Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Tries Something New; Audience Responds!
We've had only a few major redesigns since 1997; we think it's time for another. But we really do take to heart the comments you've made about the look and functionality of the beta site that houses Slashdot's future look. So let's all slow down. Right now, we're directing 25 percent of non-logged-in users to the beta; it's a significant number, but it's the best way for us to test drive this new design, to have you show us what pieces need to be fixed, and how. If you want to move back to Classic Slashdot, that path is available: from the Slashdot Beta page, you just need to select the "Slashdot Classic" link from the footer (or this link). We're committed to keep you informed of the plans as changes are implemented; we can't
promise that every user will like every change, but we don't want anything to come as a surprise. Most
importantly, we want you to know that Classic Slashdot isn't going away until we're confident that
the new site is ready. And — okay, we've got it — it's not ready. We have work to do on four big areas:
feature parity (especially for commenting); the overall UI, especially in terms of information density and
headline scanning; plain old bugs; and, lastly, the need for a better framework for communicating about
the How and the Why of this process. Some of you have suggested we're not listening; on the contrary,
some of us are 'listening' pretty much full-time. We're keeping you informed of this process, because
we're a community and we want to take everyone with us. But, yes, we're trying something new. Why?
We want to take our current content and all the stuff that matters to this community and deliver it on
a site that still speaks to the interests and habits of our current audience, but that is, at the same time,
more accessible and shareable by a wider audience. We want to give our current audience the space
where they are comfortable. And we want a platform where we can experiment with different views
of both comments and stories. It's not an either/or. It's going to be both. If we haven't communicated
that well enough, consider this post a first step to fixing that. And in the meantime, we're not sorry
to have received a flood of feedback, most of it specific, constructive and substantive. Please keep it coming. We will be adding more specific info here in the days to come.
Exactly. If they were really listening they would just stop doing what they're doing. Instead of just plowing forward pretending to listen.
You misunderstand. Slashdot is not a site about stories and/or links. It is about the comments and only about the comments. Nobody gives a sh*t about the articles themselves. Mess with the comments, then you mess with the user-base.
The Dutch will inherit the earth. If not, we'll settle for a bit of ocean. Beta delenda est!
I just tried to cruise the comments section using the beta, and that is where things are the worst. There is no quote parent button, and it made me copy and paste the reply title by hand. There is no link to get a permanent reference to a single comment. Comment text does not show bold or italic. Quoted text is merely italic, but not indented or anything.
The mixture of serifed and sans-serif fonts feels disorganized, and does not seem to serve a clear purpose.
Comments are the heart of Slashdot, and the current beta offering is not complete. It is more of an alpha... functionality is woefully inadequate.
Curated articles are what set Slashdot apart from hive-thought sites like Reddit. Keep the articles unique and on topic, that is why I visit.
I wouldn't say it sucks in EVERY way. It does seem to work better on my tablet, except for when I login and have to expand every single comment to read it. Hence the reason I am posting anonymously, I wouldn't be able to read the comments if I logged in.
That said, I do think it sucks overall.
BoogeyOfTheMan
OK. Ok. First a disclaimer - I have not even looked at the Beta. Now, onto my observation - at a company I worked at we took the existing UI for a massive product and wrote a new UI from the ground up. Sent to evaluate it my overall comment was - it is NOT ready. However, so much time and effort was put into it that it was moved out to production anyway, over my protests. ALL the customers stuck with it did not like it, bug reports ballooned out of all control, and we spent the next year and a half fixing problems while our credibility was hit REAL hard.
On the other hand, the change was needed in the end, it did provide a lot more flexibility, allowed for new features that could not be done in the old one, and it looked snazzier.
However, the lesson to take here is that if it not ready, do NOT push it out anyway. We had a basically captive audience due to the nature of our software. We should have taken that extra 6 months to a year to iron things out. Slashdot does not have a captive audience. Please keep that in mind. Do NOT release it until it is at least as good as the current system - no matter how long that takes (or how much it hurts to keep spending on it).
I may not have a 4 digit id, but I have a 5 digit one. Please listen to the voices of experience here.
In honor of you posting recognition of today's complaints, I've posted this using the beta. Even if some consider it pro forma at this point, here are some specific complaints:
1) "Oops! You do not appear to have javascript enabled. We're making progress in getting things working without JavaScript." Glad to hear it. No one should be "migrated" so long as javascript is mandatory.
2) White space and wasted space. Enough have made detailed complaints about this, so I'll just register my chagrin. I will say this: the people who come to this site are used to, indeed prefer, a denser presentation of information. This includes the text editor, which is absurdly restrictive on the x-axis.
3) Font size. Perhaps this falls under wasted space, but it's atrocious enough to deserve its own comment.
4) Incomplete summaries. Waste less space and use as much of the old summary as "Classic". (I recognize the drop-down menu allows one to switch between "Standard", "Classic", and "Headlines", but this, again, requires javascript. What is more, Standard adds nothing. Changes shouldn't be made for the sake of changing something. A change should be an improvement.)
5) Absurd margins on the right.
6) Obnoxious or irrelevant photos. We're literate here. Many of us read books that go on for hundreds of pages without a picture. We don't need pictures added like some security blanked.
7) Load more? The old system gave preference to higher modded comments but did not require that you filter for higher comments to see them. Of course when there are a great many comments, a load more button is useful. But such a button should not be obscuring high ranked comments within moments of an article being posted.
8) I just found another as I went to "Preview Comment." Why does the p tag produce what looks like four lines of white space?
9) Above all, all changes should be subjected to this test: Do they get in the way of the conversation? Do they make it harder to scan through the conversation, looking for interesting comments. If so, they are not improvements. They detract from the reason people come to Slashdot.
The formatting matters are some of the most obvious and often discussed. They should also be the easiest to fix.
Slashdot lacks Unicode support due to past vandalism.
I was shocked at how little information is viewable. I have two nice wide monitors, but they've designed the site as if I had dug my 800x600 CRT out of some 3d world recycling operation to replace my LCDs.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
The beta site feels like the kind of place where one would expect hear "We only support Windows, Mac, and Linux with current IE, Chrome, or Firefox".
let's take a moment to reflect on what Slashdot HAS run on over the years.
Here are just a few screen shots I have handy:
Amiga
http://toastytech.com/guis/ami...
BreadBox (GeoWorks)
http://toastytech.com/guis/bbe...
BeOS
http://toastytech.com/guis/b5p...
QNX 1.44MB demo floppy:
http://toastytech.com/guis/qnx...
MacOS 7.5.5
http://toastytech.com/guis/mac...
OpenStep:
http://toastytech.com/guis/ope...
Lynx:
http://toastytech.com/guis/tex...
Windows NT 3.51 (this actually shows a version of SeaMonkey modified specifically to view current Slashdot correctly!)
http://toastytech.com/files/Se...
You dial 1-510-4PERENS. Email is probably better, though. bruce@perens.com .
Bruce Perens.
They also censored all signatures that slammed Beta, mentioned a boycott or encouraged a protest. That level of manual censorship tells me that they have no intention of making any real changes and hope to placate users into sticking around.
Thanks to ElectricTurtle's new signature, at least now I know there's a "Slashcott" next week. I might not wait until then... While it's their website and their right, Ifind censorship of this particular variety near-intolerable.