Xfire Purchased, Team Leaving

phorce phed and several other readers sent news that a system notification was sent out this evening through the Xfire IM client, to wit: "Xfire was bought by new owners today. Most of the team that has built Xfire over the last six years is leaving. We enjoyed working for you for the last 127 releases and wish we could stay to create the next 127. Good bye, good luck, and game on. — The Xfire Team." According to Wikipedia, the new owner is 3D Realms.

Comments

What is up with this site lately?

[WankersRevenge]

As of late, Slashdot seems to be phoning it in at best. I've been following the site for years and I've never seen such an apathetic disregard to both the site and the community from the editors. Lately, stories have either been incredibly sensational or just downright retarded. Or hell, even troll'ish. I'm wondering if Taco and company should just hang it up and try something new. Give people with some fire in their belly a shot. I don't know ... when you're citing wikipedia as a breaking news source, you gotta be wondering if what you're scraping is the bottom of the barrel, or the pile of shit underneath it.

And by the way ... it's all right to change the Microsoft icon. It was funny twelve years ago. It's kind of retarded now. Especially since the company now looks to be run by the three stooges after a weekend bender.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[maccodemonkey]

"I can't imagine what you'd use for Microsoft though."

I thought the three stooges sounded pretty good as an icon for Microsoft.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[PinkyGigglebrain]

Agreement on the opinion of /., recently it seems to have lost it's Mojo.

I like the MS icon. It recalls the days when MS really was something to worry about and is way better than one of Balmer photoshoped to look like Bozo the Clown, which would be my choice.

To describe MS's current managment as "the three stooges after a weekend bender." is overrating MS's managment and insulting the three stooges. The Stoogies were way more innovative.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[__aatgod8309]

The parent post has a good suggestion; the three stooges after a weekend bender.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[wowbagger]

Considering that Slashdot didn't even bother to report on this New York Times story about Slashdot (even though it appeared in the Firehose twice (at least), but they DID report on The Science of Caddyshack (in Idle), are you surprised?

(oh, BTW mods - I really don't give a shit about karma anymore - that's how big a "joke" Slashdot has become. Prove me right about this place swirling the drain....)

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[NeutronCowboy]

Some interesting excerpts from the article:
"However this relatively narrow focus means that Slashdot has not grown to have broader appeal, like StumbleUpon and Digg. "
"In addition, Slashdot has historically favored stories submitted from traditional media, over 'new media' such as blogs. Both of these things have made Slashdot seem behind the times and a bit too closed minded."
"Likewise, library student @battmutler commented that Slashdot "seems to always be 12-36 hours behind the curve.""
"However the impact that this community has on the social Web is minimal, according to Woopra's statistics. "

Seriously? The issue is that Slashdot is 12 hours behind "the curve"? It's impact is minimal on the social web? It's not Digg? That's just fucking retarded.

Let me summarize why I read Slashdot and not Digg or random blogs: I don't care if I'm behind 12 hours. I don't care about reading stories found at digg and StumbleUpon. I don't care to have an impact on the social web.

I read Slashdot for two reasons: it gives me a broad overview of what's going in topics I find interesting, and the commentary is just about as good as ever - or as bad, depending on your take.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[tomhudson]

The nytimes story is beyond stupid. slashdot is not digg, and if it became like digg, And hackernews? Come off it.

Why would anyone want slashdot to became like that piece of sh*t known as facebook (if there's one site that has a worse UI than slashdot it HAS to be facebook). Tis is a tech web site, not myspace.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[raddan]

I think you bring up some an important point: /. is not about breaking news. It may have been back in the earlier days (when tech reporting was still largely on paper), but I don't think that ever was the focus. The thing that still draws me here, after ten years of reading, is the community.

The NYT article contends that /. has lost traffic without providing a single shred of evidence to support this. Ten years ago, social media was largely unheard of, except for the few geeks who came from places like USENET or BBS scene. I think /.'s base is still largely those people. So the site doesn't draw the crowds. BFD. That's why I come here. I like that narrow focus. The instant ./ tries to follow in Digg's footsteps, I'm outta here. Anyway not growing and losing are two completely different things, NYT!

We've probably lost a few great commentators over the years, but it's likely not because ./ isn't trendy enough for them. It's because the stories aren't nerdy enough anymore. Hey editors: we want more science stories. Challenge us. I'd personally like to see ./ pick up more cutting-edge research (like computer science and computer engineering journal articles), because that's when the broad base of knowledge in the readership really shows, and where ./'s value is head and shoulders above the other "social media" sites out there.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[PopeRatzo]

The issue is that Slashdot is 12 hours behind "the curve"?

Can I let you all in on a little secret?

"The Curve" does not exist. It's a concept created by press agents and PR flacks to try to force media outlets to jump on their bogus stories before taking the time to make sure they're not complete bullshit. It's a far sight more important to get it right than to get it fast, but our corporate media has gotten it backwards. The worst part is that they try to cover up their incompetence with assertions like "I had to go with it, it was breaking news" or "we didn't want to be scooped by our competitor".

