Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Acquired by Andover.net
Slashdot keeps growing. The overhead and costs associated with running this beast has become astronomical. Hemos and I work marathon weeks, and there still isn't enough time to get everything done. There are always banner ads needing selling, stories needing posting, perl needing hacking, and readers with questions needing answering. Besides that, our single channel ISDN connection is awfully saturated, and the "Business" work of running this website is beginning to be nearly as much work as the "Website" part of the site.
We had 2 options: get cash from some investors and hire a staff, or or find a company that we felt understood what we wanted to accomplish here, and use their money to hire help.
Hiring our own staff would mean hiring suits and marketing people. We decided that simply being acquried would allow someone else to worry about the suits and marketroids- we would simply benefit from their existing business infrastructure, and we could concentrate on what we already know how to do: Run a website.
What do we intend to do? Well for starters we'll be able to pay several of the guys who have been volunteering their time for so long. Plus, we'll be able to hire people to help sell banner ads, and the administer the servers, and maybe to debug code. Basically, a support staff so that Hemos and I can simplify our lives, and Slashdot won't have to depend on us 24/7. And we have new things that we want to do on Slashdot, so offloading tasks from me will us to focus on other things that we want to do around here.
We'll start doing things like content mirroring. We'll have more servers, and hopefully soon servers will pop up on each coast. And we'll be able to have experts help pull it all together. The end result will be a faster, more stable Slashdot.
Why Andover?We talked to several companies: Some that you've heard of, and some that you haven't. We were looking for a company that would guarantee us complete and total creative control, but provide us the financial resources necessary to expand Slashdot in the way we consider best "right". And whoever became involved, they had to be "Outside" the linux/open source world to a certain degree: we didn't want anyone to think that a company might buy us simply to gain an advantage in the story select.
Andover is good for that- they aren't a "Linux" company - they run Linux, and they read Slashdot, but they don't sell a distribution, or Linux boxes, or anything related to Linux . In fact, we've only mentioned them on Slashdot a couple of times in the past.
Best of all- they're smart guys. They understand what Slashdot is, and they respect that they can't change it without destroying what it is. So they are happy to guarantee (it's even in the contract!) that Hemos and I would retain full control of the site, while taking advantage of their business resources to take care of that icky part of running this monster. To guarantee that, I've also been appointed to the Andover.Net board. (I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to wear a tie)
What is AndoverA Media Company. An internet company. They run websites. Sorta like Earthweb or Internet.com. All of their existing sites are done essentially in-house. They have several sharp hacks over there and I'm looking forward to working with them. They also have top notch guys-with-ties, and a real keen grasp of where things are going in this business.
Conclusion I couldn't be more excited about this. I finally will have the ability to expand Slashdot the way I want to. I'll have the ability to pay people that have been volunteering hundreds of hours of time to help. And I have complete control over Slashdot's future, without the financial burden that has been growing over the last year. This couldn't be better for Slashdot, and I hope I haven't offended anywone to bad. We fundamentally will not change anything, we'll just have a better infrastructure to do what we've always done.The final cool part of this is that I get to say thanks to you guys. Most of what we're getting is a piece of Andover.Net. And after I pay off my student loans and Hemos pays off his credit cards, we want to make sizable donations to some causes that we think are important. This seems like the best way for us to give back to the community that made us successful.
- The Free Software Foundation - How can we not give back to them for making so much cool stuff possible.
- Debian - I love Debian. I just want to make sure that they keep going strong. Debian's success is critical to the future of Linux. Besides, I wanna make sure that my apt-get command gets the newest version of everything cool.
- Project Gutenberg - Keeping books online and making them available to the world is important.
- The Macatawa Area Community Network - They give free network access to our hometown. They were the original home of Slashdot- and they let us keep it there for several months even when we were saturating their T1 every afternoon.
- Hope College - We both graduated and we want to set up a scholarship or something there. I want it to be for a "Hot Chick Going into CompSci" but we'll have to see if they'll let me do that...
- Foresight Institute - So hemos is obsessed with nanotech. He wants to give them money in exchange for a campbell's soup can of nanites He's wierd, but hey.
We're happy about this, but I know not all of you will be. To those of you who think I'm wrong, I'm sorry. I really believe that this will allow me to make Slashdot into something even better then it is today, without sacrificing what it already is. Its been a crazy ride so far, and now its only going to get crazier.
If you want to contact jeff or I, you can email malda@slashdot.org or hemos@slashdot.org. We'll try to respond, but I suspect we're going to get flooded, so be patient.
Update: 06/29 02:12 by CT : Just FWIW, this has no effect on the Slash source code release. It will still be released whenever I have time to work on it. In fact, hopefully now since I'll have some help around here with the sysadmin stuff, I'll be able to focus on it some more...
So, is Andover gonna buy a T1 for you guys? That's what you need, a T1 at home....
matguy
Net. Admin.
matguy(.com)
If I'm not mistaken, www.freshmeat.net has dynamic mirroring already up and working. Helps out a lot on peak traffic hours.
Wah!
Hope that clears it up.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
May your Slash code be bug-free,
May your bandwidth be plentiful,
May your stories be good,
May your future be geekful,
May your time be valued,
May your your efforts be valued,
May Anonymous Cowards become understanding and wise,
May Slashdot become a beacon in the world,
May Rob and Jeff never wear suits,
May future geeks with a really cool idea hold you up as role models.
Best wishes for Slashdot as its business end grows more and more successful.
Thanks to CmdrTaco and Hemos for what they've done. Keep up the good work.
I cannot, on the other hand, readily choose my own gender. That was something handed down to me from my genetic structure. The same way with my ethnicity, my eye color, and my big feet.
I should not be discriminated against for my gender. Isn't that the basic tenet of the so-called "feminist" movement? As for the lack of women in the CS field, that's not my problem. If women in general don't want to be CS majors, fine. There is nothing holding them back from joining the ranks. Any woman who wants to be a CS major can do so, and the addition of yet another women only scholarship in the field won't induce any more to join.
Let me emphasize this: I am not against women in Computer Science. In fact, I think I'll repeat that. I am not against women in Computer Science. Or in any field. I'm all for equal rights. Sometimes, though, I wonder when the door will swing the other way, providing equal rights protection for both genders.
The subject line says it all. I'm expecting huge GeoCities-type banners littering the site proclaiming Andover or anything else they want to push.
Okay, first up, congrats to CmdrTaco/Hemos... I've been a LONG time reader, and this site rocks.
Second: your jock argument: umm.... NO.
A jock gets a scholarship because they ACCOMPLISH something. I am not saying I find it all that meaningful, but they DID SOMETHING. ie. practiced enough to get good at a sport.
Giving a person a scholarship due to their gender is hardly the same. The person in question did not ACCOMPLISH anything, other than being born that gender.
Not that I'd be against more hot chicks in CompSci... lord knows we need them. But still, your argument is fundamentally flawed.
Besides, I'd rather see scholarships given on merit.
-[Blaine]- "'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
Yes, and I click on them every time I see them. If they're that stupid, they deserve to lose their money, especially to /.
It's not about the possibility that more money could have been made. It's about not having taken a vacation for over two years, and working 70+ hours per week. We're not business people, and didn't want to swim with the sharks (VCs). We're happy-and we've got control.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Yeah, you're right. Only .EDU has restrictions on obtaining a domain...
*ahem*
I'm looking for a job...
Why aren't you rich?
It's very easy to play the backseat driver role and tell others that they should hold out so they can be rich. The days of net startups making zillions are fading fast.
Do you want to feed Rob until he's rich?
I didn't think so.
I couldn't find it right off, so I've contacted the company to see if they're under a parent. If you know, give. Otherwise, I'll post when I do.
Yeah, it's kind of sad, but I could use the cash.
--
(sourceCode == freeSpeech)
Posted by Mike@ABC:
Slashdot must be overloaded, so I can't read a lot of what other folks are saying. But I still want to congratulate Rob and Jeff for pulling off a great deal.
Believe me, getting a white knight to come in, hand you serious bucks, and cede complete creative control to you is NOT an easy task. There are plenty of Internet start-ups that would kill for your secret, boys. That's a pretty incredible feat, and I'm glad you two will remain at the helm of this incredibly useful and interesting site.
And for all those who might be tempted to cry "corporate stooges" (you know who you are), get real. Producing a solid site with interesting content is an amazing challenge, one that leaves little room for hobbies, outside interests, dating, half your meals, nearly any sleep, and occasional breathing. If this gives Rob and Jeff creative freedom without worrying about suit-work, then more power to 'em.
OK, enuff ego stroking, guys. Now we get to hold Slashdot to a higher standard -- you have Andover's money to burn, after all!! Good luck.
Congrats fellas! ... perks :)
You did forget one thing though.
You simply can't make life easier by jumping
into the corporate world and offloading work.
You need a clip-on tie or two before things simplify any!
Oh, and be on the lookout for words like dress down Friday and free lunch
You don't get it do you?
Translation: You guys sold out so I'm leaving. Wah!
Fine! Leave! Nobody's twisting your arm to make you stay.
How much time and money do YOU have to devote to what was basically a second job? The Slashdot crew has been devoting TONS of time and money (their own) to this project for YEARS.
If you'd wanted it to remain solely financed by Rob and the gang, you should have been sending them weekly checks to help pay expenses for them. Everybody should have.
If you don't like what has pretty much become a necessity for the Slashdot crew, fine. Stop making it out to be something it isn't.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
per Bob 'Ethernet' Metcalfe.
I didn't know we were all squeezing in thru a single B channel...
For Internet stocks, there's bound to be profits in promoting Software that Doesn't Suck®
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
As long as we work for Andover-which is three years. And since Rob has a board seat as well, even if we work for ourselves again, our IRON MAILED FIST (Er...) will still be felt.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Thanks for all the GNUs News.
Keep up the good work!
I can confirm, yes, that Rob Malda is a dupe. It's my Great-Aunt Edith that actually runs the site. We hired "Rob Malda" off the street.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Hey, you guys have coasts. :)
Yes, there will be mirrors coming to Europe, as well as more European posters.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
I can't speak as eloquently as Hemos and CmdrTaco but what the f*#k can anyone say against Hemos and CmdrTaco? Its their web site, they have given you everything they can and yet some of you bite the hand that feeds. Don't read anymore if you don't like it. Its just like America - if you don't like the way it is or run, then get the fu*k out. There are other continents to live on you know? They don't have to have this web site and maintain it like they do. I don't know about you readers, but /. is in the top 5 best web sites in my book, if not #1.
/. readers are kids in high school and/or around the age of 18-20. Most of you don't know what it is like meeting harsh deadlines, replacing hard drives at 2 am in the morning in a mission critical servers that cost about $10k every 15mins that it is down. Especially, when both of your mksysb's don't fu*king work and your backup server is acting up again. Setting up a Coldfusion server tied into a Informix or Oracle database and making sure that secure information on 10,000 clients doesn't get leeked out because of some hacker just fooling around. Or getting charged $10k - $20k for your servers being down too much in a given year(some consulting firms get charged this). That you have to re-cable and re-punch down about 400 ports because some dumb idiot cut the wrong data lines. Don't give me any crap about "I run a web server out of my home/co-locate, I know how it is." Bullshit, that doesn't constitute you as being a professional sys admin or web admin. Unless your site is raking in $1 million a year or more in sales, then I am sorry for bad mouthing.
Take no offense to this people but alot of
In all I want to say is CmdrTaco and Hemos have done the right thing. You can't do everything yourself. Sometimes you need help. Plus, they can do whatever they want to. I understand how much blood, sweat, and tear goes into a site like this. It's not easy being a professional IT person, alot of stress, long hours, alot of information to take in and learn, ALOT of responsibility esp. when your loosing money, very little social/free/vacation time if your the only one that knows how to run and fix everything. But in the end, its worth it because its what we love to do.
2 things though for Hemos and CmdrTaco:
1.) Please no GOD DAMN popup banners. I don't mind banners on the page.
2.) Don't ever let anyone take/buy your pride.
I know of several hot chicks who would probably code circles around you. Regarding cooking and cleaning, these are basic survival skills that most of us (maybe not you) mastered as children. Regarding blowjobs, you are obviously very accompliushed in this area. This is a skill that I don't have and don't care to learn.
AOL Staff members use addresses on aol.NET, although I am sure that Andreesen also haas a .com.
/.'er would know this...I use to live in Faifax VA about 10 miles from AOL...I know a few of those people.
You might ask why any self respecting
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
So...what will Slashdot be running on in, say, a year from now? Now that you're backed by some money, will you step up to the web platforms preferred by the big boys (i.e., Apache or Netscape on Solaris or IIS on NT)? I can't wait to witness the thread in which _that_ decision is announced! ;-) Mmmmmmms...
Many congratulations on your new wealth and thanks for showing once again that the American dream is alive and well.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
I bet we would all love that!
