I haven't replied to any thread on Slashdot since I last screamed "Fuck Beta" as often as I could over a year ago. I believe I logged in once when Slashdot said they had removed Beta. (It didn't look like it to me.) I'll occasionally look at a story if something looks interesting on my RSS feed. I don't come to the website except to log in. It's been a long time since I've actually visited.
Want to show a really good faith move to attract the "old farts" back? When Soylent News was formed, they took the old Slashdot code and saw it hadn't been updated in years, and was severely broken.
Open source it again. Put a nice link on the website in an easy to find location. As a matter of fact, make it a front news story once you've done it. If you think that this is a bad move because you need to keep the code close to your chest so you don't have another split off like Soylent News, then you don't understand the "old farts" and they are not your target audience.
And even after you've done that, it will still take time for the old farts to trust you. Trust is not earned with a single action nor in a short period of time.
There's a pretty good book I own in paperback (electronic versions available) for high performance stuff from PostgreSQL. It's called PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance. It's probably beyond what you want, but if you're interested in looking at it, let me know and I'll bring it next time we get together.
It's always a fight for me to find work, usually 100 miles away from the previous job, most likely because HR rejects every resume lacking any keyword on the job reqs, and I'm one of the GOOD ones, with a resume that includes senior positions in big companies you've heard of. I swear HR has gone underground in the past few years, and is recruiting exclusively from LinkedIn or something.
You've almost got it. HR hires from consulting firms and one of the places consulting firms go is LinkedIn. That's right, boys and girls, you have to please a minimum of three layers to get a job. (Consultant, HR, Manager). You have to look good online, on paper, and in person.
Disclaimer: I don't have answers. I've been looking for about three years off and on (earlier in the States and now in Europe), but I know who calls me and who wants to talk to me: the consultants. I've physically walked into businesses (when I knew they were hiring) and asked for a name in HR but the front desk wouldn't even give me the time of day. When I went to CeBIT (a large convention here in Europe), I spoke with small companies, large companies, and consulting firms. The large companies pointed me to their website (which is takes a lot of time to fill in because they think they are special) and consultants dominated the floor. The few small companies that were there were very picky and want loads of experience in their particular area.
Yeah, unfortunately, I don't have many words of encouragement. The best advice I can offer at this time is look at the ads and see what they are looking for. There seems to be a good deal of suck to go around because companies are unwilling to make the effort to train people and managers are unwilling to hire based on "real" quality instead of paper quality.
When I sheer-dumb-luck ran across this guy (CEO of 20 - 30 employees), I went into full study mode. I took two weeks of reading hundreds of pages of tech docs and skimming thousands of pages in an effort to absorb over a dozen technologies. The third and fourth week has been to try to write some code, but as you can imagine, I've had very limited success; too much to learn too quickly. (I've been working my butt off weekends, some nights, and all holidays. I'm not sleeping very well right now.) Although I don't know much about the job or the company, I'm trying very hard to get this job. He's the first serious bite I've seen in a long time.
The take away I've gotten from my journey is that companies want you to look good on paper. The more your resume matches the ad, the better. Key words on high-demand jobs will also trigger phone calls. My key word was "Java". They completely ignored my lack of web experience or what I had been doing for the past 10 years. I even had a list of technologies on my website. "Java" was how I inadvertently got phone calls from head hunters, recruiters, (and in a few rare instances) HR. I'm into PHP now and it's my intention to write small programs and publish the code on the Internet so I can stand out in an interview, but this comment is very discouraging with that idea. (It's still my plan if this second interview doesn't yield me the job. I have to learn and keep up the skills somehow.)
I am trying very hard to figure out how sub-standard programmers get employed. Other than out-right lying, I cannot figure it out. I've never lied and I'm not about to start now, though.
Wisecat, I wish you luck in your journey. Be smart, keep at it, and don't become discouraged.
In my opinion, for a longer view, pick a field you are good at rather than one that appears strong now.
