Good form for persuasive writing demands that the writer explicitly NOT use modifiers such as, "in my opinion". It is better to assume the reader is intelligent enough to separate fact from opinion.
This notion that we are all weak-minded dummies easily duped by the latest advertising or rhetorical technique is harmful. If we continue to act as though we are all intellectually weak, eventually it will become true.
Furthermore, your attack is hypocritical. Had he said, "Censorship is always a bad idea," I doubt you would have considered it a troll. Such a statement, however, is at least as broad and all-encompassing as, "censorship is not this great evil."
Nevertheless, you insist that one point of view be prefaced with "IMHO" or "may". In effect, you are demanding the poster use weasel-words and weaken his argument in order to escape your self-imposed judgement of "Troll".
If you believe the opening sentence of this post makes it automatically "Flamebait", then you have already succumbed to the notion that the unenlightened masses are incapable of critical thought. I shall amend the sentence to not offend your delicate sensibilities:
Praise whichever Bruce Perens is your favorite, instead of always dwelling on negativity.
AC, you have hit on an important philosophical point.
It is perhaps symptomatic of our Western monotheistic culture that we believe there can only be one Bruce Perens. As a result, we create many warring factions -- each convinced that their's is the "true" Bruce Perens.
The truth, of course, is that ALL of these groups are right. Bruce Perens is all-encompassing. He is what we want Him to be. We may think we believe in different Bruces but in reality, your Bruce and my Bruce are the same Bruce. Who am I to say that your Bruce Perens is not the true Bruce? Have I actually talked to Bruce? Of course not. I think I have, but I have no proof. The Bruce Perens on Technocrat and the Bruce Perens with a dot on Slashdot are equally worthy.
The ultimate truth is that Bruce Perens is all of us and we are all Bruce Perens. And remember: In the future, everyone will be Bruce Perens for 15 minutes.
Will the real Bruce Perens please stand up? Perhaps He already is, AC. Perhaps he already is.
I've been on Slashdot for quite some time now. I've posted, moderated, and meta-moderated more than my share.
IMHO, moderating down "First Posts" is really a waste of points. It is also not in keeping with the spirit of moderation (concentrate on marking up good posts rather than slamming bad ones).
The truth is that 99.99% of all FPs are made anonymously. This means they start at 0. The moderation system is designed so that people can bump their thresholds up to 1 and filter out all the FPs and AC goatse.cx links. Now, as a moderator, you should be browsing at -1, so you are exposed to this vileness. At the same time, you should remember that most serious slashdotters aren't seeing it.
Slapping a -1 on a First Post uses a moderation point that could have been used bumping a worthy AC post up to +1. Then, those of us who usually browse at +1 could see it.
I've been on Slashdot long enough to expect the "First Post" at 0. I set my threshold accordingly. By moderating the FP down to -1, you don't really spare me anything. At the same time, there's probably a post at 0 somewhere in this thread that is worth my attention. It's a pity I'll never see it.
CmdrTaco has worked hard designing this system. It really works if we just let it.
Yeah, yeah, mod down. It's a spelling flame. Do your worst. I'm so scared. You think you're so special because you have points today -- "Oh, I must use them carefully! I can't waste them! I must raise up the insightful low-scoring posts! I must prevent the trolls from creating havoc! It is my sacred duty!"
Blah blah blah. Close that browser window and get back to work, doofus.
I bit down on my tootsie roll when I heard you had been admitted to the hallowed halls of trolldom! To the wise trolls who admitted you, I can offer only this advice:
When I first began writing the "nfp" post above, I totally stunned that I had happened onto an article with apparently no replies. It was a completely chance event -- like winning the lottery, being struck by lightning, or receiving an IRS audit WITHOUT having exposed sexual misconduct of the current U.S. President.
I did not believe I would actually be able to type and "Submit" quickly enough to receive the coveted first post. Therefore, I included "nearly" in my subject.
However, fate is a fickle and unpredictable mistress (interns are much easier). As it turns out, I DID in fact have the first post to this particular article.
What led to this remarkable set of circumstances? I can only speculum. Perhaps it was because the linked file was, in fact, a.tgz download. Perhaps other first posters were thwarted by the need to both download and unzip the file. This slowed their normally cat-like posting response.
