Slashdot Mirror
Upcoming Changes To 'Ask Slashdot'
We're pleased to announce that changes are coming to the Ask Slashdot section. Ask Slashdot is a place to get your technical questions answered, show off your big brain by helping others, debate products and practices, and occasionally talk directly to companies about their offerings. Over the years, we've posted more than 7700 questions, on everything from workplace relations to home networking to evading censorship from unfriendly regimes. Starting tomorrow, you'll see that some Ask Slashdot questions have their own sponsors; the sponsors don't pick the questions, but experts from each sponsor will stick around for the discussion. Next up: we're making it easier for you to submit questions. Our goal is to make Ask Slashdot your "go-to" place for answers to your pressing nerd questions. So please post your questions, put on your answering hats, and come along for the ride.
I feel silly for getting concerned when that pulse stuff started showing up in the sidebar. Clearly things are heading in a good direction :)
For the first question I’d like to know how my organization can best leverage Oracle’s EJB technology to obtain the rapid and simplified development of distributed, transactional, secure and portable applications that we are looking for in our growing business.
So this is slashdot bowing to its corporate overlords, then? How long have you been working to slip that one through, eh?
.... Will it blend?
Buanzo Consulting - 15 Years of GNU/Linux experience, for you.
My upcoming sarcastic comments aside, I actually kinda agree. Most (not all but most) ask slashdot questions have been along the lines of "I can't use google or afford a consultant, please do my job for me". This might bring some interesting discussion... as long as the "sponsors" are labeled and the questions don't become obvious marketting.
Slashdot, are you saying that you are trying to emulate the functions of StackOverflow?
What's the deal with the sponsors? Are you saying Oracle (for example) is going to have some expert answer common Java questions in a slashvertisement/tech support type thing?
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I've been here for a long time. It used to be that I would very rarely if ever read comments submitted by other Slashdotters as I was far more interested in TFA. But as time has gone on I find I am more interested in what others here have to say. Everybody has the same news stories now and it is the insights and comments from the people in this community that are the real value.
Not certain how you're planning to define "sponsors", but if you're planning to accept money from people who would like to mine this community for information I would caution you to tread carefully. You may be trying this on the wrong group of people...
Hope it boots!
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
And 70 years later we have sponsors on Slashdot. Did we really win the war? Did we?
I work for a public relations company that deals with large clients (can't say who) and I welcome this change. It should bring more interesting discussions to Slashdot. Those "omg astroturfer" guys heads are going to implode. :)
The questions is if we'll see more experts or more sales staff. I've seen some attempts at this before and the results have sounded more like a sales pitch than anything resembling a real discussion of pros and cons. Then again, many of the questions have been utterly lame in the past so I don't expect it to get much worse than it is. It's been on my "maybe" list of categories to block before, if it does then it's a checkbox away from being gone anyway.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Right now any company can make an account and answer questions, how will the new change be different besides the financial support to slashdot. Will they be allowed moderation points? Say in which comments float to the top? Actually get to pose the questions (how awesome is adobe reader on a scale from 9-10) I would love to have specifics on this agreement as Slashdot has become a wonderful place for me to come and see unbiased information from the technical community and I would hate to see bias creep into the discussion because of this.
I was ready to hide all Ask Slashdot posts anyway because they provide very little value (mostly because the questions are not that interesting to me). Now I'm more motivated to do that...
Go to Options -> Exclusions and you can hide all Ask Slashdot posts.
On the other hand, when the tech guys from those companies do come on slashdot (admitting it, i'm sure lots of them browser anyway), the bitching they get is something unbelievable.
For good example, see this story about MS open source programmers asking Slashdot's opinions on how to improve their Python IDE. It's full of hate, stupid comments and crap.
I want to ask slashdot what kind of clothes I should wear.
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
I mostly visit slashdot as an avenue for tech/science/nerd news, and an occasional giggle at flame wars. The growing trend of 'Ask Slashdot' posts I've never had a problem with; what is a problem is the growing rate of redundancy/frequency in question posts versus actual news, no one moderating the train wreck of flame wars and the shear lack of aptitude from the question poser in terms of topic worth.
