have happened if you and the rest of your team didn't work so hard to make this community one worth participating in. I've been to all the popular community news sites, and Slashdot and Fark are the only ones where it's consistently worth my time to read and add to the comments.

My second reason is far more personal: When I started my blog, when I desperately wanted to speak for myself and let the people who wanted me to die.die.die know that we were more alike than not, Slashdot gave me the chance to speak directly to them, twice. Slashdot gave me an opportunity to replace the perception of who I was with the reality of who I really am, in a way that was usually reserved for people who were a lot more popular and well-known than me. I saw Zonk at PAX, and told him this, but you should hear it, as well: without those Slashdot interviews, I wouldn't be where I am today, both professionally and personally. I am enjoying the second act that F. Scott Fitzgerald said we Americans don't get to have in our lives -- instead of just being a guy who "used to be" an actor, I'm also a guy who "currently is" a writer -- and even though I don't think any of us knew it at the time, Slashdot played a huge part in making it happen.

So thank you, Rob, for sticking with it when it sucks, and not letting it go to your head when it's great. Slashdot means more to a lot of us than just a place to read news for nerds. It really is stuff that matters. Congratulations on ten years of awesome.

Re:Another thank you

[bgarcia]

I am enjoying the second act that F. Scott Fitzgerald said we Americans don't get to have in our lives -- instead of just being a guy who "used to be" an actor, I'm also a guy who "currently is" a writer -- and even though I don't think any of us knew it at the time, Slashdot played a huge part in making it happen.

Definitely. I ended up buying a copy of Just a Geek due to those Slashdot interviews, and your general participation in various Slashdot discussions. I'm sure others did too.

Re:Another thank you

[_xeno_]

I'm assuming you'll read this entire thread (I've done it both times I did ask me anything, so I'm pretty sure it's a geek thing) so rather than hope I make my way through the 'tubes into your inbox

Based on that, I have to ask, since it didn't make it into the interview:

How long will pants remain optional? And why do you recommend them for me?

Re:Another thank you

[DreadfulGrape]

The above is an awesome comment. I was gonna send Rob a thank-you note as well, but you've pretty much summed it all up for me.

Re:Another thank you

[Cap'n Canuck]

Thanks Slashdot for entertaining/edumacating me, and for introducing me to WWdn. Yeah, I figured out the parent post authour by style/content.

Re:Another thank you

[Mark_Uplanguage]

I'm no actor-writer, but I certainly agree that I learn more on slashdot than anywhere else. It's what I turn to for daily tech news that IS important.

Beyond that I actually learn stuff from the community comments as well, and I've always been happy with the comment moderation system - although I sometimes wish there was a filter for just the 'funny' comments.

I could go on, but in spite of the imitators and haters I'd like to think there will always be /.

Re:Another thank you

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wanted to mention that I heard about Wil Wheaton first on Slashdot.

Re:Another thank you

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I figured out the parent post authour by style/content.

I assume that one tiny clue was the website link under his name.

Re:Another thank you

[empaler]

Google his name and mail him (his maill address is easy to find). I'm sure he'll appreciate it :)
It could also be that he actually hates it, and will give me a permanent -1 for giving you this idea)

Re:Another thank you

[CrazedWalrus]

Absolutely. I credit /. with much of my success today. The conversations are thought provoking (maybe not ALL of them...), and many posters are genuinely "insightful" and "informative".

It's not just the tech conversations either. Even the political and religious flamefests on the site are valuable. Sometimes it's hard to hear opposing viewpoints, but it's somehow easier to read them. It's taught me that it won't kill me to listen to someone who doesn't agree with me, debate can be fun and rewarding, and on a rare occasion I find that maybe I don't have it all figured out.

So in my professional and personal lives, Slashdot has made a big difference. I'll definitely hop on the bandwagon to say: Thanks Rob, and everyone else on the /. crew. You really do make a difference.

Re:Another thank you

[peter318200]

Amen brother thanks Rob :)

Re:Another thank you

[Griim]

I'd also like to thank slasdot for giving Wil that interview, it's one of the two best interviews that have stuck in my mind - the other one being the , if only to read about his fights with William Gibson.

I'm almost the same age as Wil, so his insights and stories about growing up a geek all ring very true with me, there's a ton there to relate to.

Also I realized upon reading this interview with Rob and the age of Slashdot, that my daughter is 10 and I've been reading it for as long as she's been alive. Kind of scary but amazing stuff.

Thanks to both of you, and everyone else who's put in tons of hard work to keep this site going.

Re:Another thank you

[Breakfast Pants]

If you are talking about what I think you are talking about, you should know that you can put a -1 funny modifier in your options. That, combined with sorting by highest score, makes Slashdot comments the best on the net.

Exploded

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much all of my free time is consumed by Zachary, the currently 12 lb. terror that exploded out of Kathleen last August.

Oh, wow. I'm really sorry she exploded. Good luck with your xenomorph problem.

TFA

[rasherbuyer]

Could someone precis TFA, I couldn't be arsed to read it...

I can't believe I read the whole thing

[Cyko_01]

That was a really long article! how many people actually read it in it's entirety?

Re:I can't believe I read the whole thing

[zsouthboy]

You must be new here.

Re:I can't believe I read the whole thing

[legoman666]

If you thought that it was a "long article" I can't imagine you've read much. Have you ever read a novel? Or even a short story for that matter?

Re:I can't believe I read the whole thing

[hawaiian717]

He's just gotten used to articles that are spread out over a dozen pages, three paragraphs to a page. ;)

Bubble Pop

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=LNUX&t=my&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=

Back to the old format?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope so. The new layout with only 25 comments at a time was too restrictive. With a 500 comment story, I certainly wasn't going to press Next 20 times.