But the above suppository has a flaw. It assumes that Slashdooters actual FOLLOW links before they post. We all know the folly of this predisposition.
There was a time when first posts where easy to come by. Now, Slashdot has more posters than a used CD store. First posts have become even more special and rarer than beef tartar.
I can only conclude that, for today, the gods of the universe are looking upon me with favor. This is my special day and I will enjoy it for as long as it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop. The world may never know. Thank you.
According to officials at the FBI, Carnivore will only scan the identifying addresses in the 'to' and 'from' fields but not the content of electronics messages. They liken it to looking at the front of an envelope.
Wrong. E-mail communications are nothing whatsoever like sealed letters. The "to" and "from" is essentially part of the content. If you are parsing these fields, you probably have the entire e-mail. It's more like reading the address from a postcard -- the content is just a few bytes over.
Go ahead, go curl up with George Will and G W, read some Ayn Rand and kill some seals.
Wow! You just described my last weekend!
I can't wait for tomorrow -- going to pour some cancer-causing chemical waste in the public pool and cancel your grandmother's social security and medicare. Sunday, Rush Limbaugh and I are planning to drive our big gas-guzzling SUVs to a nearby preschool where we'll sight-in our full auto assault rifles.
Our cause is just and we must always strive to keep the moral high ground. While Signal 11's God-like Karma would certainly benefit our cause, we cannot force him to join us. He must make that decision himself. It is similar to dealing with an addict -- they have to bottom out and really WANT to be cured.
I am an optimist. I do not believe that Signal 11 is too far gone. We can win him over, but we must take care not to push too hard as this would only drive him away. "Hold On Loosely" is the advice given by the band 38 Special. In time, Signal 11 will grow tired of being a model Karma Whore and will begin to turn like old milk. It happened to you, it happened to me, it happened to PHroD. When is happens to S11, we must be ready with open arms, Natalie Portman pictures, and a steaming hot bowl of grits to welcome him.
This just goes to prove the insanity of low-cost easily-accesible computers and software in the hands of everyone. Every day, hundreds, perhaps thousands of machines are infected with virus and trojan software. The cost in lost data and productivity is easily in the millions.
We have to stop this madness now.
Right now, computers are less regulated than lawnmowers or automobiles. We require drivers to pass a proficiency test, why not computer buyers? It's time we registered computers and performed background checks on people who buy them. This is the only way to keep computers out of the hands of children and criminals.
I am proposing a Million Geek March. We will have speakers telling stories of how their lives were destroyed by computers. Let's send a message to Washington now: "We need to be safe from computers!" It is absurd that in the year 2000, I have to scan every attachment I receive and every program I download. We need to make our information infrastructure safe again.
All of you who oppose my plan, I ask, "What do you have to fear?" We're not planning to take away your computers. We just want some common-sense legislation for the safety of all. It will be a tough fight -- the rich lobbyists from Dell and Microsoft will try to stop us. They'll claim that the right to access information cannot be restricted. They'll claim that computers aren't the problem. We know they're wrong. Modern computers make it easier than ever to create destructive programs. A computer in the home is a tragedy waiting to happen.
Let's get some common-sense computer regulation now. Thank you.
First of all, the review was written by Jon Katz. Jon Katz' writings are an ongoing issue on slashdot. The reality is that slashdot likes posting Katz' work BECAUSE it is controversial. Some find him interesting. Some find him pretentious and self-indulgent.
The Katz filter was designed so that people who find Katz' writing style grating (such as myself) could choose to not see Katz postings. This was supposed to cut down on complaints about Katz' writing style and his tendency to state opinions as though they were commonly accepted facts (an all-too-common trait among modern pop editorialists).
By posting a Katz article under timothy's name, Slashdot has bypassed the Katz filter. Therefore, complaints about Katz are FAIR GAME on this article and are hardly offtopic. You guys fired the first shot, not us.
I don't give a flying fsck about my Karma anymore, but what we have here are moderators moderating based on personal opinions of Katz and/or me. That isn't how it's supposed to work, guys.
