Slashdot's Disagree Mail

There is an old Japanese proverb that goes, "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher." This week's mail is all about teaching. Whether it is about the seriousness of psychic ability, a short history of trolls or explaining how much free time and malice your dad's attorney has, these people just want to impart information. If what they sent me is any indication, they had a lot of sick days. Click on the link below to become enlightened. This lady doesn't like the message you get on our banned page because it belittles psychics and the good work they do.

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 ******** wrote:
"I normally don't take the time to write to anyone on the internet because they are so rude and closed minded but I must object to your flippant use of the term psychic in the banned message I received. First off I did nothing wrong on purpose to you. If something was wrong it was a mistake. My mother has done a lot of work with local law enforcement and once for FBI. She helps people while you punish them. I've not yet developed my skills enough to help anyone but I do have glimpses. Many reputable brokerage houses and even former presidents rely on psychics for decisions. Maybe if you opened your mind you wouldn't need to punish people for no reason."

Here is a guy that knows a lot about trolls

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 ******* wrote:
"Dude your troll option don't make sense! I know yall think that it means someone bad but trolls used to be good. They'd build stuff if you left them bread or wine and they made the viking gods armor and spears. Don't let a few years of internet people destroy what something means. Be smarter than that! Yall don't have to play follow the leader. learn about trolls. I guess some were bad and you have to trick them into cutting open his belly in an eating contest but that doesn't even matter when it comes to what your saying. Do some research."

Finally we have a man who wanted me to delete all of his comments. When I explained that I couldn't, he sent me this.

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 ******** wrote:
"Holy Shit are you guys fucked! If I own my words your fucking page says so! I asked my dads lawyer and he said you are fucked to. He doesn't do much because my dad is honest not like your users bunch of liberal fags! My dads lawyer is a mean sonabitch and would love to sue you back into the darkages he said so. I almost hope you don't change your mind. I'd love to be there when it all goes down in court. You could do what you know is right and what is right for a place that is supposed to be about customers (readers). If you don't try and do what your reader wants you to do without having him tell you all the time then you are a good business. If not then you are getting YOUR ASS SUED!! If you made cars and I wanted you to crush it and you said no you wouldn't be in business long. Get a fucking CLUE. If I don't want people to see me I can go inside but if I don't want people to read me you won't get rid of my posts? BULLSHIT!! you have to or youll get a call from my dads lawyer buy Friday and then hell will rain down on you. DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

Comments

How long until you publish anti-idle mail?

[Anonymous Coward]

And then the anti-anti-anti-idle mail? (Notice I skip the anti-anti-mail, because no one will write that)

Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[eldavojohn]

"This lady doesn't like the message you get on our banned page..."

What is Slashdot's banned page? I did not know such a thing existed. If you were a bot, I suspect you'd be banned but how does a psychic get banned? What are the conditions that cause a user to get banned? Has anyone else seen this?

"My mother has done a lot of work with local law enforcement and once for FBI."

What is it with nutjobs and claiming they have done work for important government agencies? Yeah, I understand there was a program in the 70s to explore using psychics against the commies but is there a form of dementia that causes one to hallucinate that they are serving a higher power? You know like John Nash or Tom Cruise style? I'm sorry, that wasn't really fair to Doctor Nash.

--

"I guess some were bad and you have to trick them into cutting open his belly in an eating contest but that doesn't even matter when it comes to what your saying."

Is this a reference to some historical myth that I am missing? I think I understand where this (satire) is coming from in that some mythologies contained trolls or troll like creatures. But what is the eating contest reference to? Anyone heavy on Norse mythology or is this some remote Fantasy reference?

--

"If I own my words your fucking page says so!"

Despite he fail English possible, I have always been interested in what your disclaimer means for us, the ones who post. You make that claim to avoid legal troubles, I understand, but if we own what we post here, what are our rights. I have no way of easily accessing my prior posts. I often remember a post I made about something (like Iceland) and I have to go to Google for it because there is simply no way to page through all my comments in my user page. Sometimes someone replies with a thread linking to a useful open source tool and I can never remember what story it was on or where it was attached.

Also, what happens if Slashdot goes offline or is shutdown in the future? What will happen to all my 'property'? Have you considered allowing users to export posts, threads or stories? It would most likely be too taxing for the server but if these posts are owned by the users, shouldn't they be made available to them for keeping in their records?

"you have to or youll get a call from my dads lawyer buy Friday"

My god, lawyers have figured out how to license days of the week! Quickly, how do I acquire the rights to 'Saturday'? I'll be rich!

I think that this last post indicates clearly that we (Americans) are an overly litiguous society. We are so dependent on lawyers that childish remarks immediately default to "my dad's lawyer will sue you." This individual sounds like a minor and I suspect that overexposure to lawsuits and court cases have brought this on. Don't confuse this with 'justice.' "I'm going to beat you up" has been simply replaced with "I'm going to sue you!" And although the violence element has been removed, there is still this overly aggressive, unjust attitude saturated from the highest corporations to the immaturest minds.

One more thing, why is my preview formatting all funny on Idle?

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[RealGrouchy]

Re: Troll - If I correctly remember an earlier reading on trolls on Wikipedia, the term derives from the verb "to troll", as in the ships that troll the ocean for fish--not to the mythological creature.

Re: Ownership of comments: You own the copyright on that particular set of words attributed to you (or your username), and you implicitly grant Slashdot permission to publish those comments. If you were to grant a newspaper permission to reprint your comments (i.e. by sending a letter to the editor), you cannot ask them to collect all copies of their newspaper and cut out your letter after it's been printed.

Re: Idle's comment box: Holy fuck, this thing's annoying! And the comment formatting doesn't work.

- RG>

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[JWSmythe]

I was playing with open proxies on day quite a while back. While I was taking a break, I stayed on the last proxy I was on, and went to Slashdot. I got a banned page. I don't remember the text verbatum, but it had something about the IP was detected to have been abusing, and was blocked. It's probably automatic, and probably kicks in when trolls post too much from one IP. Really, the abuses here aren't too bad considering how many people read and write here.

      I'm guessing they were using a bad proxy, or they were posting so much crap that they tripped the abuse system and it blocked them. Being psychic, they should have seen it coming. :)

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

As I recall, when slashdot started becoming more corporate and such, there was a new copyright notice at the bottom that said slashdot or its parent company or something owned everything. A bunch of users complained like, "why don't I get copyright privileges on my own words" or something to that effect. They updated the notice to say that comments belonged to the poster. I think the notice went through a few changes since then but that's more or less how the bit about comments being owned by the poster came about.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that if you replaced "Disagree Mail" with "Best of twitter's sock-puppets"... no one would notice.

Captcha is "nurture", leading me once again to believe that too many people involved in OP weren't hugged enough as children.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[hyfe]

Is this a reference to some historical myth that I am missing? I think I understand where this (satire) is coming from in that some mythologies contained trolls or troll like creatures. But what is the eating contest reference to? Anyone heavy on Norse mythology or is this some remote Fantasy reference?

It's not Norse, but it is Norwegian (or scandinavian, I'm actually not sure).

It's referring to a story about a guy named Askeladden who got captured by a troll, and challenged him to an eating contest using porrige. Askeladden put his backpack and as the eating contest went on, filled his backpack up. When it was full, he said to the troll: 'It's no problem, I'll just slit up my stomack and I'm ready to eat more', and he cut open his backpack.. A while later the troll was full too, and askeladden persuaded him to do the same :)

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

Your words are yours, but /. owns the bits.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[nine-times]

Yeah, I understand there was a program in the 70s to explore using psychics against the commies but is there a form of dementia that causes one to hallucinate that they are serving a higher power? You know like John Nash or Tom Cruise [youtube.com] style? I'm sorry, that wasn't really fair to Doctor Nash.

No, it's probably very fair to Dr. Nash. There are mental illnesses that cause the sufferer to believe he or she is very important, either by themselves or because of some role they play. Have you heard the phrase "delusions of grandeur"? It's a symptom of paranoid disorders, such as paranoid schizophrenia, which is the disease John Nash suffered from.

Delusions of grandeur are often accompanies by delusions of persecution. Essentially, if I believe myself to be really great and important, then whenever something goes wrong for me, I'm likely to assume it's because someone is out to get me. That's where the "paranoid" part comes in.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[geminidomino]

Personally, it's the "transferable" part that I find iffy.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[bhtooefr]

AvantGo is banned for making too many requests or something... so anyone who tries to use AvantGo to get the Palm version of Slashdot gets a banned message.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

""I guess some were bad and you have to trick them into cutting open his belly in an eating contest but that doesn't even matter when it comes to what your saying."
Is this a reference to some historical myth that I am missing? I think I understand where this (satire) is coming from in that some mythologies contained trolls or troll like creatures. But what is the eating contest reference to? Anyone heavy on Norse mythology or is this some remote Fantasy reference? "

It references an old norwegian fairy tale. Short synopsis here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_Who_Ate_a_Match_With_the_Troll

PS. "the boy put more into his scrip than into his stomach" (from wikipedia)
And if you, like me, have never seen the word scrip before; I think a backpack was used in the version I remember...

And I apologize for the lack of line breaks, but for some reason they don't show up. (atleast in preview)

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[FuzzyFox]

the term derives from the verb "to troll", as in the ships that troll the ocean for fish

I believe the word you're looking for is "trawl."

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[mrchaotica]

Nope, he really did mean "troll". Not only is it a real word, they even make motors for that purpose. (In contrast, there is no such thing as a "trawling motor.")

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[nrgins]

I assume it means you own the rights to what you post here, in case someone wants to use something you said and claim it as yours. Also, if you want to use it, you don't need permission to do so. But the words aren't objects; so you don't have rights to the COPY of the words that are on the site; only the rights to the words themselves. This would be like someone complaining to a library because they don't take down a copy of a someone's book that was legally purchased, or because said person can't easily find a copy of their book in the library. The rights are not to the copy of the words, but to the use of the words.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

Delusions of grandeur are often accompanies by delusions of persecution. Essentially, if I believe myself to be really great and important, then whenever something goes wrong for me, I'm likely to assume it's because someone is out to get me. That's where the "paranoid" part comes in.

There's actually a very interesting article about that here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/fashion/28truman.html

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[geekoid]

Saddly, some law enforcement agency still use these scam artists.

Not one of which can prove any ability or predict anything outside the normal parameters for a crime. When they are wrong, they don't apologize and slip quietly away, when they get anything they can twist into a hit, they lie about the specifics and then go to all the papers. Some example are "the body will be near water." really? no shit.

As far as associating them selves with law enforcement, it lends to their "argument from authority" logical fallacy.

I am open minded, but I am not blind. Show some evidence and tests. They never can.

The lawsuit ahs nothing to do with how litigious anyone is, it's shut some loud mouth spouting off with something he thinks is scary.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[rarel]

My god, lawyers have figured out how to license days of the week! Quickly, how do I acquire the rights to 'Saturday'? I'll be rich!

And I could finally be "The Man who has Thursday"!

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, "Norse" is probably the correct word, based on your description:

Norse (nÃrs)

adjective

        1. Scandinavian; specif., medieval Scandinavian
        2. West Scandinavian (Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faeroese)

noun

        1. the Scandinavian group of languages
        2. the West Scandinavian group of languages
        3. Norwegian

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[t0rkm3]

Ask and ye shall receive.... Askeladden

http://everything2.com/e2node/When%2520Askeladden%2520and%2520the%2520Troll%2520had%2520an%2520Eating%2520Competition

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[HikingStick]

I think that this last post indicates clearly that we (Americans) are an overly litiguous society.

I must come to defense of society at large and disagree with you. All the final post indicated is that some spoiled little brat with a very litigous father thinks that tantrums and litigation are the key to success. That child (no matter how old) is due for a rude awakening.

If he were mine, he'd learn that his bum isn't just for looking nice in shorts.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Larry_The_Canary]

It is for this reason that the 'troll' mod is the most over/incorrectly used. Most posts labelled troll should really be labelled flamebait, redundant, offtopic or just plain fucking stupid. 'Trolling' internet forums is an art, the key to which is to 'bait' people with a character/opinion that is obviously off/wrong but in a way that's believable, thus 'hooking' replies by good souls trying to help by correcting the flaws with the character/opinion. As an example: 'George bush is a lying nazi scum and anyone voted for him should be imprisoned' is not a troll, because it's too obviously a flamebait. Something like: 'George lied to us, so we should impeach him so that we can throw him in jail' is a troll because even though there are several problems with the sentence, it is innocent/naive enough to be realistic. This is why I browse with comments marked 'Troll' +4, because a good troll post is something to admire and appreciate, but it doesn't work so well when no one properly moderates trolls.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[spectro]

What is it with nutjobs and claiming they have done work for important government agencies? Yeah, I understand there was a program in the 70s to explore using psychics against the commies but is there a form of dementia that causes one to hallucinate that they are serving a higher power?

