Slashdot Mirror
So Long, CmdrTaco, and Thanks For All The Posts
With CmdrTaco moving on to his temporary retirement home, the Slashdot editors who will continue to poke and prod at reader submissions (the heart and soul of this site: without readers, there'd be nothing to talk about as well as no one to talk about it) would like to offer an extended 'Thank You' to Rob, and offer some thoughts on the years so far, as well as what comes next. (Of late, though, we're lucky to have the growing contributions of Clinton Ebadi, aka Unknown Lamer, who got an oddball start on the Slashdot page a long time back.) Read on for a few words from Samzenpus, timothy, and Soulskill.
From Samzenpus:
I first met Rob Malda about 12 years ago while he was living in what we affectionately called The Geek House. At that time, Rob was just one of a motley crew of nerds who would assemble in the living room every night. They could usually be found sitting in foof chairs bathed in computer screen light. What made Rob different was how passionate he was about a website he made, something called Slashdot. Before I knew it, Slashdot had grown and I was working as user support. A few years later I was posting stories and Slashdot was a geeky household name. In that span Rob changed a lot. His Foof chair morphed into an Aeron, tubes of Pringles became business lunches, and we convinced him to embrace the wonders of natural light. He proposed to his wife and now has two kids. What didn't change in all that time was his passion for making Slashdot a great site. In the FAQ, Rob says that Slashdot is like an omelette: a combination of important news, interesting discussions, and fun stuff. What makes it great is the variety of ingredients. Rob may have started the omelette, but we'll keep it cooking and make it bigger and better with the stuff that matters.
From timothy:
In 1998 or 1999, my housemates Alvin and Dan (both of them Comp-Sci students at UT-Austin, where I'd been a lowly advertising major) pointed out to me a little site called "Slashdot.org." A strange name, and a page that seemed to be nothing but black text over an assault of white and green. It took a minute or two to parse what was going on, but then — Whoah! Smart people were discussing (and arguing about!) Linux, The GIMP, patents, and Neal Stephenson: I was hooked instantly. I've been posting stories to the site since early 2000, and in that role I've gotten to know CmdrTaco a bit. I didn't realize beforehand just how much effort can go into a simple-looking web page, and how hard it is to decide how many people to please at any given time.
Rob — CmdrTaco — has that whole span of time never wavered in his dedication to the site, and to the readers. A small example, but one that has always impressed me given what's at stake: as banner ads have infested the Web, Rob has fought for modesty and sanity rather than some of the intrusive pop-ups, interstitials, autoplaying videos and other discourtesies of modern online advertising. (We'd probably all like it if the site could exist with no ads at all, but in an imperfect world keeping them tolerable rather than obnoxious is a respectable stance, even if it means disappointing some advertisers.) And while we've been through plenty of experiments with user interface elements, new sections, and allocation of the moderator points that make the whole thing go, Rob's also taken a hard line about distracting features that don't speak to the site's core: News For Nerds, Stuff That Matters (and building conversations around those things). It's notable that Slashdot is one place where the marketplace of ideas is encouraged to bloom more than it is at many newspapers' sites, and even our friend "Anonymous Coward" can freely have his say. We like that, though it gets messy sometimes. It's meant a lot of sleepless nights for Rob and his shifting corps of engineers, trying to figure out ways to let readers help algorithmically bat down the trolls and flamebait, and to give some recognition to readers who contribute their insightful or funny comments.
It's very strange to think of reading Slashdot without CmdrTaco in the lead — even when I've disagreed with him on some particular design issue, I've never doubted his sincere belief that the readers come first. Rob isn't being frozen in carbonite, though — despite his claim of "no plans," he's got his own maker-style projects to work on, a few kids to take care of, and probably about 15 years of sleep deprivation to start chipping away at. He promises to remain part of the Slashdot community (he's still user No. 1, after all), and I expect will be a sort of unofficial Editor Emeritus for the foreseeable future. And that's good, because we'll keep working on ways to make the site friendlier and easier to use, but still dedicated to the same News for Nerds.
From Soulskill:
So, what changes from here on out for You, The Reader? Well, surprisingly little. Rob has always been clear and vociferous in defining what makes a story appropriate for Slashdot, and those standards have become deeply ingrained in the rest of the editorial staff. Slashdot won't be the same for us, but we’ll work hard to make sure the content we run continues to educate, inform, entertain, or some combination thereof. As always, feedback is welcome, and you can head over to /recent to have a direct impact on the submissions process. The engineering team continues to streamline the site’s layout and add useful functionality in order to facilitate what matters most to us: giving you folks a place to read and talk about news that matters to you.
