You won't get flamed, you're right. Microsoft does have a thorough beta agreement explaining what your compensation is and isn't. Any company that does beta testing should have beta agreements - it's just common sense.
Injuries associated with the use of computers or their accessories include joystick digit, mouse elbow and central palmar blister on the inside of the hand.
Joystick digit? Mouse elbow? This stuff is hilarious! How about CTRL-ALT-DEL-overextended-finger?
They seem to think that people will want to pay for on-demand music with a load of restrictions, when they can already get unrestricted tunes for free.
I checked out pressplay - for $10 a month, you get to stream 300 songs and download 30 songs. Plus, the songs stop working after you cancel your account. Aren't they generous? For $15/month, you get more streams and downloads, and you can burn 10 whole tracks to a CD! (only 2 tracks per artist, and only tracks that have been designated as 'burnable') Their website has no mention of portable players - apparently this isn't a permitted way to hear the music you rented.
Do they even wonder why people aren't signing up in droves? Maybe the new Napster will fare better than pressplay if they don't impose so many restrictions on the listener.
Thanks for the DivX FUD. DivX 3 was based on the MS codec, but DivX 4 (aka OpenDivx) has been completely rewritten - no MS code at all. Now the legality of a patent-free implementation of DivX is another story..
This is completely correct. TrustE will certify that you have a privacy policy, that's about it. When RealNetworks spammed their users repeatedly, anti-spam groups reported to TrustE that Real was violating their own privacy policy. TrustE should have revoked Real's membership, but they did nothing.
Also, what does spam have to do with privacy? TrustE mostly concerns themselves with how companies use your information - but spammers don't have any information about you, only an e-mail address they harvested or bought!
Then you're not familiar with the case of Bernie Shifman. What your friend did was look through jobs on a job search site, and indiscriminately submit his resume to every listing. That's not spam - the recipients have ASKED for resume submissions, and your friend submitted them.
What Bernie did WAS spam. He sent his resume (through e-mail, not a job site) to thousands of e-mail addresses, including non-HR addresses. Many of the addresses never asked for resume submissions. When people complained, he went berzerk and started threatening them with lawsuits. Then he spammed AGAIN, after he was asked not to.
What your friend did was fine - what Bernie did was not OK.
My gut feeling is that these people are a bunch of california nut jobs, but who knows. We used to think that smoking was safe too, you know.
So, have we actually done studies about these people who are supposedly "electrically sensitive?" There was a teacher in the article who said she felt nauseous whenever she was in the school with a wireless transmitter on the roof. If she is so sensitive to radio waves, why don't we put her in a shielded room with high powered radio transmitters, and run a test. We see if she can tell when she is being bombarded by radio waves. It works exactly like a hearing test, which is used to detect tinnitus and hearing loss. Just tell her to raise her hand when the radio waves make her feel sick.
Until we prove that this is an actual condition, why is anyone listening to these nuts?
The economy of scale dictates that higher volume = lower cost. If FedEx were allowed to deliver first class mail (which is a much bigger business than express delivery of packages) they'd drive down costs. There's no way to know, but I think FedEx would charge less than USPS for a first class letter.
There's nothing illegal about USPS partnering with Microsoft. What IS illegal, is if some company other than USPS delivers first class mail to you. That's a federal crime. The postal service, if it lost its artificial monopoly, would last about a week in the free market. Do you really think they could compete with FedEx and UPS? Efficiency is EVERYTHING with those companies. If FedEx moved all that volume of first class mail, a letter would cost ten cents to mail, get there in two days, and be trackable.
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
That would be a good solution, except you can't count on your connection being up. I'm on AT&T and I've lost connectivity for days. That's plenty of time for a mailserver to stop trying to connect. Plus, they do change your IP address every once in a while. If that happens, you're screwed until you can get the MX records updated.
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
Hey! What are you guys talking about? We need to support the music industry! If we don't all buy these copy protected CDs from UMG, the terrorists will have won!
You will never seen a Microsoft or AOL exec talking about how cool the their companies or products are
I guess JonKatz hasn't seen this yet. That just goes to prove that you can be a billionaire Microsoft exec, and still be absolutely insane. Only Ballmer could yell "DEVELOPERS!" over and over again, and still be taken seriously (kind of).
Well, there aren't going to be studies and articles about companies that virtually nobody knows about. I happen to know people who do it, and that's how it's done.
There simply aren't companies spamming that slip under the radar of anti-spam groups. Read news.admin.net-abuse.email some time - you'll be amazed by the dedication (and thoroughness) of the regulars there. I did a quick google search for 'pacific island' and it came up with nothing. Believe me, the people in nanae are smarter than your spammer friends, and they would have found them by now.
I'm sure that all of the spam you're getting are from legitimate S-Corporations with nice large offices in Silicon Valley that have PR people with who you can register complaints.