Have any of you not read a superior in-depth, accurate article on a topic because some tabloid had gotten to it first with a lot of crap? Do any of you read Slashdot because you expect to be among the first to read about a "breaking story"?

Now there's even a further reason why people are pushing "breaking stories": because then they can get out in front and try to shape the way the story is told. They can get away with that because most people are pretty dumb. So if someone comes out with a breaking story, let's say that "So and so, who is black, admits to being a racist and is cheered by the audience, which was also black" it's not going to matter that the whole thing was completely fabricated, because it confirmed a bunch of stupid people's small-mindedness (and small-minded people just love to have their small-mindedness confirmed and affirmed). But if you're someone who maybe tries to be aware of what's going on in the world, and you see this story picked up by the number one cable news network (this is all purely hypothetical) and then repeated on the numbers two and three networks because they don't want to be scooped, and you buy into the story, you're going to look like a complete horse's ass when you find out that it was all bullshit to begin with. You're going to feel used, and sullied and well, kind of stupid for being in such a goddamn hurry that you'd pay any attention to the number one cable news network to begin with (hypothetically).

So you know what? Fuck "the curve". You don't have to be ahead of it any more than you have to be "outside the box" or "in the know" or "in touch" because none of those things matter as long as you're capable of a little discernment.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[EllF]

Where should we long time Slashdotters go then?

Pay Rusty a visit at www.kuro5hin.org. Then you'll really pine for the old days.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[snero3]

Considering that Slashdot didn't even bother to report on this New York Times story about Slashdot [nytimes.com] (even though it appeared in the Firehose [slashdot.org] twice [slashdot.org] (at least),

I can see why they didn't bother to report that NT times story, it is utter sh!t. I am sorry but really there is nothing news worthy in the whole piece. Maybe their point has some weight to it but the way there reported it definitely didn't. They could have (and probably did) just of made it up.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[unity]

"The thing that still draws me here, after ten years of reading, is the community. "
^That.
and most especially this:
"We've probably lost a few great commentators over the years, but it's likely not because ./ isn't trendy enough for them. It's because the stories aren't nerdy enough anymore. Hey editors: we want more science stories. Challenge us. I'd personally like to see ./ pick up more cutting-edge research (like computer science and computer engineering journal articles), because that's when the broad base of knowledge in the readership really shows, and where ./'s value is head and shoulders above the other "social media" sites out there"

I've been coming here forever, nowhere near as much as I used to mainly because the majority of the stories don't interest me.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[martin-boundary]

Yeah, k5 used to be great back in 2001. RIP.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[Aceticon]

Funilly enough this ties back to the crisis of news reporting:
- There is no more in-depth news reporting in daily news media: the ones that on their own words are at or ahead of the "curve" just parrot events, hear-saying and gossip.

In fact, thinking about it, the main reason I come to Slashdot is for the further in-depth analysis which are the comments.

For example, just look at some of the articles about the Internet filter in Australia:
- You'll see comments from ozzies explaining how the current Australian government has to pander to politicians from a specific conservative state to keep support for other laws.
- You'll see comments explaining how the state is set-up in Australia (i.e. the dual-chamber system)
- You'll see technology comments on the technical viability of such sytems.
- You'll be pointed out other similar systems in other countries and past news about those systems.

When was the last time that any mainstream daily news media actually had an article about some political decision in some country of other and actually explained the political background in that country and/or pointed out similar decisions in other countries and subsequent results?

In fact, when was the last time that any mainstream daily news media had an article about basic human rights, liberty and/or privacy?

An this is not just limited to ideological subjects:
- Go to articles about medicine and you're likelly to find comments from doctors.
- Go to articles about a scientific area and you're likelly to find comments from researchers in that area.
- Go to (the early) articles about the oil-spill in the Gulf and you'll find comments from people that work in propection in the oil industry.

For all the dross, baseless opinionating and ad hominem attacks, almost any Slashdot article together with it's comments has more in-depth reporting than almost any "news story" in daily mainstream news media today.

PS: I say "daily" news media because I believe some of the weekly and monthly magazines - you know, the ones behind the curve - do have more in-depth news reporting.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're trying to claim slashdot is losing traffic based on how many times people follow a link from slashdot to another site. The fact is many slashdot readers already saw the link from another source before it was posted on slashdot, but they still read slashdot to take part in the comments section because 9 times out of 10 the discussion is going to be more engaging on slashdot than on some random blog or than reddit or digg. And also due to the moderation system, the quality of the individual featured articles is generally going to be higher than on reddit or digg. My brother reads reddit all the time. Even with filters set up he scrolls through the equivalent of cat pictures for 90% of the news posts. Even including the idle section slashdot's front page is maybe 5-15% "cat pictures" on any given day.

Re:What is up with this site lately?

[V!NCENT]

A chair with motion blur :)

And for Apple you use Steve heil!

Re:Why bother with seperate widgets?

[Grimbleton]

You aren't really familiar with what Xfire is, are you?

Re:What a shitty summary

[nacturation]

And naturally kdawson will be updating this story to correct the misinformation, right? Hello? Is this thing on? [crickets]