From Samzenpus:
I first met Rob Malda about 12 years ago while he was living in what we affectionately called The Geek House. At that time, Rob was just one of a motley crew of nerds who would assemble in the living room every night. They could usually be found sitting in foof chairs bathed in computer screen light. What made Rob different was how passionate he was about a website he made, something called Slashdot. Before I knew it, Slashdot had grown and I was working as user support. A few years later I was posting stories and Slashdot was a geeky household name. In that span Rob changed a lot. His Foof chair morphed into an Aeron, tubes of Pringles became business lunches, and we convinced him to embrace the wonders of natural light. He proposed to his wife and now has two kids. What didn't change in all that time was his passion for making Slashdot a great site. In the FAQ, Rob says that Slashdot is like an omelette: a combination of important news, interesting discussions, and fun stuff. What makes it great is the variety of ingredients. Rob may have started the omelette, but we'll keep it cooking and make it bigger and better with the stuff that matters.
From timothy:
In 1998 or 1999, my housemates Alvin and Dan (both of them Comp-Sci students at UT-Austin, where I'd been a lowly advertising major) pointed out to me a little site called "Slashdot.org." A strange name, and a page that seemed to be nothing but black text over an assault of white and green. It took a minute or two to parse what was going on, but then — Whoah! Smart people were discussing (and arguing about!) Linux, The GIMP, patents, and Neal Stephenson: I was hooked instantly. I've been posting stories to the site since early 2000, and in that role I've gotten to know CmdrTaco a bit. I didn't realize beforehand just how much effort can go into a simple-looking web page, and how hard it is to decide how many people to please at any given time.
Rob — CmdrTaco — has that whole span of time never wavered in his dedication to the site, and to the readers. A small example, but one that has always impressed me given what's at stake: as banner ads have infested the Web, Rob has fought for modesty and sanity rather than some of the intrusive pop-ups, interstitials, autoplaying videos and other discourtesies of modern online advertising. (We'd probably all like it if the site could exist with no ads at all, but in an imperfect world keeping them tolerable rather than obnoxious is a respectable stance, even if it means disappointing some advertisers.) And while we've been through plenty of experiments with user interface elements, new sections, and allocation of the moderator points that make the whole thing go, Rob's also taken a hard line about distracting features that don't speak to the site's core: News For Nerds, Stuff That Matters (and building conversations around those things). It's notable that Slashdot is one place where the marketplace of ideas is encouraged to bloom more than it is at many newspapers' sites, and even our friend "Anonymous Coward" can freely have his say. We like that, though it gets messy sometimes. It's meant a lot of sleepless nights for Rob and his shifting corps of engineers, trying to figure out ways to let readers help algorithmically bat down the trolls and flamebait, and to give some recognition to readers who contribute their insightful or funny comments.
It's very strange to think of reading Slashdot without CmdrTaco in the lead — even when I've disagreed with him on some particular design issue, I've never doubted his sincere belief that the readers come first. Rob isn't being frozen in carbonite, though — despite his claim of "no plans," he's got his own maker-style projects to work on, a few kids to take care of, and probably about 15 years of sleep deprivation to start chipping away at. He promises to remain part of the Slashdot community (he's still user No. 1, after all), and I expect will be a sort of unofficial Editor Emeritus for the foreseeable future. And that's good, because we'll keep working on ways to make the site friendlier and easier to use, but still dedicated to the same News for Nerds.
From Soulskill:
So, what changes from here on out for You, The Reader? Well, surprisingly little. Rob has always been clear and vociferous in defining what makes a story appropriate for Slashdot, and those standards have become deeply ingrained in the rest of the editorial staff. Slashdot won't be the same for us, but we’ll work hard to make sure the content we run continues to educate, inform, entertain, or some combination thereof. As always, feedback is welcome, and you can head over to /recent to have a direct impact on the submissions process. The engineering team continues to streamline the site’s layout and add useful functionality in order to facilitate what matters most to us: giving you folks a place to read and talk about news that matters to you.
He's great, but he's not dead!
He'll be back.
I stole his spacebar.
I can't say as much the original post, but am sure I speak for many /. readers throughout the years when I also say thank you for all the posts Rob.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
...it tolls for Rob.
Just kidding. Good luck, Rob.
Yup, 11 years later and he's still true to his name.
Also, do you think Taco was pretty annoyed that Jobs had to go and preemptively one-up him?
Don't forget your towel. Thanks for all the fish.
Sadly, yet another nail in the coffin for /.
You've copped some abuse over time, but stuck with it regardless. Congratulations on sticking on regardless of the G.I.F.T.(at times) community.
Thanks so much for your reflections, everyone. I've been coming here since 1998 (and, like many, registered far too late to get a cool, low UID). What's amazed me is the nature of the community and the discussion that happens here. Certainly, there are the usual trolls but more often than not I see really good, even deep discussion on here. This is a testament to the people who come here and - especially - to the great moderation and meta-mod system that's encourages that type of discussion. When I compare the discourse here to that on most news sites, /. is consistently far ahead of what exists elsewhere.