That's a pretty big assumption you're making about spam, and it's not correct. Check out spamhaus.org for a more accurate picture of where spam comes from - Beaverhome / Monsterhut is a good example of a downright evil company. Fact is, a lot of spam comes from unscrupulous companies and people right here in the US, who could be shut down with the right laws. Even this slashdot story, is about Kozmo.com getting sued for spam.
Well, thanks for backing up your statements with all those statistics. Since you've pointed to studies, news articles, and online discussions backing up your facts I feel confident believing your statement that most companies spam from a shadowy data haven outside of the reach of law.
Of course, if you had said that my spam comes from some crazy island in the Pacific without backing up that statement with ANY FACT WHATSOEVER, I wouldn't believe you. Oh wait.. You don't have any proof to back up your statements. Never mind.
Well, AOL had a trademark complaint about GAIM. This has absolutely nothing to do with spam - what are you saying? If you're against one lawsuit, you shouldn't support any laws whatsoever? I guess you disagree with some trademark laws, so you believe that we should live in anarchy because SOME laws are bad.
What we need is national legislation against spam. There are too many state laws that legitimize spam in one way or another. This gives every spammer a one time get out of jail free card, and does nothing for spam problem in general. New spammers pop up all the time - it doesn't make sense to 'opt out' of every new spam list you get onto.
The article makes a good point about laws that require spam to be labeled. This isn't a solution, and there are also conflicting requirements between state laws. One law requires "ADV: ADLT" on the subject header, another law requires "ADULT ADVERTISEMENT". This is a perfect example of laws being too specific - legislation has no business dictating changes to the SMTP protocol. This isn't useful either: shouldn't spam laws apply to more than SMTP? Say, ICQ spam? Internal AOL spam?
This is why we need a national spam law. No conflicts, no SMTP requirements, no opt-out. Make spam illegal, period. Spam is harassment, theft of service, and usually fraudulent. It costs ISPs millions of dollars that are passed on to YOU. Companies lose productivity because of workers receiving spam.
If you think this is any different from junk fax laws, you're kidding yourself. Spam and junk faxes both hurt the recipient. Spam is not free speech. Spam is not a constitutional right. Banning spam IS the right answer.
The authors of the article have proven they know nothing about IIS.
IIS wasn't in the default install for 2000 pro either. Why does this matter, anyway? Is there anyone who uses web server software "because it was there?" Organizations don't run web servers on workstations, either. XP home and pro are both workstation operating systems.
A million dipshits like you have suggested 'just hit delete,' and a million patient anti-spammers have explained why this is the dumbest solution known to man. I don't have that patience for you any more.
Slashdot Mirror
You won't get flamed, you're right. Microsoft does have a thorough beta agreement explaining what your compensation is and isn't. Any company that does beta testing should have beta agreements - it's just common sense.
Injuries associated with the use of computers or their accessories include joystick digit, mouse elbow and central palmar blister on the inside of the hand.
Joystick digit? Mouse elbow? This stuff is hilarious! How about CTRL-ALT-DEL-overextended-finger?
They seem to think that people will want to pay for on-demand music with a load of restrictions, when they can already get unrestricted tunes for free.
I checked out pressplay - for $10 a month, you get to stream 300 songs and download 30 songs. Plus, the songs stop working after you cancel your account. Aren't they generous? For $15/month, you get more streams and downloads, and you can burn 10 whole tracks to a CD! (only 2 tracks per artist, and only tracks that have been designated as 'burnable') Their website has no mention of portable players - apparently this isn't a permitted way to hear the music you rented.
Do they even wonder why people aren't signing up in droves? Maybe the new Napster will fare better than pressplay if they don't impose so many restrictions on the listener.
Thanks for the DivX FUD. DivX 3 was based on the MS codec, but DivX 4 (aka OpenDivx) has been completely rewritten - no MS code at all. Now the legality of a patent-free implementation of DivX is another story..
This is completely correct. TrustE will certify that you have a privacy policy, that's about it. When RealNetworks spammed their users repeatedly, anti-spam groups reported to TrustE that Real was violating their own privacy policy. TrustE should have revoked Real's membership, but they did nothing.
Also, what does spam have to do with privacy? TrustE mostly concerns themselves with how companies use your information - but spammers don't have any information about you, only an e-mail address they harvested or bought!
Fact: 85% of all violent crimes in the US are committed because of, or under the direct influence of drugs.
Sounds like one of the government's propaganda statistics. Even if this stat were true, most of that 85% would be alcohol.
That statistic has been around since hard core drugs... and has remained constant.
What does that mean? 'since hard core drugs'?
Have I personally seen a pot deal gone bad that caused the death of people? Hell yes.
Isn't that a good reason to end prohibition? If we end prohibition, we take the criminal aspect out of the drug business.