(bubble burst before cash-in?) Yes and No

[StandardDeviant]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=LNUX&a=11&b=9&c=1999&d=05&e=9&f=2000&g=d
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:LNUX

Six months from the ipo would've been around june of 2000, certainly after the peak of the NASDAQ (you can see the decline in the prices above). Still, $36 per share is better than the $3 per share it is now. For simplicity assuming the shares were given to him for $0 and he paid no taxes on them once sold and had transaction costs of $0 and that he sold them all as soon as he could (wise given a $240->$36 drop in six months), that would mean clearing $5,400,000 off of his 150k share allotment. Still nothing to sneeze at, but not the absurd valuation he mentions in his post. After removing all the simplifying assumptions, lord only knows. Less than $5M, probably more than $0. ;)

Spot on!

[rudiger3d]

The year of Linux is long passed. Linux will have a strong position on the server for a long time, but as GNOME and KDE bickered with each other, Apple came along and gave the world a great desktop UNIX.

After I started studying CS in 2000 and having never tried Linux/Unix I toyed around with Desktop Linux for a couple of years. I tried 8-10 different distros, even paid for Xandros 2.0 (this was before Ubuntu was all the rage). And for while I was kinda satisfied.

Then my friend tried a Cube for a couple of months and wholeheartedly recommended OS X, people started raving about OS X on slashdot, and in 2004 I bought a PowerBook on which I am writing this... and I never looked back.

chasing after kuro5hin??

[Pike]

did cmdrtaco really just talk about /. "chasing after...kuro5hin", even in a theoretical sense?? that is bizarre. who'da thunk.

Re:chasing after kuro5hin??

[phantomlord]

I seem to remember, back around 2000ish, a lot of non-US Slashdotters bitching that Slashdot was too US-centric and didn't cover enough international stories... After the sellout to Andover/VA, people complained that it was too corporate and that the editors and story selection sucked. The "solution" was Kuro5hin where you could vote on the stories, pick what went to the front page, etc. Quite a few Slashdotters seemed to have dual-citizenship, if you will. It had a lot of hype for a while and even Slashdot covered stories about K5. I remember K5 getting DDOSed and VA donating a new server for them.

For a while they were pretty successful, but eventually, the flames burned out. I stopped visiting sometime back in 2001 or so when the site became overly political and have checked in on it a few times a year since. It seems pretty dead these days. Slashdot started becoming pretty partisan about the same time (with nearly every story having to have at least one comment about how Bush stole the election), but it was more in check since users weren't decided what stories everyone got to see. The advent of the politics section and the hiring of a particular editor has Slashdot pushing it in the same direction. I left Slashdot for a while last year but decided I wasn't going to let one editor ruin a site, one I've visted for nearly a decade, for me.

Re:chasing after kuro5hin??

[nicklott]

Hehe, I did the same as you. I just looked at K5 for the first time in years, it seems the same old posters are dominating everything (one has >17k posts!). Kuro5hin seemed to work with a smaller number (like < 10000) of posters, but it just didn't seem to scale very well. Perhaps it was bad luck but it seemed to get hijacked very quickly by political bitching (though I'm pretty sure that's what rusty really wanted).

As we say in NY...

[J4]

Mazel Tov!

The 10 years really snuck up on me but it's really good to know that one can indeed make their own niche in the world
and do it with integrity.
To me, it sounds to like you're richer than mere money can make a man.

Thanks Rob

[localman]

Just want to say thanks for holding out and keeping Slashdot great. It's my one must check site, even after all this time. I open my email, and I open Slashdot. "S" autocompletes to "Slashdot" in my Safari address bar.

I apologize if this is too warm and fuzzy, but Slashdot is definitely one of the greatest online communities. We still love to complain about the idiocy of Slashdot discussions, but I think this was just because we didn't know what 1000+ people discussions looked like. Now, thanks to so many other sites showing just how bad it can be, I feel I can safely say that Slashdot (when you read +3 and above) is a beacon of reason, penetrating insight, and great wit. I've learned a lot on Slashdot over the years, not as much as on Wikipedia, but probably more than any other single site. And though it is a narrow segment of the population, I still have my ideas intelligently challenged regularly by what I read here. And I think that is a great thing.

Okay, enough :)

Re:Thanks Rob

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to be careful there son. If Rob were to stop quickly, your entire head would get lodged up his ass. Smart people, like subscribers, know that the safe distance to maintain while brown nosing the editors is 12-15".

The more you know...

Re:Thanks Rob

[localman]

Thanks for reminding me why I love this place. I wanted to finish off with a sarcastic switchback like that, but I lack the wit.

And fuck you too.

Best Slashdotting

[Odin_Tiger]

Dang. I was hoping he'd answer the 'what site are you most proud of slashdotting' question.

Still many unanswered questions ...

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

This CowboyNeal chap for example. Is he a real person or concocted mascot like Betty Crocker or Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor?

Re:Still many unanswered questions ...

[Anonymous Coward]

"This CowboyNeal chap for example. Is he a real person..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pater

Re:Still many unanswered questions ...

[hawk]

Neither. He's Aunt Jemimah's love child (and a bit slow). . .

hawk

I take exception to something here...

[east coast]

First let me say that I realize that Taco and crew have put something solid together here but...

CmdrTaco: you don't really need to read any other tech news publications since it will contain the best of all those other websites.

Uh, bullshit? While I obviously have hung out here and posted a ton of stuff over the years, Slashdot simply is not a "best of the tech web" site.

Slashdot is fine for getting a the big tech news on the web in short order but most of us have long outgrown that. I consider Slashdot to be more the Discovery Channel of the web: If you have a mild interest in something it's great but once you get past the surface there's no meat for someone who wants to advance their knowledge on a certain subject. For example: I mostly read a lot of the astronomy stuff because it's a minor interest of mine, almost a hobby. Most of the stories I find here are good reading and sometimes I come into some new information but when I want to read a bit more into it I simply can't do that here. I have to go to the more specialised websites to do that. I don't know if others feel the same.