I usually agree with you, but I'm going against that advice right now. I've had multiple phone interviews that lasted about 5 minutes. Long enough for them to learn that I programmed in Java, but not JEE or J2EE. I'm good at what I do, but the market doesn't seem to want me as my skills don't present well on paper. It's hard to filter past the HR drones. When I do get it to filter, the managers are disappointed that I don't have 100% of the knowledge they are after. This has been going on for three years. It's a little hard to "wait it out" after so long.
Recently, I had a manager say he likes my skills, but he needs those skills in the web world. He's given me a little time to see what I can learn, so I've dived both feet into we web development and I get to interview with him again shortly. It was a good time for both of us because I was tired of searching for a non web-related job (which seems to be what most open positions want) and he was tired of interviewing script kiddies.
"Stable job" "all the way to retirement" [snip] they're average to below average [snip] I'd need to be convinced otherwise in the interview to give them an offer.
It's a shame that people only want rock star programmers today. The best of the best of the best. It leave common joes like me wondering why my talents are being wasted by companies. I think common programmers like me should have a good place to fit in a company, but I suppose my averageness doesn't allow me to envision the right way things should be like you rock stars. I envision training by companies and a little guidance by the rock stars so they can focus on things that I can't. I don't mind doing grunt work. But again, your vision of instability for the life of a project or a program is probably better than what I had in mind. After all, I'm only average. I'm only a common joe.
If you paid your new hire to spend his or her first week reading an O'Reilly book, then the next month paired up with a more experienced coder, you'd find that there is no shortage of workers, rather there is a surplus.
Nary a quote was better spoken. It is unbelievable how true this is.
They may be out there but they seem to be behind a wall of recruiters
This is my current problem. I've encountered it living in two different countries in the past two years. If I can't present myself to a computer just perfectly and if I can't talk to HR just perfectly, I'm never going to get to you. I have a list of examples. (I even have an example of two managers who wanted to talk with me in a particular company and HR screwed up so badly that after a solid month of trying to talk to the managers, I finally said no to the company and walked away. I had friends in that company. My friends and the managers were left with wide eyes at how badly I was treated. And that company was posting multiple open positions every week. But, no, I couldn't talk or schedule meetings with the manager directly. That was a no-no and the managers couldn't do that. I had to schedule everything through HR.) Every time I try to talk to someone face to face in any company, I am shot down with "go on the computer and submit your resume". Frankly, my resume isn't impressive. I suck at making resumes. I suck at networking with managers. I'm a decent programmer with experience and I'm a good people person. I'm so frustrated that I can't seem to link up with the right people.
Sorry that I can't live in Denver or I'd contact you.
Strange. I'd say you're trolling, but you have a low count six-digit user ID. I'll choose to treat you as misinformed.
You say that we are powerless. I disagree. I intend to boycott. Should that fail, I'll leave for another site... which is already in the making. (I might frequent both if both can survive. There are other IT sites after all.) That is the power of my choice.
As for power the of Slashdot, it comes from the community -- people like you and me. If enough people boycott, the quality of Slashdot will be seriously affected for a week. It will be interesting to see the results.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
You probably already know about it as you're usually on top of things and I'm now going back to some older posts, but just in case, I'll reply to you anyway. altslashdot seems to be in progress of being constructed. It may end up at a different website, but that's the start.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
One thing is missing from these boycott calls: a means of communication before, during and after the proposed boycott. Without such a means of communication nobody will know whether the boycott is successful or not. At the most they'll head for/. - thereby negating the effect of the proposed boycott - to see whether it is as empty as intended.
It would be nice, but there is no requirement to discuss before, during, and after. Either Dice fixes what they are doing and the majority stay (some have already left over this) or people build their own Slashdot-like website. I'll come back on the 18th and look around. I'll know if things are back to normal or if they addressed the problems. If things really go south here, check out one of the other alternative slashdots that are being worked on. It will take some time for this to finish shaking out.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
In fact, do to incessant whining I've decided I really like Beta quite a bit and can we keep it just as it is? I'm going to fight hard for Beta now just because I know it pisses you off.