Check "Psychic Detectives" in True TV (ex Court TV). They go though police cases solved with help from psychics.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Norse refers to Norway and all of Scandinavia. Norway is Scandinavian. I'm surprised you knew this story but not these trivial facts...

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Hal_Porter]

If he were mine, he'd learn that his bum isn't just for looking nice in shorts.

That's just wrong on so many levels.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[HikingStick]

A good paddling on my backside did me good when I was younger. Pain is a powerful teacher, and I've never heard of anyone dying from a welt on his bum.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think that's what sounded wrong about it.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[broken_chaos]

What is it with nutjobs and claiming they have done work for important government agencies? Yeah, I understand there was a program in the 70s to explore using psychics against the commies but is there a form of dementia that causes one to hallucinate that they are serving a higher power?

Schizophrenia often has this effect on people. Auditory hallucinations are particularly common, and among those the "command hallucinations" are the most dangerous (for example, they may believe god is telling them what to do).

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[HTH NE1]

And the comment formatting doesn't work.

I think you mean the Preview formatting. Only on Idle does Preview not show you how your posting will appear (it eats the double-spacing between paragraphs).

I can live with a lot of the quirkiness of Idle, but Preview is one place where it really needs to work properly.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[eat here_get gas]

so you're saying that she "fore-saw" her banning, in that nature that only psychics enjoy?

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[hedwards]

That's not correct. Troll is the mod used to denote people that aren't of the correct fanboy type.

And Flamebait is the correct mod when something is insightful/interesting/informative but that the moderator doesn't agree with.

And of course this will be modded to Flamebait, because it's clearly accurate.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

I know
You know
That I'm not telling the truth

I know
You know
They just don't have any proof

Embrace the deception
Learn how to bend

Your worst inhibitions will psych you out in the end.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[the_one(2)]

hah! I have some recollection of reading that when I was like 10 in a swedish school

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[skarphace]

I have no way of easily accessing my prior posts. I often remember a post I made about something (like Iceland) and I have to go to Google for it because there is simply no way to page through all my comments in my user page. Sometimes someone replies with a thread linking to a useful open source tool and I can never remember what story it was on or where it was attached.

http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

One more thing, why is my preview formatting all funny on Idle?

About time something on Idle was funny.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

If you were a bot, I suspect you'd be banned but how does a psychic get banned?"

...Through unforseen circumstances!

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Peter Mork]

Concerning the eating contest reference: There is a classic Norwegian fairy tale ("The Ashlad who had an eating contest with a troll" if I translated the title correctly). In this story, the ashlad (the hero of most such fairy tales) tricks a troll into an eating contest. However, the ashlad first straps his backpack to his chest so that he can spill all of the food into the backpack. When the backpack fills up, he takes out a knife and slices his 'belly' open. He then encourages the troll to follow suit, to make more room. The troll cuts open its own belly, and dies.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[RealGrouchy]

Yes, I discovered that after posting the comment. Until I posted it, though, I had no way of knowing that the preview's formatting was different than that of the post.

- RG>

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[yotto]

I'm pretty sure the problem was in thinking that your son's bum looks nice in shorts.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[gsslay]

You get the banned page if you are unfortunate enough to lie behind a proxy, and someone else has been hammering slashdot through the same proxy.

The reference to psychics is where the page suggests you include the banned IP address in any email you send to slashdot admins, asking them to lift the ban. Because they're not psychic.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Icarium]

Ships don't troll the ocean, they trawl.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Anonymous Coward]

We should also be sure not to confuse our current legal system with a justice system. Perhaps a justice system was the intent of our founding fathers, but the end result has simply been a mechanism for maintaining order.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Larry_The_Canary]

Well sir, then I do apologize and sincerely hope that I have not offended you in any harmful, stick with you for the rest of your life, constantly nagging at the back of your mind, until it's sub-conscious perverseness manifests itself physically as a brain tumor, kind of way. Your criticism is well received.

I do find it amusing that my original post has beed modded as a troll since the post itself is about the art and subtlety of trolling, making it a self-referential post. Douglas Hofstadter would be impressed.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[famebait]

'George lied to us, so we should impeach him so that we can throw him in jail' is a troll

Nice try. Won't bite, though.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Larry_The_Canary]

That's not actually my opinion, I was just using it as an example that I thought the people on this board would identify with, I guess I should have used a car analogy.

'Cars are evil and polute the environment' - Flaimbait
'I'm concerned about the environment so I'm going to buy a car that uses Bio-fuel' - Troll

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[famebait]

I was just making a joke, pretending you had slipped a troll into your own post.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[Larry_The_Canary]

Yes it was a funny joke.

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[HikingStick]

LOL...I did not see it from that angle. I was more thinking that the brat with the loud mouth may simply have viewed his backside as something nice with which to attract the fairer sex!

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[JWSmythe]

I don't know how it happened, but somehow the bookmark on my phone (Blackberry) got switched from what I set it to, to a Google link. This may help you by pumping the request through Google, rather than letting Avantgo handle it. I haven't had any problems this way. I'd worry about privacy, but since all I can do is read, it doesn't really matter. The big brothers at Google can only see that some computer geek carries a blackberry. :)

  Try http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fslashdot.org%2Fpalm

    I hope that shows up properly. Lots of % characters. :)

Re:Might As Well Try to Discuss This

[bhtooefr]

For reading Slashdot, I usually use Opera Mini on my Centro, but I was just saying...

(I do have AvantGo on my Fossil Wrist PDA...)

One mean sonabitch

[soulsteal]

My dad's lawyer is one. For reals.

Re:One mean sonabitch

[Anonymous Coward]

Got him off that murder rap, not many coulda.

Re:One mean sonabitch

[jellomizer]

I was playing Starcraft once and I remember thwamping some kid. (team game my team mate was my friend and we had a fixed stratagy that worked more then not) Both play Protoss he focuses on full attack I just kinda build up drones. an carriers and some defense. Then I take a couple of zealots and a couple of drones. over to the enemy with my partners attack force. While the guy is battling the group of carriers and a few zealots who are on automatic I control the peon and make cannons in the middle of the battle covered by carriers. When the battle clears out and loosing 8 or so carriers what is left is about 20 cannons just formed. right in the middle of his town with the peon just making more and more... But I digress. This annoyed the kid who said his Dad owned the internet and I would get banned and world send me a Virus. I hedged my bets and assumed his dad wasn't Al Gore. We just laughed at him for being such a poor looser.

Re:One mean sonabitch

[Anonymous Coward]

"loser" is the word you're looking for. "looser" just means "more loose"

Re:One mean sonabitch

[RiotingPacifist]

much like your mother.

Re:One mean sonabitch

[Anonymous Coward]

that story was so long, i really expected to be bel-aired.

Re:One mean sonabitch

[ari_j]

It can also mean one who looses things upon others. I, for instance, am a looser of affects. ;)

Re:One mean sonabitch

[Anonymous Coward]

Al Gore doesn't OWN the internet, he just invented it. :)

FIRST

[Kral_Blbec]

I demand you delete this

Re:FIRST

[Mobius Ring]

0x010 0x010 0x010 ...repeat 20 times... 0x010

Ain't the 'Backspace' key a great thing?

Re:FIRST

[Joe the Lesser]

*This comment has been deleted because we like the user. The rest of you suck.*

Re:FIRST

[MichaelSmith]

I would be happy to mod you down for a small fee.

Re:FIRST

[Anonymous Coward]

I demand you fix your stupid layout. I asked my dad's lawyer and we would like to do it for you.

Good advice

[xaxa]

I should really follow the advice on the front page that sometimes appears, "Never go to idle.slashdot.org -- it's a complete waste of your time".

Oh, first post?

Re:Good advice

[xaxa]

Oh, first post?

No, evidently lots of people waste even more time than me.

Re:Good advice

[Tridus]

The problem is that idle.slashdot.org is now coming to us on the front page. The advice is just to never go there, but now we have to actively take steps to fight it off.

There's an "In Soviet Russia..." joke in this somewhere, I'm sure.

Re:Good advice

[xaxa]

For anyone looking, the option is on this page: http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=edithome

That's the last you'll hear of me on this /. section :-)

Re:Good advice

[Anonymous Coward]

An even worse problem (since you can configure your front page) is that it's coming through RSS feeds, which aren't configurable, and don't report that the article's from idle.

Re:Good advice

[Anonymous Coward]

well, obviously in soviet russia idle visits you

Re:Good advice

[galoise]

does this option take it off rss too?

Re:Good advice

[AP31R0N]

LEAVE IDOL.SLASHDOT ALONE!

Re:Good advice

[xaxa]

It seems to have done (I just clicked "rss" at the bottom of the page and Firefox gave me a preview). Presumably, you'd need your RSS reader to send the appropriate login cookie.

Re:Good advice

[Atticka]

In Soviet Russia idle.slashdot.org idly passes you!

Re:Good advice

[againjj]

Oh, first post?

Not by two minutes. :-)

Re:Good advice

[xaxa]

Oh, first post?

Not by two minutes. :-)

I know where I went wrong: I was thinking about what I wrote.

Re:Good advice

[ZzzzSleep]

If that doesn't work you can use yahoo pipes to remove idle.slashdot stories from the rss feed. I'm pretty sure somebody has done this already. *looks* A-ha! Here it is http://m1.pipes.vip.sp1.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=527129296c75002203989957b76e87d9

Re:Good advice

[Zebedeu]

I really can't understand all the hate that idle gets on the comments.
I mean, I think it's nice to have a lighter story from time to time, and I find it interesting to know what's happening with the creasy side of the slashdot readership (the crappy books and the boring emails).
.

If you come here just for the serious news, you have your choice to remove the stories in your site preferences, or simply ignore the idle articles -- I'm sure you're not really wasting that much time reading one paragraph of an uninteresting story each one or two weeks.
Hell, I ignore most stories in slashdot, and only focus on a few which interest me (I can usually tell if it's interesting just by reading the subject).
.

Specially strange for me are the people who take the time to read the full text of the article and then drill down to the comments just to post some hate, but I guess that some people like to vent, and I guess this is as good a place as any, and I guess that idle.slashdot is an easy target (lots of other people also hating here).

Re:Good advice

[jonaskoelker]

I think you've watched too much American Idle...

Re:Good advice

[Anonymous Coward]

"No, Emily, that's IDLE Slashdot."

"Oh. Never mind. Well then, what's all this talk about endangered feces? I mean, who wants to save them anyway?"

"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

[PrescriptionWarning]

and yes i'm talking about the white on green text that hurtses

Re:"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really not that bad, white on a dark-turquoise (Windows box, pantone-colour calibrated). But then it does look awful on a default uncalibrated mac.

Re:"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

[Anonymous Coward]

In which case you're a moron.

Pantone supply swatches for spot colors etc. You don't calibrate to a different colorspace, you calibrate your monitor for RGB and use a color profile.

HTH, HAND.

Re:"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, a Windows elitist. Never thought I'd come across that particular oddity.

Trolls..

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironically, that troll email was quite insightful and interesting.

Re:Trolls..

[SpicyLemon]

Wow, correct usage of the word "Ironically." These days, that, in itself, is ironic.

Re:Trolls..

[duckInferno]

So rare that even you aren't using it correctly :)

Re:Trolls..

[Catil]

If there isn't already, there should be a law stating that whenever someone points out irony on the internet, he will receive a reply of whether or not the term was used correctly. Perhaps it should be called 'Morissette's Law.'

Re:Trolls..

[repvik]

Nah, Morissette doesn't point it out. Morissette just incorrectly uses it repeatedly.

Re:Trolls..

[blane.bramble]

Isn't it ironic?

the banned page

[jamie]

For those of you who have never been lucky enough to witness the "pink page" we display to banned users, here's the text of the template we generate it with. I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics.

Re:the banned page

[eldavojohn]

"For those of you who have never been lucky enough to witness the "pink page" we display to banned users, here's the text of the template we generate it with. I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics."

That's pretty horrible but ... not enough use of the <marquee> & <blink> tags.

Say, Jamie, why is the idle comment boxes different and why are the <quote> tags not functioning like they do on the rest of Slashdot?

Re:the banned page

[dotancohen]

For those of you who have never been lucky enough to witness the "pink page" we display to banned users, here's the text of the template we generate it with. I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics.

That's not offensive to psychics, rather, it praises the work that they do and you admit that you can't do the work that they do. It says that you are good, but psychics are better than good.

Re:the banned page

[jamie]

We may have CSS issues... I'm pasting your comment's URL to our UI guys right now :)

Re:the banned page

[Ifni]

Actually, because of the lack of a "but" it can be construed as a contrasting comparison - to wit: "we're good, therefore/because we are not psychic". Most readers will realize that the true intent was "we're good, BUT we are not psychic," but the lack of a conjunction does leave it slightly open to interpretation.