And that sad part of all of it is that reading the comments is even worse. I see tons of posts modded +5 Informative or Insightful and a reply 15 minutes later points out why the post is plainly wrong yet the correct post stays at a 0-2 mod. The more of these that I see and double check the facts myself the more I see erroneous information getting passed off around here with the validation of the moderation system. It gets even worse in the stories that often boil down to flame wars. Having a +5 Informative on a post that reads "[Bill Gates/RIAA/Linux/NASA/insert...] is teh fucktard!!!!oneoneone!!!" shows that something has gone wrong. By all means, have your opinion of it but it's just so easy to get modded up by taking a side instead of passing on fresh information or at least an explanation of your opinion.

Re:I take exception to something here...

[SiChemist]

He was talking about reading the firehose, not just the front page.

Re:I take exception to something here...

[quantaman]

He was talking about reading the firehose, not just the front page. From a different part of the grandparent's post

"And that sad part of all of it is that reading the comments is even worse. I see tons of posts modded +5 Informative or Insightful and a reply 15 minutes later points out why the post is plainly wrong yet the correct post stays at a 0-2 mod."

As I type this post I see the grandparent as +5 informative and the parent as +2, I guess the grandparent was right about one thing!

Re:I take exception to something here...

[daigu]

Having a +5 Informative on a post that reads "[Bill Gates/RIAA/Linux/NASA/insert...] is teh fucktard!!!!oneoneone!!!" shows that something has gone wrong. Please feel free to link to a +5 post that illustrates what you are talking about. I've never seen one. There are +5 posts I don't agree with, but few stay at +5 that are stupid.

Sorry, Rob, it's happened before

[ClosedSource]

"Personally, the bubble made it possible for me to own my own home at a time in my life when most people my age were living in 1-bedroom roach motels, or worse, with their parents. I'm thankful for that. But when the bubble burst, it took with it my dreams of having a private jet or something, and I was left with a job that pays really well doing something I like."

I remember reading a story long ago about one of the guys who left Atari to form Activision. At the start of the story he was going through the planning for his megahouse with indoor basketball court etc. He was a multimillionaire on paper because of his ownership share of Activision, but he couldn't sell his stock until a certain amount of time had passed. Then the video game crash occurred and he watched the value of his stock drop and drop and drop. At each point he had to scale down his plans. Finally he realized that he was going to have to work for a living after all.

This story resonated with my friends and I because we too were victims of the video game crash although we were never in any danger of becoming rich.

So sorry, Rob, it's just a matter of luck and timing.

Tags are a summary of the discussion

[Per Abrahamsen]

I don't care about how tags are used in other placed. In /. I use them as a very condensed summary of the discussion. And the yes and no tags are quite useful for that. If only one of them appears, it usually represent the community consensus. If both appear, it shows that the community is divided on the issue.

The tags has become less useful lately though. Don't know why.

But what I've wondered for years is . . .

[Anomalous Cowbird]

"Cmdr" . . . is that "Commander" or "Commodore"?

CmdrTaco +1 insightful

[JoeCommodore]

I am too far into reading but, Answer 2 is a very insightful answer, it sums up a lot of the problems with corporations now. And should be in a FAQ about what's wrong with many publicly traded companies.

Though I think his response to the 10 year question is premature, Apple may be hot, but it's still a closed system and as a long time Mac person and a newer Linux person am finding more frustrations with OSX buggyness (on a technical level) than with Linux. I think in the long term ,if not addressed, their limited cross-platform compatibility will kill Apple.

Back to reading...

Spot on about Gnome and KDE

[bogie]

I was angry at Gnome for a long time. Mostly because it sucked horribly for 5+ years but also because of how everyone freaked about about the initial KDE license issue. I was so happy to be using KDE after suffering under horrible featureless WMs. Then came the bickering and divisions. It all got very old waiting around for the Linux desktop to mature and eventually many of us left for Windows 2000/XP and OS X.

Realizing that this is all obviously IMHO and comes from my own narrow view, I really do think that Linux would have been better off if everyone had just standardized on KDE long ago.

Eric - we salute you

[Robotron23]

With Slashdot celebrating its ten year anneversary, Rob Malda (a college student at the time of his creating the Dot) has granted an interview. Malda is your rather typically bright sort, hence the interview being modest and reasoned. A fairly sincere geek, the fellow was eventually working on Slashdot for 20 hours per day, but still managed to graduate and not develop any addiction to stimulants apart from the usual caffeine/taurine drinks. Thus he is well respected.

---

But it wasn't the case for everyone in the deal! Slashdot was acquired in a big cash offer by VA Linux in early 2000. This firm is a good representation of the hope and hopelessness of boom and bust economics - and here is what the subject title refers to: The VA executive Eric S. Raymond's personal wealth rocketed to about $36 million after a stock offering.

However investors simply weren't hard-headed enough to accept a software firm with about 100 employees, chairs and desks as one of the big boys; the lack of assets further encouraged the stock to bomb hilariously over a period of a few months. This interview is a typical megalomaniac boss's thinly veiled attempt at flaunting himself. I point to this, laugh at it (and it is very funny to read), and like many know there's a quiet lesson to be learnt. Something like an ultra-modern "pride before the fall".

Here's a gem from the classically notorious 1999 post:

---- "Assuming the economy does not in fact crater, how is wealth going to affect my life in six months? Honestly, I think the answer is "not much". I haven't spent the last fifteen years doing the open-source for the money. I'm already living pretty much exactly the way I want to, doing the work that matters to me. The biggest difference the money will make to me personally is that now I should be able to keep doing what I love for the rest of my life without worrying about money ever again.