If you're on the hard stuff, back to stealing, and if you're really strung out... stickin up people when you're not thinkig straight.
This image of a strung out addict robbing and killing has been burned into our heads by propaganda, not reality.
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
-Dr. Nick
Then you're not familiar with the case of Bernie Shifman. What your friend did was look through jobs on a job search site, and indiscriminately submit his resume to every listing. That's not spam - the recipients have ASKED for resume submissions, and your friend submitted them.
What Bernie did WAS spam. He sent his resume (through e-mail, not a job site) to thousands of e-mail addresses, including non-HR addresses. Many of the addresses never asked for resume submissions. When people complained, he went berzerk and started threatening them with lawsuits. Then he spammed AGAIN, after he was asked not to.
What your friend did was fine - what Bernie did was not OK.
My gut feeling is that these people are a bunch of california nut jobs, but who knows. We used to think that smoking was safe too, you know.
So, have we actually done studies about these people who are supposedly "electrically sensitive?" There was a teacher in the article who said she felt nauseous whenever she was in the school with a wireless transmitter on the roof. If she is so sensitive to radio waves, why don't we put her in a shielded room with high powered radio transmitters, and run a test. We see if she can tell when she is being bombarded by radio waves. It works exactly like a hearing test, which is used to detect tinnitus and hearing loss. Just tell her to raise her hand when the radio waves make her feel sick.
Until we prove that this is an actual condition, why is anyone listening to these nuts?
Read my post again:
If FedEx moved all that volume
The economy of scale dictates that higher volume = lower cost. If FedEx were allowed to deliver first class mail (which is a much bigger business than express delivery of packages) they'd drive down costs. There's no way to know, but I think FedEx would charge less than USPS for a first class letter.
There's nothing illegal about USPS partnering with Microsoft. What IS illegal, is if some company other than USPS delivers first class mail to you. That's a federal crime. The postal service, if it lost its artificial monopoly, would last about a week in the free market. Do you really think they could compete with FedEx and UPS? Efficiency is EVERYTHING with those companies. If FedEx moved all that volume of first class mail, a letter would cost ten cents to mail, get there in two days, and be trackable.
And notice that they haven't really silenced anyone: all the posts are still there.
Not for long. -1 posts don't get archived.
Actually, there are an infinite number of different and original possible programs to calculate a fibonacci series. Computer science at work!
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
Well, that's just my take on the matter.
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
Well, that's just my take on the matter.
That would be a good solution, except you can't count on your connection being up. I'm on AT&T and I've lost connectivity for days. That's plenty of time for a mailserver to stop trying to connect. Plus, they do change your IP address every once in a while. If that happens, you're screwed until you can get the MX records updated.
OK- I've been on Slashdot for a while now. At first I read it for the links, which were great. Then I started reading comments. I didn't post for a long time. I watched the moderation system evolve into what it is today.
But the fact is, Slashdot is broken. If you're not familiar with the most moderated thread on slashdot, go here. Without going into too much detail, nameless Slashdot editors 'threadslapped' an entire thread of comments under the comment entitled "The first Slashdot troll post investigation." Every post there goes to -1, Offtopic within minutes it appears.. which is why I'm not posting this comment in that thread.
When I first read this, I was pissed - isn't Slashdot's moderation system "user based" as CmdrTaco has insisted on since the beginning? CmdrTaco has ALWAYS recommended a moderation system that was completely controlled by the users. He said he was against manually intervening.. until he admitted to bitchslapping users because he didn't like them. But that's old news and if you've been on Slashdot long enough, you know it's par for the course.
Let's compare: Why does Slashdot suck while K5 continues to be a good community? Don't forget that K5 editors reserve the right to kill comments and even ban users. Rusty is the first to admit that K5 is NOT a democracy. Still, the two biggest differences are users moderating story submissions, and the fact that you can SEE who moderated each comment, if you want. These two features are enough to prevent this kind of thing (wholesale downvoting of comments) from ever happening on Kuro5hin.
Is it hypocritical to disapprove of Slashdot's editors, while praising K5's editors, even though they have always reserved the right to dictate the content of their site? Yes. But do I care? No, I don't care. The fact is that Slashdot's editors are a bunch of hypocrites themselves. CmdrTaco, champion of "your rights online," violated his own philosophy by sticking his nose in a "user moderated" forum. Jamie McCarthy doesn't post stories often, but this comment on K5 makes you wonder if he wasn't behind the systematic downmodding.
From his comment: "But if editors (who of course have unlimited mod points, we've said this before) happen to notice off-topic threads taking over stories, we moderate them as such. Duh."
Ah.. but where do you admit to that, Jamie? Not in the Slashdot FAQ.. (no, admitting it on K5 does not count). Actually, the FAQ says "Slashdot is committed to the idea of a completely free and open forum." CmdrTaco wrote that, over a year ago. A completely free and open forum that silences an entire discussion because one person didn't like where it was going.