Re:the banned page

[hansamurai]

I mean come on, we're good, we're not psychic.

You bastard, my grandmother said she'd die in the Lesser Psychic Wars of 2015.

Re:the banned page

[Ceriel Nosforit]

I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics.

It's OK. You're good, not psychic.

On a side-note, I hold the educated opinion that speaking ill of self-proclaimed 'psychics', 'healers', or tarot card readers is fundamentally not only naive, but also immature and detrimental to your own ability to understand your surroundings. Many of us have experienced things not you nor we can begin to comprehend, and your ridiculous belittling attitude only serves to stop us from sharing our experiences. - Experiences which enrich our lives and makes us kinder, gentler human beings.

Re:the banned page

[Thornburg]

"

For those of you who have never been lucky enough to witness the "pink page" we display to banned users, here's the text of the template we generate it with. I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics.

"

I don't understand how "we're good, but we're not psychic" (very slightly paraphrased) would offensive to psychics.

Also, it seems to me that if you are easily offended, a psychic is probably not a very good thing to be.

Re:the banned page

[MarkGriz]

Indeed. Rather than get all offended, the writer should have asked for a job guessing UIDs for banned slashdotters requesting to be unbanned.

Re:the banned page

[clone53421]

Most readers will realize that the true intent was "we're good, BUT we are not psychic," but the lack of a conjunction does leave it slightly open to interpretation.

Well, it's obvious enough that all the psychic readers figured it out and weren't offended.

Re:the banned page

[Homr Zodyssey]

Just be glad she'll never have to live through the horror of the Greater Psychic Wars of 2034-2036.

Re:the banned page

[Ceriel Nosforit]

Wait, that made it sound as if I think I'm psychic. That wasn't my intention. Rather I meant to say that I am one of those who have experienced things which defies my otherwise absolutely logical understanding of my surroundings.

Re:the banned page

[FiloEleven]

Wow, here's something worthwhile in Idle. Good comment. I'm disinclined to believe in most of the things you mentioned, but like you I don't dismiss them out of hand, especially because I have never (knowingly) dealt with any people like that and have no real basis to judge their claims. I've heard stories of the paranormal that I find hard to believe, but I've heard enough of them from people I trust that I also find them hard to dismiss. It's a shame that more people don't share your outlook of toleration and community; we could all use a little enrichment.

Re:the banned page

[Just Some Guy]

I hold the educated

Ahem.

opinion that speaking ill of self-proclaimed 'psychics', 'healers', or tarot card readers is fundamentally not only naive, but also immature and detrimental to your own ability to understand your surroundings. Many of us have experienced things not you nor we can begin to comprehend,

None of us have experienced things that humans are unable to comprehend. Even the odd corner cases, like quantum entanglement, are being actively explored.

and your ridiculous belittling attitude only serves to stop us from sharing our experiences.

Out of curiosity, what would it take to make every would-be psychic keep their traps shut? Cause I'd personally make sure it happened to all those idiots hosting "talk to your pet" TV shows.

Re:the banned page

[Ceriel Nosforit]

I'm glad you replied that way. I was expecting trolls...

Often people who have experienced these things have difficulty believing them too. In my case I must occasionally remind myself that no; it was NOT a dream. It did happen, and all I thought I knew about the world is called into question.

Once you start questioning the basics there's no turning back, and things just get stranger and stranger. I find myself forced to maintain a dual understanding of the world in parallel; a scientific explanation, and an occult explanation. On occasion they are mutually exclusive, but still when the time for testing comes, reality just complies with both of them.
It is very confusing, but I find comfort in that in spite of how counter-intuitive QED is, it does seem to allow for oddity like this.

Re:the banned page

[Danny Rathjens]

As long as we are reporting bugs here. :) The box I am typing this in is about 200 pixels wide(25-ish characters) and I have 1000 pixels of whitespace to the right of it.

Re:the banned page

[T.E.D.]

I mean come on, we're good, we're not psychic.

How is this offensive? You are saying psychics are better than "good". It seems like a compliment to me.

Seriously. I wish more people around here would similarly "insult" me. I might get a raise or something.

Re:the banned page

[Joe the Lesser]

It's look like an amazing miscommunication, but I think this is what happened:

We are good.

We are not psychic.

Therefore

Psychics are not good.

Re:the banned page

[Anonymous Coward]

hey, since you're sending stuff to UI people, can I make a suggestion?

I'm not one of the people trolling here for slashdot to get rid of idle. I kind of like it. There are other sections of slashdot that I don't particularly care for, and I'm smart enough to just not read those articles instead of complaining. However, I have to say that there's a legitimate reason for complaining about the white on green choice of colors. It actually does look nice while you're reading it, but after you've spent 5 minutes reading the text there, and you scroll down to the white background, it's really a horrible transition.

If your UI guys give it a try, and it turns out I'm in the minority here, and it doesn't actualy bother most people, that's fine, I suppose I can live with it and get a custom css for the page or something. However, give due consideration to my suggestion and at least consider a less drastic change in contrast.

Thanks, and keep up the good work. I love slashdot.

P.S. html tags don't seem to be working here with the preview. So, send my comment's URL to your UI guys too :)

Re:the banned page

[PapaBoojum]

Always credulously accepting all concepts as possible is neither immature nor detrimental to understanding your surroundings. I argue the opposite: attributing that which you do not understand or can not personally explain to supernatural phenomenon is what is immature. There is ample evidence that most so-called 'psychics' are charlatans and frauds. If you believe otherwise, I suggest your understanding of your surroundings is not as logical as you think.

Re:the banned page

[PapaBoojum]

WTF. I deleted that first sentence before hitting 'Submit'. Please ignore that first sentence. 'Course the psychics in this thread would ~know~ I intended that...

Re:the banned page

[Anonamused Cow-herd]

Most readers will realize that the true intent was "we're good, BUT we are not psychic," but the lack of a conjunction does leave it slightly open to interpretation.

That's why some genius invented the semicolon; I noticed its conspicuous absence, as well!

Re:the banned page

[Ceriel Nosforit]

Consider it ignored.

Re:the banned page

[Joe Snipe]

tell 'em to test on ie6 (used in 4 out 5 crappy jobs everywhere). I mean c'mon I'm going to read idle at home :)

Re:the banned page

[FiloEleven]

Once you start questioning the basics there's no turning back, and things just get stranger and stranger.

Indeed! What we know about the universe is only dwarfed by what we do not know.

You may be interested, if you haven't already come across it, in the holographic theory of the universe as proposed by David Bohm. He wrote a bunch of essays on the subject, later collected into a book called "Wholeness and the Implicate Order." The basic idea is that when non-local phenomena are present, all of our assumptions about the way things work is thrown out the window, and that (in some way) the whole of the universe exists in each and every particle. I'll confess that I only got about halfway through: it's very heavy QM in parts and very dry language in others.

An easier and more interesting (though probably less informative) read, and the book that led me to stop discounting the paranormal out of hand, is "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. The first few chapters are devoted to Bohm's theory as well as to the holonomic brain theory of Karl Pribam. Latter parts of the book are all about psychic experiments (with very interesting results) and experiences, and how they easily fit into the holographic model. I'm a bit credulous of some of his sources, but they're all listed and can be examined should you be inclined.

I've been digesting the information for over a year now and I find it to be a rather exciting theory with huge ramifications for the scientific establishment. I hope that, if nothing else, the idea gets a larger audience both within and without the scientific community, so that it may be tested as far as possible rather than simply being passed over.

Re:the banned page

[duckInferno]

If you fail to include the UID (again, in the subject!), then your message will be deleted and ignored. I mean come on, we're good, we're not psychic.

That's it? What's offensive about that? I don't understand at all :(

Re:the banned page

[mjpvirtual]

Of course, were she physhic, she would have understood the proper meaning.

Wait. Perhaps it really IS a cleverly crafted slur!

Re:the banned page

[Reziac]

Just so long as you PLEASE don't break it again for us low-bandwidth-and-no-CSS users! Myself, I *can't* use Slashdot without this option.

(Works good enough right now, but has been messed up a few times in the past.)

Re:the banned page

[BluBrick]

Really? You can't see it?

It goes like this: "we're good, not psychic"

therefore: good = not psychic

therefore: psychic = not good

therefore: psychic = teh EVIL! Witch! Burn her! BURRRRRN THEM ALL!!!!!11eleventy-one!!

I'm surprised that these psychics haven't got together and cursed /. with a plague of trolls...
Oh, never mind!

Re:the banned page

[Anonymous Coward]

"I confess I'd never before thought about how offensive that might be to psychics"

Hey I'm psychic, but not enough to know what you had said... thanks for the link... I LMAO when I read it. I guess I'm psychic enough to "see" the omitted "but".

Love the differing viewpoints.... don't we all.

Re:the banned page

[Bluraven]

Of course you've forgotten that everyone will become Cyborgs by 2029, so that the Greater Psychic Wars will be fought by machines...Matrix style!

Re:the banned page

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! That really is offensive!
I mean damn!

I am offended by their offended-ness. Who gets to play the victim and sue now?

Please just stop

[rolfwind]

with the emails.

There aren't really enough, and I guess I don't have enough of a sense of humor to really get this non-sequitur summary and emails.

Re:Please just stop

[philspear]

Not to mention you're only encouraging people to troll you like all three of these obviously were.

Re:Please just stop

[geekoid]

I don't think they were trolls. I've dealt with too many emails like that from people who were serious.
Also, I like the mail. Too bad the force you to read it~

Re:Please just stop

[Skuld-Chan]

You say this, but after spending 8 years doing customer service (mostly tech support) there really are people out there like this.

Temper, temper!

[the darn]

I'd hate to have to be the one to tell him that his dad's lawyer buddy is screwing his Canadian girlfriend...

Mon, 9 2008

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not even a date.

Re:Mon, 9 2008

[Majik Sheff]

Let's look at this logically... Since the year is clearly indicated, that leaves us with the month and day. Since the ninth month has not yet occurred in 2008, we can safely assume the 9 indicates the 9th day of the month. This leave only the month. A cursory glance at the calendar tells us that June is the only month this year where the 9th falls on a Monday. So, having been through all of that, we can conclude that the author clearly meant Monday, June 9, 2008. Simple! I can't possibly understand why here would be any confusion, as this method of date indication provides 100% clarity to anyone willing to spend the time to interpret it!

Psychic not banned, yet!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the psychic has NOT actually been banned yet, but she knew it was coming.

Re:Psychic not banned, yet!

[xonar]

That was golden

Re:Psychic not banned, yet!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never met a psychic who knew my name. Why didn't her mother warn her she was wasting her time?

Re:Psychic not banned, yet!

[Nefarious Wheel]

I dated a psychic once, but she broke with me two years before we met.

DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!

[ByOhTek]

Is it just me, or did he ask you to hire an assasin?

He know's that's illegal, doesn't he?

Re:DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!

[n dot l]

He know's that's illegal, doesn't he?

His dad's lawyer clearly doesn't specialize in criminal law.

So..

[_bug_]

Did the guy sue you yet?

Re:So..

[RealGrouchy]

Naw, turns out his dad uses "lawyer" as an euphemism for "dealer", hence the crappy legal advice.

- RG>

Re:So..

[Anonymous Coward]

Naw, turns out his dad uses "lawyer" as an euphemism for "dealer", hence the crappy legal advice.

Oh, hey, that just made partial sense of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thanks!

the troll post was a good troll

[Anonymous Coward]

YHBT.

Trolls

[harrkev]

I kind of like the "troll" comment. It was coherent, and not babbling. Yes, it challenges our common conception of a popular phrase used on the internet a lot. However, I can honestly say that I do not know enough to be able to say that he is wrong, so he may even be right?

To put such a reasonable (although slightly strange) e-mail up here for ridicule seems somewhat unfair.

If there actually was such a thing as a race of benevolent trolls, I bet they'd be pissed right about now.

Re:Trolls

[jnik]

Except it gets the etymology wrong.

Re:Trolls

[Experiment 626]

My understanding is that "Troll" in the context Slashdot uses it derives from the fishing term. It refers to a technique of using a lure to bait the fish, with the lure in this case being a trouble-instigating post. The fact that the mythical creatures (popularized by Tolkien, Treasure Trolls, Warcraft, etc.) share the same name is coincidental, and not an attempt to disparage them. The fishing term comes from Middle English and Anglo-French, whereas the creature name is of Danish/Norwegian/Old Norse origins.