So thanks for that, Rob! We'll miss you. And I saw that you were musing about writing a book. Please do so! I, for one, would be very interested to read about your time in /. from your own perspective.
R.I.P mon frère!
I don't post much.. but thanks for a useful site.
What else is there to say? Thank you for 15 years, changing my life umpteen ways, keeping me hopeful that the old spirit that drove us back in the day still lives on, and providing such a good gathering place for us all. I suspect that if we all live to be 500, we'll still be waking up with the impulse to check slashdot.
You made something great, guys. Take a bow.
/. is the first site I visit every week day.
I simply do not recall a CmdrTaco. I highly doubt there ever was such a person. Next you'll be telling me his uid was #1. Utterly ridiculous, anyone of importance has at least 4 digits in their uid. Anyone who believes in this fictional 'CmdrTaco' character should have their head examined.
Wow. Never thought I'd see the day that /. would be without CmdrTaco. Best of luck and thanks for the stories! Glad you and the rest kept this site as relevant for as long as you have.
Rob "Welcome to Lifestyles of the Dull and Nearsighted."
No, not Web 2.0's social media, but Web 1.0's social media: a place that was pseudonymous, but still reputation-based. A place where pseudonyms stood alone - no "like" or "+1" buttons. Not a place for 140-character tweets, but a place for paragraph- and essay-length commentary.
To stretch the analogy, in the first incarnation of Jobs' Apple, users bought Macintoshes not to show off their respective bling, but to get work done. (No, not coding work, office work - but it was work nonetheless, and it was work that couldn't be done nearly as easily, nor as well, under the Wintel equivalents of the mid-80s.)
Likewise, Slashdot - and the rest of Social Media 1.0 - were not built so much as place in which to speak, but as place in which to listen. I've learned far more in the comments from the past 12 years of Slashdot posts than I could ever have learned from the agglomerated mewlings of marketroids and demagogues alike.
At any rate, so long, CmdrTaco, and thanks for all the fish.
And thanks for having what was by far the coolest booth at the 1999 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo at Javits/NYC.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rob at ALS 2000 (I *still* have the tshirt from that somewhere!) I hope all goes well for you & yours from here on out!
Whatever shall I do??
At first, I didn't believe this was true. However, Netcraft has confirmed it. So enjoy your time, CmdrTaco, but I suggest staying on this side of the globe. For I hear that in Soviet Russia, Slashdot retires YOU!
Many thanks indeed, it's wonderful to see projects like these flourish into what Slashdot has become. At one point or another, I think we all started one, two or several projects, websites or other nerdy enterprises we found incredibly interesting at the time... It's "success stories" like these that keep me motivated to jump head-first without fear into the the next project! Who know, given the right circumstances and sequence of actions, maybe it will actually become something big like this. :)
My only regret is not to have joined this community sooner, although I had been reading it for a couple of years... anyway 'Big Up" as we say!
Two big losses in one week. The iconic NDP politician Jack Layton in Canada, and now Rob's leaving SlashDot.
Baby's all grown up, Rob. Time to let 'er go and find that "trophy wife" job instead of futzing further with Slashdot. :)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Similar story appears only five stories down. The editing on this site SUCKS!
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Thanks for all your hard work CmdrTaco.
Now where'd I put those hot grits...
Thanks for all the insightful posts and for all the hotgrits and the insensitive clods. Without you, the seachange in social sites would have been so different and without the anonymous coward, it would have been more like Facebook sooner; that is to say in a word, bad . Thanks even for the GNAA. It won't be the same /. without you.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
But what's going to be the CmdrTaco option now?
Thanks for the good posts and fun times over the years.
Can someone please reach JonKatz and michael so that we can get their reaction to Rob leaving
Thanks
No one says a website is "yahooed" or "googled" or "Drudged" if it's been hit by a enmass of visitors after being posted on slashdot or any other site.
It's only on slashdot.org that when a link is posted and it's visited by a ton of people that their server simply acts like it's been DoS attacked, we say the site has been "slashdotted" or /.ed ;-).
Slashdot still continues on making little known websites temporarily 404 on visitors even while you're gone...
Previewing comments are for sissies!
The timing of this ..... Where'd I put my tinfoil? heh..
Adios Mr. Taco! :)
/me sips his coffee and ponders a new sig...
It's been a long strange trip. Thanks for all the hard work, and the whole "getting it started" thing. Now, Onward!
WALSTIB!
