Slashdot Mirror
Introducing SlashBI
By now you’ve noticed that Slashdot is growing. We recently introduced Slashdot TV, which offers up everything from “amateur” rocket launches to the return of Leisure Suit Larry. We revamped our newsletters. Now we’re launching some new sites devoted to very specific corners of tech. Our first one, SlashBI, focuses on the fast-changing world of business intelligence, and features articles and opinion pieces on everything from how Big Data and analytics could make salespeople extinct, to B.I. apps for your iOS device, to choosing the right database for a business. No matter what your background, chances are good you’ll find something of interest here. Swing on over, give it a look-see, and let us know what you think.
Not to be confused with /b/
Today is May 1st, not April 1st..
Eventually Slashdot will be nothing but a brand; a collection of minimally-viewed tech blogs that are finally sold to a media company and rolled into their large collection of robotic advertising delivery channels.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
I don't even have any specific objections... this just feels wrong somehow. Maybe I'm cynical or just following the trend of slashdot pulse, sponsored "ask slashdot", slashtv, etc.. but this feels like when a big company buys out some site you like and runs it down the drain. Obviously that's not exactly what happened here, but I'm starting to think Cmdr. Taco leaving had the same effect.. like maybe he was holding back this tide.
Right now it feels like the "gliding on legacy" phase.. coming soon is the "trying to gather new audience" stage.. then the "please come back, we're still cool and returning to our roots stage" and finally .. acceptance and forgiveness.
I hope I'm wrong. I'd love to see slashdot return to its former glory.. or at least turn into something better than what it was. It managed to turn back from it's "digg" path a few years back.. maybe it can do the same here.
How much of this will be paid content?
So Slashdot is turning into a blog site?
Slashdot was a blog site before there were blog sites.
SlashBI - News for Bisexual nerds. Stuff that matter.
Slashdot is a different beast now.
I've been following Slashdot since the 90s and it just seems to be evolving into another unfocused blog.
I loved reading Slashdot everyday(mostly!) but it just is not the same anymore.
As a geek I felt I belonged to a site like this and felt very comfortable here. It's also one of the very few sites where I can be arsed actually commenting on anything.
But over the past few weeks the story submissions are becoming less relevant to me now and Slashdot has become a less interesting place to be.
Not to mention this new "B.I. feature" contains a link to "choosing the right database for your business" - yeah telling a site full of IT geeks how to choose the right database is a "smart" thing to do (even from a "business" perspective) - how patronising!
"No matter what your background, chances are good youâ(TM)ll find something of interest here."
Nnnnnnope.
Yeah that was my first thought scanning it, "Slash Bi", "Leisure Suit Larry", "Swing on Over"...
To quote the simpsons:
How soon until Slashdot goes NSFW when they realize they can triple their profits by using a combination of their high google page rank and streaming cut rate porn instead of hawking News For Nerds, Stuff That Matters?
moox. for a new generation.
Can I suggest the sub-site SlashBiCurious, since some of us aren't really into BI but want to know more about it.
But AC, you are the most active poster here. What would this site be without you... ?
The Dutch will inherit the earth. If not, we'll settle for a bit of ocean. Beta delenda est!
Has anyone actually looked at that site? Holy crap, that's all I can say. I'm floored. It has all the appeal to a longtime /. reader of a piece of dog shit on your shoe. I'm having a hard time understanding how it even came to exist. I'm actually really depressed now.
Breakfast served all day!
Ddd someone just use the word 'leverage' in a article title? Surely not! http://slashdot.org/topic/bi/shortage-of-b-i-talent-a-critical-hurdle-in-quest-to-leverage-big-data/ And what are those silly stock photos all about? I'm not sure I recognise the model of computer in the linked article.
I think Taco exited at the right time. Also, I think I might be spending less time here, if Slashdot has started focusing on keywords like BI, and away from the core idea of "News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters", which is why we joined the site in the first place & kept coming back.
Instead of doing more stuff, how about doing the stuff you should be doing better?
There have been complaints about the editing and story selection - the core aspects of /. - for many years now. It may not be true, but this second side-project feels like confirmation that one of the reasons this has never been fixed is that you're simply trying to make more money with more stuff.