Re:Trolls

[eagee]

It was hard to tell whether he was being sardonic, or serious. If it was meant tounge and cheek, then it's really a very clever email. If not, then he sounds like he should be playing a certain racing game. [:)]

Re:Trolls

[Ant2]

I had always assumed the term was adopted based on the verb form of the word troll, not the mythical, cave-dwelling beings.

troll
verb
1 fish by trailing a baited line along behind a boat
2 intended to provoke a response from the reader

Re:Trolls

[JWSmythe]

They went extinct about 1500 years ago, stomped out of existence by the rapid expansion of the human population and their quest to spread their theology to others. You're probably familiar with the theology that killed off the trolls and other ancient religions.

Re:Trolls

[SydShamino]

If there actually was such a thing as a race of benevolent trolls, I bet they'd be pissed right about now.

I understand that a secret race of benevolent canned lunch meat products are furious, too.

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Geico's new slogan...

"It's so easy, even a troll can do it"

Re:Trolls

[MobyDisk]

Ironically, I thought this guy was trolling by just making that up. I had to check Wikipedia to be sure. Troll (angling) Or wait... maybe he just made that article right now! Oh no!

Re:Trolls

[geminidomino]

Theology killed the Troll star?

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

If there actually was such a thing as a race of benevolent trolls, I bet they'd be pissed right about now.

I'd take the bet that they wouldn't! Thus the term "benevolent"...

LOL

Re:Trolls

[daveywest]

... and spam is actually a lunch meat.

Re:Trolls

[Feanturi]

If that is true, then why is it used as a noun and not just a verb? As in: "do not feed the trolls". I wonder if mythological trolls used a similar method for catching fish, walking slowly through the water dragging many lines, or perhaps a net? This would make it all the same thing then wouldn't it?

Re:Trolls

[clone53421]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Troll_(angling)&dir=prev&action=history. Whew. Looks like it's been around since '02... glad that's cleared up!

Re:Trolls

[IsoQuantic]

Theology killed the Troll star?

Waitaminute! Theology?

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

I always assumed that it was a reference to the trolls (who lived under bridges in mythology and fairy tales) that made themselves a nuisance to anyone who needed to pass a certain point. The wiki entry for this --Troll (Internet)-- is actually pretty interesting compile-time reading.

Re:Trolls

[Fozzyuw]

This would make it all the same thing then wouldn't it?

Same? No. Similar or related? Yes.

Re:Trolls

[aardwolf64]

A troll on Slashdot is used as "one who trolls"

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Like jazz hands enabled cavemen peddling insurance that preys on our insecurities?

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it challenges our common conception of a popular phrase used on the internet a lot.

That email sort of works if you think of it as satire on the recurring "Hacker" vs. "Cracker" rants Slashdot usually gets. (Term X originally meant something good; X has been appropriated to describe bad activity Y; person who likes the old meaning of term X get offended, posts rant on the real meaning of X; others reading post roll eyes at lone poster trying to hold back the ocean.)

Re:Trolls

[darthwader]

Originally, the word "troll" (when referring to fishing) was a verb, and the noun to describe someone who trolls would be "troller". However, after comments about a person "trolling", many people made an obvious back-formation to the noun "troll".

This is exactly how language evolves and changes: people start using a word "incorrectly", but once enough people are using it that way, and enough other people know what it means, then the meaning of the word has changed.

Re:Trolls

[Anonamused Cow-herd]

I understand that a secret race of benevolent canned lunch meat products are furious, too.

Maybe they should start a massive goodwill e-mail campaign -- what do you think?

Re:Trolls

[deek]

I agree. If I was able to moderate that email, I'd mark it +1 Informative. It was interesting, and the guy obviously knows his trolls. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Re:Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a benevolent troll, you insensitive clod!

Re:Trolls

[LowlyWorm]

I would tend to agree. It looks like a prime example of xenophobia. I has a professor who always went on and on about the perils of xenophobia --but then again, I think he was just mad because he was Irish.

Free advice for Taco:

[DwarfGoanna]

If you want to fix your toilet, don't hire an electrician.

If you want to rewire your house, don't hire a landscaper.

If you want humorous content on slashdot, maybe you should hire a fucking comedy writer.

Re:Free advice for Taco:

[Anonymous Coward]

physician heal thyself

Re:Free advice for Taco:

[AskFirefly]

Stupid e-mails aren't funny? Has someone informed Scott Adams?

Re:Free advice for Taco:

[oblivionboy]

Wow! What's with the negativity, dude? This is after all a humour post...maybe you need to go to your doctor and have your humour gland reinserted...I hear they sometimes take it out when you become a GOM (Grumpy Old Man).

This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

How about, please stop putting this on the front page. By definition nothing under idol should make it to the font page.
You know "Slashdot, News for Nerds. Stuff that counts."
Idiots on the Internet isn't news and none of this counts.
BTW why can't you delete all the posts made by somebody?
If they didn't post as an AC then a simple query should bring up their posts and then you could delete them or at least the body of the message.
Of course it wouldn't take out replies or quoted text.
Yes I do know the difference between possible and practical but this does seem possible but I should wouldn't want to have to do it.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Sockatume]

Idol? Dont' give them ideas!

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[SpicyLemon]

I enjoy getting it on the front page. Besides, as a user pointed out in the first installment, there's an option in your user controls to not show them on the front page.

From the top of this page click on "Preferences." Then click on "Help & Preferences." Now find the "Index" section under "Your Preferences" and click on the link for "Sections." Find "Idle" in the list and select the radio button in the column headed by a red circle with a line through it. Click the "save" button and you're all set.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Captain Splendid]

How about, please stop putting this on the front page.

How about all you fucking whiners spend 5 minutes learning how to set a few preferences and STFU? You guys are as bad as the parents who want lily-white safe TV for their kids to watch but are offended at suggestions they simply use the on/of button on their remote instead.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[JWSmythe]

Want to know a secret?

I have my own news site, and there's one major thing that Slashdot and my site have in common. We own our sites, therefore we can do anything we please on them.

I could declare tomorrow "random bullshit day", and run insignificant news from all over the world.

But, I'm sure they do like we do. We listen to our uses comments. We don't necessarily like them, but if we want our sites to grow, we listen and grow accordingly. We can't please anyone, so our own opinions have a lot to do with it.

For example, I had people complain about our column layout. I ran a poll to find out what our users would prefer. They were all over the place. I stuck with what I felt fit best (two columns of news). Slashdot obviously uses one. TheRegister users 3. NYTimes uses 2-ish. LAtimes uses 3. I satisfied some of our users, and the rest were either annoyed, or got over it.

If you don't like they way a place does their business, you don't have to shop there. :)

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Random BedHead Ed]

By definition nothing under idol should make it to the font page.

Agreed. Throw me the idle, and I'll throw you the whip.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Drakin020]

Slashdot is supposed to be a mature community with articles that pertain to important items.

Visitors to the website will see this because they don't have a "Setting" to adjust.

I believe that this doesn't portray what Slashdot is about, and I think it needs to be moved off the front page.

Now chill....

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[parliboy]

1. I don't want to deal with trying to suss out threads that are missing some of their comments. If a delete comment as been replied to, where does that deleted comment go?

2. I don't want to venture into the slippery slope that could cause a site like Slashdot to lose common carrier protection.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[asylumx]

Based on the visual structure, where comments have parents and grandparents, deleting a comment in the middle would make the rest of the structure break or lose context at least. I don't blame them for not wanting to outright delete comments, but maybe they could consider changing them to something like "This comment has been removed by the author".

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

I guess you failed to notice that my "rude" email used the words please and I thought was actually pretty polite. Yep they can do what every they want and I do agree. That is why my rude email wasn't that rude.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

That is why I suggested just to delete the body of the message. I left out the replace with place holder text but I thought that was pretty much an given.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

"Slashdot is supposed to be a mature community "
You must be very new here :)
Slashdot is full of trip, flame wars, script kiddies, all flavor of zealot, intolerance, and a few sparks of brilliance that make it all worth while.
In other words it mirrors life pretty dang well.
 

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you have them also remove the comments from all their backup archives? THAT would be a major PITA. Not to mention what about the posts that referenced that one? Now anyone trying to read the original page will get confused or just miss potentially a huge part of the discussion. This isn't fair to the community at large.

Remember everyone: Anything you post on any public website is likely on the internet forever in one form or another. Especially if it's amateur porn. Thank FSM for that...

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Drakin020]

They all get modded down.

For most visitors, the comments you read in articles are the more mature ones. I see Slashdot as more mature than Fark/Digg/Engadget etc....

I've also been a fark reader for years.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

Funny but I don't think that they do. I have made a post and then found out that I was wrong thanks to a realy. Then the funny thing is my post got modded up and the post that was correct was modded down.
It really sucks because I actually felt bad that more people got to read my incorrect post than the right answers.
As to more mature than Fark/Digg/Engadget?
Well I don't go to Fark I usually just use my RSS viewer to read Engadget.
Digg? Well I have stated that Digg makes Slashdot seem like a nice place full of kind reasonable people!
Being more mature than Digg is like being nicer than Hitler. It is a good thing but not a high standard to meet.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

Again I said it was technically possible. I also said that it would be a pain and not a great idea.

I hate it when people say "It is impossible" or "I can't do it" when they really can.

The correct answer is.
No you posted on a public forum for all to see.
It is possible but impractical because of the problems with replies.
or No because I am not going to put in the work just because you want those posts deleted.

But "I can't" or it is "impossible" is just wrong.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[bloobloo]

Even if you block idle from the front page, you still get it in the RSS feed.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Singlended]

How about, please stop putting this on the front page. By definition nothing under idol should make it to the font page.

Also, the text-only slashdot.org/palm version of the homepage includes ALL idle entries making it harder for mobile users to enjoy the slashdot experience on the road. And there's no login option from the /palm page to take advantage of predefined user controls.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[bhtooefr]

Actually, they can delete replies posted by somebody - they did it in response to a DMCA takedown notice, one time, IIRC.

So, just DMCA your own posts...

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Anonymous Coward]

As an AC I have no proverbial remote to turn the idle section on or off. And I'm guessing there's a whole bunch of people who visit slashdot but don't have accounts. When they see idle posts on the front page they feel less inclined to come to a website that claims "stuff that matters". I know I do.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

1. ACs can not block it. Lots of people don't have accounts.
2. It still shows up on the RSS even if you block it.
3. It can not be block on the text only / Palm version of slashdot that people use on their mobils.
4. It isn't News or Stuff that Matters.

Notice that my "rude" email was a lot more polite than your reply. STFU? Feeling cranky are we? OMG did your BFF dis you :)

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Joe Snipe]

it's IDLE.slashdot.org like what your hands were before the devil made you post on slashdot, IDOL.slashdot.org is where you go to worship cowboy neil.

Also it's "Stuff that matters"

If you are going to complain about idiots on the internet, try not to be one.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW why can't you delete all the posts made by somebody?

Because comment deletion isn't built into slashcode?

Also, I'm sure if Taco or whomever decided to muck around for hours in the database (because they've oodles of free time... don't you?) they could delete dangling comments (eg. comments with no replies). Once you start deleting comments with replies you start deleting comment threads and then the comments from the dumbasses who hit the reply button at the bottom of the page rather than right after the comment they are commenting on will make uttery no sense at all.

It would be easier to just rename the user and ban them because you know they'll likely forget what they said five minutes after they leave slashdot.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Joe Snipe]

how do I get to the palm version of slashdot? I fucking hate fighting with blazer!

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

http://slashdot.org/palm

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Joe Snipe]

or I can't because I have no power in this company?
or it's impossible for someone with my clearance?
I agree that superlatives are the worst, but it seems you are just complaining to complain here.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Captain Splendid]

ACs can not block it. Lots of people don't have accounts.

And we started caring about the welfare of ACs when?

It still shows up on the RSS even if you block it.

Meh. Can't really argue that point since I find RSS highly overrated.

It can not be block on the text only / Palm version of slashdot that people use on their mobils.

Yeah, you're getting the full /. experience on a handheld in the first place</sarcasm>

It isn't News or Stuff that Matters.

Who gives a shit? Slashdot, like anything in life, is what you make of it. To you, it's just one big creeping assault on your standards. Man up and fuck off, or adapt. Whining like a little girl, in the thread no less, just contributes to the noise you're complaining about in the first place.

Notice that my "rude" email

Haven't a clue what you're on about. Try reading my post again, jackass. I guess it's too much too expect you to pay attention to who or what you're replying to.

Feeling cranky are we?

Surrounded by petty pedantic nerds like you? Absolutely.

OMG did your BFF dis you :)

Ha! Weak. You trolls always are.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

Not really I didn't have any complaint with them not doing it. I just made the statement that it was possible but probably not worth it and a bunch of people seemed to only get the part where I said it was possible.
And yea one little twirp on here got to me with his foul mouth and kindergarten attitude.
My original post was meant as a light hearted request to please not put these dumb letters on the font page anymore. If you read my "Rude" email I was very polite and even used the word please. I guess it was to subtle for slashdot or slashdot is the only place where please is considered more rude than f___ off.

