Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Restaurant Suffers Large Translation Error
linuxwrangler writes "Preparing for English-speaking visitors, a restaurant in China recently ran its name through an online translator, took the result, then purchased and mounted a large sign displaying the English version of their name: Translate Server Error." This one has been around for a couple of weeks but it's destined to become a classic.
I'm sorry but I need to rant for a second here.
I have been reading Slashdot for a fairly long time, not as long as some but regularly since around 2000 or so. There are two main reasons I have kept coming back to Slashdot all these years when other sites have come and gone from my list of regular bookmarks:
1. Selection and tone of articles, centering primarily on tech news.
2. Quality of comments on said articles.
I don't have any hard data here (it would be a difficult thing to quantify objectively) but it _seems_ to me that both of these items have been in sharp decline over the last year or two.
I don't know if it's Slashdot trying to chase Digg, if it's some change in direction pushed by the owners, or maybe it's just my imagination. There seem to be two major content models with most tech news sites falling on a continuum between the two extremes. On the one end you have the strong editor model where stories are researched, editors decide what matches the tone and focus of the site and the majority of the material submitted is discarded. On the other end you have a user generated content free-for-all. There are advantages and disadvantages to each model, primarily in the trade off between speed and accuracy.
Right now Slashdot seems to be sliding towards a worst of all worlds, approaching the content quality of a Digg or Reddit but with the speed of sites with a strong editorial model like Wired or ArsTechnica. Lots of silly, irrelevant, or already debunked articles, and tired jokes that stopped being funny a week ago on other sites. There is no long term model for such a site.
The biggest thing Slashdot has going for it right now is a well known name and what's left of the commenters, which are still better than average and on a good day you can find at least one or two experts on almost any topic. The Slashdot editors (a couple in particular, you know who they are) seem to be throwing a great deal of these high-noise / low-signal stories on the front page. These stories may generate more comments, controversy, and page views per entry but they are changing the level of discourse and the image of the site in the long term.
Perhaps it's deliberate and the site owners have a game plan that is way over my head, I just want to point out that you are making a very real tradeoff in the long run.
There is a true and sincere connection between you and your DNS.
You find beauty in normal porn, do not lose this address.
A thrilling DDOS is in your immediate future.