So I expect I'll just keep on as I've been doing. Hacking code. Thinking and spreading subversive thoughts. Traveling and giving talks. Writing papers. Poking various evil empires a good one in the eye whenever I get a chance. Working for freedom." ----

The man is a walking mishmash of contradictions. He implores others to keep wealth quiet to avoid sycophants and cadgers; and makes a public post about his newfound millions made from...er...what was it again that merited all those millions? The fellow is brazen, ignorant, boastful, and a laughing stock - now more than ever. The post was sneered at by people either too wise or too jealous to see things from his end properly, and he rightly gained an economic comeuppance. On the one hand he wants to be seen as a glorious crusader "working for freedom" - he comes across as a prissy egoist quietly planning how to secrete his tenuous wealth. To sum up - a wanker. Classic.

One question to rule them all

[bigmouth_strikes]

There's one thing that I just can't get out of my mind... it's the same question that goes for professional coffee samplers - what do they do on their coffee breaks ?

What do the /. employees do when they feel like surfing to a great tech news site with insightful comments instead of working for half an hour or so ? ?

Re:TFA - Bored User Summary

[Anonymous Coward]

" So Long, Decade 1, and thanks for all the comments".

Missed the context?

[Ohmaar]

I see you complaining about comments, so I'll guess you're mostly reading the main SlashDot articles and wasting a lot of your time reading the comments. CmdrTaco was talking about the *firehose* containing the best of all the other websites. Only a small percentage of the stuff that comes through the firehose makes it to SlashDot proper, and unfortunately, since the community consists of folks for all backgrounds, you pretty much have to select the articles that appeal to everyone. If you want the hardcore, esoteric stuff, try the firehose.

Re:Missed the context?

[east coast]

I am including the firehose.

Thank you.

[a9db0]

I hate marketing Slashdot. I dislike doing press for Slashdot. I've always felt that if we do a good job, people will read, and there's no reason to hype the site. This is anathema to corporate life, which is why we do things like the 10-year anniversary thing. The only reason we're doing it is that I really felt that after 10 whole years it was worth a bit of reflection. You may hate it, but many of us appreciate it. Inasmuch as we take gadgets apart to see how they work, we like knowing about the inner workings of a site we read daily. I'm sure you feel all of this has taken time away from more important stuff that matters, but we enjoy knowing about it.

Ten years is a huge span in internet time. Slashdot has outlasted companies, technologies, presidents, and search engines. I think it is as good a time as any to step back from the day-to-day fray and get a little perspective. Slashdot has made a difference, both in the web and in the world.

Thank you.

Those are not my questions!

[Evil Adrian]

Specifically, "Can I butt secks you?" was not answered.

Pants

[MuMart]

-- Pants are Optional


Where would I pour the Hot Grits, with no pants?

I had the opposite experience.

[Medievalist]

I've used at least a dozen operating systems (I'm old, and in the trade) and I always considered Linux a great server and a fairly crappy desktop. I rushed out to get a MacOSX mini and was somewhat dissapointed... multitasking, yes, great, but still the same tired Apple paradigms. Dragging a picture of a cow to a picture of a trash can really doesn't seem like an advanced deletion method to me.

So, last year I tried Ubuntu on my laptop, and I've been running it ever since. Blows the doors off Apple in the price/performance metric, and I'm a computer professional so I don't mind that it doesn't always treat me like I can't read or type.

Anyway, I then moved my elderly father (who has owned many macs and prefers them greatly to Microsoft systems) over to Ubuntu LTS. He loves it and has no desire to go back to the mac!

I'm sure OSX is better for some people, but for my purposes it can't compare to Ubuntu. For one thing, I don't have to waste time deleting stuff like iTunes, GarageBand, etc. etc. etc. that I'm apparently too old and uncool to ever need. For another, it's truly open source, so I can modify anything I don't like about the way it is engineered (not that I've ever had to do that, though).

I'll probably get modded flamebait again for daring to question the primacy of the One True Desktop, but I'm just reporting my own experience.

Re:Question: what was the "infamous ESR post"?

[drix]

It's funny, I distinctly remember reading that post. I had no idea that it had become some sort of object lesson; I never knew that 10 years on people would be talking about "the ESR interview." But whenever I hear about the glitz, glamor and hubris that pervaded the tech industry in the late 1990s, it calls to mind is always the first two sentences of this interview.

A pub?

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

We're a pub where people gather to talk about the days events, and I think this has tremendous value.

What kind of shitty pub is BYOB? Somebody needs to invent Interbeer.

And pardon me while I grammar nazi a bit, but it seems you should have said "We're like a pub..."

Re:A pub?

[TommyMc]

And pardon me while I grammar nazi a bit, but it seems you should have said "We're like a pub..."

All the world's a stage.

It's the difference between a metaphor and a simile, and they're both valid..

It's not a preposition

[The Monster]

Ending sentences with a preposition is an outrage up with which we will not put.

It's rather difficult to end multiple sentences with a single preposition.... In the construction "put up", the word "up" isn't being used as a preposition, but an adverb, modifying the preceding verb "put". Another legitimate interpretation is that "put up" has merged two words together into a single entity, where the words remain adjacent. Either way, there's nothing wrong with this:

Ending a sentence with a preposition is an outrage with which we will not put up.

However, it would not be grammatically proper to use "up" as an actual preposition, but then not position it "pre" another word:

Ending a sentence with a preposition drives me the wall up.

Re:It's not a preposition

[spun]

One can easily end multiple sentences with a single preposition. You are allowed to use words more than once, thankfully, or we would have run out by now. I suppose that raises the question, is a word used in multiple places the same word, or different? As for 'with,' the sentence we were looking for was 'Ending a sentence with a preposition is an outrage we won't put up with.' Winston Churchill coined the witticism to illustrate the ridiculous lengths one would have to go to in order to follow the (completely false, made up, classist) rule that one can't end a sentence in a preposition. That rule is a shibboleth, designed to distinguish upper class Brits from commoners. It comes from Latin, not English.

