Slashdot Mirror
A New Benefit For Logged-In Readers: Meet Slashdot's ROT13 Initiative
We appreciate all the support we've gotten over the years from Slashdot's logged-in users. They take part actively in discussions, and in exchange for their active interest in the site, we like to give a few perks over and above what our beloved anonymous readers get. But we never want to deprive anonymous readers of the actual features of the site — whether you're a logged-in account holder, anonymous, a subscriber, or have a username but are browsing anonymously at any given moment, Slashdot has always been freely available to read for anyone with a browser and an uncensored Internet connection. It's a balance we try to maintain, too, Sure, we'd like you to login, and we think it has some worthwhile benefits (like tracking comment responses, building karma, and using the Zoo system to keep track of your friends and foes), but we'll never force you to. Today, we're building on this approach, by introducing a feature that benefits every logged-in user, but still leaves the page free to read for all. We'll be phasing in over the next few days a button that logged-in users and subscribers can click to decrypt the text of each Slashdot posting with the trivial transform known as Rot13. Read more, below!
Don't panic. You don't have to do anything at all, especially for right now. For the rest of the week at least, though, you'll notice that stories are rendered a bit harder to read, because they've been ROT13'd. "Encrypted" seems too strong a word for it, since ROT13 is about as tough an encryption as Pig Latin is, and more consistent. You'll just need to click once more to read the full, plaintext version of each story. After we complete a few shakedown days, subscribers and other logged-in users will always be able to get through to the plaintext just that simply, and for anonymous readers, it'll be nearly as easy: they'll just need to click one button, and watch one painless interstitial ad, to reach each story's plaintext. For the masses who read anonymously but don't want to suffer through any more ads? (Believe us, we understand.) Not to worry! As we transition away from offering the plaintext along with the ROT13 version, there will be several great options for translating ROT13 text; you'll just need to copy and paste the text, or in some cases the URL for the story you'd like to read, into the engine of your choice. We favor the spartan rot13.com, but there are others. Heck, if you're a CS grad, or even an amateur programmer at all, you've probably written a ROT13 translation program, or you can pipe the text through a built-in function in the language of your choice. (Let us know your favorite translation system in the comments below.) If you have any questions about the transition, please let us know.
Note: You'll notice that comments are still in plaintext for now by default. They will probably stay this way for a while, too, even for anonymous readers. The conversion process itself for the 19.2 million comments in our database is pretty trivial, actually, but there have been some glitches with the way that the transform handles things like code inside of comments, and it would be a shame to break any of that code. And it's a near certainty that only anonymous readers will ever see reader comments encrypted with ROT13, when all those details are worked out.
Note: You'll notice that comments are still in plaintext for now by default. They will probably stay this way for a while, too, even for anonymous readers. The conversion process itself for the 19.2 million comments in our database is pretty trivial, actually, but there have been some glitches with the way that the transform handles things like code inside of comments, and it would be a shame to break any of that code. And it's a near certainty that only anonymous readers will ever see reader comments encrypted with ROT13, when all those details are worked out.
svefg cbfg
Maybe they'll make sense now!
The only person in the world that is so bad that his NORMAL writing looks like Rot13...
...or actual ad spamming. Naah, april fools'
"Hello, IT... Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yeah... No problem."
Lame. This is pretty lame even by Slashdot standards.
Nice try, I almost fell for it. Keep up the good work, thanks for a great site.
One of your anonymous readers. :-)
...someone at slashdot has lost their mind.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Wait, what day is it?
Where it would be quicker to write a perl script to do ROT13 translation, than to read the editors' description of what the site did with it.
Assuming it's not an April 1 joke, and it might be (an unusually ponderous one at that).
Bayl 19.2 zvyyvba pbzzragf? V unir n eha n snveyl zrqvbper jro fvgr bire gur cnfg srj lrnef jvgu n sbehz juvpu unf nobhg n guveq nf znal.
To anyone brave enough to decode the stories themselves. Would that count as RTFA?
Your encryption scheme is as lame as your April Fool's joke.
sudo make me a sandwich
How about letting logged in users filter out all april fools jokes?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
C'mon, check the date people.
Gvzbgul vf na nffubyr.
More April 1 bullshit. Can't they at least come up with one thing that is actually funny?
Or just rename it April 1 troll day and be done with it.
I admit to being the anonymous lurker myself sometimes, but this reinforces me to actually login when I hit /. daily and post instead of just read.
Give out Bitcoins that would work better for every article read and is also signed up???????