/. on NT I mean VMSjr I mean Windows 2000"
M$: "Mr. Gates feels it will be in your best interest to run
newton62 (56617) Karma: Bad
Where are the equal rights when you need them?
Good stuff Rob!
Left shift 1 for e-mail...
So when will the Great Renaming occur? Too bad you cant be just "slashdot" without a top level domain.
Good luck! Watch out for the PHBs.
Mike
Like the post says, as well, we've got creative control. Moderation is going to stay exactly the same, as our banners. And we're hiring the people for stories, so you can look forward to more of the same.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Rob, I think it's great. You started all this, and it's your baby. I'd say 'our baby' since the community does make slashdot what it is, but like the linux kernel, we need a point of control.
I'm glad you were willing to take the jump!
Backtick
What's IPO and what does it mean?
OK, be honest...how many of you just looked to see where you could buy stock in Andover?
Give me a break.
/.
The choices seemed pretty slim to me and I think the guys made the best choice. They continue to control the content without worrying about how to finance it.
Good luck guys and I hope to see a continually improving
Jerry
...as a result of this acquisition decide to change the format of Slashdot. I can't count the sites that were once useful but decided that they needed a ``facelift'' and, as a result, looked glitzier but became almost totally unuseable. IMHO, recent examples of sites that made this boneheaded mistake are InfoWorld and DejaNews.
Slashdot is one of the sites that I visit daily (at a minimum) for my Linux (and other operating system) news and those semi-off-the-wall articles that you don't find anywhere else. I don't want to have to remove Slashdot from my bookmarks web page; it'd be a while before I could find another site that I'd find as interesting and amusing.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
These guys keep coding.
They get paid to do it.
They're still turning over the fruits of their coding to the community at large...for FREE.
RMS would probably be proud that they're able to keep their code free while still making money off it (through implementation of the code rather than licensing).
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
If this means more reliability for Slashdot, then this is good news.
I just hope this place doesn't lose its focus... nice hacker places on the Internet are few and far between.
When IMDB was acquired by Amazon last year, it precipitated a change in look (arguably better), but the service remained the same, which is really what people using the service really want to see.
Congratulations!
--
"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"
When does the beta start ? There will be lots of hot chicks here when they find out about Rob's scholarship fund.
There are NO restrictions on .COM, .NET, & .NET TLDs. So the bottomline is anyone may register a .ORG and use it for anything.
With that said, Andover.Net would be wise to somehow obtain slashdot.com and slashdot.net so as to protect themselves in the future. Slashdot could be considered a common-law service mark and thus would be enforcable. All Andover.Net would need to do in my view is assert their IP rights for Slashdot backed by several decent lawyers and slashdot.com and slashdot.net will be toast. But Andover.Net must act soon while they have momentum and more importantly before time runs out (not practicing due diligence). Otherwise Andover.Net may find itself contending with two similar and confusing websites.
A Women (aka Hot Chicks) in Computer Science fund is a very cool idea. We have a WICS program at our university. Unfortunately, it consists of mostly men (seriously!).
No sig.
I just register a
There doesn't seem to be any clear defn for
OTOH, bravo for Slashdot. I'm beginning to feel the same crunch with my site. Fortunately I'm on two servers, "free lunch, final wisdom" sort of thing and don't have to pay...but man, updating it each day, and with a redesign in the works, plus answering emails...it's like having a toddler around
Thanks for the reply, Jeff. (Yeah, I'd seen "Hemos" around I think a *few* times on /. ;) That's pretty impressive then to have this much attention brought to banner ads vs. cost of the website. I don't know exactly how long /.'s been around, but I've been viewing it for about two years (and I'd imagine its not much older than that), and to have people asking when you're going to IPO after that amount of time is pretty impressive.
/.'ers out there are, too. Keep it real.
If you "sold" Slashdot because it was the only way you could keep it up, good! You did what you had to do. As long as it doesn't turn into a complete sell-out-to-commercialistic-tendencies site, I'm happy and I'm sure most of the other
--
Dave Brooks (db@amorphous.org)
http://www.amorphous.org
You guys have created a great site. I look forward to an even better /.
>But wasn't Andover.net the place that we completely flamed for the really wrong story about Red Hat
Yup, that was the Jack Bryar [sp?] 'Charity Case for RedHat' story a couple weeks ago that was posted over at Andover News.
It was funny tho, I got a couple e-mails that day from someone at Andover.net - they thought the whole situation was funny.
I think Jack's non-Andover e-mail got the brunt of the flames anyway.
Congratulations. It seems like a good decision, and good luck
I hate to grab such a tiny portion of the announcement for comment, but I believe that the bulk of the announcement stands quite well on its own. This was a wise move, and will likely go a very long way at correcting the handful of problems with slashdot that people seem to be most frustrated by. Congratulations Rob and Jeff, and best wishes for continued success.
I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone how insanely cool Project Gutenberg and Michael Stern Hart are. I had the opportunity to meet Michael in Urbana (Illinois) when we delivered the prize money from rc5-56 back in 1997. It was a very rewarding experience to have had a chance to meet and chat with him over pizza and beers. Project Gutenberg are good people, and well deserving of all our help.
Actually more than money, they're always in need of people with access to scanners and some time on their hands for proofreading. If anyone is feeling like giving back to the net, this is a great way to do so.
We've all said it at one time or another: "You can get anything on the net" and thanks to the efforts of Project Gutenberg, the "everything" covers the great classics of literature and some very enriching texts.
Congratulations. It's nice to see hard work pay off.
On the down side, I guess we won't be seeing SLSH on NASDAQ (rats).
Umm... I haven't seen any changes around here... You must be on the *other* slashdot...
How much did they pay ya?
to work for you guys. You need sales folks? Biz Dev? You need admins and payroll, legal and HR? NO PROBLEM! That's the easy part. Finding talented folks like you fellas is the hard part. Good luck with Andover.net. I'm kinda bummed, but not leaving and not stopping the habit of click thru banners 'just because'. Andover are the lucky ones.
Since this is a news for nerds site, do you REALLY want some 300 lb hacker-chick with a eyeglass prescription that reads "bulletproof" to be stripping down in front of you? No. I thought not.
Ewwww. I need to go take a bath now. For some reason I feel dirty.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Yep-we do. Creative Control Clause for us.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
(sorry, no time to log in now, hi mum!)
I like this international thing, kinda.
As Linux grows, Slashdot grows, and people flock having 500 (or 1000) posts and the download (which currently is a bitch) isn't so good.
hmmm...
Slashdot://nz Slashdot://uk Slashdot://asia
Some taylored areas with their own national/area forum... but with high rated posts getting promoted to international placing so good posts get the attention they deserve.
someone care to expand on this? your slashdot want sheet?
When I first read the headlines, my reaction was "Oh Crap! there goes another great site down the drain...." Then I read the article in full and realized that it is a good thing. If slashdot is still going to be the geek site for news the way it has been for years now, then I am all for it. Since Rob and Hemos get to keep all the creative control and do not have to over work their minds/souls to keep the box up 24/7 then I am all for it (not like I have much say-so in it). As long as they keep to keep the site in its grassroots I think that the site will flurish even more than it has.
Then again I have been wrong in the past,
Scott
PS> Good luck to the two of you!
Scott
C{E,F,O,T}O
sboss dot net
email: scott@sboss.net
Scott
janitor
sdn website family
email: scott at sboss dot net
Source will be open. If they fire us, we start dotslashdot. And we had /really good/ lawyers-it's all on paper.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Did Andover takeover^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hacquire Blockstackers or just Slashdot?
If they acquired Blockstackers, do they own Everything too?
They have a
Yeah, I'm that guy.
But it isn't just Linux. And if you have an account, you can choose not to show Linux etc stories on your personalized Slashdot, if this is what pisses you off.
Marketroids value registered users of a website between US$400 and US$1000 each based upon the assorted marketroid statistics. That easily would put the value of /. in the tens of millions of dollars.
I hope that you were paid this well for your awesome work. You definately deserve it!
I remember that (but wasn't it more like Junior year?). I think I voted for him too, but I don't remember for sure. You can afford to waste a couple votes on jokes like that. For me, it was mostly a statement against political correctness. I seem to recall that a major factor (possibly the clincher) for me was that he was also handing out free pencils with his slogan printed on them.
I still think the best ASUC slogan was the BECS (Berkeley Engineers and Cal Scientists?) one from a year or so earlier: "Four out of five BECS candidates own crystallized caffeine."
By the way, I've tried growing caffeine crystals but it never quite worked. Any suggestions?
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
Hi,
Does this mean anonCVS access to slash code sometime this millennium?
Waiting with bated breath,
And may I express my profound gratitude and admiration for Hemos' generous promise of fiscal goodwill towards the Foreskin Institute, an institution of vital import to our future and to the future of free-thinking, technologically-oriented uncircumsized males everywhere.
Eh? What's that?
Oh.
Oh dear.
Scratch that.
**>>BELCH
I work at TI. I've never worn a tie here, and I rarely see anyone ever wear a tie. (Mostly the management up in the stratosphere on the org-chart.)
And as for dress down Friday being every day? Hmm... less see... Tennis shoes, black denim shorts, E3 conference T-shirt and an Intellivision baseball cap. That's what I'm wearing right now in my cubicle, as I peck away at this Ultra 2 while I wait for a simulation to finish.
Who says engineering can't be fun?
--Joe--
Program Intellivision!
Of course I am being dumb. They run an ISDN line at HOME. and a T3 for slashdot ... judging by the response today, they need to run 2 T3s. Hopefully Andover can provide..
Congrats, guys!
/. for years to come, analyzing how a group of hackers in Michigan could become so influential (so quickly) that they are regularly quoted by CNN, Time/Varner, and other long established media franchises. Pretty impressive.
/. team's decision, my only advice is to start your own business. It's a helluva lot of work!
Everyone responsible for slashdot has done an amazing job. I am not resorting to hyperbole when I say that you have made history. People will be talking about
I'm thrilled to hear that you guys now get some time to yourselves. You have earned it.
To those readers who may not agree the
It's easy to say that someone shouldn't have "sold out"; however, most slashdot readers (myself included) have no idea how much running slashdot was costing Rob & Hemeos. For all we know they could've been living off of KD & Kool Aid and working 90 hour weeks, just to break even.
:-)
Besides, who's to say this won't be looked back on as "the move that made Slashdot". There's many ways to making your fortune in this world. Who's to say that Slashdot has to take the conventional route?
It seems to me that Andover.net has the insight not to try and control slashdot. Do you give a position on your board to someone whose prime work you're going to gut?
What Andover.net is giving Rob is the ability to run Slashdot the way he wants to. Without having to worry about selling banner ads, admin the server, and all the other myrad of things that are required in the care and feeding of Slashdot. What Andover.net is going to get is an increase in their prestige ("hey, they're the guys who support Slashdot, they *must* be cool!"), people who have first hand experience in running one of the best websites on the internet (IMHO), and a whole whack of hits on one of "their" websites.
Think about it, it's a good match. Andover.net is a web hosting/maintaining company. Slashdot is all about content. Andover provides the brawn, Slashdot provides the "Brain"
just my $0.02 (or $0.012 US...)
Cmdr & Hemos-
Congrats and best wishes.
Naysayers will bemoan the loss, and criticize the "sellout". Ignore them. This is your project, and it is up to you to keep it one you can live with. With your agreement giving you full creative control I hope Slashdot will continue it's focused, relevant, and occasionally irreverent view of the technology world.
Slashdot is a great place to be, and I for one look forward to watching it evolve.
Dave
-- "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." - R.A.H.
Why? Because your start page will load up faster? Because Rob and Hemos will have time to improve the quality of the site?
...
You may be leaving, but I'll be visiting more and more
Congrats!
/.
One small comment. You said: "hopefully soon servers will pop up on each coast."
How about looking at us poor Europeans. I bet there's lots of us reading
What's right for you is not right for some. The two of them have stuck this out far longer than most people would (years), considering the lack of funds & massive time commitment. How often do you click on the banner ads? If you wanted them to be able to keep it forever, you should have sent them $$. Congratulations on the major achievement Cmdr Taco & Hemos, and I hope /. will now get the recognition and attention it justly deserves. That and all the $$ you need to buy as many toys as your house can possibly hold :)
Here's to the future of the new & improved SlashDot!!!!
Since this is now for profit, you should change your name. Just my opinion.
Hmmm... So Rob announces he sold Slashdot and in the same moment mentions some donations to organisations that everybody likes. Doesn't this seem *quite* similar to what some Bill G. from R. is doing all the time?
Of course, donations are a good thing, but I don't like that connection.
Now that you mention it, what a nice analogy. Still think that selling will "change nothing"?
It was fun... now it is a business.
So it was successful before, now it sucks. That's a lame opinion.
Sooner or later someone is going to wake up and realize that these sites do NOT MAKE ANY MONEY!