I already responded once to you but I had to reply to this comment: I'm in support of both the beta and the classic. I personally hate the beta and prefer the classic, but there is no technological reason why they can't run side by side. I know there are some people who like the beta. That's ok. It's their cup of tea. There is no reason why either needs to be taken away.
Before you say I'm contradicting myself in my signature, I'll also say that I merely picked up the "Fuck Beta" line because it was being forced down my throat in broken form. If they have plans to actually fix it (which they say they do but I'm not convinced of for reasons I won't get into here), I'm interested to see the finished product as are a lot of other people.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
Consider this: if beta worked, you could just close the "petty vendettas" easily. (It's one of the things we're complaining about.) Most of the threads spawned pretty much had separate threads for beta and on-topic stories. I thought that separation was pretty amazing considering no one organized that. Yes, there were cross overs, but it wasn't that bad.
No matter what, I think you'll get your wish in a day or two and you can be happy. There's going to be a boycott and you can read your articles without interference. After that, things will go back to normal or become a ghost town.
(Yes, the editors responded, but they did not address all of the issues, so you're still going to see some noise for a day or two.)
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
I already responded to one of your comments, but I want to respond to this one specifically.
Take a look at this website. It's obviously verbally vulgar, but otherwise it is safe for work and it's funny. It also makes a very serious statement that I think a lot of Slashdotters would agree with. I suggest you read this in its entirety. It's short and won't take long.
I have other opinions, but I won't repeat what others are already telling you.
Groklaw and Slashdot served two different needs. I'm not sure you can combine them, although in all honesty, I did not use Groklaw nor Technocrat.
Check out www.altslashdot.org and see about pooling resources if you're serious about a replacement. Someone actually mentioned you and Technocrat in the comments on the first page.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
First and foremost, thank you (both Timothy and Soulskill) for responding. It's half a step in the right direction. The tone in this "story" is much less angry and more civil, so you definitely have our attention.
With that said, I'm still boycotting from February 10th through 17th to emphasize how angry I am. You have hurt the community here -- possibly irrevocably because I am also actively pursuing possibilities of an alternative slashdot-like site -- even though I'd rather stay with Slashdot. (I know of three that were started independently in the past 24 hours.) Why? Because this is the first major response to our complaints that you've given about beta in forever. You made us believe that you are "taking classic away from us". You still haven't directly responded to this problem and it is mind blowing.
It's really simple. Until you implement all major features, your site is an alpha. In an actual beta, all major features are implemented and you should only be working out bugs and kinks. We will be there to help you with both the alpha and beta. Forcing 25% of us into an alpha-ready site and telling us that classic is going away (a.k.a., our moderation) is wrong, pig headed, and premature. You need to acknowledge this above all else.
You also need 3 - 4 user interfaces that interface with your back end. We know it can be done and should be done. Three for desktops and maybe one for mobile. Of the three desktop versions: one with javascript, one without javascript, and one for lynx. Both the "with javascript" and "without javascript" versions should have different options that are stored in cookies and logins so we can customize a bit.
You, every single programmer, and every manager need to read every single comment that Timothy has generated. It's a good start to understanding what is wrong with your beta site and your communication about it. I agree with 98% of the comments I see. I know readers digest is important at the moment since your inboxes are flooded. I suggest starting with this comment, this comment, this comment, and this comment.
When I come back on the 18th, I expect to see something about how you are going to treat us better than you're treating us right now. If you give an actual mea culpa and fully address our issues, Slashdot will tower above any split offs. You have the momentum. If you don't, a lot of us are going to work on your competitor full steam ahead and many will jump from Slashdot. It's not a threat. This is your user base. We are technically oriented and opinionated. It just depends if you want to work with us or not.
