Well you know, after we dropped "The Bomb" there havn't been that many bloody wars..
That's simply not true. US citizens haven't been involved in bloody wars since Vietnam, but bloody war certainly continues. The US has a hand in every major and most minor conflicts going on at any given time. The mainstream media doesn't report on this stuff in any depth, if at all, because the issues are too complex to hold the public's interest for any length of time, among other reasons. That is to say, ad revenues drop when boring stuff is on TV.
When I moderate, I try to invest my points in posts that I feel are not scored as well as they should be. I look for AC posts that are still at 0 and really should be higher.
Perhaps it would be useful to allow users to put a ceiling on the comments they want to see. I love this fine-tuning of moderation and meta-moderation (though the harder this system becomes for my mother to use, the less useful it ultimately becomes, methinks) but what I really want to see is finer control for each user over the comments they see. Some possibilities:
the option to promote or demote posts based on their moderated category (funny, insightful etc)
the ability to save and apply sets of preferences for browsing (3+ & flat & highest first & informative when I only have a moment to scan the best info, -1 & nested & oldest first when I'm moderating.. or something)
I've tried to explain this stuff before, and I'll probably have to try again, cause it's late and my brain hurts.
That's truly an excellent idea. I'm not sure how the categories work right now (is one moderation enough to classify something as funny or insightful or a troll? It probably shouldn't be...) but if two moderators mark something as a troll it should be considered such. -1, -5, -20, whatever. It's a troll. In my user preferences I could mark such checkboxes as 'never show trolls' or 'always show funny'. Perhaps I could also choose to automatically give a boost to insightful or informative articles, while funny ones got demoted, for my personal perusal. My gut tells me that the best solution probably lies in giving each user more control over their own experience.
That said, I should clarify that I do feel that slashdot has the right to take steps to try to keep these forums useful.. in fact, I think they have a responsibility to do so. Bravo CmdrTaco et al, for making some hard decisions.
I'm personally far more worried about spending the rest of my life under opressive government rule (like 99% of the world's past denizens have spent their lives)
Not to mention a similar portion of the world's current population living under such conditions...
Slashdot Mirror
Well you know, after we dropped "The Bomb" there havn't been that many bloody wars..
That's simply not true. US citizens haven't been involved in bloody wars since Vietnam, but bloody war certainly continues. The US has a hand in every major and most minor conflicts going on at any given time. The mainstream media doesn't report on this stuff in any depth, if at all, because the issues are too complex to hold the public's interest for any length of time, among other reasons. That is to say, ad revenues drop when boring stuff is on TV.
Perhaps it would be useful to allow users to put a ceiling on the comments they want to see. I love this fine-tuning of moderation and meta-moderation (though the harder this system becomes for my mother to use, the less useful it ultimately becomes, methinks) but what I really want to see is finer control for each user over the comments they see. Some possibilities:
the option to promote or demote posts based on their moderated category (funny, insightful etc)
the ability to save and apply sets of preferences for browsing (3+ & flat & highest first & informative when I only have a moment to scan the best info, -1 & nested & oldest first when I'm moderating.. or something)
I've tried to explain this stuff before, and I'll probably have to try again, cause it's late and my brain hurts.
Licensing PalmOS, yes. They've already started this process with IBM, Qualcomm, Handspring, etc.
Don't forget Apple, if the widespread "rumors" are true.
That's truly an excellent idea. I'm not sure how the categories work right now (is one moderation enough to classify something as funny or insightful or a troll? It probably shouldn't be...) but if two moderators mark something as a troll it should be considered such. -1, -5, -20, whatever. It's a troll. In my user preferences I could mark such checkboxes as 'never show trolls' or 'always show funny'. Perhaps I could also choose to automatically give a boost to insightful or informative articles, while funny ones got demoted, for my personal perusal. My gut tells me that the best solution probably lies in giving each user more control over their own experience.
That said, I should clarify that I do feel that slashdot has the right to take steps to try to keep these forums useful.. in fact, I think they have a responsibility to do so. Bravo CmdrTaco et al, for making some hard decisions.
Respecting the establishment of religion is unconstitutional? Umm, I think you've got that backwards.
I'm personally far more worried about spending the rest of my life under opressive government rule (like 99% of the world's past denizens have spent their lives)
Not to mention a similar portion of the world's current population living under such conditions...