Slashdot Mirror
Help Bandwidth Starved Slashdot at LinuxWorld
We've been working on getting to LinuxWorld in march.
We've bartered banner ads for most of what we
need to make the journey, but we've recently confirmed
that we need to pay big bucks to get bandwidth on the show
floor. If I can't read my email & post stories, I can't go,
and that would be tragic since I haven't
left the house in almost a month *grin*. We want 3 IPs
and it looks like thats gonna cost like $1600 (apparently LWCE
thinks we're going to be distributing porn from the show).
If you can help, email Hemos.
We'll gladly swap banner ads on Slashdot. If you just
want to advertise on Slashdot, you should contact hemos about
that too- Last week we averaged over 400,000 pages a day-
We actually served 506,000 pages in one day. We've grown
about 20% since the T3 was installed and since we pay bills
by the mb/s, our bandwidth costs are gonna increase at the end of
the month. So if you want your ad to be seen by thousands
of geeks and help make sure we can post stories from LW,
help flood Hemos's inbox. PBS Telethon mode off.Update: 02/01 01:37 by H :Thanks to everyone who wrote in-we've got it taken care of.
I'm surprised that Slashdot has made it this far. How is that ramen treating you, Rob?
I think a solution worth exploring is charging membership fees. Though openess is vital, there is nothing wrong with charging fees for exclusive value-added services.
Slashdot could tighten up its software, expand its featureset and charge for access. I'd pay. Give me a button to filter out all the Anonymous Coward posts and you'll get $30/year from me.
Slashdot should focus on building a community now that they are such a popular resource. All communities have characteristics of exclusivity (there is no such thing as a global community) and Slashdot should decide what their's will be.
Let people use the "plain jane" resources for free but ALLOW the community members to support you. I want to pay Slashdot to improve the on-line community that I am a part of... but I CAN'T. I have no reasonable mechanism to give Slashdot money. Don't even bother saying I can just send them a cheque. That is just plain stupid because I get no guarantee, not even a simple promise, of how it would be spent. If Slashdot offered 'member services' and charged membership fees then I would have a structure by which I could contribute and finacially support my community.
take it from someone who use to run a BBS, you almost never (there are some genuenally nice ppl with too much $$ out there) get a donation without offering someting in return. I know thousands of people read this page daily (I am one of them.) Offer us something. say $10 gets us e-mailed all the nitty grity from the conferance, say 1hr BEFORE you post it ;) just something back for our money.
Just my $0.02
Jeff Cameron
jcameorn@geocities.com
Yes, I would assume that if they collected membership fees they could improve the usability of the web site interface.
I have an ID but I never login. It is far too much of a hassle and at this point Slashdot actually impedes the development of community so why bother telling people who you are?
Yahoo and Amazon are flukes. Their stock is outrageously overpriced and way over-valued. They have yet to make a profit and are terribly under capitalized. The stock will come down to a normal level and a lot of ignorant people will lose money.
I have a wireless modem (up to 28.8 kps) for loan. The modem get one dynamic IP
address from Ricochet at each dial.
The dial-up and connection time are unlimited and no cost.
Let me know if this helps.
Charles Liu
Universal CD-ROM (Linux reseller since 1994)
www.bigmall.com
Come now. Slashdot !successful? You are a moron.
How do you define community?
/.
/. community does is have an interest in "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." and post stories and/or comments. Or, just reads them and never comments.
People who read and/or post on
What I see here at Slashdot doesn't fit my definition of community.
Why not? If a group of people get together on a regular basis at the local park/library/whatever to do something but they don't pay a fee, are they a community?
That something that the
Did you even know what "This Page's Threshold" means and what the "Up One" and "Down One" links do? Get a clue.
Your twisted.
come on people! three ips? there's this thing called Linux, and among other things, it lets you masquerade three ip addresses behind one, thus saving you money. just throw up some ol' pentium100 box with a 1.44mb drive and two nics. grab a Linux Router Project bootdisk from sunsite and save yourself a few (hundred) bucks.
I wonder why he needs so much money? Especially if slashdot is getting 400,000 visitors per day. Lets do the math:
20CPM (Lets say Slashdot gets $20 for every 1000 ads served, a very conservative estmate for ad rates. ZD charges 2 to 3 times that sometimes.). .
400,000 ads per day (to the main page alone, not counting the additional ads served looking at the comments, surveys, and other things on this site.)
That's (potentially) $8,000 per day from ads!
That's $240,000 per month.