I remember those heady days well. But over time slashdot's lost relevance to me. I stopped posting long ago as the quality of the discourse dropped, and I started linking directly to most of the sites slashdot regularly references. I also became unable (or unwilling) to comprehend the complicated comment filtering crud several years back (really, what's up with that?)
I do have slashdot to thank for helping me discover arstechnica - which has mostly replaced slashdot for my tech news discussion forum needs.
But still, I check slashdot daily.
Have fun Rob, enjoy your family, and find something new and interesting to do.
I started reading this site back in 1999, and I can honestly say that this is the first site I read almost every day. Although I don't post a lot, I learn something almost every day here, and your dedication to the community has always shown. Thank you for that!
-- Sent from a computer.
This really feels like the internet is going away or something. I don't know you man, but here, from Argentina, I have been reading Slashdot since 13+, I am extremely grateful for what you did (although your polls always sucked [just jocking]). I think... no, I know that I learnt so many things thanks to this site. Really dude, thanks.
Since this is a time to talk about Slashdot and what will happen to it -- any time line on fixing the layout for Journal pages?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
...naked and PETRIFIED!
When I read the earlier story, I thought maybe he was poking fun at Jobs leaving Apple and saying he would leave too. I guess it wasn't just a troll. You will be missed Taco.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Having also been a longtime reader here, I owe a lot of the success in my career to both the posts that made it to slashdot as well as the comments (parrot'ing that information in meetings and sales calls has always made me look smarter and more in the know). Even today, I can reference my low user id at slashdot and gain immediate street cred with a lot of very technical people. Thanks rob for putting this place together.
Don't be an ass.
That is all.
How about fixing it so that I do not have to turn on JavaScript just to moderate? In the past couple of weeks I noticed that I have to turn it on in order to moderate. The result? I don't moderate.
I prefer the old style discussion system because it didn't use JavaScript and I still don't want to use it. Thanks!
...You magnificent bastard! Have fun being ... uh... just plain "Rob," I guess... Or something. Anyway, take care! :)
when was the quality of discourse ever good? Back in before 2000 there were a goatse.cx links all over the comments and you needed to don an asbestos suit before replying to anything.
Rob, thanks for creating Slashdot. I will always fondly remember the fake flame wars between Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds before UIDs existed. That and all the April Fools' Day jokes. And all the memes... and the good stories... and all the polls with mission options. :^D
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Sheet mang, I know that cat from back in the CALUG 2004-ish days! Hit me up man if you catch this.
I accept your resignation. It has been an honor serving with you.
Thank you CmdrTaco (Rob),
You have inspired countless tech freaks(geeks) over the years, and hopefully for years to come
You have created a great community here, even if there are a few trolls, you can't kill get them all. =D
Thanks again,
-- Rob aka Shifty0x88
Screw the posts, I'm just here for the fish.
But seriously, fare thee well.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I have far from the lowest /. ID, even in this article's comments, but I'm pretty early. Have loved the site since I first stumbled upon it way back when.
My little private company, NiEstu, has the distinction of being one of the first few advertisers to submit banner ads to Slashdot after the (very controversial at the time) decision was made to start posting them. Due to a screwup in the rotation software, my ads got way more impressions than I'd paid for. After a week or so of that, Rob sent me an angry email pointing it out and demanding that I pay for what I had (mistakenly) received. I wrote back, and as I recall I asked him to stop hatin', and to tell me how much extra he though I owed, so we could talk specifics. We went back and forth a couple times like that; after a while he said, ahh screwit, our ad system is all hosed, just forget about it. I always thought that was mighty big of him, and boded well for his future.
So congratulations on your successes, Rob, and may you have many more in the future!
Most major websites owe a lot to the techniques developed at Slashdot. Great work. Happy trails and here's to future success.
Believe it or not, we do read and sign off on every story. Alas, when you've posted thousands upon thousands of stories, a dupe occasionally slips through the cracks.
Still, we try hard not to let it happen (and we do catch the vast, vast majority of duplicate submissions). When it does, we're usually aware of it within a couple minutes of the story going live. But, at that point, there are usually comments, and we're strongly against deleting or hiding what you folks write. So we leave them up, and the few thousand that see it quickly become a few tens of thousands, which inevitably brings a certain amount of disparaging comments. But that's ok.
For any of you who take a peek at the Firehose every so often, tagging things as a dupe there, or leaving a comment saying as much, certainly helps. We do look.
Old school reader saluting EL CAPITAN
good luck!
Four-digit slashdot ID. Recognize.
I still drink coffee out of my decade+ old mug. Today, a picture: http://imgur.com/mecnS
Cheers, CmdrTaco. I spent many years reading, learning, debating, asking, and clicking on slashdot, though it's been a while since it was my "home" on the web. But it was that for a long time. Thanks for everything, thanks for giving nerds and geeks a place to come for new and links and online community. Best of luck wherever you go from here.