Investment. Potential. Look them up.
As to the site makes no money, so? People have made money. A shitload. Several millionaires and a few billionaires by a few sites. People have jobs because of the current economy.
What you are essentially advocating is "no one invest" which would result in the exact down turn which you are predicting anyways. It's a self-fulfilling thought of yours, essentially meaningless. "Don't do this! We'll go into a depression!" Well, if we stop, we *definitely* will. If we don't, who knows.
That will be the day the Nasdaq closes down 90% and more than a few geeks finds themselves in bankruptcy. It will be the new Depression.
Yeah, and we all die because of Y2K or Armageddon around 2000 anyways. I mean, everything good is potentially bad.
Stop fscking with economics you don't understand and buy shit that has no value.
Actually, you've shown you really don't understand the basic principles of investment or economics. Economics is all potential. It's all a figment. If people believe in it like a faith, it works. If enough don't, you see red.
Aside: Is it me, or is it ironic a poster like this even reads slashdot? Things are not as they seem...
$ whois slashdot.com
[rs.internic.net]
Registrant:
Chris Richardson (SLASHDOT-DOM)
806 Arnold Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025
US
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.COM
blahblahblah...
$ whois slashdot.net
[rs.internic.net]
Registrant:
Fotograf Per Alver (SLASHDOT4-DOM)
Branas Hovedgard
Skjedsmokorset, Akershus 2020
NO
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.NET
I get the benefits. Having some money allows a whole bunch more to be done with slashdot. People to help Jeff and Rob, more bandwidth, etc.
:(
If you *read* what I said, what is saddening is that Slashdot is now associated with Andover, and I think that is sad.
As I said, the signal to noise ratio over at Andover is shit, and it just saddens me to see Slashdot associated with that. I won't look at Slashdot the same way any more
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Well, I could see worse alternatives:
:)
"Slashdot Acquired by Politically Correct Union - Anonymous Cowards renamed to 'Differently Identified Courage-Challenged Individuals'"
Good stuff, here's wishing Slashdot and Andover a happy and successful future
*throws rice to the happy couple*
Nothing worth doing is worth doing today.
While posting this reply, I could already feel the need for more servers. Not that the 9 times i received, 'Could not connect to remote server' had to do anything with it :)
/. If all the ACs honestly believe that this is a bad move for /. , then there must be something wrong with all of them. Like Hemos has said numerous times, they keep control of the site no matter who owns it/sells it, etc. What does that mean? A better slashdot because Taco and Hemos have more time--and it will be faster!
While everyone else bitches, i just want to say Congratulations!! I beleive this is a move truly for the better for
Ryan
s/'my brain'/'vmlinuz'/g;
it must be April Fool's Day II. slashdot takeover, Yahoo claiming rights to GeoCities content, "electronic paper" (whatever that is).
Pretty funny guys...
-- "Words are lame and words are crap" - Bouncing Souls
This is excellent news for slashdot and whole linux community. I'm sure lots of new great stuff will come out of this!
Take a look at Andover's advertisers info pages and think again about the probability of "nothing changing".
I don't see what's wrong with some of us geeks wanting to find a mate who we can relate to AND who can win a wet T-shirt contest!
In fact, I think that'd be the ideal way to run the scholarship search. Take the top 10 or so candiates, and whoever wins the wet T-shirt contest gets the scholarship. And this will insure:
Of course, if this testosterone-driven opinion offends anyone, fine. I'll try to live with your disapproval.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I must admit that when I read the headline - I thought it was a cruel hoax. When it sank in that this was true - I got worried. However - after reading your explanation - I just feel that you've taken the nessecary steps to help slashdot and yourselves. You deserve all that's coming to you, especially some rest.
Slashdot needs YOU. You have to do what is best for you, in order to do what is best for slashdot. This is an important fork in the road, I wish you good luck.
[Science] is one of the very few things that raises human life a little above farce and gives it the grace of tragedy.
I have to say this development makes me very worried. My first thought was "Wait a minute, it isn't April 1 already!"
No, I'm certainly not saying "Slashdot will be the next MS" or any such nonsense. Like the all others, I'd like to thank Rob and Hemos for all their hard work. I can most certainly understand their desire to work less, get paid for it, and concentrate on doing the things they like doing. They deserve it. But I don't think congratulations are in order because I don't think it was the best decision. I certainly hope very much that everything turns out OK and my worries turn out to be unfounded, but history is on my side.
I mean, c'mon - how many times have we heard those fateful words "don't worry, *these* suits are OK, and we're guaranteed to have complete creative control." Having "creative control" in your a contract is worthless, as is a seat on the board. Rob can be voted *off* the board anytime the rest of the board members feel like it, and as for contracts - well, who has more money to fight a protracted legal battle, Rob or Andover.net?
I've seen this happen time and time again: bright, cool, creative guys start something neat. It explodes in popularity. Founders get annoyed at all the ancillary stuff and just want to go back to writing code. Founders sell out to suits who *promise*, on their mothers graves, with tears of sincerity in their eyes, that said founders will have Complete Creative Control for as long as the trees grow and the rivers run. And then, two years later, there is a bitter and acrimonious separation accompanied by all sorts of litigation.
Rob, what exactly did you *get* from this deal? A job? You could have gotten one anywhere, but it seems to me that it's all you walked away with. You could have made enough money to retire on and been *actually* guaranteed control. Essentially you took a brand worth a buttload of cash and gave it to someone else for the priveledge of working for them. You didn't even sell out, you just... gave it away? Why give away something so valauable for nothing?
Folks, if you're in this situation, don't EVER work under suits in ANY way. There are no "good suits". Start your own company, and make sure the suits work for *you*. Always. Kick the marketdroids in the ass on a regular basis and remind everyone who runs the show. Put the fear of GAWD into them once in a while and you can *still* spend most of your time coding and yet not have to worry about control, because you have it all. Because suits are sneakier and far more devious than hackers, with their generally trusting natures, are. Suits just smile like that because they're anticipating the delicious look on your face when you realze you have squat, a look like the Indigenous Americans must have had when they realized they sold Manhattan for a bunch of beads.
Oh, it will be OK at first. But here's a potential worst-case scenario: soon enough they will want a return on their (really very small) investment. They will ask you to put in just one more banner ad. Oh, and collect some marketing stats with cookies. And, could you actually run an ad on the sidebar, too? You don't really need all those slashbozes, do ya, Rob 'ol pal? And, oh, we just signed a partnership with foobar.com, could you put a link to them on every page? That's a good boy. What's that? Um, yeah, we were peeking into the registered user database, calm down, it's no big deal. Hmm? You don't want to go along with all this? Guaranteed Creative Control, you say? Bahahaha! Oh, excuse us, we didn't mean to laugh in your face. Well, creative control is up to the courts to decide, isn't it? At last count we had 4 attourneys on retainer, how many did you say you have again? What? A seat on the board? Oh, the board voted you out yesterday, didn't we tell you? Oops, sorry. You're pissed off? You're leaving? Oh, well, too bad, it was nice knowing you, here's your two weeks severance.
So, Rob, Hemos, best of luck. I mean it. But I'm afraid you'll need it, too.
Never trust a suit that says he understands geeks. If he actually did, he wouldn't be a suit.
Doug Linder
dglinder@DEV-NULL-THIS-BITario.ch
I tried mailing iron before, the postage was horrible.
matguy
Net. Admin.
matguy(.com)
CT and Hemos are (talking about) *choosing* to provide scholarships to "Hot Chicks" in CS. If that's what they want to do, great.
What you should be arguing against is government coercion. If the government decides to spend its resources discriminating against a group of people (or in favor of another group of people) then the element of choice has been removed; we're not allowed to decide whether we want to subsidize someone else's education.
I know what number I am(#18) but is there a wau to see what user is ID#1 say or #2, etc...
# Hack the planet, it's important.
I wrote to Rob asking if that was true. I find it difficult to believe you can host the volume of pages that slashdot has over an ISDN line.
;)
This is great news for us SDSL hosters.. it means we can grow bigger than the size necessary to get acquired without moving the linux box out of our bedrooms...
Anyway just to join in and say congratulations.. I hope they dont decide to impose a corporate standard of ASP pages onto slashdot. Does this mean they are hiring now?
-Justin
"Telephone? I can't pronounce it. Why would I invest in it?"
"Electricity is a fad."
"While an interesting curiosity, airplanes will never be strategically viable."
"Entirely too much money has been spent on this thing called science."
"Television will never be commercially viable."
I can't remember all the names, and I know I misworded some of it, but you see the point. Internet investment is not a fad, it's where most business will take place in the near future. Amazon.com isn't pricey because people think it will make money, but because people think that when internet companies start making money, Amazon will know everything about it.
I may be very wrong, but it is my understanding that people who write this way have no actual knowledge of economic trends. I suppose it doens't matter anyway. I don't have enough disposable income to invest with.
--
(sourceCode == freeSpeech)
(except for the bandwidth problems and some of the typos) ourselves, and will scream as loudly as
anyone else if the suits try to screw things up.
But don't worry. That won't happen. Andover has *very cool* management. I can honestly say that in
15 years of writing non-fiction for print and online publishers, they are the smartest media managers
I've ever worked for.
I am writing this as an individual, as a Slashdot reader, and as a Linux user, not as an Andover flack.
And I didn't ask anyone for permission to make this post. Andover is the kind of company that backs its
writers and editors instead of messing with them. If it wasn't, I wouldn't work there myself. And if I
thought they were going to mess with Slashdot, I would have sent Rob a "Don't do it" e-mail before the
deal went through.
Unfortunately few non-CS women think that they should be dating CS majors!! :(
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
They were negotiating, it didn't go well, and suddenly Slashdot started fanning the flames of anti-RH net rage. mmmmhhhh
Funny, we were discussing this at the company picnic... we have our domain at .net, since we are a network, but also grabbed .com to be safe, protect our name, etc. But we didn't get .org because we figured it should be reserved for non-profit... Boy, the times they are a-changing...
:-)
I'm all for free enterprise and such but it burns my butt to see people just grabbing domains by the fistfulls in order to turn a profit later on. (I guess mostly cuz I didn't think of it first...)
Goddess help me seek the truth, but spare me the company of those who've found it.
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
Yeah, it would really suck if Bill Gates inspired people to help each other. God forbid he do anything un-Satanlike. Your "connection" is pretty nutty. I think bill is giving away his stuff because he is realizing he has more money than he'll ever be able to spend. Rob & co are doing it because they like the charities and feel they're worthwhile, etc.
But who cares about the reason? A gift is a gift.
rooooar
Nice try, but Title IX, which has been around for years and years now, mandates equal spending on mens and womens sports. Check out womens soccer for a good example of the effect it's had in out society.
"I have no respect for a man who can only spell a word one way." - Mark Twain
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Posted by Mike@ABC:
As much as Rob and Jeff have poured their blood, sweat and other bodily fluids into creating this site, Slashdot would be nowhere without the readers.
It's in Andover's best interests to keep Slashdot the way it is. If for whatever reason, Rob and Jeff go corporate and the site begins to suck, how many of us would stick around? No one. And Andover's investment turns to crap.
So to all of those who are afraid of the corporatization of Slashdot: just keep showing up, submitting stories, and voicing your opinion. Keeping Slashdot honest will make it more successful, and making Slashdot more
successful will keep it honest. It's a really beautiful loop, once you think about it.
Then I suggest you ask for your money back! :P
:)
It would seem to me that the reason Linux hits the news so much here is because a lot of people here watch for it and send stories in about it. It also seems to be the fastest moving OS around. With it being developed and spread so fast, I'm not surprised it gets that much attention here. But then again, I'm a Linux freak myself, so what do I know
Wired's got an interview with CmdrTaco regarding the sale of Slashdot. It's right over here
rooooar
Somewhat ironic, with the past stories of sites overcomming big business trying to legal strongarm them out of their domain names (ajax.org)and now it may turn the other way, I doubt it though.
matguy
Net. Admin.
matguy(.com)
RMS is probably proud of them -- they're making money and the source code is still free (even if it hasn't been released in a bit too long)
Speaking of /. as if it has already changed and prejudging its future reeks of excessive stupidity...the only reasonable action is to wait and see what changes will occur. Removing /. from your favourites and dropping it as your portal of choice seems a bit premature. It's like saying a movie _is_ the best movie of all time when it's still being filmed and you haven't heard anything substantive about it.
Only time will tell. I hope and feel that the changes will be for the better. If they aren't, _then_ I will leave - not sooner.
The only useful news site on the net
finally gets its due.
good luck.
Well done on the Andover deal. Good luck with it Rob - you deserve to bask in the glory for a while. Watch out for the corporate giant blues - although I reckon you're too smart to have signed a deal that would end up giving you a case of that.
"hmm... I can't image reading Slashdot one day, and seeing on the bottom of the screen, powered by IIS on Microsoft Windows NT 2000(TM).
