Think of it as reaffirming foucault in Discipline and Punish, where the norm is the opinions of slashdot and moderation reinforces those norms by punishing people who do not agree with the "norm" opinion of slashdot.
That's the way web forums tend to work - the establishment forms the moderation team, and the establishment will tend to choose those who think along the same lines as they do.
The only difference with the/. form of moderation ('random' selection from logged-in members) is that unknown individuals are sometimes selected. But on the whole, it is the longer-serving members who'll get selected to moderate, simply through the law of repetition of selection from a set; and it is those people whose views tend to be similar to the/. establishment that will become those longer serving members.
A further pressure against change is the meta-moderation system, whereby those randomly selected moderators, that don't swim with the establishment, make moderation decisions with which the 'establishment' disagrees, then those 'bad' decisions will get meta-moderated against.
This can, I suppose, also be seen as a strength in the/. system, in that it tends towards an even keel, so to speak. But it don't half give those who bash/. for being rabidly pro-linux, pro-mac, pro-google, anti-m$ a good deal of ammunition with which to beat/.
It was the South Bank Show... ITV's arts & culture program.
It featured contributions from John Boorman (film director), a biographer of Tolkien (can't remember his name), Peter Jones (director of new LOTR films) and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf in said films).
It seems to have been made some months ago, as Ian McKellen appears not to have seen The Fellowship of the Ring yet... he doesn't know what the Balrog looks like!
Slashdot Mirror
That's the way web forums tend to work - the establishment forms the moderation team, and the establishment will tend to choose those who think along the same lines as they do.
The only difference with the
A further pressure against change is the meta-moderation system, whereby those randomly selected moderators, that don't swim with the establishment, make moderation decisions with which the 'establishment' disagrees, then those 'bad' decisions will get meta-moderated against.
This can, I suppose, also be seen as a strength in the
It was the South Bank Show... ITV's arts & culture program.
It featured contributions from John Boorman (film director), a biographer of Tolkien (can't remember his name), Peter Jones (director of new LOTR films) and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf in said films).
It seems to have been made some months ago, as Ian McKellen appears not to have seen The Fellowship of the Ring yet... he doesn't know what the Balrog looks like!
The Gremlin.