Per year for slashdot: $2,880,00
For a site so dedicated to standards, following RFCs, and non-comercializing the net, it seems like the .org isn't apprporate. Maybe I'm wrong, but i could have sworn that .org was for non-profit orginazations only, just like .edu is for schools and .gov is for government. Why not call it slashdot.edu? Same difference, right?
Count me out for donating money. But you're welcome to come to our booth to check your mail and update the site!
That statement alone makes me laugh. Why don't you dig a little deeper. What is their market capitalization? Are they allowing dividends? Financial statements are manipulated to give people like you what you want. The real truth must be sought after and researched. Blanket statements like, "The balance sheet shows a profit, so the company is in great condition." show a lack of understanding of finance and accounting.
Maybe I'm wrong, but i could have sworn that .org was for non-profit orginazations only, just like .edu is for schools and .gov is for government.
/.'s use junkbusters and don't even see the adds to begin with.
There are a hell of a lot of companies that are non-profit and make tons of money. A large percentage of hospitals are non-profit, and you don't think they make money? Just because you make money does not mean that you can't be non-profit. You can even make more than you spend and still be non-profit. There are just limits on what you can spend the money on (no dividends for non-profits IIRC, and generally, no stock per se).
And, may be I'm wrong, but I thought you only get the revenue if someone clicks on (i.e., clickthru) the ad. I'd also guess that a lot of
Rob,
Why the heck do you *NEED* three IPs in order to log in from the show-floor, and check your e-mail?
If that is all you need, then a simple hookup with a laptop, a modem, and possible leeching some bandwidth off the occasional vendor should do it.
Unless you want to run the slashdot server off the showfloor (a most unwise idea), I don't see where this crisi originated from, and why you *need* these kind of resources.
An explanation besides "I need to check my mail" would be a good idea.
Harry
(Too lazy to loog in)
Why not use a cookie? That is a retorical question right? Just in case it ISN'T retorical:
I wipe cookies every five minutes
I usually have cookies disabled
I categorically opose the idea of cookies
Right now it isn't WORTH logging in with my account. That's the point I'm trying to make. There is a lot here that promotes community building but there is a lot that doesn't. I can't be bothered to put my name to a post... that in itself is a problem isn't it?
You did say you were going to be naked at ALS.
I think LWCE just thinks you are going to be taking the next logical step.
Well gee... Somebody give me $1600, and ill post some stories too. You mean to tell me, that the T3 this thing is running on ISNT making anybody any money??? Yeah, all this namby-pamby "everything should be free" movement is fine, unless you are the one footing the bill for the T3.
This is the perfect time to sell out to the man, and start making money off this thing... But dont count on any of us to pay you for this. Nobody is paying to use Yahoo! or Excite!(sucks!), and yet those stupid bastards are rich..
As soon as Slashdot gets to a point where ad revenue can make or break the community then the users won't matter anymore.
A think a better solution is to look for ideas that involve decreasing ad based revenue and generating revenue from community members. If I pay for it, I control it. If ads pay for it, ads control it.
Think of a 'paid for by ads' Slashdot a year from now... with nasty little features built-in for not purpose but to assist the Ad owners.
I want a community centered around community interests not the interests of those, outside the community, that want access to community members!
I think they have un program which give a percentage to the site from which the buyer came, I will gladly buy a book from them to help /.
Khalid
I saw an ad for LinuxWorld in a "PC World" magazine actually. I don't think its LW's problem.. showrooms cost $$$. 3 IP's is total BS. A good dialup account (hell, just get a $20 33.6 modem and setup Linux to answer the phone.. then you get free inet for long distance charge) is all you need. You shouldn't have more than 5 megs of email anyways. How about boycott slashdot.. if "I need to check email" is the best reason for 3 IP's and T1/T3 access.
You are an asshole. Get a life. This is a Geek news site, not a corperation. The "profit" that slashdot makes keeps this place alive enough that we can all continue to enjoy its services.
I enjoy this site the way it is, and I think it's run beautifully, and if CmdrTaco wants to ask me for acouple bucks so that I can shake his hand at Linux World then I'll gladly join in.
And if you don't want to help out this site, then ***k you and your business.
I'm starting to agree with the anti-LinuxWorldExpo sentiment I've been seeing. I've never been to a Linux conference, and there are certain events (e.g. Darryl Strauss's 3D on Linux talk) that I would greatly like to attend. But it does seem that the organizers of this event are completely clueless.
Case in point: I went to the web site today, fully prepared to pay the $75.00 for one day of tutorials. Whipped out my credit card. Realized that the form for credit card entry is NOT SECURED! WTF!? A conference designed for a leading web server platform, with a user base acutely sensitive to issues of privacy and security, asking you to send your credit card number over the internet with no protection whatsoever!?