I guess that also makes Slashdot become the Microsoft portal on the web, featuring the lastest and greatest Microsoft product"
..phew, that was just a pipe dream... I am sure glad that isn't true...
Congrades on Slashdot and Andover.net!
KEEP THE GREAT WORK UP!
I am really happy for you. And I hope hemos really enjoys his nano tech toys geach
Why at Apple we worked 90 hours a week and we liked it! Our only satisfaction was seeing Steve Jobs up at that podium unveiling the first Mac baby! 90 hours a week weeeeeee.
:-)
hehe.
Slashdot probably couldn't have been a tech Yahoo. First of all, Yahoo has so little revenue future that its stock valuation is flat-out insane. It's only a matter of time before investors figure this out and its stock price, and Yang and Filo's millions, go south in a big way. When that happens, the phrase "The Next Yahoo" is going to be the kiss of death.
Secondly, Slashdot is all wrong to be a Yahoo anyway. Yahoo is popular because it helps average Joe netuser get where he wants to go, and does so in a thoroughly user-friendly manner. Nearly everyone who surfs the web visits Yahoo at least once, and a lot of people visit it nearly every time they're on-line. Slashdot, on the other hand, appeals to only a niche market, and it's not terribly user-friendly either. You couldn't sustain a business on advertising, not with the kind of traffic levels that Slashdot currently gets. What would happen, inevitably, is that Slashdot would have to go mainstream, to broaden its appeal and attract more visitors, or else start charging for subscriptions. Is that what you really want?
I'm really stumped at to what you mean by "taking the easy money". Did you even read the whole article, or just the headline? This deal is not exactly making Rob and Hemos rich (And didn't you just say you want them to get filthy rich off Slashdot?). It is enabling them to keep the site running, and improve it in a variety of ways. The money wasn't the point, beyond what was needed to keep Slashdot, Rob, and Hemos alive and happy. It wasn't a "horrible business descision," because it wasn't a business descision at all.
Bravo on a smart descision, guys, and best of luck to you and to Slashdot.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
I think you have done the right thing. I rely on /. so I can spin-audit/reality-check all the computer articles that I publish in our magazine.
Europe, Australasia, first, please?
"no but you see boss, a dotkom means american, they just don't say it because it's the default"
Congratulations.
/. has the content that the suits drool over.
/. and all the spinoffs they create, they get rich as well.
I could see this coming for a long time,
I hope that Rob and Hemos have gotten some share of Andover, so that when Andover makes a ton of money off of
And wear a tie from time to time, it scares the suits into thinking you will become the head of marketing and their future boss. Makes them appreciate you.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
This was a surprise to me, but I don't really think about this kind of stuff.
/.'er # 449
It's nice to see that the comments on this are > 97% positive.
It's also great to see that making money isn't what its all about for Rob, et al.
J4 -
If you don't like it, go get your own servers, host your own community and see what it takes.
/.
Other than what should be a vast improvement to the miserable performance for a site this size, now maybe this might have the added benefit of thinning the heard some, so punks without much to contribute will haul their narrow asses out of
Having an opinion is fine. Being a prick isn't.
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...................
Dave
Posted by The Mongolian Barbecue:
I for one was never against MS for their greed, nor against corporate America in general. Lest we all forget, there would be no cheap PCs, no internet, and no linux without the wintel + apple conglomerate.
No, I hate MS because their code is shit and they prevent consumers from choosing superior products via proprietary standards and other evilness.
Did anyone notice that starting from today /. serving M$ banners?
I don't see anything wrong with the decision made by Slash people. They have worked hard, it is their creation. I , for one, hope that this move will solve bandwith problems so common when accesing slashdot.org
I think this is a good move. And besides.. by its very nature, if things do "go wrong" and the situation gets bad enough, I'm sure there will be lots of people willing to put in effort for an alternate slashdot type site, e.g. 'freedot', 'freeslash', etc.. Of course this would mean the 'community' would be widely divided which is a bad thing IMO.
:-)
But generally I think 'Slashdot' has been quite an impressive project and will continue to be so in the future.. I wonder what this place will look like in a couple of years
- Talence
I plan to plan / Dutch course in The Hague
Check out Rob's evasive responses to WN's
Q's re: Andover's Press Release stating that
Rob is a millionaire. It's in the f-ing press
release, and still he dodges the question? And not
even very artfully--just plays dumb.
Kinda reminiscent of Bill Gate's deposition in
the DOJ trial. Now that Rob is playing coy about the money issue, it will blow up in his face. He should've simply stated point blank: here's what we got. Now it appears as though Rob is hiding something--even if he's not, it's the appearance that matters for a site like this.
Also, I wonder if the lackluster response to Salon.com's IPO last week caused Slashdot to
turn away from the IPO path (obviously it was on their minds). With so much free content on the web, it's hard to make a buck delivering nothing but (recycled) content and message boards. And charging a
cover is out of the question--just ask slate.com.
Slashdot is a great resource and I hope it stays this way. CmdrTaco and Hemos should've simply laid it all on the table right away. Now their circumspect behavior--dodging questions and denying, bill-gates-style, statements that are in Andover's press release--might cause the entire enterprise to crumble.
Course, Slashdot's model is so darn simple that if (when?) Slashdot falls, another site will quickly step in to replace it.
Thats it! no sophisticated tripple points remeark... ;-)
Good luck!
Gilad.
Wow! Someone sure needs to wake up and smell the coffee!
:-)
You figure that no-one can get into a US university without good grades?
Uh-huh. Next, you'll be saying that you can't become an NBA basketball player if you're black!
--
- Sean
It's a fine line between trolling and karma-whoring... and I think I just crossed it.
- Sean
As long as Slashdot stays the same (you can change, just stay the same) it makes no difference to me. It will, however, make a difference to you guys (Rob, Hemos and the rest). Make your lives better by getting paid. Make our lives better by improving Slashdot. All that being said, thanks for what you've done so far
Skippy
"False modesty is the refuge of the incompetent." - The Stainless Steel Rat
Congratulations, Guys. They won't like most of the more rabid posters here, and most of the people here won't like them. Brilliant work.
I'll give ya another year or two before you're old news.
Sorry for the wasted post, but I just wanna wish you good luck, and I promise not to be an asshole and accuse you of selling out. :)
grep -ri 'should work'
Stop fscking with economics you don't understand and buy shit that has no value.
YEAH!! and stop using that worthless "PAPER money"!! come on!! PAPER!!??
Well done. This is certainly good news.
Just one piece of advice from somebody who's been there. Trust the people you delegate jobs to. If you spend your time checking they've done the right thing, or correcting it if it's not done quite the way you like it, you'll lose all the time you just gained.
Keep up the good work.
Nick.
Man it seems like just yesterday I was going to Rob's site to download themes and such for E, and check some news blurbs he would post. Then came Slashdot.. and now this... It's really cool to see a couple of Computer Geeks/Hackers really make it on there own, doing what they LOVE to do. Great News Guys, Congrats and keep up the good work! Rob.
Awesome!
Tons of people out there looking to help :p Are you planning on posting a page with descriptions of who you need and having everyone (egads!) mail their resumes, or do you already have people lined up whom you have grown to trust? While this does seem the logical way to go, it does cut out a lot of other potential people who would love for the chance :p (*cough* *hint* *cough*) ahh well, best of luck with it all.. I have faith that you will keep the site on the right track. enjoy the money and get us some reviews of the hot new hardware thats coming out all the time :p
brian poole aka rajak
slashdot used to be a nice site ...
Then you should try out IJB, from junkbusters.com---it's a GPLd filtering proxy server which will cut out 95% of banner ads given some tweaking. Mail me if you want a suitable config file and my patches to make it mangle pages more efficiently.
"I want to use software that doesn't suck." - ESR
"All software that isn't free sucks." - RMS
I second the idea of European/Asian posters. It will also benefit us Yanks that are up all night hacking away. 24 hours of /. goodness!
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
Umm, at first I thought this was a Segfault piece.
Yikes!
The purpose of a trademark is to identify a company. When I type "IBM" or display the IBM logo, for example, I'm using their trademark.
/are/ IBM, or (ii) if your use gives the owners of the mark a disadvantage. For instance, if I reproduce a Disney image, I could be depriving Disney of revenue.
I don't think trademark infringement happens unless (i) you try to deceive the public by making people believe you
Neither of those applies to Slashdot. I don't see IBM having any interest in not having an IBM logo on this site to represent IBM news. Of course if you put the IBM Logo on your web site to indicate an association with IBM where none existed, you could expect to hear from their lawyers.
Oh - Congratulations to Rob, Hemios et al. I look forward to seeing more great things for you in the future!
D
----
>>For those who don't know, it's >>everything.blockstackes.com.
:)
*ahem...* I think
everything.blockstackers.com
might work a little better
Taco & Hemos and the rest of the Slashdot crew have done a fantastic job of keeping this site up. If y'all think that the Andover acquisition is a good thing and will lead to better content, I'm all for it.
However, I still have to say that I'm a little sad. I know that you have a guarantee of complete freedom to run the site the way you want it, but never again will Slashdot be the little basement operation we've grown to love. Americans and geeks love underdogs, and Slashdot doesn't get to wear that hat anymore.
Feh. Enough of my being maudlin. You guys have a good thing going, and now you have the resources to make it better. Run with it, my boys! Be free like little chickens!
Now the owners of slashdot can go back to smoking crack and womanizing without that "work" thing that always gets in the way.
Oh well, there's always antionline (gag)
News for Nerds
How many people out there do you think qualify as nerds? Of course it's easy to get your sense of proportions all out of whack if you run Linux, read development mailing lists and comp.*, and read UF and /. for news and entertainment. You start thinking that everybody knows how to compile a kernel. It ain't so.
Yahoo and its ilk succeed because they are everyman. Slashdot will never have such widespread appeal so long as it continues to be news for nerds and stuff that matters.
Rather than bemoan /. getting sold thinking that an opportunity was lost, you should be happy that it has been successful enough to be the object of such monetary affection.
Bwhahaha... this implies that Andreessen might have actually been in charge of SOMETHING over at Netscape other than writing his little crystal ball insights on how groupware was going to change the future.
That's great news. I'm glad it's a contractual obligation.
I personally don't mind how Slashdot is run/owned/managed, just as long as editorial independence can be guaranteed. This contractual clause will ensure that. If this new arrangement means a faster and stabler Slashdot, I for one am all for it. Go Slashdot!
i like andover.net's sites they are updated daily and are integrated well with each other.
however, i think slashdot is the best site that they have on their roster now..
congrats to Jeff and Rob and to Andover.net
Sensei
Sensei
Linuxnewbie.org home of the NHF's
Hemos has explained this several times. Nothing. The contract has to be obeyed no matter who owns the site.
ufdraco
Congratulations, I am glad to see that those who deserve "reimbursement" for their hard work will get what they richly deserve.
Keep up the great work guys!
jaraxle
PG is the best. I've probably read about 30 works so far. I really wish there was a way they could pick up speed.
More geeks should read Shakespeare. It might just change your social life for the better.
System halted
You filter out Slashdot's ads? You don't know what you're missing. I still chuckle whenever I see the "Someday the sun will fail" banner. Now that's quality entertainment!
And I've heard nothing but good things about Andover over the months, so I don't see any reason to believe they'll screw things up. Especially if their only influence on the page itself is the banner ads. I'll be happy as long as they don't dump a ton of javascript or whatever up there, or turn it over to Flycast or some other generic banner server that'll put up any old junk. If I've got to see banners, they as well be targetted and about something I'm interested in.
Side rant: Flycast is really pissing me off lately. Whenever their servers fail, and they seem to do it a lot, you get forwarded away from the site you're trying to look at so you can see an ever-so-interesting 500 error page instead. Gawd, I hope Pete Abrams (plug)dumps them.
To congratulate you guys for getting a great break. I'm delighted to hear that you're retaining creative control. I've never heard of the like before.
Here's to the next few years. Keep up the good work!
dec
FIRST POST! WOOHOO!
I'm glad to see that these guys are finally getting a break. It sounds like they've done their homework and went with a stable, neutral company. KUDOS TO SLASHDOT!
Keep up the good work. The quality and abundance of news never ceases to amaze me.
"It compiles, SHIP IT!" -Overheard at Microsoft's development lab
Wow. Not only do Rob & Hemos get funding, but also the rest of us will get new Slashdot stories 24 hours a day. This means I'll have a reason to look at /. again after 3:00 PDT every day. Anyway, congratulations, guys. Keep up the good work.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
Well, CmdrTaco is #1, Hemos is #2, and off the top of my head I can't recall who #3 and #4 are. Basically all I did to check was search for a user with searchstring='a' and 'e' which showed taco (#1) and hemos(2) and also #s 3 and 4. You can do it yourself if you feel like waiting for the page to load... otherwise I don't know. (I tried searching for (1) or (2) and that didn't work). Most impressively, it took about a minute or so to load IIRC on my cable modem.