V whfg urneq fbzr fnq arjf ba gnyx enqvb - Ubeebe/Fpv Sv jevgre Fgrcura Xvat jnf sbhaq qrnq va uvf Znvar ubzr guvf zbeavat. Gurer jrera'g nal zber qrgnvyf. V'z fher rirelbar va gur Fynfuqbg pbzzhavgl jvyy zvff uvz - rira vs lbh qvqa'g rawbl uvf jbex, gurer'f ab qralvat uvf pbagevohgvbaf gb cbchyne phygher. Gehyl na Nzrevpna vpba.
Let's use DOUBLE Rot-13 encryption to make it even more secure!
Now the April Fool's jokes on /. are just tired and worn out. There are days why I wonder why I still come here. I guess old habits die hard. Can we not do this shit next year guys?
Vs lbh nfxrq Oehpr Fpuarvre gb qrpelcg guvf, ur'q pehfu lbhe fxhyy jvgu uvf ynhtu.
I am officially gone from
Seems like a perfect candidate for a simple one-line APL ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language) ) function. This should be something like {/~{\}, but my keyboard doesn't have the required keys to enter any of the characters needed. Can anyone help?
No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
I appreciate this extra security since the Cisco "type 7" encryption was broken earlier this year.
And as a long-time Usenet reader, I can basically de-crypt ROT13 in my sleep.
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
How about you make anon cowards watch ads before they can post either short (fr1st! type posts) or long (I use host files to block ads type posts) posts. You could increase the length of the ad in relation to the length of the post. So a medium size post (three or four sentences, at least one paragraph) won't have any problem. But six paragraphs, a three second ad. Nine paragraphs, a six second ad. And so on. Then you could be even more evil, and test understanding, such as having multiple choice: "what company is derided in this ad because they suck compared to our lords and masters Dice.com?", with the obvious answer being "fuck dice and your shitty ads", but the answer required to actually post being something like "monster".
Also, I use host files to block ads. I also use JS to rot13 shit. Someone post a bookmarklet for de-rot13ing stuff alright?
... is 'super members' of the community that have proven their knowledge, there is too much bullshit getting modded insightful when it is outright incorrect. I'd like to see slashdot select logged in moderators get the ability to mark false insightful posts as 'false/incorrect' and turn that posters post a different color.
The amount of disinformation from either youth, the uninformed, trolls, or paid hacks to disrupt intelligent discussion on the internet is something I've grown increasingly weary of. It seems increasingly difficult to have intelligent discussions online. There are people who DO KNOW and understand the world at a higher level then most posters on slashdot and these people could help guide discussions when these forces of stupid / distortion appear.
http://consciouslifenews.com/paid-internet-shill-shadowy-groups-manipulate-internet-opinion-debate/1147073/
I love reading the impotent rage in the comments. Keep whining; the April 1st articles will just keep rolling in.
I think that's a good time to improve our security to ROT47: :>AC@G6 @FC D64FC:EJ 25@AE:?8 E96 #~%cfi
x E9:?6 E@
I'd be willing to subscribe if there was a possibility with
- no javascript
- no cookies
Just plain or digest auth. Wanna play?
Heck. I'd even buy a for-pay subscription. I'm serious.
Well, it's no "OMG!!! Ponies!!!" but I guess it's the thought that counts. Happy April Fool's Day to you, too!
If I was a CS grad.. I'd make an app that blocks Slashdot for me each April 1st....
Yes I'm getting old.
---
Haven't seen anything in this thread yet about NCX or ubfgf svyrf.
The joke is on Slashdot, I for one have been using ROT26 for several years already.
Of course, for those anonymous cowards like me that browse the internet in the correct way - inside emacs - this scheme holds no terrors! A quick M-x toggle-rot13-mode and all is revealed.
H cmd n btwrst pr l mñn tmrpn crc d m cs.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Bring on the ponies! I can take it.
I hate april 1st on the net...
What used to be some lame jokes and minor humor... Has become outright lying and unfunny bullshit.
decodeing rot13 without authorization can = JAIL Time under some of the laws.
Don't panic. You don't have to do anything at all
The Adams family's lawyers are sending the takedown notice now... also, reading a slashdot story is now a felony, since the content is cryptographically protected by slashdot's patented Rot-13 DRM technology.
Gotta love them lawyers!
Free Martian Whores!
Anyone else think ROT13 had something to do with the game Rise of Triad?