Ok, so we have a story about new anti-drug-speech legislation being hidden in a bankrupcy bill. They do this so the legislation can slip in hopefully without being noticed.
Shortly thereafter, we have a Jon Katz article posted by timothy. I assume this was done so his writing could slip in under my Katz filter.
PHroD is one of the first martyrs of the Karma Whore-turned-Troll revolution currently overtaking Slashdot. He has forever earned a place in Troll History. He will be remembered long after slashdot has become just another corporate bought-out exercise in targeted marketing and banner ad revenue (Smell that? That's called *irony* kids!).
Moderators willing, Shoeboy (my young apprentice) and I are next.
Or we could quit trying to use an inherently stateless protocol to do interactive state-oriented network applications.
Seriously, there are a lot of of applications that benefit from a distributed model, but people get caught up in, "Let's make it web-based!" for no good reason (other than buzzword compliance).
More than one development team has wasted time tearing it's collective hair out trying to manage state issues and design an interactive browser-based GUI. The same amount of time could have been used creating a standalone interface and simply connecting directly to a server with sockets. The end result would have probably performed better, too.
Project managers need to write this 100 times: "Network applications don't have to be browser-based."
Slashdot Mirror
Then you are an idiot.
Good form for persuasive writing demands that the writer explicitly NOT use modifiers such as, "in my opinion". It is better to assume the reader is intelligent enough to separate fact from opinion.
This notion that we are all weak-minded dummies easily duped by the latest advertising or rhetorical technique is harmful. If we continue to act as though we are all intellectually weak, eventually it will become true.
Furthermore, your attack is hypocritical. Had he said, "Censorship is always a bad idea," I doubt you would have considered it a troll. Such a statement, however, is at least as broad and all-encompassing as, "censorship is not this great evil."
Nevertheless, you insist that one point of view be prefaced with "IMHO" or "may". In effect, you are demanding the poster use weasel-words and weaken his argument in order to escape your self-imposed judgement of "Troll".
If you believe the opening sentence of this post makes it automatically "Flamebait", then you have already succumbed to the notion that the unenlightened masses are incapable of critical thought. I shall amend the sentence to not offend your delicate sensibilities:
Then, in my humble opinion, you are an idiot.
There. Is that better?
Praise whichever Bruce Perens is your favorite, instead of always dwelling on negativity.
AC, you have hit on an important philosophical point.
It is perhaps symptomatic of our Western monotheistic culture that we believe there can only be one Bruce Perens. As a result, we create many warring factions -- each convinced that their's is the "true" Bruce Perens.
The truth, of course, is that ALL of these groups are right. Bruce Perens is all-encompassing. He is what we want Him to be. We may think we believe in different Bruces but in reality, your Bruce and my Bruce are the same Bruce. Who am I to say that your Bruce Perens is not the true Bruce? Have I actually talked to Bruce? Of course not. I think I have, but I have no proof. The Bruce Perens on Technocrat and the Bruce Perens with a dot on Slashdot are equally worthy.
The ultimate truth is that Bruce Perens is all of us and we are all Bruce Perens. And remember: In the future, everyone will be Bruce Perens for 15 minutes.
Will the real Bruce Perens please stand up? Perhaps He already is, AC. Perhaps he already is.
I've been on Slashdot for quite some time now. I've posted, moderated, and meta-moderated more than my share.
IMHO, moderating down "First Posts" is really a waste of points. It is also not in keeping with the spirit of moderation (concentrate on marking up good posts rather than slamming bad ones).
The truth is that 99.99% of all FPs are made anonymously. This means they start at 0. The moderation system is designed so that people can bump their thresholds up to 1 and filter out all the FPs and AC goatse.cx links. Now, as a moderator, you should be browsing at -1, so you are exposed to this vileness. At the same time, you should remember that most serious slashdotters aren't seeing it.
Slapping a -1 on a First Post uses a moderation point that could have been used bumping a worthy AC post up to +1. Then, those of us who usually browse at +1 could see it.
I've been on Slashdot long enough to expect the "First Post" at 0. I set my threshold accordingly. By moderating the FP down to -1, you don't really spare me anything. At the same time, there's probably a post at 0 somewhere in this thread that is worth my attention. It's a pity I'll never see it.