'Ask Slashdot' used to be an infrequent-but-jolt-of-freshness into daily reading, now it's just being used WAY to often with poor content abandonment IMHO. I see more posts saying "Didn't we just discuss this last week?" followed by a link to a slashdot URL showing the evidence.
All cynicism aside, I'm not for it and I'm sure as hell hoping the next administrative post to slashdot isn't "We're changing our slogan to 'Slashdot: Regurgitated Tech Commentary and Questions. No News. Stuff that doesn't matter".
I really miss Taco.... Who thought this was a good idea?
"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein," - Joe Theisman
He saw the writing on the wall and got out while the getting was good
moox. for a new generation.
So the moral of the story, the story being Pearl Harbour, is don't trust FedEx?
They weren't hard to identify anyways, but an official label on those accounts would help.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
"Dear Slashdot readers, Why does Linux suck so much?"
(sponsored by Microsoft).
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I come to slashdot to get answers not marketing BS. Now you are going to give some company "authority?"
I think an importantent distinguishing difference here will be that the "experts" the sponsor is providing have no special powers over the conversation. The sponsor will not be able to censor what the average slashdot user has to say. I believe that the average slashdot reader will not be fooled by a companies marketing BS, which will in the end force the sponsor to actaully engage in a serious manner with our readers lest they themselves be made a fool of.
Think of it this way: When a company sponsor's a question, and provides someone they classify as an "expert" to take part in the conversation, you will have the opportunity to get real answers to your real questions.
What I worry about is how much manipulation these sponsors will demand.
About a year ago, Digg.com did the same and re worked the site.
The sponsors started to control content and people noticed.
Within 4 months, most users left for another site.
Now, Digg is a shadow of its former self and is spammed regularly.
Comments are few and hollow a-la "I agree" or "me too".
Content is still controlled to this day.
IOW: Digg is now a Web 2.0 billboard.
I don't want a repeat.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Yes, and does anyone know where I can get cheap replica handbags?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
"you'll see that some Ask Slashdot questions have their own sponsors; the sponsors don't pick the questions, but experts from each sponsor will stick around for the discussion"
So, this could become a free version of Experts Exchange? I don't know if this is a good thing or not. If the quality of answers is high, specifically if the sponsors are tech companies, then this is good for users. However, Experts Exchange is pay for a reason, and that's to ensure very high quality. So if the quality is low, this will just become the geek version of Yahoo Answers.
I think Slashdot should possibly test an alternate Karma system just for answers. Just because someone is +5 Funny doesn't make them an expert.
I8-D
Is it true that the refreshing taste of Coca Cola is a great thirst-quencher on a hot day?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Astroturfing doesn't mean what you think it means. A discussion with identified corporate sponsors certainly doesn't fit the definition.
Dilbert RSS feed
We know one of those clients is Microsoft; no need to be coy. We've been having interesting discussions for a while now; this appears to be "slashvertisement" which few here who are not being paid to direct the discussion would support. This is supposed to be an intelligent community-driven news site.
Slashdot editors: if you need to do a funding drive a la Wikipedia, you will find strong community support. You should be doing everything you can to promote that sense of shared community, and find ways to reward us for showing up. Nothing will kill this site faster than inviting corporate interests to the discussion; the anti-corporate bias on this site extends to you, too.
Meta posts worry me. I'm always afraid we might manage to slashdot slashdot.
My webcomic
Ads are not a terrible thing. Sometimes they are even of value. I always look at the ads in Circuit Cellar magazine, CycleWorld, Motorcyclist, Rider, and other magazines that I read.
The key to have ads that people do not want to block.
No animation or sound and keep them relatively small and I will read them.
If they blink or move then ad blocker goes into full force.
Slashdot actually has a really good community but a tough one to force ads on. The problem would be getting people to white list Slashdot.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
When are you guys going to fix the extremely broken, gamed, and unworking moderation system?