Again, thank you for responding. I feel it is half a step in the right direction. I eagerly await the other half step. Me and many others will be watching closely (with the exception during the boycott).
I really don't know of another site where I can attempt to follow a debate about nuclear fusion, and find a debate about Apple only a page apart. This is about to be taken away as the best and brightest around here are going to leave as they are fed up with these beta changes, and Slashdot as a quality site will die.
Yes, but there is hope. Boycott and if that doesn't work, we'll forge another website.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
IF the people running this site are so obstinate, stupid, and ignorant that they persist anyway: then the boycott needs to be permanent. We ALL need to leave.
Fully agreed. And it just might happen.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Indeed. The wave is moving very quickly. Dice may have already lost it, but if they try right now and address it, there still may be time to save Slashdot. I'd rather see Slashdot saved than move off it, but I'm not sticking around out of nostalgia.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
I'm going to skip writing them as others can more eloquently say what the problems are than I can. I certainly hope you're right.
If you do write them again, perhaps you can add this: I think they're biggest mistake was saying that they were going to force us onto the beta without rolling out all the major features first. Only after good feedback of all major features should they say that they are going to force us onto the beta... and then they should give us time to adapt. There are too many things wrong or not implemented to give the premature news that we're going to move whether we like it or not.
For the time being, I'm going to still boycott just to drive my point home.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Anyway, I just simply came to say what a shame it is that the beta site conversations have completely taken over Slashdot. Although I fully support the beta site conversation take over, it has ruined a potentially interesting good conversation about this story. I have a very good friend who was paralyzed less than two years ago and I've worked with people with disabilities. Although I have no physical disabilities of my own, I am very much aware of how difficult this is and how important a breakthrough this is.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't replied to any thread on Slashdot since I last screamed "Fuck Beta" as often as I could over a year ago. I believe I logged in once when Slashdot said they had removed Beta. (It didn't look like it to me.) I'll occasionally look at a story if something looks interesting on my RSS feed. I don't come to the website except to log in. It's been a long time since I've actually visited.
Want to show a really good faith move to attract the "old farts" back? When Soylent News was formed, they took the old Slashdot code and saw it hadn't been updated in years, and was severely broken.
Open source it again. Put a nice link on the website in an easy to find location. As a matter of fact, make it a front news story once you've done it. If you think that this is a bad move because you need to keep the code close to your chest so you don't have another split off like Soylent News, then you don't understand the "old farts" and they are not your target audience.
And even after you've done that, it will still take time for the old farts to trust you. Trust is not earned with a single action nor in a short period of time.
There's a pretty good book I own in paperback (electronic versions available) for high performance stuff from PostgreSQL. It's called PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance. It's probably beyond what you want, but if you're interested in looking at it, let me know and I'll bring it next time we get together.
You've almost got it. HR hires from consulting firms and one of the places consulting firms go is LinkedIn. That's right, boys and girls, you have to please a minimum of three layers to get a job. (Consultant, HR, Manager). You have to look good online, on paper, and in person.
Disclaimer: I don't have answers. I've been looking for about three years off and on (earlier in the States and now in Europe), but I know who calls me and who wants to talk to me: the consultants. I've physically walked into businesses (when I knew they were hiring) and asked for a name in HR but the front desk wouldn't even give me the time of day. When I went to CeBIT (a large convention here in Europe), I spoke with small companies, large companies, and consulting firms. The large companies pointed me to their website (which is takes a lot of time to fill in because they think they are special) and consultants dominated the floor. The few small companies that were there were very picky and want loads of experience in their particular area.
Yeah, unfortunately, I don't have many words of encouragement. The best advice I can offer at this time is look at the ads and see what they are looking for. There seems to be a good deal of suck to go around because companies are unwilling to make the effort to train people and managers are unwilling to hire based on "real" quality instead of paper quality.
