Slashdot Mirror
The History of Slashdot Part 4 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
As the dust settled following the dot-com bust, we would see only minor changes to Slashdot. Hemos moved to Boston both to be closer to Andover HQ, and to get his wife in commute range for her grad school work. Nate went to California when his wife got a teaching job. Both moved to Ann Arbor a few years later, as did CowboyNeal, Samzenpus & I. The band was back together, and has been for the last several years.
These days we have a little office in A2 where we do much the same things as we have always done. Jeff spends way to much time in conference calls with corporate offices. He's got a fancy VP title which means he makes the big bucks in exchange for radiating his head on a cel phone. But he's always been a people person so I think that suits him just fine. Nate is an engineer for SourceForge and working on his own advanced degrees. CowboyNeal is on leave right now, but we're looking forward to his return. Samzenpus still sits at the receptionist desk scaring away the door to door salesmen that still seem to show up randomly with no clue what we do. We conduct most of our affairs via a jabber channel where people on both coasts work together.
At the end of all of it, I'm happy that I still get to work with my oldest friends, as well as a number of really honestly great people we've had to good fortune to meet up with in the last decade. And beyond that, I've had the good fortune to work with a number of other smart and cool people that have gone on to bigger and better things. On some level, the memories and people are the most important part of life, and I'm very happy with how that has gone.
As for Slashdot itself, there's a theme in the discussions about Slashdot jumping the shark. That theme has resurfaced regularly for our entire lifespan. From the creation of user accounts in 1998 on, every action we take on Slashdot provokes a 'This is the end of Slashdot' from someone. But what this tells me is that we actually haven't jumped the shark at all- if we had, they'd stop saying the same thing every time we do anything. You learn a lot in my position about large communities: Most of you never say a word... only the most passionate of you ever post. And an angry user is 10 fold more likely to post than a happy one. And when nobody can agree on anything... well there's meaning in that too.
At the end of the day, we've done some reasonably great things over the years. Take for example Sep 11. On that day the mainstream news websites buckled under the loads, and although we had to turn off logging, we managed to stay up, sharing news in a time where it was often difficult to get. That was the day where the team of engineers that make this site happen pulled together and did the impossible, forcing our limited little hardware cluster to handle traffic that was probably triple or quadruple a normal day.
Or take Columbine. When this tragedy hit, our readers took it a differently. Instead of blaming video games, we looked hard at the culture of abuse that drives high school. We talked about how the jocks beat us up. We knew that the terrible events of that day are almost inevitable when you stick kids into a system where certain groups of kids are given free reign to beat up others based on extra curricular activities. During that series of stories many people had a place to talk. It was cathartic. Our role was small, but it mattered.
Darker moments like those are rare, but there are countless other moments good and bad. Many you see on the page, and others you don't. From little successes like trading banner ads for office chairs or the time Gamara chucked Hemos's cel phone into an empty ice bucket... except it wasn't empty. Or the time the crazy guy showed up at our office and offered to give Samzenpus his car in exchange for 5 minutes of time with CmdrTaco, where he would "Reverse Engineer My Life". I proposed to my wife here... and she accepted and now years later we have a baby. I couldn't begin to enumerate the countless moments that have made the last decade here awesome.
I have other thoughts that are perhaps more bleak. There's a possible dark future for Slashdot if corporate interests take over. There's constant pressure from within the company to create new "products". Sometimes these mean new/more/bigger ads which usually result in people installing junkbusters. Far worse is the occasional attempt to create some sort of content partnership that blurs the lines between legitimate Slashdot content, and the paying advertiser's message. I hate these meetings because I have to constantly be the guy that says 'No'. My worst fear for Slashdot is that someday someone with deep enough pockets comes along with a check so big that someone in the company with a shortsighted view of the future is willing to cash over top of my objections.
Likewise, there is pressure for us to grow as a site, but this has 2 major problems. The first is that our audience was here in the 90s: we were the early adopters that made the internet great in the first place. Our growth will never match the population of the net because we are a small group that isn't growing: we were here first. Second is my personal feeling that marketing is just icky: read if you want. Or don't. If you don't find us on your own, you probably weren't meant to be here. That's my Gen-X showing I think, but it's still how I feel. And it really doesn't help when people on-line regard Alexa as legitimate and definitive. We could gain traffic by posting boobs or covering other subjects, but that would distract us from our real focus. And it would drive you guys away.
Similarly, new websites and technologies arise regularly. From Kuro5hin to Digg to Reddit, there have been dozens of websites that do similar things to Slashdot with varying degrees of success. Some have surpassed us, while most have faded into obscurity. From AJAX interfaces to alternate methodologies of content selection, they all have ideas, some good, so bad... some right for Slashdot, and some wrong. Distinguishing one from the other is tricky: you guys all deserve a modern web application, but at the end of the day, our story selection and discussions are what make this site unique. Drastic changes would alienate our long-term user base, so we need to tread cautiously.
A 10 year anniversary is a good time to think about what a 20 year anniversary would be like. And I think that the only way that Slashdot in 2017 is as good as Slashdot in 2007 is if we continue to maintain editorial independence, moderate advertising quantity with a clear distinction between advertising and content, and of course, that we continue to select the right stories to appeal to our existing audience... not to spend our time courting other audiences that would only dilute the discussions that bring so many of you here day after day.
For me personally I've spent a lot of time this month reflecting on Slashdot and my role here. Every day, 7 days a week, from my first cup of coffee until the moment I close the lid on my laptop, Slashdot is a part of my day. It's most of my browser tabs, most of my chat windows, and most of my inbox. And that's fine because I love this place: the readers, the content, and the people I work with. I'm honored that I continue to be the caretaker of this place.