You got modded down. Looks like the moderation system works to me!
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I have a Nike T-shirt (St Louis Cardinals logo on it). Paid seventy five cents for it at a garage sale five years ago.
Anyone who pays full price for fashion is no nerd. In fact, if you care about fashion at all you probably aren't a nerd. If you just want to meet women, ask women what to wear.
This advice comes from personal experience. After my divorce I couldn't get as much as a dinner date for 3 years, until one night in a bar a woman suggested I cut my beard into a goatee. So I did an informal survey of women 18 to eighty seven, and seventeen of eighteen respondants said "goatee" (the eighteenth was standing next to her boyfriend, who was wearing a full beard).
The dry spell ended almost immediately. I guess women don't like the RMS look.
Free Martian Whores!
I've been reading slashdot for over a decade. I haven't once gotten a post published. I've posted good and relevant stories only to see them reject without an explanation ( hint to admins: this really pisses people off and makes it harder to get volunteers ).
I'm skeptical of how useful "ask slashdot" is for that reason. I never bothered to try it out. Why should I take the time to type out a worthy technical question if I don't even know if it will be published?
The interface takes some getting used to, but I have found the current best place for technical questions is stackoverlow.com.
It is like Usenet, but without the cranky people with no lives looking to slam people.
I've learned a lot there.
The questions is if we'll see more experts or more sales staff.
Most experts in IT fields already know to hang around StackOverflow for helping others, and getting help as well. The sales staff have been poking at everything from Slashdot to Faceschmuck to Digg for years, never getting quite as well established. So, which group is on the lookout for new fora? Which company recently bought /. and what is their goal?
Not that I see this necessarily as a bad thing. For precedent, see the vendor forums on Geekhack.org. Very productive for both the consumer and the vendor, so long as it is properly labeled.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
People reveal their shallow understand of history when they condemn the bombing of Hiroshima.
Okay, time to cash in some of my karma.
1. Who are you "PerlJedi (2406408) who works for Slashdot" and what is your expertise since you are a brand new hire?
2. I am noticing the quotes on "Expert". Either the people really will be experts, or else they'll be Astroturfing "Experts" in quotes. That is, unless your grammar just sux and you put gratuitous quotes which then accidentally totally flipped your meaning.
3. I bet no one cross-referenced which of these ... "Experts" are currently also Slashdot users - I bet new ones in that ominous 2400000 range. As users they get Mod points? Who will be watching what they do with those?
4. Companies don't care about "being made a fool of" with the top 25% if the Astroturfing raises sales with the newer 75% userbase. Sure, some companies will provide a legit expert, but we're watching like a hawk. Slashdot has seen our comments on editorial quality. We've made fools of you for years. Not like it really helped. (Probably some, far from enough.)
Bonus: Since y'all want to make changes, get a grip and allow editing of posts. Do like other forums do and tag it "this post was modified ...". Then we won't get 7 bad entries harping on spelling that totally derails the conversation. Put a time limit on it like 72 hours.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
1. Who are you "PerlJedi (2406408) who works for Slashdot" and what is your expertise since you are a brand new hire?
You are right, I haven't worked here very long. I am just a software engineer fortunate enough to have landed what I think of as my dream job. I have been a slashdot reader for much, much longer than I have worked here though. I created this account after I started here to use as my "official" slashdot account.
I love slashdot. I love being a geek. I am fortunate enough to work for a website that I enjoy, and I am hoping to use my position here to keep slashdot as a great website for geeks and geek culture. So I haven't been working here from the begining when it was just Rob and his buddies, but I'm here now, and I'm doing my best to keep slashdot going as a fun and interesting site for news and geek culture.
2. I am noticing the quotes on "Expert". Either the people really will be experts, or else they'll be Astroturfing "Experts" in quotes. That is, unless your grammar just sux and you put gratuitous quotes which then accidentally totally flipped your meaning
I put quotes on expert because these will be people that the sponsor considers experts, which does not necissarily mean that I, or slashdot, would call them experts.