When I sheer-dumb-luck ran across this guy (CEO of 20 - 30 employees), I went into full study mode. I took two weeks of reading hundreds of pages of tech docs and skimming thousands of pages in an effort to absorb over a dozen technologies. The third and fourth week has been to try to write some code, but as you can imagine, I've had very limited success; too much to learn too quickly. (I've been working my butt off weekends, some nights, and all holidays. I'm not sleeping very well right now.) Although I don't know much about the job or the company, I'm trying very hard to get this job. He's the first serious bite I've seen in a long time.
The take away I've gotten from my journey is that companies want you to look good on paper. The more your resume matches the ad, the better. Key words on high-demand jobs will also trigger phone calls. My key word was "Java". They completely ignored my lack of web experience or what I had been doing for the past 10 years. I even had a list of technologies on my website. "Java" was how I inadvertently got phone calls from head hunters, recruiters, (and in a few rare instances) HR. I'm into PHP now and it's my intention to write small programs and publish the code on the Internet so I can stand out in an interview, but this comment is very discouraging with that idea. (It's still my plan if this second interview doesn't yield me the job. I have to learn and keep up the skills somehow.)
I am trying very hard to figure out how sub-standard programmers get employed. Other than out-right lying, I cannot figure it out. I've never lied and I'm not about to start now, though.
Wisecat, I wish you luck in your journey. Be smart, keep at it, and don't become discouraged.
I usually agree with you, but I'm going against that advice right now. I've had multiple phone interviews that lasted about 5 minutes. Long enough for them to learn that I programmed in Java, but not JEE or J2EE. I'm good at what I do, but the market doesn't seem to want me as my skills don't present well on paper. It's hard to filter past the HR drones. When I do get it to filter, the managers are disappointed that I don't have 100% of the knowledge they are after. This has been going on for three years. It's a little hard to "wait it out" after so long.
Recently, I had a manager say he likes my skills, but he needs those skills in the web world. He's given me a little time to see what I can learn, so I've dived both feet into we web development and I get to interview with him again shortly. It was a good time for both of us because I was tired of searching for a non web-related job (which seems to be what most open positions want) and he was tired of interviewing script kiddies.
Merely food for thought.
You don't have to pay anything, you can watch it, and you won't even have to die. Mostly to your specifications.
For your viewing pleasure: Feds Deconfliction
"Stable job" "all the way to retirement" [snip] they're average to below average [snip] I'd need to be convinced otherwise in the interview to give them an offer.
It's a shame that people only want rock star programmers today. The best of the best of the best. It leave common joes like me wondering why my talents are being wasted by companies. I think common programmers like me should have a good place to fit in a company, but I suppose my averageness doesn't allow me to envision the right way things should be like you rock stars. I envision training by companies and a little guidance by the rock stars so they can focus on things that I can't. I don't mind doing grunt work. But again, your vision of instability for the life of a project or a program is probably better than what I had in mind. After all, I'm only average. I'm only a common joe.
No backup is complete without actually testing the restore capabilities. How is Amazon Glacier in that regard?
If you paid your new hire to spend his or her first week reading an O'Reilly book, then the next month paired up with a more experienced coder, you'd find that there is no shortage of workers, rather there is a surplus.
Nary a quote was better spoken. It is unbelievable how true this is.
They may be out there but they seem to be behind a wall of recruiters
This is my current problem. I've encountered it living in two different countries in the past two years. If I can't present myself to a computer just perfectly and if I can't talk to HR just perfectly, I'm never going to get to you. I have a list of examples. (I even have an example of two managers who wanted to talk with me in a particular company and HR screwed up so badly that after a solid month of trying to talk to the managers, I finally said no to the company and walked away. I had friends in that company. My friends and the managers were left with wide eyes at how badly I was treated. And that company was posting multiple open positions every week. But, no, I couldn't talk or schedule meetings with the manager directly. That was a no-no and the managers couldn't do that. I had to schedule everything through HR.) Every time I try to talk to someone face to face in any company, I am shot down with "go on the computer and submit your resume". Frankly, my resume isn't impressive. I suck at making resumes. I suck at networking with managers. I'm a decent programmer with experience and I'm a good people person. I'm so frustrated that I can't seem to link up with the right people.