I have taken a good look at this new offshot, and I can guarantee that it's the last look I have ever taken on it. I simply couldn't care less, even though I am the CEO of a small company, so I'm right there in your target audience.
But I don't come to /. for "business intelligence" (more on that in a second) and I don't expect any from /. and I don't trust /. as a source of any. One of the reasons loops back to the beginning: If you are not doing an excellent job in your core business, why should I expect you to do a good job in an offshot project?
As for "business intelligence" - that crap is a dime a dozen. If you want to enter the market, do something different. Like actual intelligence. The word largely means "information" these days, but it should mean more than that. A good intelligence source requires really good editing. And that is not exactly a strength of /.
I hope this dies a quick death and you will learn that you need to make your core business brilliant before even thinking about doing anything else.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Quick-hit tech items... check.
No context... check.
Lots of buzzwords... check.
Lots of random, cool-looking stock photography having nothing to do with the stories... check.
Why not just call this SlashPHB and be done with it?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
No matter what your background, chances are good you’ll find something of interest here
If you really believe that then why does it need a separate site? You could just post it on Slashdot with everything else.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Im outta here. It's been a good 10 years, but this reminds me of when Coke changed their formula. It's been fun guys, but I is outta here.
Anonymous Coward! Nooooooo!
What will we do without your countless comments on every story? Even when the story was stupid and no cared, we could always count on you to pop in with something to say, even if it was only a "first post!". (I know you got modded down for those "First!!" posts, but somebody had to get the ball rolling and you were always there when no one else was.) You've been tireless in you support of this site, and we've never really thanked you for it.
We're gonna miss you, old friend.
Next in line, SlashBS where we repost all the bullshit we posted last week so you can complain about dupes all day!
Title: Slashdot's SlashBI: All Your Busines Intelligence Info in One Place
Description: SlashBI is a new site for the latest in business intelligence news and analysis, created each day by the industry's top experts, and produced by Slashdot.
00:00) <TITLE>
A small picture of "Nick Kowalski - Senior Editor, Geeknet" appears over a screenshot of the Slashdot website featuring the "Bitcoin Mining Startup gets $500k in Venture Capital" story which slowly zooms out.
00:00) Nick>
Slashdot is growing.
We have exciting new sites in the works.
00:04) <TITLE>
The backdrop changes to that of a blurred view of the SlashBI page, that slowly becomes sharper, featuring the post "B.I. Analysts: Start with the Right Questions, Then Use Tools".
00:04) Nick>
The first one, SlashBI, focuses on the fast-changing world of Business Intelligence.
00:11) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of a post with a tree graph from the "Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices are driving the need for more storage." article.
00:11) Nick>
Its articles and opinion pieces, which are created by a mix of technologists and experts, field everything from BI fundamentals for businesses [...]
00:18) <TITLE>
The view changes to the "Choosing a Database That's Right for Your Business" post.
00:18) Nick>
[...] to choosing the right database.
00:20) <TITLE>
The view changes to an interview video.
00:20) Nick>
SlashBI will also feature videos of developers and other notable figures in BI.
00:25) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of the "Salesforce EVP Byron Sebastian: Platform-as-a-Service Here to Stay" post.
00:25) Nick>
More companies than ever are relying on Business Intelligence apps that collect and analyze data.
00:32) <TITLE>
The view changes to a screenshot of another article listing a few BI mobile apps.
00:32) Nick>
With this information in hand, executives can make more informed choices [...]
00:35) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of an overview of several SlashBI posts.
00:35) Nick>
[...] about everything from marketing and sales to production.
00:37) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of several styles of BI analysis graphs
00:37) Nick>
Rapidly growing areas of Business Intelligence include predictive analytics, datamining and performance management.
00:44) <TITLE>
The view changes to a still of, identified by caption, "Crawford Del Prete - Executive Vice President, WW Research Products - IDC" as it fades to a graph with a generally upward trend.
00:44) Nick>
Research from IDC predicts the big data market will grow from $3.2B in 2010 to $16.9B in 2013.
00:55) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of a car with a through-hood turbocharger with its engine shown.
00:55) Nick>
That's more than enough information growth to supercharge the BI sector.
00:58) <TITLE>
The view changes to an overview of SlashBI posts scrolling past.