-ehfisher
this
Doesn't matter. Our contract is inviolate.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
However, I do want to express my thanks to Rob and Jeff for all their time and effort (and money) in running and maintaining this site, and to wish them the very best of luck in the new regime - they certainly deserve to be able to make a living out of Slashdot et al. Like many people, I'm a little concerned that the essence of Slashdot could be changed as a result of the acquisition, but I am prepared to trust Rob and Jeff when they say that this is not going to happen.
Way to go guys!
PS: I'm in Europe, and I add my tiny voice to those who say it would be really nice if there was something to read when I got to work :)
I don't see any legal problems with not displaying banner ads (although morally I'd like to help CmdrTaco out, just preferably not at 33k6). Are you claiming that the thousands of people who view Slashdot using Lynx (like me), W3M, Emacs-W3 or simply with images turned off are equivalent to cable service thieves?
"I want to use software that doesn't suck." - ESR
"All software that isn't free sucks." - RMS
Please No!!
/. doesn't go to bed by mid-afternoon?
How will I get any work done here in New Zealand if
Sounds like a good crew to hook up with though. Good on ya.
Keep up the good work guys!
The dress code at Sun Microsystems:
"You must."
-- Scott McNealy
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
This is, more or less, the point. Women in CS are brighter than men because they have to be in order to get in in the first place. There are two reasons for this; the first is discrimination, which does happen. There was a study a couple of years ago on women scientists that showed that in order to have the same amount of prestige, a woman had to have done twice as much work as a man. Papers submitted for peer-review were less likely to be accepted if headed by a `feminine` name; women considered for academic jobs had to have twice as many papers published as men. I don`t know whether this extends down as far as the undergraduate level; I suspect not as much as it used to.
The other reason is expectations. When I was about ten, for Christmas my brother got an electronics set and a chemistry set. I got a microscope. I only discovered computers when I got to university - doing Biology. Computing lessons at school consisted of being sat in front of a touch-typing program and expected to become good little secretaries. Maybe my experience is unusual; I don`t know. But if it isn`t, then there`s a good reason why women don`t go into computers: they`re simply not encouraged to. So such a scholarship would be a good move.
Yes, don`t fragment /. - although being able to select euro-centric stories in your preferences would be nice. And, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease, a European mirror?
wired.com has a rather funny interview with Rob Malda:
s /story/20483.html?wnpg=all
http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/busines
It's awesomely spaced out. Well worth reading.
First off let me say I think that this is a Good Thing (tm). I just can't wait for the stream of messages from people who think that all corporations are bad, I can see it now "Slashdot Is The Next MS", "I Wonder If Slashdot Will Be RedHat Only", and probably many more pieces of FUD involving anti-profit sentiments. Rob and Hemos: Keep up the fine work, I can't wait to see what /. will become with more money behind it.
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
This is obvious discrimination. By offering "women only" scholarships the indication is that women are inferior and can't compete with men. This is utter rubbish.
I don't know many women in CS bu the majority of the ones that I do know are as sharp as tacks. They know their stuff. In fact I'd say a higher percentege of women in CS are excellent when compared to men.
Dammit, why did I have to miss the time when being a minority in CS was enough to get a full ride.
LK
Yes, animated ads are generally a Bad Thing.
There was a study a while back about the way people used the web: they watched and made notes as people searched for set pieces of information.
If they came across animated gifs which didn`t have anything to do with what they were looking for, they`d stop the animation or cover that part of the screen with their hand so they could read the page without being distracted.
If it gives you more time to work with the content, and not have to faff around with the associated stuff of running a highly popular web site. /. can grow properly.
Just make sure that the site doesn't become any more "commercial" and I think everyone'll be happy and
Glad to see this happen to you guys, I know that /., but this
we've seen some great things out of
will now let the doors "swing wide".
Congrats guys!
Trae
geeky stuff I'm proud to have been a part of: linux.com / themes.org / sourceforge.net / sicnus.com
Dig the AC code kiddies, whining 'cause CmdrTaco sold out to The Man... Didn't Rob realize that doing /. was a Holy Mission and required a vow of poverty? Shame, shame, shame.
Kee-rist.
Congratulations to all hands, and Andover.net seems like a good choice (and a decent group of folks). The end of the ISDN line at last! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do something I should've done a long time ago: set my rating threshhold to 1. Sheesh.
H. Kitty
who suggests that AC still sporting a problem with this send all their allowance and lunch money to Rob -- or better yet, to me.
Who cares what colour it's in - pink, blue or violet?
(sorry, couldn't resist...)
I can't help feeling like it's the end of an era. Before this, Slashdot's charm was that it was just two guys on a roll, that's a lot cooler than being owned by a corporation even if you do still have creative control.
Still, it's a fact in this life that nothing stays the same forever. Congratulations for all you've achieved.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Good to hear the Slash code will still be available, and even better to hear that the fabled tarball of version 0.4 may one day grace an ftp server :) Any idea when that might happen? (I know, I know - how long's a piece of string?)
Regards,
Denny
Police State UK - news and
Your first hire should be a proof reader...
"and I hope I haven't offended anywone to bad."
-- just English teachers
Congrats guys! I hope it works out the best for you (and us).
the bad - slashdot is now no longer non - accountable to suits, advertisers and phb's (pointy haired bosses)
the ugly - damn is '/.' going to do a waynes world, TECH0 NEWS, HACKING TIME... EXCELLENT...DWWHHHOOOO DWHHOOO DWHOOOO (with crappy phb voice over) featuring cmdTaco and Hemos featuring stories on how uncle bill's os is saving the world?
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
May I be the first to congratulate you guys, well done. Andover is a good company, the site is excellent, built up from a collection of Windows shareware sites and various tidbits. They now do an excellent "portal" newsletter that bundles a load of stuff together, including a Linux software bit. Also, they run the very useful Internet Traffic Report site. Their hacks are top class, and always worth a read.
I hope this means we'll see a bit more investment in bandwidth then, to get rid of those "overload mode" messages. Also, you should think about hiring some people in Europe to post stories during the morning over here - we're always waiting for you guys to wake up and start trawling through the night's postings!
--
Barry de la Rosa,
Senior Reporter, PC Week (UK)
Work: barry_delarosa[at]vnu.co.uk,
tel. +44 (0)171 316 9364
-- /. ID is lower than Bruce Perens'!
Barry de la Rosa,
public[at]bpdlr.org
My
A better hint is, don't bother with ties no matter what, they're a thing of the past. E.g. Steve Jobs never wears a tie, even at formal occasions (he does wear formal clothes, but in a newer tie-free style).
There are still havens of conservatism that demand ties -- perhaps (at a guess) if you were to talk business with a banker in Oklahoma.
But in Silicon Valley and other high tech areas of the world, ties largely disappeared from programmers 20 years ago, and started disappearing from executives 10 years ago, such that largely those who still wear them do so because they actually like them.
Fashion analysts say that "dress down Friday" has become a daily thing in most businesses, and is expected to become universal in another 2 to 5 years.
Sales people may need ties longer than that, but we're not talking about sales.
(Nor am I talking about your grandparent's funeral or church services etc, where it may be considered to show respect by following the old rules. YMMV.)
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
No, there is one, here.
That you?
While /. will lose some of it's glory of being a fiercely idependant site and with Rob and Co having to deal with the suits (and you WILL! no matter what the contract says..), It's nice to see that /. should be on firm financial footing (maybe, what does Andover's finances look like :) and will continue into the future..
Dealing with the suits will suck, badly. I know of wot I speak....
jf
well sort of, the by-line isn't NYTimes it's CMPNet, but it's still linked from the NYTimes Tech page. Sheesh!
http://www.nytimes.c om/techweb/TW_Andover_Net_Buys_Slashdot.html
You should have stuck it out with funding. You could have been a tech yahoo, with the clout and funding to match.
/. could be a huge tech media property, and you just gave it all away. I really like this site, but I think you guys just made a horrible business decision.
I'm really at a loss as to why you sold this golden goose to someone else. Ten years from now
Jerry Yang and David Filo had a number of opportunities to sell Yahoo in the firts six months. Andressen could have sold out of Netscape just as early. Sticking with a good idea instead of taking the easy money made them all rich.
You could have had a piece of this Rob.
It's so nice a refreshing to see people get rewarded for the work they do anyway.
Rob, Hemos, you guys are great. You deserve it.
at berkeley freshman year some dude ran for student council on the 'affirmative action for hot chicks' platform. this was the year that aa was a BIG topic, and most freshwomen were less than delectable....so i voted for him!
-- your knees hurt, don't they?
I trust that /. will continue to be a great site only faster ;-)
We need to recruit more jocks into computer science programs. Then more women will apply to computer science programs, too.
cpeterso
This is great news, but I'm amazed to hear that Slashdot will have to be ported to IIS to complete the deal. I guess the big time is here!
Congrats, Rob and Hemos.
I've been lurking on this site for a year and half
now. It's the first site I check in the morning,
and the last at night.
The fact that you have been able to make a living
out of doing what you really like doing is very
admirable. I think you guys are doing the right
thing; you picked a good company without a hidden
open source or linux agenda, and you are guaranteed
creative control. What more could people want from
you?
So congratulations, and I look forward to all the
new and improved stuff that's going to show up.
(I just wish I had thought of this concept first!)
LL
"If you are falling, dive." -Joseph Campbell
Welcome to the machine, you idiot.
How fucking stupid are you? I'd really like to know.
My friend has a theory that you should not date people within your same major. It's like dating your sister or something. You'll nver be able to escape CS/biology/physics/whatever! So if this truly good advice, then the fewer women in computer science, the larger the potential dating pool! This assumes you are a CS man or woman who dates women. If you are a CS man or woman who dates men, I think this advice still applies. :-)
cpeterso
You might want to check out Ian Clarke's Distributed Decentralised Information Storage and Retrieval System at http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~iic/4yp . He has come up with a way to use adaptive neural networks to monitor ht requests and then move the content closer to the requestor, thus reducing overall network traffic. Quite an ingenious idea really. And -- bonus -- he has other bells and whistles which make the net "uncensorable". Check it out!
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
I agree, this is one of the funniest interviews I've ever read on wired. I'm curious how this interview was conducted, because it sounds like they got Rob on the phone and talked with him for 5 minutes and copied it word for word onto the web.
:)
I love the responses to the question about being a millionaire:
WN: Yeah. "With the acquisition, Slashdot founder Rob Malda becomes the Internet's latest 23-year-old millionaire." Is that right?
Malda: I don't know. Er, I am 23.
WN: And the millionaire part?
Malda: Yeah, I didn't know that.
hehe
-Paul
"I'm nobody suspicious... That makes me sound even more suspicious, doesn't it?" - Spike (Cowboy Bebop)
Resistance is futile. God help us all!
I believe strongly in merit scholarships -- I received some myself -- but that shouldn't rule out other kinds of scholarships.
Needs-based scholarships, for example, based on family income, ability to pay, number of kids, et cetera, are very important in opening up educational opportunities to all. This is especially important now, as college costs soar and more students (according to recent studies) get their undergraduate degrees in five years, not four, simply because they're working the whole time.
And classification-based scholarships are absolutely nothing new. Ever hear of Rotary clubs giving out scholarships to local students, just based on where they live? What about churches? I got money just for being a member of my church. These are all legitimate. There are even scholarships just based on the intended field of study, sometimes an easy choice, other times something very strange and merely a product of the endower's quirky interests.
Universities, especially public ones, are more constrained these days; scholarships offered through the school are likely to be subject to various anti-discrimination laws (like Title IX, see discussion). But beyond that there are $millions available in private scholarships that are virtually free of any discrimination laws.
I think a women's CS scholarship is a great idea.
If there's a problem with the school doing it, then find an organization that can handle it privately.
lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
I don't suppose there's much point in responding anymore, but...
I'm sorry you feel that way. What that means is that your estimation of our intelligence is incredibly low. We've done what had to be done, and we've got the contracts we want. If they do want to vote us out-fine. dotslash starts, and we do the same thing. believe me-we've got a nice situation.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
As noted above, sometimes private groups can dole out scholarship money without the pesky oversight of the federal government.
The Society of Women Engineers already has a strong program in place, including CS scholarships. They may well be open to a "Slashdot Endowment" to expand their program. Alternatively, youse guys could just give it out yourselves (which would probably be the only way to allow you to limit it to your alma mater). Nothing wrong with a business-supported scholarship (counts as a charitable deduction).
lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
Maybe now we will see more M$ banner ads on Slashdot
BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
No really, congratulations guys. I have no concerns that you will SELL OUT TO THE MAN. Damn the man. Long live Slashdot.
Can I still keep my login name? I kinda like it.