Of course I've been here my entire adult life and I doubt that will always remain true. Certainly to leave would leave a hole in my life. But it's a constant struggle to maintain the site up to my standards. It's a struggle that I often win, but occasionally lose too. On some level, what keeps me here is knowing exactly what would happen within a few months of my departure. I don't like that one bit.
But let me end on a high note: I am very aware of Slashdot's unique place in the history of the internet. There's no way I could thank everyone that made that possible, but you all know who you are. I dream that in 2017 we can look back at 20 years and be just as proud of our second decade as our first. Keep reading. Keep submitting stories. Keep posting, moderating and meta moderating. If it isn't to much trouble, click on a banner ad every now and then. And hopefully I'll see you then.
--
Rob Malda
Pants are Optional
You're so wise it makes me sick. Why can't more people be like Rob?
Seriously, if you want to make a killing off of Slashdot without making changes that would kill Slashdot, you should expand your articles into a full-length book. Your site is officially an Internet institution. You are a bonafide part of geek culture now, which makes your perspective unique and interesting. You also have proven experience in building a successful community from nothing to millions, which would come in very handy in lots of industries and fields, both small and large.
Plus, when the book is reviewed and the link is posted in the article, you could earn royalties AND sales commission, how sweet is that?
Who knows, maybe you could even patent some of your methods of community-building, and then post an article on how evil you've become. ;-)
There used to be about a dozen web sites I visited on a daily basis. Of them, all that remains is Slashdot. Why? Because it hasn't gone off the corporate deep end and become that blurry mess of marketing and content that Rob's talking about in this essay. Now and again I see that deep end getting closer on this site, but it always seems to fall away into the horizon. If it ever does actually go all the way, I'm with you. I'll leave.
I agree.
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
With only hiveminded thinkers left, like any monopoly, this site has stagnated.
You God damned shill!
Seriously, I agree with you. It's getting old that you can't post an honest opinion that isn't pro-OSS, pro-Google or pro-Apple without getting the beat down with the overrated mod.
I'm sure my protest falls on deaf ears but it really has changed my outlook on how and what I contribute to Slashdot. I've noticed a couple of stories recently that I thought would make good Slashdot material and I simply will not submit them since I think the site has lost so much value. Not to mention that I also lost my mod points for not doing the Slashdot goosestep.
I don't blame the trolls anymore. Sometime I do a bit of the trolling myself since honest and well thought out posts end with the same moderation in a world where not being dogmatic makes you "just another shill".
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
What boobs do you like?
A) Saggy boobs
B) Granny boobs
C) CowboyNeal's boobs
I agree. I would leave Slashdot if it became just another ad-encrusted site.
I think one of the problems is that businesses are almost always under pressure to expand. Merely maintaining the same revenue year by year is considered a failure, even though everyone is making good money (and even if the revenue is growing enough to offset inflation, and pay investors a reasonable return).
The obsession with expanding means that businesses are always trying to think in terms of "getting more customers" and "appealing to a wider base" and so forth. The problem is that there are already lots of companies (or websites in this case) that appeal to that generic audience. Adding yourself into that pool certainly doesn't guarantee increasing profits.
If Slashdot remains true to its roots, it will continue to do well, and to attract a very particular audience. Our numbers are actually growing, since each new generation will have some proportion of nerds/geeks who, upon discovering Slashdot, think to themselves "I have finally found people just like me! This place is great!" Of course Slashdot's readership won't grow as fast as something like Facebook that is designed to appeal to everyone... but that shouldn't be its focus.
In short, if Slashdot continues to pander to its unique demographic, it will continue to have a dedicated readership, and hence a guaranteed revenue stream.
I never posted this request before since I thought that the crew was split apart but since you're all in Ann Arbor, bring back Geeks in Space!
I used to have a ball at listening to CowboyNeal, Hemos and CmdrTaco chatting about what was happening online and whatever else happened to come up. I still remember CmdrTaco bitching about how lossy MP3 compression was and since then I've used his cymbal noise as an example of why FLAC is better.
Call it a podcast, I don't care! Since the quickies are dead (and I miss them too), I wanna hear what you guys think about the latest South Park episode, how your female WoW characters are doing and other nerdy, nerdy, silly stuff.
Anyway, throw us an audio bone and bring back Geeks in Space, please!
All browsers' default homepage should read: Don't Panic...
I just don't get the "groupthink" complaints. Yes, it's probably fair to say that majority of Slashdot readers are pro-F/OSS and anti-Microsoft, but I've seen plenty of good posts defending Windows (for example) modded up. The posts that get modded down tend to be the ones that repeat the same "most popular = best" arguments that anyone with half a brain and any experience knows are simply not true. If you make a well-written, well-thought-out, and factually correct post that points out why Windows does something in particular better than Linux does, people will recognize that and mod accordingly. If you post something that's just a slightly more sophisticated version of "open sores is teh suxorz," don't be surprised when you lose a little karma over it.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Man, am I tired og this tired old argument. The only groupthink I see is a natural one. Get a lot of people with IT/science backgrounds in one place, and you're bound to get large majorities of opinion on at least some issues.
But to say there's no diversity is foolish. Stop browsing at +5, you weenie.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I agree. Slashdot is unique because of the community. That community can be moved or rebuilt to another site very easily and quickly.
Not on you life, once slashdot is gone, it will be gone forever. What makes slashdot so great is not the people who post on every single story giving their opinions, it's the people who only post rarely but when they do, they REALLY know the topic area, that's why you can be guaranteed to learn something in every discussion. If slashdot is reduced just to the "regulars", in the event of a rebuilt clone site, the level of groupthink would make the level of discussion monotonous and ultimately uninteresting.