And of course I am on Slashdot so when someone says that something can not be done and I know how to do it must state it.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[oblivionboy]

Wow! Do you suffer from obsessive /. story reading disorder so much you can't skip this stuff?

I've really enjoyed this one and the last one.

The degree of negativity and cynicism on /. these days is making me really understand why digg and reddit are becoming so popular -- and why k5 eventually died.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Zebedeu]

Finally some sense (e.g. someone who agrees with me :-)

People who don't like idle should use the damn setting or learn to ignore it.
Believe it or not, some of us still enjoy these articles.

BTW, the comparisson with the banning of violence and sex on or media because of the children is totally apt -- don't like it, don't use it, but don't ruin it for everyone else.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Zebedeu]

Then ignore it.

Or do you have to have a setting for everything in life?

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Zebedeu]

1. Maybe a good reason to create an account, or learn to ignore it.
2. Learn to ignore it.
3. Learn to ignore it. BTW, I use slashdot on my mobile with Opera Mini with www.slashdot.org, simplified, but with full functionality (including respecting my filters).
4. It's a lighter side of slashdot. Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but you might consider that some people might have other tastes.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[abirdman]

a simple query should bring up their posts and then you could delete them or at least the body of the message. Of course it wouldn't take out replies or quoted text.

I can completely understand the /. decision to not delete posts on request. I read Slashdot as much for the comments, as for the articles. If they deleted posts in the middle, it would seriously affect the "logic flow" (I know, the term "logic" in this context is a stretch) of the comments. That's why I read without filters-- not because I want to read all the psychotic drivel in down-modded posts, but so I can discern the thought process that motivates the comments that follow.

If Slashdot were to delete one poster's comments, it would take away the context in which the post was made, making reading it like listening to just one side of a phone conversation. In fact, I could imagine an inspired troll where you try to post in a certain way to elicit a set of responses, and then delete the troll posts in between to completely change the conversation. Ugggh... I'm starting to think like some of those Idle emailers.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

1,2,3,.. Why learn to ignore it. I really already do but why shouldn't I say that I don't think it should be on the front page?
And 4.
I don't mind a funny story every now and then. The problem is this is I think the third time we got these stupid emails on Slashdot.
The first time was mildly amusing, the second was "oh this could be bad", this one means that we are going to keep getting these on the font page!
I really don't find them funny. I think a lot of other people feel the same way.
I do consider that other have different tastes. At no time did I use foul language or insults to the editors. I even jokingly called my message a rude email. One where I used a word that for some reason on slashdot seems to be considered profanity.
"Please"
In other words I politely voiced my opinion that such posts where not worthy of being on the front page of slashdot.
Take a look at my id. You will see that I have been on Slashdot for a very long time.
To me it seems that by the very definition things in this section don't belong on the front page. That is my opinion and I think that of a lot of people agree.
Hey I am usually the first person to say that the editor can do what they like. They can but why is wrong to politely disagree with what I see is a bad choice?

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[Zebedeu]

I guess you can say what you think, and I guess we can disagree on the interest of these stories.

I'm sorry if I came out as rude, that wasn't my intention. It's just that I don't think that the level of hate these stories are getting is warranted, and I wanted to voice a positive opinion on this.

You probably know that most people are pretty vocal while complaining, while silent when approving. I know I'm usually guilty of this, but as I read the threads here I noticed that the editors might get an idea that these features are universally hated, which I don't believe is the case.

And that brings me to the other problem. It kind of pisses me off that I'm reading the comments to participate in a discussion on the topic at hand, and instead I have to navigate pages upon pages of comments about how people think that idle doesn't belong on the front page, or how they can't disable it on the RSS.

I mean, if you don't like idle, why spend even more time there telling everyone how much you hate it?

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[LWATCDR]

Honestly because If you see the my first comment I just said please don't put it on the front page anymore and that I didn't think it was news or stuff that matters.
Simple comment.
Then get a rain of hell fire and profanity for voicing my opinion in what I felt was a polite manner. At this point it has gotten to the point of defending my right to say that I don't like something in a respectful manner.
Your response was not what I consider rude but why ignore something that can be fixed? Why doesn't the RSS adopt my settings or allow me to subscribe to a customized feed?
I also hate Politics and YRO feeds because I feel that they are full of flame bait and paranoia. Also I find that for good or evil we have gotten to the point where nobody seems to know how to politely disagree. Others I know disagree and I can see how those are news and for some is stuff that matters. So I do not say those should not be on the front page. Even the first crabby letters where okay. I just don't want this to be a regular feature. Not only that for the most part they are just not that funny.
Now the guy that was mad because Slashdot would not provide "Internet" help for him was a little funny.

Re:This makes me want to send a rude email.

[iminplaya]

BTW why can't you delete all the posts made by somebody?

The very last thing that this place needs is the ability to delete posts. It would be one of the most detestable things that could happen. On that thought alone you should be told to take a hike. It was a real shame that Slashdot couldn't lawyer up and tell Scientology to do the same thing.

Notice to GM:

[Anonymous Coward]

Please crush your cars. Thank you.

Just in case...

[Anonymous Coward]

The last post, where the month is missing, is from June. Only day 9th in 2008 (so far) to land on a Monday. Boy, am I OCD.

Re:Just in case...

[Anonymous Coward]

the month is not missing, it says "Mon 9 Jun 2008"

Slashdot is losing it

[Anonymous Coward]

More of the same......F Save this crap for the weekends.

You better do what he says

[nickswitzer]

BULLSHIT!! you have to or youll get a call from my dads lawyer buy Friday and then hell will rain down on you. DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

His dad's lawyer just bought a day of the week...he's got some awesome power in order to do that.

Re:You better do what he says

[Anonymous Coward]

whats up with the banner ad? if you don't remove it, my dad will SUE your dad!

TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Quoth the Terms of Service:

With respect to text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as forums, comments and bug trackers ("SourceForge Public Content"), the submitting user retains ownership of such SourceForge Public Content; with respect to publicly-available statistical content which is generated by the site to monitor and display content activity, such content is owned by SourceForge. In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

Quoth the Terms of Service:

With respect to text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as forums, comments and bug trackers ("SourceForge Public Content"), the submitting user retains ownership of such SourceForge Public Content; with respect to publicly-available statistical content which is generated by the site to monitor and display content activity, such content is owned by SourceForge. In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license

Quite draconian -- if it were Microsoft, they'd likely get flamed for such a policy. I may have to reconsider posting some really great content and instead blog it given that Slashdot can profit unconditionally from my work.
 

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Left something out, there...

With respect to text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as forums, comments and bug trackers ("SourceForge Public Content"), the submitting user retains ownership of such SourceForge Public Content; with respect to publicly-available statistical content which is generated by the site to monitor and display content activity, such content is owned by SourceForge. In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license. Oh, and we hate all you fucking psychics. Assholes, the bunch of you.

There. Fixed that for you.

Re:TOS

[Otto]

That's not draconian at all. Most sites that accept and display user-submitted content have something similar. They have to, because they are displaying that content. All of those rights are required to be able to display somebody else's content.

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

That's not draconian at all. Most sites that accept and display user-submitted content have something similar. They have to, because they are displaying that content. All of those rights are required to be able to display somebody else's content.

It's the perpetual and irrevocable part. Imagine if Facebook would keep everything you deleted and then after you closed your account, post it all back online, write a book called "Facebook's Top 10 Stupid Users", and highlight unflattering pictures of you on their homepage. That's all within the scope of you granting a "royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed".
 

Re:TOS

[clone53421]

You must be a psychic, then, because that's written in invisible ink. Only psychics can read it.

Re:TOS

[bcat24]

Well, you could still sue Facebook for defamation of character.

Re:TOS

[Tony Hoyle]

It's necessary. You've be surprised at how people don't know how the web works.. Before I put up a similar statement (used the debian one actually) I actually had someone threaten me with lawyers because he'd written on a public mailing list with his private email address. He not only wanted his message removing but every single quoted line (ie. all the replies) and said it was my responsibility to contact people like google and get their caches cleaned out.

All for one fucking message.

Of course I merely ignored him and pointed out that (a) it was his mistake, and (b) he had no rights at all over the replies as they were copyright their respective authors, and (c) if he thought I was going to chase all over the web for him he was fucking retarted.

It's not worth running a site without a ToS. Too many idiots.

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

PLEASE FUCKING LEARN TO QUOTE PROPERLY!

Your posts are very hard to read and it's not nice! Use <blockquote>!

I'm using the <quote> tags, but idle's CSS is totally screwed, so blame slashdot.
 

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

It's not worth running a site without a ToS. Too many idiots.

Of course a TOS is necessary to protect the site owners. But as a comparison, even though you've granted Facebook the necessary rights to allow them to publish your content and still retain immunity from any liability, Facebook has the option to delete your account and all associated content.

Slashdot is one of the few sites that posts your public content but has no facility to delete it.
 

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, slashdot and pretty much every web forum I have ever visited.

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

Well, you could still sue Facebook for defamation of character.

You've missed the point a bit, but for your edification change it to "Facebook's Top 10 Interesting Users" or some other non-defamatory subject. As long as no laws are violated, Slashdot's TOS allows them to package up your content in any way they see fit and sell it should they so choose. This would be an interesting project for Slashdot to undertake. They could sell your data [actually, because of the rights you've granted them, it's their data too] to third party sites and call it a "Beacon" program. I'm sure users would be happy about that.
 

Re:TOS

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Quite draconian

... welcome to web 2.0. You may not have heard of it, or the business model it uses, but it goes a little like this...
1. Make a webpage
2. Have users upload content
3. Make money of their content
4... Proff.... oh, wait, that was step 3.

Re:TOS

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

TOS is most relevant in the USA. Elsewhere, well, it is important... but not nearly as important as in the USA. No one is as litigation happy as an angry american.

Re:TOS

[arkhan_jg]

The short answer to that is, don't submit your content to facebook if you don't want them publish it in ways you might not like further down the road. Create your own site, and post it there.

Re:TOS

[TobyRush]

If you made cars and I wanted you to crush it and you said no you wouldn't be in business long.

Holy cow. I had no idea that auto manufacturers were obligated to crush cars on demand. I wonder if this goes for dealers also? Just think of the potential for practical jokes...

Re:TOS

[PFI_Optix]

I'm using the quote tags, but idle's CSS is totally screwed, so blame slashdot.

Note he said "blockquote" and not "quote".

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

You should add

tags

to your quotes. It's very hard to tell what you are quoting and what you are saying without them.

Re:TOS

[shellbeach]

With respect to text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as forums, comments and bug trackers ("SourceForge Public Content"), the submitting user retains ownership of such SourceForge Public Content; with respect to publicly-available statistical content which is generated by the site to monitor and display content activity, such content is owned by SourceForge. In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license

But if the user grants SF.net the license to publish their comments, doesn't that mean that the decision to publish the comments on the comments page is now SF.net's, rather than the user's? And in which case, wouldn't that make SF.net liable for any offensive or libellous comment published, since they're effectively the ones who have chosen to publish it?

I've actually known people remove their messages from forums and chat groups before, and normally it's a fairly simple process. This is the first instance I've heard of that request being denied, and I'm rather lost in understanding the reasons behind it.

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy totally sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but I've been coding HTML for over a decade now and haven't ever come across a <quote> tag. Can I blame slashdot for this, too?

Re:TOS

[DrSkwid]

Last time Slashdot sold user comments some people were rather unhappy about it.

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

I'm using the quote tags, but idle's CSS is totally screwed, so blame slashdot.

Note he said "blockquote" and not "quote".

Of course, but the problem with blockquote is that when you view collapsed comments it shows a preview of what you quoted. When you use the quote tags, it shows a preview of your text and skips the text you quoted. The "Quote Parent" button uses quote tags, not blockquote for this very reason. So for someone to tell someone else to "FUCKING LEARN TO QUOTE PROPERLY" and then give lousy advice is rather amusing.

There's nothing wrong with the way I quoted. Change the URL from idle.slashdot.org to just slashdot.org and the CSS will magically fix itself.
 

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

You should add <blockquote> tags </blockquote> to your quotes. It's very hard to tell what you are quoting and what you are saying without them.

Taco botched the CSS in idle. Let's compare, shall we?

My comment in the idle section -- very hard to read:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=914493&cid=24782983

The same comment on normal Slashdot -- really easy to read:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=914493&cid=24782983
 

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

This guy totally sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but I've been coding HTML for over a decade now and haven't ever come across a <quote> tag. Can I blame slashdot for this, too?

I bet in your decade of HTML coding, you've never come across [url] or [b] tags either, so it never occurred to you that Slashdot takes a <quote> tag and converts it into <div class="quote"> to display it to you.
 