The REAL sam_at_caveman_dot_org is user ID 13833.
temporary retirement home moving on to YOU! CmdrTaco.
OMG!!!
Going off and getting a life? Hey that's no fair!
You mean it's not final? Retire that skinjob now.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
Plausible explanation for dupes?!
La la la la la la! I can't hear you!
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
This was posted (not by me) a while back. If you remember the inside jokes, you're an old-timer
------- ...and this won't be considered offtopic...
The History of the Slashdot World
From a mailing list written by Seth
2.5 million B.C.: OOG the Open Source Caveman develops the axe and releases it under the GPL. The axe quickly gains popularity as a means of crushing moderators' heads.
100,000 B.C.: Man domesticates the AIBO.
10,000 B.C.: Civilization begins when early farmers first learn to cultivate hot grits.
3000 B.C.: Sumerians develop a primitive cuneiform perl script.
2920 B.C.: A legendary flood sweeps Slashdot, filling up a Borland / Inprise story with hundreds of offtopic posts.
1750 B.C.: Hammurabi, a Mesopotamian king, codifies the first EULA.
490 B.C.: Greek city-states unite to defeat the Persians. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the Greeks "get it".
399 B.C.: Socrates is convicted of impiety. Despite the efforts of freesocrates.com, he is forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock.
336 B.C.: Fat-Time Charlie becomes King of Macedonia and conquers Persia.
4 B.C.: Following the Star (as in hot young actress) of Bethelem, wise men travel from far away to troll for baby Jesus.
A.D. 476: The Roman Empire BSODs.
A.D. 610: The Glorious MEEPT!! founds Islam after receiving a revelation from God. Following his disappearance from Slashdot in 632, a succession dispute results in the emergence of two troll factions: the Pythonni and the Perliites.
A.D. 800: Charlemagne conquers nearly all of Germany, only to be acquired by andover.net.
A.D. 874: Linus the Red discovers Iceland.
A.D. 1000: The epic of the Beowulf Cluster is written down. It is the first English epic poem.
A.D. 1095: Pope Bruce II calls for a crusade against the Turks when it is revealed they are violating
the GPL. Later investigation reveals that Pope Bruce II had not yet contacted the Turks before calling for the crusade.
A.D. 1215: Bowing to pressure to open-source the British government, King John signs the Magna Carta, limiting the British monarchy's power. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".
A.D. 1348: The ILOVEYOU virus kills over half the population of Europe. (The other half was not using Outlook.)
A.D. 1420: Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press. He is immediately sued by monks claiming that the technology will promote the copying of hand-transcribed books, thus violating the church's intellectual property.
A.D. 1429: Natalie Portman of Arc gathers an army of Slashdot trolls to do battle with the moderators. She is eventually tried as a heretic and stoned (as in petrified).
A.D. 1478: The Catholic Church partners with doubleclick.net to launch the Spanish Inquisition.
A.D. 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in what he believes to be "India", but which RMS informs him is actually "GNU/India".
A.D. 1508-12: Michaelengelo attempts to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling with ASCII art, only to have his plan thwarted by the "Lameness Filter."
A.D. 1517: Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the church door and is promptly moderated down to (-1, Flamebait).
A.D. 1553: "Bloody" Mary ascends the throne of England and begins an infamous crusade against Protestants. ESR eats his words.
A.D. 1588: The "IF I EVER MEET YOU, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS" guy meets the Spanish Armada.
A.D. 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu unites the feuding pancake-eating ninjas of Japan.
A.D. 1611: Mattel adds Galileo Galilei to its CyberPatrol block list for proposing that the Earth revolves around the sun.
A.D. 1688: In the so-called "Glorious Revolution", King James II is bloodlessly forced out of power and flees to France. ESR again triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".
A.D. 1692: Anti-GIF hysteria in the New World comes to a head in the infamous "Salem GIF Trials", in which 20 alleged GIFs are burned at the stake. Later inv
Except, of course, for the one speaking these words.
"He promises to remain part of the Slashdot community (he's still user No. 1, after all)"
Well, that's 'Who is Number 1?" answered, but how about "Why did you resign?". Rob should not be surprised to wake up tomorrow wearing a number in a mysterious seaside Village patrolled by weather balloons, and kept there until this question is answered definitively...
I'm pretty sure you don't post "thousands upon thousands" of stories each day, and yet not a week goes by that someone (usually you) posts something that was on the front page three hours before.
Get back to work!
It's been great reading your stuff over time. Enjoy whatever awaits you. :-)
The Taco abides.. o/
Planetes
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promo Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitl
Indeed, thanks for the fish, and thanks for being a consistently addicting requirement of my early-morning "do some web-browsing" routine. Proud to be part of the 3 digit UID club :)
There is no sig...