Sorry that I can't live in Denver or I'd contact you.
Strange. I'd say you're trolling, but you have a low count six-digit user ID. I'll choose to treat you as misinformed.
You say that we are powerless. I disagree. I intend to boycott. Should that fail, I'll leave for another site... which is already in the making. (I might frequent both if both can survive. There are other IT sites after all.) That is the power of my choice.
As for power the of Slashdot, it comes from the community -- people like you and me. If enough people boycott, the quality of Slashdot will be seriously affected for a week. It will be interesting to see the results.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
You probably already know about it as you're usually on top of things and I'm now going back to some older posts, but just in case, I'll reply to you anyway. altslashdot seems to be in progress of being constructed. It may end up at a different website, but that's the start.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
One thing is missing from these boycott calls: a means of communication before, during and after the proposed boycott. Without such a means of communication nobody will know whether the boycott is successful or not. At the most they'll head for /. - thereby negating the effect of the proposed boycott - to see whether it is as empty as intended.
It would be nice, but there is no requirement to discuss before, during, and after. Either Dice fixes what they are doing and the majority stay (some have already left over this) or people build their own Slashdot-like website. I'll come back on the 18th and look around. I'll know if things are back to normal or if they addressed the problems. If things really go south here, check out one of the other alternative slashdots that are being worked on. It will take some time for this to finish shaking out.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
In fact, do to incessant whining I've decided I really like Beta quite a bit and can we keep it just as it is? I'm going to fight hard for Beta now just because I know it pisses you off.
I already responded once to you but I had to reply to this comment: I'm in support of both the beta and the classic. I personally hate the beta and prefer the classic, but there is no technological reason why they can't run side by side. I know there are some people who like the beta. That's ok. It's their cup of tea. There is no reason why either needs to be taken away.
Before you say I'm contradicting myself in my signature, I'll also say that I merely picked up the "Fuck Beta" line because it was being forced down my throat in broken form. If they have plans to actually fix it (which they say they do but I'm not convinced of for reasons I won't get into here), I'm interested to see the finished product as are a lot of other people.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
Consider this: if beta worked, you could just close the "petty vendettas" easily. (It's one of the things we're complaining about.) Most of the threads spawned pretty much had separate threads for beta and on-topic stories. I thought that separation was pretty amazing considering no one organized that. Yes, there were cross overs, but it wasn't that bad.
No matter what, I think you'll get your wish in a day or two and you can be happy. There's going to be a boycott and you can read your articles without interference. After that, things will go back to normal or become a ghost town.
(Yes, the editors responded, but they did not address all of the issues, so you're still going to see some noise for a day or two.)
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! Information can be found here: www.altslashdot.org.
I already responded to one of your comments, but I want to respond to this one specifically.
Take a look at this website. It's obviously verbally vulgar, but otherwise it is safe for work and it's funny. It also makes a very serious statement that I think a lot of Slashdotters would agree with. I suggest you read this in its entirety. It's short and won't take long.
I have other opinions, but I won't repeat what others are already telling you.
Groklaw and Slashdot served two different needs. I'm not sure you can combine them, although in all honesty, I did not use Groklaw nor Technocrat.
Check out www.altslashdot.org and see about pooling resources if you're serious about a replacement. Someone actually mentioned you and Technocrat in the comments on the first page.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
First and foremost, thank you (both Timothy and Soulskill) for responding. It's half a step in the right direction. The tone in this "story" is much less angry and more civil, so you definitely have our attention.