Re:TOS

[Planar]

with respect to publicly-available statistical content which is generated by the site to monitor and display content activity, such content is owned by SourceForge.

I really doubt that has any legal force. As far as I know, intellectual property (in this case, copyright) is brought into existence by the creative act of a human being. If it's not creative enough (for example, if it can be recreated independently), then it's not subject to copyright. And if it's automatically generated, then it's not copyrighted either.

And even if it was, the owner of the copyright should be the generating machine itself, of course, not its owner. :-)

P.S. The <quote> tags really ARE broken.

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

'<div class="quote">'

Surely that's applying a class - that's CSS, not HTML ;p

hehe

Re:TOS

[Crazyswedishguy]

You've missed the point a bit, but for your edification change it to "Facebook's Top 10 Interesting Users" or some other non-defamatory subject. As long as no laws are violated, Slashdot's TOS allows them to package up your content in any way they see fit and sell it should they so choose. This would be an interesting project for Slashdot to undertake. They could sell your data [actually, because of the rights you've granted them, it's their data too] to third party sites and call it a "Beacon" program. I'm sure users would be happy about that. [slashdot.org]

If you don't agree with the TOS, don't post. It's that simple.
The TOS are there to cover Slashdot's ass.

I've not looked at Facebook's TOS or Privacy Policy, but I wouldn't be surprised if they store all data indefinitely and delete it only on explicit request.

Re:TOS

[nacturation]

If you don't agree with the TOS, don't post. It's that simple.

Ultimately you're right -- it is that simple. But as this is a community site focused around discussion I thought I'd attempt to do just that.
 

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Have we simply reverted to making fun of psychics.
There are whole other groups who are as stupid like alternative medicine.
lets make fun of them as well.

Re:TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Have we simply reverted to making fun of psychics?
There are whole other groups of people who are as stupid, like people who practice alternative medicine.
Let's make fun of them too.

Why go looking for groups of other people to mock when people like you come to me?

Re:TOS

[Otto]

It's the perpetual and irrevocable part. Imagine if Facebook would keep everything you deleted and then after you closed your account, post it all back online, write a book called "Facebook's Top 10 Stupid Users", and highlight unflattering pictures of you on their homepage. That's all within the scope of you granting a "royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed".

By making it perpetual and irrevocable, you don't have the problem of people coming up to you all the time and saying "your site sucks because of recent change X! I want you to delete my comments now and blah blah blah...".

Almost no forum makes it easy to delete submissions. If you delete things willy-nilly like that, then your archives lose thread continuity and don't make much sense when people later decide to get bitchy. You need to make submissions irrevocable so that a) you can later tell those sorts of people to go F themselves and b) to maintain the continuity of your content. Because it is on your site and it is your content, even if you don't own the actual copyright to that content. You need to be able to display that content however you see fit, to retain control.
 

Definition of Irony???

[Jumperalex]

"I normally don't take the time to write to anyone on the internet because they are so rude and closed minded ..." and let me guess, they're all prejudiced too???

MY EYES!

[Quasar1999]

I read the white on green text, and then when I scrolled down to the comments area with black on white text, I think I went temporarily blind, or had a seizure... Not sure...

How do you editors not go blind when creating the page?

Re:MY EYES!

[DoofusOfDeath]

How do you editors not go blind when creating the page?

Because there are some things even they won't jerk of to?

Re:MY EYES!

[Spatial]

It doesn't even look like part of the page body. It looks like a gigantic header that goes straight to the comments...

Still, I think the best
part is how the edit
box is only this wide.
Perfect for all those
people who still use
320x240 as their screen
resolution.

Re:MY EYES!

[geekoid]

Maybe monkeys are color blind?

Re:MY EYES!

[russ1337]

How do you editors not go blind when creating the page?

Because they don't read it....

Re:MY EYES!

[ari_j]

Do you really think that the editors look at anything before posting it?

Re:MY EYES!

[Anonymous Coward]

If they are blind, wouldn't that explain why the page was created in the first place?

Re:MY EYES!

[Anonymous Coward]

they don't have hypersenstive eyes

What is the origin

[SmallFurryCreature]

The activity is trolling, perhaps related to trawling, to throw out a net and drag it across the bottom to see what it brings up. Trolling in terms of a large stone humanoid makes no rear sense. Perhaps a troll could be someone a bit dimwitted, or ancient, or rockhard but not someone purposefully stirring things up. And mystical creatures have varied reputations depending on area and even the story involved.

Re:What is the origin

[FooGoo]

trolling: to fish by trailing a lure or baited hook from a moving boat

Cars

[jadedoto]

I can imagine that...

"I'm buying this new slashdot car..."
"Oh good! Would you like us to crush it for you?"
"Most certainly, if you wouldn't mind!"


:| Troll.

Re:Cars

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, as any MBA would tell you, if you own a car dealership and refuse to cater to the needs of the large block of customers who wish to purchase a vehicle and have it subsequently destroyed, you would lose such a significant chunk of business as to quickly end up on Skid Row.

Re:Cars

[Radical Moderate]

True, I just bought a new car and they clinched the deal by offering free tune ups, oil changes, and crushing for the life of the vehicle! Suckers!

The Troll Post Was Spot On.

[ElboRuum]

I hereby move that we change a Troll moderation to a +1 value.

bizzaro slashdot

[fragbait]

With the white on green, this should be renamed to bizzaro slashdot. Add a goatee, too, while you are at it.

-fragbait

Re:bizzaro slashdot

[nystire]

For a moment, I read "goatse" there. I think I need new glasses to go with my new keyboard.

Yes, definitely no idols!

[VirginMary]

> By definition nothing under idol should make it to the font page.

Yeah, because we don't want to read about Britney Spears or other idols amongst articles about Times Roman, Helvetica etc.

think of the children! (re: no white on green)

[SABME]

The white text on green background is very difficult to read. Please consider using the "boring" old black text on white background.

Re:think of the children! (re: no white on green)

[Kerrygeek]

It's easy for me, I'm colorblind you insensitive clod!

Re:think of the children! (re: no white on green)

[Ogive17]

I actually find it easier to read the white letters on a green background. The white background can overpower text for me which makes the text look fuzzy. I had to get glasses to wear at school when they started replacing the chalk boards with dry erase boards.

But I realize everyone will have their own preference.

Re:think of the children! (re: no white on green)

[British]

Don't worry about the site redesign, you will "Get over it".

+20 points if you get that reference. I am sick of websites that insist on redesigning their layout every few years for no real reason. Digg added their bouncy rubber text entry boxes.

Why do websites have text entry boxes' width a mere fraction of what it's going to look like on the final site?

Re:think of the children! (re: no white on green)

[Anonymous Coward]

What is with everyone's problem with the white on green, and with this content in general?

If you don't like it, don't read it.

GOSH

Please, please fucking stop

[Anonymous Coward]

Still on the front page, still in the RSS feed and still not funny.

Re:Please, please fucking stop

[pdboddy]

Neither is your mom. :)

Re:Please, please fucking stop

[JSBiff]

I don't get it. This disagreemail feature (using the word feature in the media/journalism sense here) has been run like 2 or 3 times, at least, now. If you know you don't like it, just don't read it. I tend to agree it's not all that great a feature as far as that goes, but people reading and responding to something they know they don't like just makes no sense to me.

P.S. (Offtopic - is anyone else seeing a problem today with the comment boxes on the Post a Comment page only being like 15 characters wide? Hmm, might have something to do with the NoScript FF add-on, I suppose. . .)

So easy a troll could do it

[Anonymous Coward]

This troll thing would be a great Geico commercial

Be bold!

[tepples]

"I hereby move that we change a Troll moderation to a +1 value."

I hereby move that you open your preferences and change your reason modifiers accordingly.

Re:Be bold!

[clone53421]

Wouldn't you have to set it to +2 to overcome the default -1 point modifier?

Re:Be bold!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention that the comment would have to be OVERALL troll (and, for the poster, it would also mean the lack of karma bonus).

Is being too dumb for the internet bannable?

[phoenixdna]

When I read the angry complaints (especially the dude who has a lawyer ready to sue Slashdot for not deleting old comments) it just makes me think that maybe you should be able to ban someone for just being stupid. I mean, c'mon. And in my younger and more idle days I have been a troll. I have to admit that I don't see any good in it. Except that its often difficult to determine whether someone is actually trolling or not. Its not always clear.

Re:Is being too dumb for the internet bannable?

[Larry_The_Canary]

If it's clearly a troll, it's not a troll, it's just stupid.

"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

[AskFirefly]

How can I get my co-workers to tell me that?

Re: Re: Troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I like the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" image of a troll lurking under the bridge to pounce on a passing innocent :-)

CRAPPIEST SLASHDOT FEATURE IN MORE THAN A DECADE

[Anonymous Coward]

This has to be the lamest thing i've ever read on this site. EVER

Reminds me of another site...

[damn_registrars]

Another site I read on occasion has a page where they post and respond to incoherent and often inflammatory mail.

Words change over time: Troll/Hacker

[kbahey]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 ******* wrote: "Dude your troll option don't make sense! I know yall think that it means someone bad but trolls used to be good. They'd build stuff if you left them bread or wine and they made the viking gods armor and spears. Don't let a few years of internet people destroy what something means. Be smarter than that! Yall don't have to play follow the leader. learn about trolls. I guess some were bad and you have to trick them into cutting open his belly in an eating contest but that doesn't even matter when it comes to what your saying. Do some research."

This reminds me of the many Slashdotters who will up in arms when the term "hacker" comes in the media with the meaning of "computer criminal".

The meaning of the word has changed in mainstream usage. In the narrow context of free software activism, it stills means solving a challenge in a clever way.

Deal with it, it no longer means what it used to mean, and the sooner you accept it the better.

Both the guy emailing about the meaning of "troll", and Slashdotters who insist on cracker and get upset by the new meaning of hacker have to adjust.

Re:Words change over time: Troll/Hacker

[jrothwell97]

But the word 'troll' now has two meanings. IMHO, 'hacker' does not.

Re:Words change over time: Troll/Hacker

[Anonymous Coward]

But the word 'troll' now has two meanings. IMHO, 'hacker' does not.

You insensitive clod. You have just insulted two groups of troll-hackers!

how do I acquire the rights to 'Saturday'?

[Dareth]

Forget Saturday, I want the rights to Monday...
as a defense mechanism!!

Re:how do I acquire the rights to 'Saturday'?

[PONA-Boy]

I'm gunning for the rights to "Caturday". I'm going to bankrupt those 4chan SOB's!!

Re:how do I acquire the rights to 'Saturday'?

[MRe_nl]

You can forget about Saturday anyway. John Travolta and the Bee Gees own Saturday 50/50 ; )

Where is the Hitman when I need him?

[arizwebfoot]

"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

He go to college to get edumakated and now he are one.

Silly boy, words are for grownups.

I'm convinced...

[g0bshiTe]

"I normally don't take the time to write to anyone on the internet because they are so rude and closed minded but I must object to your flippant use of the term psychic in the banned message I received. First off I did nothing wrong on purpose to you. If something was wrong it was a mistake. My mother has done a lot of work with local law enforcement and once for FBI. She helps people while you punish them. I've not yet developed my skills enough to help anyone but I do have glimpses. Many reputable brokerage houses and even former presidents rely on psychics for decisions. Maybe if you opened your mind you wouldn't need to punish people for no reason."

Didn't see the ban coming till you checked your email. I'm sure the White House will call you any day now.

On the Internet

[Random BedHead Ed]

I normally don't take the time to write to anyone on the internet because they are so rude and closed minded

I wonder if anyone's pointed out to her that as the e-mailer of this message she's included in the description, "on the internet."

I've not yet developed my skills enough to help anyone but I do have glimpses. Many reputable brokerage houses and even former presidents rely on psychics for decisions.

The career she describes is right up there with Bigfoot hunting and moon landing conspiracy theory - in other words, it's big. If she keeps straining extra hard those "glimpses" could lead to so much more. Slashdot, look at the people you're disenfranchising with that banned page!

All I wanna know....

[g0bshiTe]

FTFA

buy Friday

Where can I buy Friday?

Re:All I wanna know....

[Farmer Tim]

Trust me, you don't want it. The public liability insurance is insane.

My dad's psychic

[thrillbert]

I spoke to my dad's psychic and she said that the last guy is a moron. My dad's psychic also said that she saw my post get a score of +5 Funny. I also talked to my dad's proctologist and he said the 2nd guy is an anal retentive troll.

To Slashdot

[ilovegeorgebush]

I don't know how many times this has been said, but you just don't seem to be listening:

• idle.slashdot.org sucks - if we wanted crap pictures and videos, we'd go to digg or reddit.
• white text on teal is very difficult to read! - please fix this as it's VERY frustrating

That is all.