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2064678&cid=35688196
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
Jul jnf fhpu n cbbe rapelcgvba nytbevguz pubfra? Rirelbar xabjf gevcyr-ebg13 vf orggre.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Cryptography experts have proven long ago that ROT-13 is weak against simple brute-force attack. But it turns out that there is also a little-known security hole in ROT-26, which allows a sophisticated eavesdropper to read the message WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING THE PASSWORD.
Cryptography experts suggest, for robust security, the use of at least ROT-39 encoding should be encouraged. This takes a minimum number of log_2[2^39] tries to decode by brute force.
Some experts have suggested that ROT-39 shares the same security hole as ROT-13, but I don't believe I've seen that result confirmed in peer-reviewed literature.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Hopefully this is one benefit of the new Dice Holdings, Inc. regime, 4/1 will be less lame and annoying.
I thought I'd forgotten how to read!
Bastards.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Can we please have a my little pwny theme in rot13? I really really liked that theme!
Guvf pbagrag erdhverf n fynfuqbg cyngvahz nppbhag gb ivrj.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Are you giving me permission to un-rot13 it? I wouldn't want to be accused of circumventing an encryption device without authorization.
I usually have a pretty decent sense of humor. However this ROT13 joke, is not funny and shows no creativity. For a website that USED to be about news nerds/ stuff that matters, this is a new low. You are forcing your target audience to do more work, which may temporarily drive up ad clicks, but in the long run you will loose your base and the site will continue to decline.
insert inflammatory comment here!
I don't care. I look forward to it each April 1st. I certainly don't begrudge them not being funny to all people. April 1st is like National Nerd Day.
Its fun to be a geek, humor is what you make of it, my suggestion, take a step back and enjoy the day.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Qba'g sbetrg gb qevax lbhe Binygvar.
Used to be funnier and well thought out and silly, but now it's just comedy by committee, with all kinds of notes from the network executives. /., eh?
.
Where's the pink pages? Where's the OMG ponies? Where's the cuteness of fvcking with the CSS and some actual intelligence behind an April Fool's day joke?
:>(
. It's kind of like letting the pointy-haired bosses write a comedy script by committee, zat's what you get with the new
to avoid Slashdot.
Emacs. Can your editor do that?
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Sorry, I forgot there are ads on the Web; I use Lynx.
Slashdot really doesn't know how to monetize their assets. If they had any common sense the "decoder" would require a "free download" and bundle spyware/adware/malware/shitware.
-insert SEO blogspam here-
Closing my browser, because I don't want to deal with the lame April Fool's jokes. I finally started reading /. again after being away for a year, and the quality really has gone downhill... I'll probably be back tomorrow, but we'll see how long it lasts.
I'm taking /. off my news reader and other feeds because this is annoying. I come for news and often click through on /. articles but not anymore - I can get the same content many other places and will do so.
Yeah this sucks. I'm probably done with slashdot. I think it is enough to require login to contribute or post is crap. I have slashdot in one of my tabs and take a quick scan at the articles,. I created an account, but I still can't just glance at them. Slashdot advertisers,maybe you should tell them that this idea is shit-tastic.
You make this even one step harder to get to, and people will leave.
Probably more people than you want......
Its just that simple.
Have gnu, will travel.
I use bookmarklets to handle rot-13 encoding when I find it. Highlight, click bookmark, read as plain text. Simple.
Enjoy!
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
Great, so now my RSS feed is going to be broken for the rest of the day? I like April Fools' as much as the next guy, but not when it effectively breaks the whole site for the day.
just ignore the site until later today or tomorrow when April fool's is over.
ponies would not use rot13, bring back the ponies!!!! because ponies!!!
bring bak the ponies!!
rot-13's a turn off
But haven't been able to for years given that I have { and } in my name and it won't allow me. I've e-mailed tech support but to no avail. So, I'm an AC who has been reading and posting since 1999.
The Slashdot logo should be changed to Fynfuqbg.
Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
Hey all, since I didn't have an account on slashdot, I created a bookmarklet to decode the rot13 via jQuery. http://bl.ocks.org/dergachev/5285534 Only belatedly did I realize that in order to share it on Slashdot, I'd have to create an account anyhow. Fail!
You can preserve the existing encryption engine by simply using more rounds. The 2-round version has been broken, so cryptographers recommend using the full 16 rounds, as is done in other encryption systems.
April Fool right back at you. I just submit Slashdot URL to Google Translate ROT13 to English to get the whole site decrypted.
I genuinely hate logging into things. I don't want to have to spend more than 20 seconds scanning the headlines.
I was very confused as to why Slashdot would encrypt everything until I remembered it was April Fools day. Ha Ha you got me I guess.....