After all these years I still visit Slashdot daily. Thanks for the memories!
Thanks to /.--not just Rob but all the good commenters.
Nice to see all the old-timers gathered...
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
http://xkcd.com/865/
I am not famous, nor have a miniscule UID, but /. was the first forum I really enjoyed participating and felt at home. Thanks for all the great work and for creating such an awesome environment for us to receive the news the matters, discuss, rant and eventually troll.
Editors, I am a long-time reader (like many, I lurked for years before signing up for an account), so I'm relatively used to /.'s somewhat quirky interface. But even I am often baffled. Do you ever just sit down with someone unfamiliar with Slashdot, and ask them to navigate around and accomplish certain tasks? Or explain to you, as best they understand, what certain things are, the logic behind the structure, etc?
Someday, I hope Slashdot adopts some kind of left-pane threaded view (like taking Google Group's "tree" view, or the one used Craigslist's help forum, and combining it with the rating and other things that make Slashdot good). In the short term, though, I think some simple usability testing could really help things out around here.
- Alaska Jack
This site has brought me more entertainment and information than just about any other over the last 10 years. Take care and I wish you the very best of luck with your family and whatever else you choose to do, mate.
o7
and made a difference. You should be proud. Good work.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Thanks for all the news and keepinng this site going.
It had all the Web 2.0 things we now take for granted way in the beginning.
I always keep going back to slashdot for "News for nerds, stuff that matters."
Hmmm but you didn't say no to the nitric acid pit, huh? :P
CdrTaco, I found /. all those years ago via C&D when looking for animation videos on the web. Possibly the longest internet diversion ever, but undoubtably the most interesting of all. Live long, and prosper, friend.
And thanks for all the cheese :p
I have been haunting this site for years now. I check it at least several times a day, I've commented frequently, and even gotten some submissions green-lit. (Woot!)
This is by far one of the most informative and fun sites on the Internet, and it's deserved all of the reputation and accolades it's gotten. Just to tell you how important this site is to me, I have found out a hell of a lot of big news stories from here first. Everything from famous people dying to industry shake-ups to mainstream stuff like the earthquake a few days ago. I can't tell you how often I've shared these interesting tidbits to the delight (and yes, sometimes dismay as they express, "Why would anyone want to know or even care about that?") of my coworkers, my friends, and my family.
Wherever you ultimately end up, Rob, I sincerely hope you continue contributing to the public discourse. I know a lot of people kid around about how geeky this site is, but it's also extremely important. I can't imagine what the state of online censorship, RIAA/MPAA lawsuits, DRM, and general corporate asshatery would be like without people like you and Slashdot's submitters bringing back-page buried articles and information that most people would just gloss over front and center.
Thanks for all of your hard work, and good luck.
I want to read his epitaph to the Cmdr...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
There's always some idiot who posts: "-And nothing of value was lost...."
Thanks Rob, wish you all the best. Cheers from Iceland!
University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. -- Henry Kissinger
Thank you, Rob, for years of your hard work.
Bye commander from a red shirted ensign (mod me Score:1), ...again! While I'd like to say I like you half as much as you deserve, Question? This is the internet, like, where are you going anyway, where it that /. is unavailable? Even Libya got it restored this week.
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
I got to meet Taco and Hemos at the Ann Arbor Slashdot tenth birthday party. What struck me, and what made slashdot that much cooler, was that they were *exactly* what I expected. Just a couple of genuine guys who did something that they liked, and didn't seem to care too much one way or the other.
Not that they were indifferent to slashdot, but that they weren't the slimy, indirectly self serving "we're so awesome that we're gonna change the world" blog-o-matic faux revolutionaries (See; that doctor fellow over at the site that goes "boing" a couple times) and they weren't the ultra-nerd, stereotype basement dweller elitists either. They were just, ya know, geeks. It made me feel just a bit geekier knowing that something like slashdot really and truly was put together by somebody sorta like me.
Well done and good luck.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Well, I've been along for most of the ride so far, I think it's pretty likely I'll stick around for quite a while longer.
Rob, I owe ya a beer next time I'm in Michigan. Maybe I'll try to make it to a LUG meeting there or something. I definitely appreciate all of the work you've put into Slashdot over the years. You've done a fantastic job and you should definitely be proud of the community you've developed here. Good luck on everything in the future.
----- obSig
... it trolls for Rob.
sitting on the floor, indian style, with a laptop balanced on your knees, I forget what the booth was (maybe the SourceForge booth?) at one of the Linux conferences at the Javits center many years ago, constantly work work working to find content to post on /. ? I remember seeing two guys surfing the internet like they were top graduates of the Evelyn Wood speed reading course, just flashing pages back & forth, an almost hypnotic combination of color and graphics. One of the booth people told me 'those guys run a site called slashdot, you probably never heard of it. They're here because we can get them a fast internet connection, theirs went down.'