Re:To Slashdot

[pdboddy]

And it's been said lots of time... you don't have to read it and you can change your preferences so Idle doesn't show up on the main page. It's very frustrating telling people where to go. :P

Re:To Slashdot

[ilovegeorgebush]

I didn't know that. Thanks.

Re:To Slashdot

[pdboddy]

Any time. :)

Re:To Slashdot

[patrickcalsing]

So you don't like the content but you want the layout fixed so that when you read the content you don't like, it will not be difficult to read?

Is that all?

Re:To Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

As has been said multiple times also, the FIRST time you come to slashdot, you BY DEFINITION don't have an account. Is this the impression you want to give to new nerds unfamiliar with our ways?

Re:To Slashdot

[pdboddy]

The chances of someone taking my reply to the OP as a first impression is relatively small. And I would posit that most folks reading here read a few posts first before posting themselves.

Secondly, this is IDLE... and most of the comments are about trolls. The OP's post could be taken as trolling, depending on the mod, so yes, I'd like people to understand how trolls are treated. :)

And what... you were in such a rush to teach me some etiquette that you forgot to log in? :P

Re:Pissed off Trolls

[Dareth]

Sure, but in a couple years or maybe a decade, we would see one of them being the new Democratic party nominee for President of the United States...

Re:CRAPPIEST SLASHDOT FEATURE IN MORE THAN A DECAD

[pdboddy]

Says the guy posting AC? :P

Troll the ancient yuletide carol?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think troll has changed a lot since this was the first time I have heard it originating from the Norse. I was always told it began as a reference to a cannon.(several people singing different things at the same time)

Censored?

[Bryansix]

Where are all the emails of outrage over the white text on green background? Where are all the emails telling Slashdot to stop using Dice as a sponsor since their flash ads slow down the users browser? I think they are holding something back from us.

Grrrr

[Quiet_Desperation]

Dear Slashdot,

You included *NONE* of my many hate mails in your entry on hate mail.

Damn you. Damn you to Hell.

Thank you for your time.

PS: Why is the text entry box for idle threads only about three microns wide?

Troll Link

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.trollshop.net/trolls/kittelsen/

are these for real?

[dspolleke]

Oh my goodness.. that last guy asks for it: "Get rid of me"... The question is.. What did he post? And he is mentioning "his dad's lawyer" that makes him just a kid... About the trolls.. Troll is used in both ways: fishing with bait and troll as in fairytail creature (don't feed the troll) to add to the theology fun: in icelandic native creation story (a little bit mixed up with the christian version) the trolls are the unwashed children of adam and eve.. God showed up to see about adam and eve's wellbeing and asked "are these all your children and eve, hiding the unwashed children, answered yes.. God punished eve and hid the children for peoples eyes... am i this bored that i end up in idle.slashdot .. it must be " komkommertijd" * *dutch literal: cucumbertime.; summer period (when cucumbers are harvested, when there is not enough interesting news)

I'm tired of FarkDot

[Anonymous Coward]

Can this stop now please? If it were actually funny, I wouldn't mind it...but it's not funny.

Dear son of a... lawyer

[HikingStick]

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 you wrote:

"If I don't want people to see me I can go inside but if I don't want people to read me you won't get rid of my posts? [epletive deleted]!! you have to or youll get a call from my dads lawyer buy Friday and then hell will rain down on you.

Sadly, sir or madam, your logic is flawed. You state that you can go inside if you don't want people to see you. In fact, if you were already outside, people could already see you. If you wanted not to be seen, then you would need to have never ventured out in the first place. Following that logic, if you did not want people to "read [you]", then you never should have posted to a website that is publicly accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.

I'm assuming you must have posted something about which you are now embarassed, or something which you feel that, if linked to your real world identity, might impede your chances of getting into a top notch school. If so, it's time to ponder the words of the Great Philosopher: "Tough crap." I'm sure you local four year school is a wonderful institution. I'm sure they'd be glad to have your daddy donate a new porta-potty for the athletic field.

Now, IANAL, but I must caution you that the words of your message could come back to haunt you.

"DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

Actively seeking someone to "get rid of you" might provide a reasonable defense if someone decides to respond to your request. Thankfully, most Slashdot readers are too civil to consider carrying out such a heinus act. I should also caution you that soliciting a hit on yourself may be illegal in some jurisdictions and is definately frowned upon by college admissions panels and insurance adjusters.

Mod parent up

[catbertscousin]

Nice reference.

Ya know

[Reapman]

I actually don't mind these stories, except that for WHATEVER reason the IDLE section is completely f*Ed up on my machine, heck I can't even sure if i'm posting this on the right area.

Fix IDLE and I might actually enjoy it, until then, I'll pass.

Wrong! (Re:Free advice for Taco:)

[HikingStick]

No. All any good commedian needs is a set up. Taco's not the commedian. He's providing the setup. Read the other responses. That's where you find the comedy!

Seriously, who cares

[Anonymous Coward]

What I love is that a front page post pokes fun of insane people. And then the rest of the insane people post comments trying to nurture some sort of depth out of the other insanity. Do you people really relate to this stuff, so much so that it creates a desire for you to defend or berate it?

Raise your hand if you still live with your parents. Now physically touch your brain with it.

Might As Well Try to elevate This

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yeah, I understand there was a program in the 70s to explore using psychics against the commies but is there a form of dementia that causes one to hallucinate that they are serving a higher power?"

I write code for Linux.

Trolls built Valhalla, you insensitive clod!

[EWAdams]

Wotan promised he'd give Freya to the trolls Fafner and Fasolt if they'd build him a big temple where the souls of dead warriors could fight all day and feast all night. They did it just like he asked, and then he reneged. The trolls took Freya anyway, so the gods all became weak because they didn't have her golden apples any more, and Wotan and Loki figured they'd better do something quick, so they tried to buy the trolls off by giving them a magic ring made of Rhinegold that enabled the wearer to rule the world. This worked and the gods got Freya back, but then Fafner killed Fasolt for control of the ring, and... oh, just go see the opera.

Re:Trolls built Valhalla, you insensitive clod!

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh, using that Opera as canon makes as much sense as using Mormon canon as part of Christianity.

Ok I take it back, slashdot has sense of humor

[Anonymous Coward]

and its AWFUL!!

So what is it Taco?

[Slightly Askew]

Pictures of you dressed in Hello Kitty bondage gear? Passwords to your routers? What does samzenpus have that could possibly force you to let him on here week after week posting this inane drivel? Please make it stop before someone pokes out an eye.

Or are you going for the perfect storm of bad layout, dull commentary, and unfunny content? Well, pack it up and call it a day, my friend. You have followed where only the great Tripod members of the late 90's have trodden. I salute you.

Re:So what is it Taco?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pictures of you dressed in Hello Kitty bondage gear? Passwords to your routers? What does samzenpus have that could possibly force you to let him on here week after week posting this inane drivel? Please make it stop before someone pokes out an eye.

Or are you going for the perfect storm of bad layout, dull commentary, and unfunny content? Well, pack it up and call it a day, my friend. You have followed where only the great Tripod members of the late 90's have trodden. I salute you.

It's sad that this will probably be marked Troll or Flamebait, because it's the funniest thing I've read all week. Although the idea of Rob Malda in Hello Kitty bondage gear is one of those situations where the choice is either laugh or weep hysterically.

Re:So what is it Taco?

[zobier]

Read Taco's response to this.

Then, humbly I make this suggestion (context).

Re:So what is it Taco?

[Slightly Askew]

Done and done. Illuminating, thank you.

Trolls in sheep's clothing

[danzona]

Like many people, I don't like the Idle section and I usually don't come here on purpose. But today when I saw another Disagree Mail entry in the RSS feed, it suddenly dawned on me that since Disagree Mail is now a regular feature, there will be people who will aspire to have their emails included, if they can trick the editors into thinking that they are cranks. So I thought I should check it out.

Alas, the ones posted predate the first appearance of Disagree Mail (a few weeks ago if I remember correctly), so none of them are an attempt to get onto the page by fooling the editors.

But my trip was not wasted. A troll about trolls that went right over the editor's head! Delicious.

Its a conspiracy!

[Anonymous Coward]

You forget. Slashdot is supported by ophtamologists who want you to need glasses.

Regular /.

[DrYak]

I could declare tomorrow "random bullshit day", and run insignificant news from all over the world.

Please explain me how this is any different from /. when they do slashvertisement, or during the whole April month ? ... Ah, yeah. I know. *You* don't have ponies.

Re:Regular /.

[LWATCDR]

Well the Slashvertisment can be interesting if it is an interesting product or service.
And don't get me started on April. I will admit that April gets real old real fast.
The thing is that I didn't post the first time we got this. I was going to let it go as a bad attempt as whimsy. Now this is what the third time we get to see three emails that are stupid?
Once was at least a little interesting but I really hope it doesn't become an ongoing event.

This week's mail?

[bloobloo]

If you have to go back to 2005 to get "this week's mail" it's probably not worth doing.

Some common sense

[DJRumpy]

Seems to me she's not a very good psychic if she actually has to open the banned e-mail anyway. Wouldn't she 'KNOW' that she had been banned and to include her UID in the obligatory hate mail? As to the last one, I feel I have lost 30+ seconds of my valuable life reading that absolute tripe. I think I want to sioux...er..sue.

Me too

[T.E.D.]

I'm psycic too. I know who sent these:

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 ******* wrote:
"Dude your troll option don't make sense! ... and they made the viking gods armor and spears."

It was smart to *-out his UID, but when you get an email from Odin, its wise to pay attention.

The last one was clearly sent by Anonomyous Coward. The style is a big tipoff, but the witless car analogy was the dead giveaway. As annoying as he can be sometimes, I'm glad to hear you aren't deleting his old posts.

POTUS

[wagr]

"... I asked my dads lawyer ..." I didn't know Bush wrote you email. Though, I understand his sentiment: he doesn't want his comments here altering anyone's view of his legacy.

ptmdd: Psychic Troll Message Deletion Daemon

[SeNtM]

ptmdd: Psychic Troll Message Deletion Daemon: A *nix daemon used by /. to predictively locate dumb assholes and ban access.

Works well with psychics and those who think they can scare anyone with the threat of sicking their "dads lawyer" on them. It has a problem with troll lovers though...one of the editors might secretly be one. See the section in the ToS which allows Slashdot to claim the first-born child of any person who emails them mindless dribble.

Why

[Dan Parker]

Wow let's make it almost unreadable, and leave it that way even after everyone complains.

Might as well keep it coming...

[damn_registrars]

If the headline of the "disagree mail" keeps getting posted to the front page, I'll continue to enjoy it because:

• People will keep complaining about it after reading it - which is funny on its own, and may come to give rise to more "disagree mail"
• The picture of cowboy neal in the postal uniform is funny (and disturbing) in its own right

Slashdot's Banned Page

[spacemky]

Regarding the pissed off psychic comment, here is what Slashdot's banned page says:

(title)BANNED(/title)

Either your network or ip address has been banned from Slashdot

...due to script flooding that originated from your network or ip address -- or this IP might have been used to post comments designed to break web browser rendering. Or you crawled us with a rude robot, especially one that doesn't understand RFCs very well.

If you feel that this is unwarranted, feel free to include your IP address (67.159.44.138) in the subject of an email, and we will examine why there is a ban. If you fail to include the IP address (again, in the subject!), then your message will be deleted and ignored. I mean come on, we're good, we're not psychic.

If you think your IP number is different from 67.159.44.138, tell us both.

If you are using a browser with some kind of add-on that crawls or caches pages for you, tell us what it is.

Since you can't read the FAQ because you're banned, here's the relevant portion: Why is my IP banned?

Perhaps you are running some sort of program that loaded thousands of Slashdot Pages. We have limited resources here and are fairly protective of them. We need to make sure that everyone shares. If your IP loads thousands of pages in a day, you will likely be banned. Please note that many proxy servers load large quantities of pages, but we can usually distinguish between proxy servers being used by humans, and IPs running software that is hammering our servers.

Your IP might have been used to perform some sort of denial of service attack against Slashdot. These range from simple programs that just load a lot of pages, to programs that attempt to coordinate an avalanche of posts in the forums (often through misconfigured "Open Relay" proxy servers).

You might be using a proxy server that is also being used by another person who did something from the above list. You should have your proxy server administrator contact us.

Your IP might have been used to post comments designed to break web browser rendering.

Answered by: CmdrTaco Last Modified: 7/02/02 How do I get an IP Unbanned?

Email banned@slashdot.org. Make sure to include the IP in question, and any other pertinent information. If you are connecting through a proxy server, you might need to have your proxy server's admin contact us instead of you.

Answered by: CmdrTaco Last Modified: 3/26/02

Standards.

[Fantastic Lad]

Slashdot is full of trip, flame wars, script kiddies, all flavor of zealot, intolerance.[...]