Abg n onq vqrn, orvat gbyq v pbzrf orsber r sebz fbzr Nabalzbhf Pbjneq
jub bs pbhefr zvffcryyf n jbeq va gur cebprff.
Ohg gura V'yy cel whfg chg gur ragver zrffntr va Sbegr'f ntrag, qrpelcg vg gb ernq.
Gnatrag
V unq abgvprq gung zvpebfbsg unq EBG13 vgrzf va gur ertvfgel naq gubhtu
purnc onfgneqf qvqa'g jnag gb cnl eblnygvrf sbe fbzr bgure rapelcgvba glcr.
Sbhaq gurfr jrer whfg ZEH cnguf naq jul gur uryy jrer gurl rapelcgrq va gur svefg cynpr.
What happened? Me /. is written in Alphabet Soup...
Unequivocally the realest of the realz...
...then Slashdot gets added to the list of sites I'll no longer frequent because they're useless or crap at work, where the login information is logged and readable by my employer and their agents. Probably just as well as the quality has really gone in the toilet anyway.
I certainly hope this is just an April Fool's gag. As it is, I won't bother reading anything on Slashdot today due to the hassle. Way to drive away readers!
Dear Slashdot, Please bring back gnome2. Gnome3 isn't as good. Yrs, David Maas
I call it!
You've succeeded in causing me to avoid slashdot for an entire day. I'm all for april fools' jokes, but I'll be damn if I'll click an extra link to read a story.
This is just typical of web sites using this as a "Benefit for logged in users". Once again, a site now requires to "LOGIN" for perceived benefits so you can track whatever information you want. Stop trying to justify this under "benefits" its simple data mining just like all other places. I had come to this site for this specific reason.
I am hoping this is an April Fools Joke, if not, you now have one less reader.
... rnfvre guna qvttvat hc gur pbqr V cebonoyl qvq jevgr ng bar gvzr ...
Now I have to open every article to read it.
At least I knew they would be worth reading.
Next year go for funny + !annoying.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'm logged in but this steps f'';'d up RSS feed. Do something about it :/
This is by far the stupidest idea ever. I will no longer reccomend this site. Good luck.
I'm logged in and am still only viewing ROT-13. I don't know if this is just an April Fool's Day joke, but if the whole of the internet decided to go this route, I would stop using it altogether. Period. Might even lose a few lbs :-P
If this is the route /.is going to take, then they have just lost a VERY loyal reader.
Yeah, it was funny and original for the first story or two. Now it's damned frustrating. Away with Rot13 or whatever you're calling this crud. Happy April Fools Day from Atlanta.
Computing and Programming Since 1975 The Best Kept Secret in Technical Support Master of the Bare Metal Clean Install
This might actually be useful for a day if it encouraged people to
create accounts but why am I still seeing rot13 after I log in?
I don't mind logging in but I don't like to have to click on every
article to read the summary even after I do log in.
Whatever fucking idiot that thought this was funny can't even execute it properly. I'm logged in and still getting the April Fools shit. This is hands down, THE STUPIDEST thing the /. staff have EVER done. Congratulations, you 0wned your own site.
Asshats.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how this adds value to your site. It might increase the number of clicks-per-visit, much the way slideshows do for some websites, but don't tell me this feature is to make my experience better.
JGS!
Nuff said. End of story.
This had better be a joke because it's not very funny
If it's not an April Fools joke, it's one of the dumbest ideas I've ever seen on Slashdot!
Gonna kick their fscking @$$#$, the fscking Dice employees messing things up yet again...
Yes, seriously, the home office for DICE is across the street from where I posted this...
English motherf*cker, do you speak it?! The speak English in what?!?!
Watch out for certain Rot13 apps.. You can get a Rot-A virus: it strikes again and again. Most miserable two weeks you'll every have. It's apparently an offshoot of the Norwalk virus, or at least of similar performance.
That's pretty much it.
And if you undo the rot-13 on your own, you've committed a DMCA violation and Slashdot can sue you. No, I'm not kidding about that. Legally, they could. There are no requirements in the DMCA that a technological measure which control access to a copyrighted work need to be non-trivial to defeat. Even when it's just rot-13, bypassing it is a violation of the DMCA.
Just copy and paste this into your URL (using chrome) and click on any ROT13 text for the exploit.
javascript:$(".p").click(function() {p=0;a=97;A=65;$(this).html($(this).html().split("").map(function(C){p=C=="":0;c=C.charCodeAt(0),b=c-(c12&&b=0&&b26?1:0);return p?C:String.fromCharCode(d)}).join(""))});
...to at least be funny.
