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...
Hope that clears it up.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
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.
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.
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
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.
>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.
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
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...)
>Ok, your argument would have some merit if you
>could demonstrate that 50% of all athletic
>scholorships were given to female athletes...
>which you can't.
If he's in the U.S., he most certainly can. Except for the handful of colleges that completely avoid federal contact, all U.S. Colleges are forced to give out scholarships in proportion to enrollment by gender--not that this makes sense.
Requiring some such "equality" in non-cash sports makes a certain amount of sense, but including football and basketball (and someday, Women's Gymnastics??) programs that make money in the same count as programs that cost money is just plain odd. Then again, I think it's disgraceful that athletic scholarships outnumber academic scholarships by orders of magnitude . . .
I tried mailing iron before, the postage was horrible.
matguy
Net. Admin.
matguy(.com)
"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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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
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
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.
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
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Yes. The code will still be available. I might even have some time to work on it again if I can afford to hire some help!
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
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.
Hell no.
Pants are still optional, but recommended for you.
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.
I'm not wearing any right now. :)
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Next week andover.net will be acquired by microsoft and .......
Good luck.
OverLord.
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!"
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?
No censorship either-because our contract is our vision for the site, we can say no to that. And we will. Oh-and the donkey balls are dirty so much as filthy. :)
Yeah, I'm that guy.
They've got some news folks, but we're going to be bringing in more people from the community-Rob and I are sick of working 70 hours a week as well.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
(However, I have to agree with the other poster who said this: only one ad, please!)
ufdraco
True-but our lawyers weren't nice either. Our contract is inviolate-whether they sell or not, we've got all rights. So, even if they sold to MS, we'd still have control.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
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 can't think of any reason why sites like this couldn't make money. I have clicked on slashdot banner ads before. Certainly there are vendors who are interested in targeting slashdot's readership.
So Slashdot has lost a reader who never saw banner ads and doesn't even have an account. How is this bad?