A couple things before I post this and lose all my karma (btw it's just a number and I don't care how much I have). This moderation wouldn't bother me so much, if it wasn't for all the (justified) bitching and moaning from the editors when MS wanted to get a comment taken off of Slashdot. Now they have the gall to do the same thing themselves, without any public comment? I think this deserves a front page 'sorry' from whichever editor did it.
You'll notice I didn't use the word censorship once. This isn't censorship! You don't have a god given right to post to Slashdot. The editors can do what they like. I prefer to look at the site as a sort of failed human experiment. In these comments, you can find humanity at its most eloquent and compassionate (read the 'Hellmouth' stories again. It's worth it. They are that good). You can also find, well, mindless garbage that gives real trolls a bad name. But in the end it comes down to the editors. They're the bread and butter of a site like this, and they used to be good. Many of us have watched this community die, thanks to them.
Well, that's just my take on the matter.
Hey! What are you guys talking about? We need to support the music industry! If we don't all buy these copy protected CDs from UMG, the terrorists will have won!
You will never seen a Microsoft or AOL exec talking about how cool the their companies or products are
I guess JonKatz hasn't seen this yet. That just goes to prove that you can be a billionaire Microsoft exec, and still be absolutely insane. Only Ballmer could yell "DEVELOPERS!" over and over again, and still be taken seriously (kind of).
Well, there aren't going to be studies and articles about companies that virtually nobody knows about. I happen to know people who do it, and that's how it's done.
There simply aren't companies spamming that slip under the radar of anti-spam groups. Read news.admin.net-abuse.email some time - you'll be amazed by the dedication (and thoroughness) of the regulars there. I did a quick google search for 'pacific island' and it came up with nothing. Believe me, the people in nanae are smarter than your spammer friends, and they would have found them by now.
I'm sure that all of the spam you're getting are from legitimate S-Corporations with nice large offices in Silicon Valley that have PR people with who you can register complaints.
That's a pretty big assumption you're making about spam, and it's not correct. Check out spamhaus.org for a more accurate picture of where spam comes from - Beaverhome / Monsterhut is a good example of a downright evil company. Fact is, a lot of spam comes from unscrupulous companies and people right here in the US, who could be shut down with the right laws. Even this slashdot story, is about Kozmo.com getting sued for spam.
Well, thanks for backing up your statements with all those statistics. Since you've pointed to studies, news articles, and online discussions backing up your facts I feel confident believing your statement that most companies spam from a shadowy data haven outside of the reach of law.
Of course, if you had said that my spam comes from some crazy island in the Pacific without backing up that statement with ANY FACT WHATSOEVER, I wouldn't believe you. Oh wait.. You don't have any proof to back up your statements. Never mind.
Well, AOL had a trademark complaint about GAIM. This has absolutely nothing to do with spam - what are you saying? If you're against one lawsuit, you shouldn't support any laws whatsoever? I guess you disagree with some trademark laws, so you believe that we should live in anarchy because SOME laws are bad.
What we need is national legislation against spam. There are too many state laws that legitimize spam in one way or another. This gives every spammer a one time get out of jail free card, and does nothing for spam problem in general. New spammers pop up all the time - it doesn't make sense to 'opt out' of every new spam list you get onto.
The article makes a good point about laws that require spam to be labeled. This isn't a solution, and there are also conflicting requirements between state laws. One law requires "ADV: ADLT" on the subject header, another law requires "ADULT ADVERTISEMENT". This is a perfect example of laws being too specific - legislation has no business dictating changes to the SMTP protocol. This isn't useful either: shouldn't spam laws apply to more than SMTP? Say, ICQ spam? Internal AOL spam?
This is why we need a national spam law. No conflicts, no SMTP requirements, no opt-out. Make spam illegal, period. Spam is harassment, theft of service, and usually fraudulent. It costs ISPs millions of dollars that are passed on to YOU. Companies lose productivity because of workers receiving spam.
If you think this is any different from junk fax laws, you're kidding yourself. Spam and junk faxes both hurt the recipient. Spam is not free speech. Spam is not a constitutional right. Banning spam IS the right answer.
The authors of the article have proven they know nothing about IIS.
IIS wasn't in the default install for 2000 pro either. Why does this matter, anyway? Is there anyone who uses web server software "because it was there?" Organizations don't run web servers on workstations, either. XP home and pro are both workstation operating systems.
A million dipshits like you have suggested 'just hit delete,' and a million patient anti-spammers have explained why this is the dumbest solution known to man. I don't have that patience for you any more.
http://www.cauce.org/about/nonsolutions.shtml
Spam is harassment and theft of service, plain and simple. It is not the same as P2P and you are a moron if you think they are remotely similar.