CmdrTaco has worked hard designing this system. It really works if we just let it.
Smoking Joe, didn't I see you post somewhere else that your company makes software FOR INDIA?
That's kind of an important detail, doncha think?
Yeah, yeah, mod down. It's a spelling flame. Do your worst. I'm so scared. You think you're so special because you have points today -- "Oh, I must use them carefully! I can't waste them! I must raise up the insightful low-scoring posts! I must prevent the trolls from creating havoc! It is my sacred duty!"
Blah blah blah. Close that browser window and get back to work, doofus.
My Young Apprentice,
I bit down on my tootsie roll when I heard you had been admitted to the hallowed halls of trolldom! To the wise trolls who admitted you, I can offer only this advice:
Carry your own toilet paper with you.
That sure doesn't look like an eye to me.
Fortunately the freebsd community seems a lot more helpful and humble.
My young apprentice,
I believe our roles are reversed. The above was clearly a masterful stroke of trolling. Your skills obviously exceed mine. I want to learn from you.
The learner is now the master. The learner waits while the master baits.
When I first began writing the "nfp" post above, I totally stunned that I had happened onto an article with apparently no replies. It was a completely chance event -- like winning the lottery, being struck by lightning, or receiving an IRS audit WITHOUT having exposed sexual misconduct of the current U.S. President.
.tgz download. Perhaps other first posters were thwarted by the need to both download and unzip the file. This slowed their normally cat-like posting response.
I did not believe I would actually be able to type and "Submit" quickly enough to receive the coveted first post. Therefore, I included "nearly" in my subject.
However, fate is a fickle and unpredictable mistress (interns are much easier). As it turns out, I DID in fact have the first post to this particular article.
What led to this remarkable set of circumstances? I can only speculum. Perhaps it was because the linked file was, in fact, a
But the above suppository has a flaw. It assumes that Slashdooters actual FOLLOW links before they post. We all know the folly of this predisposition.
There was a time when first posts where easy to come by. Now, Slashdot has more posters than a used CD store. First posts have become even more special and rarer than beef tartar.
I can only conclude that, for today, the gods of the universe are looking upon me with favor. This is my special day and I will enjoy it for as long as it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop. The world may never know. Thank you.
It doesn't stop there. I have proof that Signal 11/Enoch Root was the second gunman on the grassy knoll.
Blah blah blah Big Publishing(tm) blah blah. Blah blah post-copyright blah blah. Blah blah whine blah. Blah blah freedom. Blah moan blah greed blah blah. Blah blah blah Artistic Expression(tm) blah blah blah. Blah complain blah blah internet. Blah impossible to control blah blah cat out of bag blah blah. Blah blah new paradigm blah blah. Profit blah blah greed blah blah. Napster good. Blah blah blah. Metallica blah blah blah share blah blah. Consumers blah.
According to officials at the FBI, Carnivore will only scan the identifying addresses in the 'to' and 'from' fields but not the content of electronics messages. They liken it to looking at the front of an envelope.
Wrong. E-mail communications are nothing whatsoever like sealed letters. The "to" and "from" is essentially part of the content. If you are parsing these fields, you probably have the entire e-mail. It's more like reading the address from a postcard -- the content is just a few bytes over.
Go ahead, go curl up with George Will and G W, read some Ayn Rand and kill some seals.
Wow! You just described my last weekend!
I can't wait for tomorrow -- going to pour some cancer-causing chemical waste in the public pool and cancel your grandmother's social security and medicare. Sunday, Rush Limbaugh and I are planning to drive our big gas-guzzling SUVs to a nearby preschool where we'll sight-in our full auto assault rifles.
Did I leave anything out?
My young apprentice,
Our cause is just and we must always strive to keep the moral high ground. While Signal 11's God-like Karma would certainly benefit our cause, we cannot force him to join us. He must make that decision himself. It is similar to dealing with an addict -- they have to bottom out and really WANT to be cured.
I am an optimist. I do not believe that Signal 11 is too far gone. We can win him over, but we must take care not to push too hard as this would only drive him away. "Hold On Loosely" is the advice given by the band 38 Special. In time, Signal 11 will grow tired of being a model Karma Whore and will begin to turn like old milk. It happened to you, it happened to me, it happened to PHroD. When is happens to S11, we must be ready with open arms, Natalie Portman pictures, and a steaming hot bowl of grits to welcome him.