--------------------------------------------
Please give your mod points to others, Im at the cap. They will appreciate it more
I know how it goes on a 'shoestring'(?) budget. My Internet company just got bought a month or so ago and it's soooooooo nice to get a real paycheck. I can now out spend all my friends ;-)
it's good they gave them creative the creative reigns. Let's see how it all holds out.
congrats!
You mussed?
- Does BSI just dissapear now?
- Will you ever open-source AdFu?
- What happens to future versions of Slashdot sources?
Either way, congratulations.Nostalgia: I remember reading Slashdot.org when about 50% of my page views were stopped in the middle while I did a traceroute to macatawa.org to see what the heck was taking so long.
Werd.
Exactly, the critical words are "Title IX" -- for non-USAns, this is a 1972 law providing for gender equality in educational spending. It eventually (after many court cases and reluctant enforcement) became applied to spending in athletic programs in all colleges and universities that receive any federal money for virtually any reason, even if it's not for the athletic program.
One popular argument against it is that it limits "profitable" sports like American football, which brings in not only ticket (and sometimes TV) money, but keeps the alumni happy and proud and leads to more money given to the school down the road. Of course, the argument for giving athletes scholarships is suspect to begin with, but I see the value not only in keeping strong athletic programs but in promoting competition and goal-oriented students. One can argue that the latter values are just as important in women, and one can even argue that promoting women's athletics in this way will, long-term, lead to many goal-oriented women athletes succeeding in business and giving money to the school.
I, too, wish there were more academic scholarships. I wish there were more opportunities like the robot-building challenges, a kind of "sport" that's more entertaining to me than football.
lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
There's banners on /.?
signed
he who can ignore banners unless they are in one of those !@#$ing popups!
good work guys
I've seen this again and again. It's incomprehensible to some people that there are motivations beyond making a ton of $$$ in the world. Anyone else see the irony in this attitude showing up in a place so focused on open source software? I bet folks like Linus and ESR could be making a lot more dough if that's what they wanted to do.
Worst example of a money tunnel-vision perspective I've seen was on one of those Robert X. Cringly documentaries about the early days of the net. There was a venture capitalist talking about how utterly stupid the founders of Cisco were for selling out early on... how much the stock has gone up since then. Then we find out that they each netted over $100 million at the time. Today, I guarantee you that they're doing whatever they want, and that having 10x as much money probably wouldn't change things much.
I'm guessing Rob and Co. made out well enough to do what they want. It's not our place to dis them for having the values they do.
We are doomed, you capitalist fascist dogs have sold our soul to the corporate deveel. So much for open source and freedom of thought.
(c) 1999. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without express written consent of myself or officers of the corporation, hereby known as the Collective.
;-)
Whenever a cool independent company is swallowed by some other, I hurts a little bit.
/. has never been impartial, so at least I don't have to fear they lose their (non-existant) neutrality ;-)
Sure, it's not quite like AOL purchasing Netscape, but still.
Slashdot would have deserved to be an independent name, but alas, there is no such thing as free bandwidth...
On the other hand,
So, no Slashdot boycott for now...
I agree with you. This isn't make sense.
It is every right to buy and sell a community! It takes much money to make a community on the WWW!
You deserve that money for making a community.
I think it is not sellout, it is smart from the beginning to plan to make this thing.
You should post more often.
Hey, I'm a guy and I'll say right now, the amount of idiots in C.S. is not based on sex. There were a ton of guys who got into CS just because they want "to make money".
/.'ers will too.
I never got the best grades in college, but dammit I love computers. I've been addicted since I first saw the Apple II+ in 4th grade. At some point the tides may turn and we might not still be making the big bucks. But I'll still be here. And I imagine alot of
-Rich
Kudos to you both for this online community you've created and put so much effort into. While there will inevitably be naysayers, hopefully it will be clear that the large majority of us support this move for a few reasons (there are obviously more, but I thought of these quick):
1) You guys might actually get some rest!
2) Multiple servers? I don't know much but that sounds like more bandwidth and faster page loading for us.
3) Both of you sound like you stand to benefit financially--anyone would be hard pressed to argue that you don't deserve it.
4) Some good causes will receive support.
5) Control will be kept in the hands of the guys that best know how to exercise it.
Congratulations again on a job well done.
Very simply. You get better performance with dynamic content from multiple, parallel servers, as opposed to one big, super-beefy machine.
Serving content dynamically, the way slashdot does, takes up a bit more in the way of system resources than simply spewing static webpages.
And let me ask you this. With which setup will you get better(faster) response. 1,000,000 requests for a 300 kilobyte dynamically generated page on a single server, 15 hops away on a T3 or 1,000,000 requests for a 300 kilobyte dynamically generated page spread across 10 servers on 10 separate T1's, with one of the servers being 2-3 hops away.
Also, if one or two servers goes down (not necessarily a crash, but possibly a hardware failure, or a power failure to a server), you still have other servers up and shooting pages.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
You people rock! Slashdot rocks! Damn, even Andover News rocks!
:)
Hey, is this machine in overload mode due to all the people congratulating Rob & Hemos yet?
Floris
--- Your superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons
It will still exist-everything.blockstackers.com is an example of the sites we are going to continue to do. So, we're still going to do other stuff as well.
-Ad-Fu.
E-mail vroon@blockstackers.com. You can get the tarball
-Slashdot
Is, and always will be Open Source.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Guys,
Methinks you're doing the right thing. You appear to have got the infrastructure you need without going 'corp.' ('course, I'm one to talk, I AM a corp...)
I think the slashdot community ought to get behind this. It's only gonna help us get better service and access. IMHO, it took a lot of guts to go ahead with this. There's the potential for a lot of backlash against going in with a for-profit company. But in the end, as with everything in the tech world, it's evolve and improve or die. That's no different for slashdot. This will allow you to evolve and improve.
Keep up the excellent work.
like all good things, slashdot has come to an end
yet another labor of love has sold out to corporate interests...
hemos and taco have no clue what they're in for. if andover's investers think slashdot is a black hole of funds, slashdot can be voted right out of existence.
no? wake up and smell the business world, friends.
the problem with our free software community is everyone thinks they understand the business world. until you get your head out of the sand of academia and experience the business world, you have no reference point as far as the business world goes.
guys, i hope you succeed. but i'm afraid both of you are about to learn an extremely hard lesson.
Anonymous CEO.
I'd have been willing to give $30 - $50 a year for slashdot, perhaps more, especially if they had warned that without it, they'd have to sell out.
Perhaps the begging would have been hard, but,
I guess we can take comfort in the the fact that slashdots can be recreated easily, should anyone feel the need to.
Congrats, thanks for all the hard work Rob and Jeff
George
Well. I am happy for /. because their hardwork is finally going to be rewarded by $$$$$. Whoever thought that Linux people weren't in for money ?
[rs.internic.net]
:)
Registrant:
Chris Richardson (SLASHDOT-DOM)
806 Arnold Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025
US
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.COM
Administrative Contact:
Richardson, Chris (CR1294) chris@SLASHDOT.COM
+1 408 733 4821
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Hostmaster, Best Internet (BIH2) hostmaster@BEST.COM
+1 650 964 2378 www.best.com
Billing Contact:
Richardson, Chris (CR1294) chris@SLASHDOT.COM
+1 408 733 4821
Record last updated on 30-Mar-98.
Record created on 17-Nov-96.
Database last updated on 29-Jun-99 09:03:03 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.BEST.COM 209.24.149.41
NS2.BEST.COM 209.157.102.11
NS3.BEST.COM 209.24.149.42
------
Sue sue sue!
This sig is false.
Damn ain't greed a beautiful thing. The Linux "community" finally reveals itself. You pathetic, hypocritical, asshole, retarded, trailer-park-trash, 386-using, motherfuckers are ALL about money and greed. You fucks have the gall to criticize Microsoft, when you're exactly the same. Open source your asses, you fags.
I'm so happy to see you finally get paid for doing what you love.
Hail to the Sun God! He is the Fun God! Ra! Ra! Ra!
Now I'm getting _really_ jelous.
I'm really looking forward to see what kind of improvements that can be worked out now that they will have more free time to come up with newer and better ideas for the site. Those that want to jump to conclusions probably wont even read your entire post about the details of the agreement. They will just run around the net spreading "Slashdot bought out!!!" information. Blah. Well, Kudos to you guys, and no matter what anybody says, this was a VERY VERY wise decision.
-- C. Warden
Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
I thought the message boards were too similar to simply be a coincidence!
? 3159,topstories)
It seems Andover has been using Slash code for their bulletin boards for at least a week. I happened to look at the andover news site (www.andovernews.com) and their message board had the nearly exact same look and feel as Slashdot (threaded), down to the "Anonymous Coward" for people who post without an email address.
Hm... Promise us you won't begin to use "leverage" as a verb, OK?
I noticed that Andover now has a press release on their front page as well. Andover sounds pretty stuffy in comparison. (http://www.andovernews.com/cgi-bin/news_story.pl
Congrats Rob and Hemos! I hope we will get to see the geek side of Andover.net as well.
HOWTO get better dates on slashdot
I think this may propel /. further into serving the community, and i like that. I am even more happy that you two retain full control... I've had by dealings with the blue pin stripes before, and they have a tendency to take over... to take over everything!
I'm not a fan of that happening, but i have faith it wont.. I'm a faithful reader, and keep up the good work.
Then go away.
Posted by The Mongolian Barbecue:
Rob has sold us all to the suits. I know that it seems benign at first, and there is a contract that guarantees freedom and blah blah blah. That is not the point. By working near the suits at andover, Rob and co will be gradually assimilated by their marketroid culture. soon we won't be hearing about "linux" and "kernel" but "time to market" and "solutions". Rob will no longer be a linux guy, but a content-based information systems technologies solution provider. Hemos will usurp a similar title I'm sure, perhaps vice-president for source-based dynamic technology content editor, with a pinch of bullshit. Actually a lot more.
Soon the articles will turn into asskissing paeons to Microsoft and corporate America. This transition will be slow at first, and no one will realize until the debate is no longer over ESR vs RMS, but the price-to-market solution value of Windows NT workstation vs server.
When Rob finally updates the logo to be more honest, no one will even mind when instead of "News For nerds..." it says "dynamic information technology solution provider". Slashdot will become one big commercial.
The only question left is whether slashdot's new corporate overlords will allow Katz to continue writing here.
We are all doomed!!!
Where do you go from here ? ..... :-)
Just because we're in computer science does't mean we're stupid.
hey, I always exclude the adfu.blockstackers.com host from junkbusters...like so:
(editing the blocklist file that you call in your junkbstr.ini file...)
~adfu.blockstackers.com
I use it as the last line, I think its necessary for it to be there...
have fun...
Andy
Well I was wondering if something like this was going to happen. All I can say is congrats guys, you earned it. And who says hard work doesn't pay off. =)
-----------------------------------------------
-No it's not encrypted you just can't read.
Rob and Hemos, congrats! I hope the whole thing works out well.I also hope you had a good lawyer write the contract -- creative control is all good and well, but Slashdot can now be killed -- the easiest way would be for, say, @Home (I know there are other big companies, too :) to buy Andover.net and then decide that Slashdot doesn't fit their editorial policy... Sure you can start another one, but the intellectual property issues are going to be problematic. Heh. Unfortunately in the world we live in, lawyers determine a lot of what happens.
Other than that, I hope that the advertising level on Slashdot isn't going to go up. I can live with one banner, but sites with banners left, right, top and bottom, not counting all those oh-so-cute buttons, cause active distaste in me, and, I suppose, in most of Slashdot's readers.
Slashdot may end up looking like the Well (and I don't know if it's a good thing or bad) which had owners' change galore, but managed to retain its core audience so far.
Still, change is good. We'll see if this change will be good as well, and in the meantime, more congrats.
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
One who knows the difference between "to" and "too", "their" and "there", "not that" and "not very", and other grade school stuff we expect in professional news articles. It allows us fussy types to get to the end quickly without slipping on those now-common turds in the path.
--
Regarding blowjobs, you are obviously very accompliushed in this area. This is a skill that I don't have and don't care to learn.
--
Don't knock it until you've tried it. Whats the quote.. Its better to have loved lost than to have never loved at all.
First, congrats on getting some cash, BUT
Does Andover know how to take this higher? Look at all the great web sites - they all benefitted from having great execs and business folk who could take it higher. Personally I agree with the previous poster who mentioned yahoo and netscape. They both scored great execs to lead them, instead of selling out early.
Unless Andover knows how to run a hot media property, I dare say Slashdot has maybe two or three more years in it. With the right CEO you guys could have been bigger than ZDNet in five years.