Combined with the other issues that have come up with regards to this conference (not paying speakers' traveling costs, overcharging for exhibition space, etc.) I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion that I just don't want to support this event with my money. I certainly don't begrudge anybody making money off of an event like this, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the prices for conferences in general are inflated because typically they represent a relatively small expense for the large organizations that need to pay them. While this may be okay for the ComDex scene, it strikes me as antithetical to the spirit of the Linux and open source communities.
I realize I might be wrong about this. I'd love to become convinced that what I've said isn't true and that the costs associated with this event are not artificially inflated. Anybody with a deeper understanding of the economics of trade shows care to comment?
- posting anonymously because I forgot who I am...
Donating money to /. just to see it handed over to LW/IDG is plainly silly!
Slashdot is (more or less) non-profit, even if Rob tries to make a living off it.
If LW are dedicated to Linux and the Open Source community in general, they should not try and rob SlashRob in the context.
Either they give access for free, or we're forced to boycot LW in the future.
Once you realize how the real world functions, you make sure to let all of us know you've made the breakthrough.
I think that would be great! Now all of the WHINING CHILDREN will stay away.
Dumb male.
[whole.]
Thats what im saying... Everyone wants a opensource lifestyle. Dammit, i dont want to go back to trading beads for sheep. People (all people) eventually have to do something for money. If you have something that is worth anything to somebody, sell it to them...
Prostitutes do it all the time... huh huh...
Time to cut the umbilical cord from mommy and realize that daddy goes to work everyday, so that you can sit in your dorm and play 'puter.
-Pissed at work
Sorry rob but I dont see your banner ads anymore
Spoon out all the noodles and crap and drink the water. It's a healthy drink.
I bet they make you buy an IP for every computer you have set up.
Erm... do you know _anything_ about stock markets?
/.
Amazon.com are fine now, but what if people start losing confidence and start wildly selling their shares? They will be out of business before you can say "crash!"
This is fine for them as long as people keep betting on future markets and betting on them, but it's not a particularily appropriate model for
AndyM
Cuz all slashdotters do is sit around and complain and cut down people who actually do something..which is why they'll never amount to anything!
I see a URL (blockstackers or some such) and
then another link saying "advertisement."
That's it. I love Lynx at times..
I think everyone can go without slashdot for a few days.... $1600 to read email and post stories is a little steep. The site is great but this is ridiculous. If you need all this money to read email and post stories then why are you even going to it? Just stay home and do all the email reading and posting there. $1600 to sit in LW instead of your house is nuts.
He was looking for companies to sponsor the trip in trade for advertising.
Cachedot is the web-cache version of Slashdot. It's hosted on bbn, and is generally faster than slashdot because slashdot is generally swamped with traffic ;) It's available also from the left linksbar.
You _can_ filter ACs as it stands by setting your limit to 1.
Posted by korto:
i just hope you don't listen to him rob. i know it's very beautifull, that "support" crap. butt do you want a community or do you want a bunch of clients?
Posted by DonR:
Most hospitals are very much in the red. Having worked for a hospitals accounting department, I have seen the books myself. It amazing that 90% of the hospitals are still around.
Just a suggestion here... Is it too hard to make use of some of hte Linux tech that we talk about everyday, and IP Masq?
I mean, if LinuxExpo/World/Con/Assembly whatever is about linux, why not take it even further by actually SHOWING the tech in action instead of just talking about it all the time?
$1600 for 3 ethernet connections is pretty expensive, but so is all the routing equipment, wiring, etc that needs to go in there to provide those connections.
IP masq so you can read your damn email, or go to a cyber cafe for christ's sake, I had a roomie who went up to canada for a week and managed his page and checked his email by going to the cafe across the street from where he was staying...
I mean, this is a worst case, forgetting-the-fact that-you're-at-a-COMPUTER-BASED-EXPO,-dropped-you
-Erik-
If your charged by the megabyte, is cachedot involved with this? I personally only use that site (somewhat faster at times, and with a few more people it would be faster)
Now granted there are problems with it, but I'm sure others would be willing to switch if it saved you money.
Millions were made off the pet rock for a while too. The question is for how long. Now if you have a driect line to God, and you can convince him to give you market advice, keep buying Yahoo and the like until just before it runs out.
I'm not saying that Yahoo is nessicarly a bad investment, just that past results are not indicidive of future success.
No.
Yeah, but how much is that hour or two of electricity costing you? ;>
"Waaaaaaah."
'nuf said.
What the hell? Cookies ain't gonna steal your soul. Get with the program already.
Touche' - good point.