3. I bet no one cross-referenced which of these ... "Experts" are currently also Slashdot users - I bet new ones in that ominous 2400000 range. As users they get Mod points? Who will be watching what they do with those?
You are correct, there is nothing to stop the sponsor from having employee's go out and create non-official slashdot accounts to moderate things the way they want them to be moderated. Of course there is nothing to stop them from doing that anyway, even if they aren't sponsoring a question.
4. Companies don't care about "being made a fool of" with the top 25% if the Astroturfing raises sales with the newer 75% userbase. Sure, some companies will provide a legit expert, but we're watching like a hawk. Slashdot has seen our comments on editorial quality. We've made fools of you for years. Not like it really helped. (Probably some, far from enough.)
Really? You don't think that companies care whether or not they look foolish in the public eye?
I'm glad you at least copped to the fact that you're a PR monkey who takes orders from MS. Makes your posts on Google and MS topics no more valuable, but at least it now comes with the equivalent of a "Sponsored by MS" tag.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
The point is not the censoring, the point is the signal-to-noise ratio. And the ratio WILL drop once marketers and PR people join the conversation.
I find the evolution of the latest PR-flak kinda interesting: first he completely side-stepped the fact that he was being paid for his posts. He was the definition of an astroturfer. Now he's coming out officially, and contributing to discussions outside his PR mandate. I'm curious to see how he will continue to evolve. I have a strong suspicion that he might be a good indicator of the future of discussions:
* PR always posts first, because they're paid to do so
* PR is always on message, and posts more than any other single user (again, because they get paid for it)
* PR will drive the discussion because of the two previous points.
Whether that's good or bad is still to be seen. But I definitely think that the experts need to be uniquely identified, and we need to have the ability to ignore them.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Wait, how is this different than the failure that was vendors.slashdot.org back in 2006/2007?
Surely I'm not the only one who remembers when they invited Intel, AMD, Microsoft, and I forget who else to participate in tech discussions, and it turned into a total flop? I can't find the original Slashdot story talking about it (pulled down?), but I think it was somewhere around here.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
The free version of Experts Exchange is Stack Exchange. Stack Overflow is just the tip (or base) of the iceberg.
The problem I have with the "experts" is that they are generally contract based marketing spokespersons, whose main purpose is to deliver a crafted message to their targeted audience - a one way street. The problem with the "Experts" is that they don't have managerial status, don't sit in on the important meetings, and are just a part of the marketing arm.
:)
I think what he is trying to get at here is that if Slashdot is going to allow sponsored Ask Slashdot articles, Slashdot needs to take this seriously and vet who is being sent in as an expert. You wouldn't send a marketroid to DEF CON, no, you send someone who is knowledgeable about the topic they're talking about and directly involved in what's going on.
The biggest problem I have with these "Experts" and "Community Liasons" is that they generally get an email from the marketing department outlining what is supposed to be said, and then they hit twitter, a couple of email lists and a cross section of the relevant press. They have no input on the company, no idea what future direction they're headed, and when concerns are lodged, they have to ignore them, or pass them along to their superiors without any expectation on hearing back from them.
Marketing departments tend to look on their contract "Experts" as a sort of living, breathing digital billboard. $1200 a month buys you someone who will interact with customers on a superficial level and provide filtered feedback from them, but since they're an arm of a marketing department, they aren't really providing the service the customers expect - a two way dialog. The end result is that customers turn to additional outlets like twitter where they can interact with actual employees of the company and get actual usable information. Twitter is a horrible interface for this sort of thing and nearly impossible to log. The fact that customers are bypassing these "experts" and going to a worse medium to get the information they need says a lot about how badly "experts" are being handled by online marketers.
In short, the community asks more of Slashdot's editors to give us a real expert and not someone deemed "safe" by the marketing department. Oh, and thanks for sticking your neck out in an obviously charged conversation, good to have input from the slashdot employees here!
moox. for a new generation.
I want to ask slashdot what kind of clothes I should wear.
"Pants are optional..."