Glad you stayed.

[6Yankee]

I really like Slashdot and think it's a better site with me here than away. I can't imagine what others would do to it if I left!

airliners.net is going through exactly that. It's an unholy mess. A quick look at the Site Related forum tells you everything about what happens to a site when the founder sells out to a bunch of corporate bastards.

I'm glad you're still here, Rob.

Re:Glad you stayed.

[hawaiian717]

Actually, the founder is still there. I do have to say though, I'm not sure whether or not Johan plans to stay with the site long term though like Rob has here.

Re:Glad you stayed.

[6Yankee]

As long as Demand Media don't get their hands on Slashdot........ because a.net's screwed.

pants: a case study in optionality and optimality

[StandardDeviant]

You could wear a kilt, but that much wool (~9 yrds for a full traditional) is hot and scratchy. So the option exists for other socially acceptable forms of bottom-half-covering, but in most situations pants win by being the most function for the least cost/hassle. You could probably go further into this with a full marginal utility analysis of various cuts and types of cloth.

I can't believe I just wrote a quarter-serious post about pants.

Selling Stories

[Rob Riggs]

...now, contrary to what conspiracy theorists accuse us of, we don't sell stories. And it quite honestly hurts me when people accuse us of it. But it's scary to know that some folks in the company would be quite happy to do it, completely selling out the integrity of the site to get a bonus.

Proposed solution: hire sales/marketing guys with the following in their employment contract. "We will never sell stories on Slashdot. We have a zero-tolerance policy and any suggestion, recommendation or attempt to sell a story on Slashdot will result in immediate termination."

Re:Selling Stories

[Aehgts]

I can see you haven't spent much time around sales or lawyers.
I'd expect the response to having "We will never sell stories on Slashdot." in the contract to be something like:
"Slashdot doesn't have a shopping cart or credit facilities... [mumbled 'yet'], besides selling stories _for_ slashdot is not the same as _on_ it, right?"

Thanks!

[Kiuas]

Interesting questions and interesting answers. Slashdot is nowadays my only source of tech-related news. I don't need any other sites, it's the best. However, when people are talking about the 10-year anniversary it feels odd to thing I've only read read this site for about 10 months. I really appreciate the work that you guys do to keep this running, thank you for that! Sometimes /. really resembles a pub, except that the avarage users are far more smarter than the ones in pubs. And although I'm a new member here, based on my experience I'll be more than happy to see what the next decade is like for Slashdot.

Live long and prosper.

transition

[Andrei D]

It's not that different from when we started, except that 10 years ago I would have a terminal window open with code, now I have a chat window open with coders, and 10 years ago I would post stories, and today I have a chat window opened to a group of people who can all post stories. So you've made the transition from:

#include <stdio.h>
void main(void)
{
char *message[] = {"Hello ", "World"};
int i;

for(i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
printf("%s", message[i]);
printf("\n");
}

to

$echo I need a "Hello, world." program by this afternoon. |mail codemonkey

Beware,

% letter
letter: Command not found.
% mail
To: ^X ^F ^C
% help mail
help: Command not found.

% damn!
!: Event unrecognized
% logout

is just around the corner :)

Re:transition

[maxwell demon]

    void main(void)
   

Ouch! :-)

Pants most definitely optional

[Gribflex]

best sig I've read.
gratz on the 10 year, it's been great being a reader.

Thank you and keep it up

[rathinam]

Slashdot is a wonderful site for tech news. I am always impressed with the quality of the audience (especially on the high rated comments), and it is wonderful to see "famous" people answer/address questions -- that doesn't happen a lot in other places.

Thank you for starting the site and putting up with all it takes to maintain it.

Once in a while I post using my real name, this is one of those times.

Sethu Rathinam

In Soviet Russia...

[darkvizier]

Taco commands you!

Re:Robbie Malda is not worthy of any respect

[empaler]

Then pray tell: what forces you to come here and complain?

Tough questions...

[rtechie]

I notice that Rob avoided all the tough questions that were asked over and over again, like:

How many active users does /. actually have?

What do you think of digg?

etc.

Way to catch those softballs Rob.

1 more thing

[AutoTheme]

As for #1, you should add that the iPod will fail miserably! Lame...

Finding the funny comments

[shanen]

My algorithm is just to do a reverse search on "funny". Because I'm searching backwards, the cursor stops with "funny" at the top and the possibly funny comment displayed below it. Generally worked well, though you have to think a bit about some of the chained jokes, since this approach goes backwards through the chain. However, the *BIG* problem is that there is simply very little humor on /. these years, either in the posts that are moderated funny or in the random posts that I've looked at in search of humor that was not moderated that way. Perhaps the moderation should be adjusted to encourage humor.

Of course, the big problem is that moderation is a game, and a broken game. There are some sincere and honest moderators, but many of the negative mod points are used to suppress intelligent discussion, not encourage it.

Simplified example would be a creationist moderator who sees a sophisticated and articulate explanation of evolution. What easier response than to mod that poster into oblivion? No, I haven't seen any recent examples (though my current book, Pinker's "How the Mind Works", could motivate me in that direction), but perhaps that's because the vocal pro-evolution people have already been obliviated and left /. (and I'm on my way out the door).

In the answers I noticed that Malda is apparently aware there are problems with moderation. However, his response appears to be to increase the complexity of the game rather than to focus on his first principles. The game players will doubtless be amused and learn to play the fancier game. Me? No thanks. Actually I'm quite interested in intelligent discussion--but I file /. under my humor bookmarks, and it's about to lose even that tenuous status.

I have two concrete recommendations that might improve /. via simplified moderation. First would be the elimination of anonymous negative moderation. There are times when anonymity is justified, but this is *NOT* one of them. If you want to criticize someone, then you should be big enough to put your name on it.