Its nice to see them so generous with their millions. (What was the price again? Oh, I'm sorry that's not public information) and it isn't like "Slashdot" the company raised any cash, no its like a couple of dudes ca$hed in on a phenomena. And don't tell me the 80 hr weeks mean you "deserve it". A couple of thousand (mostly guys) spend time sending in stuff, and being the community and two guys (now rich guys) get the bux. I'd like to believe that things will stay the same but you read it here first, they won't. My source says $14M (less the "gifts") but who knows for sure? only the guys that write the news.
It was fun, now its on its way to being dead. Oh well.
You deserve to be able to take some money out of the work you and Jeff have put into the site. Congratulations. Hopefully this will mean a better, faster /., and that you two can finally get a life.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Newspapers, television, and now the Internet. All are extremely prosperous business mediums. With e-commerce growing at an unprecedented rate, e-businesses (be they entertainment, products and services, or news related) will unboubtedly enjoy the fruits of this new era. And regarding your Nasdaq comment: the day the world stops computing is the day the Nasdaq dies, and I guarantee you that won't happen any time soon. Congrats to Rob and Jeff. Best of luck to the both of you and your new venture.
Hmmm, which international April Fools Day is it?
I can see where some people might think that this is "a bad thing" -- *gasp* owned by a commercial entity?!? -- but I'd like to say "Way to go!", "Good job!", etc. You guys have done much for the respective hacker/geek/nerd communities. I'm glad that you are finally getting some sort of compensation for the long hours you have put into this.
Once more, congratulations, and I hope that this kicks off a new era of enhancements to Slashdot, benefits for Malda and Co., and (most importantly) "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
Keep it up,
Chris
PS. I am mourning the fact that there will be no Slashdot IPO. How cool would it be to say that you own part of the coolest site on the web?
This is really great! I hope you find a nice suit ;)
;)
Btw. - you gotta use those huge machines you'll get to crunch some keys at distributed.net
May the source be with you!
Hey guys, I think this was a good move. I know from personal expierance how tough it is to try and get something off the ground. And we were trying to make money from the beginning.
Creative differences though lead to a parting of the ways and my former partner has full control. Am I bitter? No, I wish him the best of luck and if he becomes the next evil empire I'll just snicker because I know I was there at the beginning when it was all running off a 486
Comparing you guys to Jobs and Woz maybe isn't fair. But here's hoping you guys don't go the way they did. Best of luck.
----
"War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left"
"War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left"
Steven Wright
Guess what? The days of the garage startup turning around and selling for billions of $$$ are OVER.
/. content? I think not. That is what it takes today to remain independent.
/. gets some more bandwidth, an even wider audience and that Rob and company won't have to work so damn hard!
Let me ask you something would you PAY for
I think this is a good thing. I hope
My initial opinion about slashdot getting acquired was "OH SHIT". Then of course a few thoughts float by...
Malda's gotta eat, so does Hemos, slashdot is the kind of site that will never stop getting too big for its britches (or at least no time soon) and the acquisition of slashdot is a good thing, right?
No.
People may wheel and argue about whether or not free software and the community movement that linux represents is communist or not, and whether it's anti buisness or not, but I personally feel that one thing that free software (and the community) is that companies CANNOT BE TRUSTED. If the opposite were true, why would the GPL need a clause that says companies may not adopt the source and close it down if they were reputable?
I know this sounds really shitty, but I would rather that slashdot stayed smaller, and maybe didn't do everything possible to appease everyone on the planet then take it too far and in trying to appease everyone, be forced into something like an acquisition for financial reasons.
I know that that's very insensitive to the needs of CmdrTaco and Hemos, but the question comes to mind, what is ANYBODY in this buisness for? I am not accusing Malda and the rest of being mercenaries only out for the glorification of the buck, but my cynicism at this announcement is rooted in the fact that I don't trust companies and i see no compelling reason why slashdot or any of its readers should either. What are they getting out of it? If it were just the advertising revenue....well, I just don't trust them that's all.
Just as Bruce Perens addressed OSI with "It's time to talk more about the freedom in free software" I think slashdotters should ask themselves what they're in it for.
In closing, I do not doubt Rob Malda's sincerity AT ALL. He's proved crucial to the whole community, and the last possible purpose of this is to complain about him, but I just don't think this is the right move. As the BOFH once said, "I have an irrational fear of anything that looks like the thin end of a wedge".
David Allen
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
So /. was acquired by somebody else. Hooray for Rob & co.
I just want to know... how does andover.net expect to make money? Banner ads? Don't make me laugh. /.ers are the audience most likely to use banner-blockers. What will happen if /. is a financial drain to andover?
What happens if Slashdot doesn't turn in a profit?
Man, you have a serious attitude problem, check with your doctor and see if you can get your dosage increased or something.
/.
Remember the guy who built computers in his garage? He let his buddy sell him out and everyone was convinced that it was fad. A few short years later Woz cashed out. Guess what, he still contributes to the company, to society, and to his bank account. You gonna fault him too?
And anyone who thought they were gonna get something, anything (fame and fortune) by "sending in stuff, and being the community" is a bigger idiot than you. You gotta be creative and you gotta put forth the effort......hmmmm, kinda like these guys did with
Ya, it sux that I didn't think of it first. Oh well, I'm gonna write TKA someday and make my own fortune.
Congrats guys!
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
now it is business. Someone putting up a web site and then cashing in a few years later is getting old... When is it going to end? Sooner or later someone is going to wake up and realize that these sites do NOT MAKE ANY MONEY! That will be the day the Nasdaq closes down 90% and more than a few geeks finds themselves in bankruptcy. It will be the new Depression. Stop fscking with economics you don't understand and buy shit that has no value.
A friend of mine once said "If you stay in one place too long, eventually you'll die there." At the time he was trying to be enigmatic; my impression instead was that he was simply being vapid. I've realized the truth in his statement -- there are only two real choices: grow or die. It takes wisdom and courage to make changes to ensure that your best efforts continue to thrive; they don't call 'em "growing pains" for nothing! Congratulations on finding a way to grow; my best wishes that this venture lives up to your hopes and expectations.
Kudos, also, for the thoughts about "giving back to the community." It always amazes me how the most generous folks always find more ways to give. Please don't ever lose sight of that priority during the changes ahead. Realize also that you've already given much just by creating a community as vibrant and interesting as Slashdot -- and I, for one, am grateful. It's wonderful to have a place where the cacaphony dies down to individual voices and thoughts.
(Endnote: Just let me know when I can apply for that scholarship... I'm paying for my tech education with non-profit dollars!)
What's in it for them?
Will the code still be available?
David
Slashdot needs this. I've always been amazed that a few college guys 60 miles from my hometown put together something that is a household word in computing - something like if "Wayne's World" was a real show and it became as popular as "Seinfeld" (well, not quite - maybe in a year or two).
Best wishes
Oh no! Does this mean that spealing ang garmmer will improve? That would ruin everything! (grin). Mark Edwards
-----------------------------------
Proof of sanity forged upon request
Posted by yuri-g:
/., but for all of its users! Can't wait to see what's in store for the future.
Great news not only for
Glad to hear that my browser's favorite start page is getting a much-deserved boost. You guys all have worked your butts off to create one of the most unique and strongest online communities in the history of the net. Reap the benefits! (But don't wear ties!)
what about on the title 'slashdot' and the sitename say slashdot.com?
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
that are never seen by the general public are never required to wear ties. Likewise, if an exec doesn't have a press conferance or other PR related event she/he will usually dress down. However, as a general rule, any time you are going to be representing your company to the public it is recommented that you dress-up (in this case a tie isn't a bad idea - jeans and T-shirt a definate no). The same goes for consultants - when I go on site I wear a tie. Not because I like it (I find thim quite uncomfortable), but out of respect for the company that has paid for my flight/room/meals/time/etc and also because at that point I AM the company that I represent.
\forall code \in C, \frac{\Delta readability(code)}{\Delta t} < 0
Have you seen this article? Sl ashdot.org = SELLOUT.ORG! Crazy!
Bien amicalement, Hubert Orlick
*Sigh*... First I get stuck 3k miles from my mac *loveing sigh*, now Slashdot is no longer Slashdot, but something else... All I ask is keep it slashdot. Dont go for something big, but stay small and good. Look at MicroSoft, Apple and Linux. Untill I read userfriendly, I never really knew about Linux, and now want to get a new comp just for it (dont we all?). To date, I never have directly used Linux, but I have surfed Linux run sites and use a BSD powered IRC server (TENet irc.,zer0.net, Matt, if you read this, thank me). I dont like Windows, but it turns out IE and Win95 actualy work together, but still suck compaired to NS 4.5.1 and MacOS 8.5. At least I think so. Anyhow, dont make Slashdot any of the above. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are not slashdot. Slashdot is Slashdot, and I want it to stay Slashdot. In the end tho, its not up to me, but you (CmdrTaco I mean). Heh.. My fav quote: Its your life, you live it.
Ever depressed,
~S~
Intel Inside: The worlds most commonly used warning label.
If you are having trouble downloading it all, then lower your maxcomments in your preferences--oh, that's right...you're an AC. Get an account!
ufdraco
I find it interesting that it doesn't even
rate an entry on the andovernews.com page.
I noticed they have a cartoon of the day.
Wouldn't it be cool if they carried uf?
I am always impressed when a couple of young guys can have the foresight to look out for the reader instead of looking out for their own pocket books. You guys could have held out until you became filthy rich but you didn't because you want to provide the best content you could and for that I am quite impressed. Thanks for giving us the best site on the internet!
It looks like you've found a way to make sure Slashdot stays strong without sacrificing what makes it great. One important question, though. Now that you're part of Andover.net, do you have to wear pants?
----
Open mind, insert foot.
Congrats guys, keep up the good work!
Need people to thrash on my new web messaging system. The code is in the extreme pre-alpha stages, being only two days old, but it working well (but not very feature-rich just yet, but give it time!) and I need to see how it holds up under a load.
The URL is http://ooze.bloomnet.com/MessageBase/
Thanks!
As much as I like Slashdot, and as much as I admire the blood, sweat, and tears that Rob and Hemos have put into the site, what is it about Slashdot that Andover.net found compelling enough acquire it? Was it the target audience, and the prospect of generating ad revenue? This may seem like a dumb question, but I find the business aspect of the deal interesting.
Will this mean that http://www.slashdot.org is going to change to http://www.slashdot.com ?
/. remain open ?
No, seriously, congratulations, and I hope your contracts are waterproof. Just two questions :
-Will the source of
-Can they fire you and take over the site ? Or did you get guarantees on paper. Sure hope you did, I'd hate to lose my favourite site.
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
Next week andover.net will be acquired by microsoft and .......
Good luck.
OverLord.
Director Taco - it just rolls off the tongue...
/. doesn't begin to change a la e.g. "Deja". Huh! The thought gave me Pointy Hair!
I just hope
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
If you are happy with your decision than congrats.
99.9999% of the people on this planet never get to work their dream. You did, and on your terms.
If you're happy to hand it over to someone else, mnore power to you.
It could happen. I am trying not to think about it but what if a certain company (call not its name lest it will hear) drives a dumptruck full of money up to Andover.net and said, "sign here."
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
Not to deter you Euro centric folks . but even people from Asia read /. Shri
How to scare suits:
They'll think you're one of them new chic hacker types, the ones that're all tech-savvy but socially aware as well... the ones who could be running the company six months down the road...
That's my business attire, and it's not only rather comfortable but slick as all hell.
I know I'm not the only one who thought that post was a joke when first reading it. Then it set in that it was serious. Then I was depressed. But then I finished reading. Great job!!!! I'm happy for you guys! Faster Slashdot loading! Hiring other people to do the crap CmdrTaco and Hemos don't want to do!!
But wasn't Andover.net the place that we completely flamed for the really wrong story about Red Hat (I didn't; don't worry!)? You guys managed to get this deal despite that?
Whoa. Interesting quote for the bottomn of the page on this story...
*twilight zone music plays*
-Rich
Is this right:
(it's all about ad's)
Basically anover.net paid for the square at the top of the screen. You will still control the rest of the site. Although you will not _own_ the site?
Will you be hired be andover.net to maintain the site?
Will there be more banners now?
One thing that I liked with slashdot were that the banners often were Linux related. Will this still be the same?
I run a small company and hired some ad space on slashdot once. I got a great feedback from just the "right" people. That was great. The most important factor was that the price on slashdot where resonable for small companys who just want to run a few ads. This is something that I fear will change. Could you please clarify this?
I'm sure that keeps him comfy at night. If you consider $20 million "losing", then I'd be a happy loser.
... then they will sell it (to ???), that's the way it works.
People are not in business because they're nice.
SLASH will remain open, and even if Andover.net was sold, we keep total control. We're built like a battleship, baby. (A little alliteration for you.)
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Wasn't April's Fools a few months ago.