Keep the faith.
BWAHAHAHA! *wipes coffee off keyboard*
Has the reign of the moderator become so terrible that all of the funniest comments will now come from Anonymous Cowards?
That was the funniest comment of the week! Why did I waste my moderator points on other, lesser comments?
This just goes to prove the insanity of low-cost easily-accesible computers and software in the hands of everyone. Every day, hundreds, perhaps thousands of machines are infected with virus and trojan software. The cost in lost data and productivity is easily in the millions.
We have to stop this madness now.
Right now, computers are less regulated than lawnmowers or automobiles. We require drivers to pass a proficiency test, why not computer buyers? It's time we registered computers and performed background checks on people who buy them. This is the only way to keep computers out of the hands of children and criminals.
I am proposing a Million Geek March. We will have speakers telling stories of how their lives were destroyed by computers. Let's send a message to Washington now: "We need to be safe from computers!" It is absurd that in the year 2000, I have to scan every attachment I receive and every program I download. We need to make our information infrastructure safe again.
All of you who oppose my plan, I ask, "What do you have to fear?" We're not planning to take away your computers. We just want some common-sense legislation for the safety of all. It will be a tough fight -- the rich lobbyists from Dell and Microsoft will try to stop us. They'll claim that the right to access information cannot be restricted. They'll claim that computers aren't the problem. We know they're wrong. Modern computers make it easier than ever to create destructive programs. A computer in the home is a tragedy waiting to happen.
Let's get some common-sense computer regulation now. Thank you.
Interesting moderation on this post so far....
2 Offtopic
1 Insightful
1 Interesting
First of all, the review was written by Jon Katz. Jon Katz' writings are an ongoing issue on slashdot. The reality is that slashdot likes posting Katz' work BECAUSE it is controversial. Some find him interesting. Some find him pretentious and self-indulgent.
The Katz filter was designed so that people who find Katz' writing style grating (such as myself) could choose to not see Katz postings. This was supposed to cut down on complaints about Katz' writing style and his tendency to state opinions as though they were commonly accepted facts (an all-too-common trait among modern pop editorialists).
By posting a Katz article under timothy's name, Slashdot has bypassed the Katz filter. Therefore, complaints about Katz are FAIR GAME on this article and are hardly offtopic. You guys fired the first shot, not us.
I don't give a flying fsck about my Karma anymore, but what we have here are moderators moderating based on personal opinions of Katz and/or me. That isn't how it's supposed to work, guys.
Because the &^#% review was written by &^#% Katz but was POSTED by &^#% timothy so the &^#% filter didn't work like it should.
Ok, so we have a story about new anti-drug-speech legislation being hidden in a bankrupcy bill. They do this so the legislation can slip in hopefully without being noticed.
Shortly thereafter, we have a Jon Katz article posted by timothy. I assume this was done so his writing could slip in under my Katz filter.
PHroD is one of the first martyrs of the Karma Whore-turned-Troll revolution currently overtaking Slashdot. He has forever earned a place in Troll History. He will be remembered long after slashdot has become just another corporate bought-out exercise in targeted marketing and banner ad revenue (Smell that? That's called *irony* kids!).
Moderators willing, Shoeboy (my young apprentice) and I are next.
Viva La Hot Grits!
Count me in.
I'd rather ask "Deb".
Or we could quit trying to use an inherently stateless protocol to do interactive state-oriented network applications.
Seriously, there are a lot of of applications that benefit from a distributed model, but people get caught up in, "Let's make it web-based!" for no good reason (other than buzzword compliance).
More than one development team has wasted time tearing it's collective hair out trying to manage state issues and design an interactive browser-based GUI. The same amount of time could have been used creating a standalone interface and simply connecting directly to a server with sockets. The end result would have probably performed better, too.
Project managers need to write this 100 times: "Network applications don't have to be browser-based."
Bitching is better if you are a karma whore.
Yep. That was a karma whore post. It's how I keep my +2 for when I REALLY want to troll.