Many thanks for the good reading material over the years, and for not being M$ butt kissers, and for being mostly irreverent, and for calling a spade a spade (even if it wasn't), and... and... and...
Since well over 12 years on all the boxes I installed, and the 1000's I added to networks, I made sure they'd opened up a browser with at least a /. tab present. I hope it did help in making the user base grow and grow and grow. Kudos to you and thanks for all the...
I have been a /. addict since 1998 (can't remember and find the answer in my account profile with 79039 number) in my college days. /. isn't the same today as the old days though. I also went to other sites like Digg (v4 still sucks :P) and Reddit (blame Digg v4). I still come to /. daily though.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I don't know if my UID is low or not, but I've been an avid visitor for years. Slashdot isn't perfect, but to me there is no better place to stimulate the mind. Sifting out the pseudoscience and understanding the political issues of "news" such as good ol' Roland's blog has enhanced my ability to think for myself. That is the most important thing Slashdot gives me: education,enlightenment, and the ability to take everything with a grain of salt.
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
Although I've always remained merely an Anonymous Coward, I've been here from the start, and to this day this is my favorite WWW site. So, thanks, and great job, and good luck!
A while back someone posted a link to a picture of his car. I think the context was his driveway was captured by Google street view. Anyway, the vanity plate on the car matched the user's /. nick name. Someone replied with surprise that this should be the case. I had always sorta assumed this is what every /. user (with a car) did.
Well, given the current swell of nostalgia prompted by recent events, any one else out there with vanity plates, tattoos, or other real world paraphernalia related to nicks or things slashdotian? Care to post pics?
Here's my contribution.
Yes, the birth certificates for your twins counts, if their names are Cowboy and Neal.
Wow, Mr. T. I don't think any of us can imagine this site without you and your direction. For many like myself, you and the site have been a part of our life for over a decade. It sounds like you will continue to have some influence, and considering this is a site - a huge and influential one no less - that you founded, I should hope so.
Fair winds and following seas, good sir.
-Yerk
Well, you see, it's like you have this pair of Edsels you want to....[]....and you end up with a Batmobile..
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Thanks Rob, for getting this place going. I've been hanging around here for.. yeah too many years. Even the flames and trolls are actually well done around here, and there's been too many times that I learned a trick or two, or found a solution to a problem... in any event, as in the main post. So Long, And Thanks For All The Fishwrappers!
GP is obviously in an emotional state. /vertisements?
As far as civil requests go.
Can the editors please stop taking money
I understand that under high loads some crap will get through but some of the stuff you guys put up is obvious to a 4 year old.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
That's not kdawson anyway. All the editors have a little /. logo beside their name.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Quite a few tsunamis this year...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It was fun.
Indeed... it is probably the most effective nametroll I have seen on /. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Slashdot has been a wonderful place to get news and information on IT, Technology and Geekdom in general. We will miss you. I believe I've been reading /. posts since sometime around 1997!
"He's great, but he's not dead!"
Wait.
Thanks for all your hard work! Enjoy your freedom, while it lasts!
[citation needed]
look, we all know whats happening here. slashdot is going to get whored out. 5 years from now we can say something like this:
"you have done with slashdot, what your society has done with all of nature's gifts" -- Gremlins
Congratulations CmdrTaco. Been here since 1998. Somehow slashdot managed to pass through the era of social networking without making any money!
an ill wind that blows no good
I'll leave my comment to be buried but just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work in creating Slashdot Rob. I don't come here nearly as often as I did in 1999 but it was my first online hangout. Good luck and take care.
Mr. Malda,
I've been visiting /. for twelve or thirteen years. I was first introduced by a coworker and true geek. I've never reached beyond the level of a wannabegeek, but I've enjoyed /. immensely and learned much from it.
I truly appreciate what you and your partners started so many years ago. I truly hope that your departure is of your own choosing, and amicable.
I sincerely hope that you've been adequately compensated for what you've given the community over the years. I also sincerely hope you find peace, happiness, and compensation in your future.
For myself I want to thank you for having made me look far more intelligent and capable than I really am. Things I have learned of on /. have made me look good on more than one occasion.
Both from me, and many others I know, I simply want to say THANK YOU for /.
J.D.
Never ascribe to malice or conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Making a decent living doing a job you love: $xxx,xxx/yr + stock
Being able to live without wage income for a year, then gradually spin back up to look for another business opportunity: priceless
There are some things only serious capital accumulation can buy. For everything else, there's the rat race. ;)
Luke, help me take this mask off
I was really impressed with the low IDs. I wonder how far they go down. If yours is lower than mine (pretty easy) reply. Only reply to the child reply if yours is lower. Thanks Rob, I still have the shirt I won at LinuxWorld 05.