00:58) Nick>
SlashBI's news stream will keep up-to-the-minute track of the latest acquisitions and software releases, [...]
01:05) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of the "Death of the Salesmen: The Geeks Did It" op-ed post.
01:05) Nick>
[...] while its analysts and pundits offer a big picture view of the action.
01:08) <TITLE>
The view changes to that of a stylized head shown in profile with various technical elements within, and the text "Business Intelligence - http://slashdot.org/topic/bi" overlaid on it.
01:08) Nick>
So, all the intelligence you'll need on Business Intelligence.
You haven't defined a background-color for the body element, so it defaults to transparent. That means users will see whatever color they've told their web browser to default to as a background-color. No doubt you meant the site to have a white background, but you need to specify it. Browsing with an off-white color as my default, SlashBI looks pretty bad...
Rookie css mistake that is embarassingly common.
If I were in charge of Slashdot, I'd rather concentrate on improving the quality of the posts - the summaries are eye-bleedingly horrid in every aspect. The only reason anyone ever comes to /. is the quality of some of the replies in the thread. That is, it's the readership that makes Slashdot valuable.
Piss off your readership, and you pissed away Slashdot - since the quality of the content is otherwise rubbish.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Slashdot - Nudes for Nerds, Sluts that Matter?
Well folks, that's it, the beginning of the end. Instead of making sure the site stays attractive to hardcore geeks, the people who are managing slashdot are diluting its value by doing some blatant marketing pushes.
I've been reading slashdot daily for what, 8 years now? Between the stupid "vlog" and all the latest attempts at being something it should not be, I think I'm going to be done with this site soon.
Slashdot has always done only a few things, but these core qualities were done extremely well, making this site interesting for people like me.
1. Keep the signal to noise ratio high. The moderation system has worked well to keep the SN ratio relatively high. Browsing at +2, when not moderating, keeps the discussion fairly clean and interesting. It's degraded a bit over the years, but I feel this is still slashdot's strongest point. Compared to sites like digg and reddit, slashdot discussions are mostly sane, polite and flame-free.
2. By the virtue of point 1 above and being a site targeted at hardcore geeks, you often get to speak with people involved in the stories first-hand. Over the years, I read and participated in threads with some very smart, interesting people. On stories about solar powered car competitions, we had the participants pitch in. On stories about new wireless chips, we sometimes had the engineers who designed it comment. On stories about Star Trek, you had Wil Wheaton giving behind-the-scenes stories. This was possible because slashdot was a site where geeks felt comfortable having discussions. Over the last few years, slashdot has been slowly losing this quality.
3. Clean, clutter-free interface that doesn't attempt to be anything else than a good place to discuss news stories of interest to geeks. Geeks like function over fluff and slashdot delivers. It doesn't need to be ugly, just functional and not distracting. All the crap you've been adding to the site of late is detracting from this. Things like the stupid videos or the "pulse" poll; blatant advertising barely disguised as something else.
This is just one geek's opinion, but slashdot is slowly going in the wrong direction. I know that if you keep this up you're going to lose me as a reader, and I have the feeling I'm far from the only one.
Religion is the best example of mass psychosis
How soon until Slashdot goes NSFW
You don't browse at -1, do you?
Trolling is a art,
Shouldn't you be occupying something today?
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Not only that, but BI is as related to Nerds than ... say, knitting. Sure, it's related to CS at large, but there are no nerds interested in BI. Businesses are, not nerds. Thus, what does this have to do with slashdot?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Thank you.
Yet this is GeekNet's Jump The Shark moment, today, May 1, 2012, for anyone keeping track.
Philosophically, News for Nerds, and the concept of what /. means now has another branding barnacle: BI. I understand BI, big data, and why. I see the horizon of words and phrases like: new paradigm, hadoop(y), your OpenStack engine, and other revenue-generating phrases.
This is branding gone wrong, like putting a Continental kit onto a Kia Rio. We, the customers of /. aren't ideological customers of BIG DATA and BI. We're theorists, engineers, completely whacked out of our mind gamers, and people that make antennas with Pringles cans. I'm shocked that the publishers would believe that they can somehow meld these two concepts together. It's really frightening that they're trying as BI would have told them: only a subsection of /. readers give a rat's patootie about BI, and BI's been around for more than a decade in one form or another.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.