Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Government Trucking Generations of Scientific Data To the Dump
sandbagger writes "Canada's science documents are literally being taken to the dump. The northern nation's scientific community has been up in arms over the holidays as local scientific libraries and records offices were closed and their shelves — some of which contained century old data — emptied into dumpsters. Stephen Harper's Tory government is claiming that the documents have been digitized. The scientists say, 'The people who use this research don’t have any say in what is being saved or tossed aside.'"
Slashdot itself is very much in the same situation at the moment. Its original heritage is in the process of being thrown out, for absolutely no good reason at all.
The current Slashdot site, while not perfect by any means, has many benefits above and beyond the new beta site that so many of us have been subjected to against our will. It is faster. It doesn't waste screen space. The fonts are legible. The list of stories is easy to read, and without useless large images. The discussion is much easier to read and participate in.
Just as original scientific documents may be thrown into a dumpster, I fear that we'll see the existing Slashdot site thrown in alongside them. The "digitized" scientific documents will never be the same as the originals, just like the beta Slashdot site will never be as good as the existing site. The current site contains the essence of what Slashdot was and is. The Slashdot beta site is a sad hipster-inspired parody; a Web 2.0 monstrosity that comes five years after the Web 2.0 hype blew over.
Once the originals are gone, it is quite unlikely that they'll ever be recovered. The damage, once done, is done for all eternity. I weep for these scientific documents, and I weep for what will become of Slashdot once the beta site replaces the current one. I weep, and I weep.