This is so lame, WTF? Why piss on us for your own amusement? I miss the old slashdot!
So, I logged in... and its still all scrambled.... bad move slashdot.
Happy April 1st. This has the be the most useless, fucking retarded joke this site has ever done for 4/1.
Chrome: https://www.quixey.com/search?q=rot13&platform=8675384
Firefox: https://www.quixey.com/search?q=rot13&platform=8675382
Time-disoriented discrimintation!
-Ultimate Stickman Game Developer Infinite World Puzzler
V ubcr guvf vf n wbxr, orpnhfr vs vg vf abg fynfuqbg whfg oebxr zl eff ernqre ba zl cubar.
April 1must be "Don't use Internet's day" or at least the American websites as they are unreliable, not funny and lame.
Jesus Christ I hate this day and the stupid fucking posts that spam up my RSS feed.
Buy some new writers.
I knew I should have taken the day off from reading Slashdot. Worst April Fools' Day prank ever, anywhere. Not funny, just very annoying. Good job whomever came up with it, and whomever allowed it. Congrats, you have erased any shred of a doubt that you are humorless nerds, and not intelligent geeks.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
OK, I logged in for the first time in years.. and stories are still scrambled. It's no longer April 1 where I am. Fail.
I'll be perusing another tech related blog from here on out
See subject
I'll keep this short: ... it's a brand-killer, an irreversible unrecoverable one-way trip to "yesterday's news-ville"
I do Customer Behavioral Analysis for a living.
If this is just a bad April Fools Joke... then disregard.
If you actually want/intend to alienate and lose all non registered traffic, then pls disregard.
BUT - - If Not,
What in the name of Zeus are you thinking... this is a Microsoft-worthy Fail.
Of all the sites who should understand the importance of web anonymity/freedom...Slashdot should be the front of the line, no ?
Seriously, don't bother retracting this move or back-pedaling or explaining how it was just a joke... none of that matters now, you will never undo the damage of this fail.
(I feel like this is what a machine made by Dunderbeck's son might do...)
I'm surprised that there's not a page or at least a reference on Wikipedia for Dunderbeck/Dunderbeck's machine
coding is life
This made the website almost completely unusable in Lynx today. My employer thanks you.
hey!
if you clicked the links and didn't give a shit about excerpts for a day
F*cking annoying, that's what that is. Oh well, I get decent news elsewhere anyway.
I am going to dig out a copy of Netscape, with built in ROT13!
On the April's Troll day lameness scale of 1 to 10, this was a -10. Not even close to being clever or funny.
Okay, yeah... moderate this.
You lost a lot of eyeballs today, and you will never get them back.
Go ahead and let that sink in... then write a script to mine the traffic data and then put it on a chart.
This was a big mistake, and the eyeballs you lost were more important than even your "core audience" of coders and geekers... you lost decision-makers and influencers, and if there's a marketing person worth their salt in your bldg, they'll splain it for you in numbers. In between FPS victories and 3d printer part designs on your smart-watch and 3d Googleglasses, you're going to talk about this years from now and laugh about how bad an idea it was.
Go ahead and scrub this one too - I've been coming here since Rob ran the show... pre and post digg, before the bubble burst (the first time). I'm done with you.
Today's ROT13 gag generated lots of butthurt, especially from Anonymous Cowards. Even some of the copypasta ninjas steered clear of the stories for a whole day.
Maybe it wasn't funny, but it was satisfying. Kudos. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
You guys can shove your forced login up your April 1, FFS it's 10:37pm on April 2nd, get a grip!
I hate you guys
I think a lot of people need the joke explaining to them. The only articles that were encrypted into nonsense were April fools. So for example, the google scent fool. Slashdot have done you a favour, making those pointless April 1st articles gobbledigook, so we can skim past them and pick up the real news without wondering whether it's a ruse. There wasn't much real news, it turns out!
To add insult to injury, you haven't unscrambled them again, and it's April 2 here (and well inside it, too)
Does anyone want to buy a 4 digit Slashdot user ID? I don't want to be associated with this once great website any more.
... and today's pet project has
how to lose credibility and user base in one move. Go on - throttle yourselves, you don't need any help from us.
This was great! With one odd exception, it told me exactly which stories were April Fools' jokes, and let me ignore them when I wanted, and laugh at them when I wanted. Please do this again every year! (But yes, you may want to triple the encryption strength...)