Second would be to basically give everyone a voice in moderation and some mod points. One approach would be for every normal member to have from one to five mod points per day, basically linked to your karma. I would suggest one additional wrinkle for the karma: If your mod is countered several times, that would be grounds for reducing your karma.

Re:Finding the funny comments

[Phroggy]

Of course, the big problem is that moderation is a game, and a broken game. There are some sincere and honest moderators, but many of the negative mod points are used to suppress intelligent discussion, not encourage it. That's why the FAQ about moderation says you should focus on positive moderation, and just ignore the stuff you don't like instead of modding it down.

Simplified example would be a creationist moderator who sees a sophisticated and articulate explanation of evolution. What easier response than to mod that poster into oblivion? This kind of abuse is exactly why meta-moderation exists. If you mod down a post that shouldn't have been modded down (or mod up a post that shouldn't have been modded up), someone else will meta-moderate your moderation as inappropriate, and you'll lose karma. Lose too much karma, and not only are you less likely to be given mod points, but you also get a penalty to your initial score when you post a comment.

No, I haven't seen any recent examples (though my current book, Pinker's "How the Mind Works", could motivate me in that direction), but perhaps that's because the vocal pro-evolution people have already been obliviated and left /. (and I'm on my way out the door). Did I read that correctly? You think the pro-evolution people have left Slashdot, and it's mostly Creationists who are left? That's about as out of touch with reality as labeling Fox News "the liberal media".

In the answers I noticed that Malda is apparently aware there are problems with moderation. However, his response appears to be to increase the complexity of the game rather than to focus on his first principles. Which principles are those, exactly, and how would you suggest that Slashdot's moderation system could be simplified in such a way as to better emphasize those principles?

I have two concrete recommendations that might improve /. via simplified moderation. First would be the elimination of anonymous negative moderation. There are times when anonymity is justified, but this is *NOT* one of them. If you want to criticize someone, then you should be big enough to put your name on it. Alright, I'm not sure I agree with you, but I can accept that this is a valid idea that should warrant further discussion.

Second would be to basically give everyone a voice in moderation and some mod points. One approach would be for every normal member to have from one to five mod points per day, basically linked to your karma. I would suggest one additional wrinkle for the karma: If your mod is countered several times, that would be grounds for reducing your karma. So, essentially you're talking about keeping the same moderation system we have now, but scaling it up so we'd get a hundred people moderating on a particular post, instead of five people moderating on a particular post? Sorry, but I think that would cause more problems than it would solve, not the least of which is that most of us don't come here to moderate, we come here to read. I don't mind occasionally doing my part to contribute, but I don't want to moderate every day. There are other sites that let anyone vote for/against any post, and they usually suck.

By the way, did you know you can customize your preferences to assign a bonus score to "funny" posts, so you'll see more of them?

Re:Finding the funny comments

[shanen]

I am quite aware of the controllable bonuses, and long ago increased the bonus for "funny". Actually, in that regard I have an advantage from my time-lapse perspective. However, the /. editors could validate the data by tracking the actual number of funny-moderated posts over time. (I have a very strong impression that funny is way down, and a weaker impression that posting in general is down. It is possible that funny posts are down simply because all posts are down.)

With regards to the game of moderation, if you have mod points and don't want to use them, then don't. The rest of your comments on those aspects were basically old news. One point of clarification. No, I am not saying that the creationists have 'attained ascendancy' on /., and that was probably a poor example. I was using that as an example of the objective of an inarticulate ax-grinder with mod points.

As regards the meta-mod part of it, that's another place where I'd like to see the actual statistical data. From my study of statistics, internal validation is generally better than adding complicated layers of external validation. My belief is that the actual pool of meta-moderators is almost identical with the moderators, so the game-players are 'validating' themselves.

Re:Finding the funny comments

[Phroggy]

My belief is that the actual pool of meta-moderators is almost identical with the moderators, so the game-players are 'validating' themselves. Maybe so, but as far as I know, meta-moderation is open to just about anyone on a daily basis, which is exactly how you suggested moderation should work. And even if it is just game-players validating themselves, they're not really validating themselves, they're validating other game-players, which isn't the same thing at all - we Slashdotters are most definitely not all of one mind. And if you're suggesting that people who don't currently moderate or meta-moderate should be involved in the system... well, I don't see how that could possibly be implemented in a reasonable way.

Re:Finding the funny comments

[shanen]

I recommend you study self-validating statistics and the general topic of statistical validation. Popular usage is 'circular argument'.

In terms of the implementation, it's pretty simple. Toss all the meta-moderation. If the code is well structured and modularized, that shouldn't be too difficult. New moderation condition is basically each day everyone gets a certain number of mod points. No accumulation of unused points, but just reset each day. Excellent karma might be 4 mod points, and it goes down from there. (I'm thinking of zero-based indexing, and allowing for certain people having no mod points. Newbies, detected robots or sock puppets, and recent abusers, perhaps?)

I still can't decide if the ban on posting a modded thread is good... In theory, you shouldn't lose your vote if you also express an opinion. However, their arguments for this are moderately persuasive, though I think they would be substantially weakened in a context of broader moderation.

Re:kdawson (again)

[Anonymous Coward]

How can something be offtopic when its specifically mentioning the topic at hand?

No crictism?

[gunny01]

Interesting that Rob didn't choose to respond to some of the questions that where more critical of ./...

Yes, why.

[HappyEngineer]

I second that question. Why does that destroy his influence in the community? I read it and I don't see anything to get riled up about. Am I supposed to be mad that he got money? Open source is in no way in conflict with making money. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Do/did some people see him as some sort of socialist icon? I've never thought of him in that way, so I guess I don't see what the problem is.

Re:Yes, why.

[Ash Vince]

Open source is in no way in conflict with making money. And it's a good job too or the OSS movement would not survive very long since we all need money to buy food and shelter, let alone a computer to use to contribute to open source software in any capacity.