Yes, and until now the editors maintained a level of professional distance and restraint, which must have been supremely difficult to do and for which I have always had the highest respect. I've heard a lot of ill-considered gripes about Slashdot over the years, and I've rebuked them because I held the editorial staff in such high regard for exactly the reasons mentioned. This new direction feels lousy. It looks like a somewhat desperate attempt to maintain market share in a universe filling up with an increasingly ignorant population of web-users. Dumbing down to stay relevant? That sucks and I find it depressing, and I bet you anything that several of the editors are probably having a hard time living with it.

-FL

I didn't read this. I'm fed up already.

[Adam Hazzlebank]

Come on guys, I've come to every one of these and read nothing but negatives comments. Seriously can we get rid of idle now?

Champion Swedish Goat Felching.

[juuri]

Whichever "college educated" marketeer or MBA decided it would be a good idea for /. to post this sort of drivel, clearly is so out of touch with the base concept of reality that no amount of coke in those short bathroom visits, or quick suck-n-ducks in a meeting room or even glorious tee times on sunday could ever hope to bring them back to the solid reality that the average slashdot poster inhabits.

In other words, you are a fucking idiot. Please. Please. Do not breed.

Whiners. . ?

[Fantastic Lad]

Dude. It's not about people wanting to avoid the glorification of mean-spirited, exclusionary, Jr. High editorializing. It's about lamenting the slide of Slashdot into the same gutter which swallowed television with it's 'reality' TV, day time talk shows, and people who cry 'whiner' because they don't/can't understand the issues at hand but still want to impose their ignorance on the rest of humanity. If you don't want to hear people complain about this slide into check-out counter journalism, then you might be best suited to hang out with Fox & Friends. You'd get along well with those. . , 'pinheads'.

-FL

Re:Whiners. . ?

[Captain Splendid]

glorification

Laying it on a bit thick, aren't we?

It's about lamenting the slide of Slashdot

Gimme a fucking break. If you hate it here, go do your own site, with blackjack and hookers, then. Otherwise, STFU. Whiners like GP and you are just adding to the noise they're complaining about.

they don't/can't understand the issues at hand

I understand perfectly, you moron. You clicked on the link, posted, and just felt you had to be heard. Again, what the fuck are you doing here if you hate it so much? Does your pimp put a gun to your head and force you to read idle between blowjobs or something?

If you don't want to hear people complain

It's called emailing the editors. Keep it off the thread, numbnuts.

then you might be best suited to hang out with Fox & Friends

Great, a non-sequitur. You're an idiot and mentally challenged.

when did ownership disclaimer arrive?

[fermion]

I am trying to think back and cannot remember if the ownership disclaimer was always present? I almost want to say it was added after some discussion on the ownership of the content, which was brought to head by the publication of a certain book by a certain /. highly controversial person. Or perhaps it was in response to the DMCA,

I often thought the ownership of comments was a bit vague, and often wonder why it did not include 'transfer of all publication rights into perpetuity" or the like. Perhaps that would open other legal issues.

In any case, I believe that it has always been clear that accounts cannot be deleted, and comments are never deleted, only moderated. We all have posted stuff that we felt were silly the next day, but we don't all whine to our parents. Of course, that is what scared kids do, and it does no good to make fun of them.

OTOH, this is a cautionary tale that may be benefit to the kiddies using the internet. Perhaps that sex tape you posted as a joke when you were a senior in high school, and has been mirrored on 20 sites, and can't be gotten rid of, might be an issue when you try to apply for a job.

There's a time and a place. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

You put the editor's crotchety 'I Hate Spiderman' opinion piece on page 2, while you at least pretend to hold some journalistic integrity on the front cover.

Please, please cut this out. If you want to be a blog site, then be a blog site, but warn me first so I can delete my bookmarks. I've had the highest respect for the professionalism and restraint of Slashdot editors over the years. I even looked the other way with the socialist rants of Cmdr Taco those years back, because he was at least making himself the willing target when he got up on the soap box with his opinion pieces. But this is different. This is about laughing at weak and unpopular people from the administrative level after they have gone away and cannot even defend themselves. It's cowardly and petty and you should be ashamed. Geeks of all people should know better.

-FL

Text from TFA, without "my eyes!"

[Anonymous Coward]

There is an old Japanese proverb that goes, "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher." This week's mail is all about teaching. Whether it is about the seriousness of psychic ability, a short history of trolls or explaining how much free time and malice your dad's attorney has, these people just want to impart information. If what they sent me is any indication, they had a lot of sick days. Click on the link below to become enlightened.

This lady doesn't like the message you get on our banned page because it belittles psychics and the good work they do.

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 ******** wrote:
"I normally don't take the time to write to anyone on the internet because they are so rude and closed minded but I must object to your flippant use of the term psychic in the banned message I received. First off I did nothing wrong on purpose to you. If something was wrong it was a mistake. My mother has done a lot of work with local law enforcement and once for FBI. She helps people while you punish them. I've not yet developed my skills enough to help anyone but I do have glimpses. Many reputable brokerage houses and even former presidents rely on psychics for decisions. Maybe if you opened your mind you wouldn't need to punish people for no reason."

Here is a guy that knows a lot about trolls

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 ******* wrote:
"Dude your troll option don't make sense! I know yall think that it means someone bad but trolls used to be good. They'd build stuff if you left them bread or wine and they made the viking gods armor and spears. Don't let a few years of internet people destroy what something means. Be smarter than that! Yall don't have to play follow the leader. learn about trolls. I guess some were bad and you have to trick them into cutting open his belly in an eating contest but that doesn't even matter when it comes to what your saying. Do some research."

Finally we have a man who wanted me to delete all of his comments. When I explained that I couldn't, he sent me this.

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 ******** wrote:
"Holy Shit are you guys fucked! If I own my words your fucking page says so! I asked my dads lawyer and he said you are fucked to. He doesn't do much because my dad is honest not like your users bunch of liberal fags! My dads lawyer is a mean sonabitch and would love to sue you back into the darkages he said so. I almost hope you don't change your mind. I'd love to be there when it all goes down in court. You could do what you know is right and what is right for a place that is supposed to be about customers (readers). If you don't try and do what your reader wants you to do without having him tell you all the time then you are a good business. If not then you are getting YOUR ASS SUED!! If you made cars and I wanted you to crush it and you said no you wouldn't be in business long. Get a fucking CLUE. If I don't want people to see me I can go inside but if I don't want people to read me you won't get rid of my posts? BULLSHIT!! you have to or youll get a call from my dads lawyer buy Friday and then hell will rain down on you. DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!"

Regarding Idle

[Colourspace]

I'm not a massive fan myself, but it amuses on occasion. If YOU don't like it it is quite simple... Skip to the next story, and go rant about that. If it REALLY riles you.. Go to you preferences and filter it out. That is all. Carry on.

My pants... my pants!

[religious freak]

The tag disappeared somehow. Everyone retag again... idleispants (!)

Re:Pissed off Trolls

[bob_herrick]

Sure, but in a couple years or maybe a decade, we would see one of them being the new Democratic party nominee for President of the United States...

Kudo's for the fine definition by example!

Just when you think it can't get any lamer. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

Ha ha! I see we have another 'live' one. (And I say that in quotes for a reason).

Laying it on a bit thick, aren't we?

No. Not at all, and you are an excellent example. "Juvenile, mean-spirited and exclusionary."

Incidentally, I see this kind of attack pattern repeated with these Billo types all the time. Rather than deny the truth in what you are saying, they instead attack your manner of describing it. One step removed from ad hom, it's the schoolyard equivalent of shooting down an argument because the words you use sound 'gay'. Generally when this is the first shot out of the cannon, you can only expect the intelligence of the argument to diminish from that point on. Let's see what else this genius has to offer. . .

Gimme a fucking break. If you hate it here, go do your own site, with blackjack and hookers, then. Otherwise, STFU. Whiners like GP and you are just adding to the noise they're complaining about.

No. I like it here. And actually, I'd say that it's the mean-spirited, juvenile and exclusionary people like you who are the ones adding to the noise being laughed at. I can only imagine the kinds of vile emails you might send which would warrant a guffaw or two. Heck, I'm laughing at you and singling you out right now. --I'm simply saying that you shouldn't be laughed at and singled out from the administrative level. Even snarling neophytes need the opportunity to grow and learn, and for that it's important the editorial staff resists the temptation to smack you down themselves.

I understand perfectly, you moron. You clicked on the link, posted, and just felt you had to be heard. Again, what the fuck are you doing here if you hate it so much? Does your pimp put a gun to your head and force you to read idle between blowjobs or something?

No, you clearly do not understand perfectly or you wouldn't be repeating yourself. The new editorial direction represents a fundamental negative shift which the people you are hissing at are opposed to and would like to see reversed. --If you re-read my post with less lather around the jaws you might realize that I'm actually making sense, but that can only happen if you manage to set aside your ego and turn off your emotional auto-response. But you can't do that, can you? Every human contact which crosses your brain has to be filed under, "Respects my wounded greatness" or "Must Be Punished!".

Great, a non-sequitur. You're an idiot and mentally challenged.

Non-sequitur? Hardly. Here, I'll explain it to you with easy to follow numbers so that you can understand. Ready?

1. Fox & Friends is a political discussion show which airs on the state propaganda organ known as the Fox Network.
2. The Fox Network uses emotionally manipulative techniques to such an unabashed degree that even Joseph Goebbels would blush.
3. All of the tactics they use in their regular programming are identical to the ones you use and approve of, with the sole exception being that they don't spit foul language to make their points, which sadly, actually makes them appear smarter than you. (Though, to be fair, I suspect it's a different story off camera.)
4. Since your mind-set matches theirs, I suggested that you would fit right in with their company.

See? Very simple. If you still can't understand, then please don't bother asking me to explain it again, because I don't honestly think I could make it any more clear. You'll just have to grow up and experience the world a bit more.

-FL

Re:Just when you think it can't get any lamer. . .

[Captain Splendid]

One word: Projection.

And it's pretty creepy, yikes.

Either that, or you're still new to this trolling stuff.

Either way, try harder.

Re:Just when you think it can't get any lamer. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

One word: Projection.

Projection?

Let me get this straight:

You are seriously trying to tell me that really, I'M the one spewing profanity while supporting the new editorial direction whereby Slashdot editors post front-page their "Let's make fun of people" news items? --That, really, it wasn't YOU doing this? That your posts, wherein you called everybody who disagreed with your position, "fucking whiners", were all an elaborate illusion I somehow managed to create for myself and that really, all along, YOU have been the one objecting to such mean-spirited, small-mindedness?

Is that REALLY what you are trying to say here?

-FL

Re:CRAPPIEST SLASHDOT FEATURE IN MORE THAN A DECAD

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Idle is lamer than UIDs.

Customers?

[Obyron]

You could do what you know is right and what is right for a place that is supposed to be about customers (readers).

The poor kid overestimates his place in the world. Those who stick around here and comment are the product. Slashdot always does right by their customers-- the advertisers they're selling us to.

Japanese proverb

[amake]

I tried to find the original Japanese for this supposed proverb and found this, which Slashdot is apparently incapable of displaying correctly (even converting to HTML entities didn't work; see here and search for "Japanese proverb"):

è¦åSã--ã¦åfæ--¥çå¦ã(TM)ãããSããããå...ç"Yãã®äæ--¥ã®æ-ãOEä¾åãOEããã

The meaning is correct, but a Google search for that phrase brings up exactly two hits. A search for the English version of the proverb gives over 61,000 hits.

This sounds like a fake proverb to me. An English speaker probably made it up, thought it sounded good, and attributed it to Japanese because it fit his or her stereotype of "Asian wisdom."

(Yes, I am a Japanese speaker.)

Re:Japanese proverb

[Kusunose]

I searched not with that exact phrase but with Sen'nichi, Dokugaku and Ichinich in kanji and found a phrase "Sen'nichi no kangaku yori ichinichi no gakusho", which seems to be the original Japanese proverb.

That reminds me ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... of this one time... in band camp.

Actually

[jopet]

Does Slashdot.org have and option to remove a users's data from their servers?

Not having such an option is definitely a violation of many country's laws, though probably not those of US national or state laws where the rights of people over their data seems to be extremely limited.

Grant his request.

[Anonymous Coward]

DO WHATS RIGHT AND GET RID OF ME!!!

If you hire a hit man, it would take care of Slashdot's problem.

It would take care of His problem.

It would take care of his Dad's problem, and his Dad's Lawyer's problem.

Everyone one wins.

Give me a break...

[Kintar1900]

Can we PLEASE get this category properly set up so I can filter these obnoxious, pointless and totally unnecessary articles out? I find it incredibly irritating that I can tell my sections preferences that I don't want idle posts, but it never seems to work for this drek.