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
Thanks Rob!
where I momentarily stop lurking to show off my low UID? Slashdot will always be part of my geek heritage, but all I can offer in return is to say "Thanks".
I haven't posted for years but for this I will log in... Hats' off to you sir for your contributions over the years. /. has been a daily read for me since '99. We have all learned so much from this forum. You will be missed!
I for won will miss CommanderTaco's insightful posts.
Good luck
Good Life
Enjoy the first day of the rest of your life Mr. CmdrTaco.
While I may not agree with 100%, I still enjoy the banter which is CmdrTaco. and the Slashdot post-crew will need to "STEP UP" to replace him.
Slashdotters will mourn the passing of the poster who characterized his information into readable bits.
1001001001
Thanks Rob!
You created a website that I was reading for some time before I signed up, and that was long ago. Don't think I ever hit submit on a post myself (until now).
Thanks for the fish, the ponies, the car analogies.
I know smart people read slashdot, and know that reading here has affected outcomes on projects I have worked on. And some of those projects affect my country.
Hope your next idea is just as good.
Some stuff does matter.
Thanks.
Thanks!
What's the poll?
Slashdot has wasted innumerable hours of my life, and yet still somehow manages to deliver enough information back to be worthwhile. In my (not so recent) youth, Slashdot served as something of an affirmation; somewhere where hanging out reinforced my self-image as a geek. As I grew older, the need for affirmation decreased, but Slashdot retained its value as an amusing diversion and news aggregator.
Thanks, mr Malda, for all the entertainment your site has given me. May you live long and prosper.
Sorry to see you go Rob, I started reading slashdot about 10 years ago and it is still one of the few sites I visit on a daily basis.
I work in IT but love the spread of topics on this site but most of all the comments on them, it really is the community that you managed to gather and keep on this site combined with funny and/or interesting stories that just makes it work.
Greetings from The Netherlands!
It used to be geek.com until I stumbled upon Slashdot way way back....late 1999, early 2001 or something...I can't even remember..but I stopped...and stayed... right here. But by maintaining this site you've made such an impact in my life and career...
Thank you.
Long time reader, infrequent poster. Thank you for your contributions to the site, CmdrTaco. This site has been through a lot, and I'm glad I got to see it change through the years. Keep moving forward.
Ah, you found me!
Thank you for giving us a site where geeks can baseline their common sense and find different takes on current events.
Thanks for Slashdot, Rob. It was very influential for me while growing up with technology. Had it not been for /. I might have become a corporate drone cutting and pasting C# code on a Windows machine. As it is, I'm a corporate drone hacking away on Lisp code using Linux and a tiling window manager. Thanks for keeping me sane!
Seriously, I think you were a major force in the Free Software & Open Source movement, Linux / Unix and keeping us sceptical of Microsoft.
Here's to Nathalie Portman and hot grits!
This is the first time I've cried since the year 2000. /.4lyfe
As I look back on the mid-late 90's and all of the crazy stuff we went through in the Linux community, it's one common thread that has held us together. Slashdot.
From back in the #Linux96 days to the VA IPO and forward, we had good times. :)
Thanks for everything mate. 3
Cheers,
OctobrX
geeky stuff I'm proud to have been a part of: linux.com / themes.org / sourceforge.net / sicnus.com
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
From a long-time /. reader, thank you for working so hard to keep the site thriving. Slashdot was one of the first tech news sites that I frequented, and more than a decade later I come back on a daily basis. I have many good memories of wasting time here instead of working. I wish you the best in everything!
Hi-Technical Excellent Taste and Flavor!
I haven't read /. for a number of years...it was getting depressing in a variety of ways. So yesterday I thought i'd check in and see what was cooking and discovered that Cmdr Taco was leaving.
I remembering discovering this new site 'Slashdot' and the witnessing first-hand the notorious 'Slashdot effect'. I remember being surprised at that everyone from hackers to Phd's were posting on the site. It was amazing. I remember reading Rob's proposal and I sit here stunned to learn that he now has two kids.
In a way, Rob is lucky to have had a 15year career in this industry. A good chunk of us have had several by this time. And it's good that Cmdr Taco is leaving...on his own terms,...at a time of his choosing. Many of us have not had that luxury.
Good luck what whatever new endeavours you try sir! Many of us will be watching in the wings waiting to see what you come up with!
"That's no moon"... Obi-Wan Kenobi
to build my arcade cabinet, because your was so bad ass. You rule and good luck.
http://fathertom.net/hardwii - My Wii Hardware Centric Website
good fortune, ciao.