I would rather this wasn't the case since if I did not need to earn a wage I would spend as much time as possible coding things I wanted to rather than things my boss wanted me to. They would probably not even be that different except I would produce a better product without commercial time constraints.

Re:Yes, why.

[Cheesey]

What I find annoying about that particular post is:

1. It lacks humility. He comes across as an arrogant loudmouth. Many people do not like this.

2. It tries to give the impression that ESR is someone of vital importance in the community, which is simply not true. His greatest contribution is probably "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", which is often cited, but is basically all derived from earlier work by the real heroes of our "revolution" - the people who actually contributed code. (ESR's actual code contributions are small).

In general, what I don't like about ESR is that he swaggers about like some sort of mixture of Linus Torvalds and Zaphod Beeblebrox, but he lacks the technical skill to carry off the first role, and the personality to carry off the second. He should quit trying to be both a nerd and a celebrity, because he just can't do it.

Re:Yes, why.

[mollymoo]

1. It lacks humility. He comes across as an arrogant loudmouth. Many people do not like this.

2. It tries to give the impression that ESR is someone of vital importance in the community, which is simply not true.

Both true of that message, but both are true of a lot of ESR's output. If that post changed someone's opinion of ESR for those reasons I'd say they didn't know him very well in the first place.

now i'm sorry I didn't submit any questions

[doom]

Now I'm sorry I didn't submit any questions. The kind of things I was wondering about were things like:

(1) Doesn't it bother you that you guys haven't had a new idea in years? The new "features" you've been adding are all imitations of other sites (blogs, tags, etc).

(2) Is slashdot an entertainment site, or is it supposed to fill an important social role? Do you focus on making it "useful" or on making it "fun"?

(2a) Any second thoughts on "anonymity" and letting anyone with an email address sign-up for an account?

Re:now i'm sorry I didn't submit any questions

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't it bother you that you guys haven't had a new idea in years?

I would bother me (and presumably others in the audience) if they had added all the cruft we've seen elsewhere, or felt forced to have and implement new ideas just for the sake of having "new ideas"...

It's great that Slashdot has kept to its original idea and reflected that in its simple (as in "Google simple") form and function -- much like dear Cmdr points out in one or two of the answers.

Them guys provide a nice well-working forum. *Us* guys have the ideas.

That's the frigging point, and the reason for /.'s success over the decade, and the reason I keep coming here.

[Captcha: Orifice. Hmm?]

PRECISELY

[Bryan Ischo]

This is the same reason that, despite my constant grumblings about kdawson, I haven't blocked him. Even he posts some good stories sometimes, and I'd hate to miss those. I did block him for a little while but then got paranoid that I was missing something so I put him back in.

You can generalize the argument about why not to block kdawson even though you don't like him, to Slashdot as a whole. Why read Slashdot if only a fraction of the stories are interesting to you? Because there is a certain acceptable level of cruft to have to sift through to find the good stuff. Slashdot on average is above the threshold of acceptability in this regard (although some days it dips below, unfortunately more and more frequently). But kdawson's contribution is rarely above the threshold. This means that if you want to see the occasional good story, you have to wade through alot of his crap.

I also would have liked to have seen taco's response to this question. However, I did have a private email exchange with him that basically confirmed my suspicion that one of kdawson's duties is to post stuff even when it's a slow news day, just to keep the content flowing. So if there are no good news stories, then there still needs to be a certain number of articles posted to Slashdot every day, and kdawson gets the job of posting the crap just to keep the story count up. And during slow news times (apparently summer time in the northern hemisphere and just after that), kdawson works overtime on this.

As to his poor editing, there really is no excuse for that. But he's not even the worst in that regards, Zonk is much worse.

Captcha: "protests" - INDEED!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

We need to incorporate many of these popular ajax/web2.0 technologies and ideas- our readers deserve the improved browsing experience.

I am speechless, puzzled, and bemused as to why any tech-savvy person would think this. Although the site is working good now (or I should say, the same as it has since the last major redesign months/eons ago), it turned to total crap for a few days this week. Even with javascript off. It was worse under Linux than Windows (hmmm... what do you guys code on?). For text, I don't see how you can do much better unless there was an app that loaded ALL the comments (not 97 more... 77 more ... 57 more ... 37 more ... 17 more ... *backBURP* 97 more ...) and gave the user total freedom in display.

Also, neither you not the sight seem to acknowledge your best, most prolific and insightful poster full of juicy insider information and gems galore: Anonymous (that's ME!). When will we able to view comments based just on the sum of mods without prejudicial start values? When will we be able to emphasize comments that have had many up and down mods? Those are often both very interesting and very buried. Do you think having "abbreviated" comments is good and a more important goal than letting users sort through info on their own terms? The ajax/abreviated/ohlookatmeexpandcommentswithoutpagerefresh added almost nothing and was broken and seemed to censor all comments under 3.

Should I be using RSS to get what I need? Don't make me do RSS! I never have but if that is the recommended way to get data and parse it myself (since you guys CLEARLY refuse to parse without censoring), then that is what will be done.

Slashdot Parties

[gefink]

Has everybody gotten emails about their ./ parties already? If so why wasn't I contacted?

Re:pants: a case study in optionality and optimali

[rs79]

There's always an Indonesian sarong. Sort of a long skirt.

I met Jon Gilmore in Geneva at a DNS thing and he was wearing a sarong.

While Jon has the legs for it, it was still sarong on many levels.

(sorry)

Plopping Out One

[pipingguy]

Didn't know you became a Dad, this is for you:

What a day for a daydream
Custom made for a daydreaming boy
And now I'm lost in a daydream
Dreaming 'bout my bundle of joy

Enjoy.