If you look at the bottom of articles, you'll see your threshold. By default it's 0 (zero) meaning that you'll see all posts. If you raise your threshold by 1 (one) you will no longer see AC (Anonymous Coward) posts, which get a rating of 0.
Know the sites you visit.
"Oh no! We have to actually PAY for something!"
Go out into the real world and get out of mom's house and get a fucking clue already. Not everything in life is free - as a matter of fact, most things are not. People out here in the real world have bills to pay and mouthes to feed.
If you're whining about $75 to get in, then don't go. If you can't afford an Ethernet connection to read your Email, too bad - stay home, you have no place in a business conference.
Jesus H. Christ. Enough is enough already.
Waaaaah.
Here's a clue. Go get junkbuster and selectively enable and disable the sites that you accept cookies from.
Fuckin' A.
What the fuck? It's a business conference. They don't want the place filled with freeloading, living at home with mommy script kiddies... It's a place to conduct business. Business involves money whether it's Open Source or not.
The point is to go look at Junkbuster. You can filter who you want to accept cookies from. It's not rocket science.
If you're that worried, go use someone elses computer or stay off the Internet. What's the big deal?
- Slashdot portal - A "portal for nerds: sites that matter" type of site would be sweet and could generate LOTS more advertising revenue.
- Slashdot e-mail addresses - A simple e-mail forwarding service (or even something optionally web-based if you've got the bandwidth) in exchange for a donation would be nice. You could even let people register them under one or more various subdomains (email@contributor.slashdot.org, email@i.support.slashdot.org, email@slashdot.org).
- Slashdot home page redirection - Like the e-mail forwarding above, redirect things like http://username.home.slashdot.org to a URL of the user's choice, or even something like http://contributors.slashdot.org/username. Both of these (email/web page) should be very light on the bandwidth and server load.
Anybody have some ideas I missed? The email address/home page redirection could be done very easily and would certainly give people incentive to donate. With a URL/email like those above, people KNOW you've contributed to slashdot, which is definitely a good first impression.Perhaps you can point me to a web page then? I've done an extensive amount of research into the "risks" attributed to cookies and the common myths and misconceptions. I have an extensive background in HTTP, TCP/IP and the web in general, so I know precisely what cookies can and can not do.
I also subscribe to BugTraq, where security issues (even relating to cookies, rare as they are) crop up and solutions devised. Patches are usually released within hours or days and are applied on my system regularly.
The ONLY conceivable risk cookies present is the ability for "evil" banner advertisement sites to use them to track your viewing habits among the few clients they have that you visit. Now, I'm not going to debate the ethical issues here, but it's sufficient to say that's the only bit of information they will be able to gleam.
Further, some browsers support *selective* enabling of cookies. Lynx does it, and IE has the concept of "zones" where you can list trusted sites (where cookies may or may not be enabled).
I always have cookies enabled. I haven't had anybody come knocking at my door after days of stalking me by way of my browser's cookies. No one has used cookies to break into my PC and steal my credit card number. As far as becoming a "statistic" and offering my browsing habits to advertising companies, I'd rather see 10 computer/tech-related advertisements than 10 advertisements of mixed content. Of course, I'd rather not see ads at all, but in this case, the cookies are doing me a service (unsolicited as it is). I only give my e-mail address out to reputable companies, so I don't get much spam. I haven't received any increase in either postal mail or e-mail since the invention of cookies.
I think YOU need to forget what the mass media has been hyping and do a little real research yourself as to what cookies are *really* capable of.
That, or point me to a URL or take some of your precious time to explain to me what it is you're so frightened about. Convince me that cookies are evil.
Maybe he *was* saying Slashdot should become a business (a la Yahoo), which I don't necessarily agree with, but Rob could still apply common business models to the way he runs Slashdot to make it easier/cheaper for him.
--
Rob,
:-)
Do some polls. Slashdot is more trusted than ZDNet, News.com, or any other "pretenders to the throne".
Want some money?
Do a few polls saying basically "We need to show who we are so we can charge more for our ads."
You'll find out that Slashdotters control more money than the entire reading audiences of most of the news sites out there.
Then you take those #'s, go to a *real* ad agency, offer them a cut, and let them hawk your ass like it was a Hollywood Actress turned Call Girl.
Have a nice day
Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
You don't really believe that this site could maintain its scope, spirit, and userbase while trying to implement a biz model like Yahoo! do you?
This site is by and for an audience segment which prides itself on being by and for the community, there is nothing wrong with appealing to that spirit for support... some people see the value SlashDot presents as more than how much money Rob makes from it.
Not to say there isnt room to make money here, but I dont think it will be in the tradition of the few over-hyped IPOs that have actually suceeded until now.