I've been a Slashdot reader for a while, and I gotta say I could see this coming. I was thinking, and CT's summary seems to agree, that Slashdot was getting to the point where something was going to have to suffer - content, stability, bandwith, Rob's sanity.....and that Slashdot was either going to have to take a huge quality hit or get some help. The decision to be acquired was, IMHO, a step towards keeping Slashdot as much the same as it could. All Web sites must forever grow, and change, or remain stagnant and unpopular. Slashdot has had many changes over the years, and this is just one of them. CT and the rest will still be around, and if Slashdot does, by some chance, become a total piece of junk, then we'll move on. I doubt this'll happen - Slashdot's sellability is in it's readership, and a major revamping would kill the property. However, I hope there won't be posting censorship - i.e., can I now say that Andover.net sucks dirty donkey balls? I'm just curious - I only recall hearing the name in passing, and am unaware of any problems with them. Regardless, congrats guys, for making it to the big time. BTW - are you still gonna operate mainly out of GH2.0, or do you have ot move?
my opinion here, but it seems to me that slashdot should not have taken this direction.. great malda, it's yours.. but you could have made an open-source/internet community success story out of it...
I'm sure the time and bandwidth problems could have been donated by your readership. I envision a slashdot that is for the people, by the people.. this community of hacks and cracks are more than capable of running a web site.. people could be appointed (elected by the readers) into a position of head programmer or post verifiers, etc... or even better - everything is posted to a lesser directory and those entries with the greatest read count automatically get listed on the main site...
Yes - slashdot is yours, and you are free to sell it... But maybe we need something that is ours.
--
Marques Johansson
displague@linuxfan.com
Marques Johansson
Has Everything been sold as well???
Skip
--------------------
flifson@csdotuctdotacdotza
Skip
--------------------
"To create an apple pie from scratch,
you first must create the universe."
Please excuse the bluntness of this question, but I ask it from an ignorant standpoint, not a scrutinizing one:
What was Slashdot selling besides the banner space at the top?
Thats the only remnance of commerce that I've ever seen out of this site, and I've been viewing it for nearly 2 years. I can understand the cost of colocation, etc needing to be covered by the price of the banner ads sold, but what other "business" is slashdot selling? Its not selling books like Amazon, or an online auction forum like Ebay...
-Dave
dbrooks@comstar.net
--
Dave Brooks (db@amorphous.org)
http://www.amorphous.org
.. granted that we're talking horrible, worst case hypothetical (no offense to andover.net..) .. at least the engine behing /. is open source. no IP issues there!
It's not the greatest news, getting aquired. On the other hand, if it's a choice between than and venture capital, you guys got the better deal. At least andover will be straight-out with you, and not use the covert tactics that some venture capitalists do.
As for that changing the quality of your site for the worse, I doubt that... I mean, ars-technica isn't a bad site (even with all their microsoftian talk about nt), and aren't they owned by maximum-pc or something?
(However, I have to agree with the other poster who said this: only one ad, please!)
ufdraco
Not to be nitpicky, but should'nt slashdot.org .org now? before the NIC police :-)
drop
come stampeding in
First off congratulations to Rob, Hemos, and others for making Slashdot cool. I still think an IPO would've been cooler and would've generated more cash and fame. Oh well.
:-;
Anyways, I'm mystified as to how Slashdot is going to be of benefit to Andover.Net. Banner advertising in itself won't generate that much cash. So Andover.Net will have to probably add more banners/buttons, etc. I wouldn't be surprise if Andover.Net started collecting user information and selling it to marketers and spam mills...if this happens many visitors here will not return.
An even scarier thought, is Slashdot might be made into a portal with free email, chat, and other crap that doesn't matter - remember the Slashdot slogan is 'News for Nerds. Stuff that matters'. I can see it all now - slashdot.go.com - now part of the GO Network
Anyways, I can only hope things will work out for Slashdot and Andover.net. Good luck!!
Ron Bennett
Congrats Dudes,
Seems like a very nice play on your part, I look forward to a slicker faster slashdot.
Definately a necessary evolution!
Maybe you should promote yourself to CommanderBurrito?
l8r,
Fiid.
Fiid - Ryhmes with Squid. Software Engineer
If these guys are giving you complete control over the site then all the power to you.
/. as far as you can go on your limited resources. I hate to use it as an example, but Microsoft wouldn't be where it is without its original investors. Billy boy didn't do it all himself. Corrupt or not, M$ is a perfect example of what good decisions can do monitarily for you and /. needs cash in order to broaden its audience.
For the twit that thinks that the Suits will take over. Wake up.. Bandwidth costs big bucks... and running a business requires time. Taco and Hemos need to get lives other then slashdot and it would be selfish to assume that everyone else would pick up the slack. This would require a lot of trust on their part and in the business world trust can prove to be expensive when given to the wrong person of whom you thought was the right person.
Guys, you have brought
- Jimbob
So what! By the end of the year Office 2000 will just be YALOS "Yet Another Linux Office Suite". It will however, have the dubious distinction of being the "most bloated, slow, un-stable and virus-prone" of all the Linux office suites.
1) You connect to the primary /. server and it checks your IP address against a DB of known subnets and prefered mirrors.
2) If a match is found, you are sent there. Otherwise, the primary site serves the page and your address is added to a queue of subnets to add to the database.
3) Periodically, the mirror sites do some pings or traceroutes of the addresses in the queue to determine the *best* mirror for that address. The entire subnet for that address is then plunncked into the database.
4) The database entries should eventually age out, but it could be a loooong expire. How often do you move you a portable net block across the country?
For all I know, public software for this may already exist. If not, I think it would be a fun project to implement this for SlashDot.
Who is with me?
Thad
The Bolachek Journals
I have to agree, I'm sorry guys.
...
/. was my start page for more than 1 year now, and I must say that I _am_ quite sad.
I wish you the best luck in the biz world. And I'm leaving
This is capitalism. Somebody shoot RMS so he can start rotating in his grave.
As I was reading the article I thinking, okay sounds good, then I got to the end bit and became all dewy eyed, its so great to see a group of people who really want to give back to the community obviously not for ego gratification but because you can really help, truely inspirational, I wish you all the best, Jeremy
Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God
Congratulations Rob. This is surely a good thing. /. has grown into one of the few truly important landmarks on the web and is deserving of the improved infrastructure that this can bring. I know you guys worked hard and long on this site and poured much of yourselves into it.
/. so successful in the first place.
/. for all of us.
I can't imagine much better terms than these which let you retain complete control of the site. Of course, there will be detractors -- ignore them and keep going. Offload all the sales stuff, hire assistants to help with the email and stories, hire a sysadmin to run the servers, and go back to what made
You know what you're doing and you know what to do. Take what you have and refine and extend it. Make a better
And, thanks for creating my favorite site.
Geeky modern art T-shirts
First, I wish the best luck to the Rob and
/.
Hemos.
What would happen if Andover.Net gets bought by
another company? Would the buyer have to honor
the signed contract? Or if someone bought
from Andover.Net would they have to honor the
inicial contract?
And you and hemos are going to form the interview board for the "Hot Chick Going into CompSci" scholarship, eh rob?
-- First post (by a female living in a state that begins with M and does not end in a vowel with a birthday that falls
Congratulations Rob, Hemos and all others who should be congratulated with this news.
Everyone trusts you Rob, as you can see from the reactions here. Just keep up the good work.
Just one thing: Did they solemnly swear that there will never, ever be any Micro$oft ads on Slashdot?
I've been reading the comments and I am really surprised there isn't much backlash. ./ers are famous for shooting down anyone who becomes sucessful.
./ There is use of trademarks on the front page (for example today we see SGI's logo). Often the trademark is not attributed to the owner of the mark. Now that another company is responsible for you legally, while you have to change some policies that could put them at legal risk, such as this and anonymous posters.
:)
Anyway, congrats!
I've always wondered about one thing about
So what was the sales price (ballpark?) It'll come out soon enough...
-- Virtual Windows Project
The unknown is always really fricken' scarey,
but some of the very best things in life come out
of the unknown.
My congrats to CmdrTaco and the whole Slashdot
crew. You guys have done tremendous work, and
deserve any rewards you get!!
Share data. Share code. Share ideas. Share the wealth.
http://stockfilter.org
So when does that contract expire, if you don't mind a fan asking? Is it possible for Andover.net to sell Slashdot to someone after this contract ends, someone who might mess up the great thing you and Rob have created?
PS: You named the beast from Redmond. Emblazoned upon its forhead in fiery, cryptic symbols, I see "W2K"
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
Just what I was thinking. What are the rules on this and how well are they enforced?
/. closed or anything - just renamed. It makes sense to ensure .orgs really are non profit organizations...
I don't want to see
I'm in favor of this, it sounds like a lot of good things may come of it.
:)
I've always been in favor of free software, and I use and enjoy Project Gutenberg, but mostly we definitely need more hot chicks in Computer Science.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Just look at the pictures!
These are not the traits of a genius.
That's good thing to keep the rights. There is an artical about the yahoo take over of geocities.. It's pretty nasty. All the data is own by Yahoo and they can do what they want with your material. IE if you are a band and have lyrics up, they own it. No longer yours, it's own by yahoo now. That how the artical read anyways..
I ate my tag line.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
maybe now you can post more than 3 stories a day.
$ome reward for your work... Attaway baby. Good to see the American Dream alive and will in the Open Source world. What color will the 911/Vette be?
Cheers,
Dan
Adults are obsolete children. - Dr. Seuss
That's good thing to keep the rights. There is an artical about the yahoo take over of geocities.. It's pretty nasty. All the data is own by Yahoo and they can do what they want with your material. IE if you are a band and have lyrics up, they own it. No longer yours, it's own by yahoo now. That how the article read anyways..
I ate my tag line.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
First of all: congratulations to CT and Hemos, this is a Good Thing(tm).
/. "selling out". C'mon folks! Wake up and smell the coffee. I know I'm probably going to offend a few people here, and my apologies beforehand for that.
/. has banner ads is so it could continue to exist, the reason /. is now partly /. running? Imagine for a minute, there's co-location cost for the servers, there is the cost for bandwidth, all that costs money folks, and does Rob get anything in return for that? Nope, he started this all to share something with the community, to share something with everyone. Why bitch and complain when you get something that's good and you get it for free? I don't get it, that's like getting a brand new car and bitching about the ashtray gone missing.
/. mirror, because first of all it's a damn good site to get your daily dose of geek news, and second of all they *deserve* it.
/. there is only one ad, at the top of the page, and all you have to do is scroll down a tiny bit and it's gone. Now for fun, go check out http://www.telegraaf.nl/ -- it's a Dutch newspaper online. Can we say banner-ad-galore?
Second, I've seen a lot of people bitch and whine about banner ads, and
The reason
under AndOver.net control is because people want it to keep existing. Does anyone here have any idea what it costs to keep
I think a lot of people here don't realise what it's like to literally pump money into something so you can share something with others, compare it to the 'old fashioned' BBS'es. I ran one about 4 years ago, and all I did was pump my entire allowance into it. I never made money off of it, it only cost me money. But damn that, it was fun to run it, it was fun to see over 1000 people actually using it and having 200 callers in one day. People who appreciated that there was a BBS in their area where they could hang out and discuss their favourite subjects.
I know that if I'd own an ISP (which I don't) I'd gladly donate a server and bandwidth to run a
On a final note, I don't particularly like banner ads either, but on
Anyhow, my advice to the complainers: pack up your attitudes and think.
There is no sig...
For those of you run stuff before, you can keep working with me, and it won't be changed. You're right-they've bought the space up there, and our brains.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Did you guys secure rejection rights for the advertising banners? Several years ago I worked as a content writer for an OS/2 site. Although the site was privately owned and controlled, bandwidth was provided by an ISP under the (contractual) agreement that we would run their banners. As you might imagine, we were all quite upset when Micro$oft banners started showing up in the rotation. When the site owner contacted the ISP, he was informed that he had NO rights of rejection and that the only way for him to get rid of the banners was to find a new bandwidth provider. He ended up doing this, but only after the site was accused of "selling out" and a sizeable number of readers abandoned the site.
/. daily for over a year now, and it's nice to see you guys getting something back. While donating your money to help support the movement is great, I'd also suggest putting some of that money back for a vacation. A sandy island beach, bikini-clad girls, sipping margaritas... You guys deserve it :)
You may not care specifically about MS ads, but I can imagine other types of ads that might be out of place here (pr0n). Will you still have the right to order banners removed from the site? Or does Andover have final word on advertisers?
Other than that one small question, I'd like to say WAY TO GO GUYS!! I've enjoyed reading
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
If the economy is so great why isn't there enough money to sustain the independant internet site? Well now we can look forward to even drier stories, harsher moderation, and more banners. We're about to find out why traditional news sites like wired and cnet continue to run the way they do even after the 1998 slashdot.
Congrats fellas!
You did forget one thing though.
You simply can't make life easier by jumping
into the corporate world and offloading work.
You _NEED_ a clip-on tie or two before things simplify any!