Re:pants: a case study in optionality and optimali

[daigu]

Don't forget the dhoti. It's basically a long strip of cloth, folded. Once you've learned how to do it, it doesn't take much longer than putting on pants. Not to mention it works both as formal wear and out in the field - depending on the quality of the cloth, just like with pants. It's very comfortable too.

Farewell slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't switch to 'classic' and browse at -1 Nested. Instead I keep getting thrown back to a threaded view of the new javascript discussion system - that being the unusable one which totally sucks.

Is this what web2.0 is, sites that don't work without javascript and even with it can't even get basic functionality right?

year of linux is upon us imo

[saintsfan]

i cant tell you how bummed i was to read the opinion that the year of linux has already come and gnome/kde let way to mac osx. i own a mac, and thats what lead me to get linux! the bsd underlay on macs are not all that. yes, aqua is nice, but the *unix integration is hidden and confused in many ways (which i will not get into here.) at any rate, i hadn't used linux a very long time except on servers, but when i started a project recently that required oodles of high-performance processing and the kick-a legally free software to support it, i bought a new (well, used) box and installed ubuntu. let me tell you, im a bit of a hacker compared to the average joe and bit of a newbie compared to probably 75% of the slash readers, but linux has come a long way and i do not want to use my mac anymore. besides, you can buy a decent x86(64) for cheap and revive it with linux MUCH more cost-effectively than you can buy a mac (i spent $200), and obviously you'll get more out of it then if you used windows (esp. from the store! leave the corporate spyware garbage behind). considering the one laptop per child campaign and the easy to use advances like ubuntu, i will be shocked if linux isn't a global household name within 10 years. imo, the year of linux is upon us as i continue to be impressed over and over without crashes or loss of performance. now if only 64 bit was a little more supported...

Great summary:

[mhollis]

CmdrTaco wrote:

Pretty much all of my free time is consumed by Zachary, the currently 12 lb. terror that exploded out of Kathleen last August. He's awesome. ...
I guess. It would have been nice to have zillions of dollars, but there are other things that are more important.

I suppose these are the two most important answers to all of the questions and are the best answers. The Originator of Slashdot is basically happy, healthy and comfortable, works hard and has some real meaning in his life.

Life is very good, indeed. Congratulations on your boy (Just wait 'till the Saturday soccer games!) and good to hear that your family is doing well. Couldn't happen to a better person.

/. in Opera

[Aehgts]

Typing /. in the address bar is hard coded into The Opera Browser to link to slashdot.org :)

They're copies. Instances, even.

[The Monster]

I suppose that raises the question, is a word used in multiple places the same word, or different?

Thank you for not saying it "begs" the question.

They're separate instances, but the same thing lexically. Your quote above has 18 words, of which "word" and "the" each have two instances. You wouldn't say it only has 16 words in it, but you could say it has 16 unique words. Even if you think the two "word"s are the same word, I think there's a good argument that the words "up" (preposition) and "up" (adverb) are not the same, even though they're spelled and pronounced the same, and even have closely-related meanings, they fulfill different functions grammatically.

As for 'with,' the sentence we were looking for was 'Ending a sentence with a preposition is an outrage we won't put up with.' Winston Churchill coined the witticism . . .

Except that he didn't coin it that way. While there is some question as to the precise original wording (the most likely seems to be "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.") all of the variations have Winnie separating "up" from "put", as if it were a preposition rather than an adverb or an integral part of a two-word verb "put up", which was my original point.

The biggest reason to avoid separating a preposition from its object is that it forces mental effort to link the two back together. Rare is the case that a sentence can't be worded to avoid that separation.

Re:They're copies. Instances, even.

[Ed Avis]

How did you get the idea that 'up' is an adverb and not a preposition? This is just a question of naming, since we both understand that 'up' and 'down' in 'put up' and 'sit down' are there to modify the verb, but I'd be interested to know if this is common usage.

Multiple parts of speech

[The Monster]

How did you get the idea that 'up' is an adverb and not a preposition?

That isn't exactly what I said. Sometimes it's an adverb, and sometimes a preposition. If you look in a dictionary, you'll see that it's also an adjective, noun, and verb.

In sentences such as "Look up!", the function of the word is to modify the verb, and that it has no object. Even in the sentence "Look up her street address.", (where some grammarians say the two words "look up" form a two-word "phrasal verb", and some people would actually combine them as "lookup") "up" isn't a preposition like it is in "Drive up her street.", where "street" (as modified by "her") is the object of the preposition "up".

Re:Multiple parts of speech

[Ed Avis]

Thanks for the link. I see that 'up' can indeed be classed as an adverb. So the rule about not ending sentences with a preposition is even sillier than it first appears, since in many of these cases the offending word (e.g. 'up' in 'make up') is really an adverb.

However, I am concerned that the category adverb is getting too big to be useful. If 'up' is sometimes an adverb (as well as sometimes being a preposition, as you say) then how do you distinguish words like 'quickly' or 'clockwise'? Wikipedia's entry for adverbs doesn't mention anything about these prepositions-used-as-adverbs, so it seems that Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster disagree on the matter.

Re:Multiple parts of speech

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what it is about your post, but it has made me somewhat aroused.

Re:pants: a case study in optionality and optimali

[pjp6259]

(sorry)
I think you meant: (Sari).

Stupid car culture.

[jotaeleemeese]

I have never owned one. A car that is.

That is because I mostly travel by plane and on arrival I always use taxi (or public transport if I am on holiday, funny to get out of 5 star hotels to catch a bus).

It is silly to abandon /. for the politics.

[jotaeleemeese]

You just have to avoid the respective section....

Ob. Beavis and Butthead quote

[TamMan2000]

BORK
Chief, you know that guy whose camper they were whacking off in?

FLEMMING
(appalled)Bork! You are a federal agent. You represent the United States Government... Never end a sentence with a preposition. Try again.

BORK
Oh, ah... You know that guy in whose camper they... I mean that guy off in whose camper they were whacking?