With that said, I'm still boycotting from February 10th through 17th to emphasize how angry I am. You have hurt the community here -- possibly irrevocably because I am also actively pursuing possibilities of an alternative slashdot-like site -- even though I'd rather stay with Slashdot. (I know of three that were started independently in the past 24 hours.) Why? Because this is the first major response to our complaints that you've given about beta in forever. You made us believe that you are "taking classic away from us". You still haven't directly responded to this problem and it is mind blowing.
It's really simple. Until you implement all major features, your site is an alpha. In an actual beta, all major features are implemented and you should only be working out bugs and kinks. We will be there to help you with both the alpha and beta. Forcing 25% of us into an alpha-ready site and telling us that classic is going away (a.k.a., our moderation) is wrong, pig headed, and premature. You need to acknowledge this above all else.
You also need 3 - 4 user interfaces that interface with your back end. We know it can be done and should be done. Three for desktops and maybe one for mobile. Of the three desktop versions: one with javascript, one without javascript, and one for lynx. Both the "with javascript" and "without javascript" versions should have different options that are stored in cookies and logins so we can customize a bit.
You, every single programmer, and every manager need to read every single comment that Timothy has generated. It's a good start to understanding what is wrong with your beta site and your communication about it. I agree with 98% of the comments I see. I know readers digest is important at the moment since your inboxes are flooded. I suggest starting with this comment, this comment, this comment, and this comment.
When I come back on the 18th, I expect to see something about how you are going to treat us better than you're treating us right now. If you give an actual mea culpa and fully address our issues, Slashdot will tower above any split offs. You have the momentum. If you don't, a lot of us are going to work on your competitor full steam ahead and many will jump from Slashdot. It's not a threat. This is your user base. We are technically oriented and opinionated. It just depends if you want to work with us or not.
Again, thank you for responding. I feel it is half a step in the right direction. I eagerly await the other half step. Me and many others will be watching closely (with the exception during the boycott).
I really don't know of another site where I can attempt to follow a debate about nuclear fusion, and find a debate about Apple only a page apart. This is about to be taken away as the best and brightest around here are going to leave as they are fed up with these beta changes, and Slashdot as a quality site will die.
Yes, but there is hope. Boycott and if that doesn't work, we'll forge another website.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! A note from Okian can be found here: http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot. And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
IF the people running this site are so obstinate, stupid, and ignorant that they persist anyway: then the boycott needs to be permanent. We ALL need to leave.
Fully agreed. And it just might happen.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! A note from Okian can be found here: http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot. And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
Keep your eyes open. Boycott Slashdot for a week. If that doesn't work, there are other alternatives materializing. Dice screwed up big time.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! A note from Okian can be found here: http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot. And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
Indeed. The wave is moving very quickly. Dice may have already lost it, but if they try right now and address it, there still may be time to save Slashdot. I'd rather see Slashdot saved than move off it, but I'm not sticking around out of nostalgia.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! A note from Okian can be found here: http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot. And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
I'm going to skip writing them as others can more eloquently say what the problems are than I can. I certainly hope you're right.
If you do write them again, perhaps you can add this: I think they're biggest mistake was saying that they were going to force us onto the beta without rolling out all the major features first. Only after good feedback of all major features should they say that they are going to force us onto the beta... and then they should give us time to adapt. There are too many things wrong or not implemented to give the premature news that we're going to move whether we like it or not.
For the time being, I'm going to still boycott just to drive my point home.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot Idea!
Ignore the AC that posted to you. What an ass.
Anyway, I just simply came to say what a shame it is that the beta site conversations have completely taken over Slashdot. Although I fully support the beta site conversation take over, it has ruined a potentially interesting good conversation about this story. I have a very good friend who was paralyzed less than two years ago and I've worked with people with disabilities. Although I have no physical disabilities of my own, I am very much aware of how difficult this is and how important a breakthrough this is.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot Idea!
More of us old-fogeys with 1,000,000 user ids need to speak up.
Or boycott for a week.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot Idea!