Slashdot.org was registered before the ads started. Some dorks already own slashdot.com, slashdot.net, hell even slashdot.cx has been grabbed... So at this point it's not really possible for Rob to get slashdot.com (hell, I'd pay the $70 for two years for him if it were possible to get the domain)...
Whatever happened to that idea of setting-up an email forwarding service, so that whoever wants to can get their own custom @slashdot.org address in exchange for a $50 bucks donation? Last time I heard that, most people involved in the discussion were pretty much in favor.
Later.
Problem: the kind of content on this site is tough to distribute. But that could be done.
I can provide a mirror in France if you want.
What do you mean, you AREN'T going to distribute porn? What the heck fun is that? And here I thought of you as some kind of geek college guy, but obviously you are just a poser.
I mean, if money is a problem, it sure seems like porn is the answer. Right? This could bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "They got slashdotted."
Prude.
pfffffftttttttttt
-- KimBoo, being a badddd girl.....
"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." -- Collette
Cash flow is an issue for any business. If you need it, get a loan, or get a revenue model. The ".org" in the url is a misnomer and you know it. I think canvasing "users" for "donations" to run your business is a fairly inept way to run this site.
Bite the bullet - hire a business person who knows how to generate some revenue. That's why Amazon and Yahoo are where they are today.
If you prefer poverty, stay on your present course.
Have you bought a stock in the last twenty years? Dividends? This isn't GM we're talking about.
Ah...elitism is always so refreshing. Are you trying to say that Slashdot has become a victim of it's own success?
- dria
Man, it would be hard to act any more pompous...but then again, why are you spending your precious time reading my message??
joedoe
If all you want is to read email and post stories, do you really need direct floor access? I would think that a dialin with a 33.6 modem would be sufficient for that.
:) with a cellular modem--at least you'll still have it after the convention is over.
Is having three IPs for a couple of days really worth $1600? The big businesses who will be attending can afford to eat that cost...you can't. Heck, if you're so dead set on spending $1600, get a new laptop (and join the Windows Refund Day people
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Decide for yourself. Follow the criteria given for evaluating investments, in the Motley Fool's 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly. Apply them to Yahoo and see how well it stands for yourself.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Hey, I never said whether I agreed or not that Yahoo was or wasn't a good investment. I haven't taken the time to apply those criteria; I don't know whether it is or not. Sure, lots of people have made money on it...but what goes up must come down, sooner or later.
People need to make informed decisions about where to invest and how--not just guess based on past performance. Look at the numbers--all the numbers--and read analysts' reports, and make sure you know what you're doing. Otherwise, you might as well go to a casino and put the whole thing on the roulette wheel--you're doing the same thing by playing in the stock market, and the stock market usually doesn't give you free booze while you're doing it.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I think people are missing the point. Why should slashdot have to pay $1600 for IP's . How many people would have even heard of LinuxWorld if they didn't read about it on Slashdot? (better poll question than the one today)
Basically I have heard enough complaints about the LW conference that I think all linux people should boycot the whole damn thing.
PS. Malda what the hell do you want 3 IP's for? Get one and then do IP masq. for the rest.
I would not know Linux World exists if it haddn't been posted to /. Further I visit /. 4 times more often than I visit any other site on the web, including my own.
/. more valuble than Linux world.
Granted I don't need slashdot, but since it is here, it is almost my exclusive link to the linux world. And I find
The linux community is very different from any other business community in existance. LW is making prohibatively high access fees to this conference. $1600 for 3 IP addresses? How is that even vaguely related to the cost of the service?
tweet! BAD GEEK, NO JOLT.
/. is never a p--, a p----, a p------,
I sure hope
portal. Sheesh. It's even hard to say that.
phred@sunlight.portland.or.us
-------
Bill Gates Is My Evil Twin.
just that past results are not indicidive of future success
Huh? Actually, past results most certainly are indicative of future success. Anyone who believes that dumb, cover-your-ass, nihilistic attorney-speak mutual fund tag-line to the contrary is by definition going to pick investments at random.
Market leaders tend to remain market leaders, which is why Yahoo is so highly priced today -- it's the best bet for continuing success as an Internet medium. The day Yahoo goes away is the day the stock collapses. Yahoo ain't going away.
I think if you're going to ask people to donate a hefty sum like 1600 dollars they are at least entitled to know why you need 3 IP's. Why not just 1, or why not another option like cellular modem? You could do an aweful lot with $1600, is there a specific reason 3 IPs are needed instead of another option?
Given the often Linuxcentric nature of this site, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt they know what IP Masq is. I'd like to know though why that isn't an option they'd consider.