What you describe is much more than continuous voting. It is also direct democracy, or at least liquid democracy.
If your question is not rhetorical, the first answer which comes to mind is that we did not have online voting. Online voting is still extremely rarely used by governments (below 1%).
If you are describing a form of direct democracy, then I would say this is rare because real direct democracy is highly inefficient (I described disadvantages in an introduction to liquid governance).
If you are describing "liquid democracy", then I would say it has been considered by many, just not deployed yet. So if are asking why liquid democracy has not been deployed, I would say this is because implementing liquid governance is much more technically challenging than implementing representative democracy. Liquid governance basically requires electronic voting, and even electronic representative democracy is still marginal. The page linked above also discusses the implementation status of liquid governance.
I'm not sure what you mean by "ask". I can blame Slashdot for this survey, but I don't blame it for having an issue tracker (or one for Slashcode). Having an issue tracker should not even necessarily be considered as asking for input. An issue tracker may be useful for the sole purpose of documenting issues and workarounds.
Putting up a survey *is* on the other hand definitely asking for input, which appears to be terribly inefficient if Slashdot doesn't already have an issue tracker, doesn't let it be found, or indeed doesn't minimally respond to issues reported there. Asking for feedback to black boxes like Contact Us forms and email addresses when you don't have a prominent issue tracker seems like a marketing campaign to me.
That will be my feedback:-|
I figured from the other reply to this that this comment is about Slashcode, Slashdot's engine, not Slashdot per se. If not, I'd like to know where the Slashdot issue tracker issue. I'd certainly have feedback to give, but I'm not interested in giving it to a black box.
If you're using Ubuntu (or Linux Mint, or Mepis...), you're really using Debian with some enhancements.
Oh, please. I hurt when I hear people saying Mepis, Knoppix, Xandros or whatever is Debian [except foo]. A non-insignicant portion of questions on Debian forums is about derivatives, please don't encourage. If your Debian-based distribution has some issue, Debian people most likely can't even help you. If the distribution you use is not Debian, then you're really *not* using Debian. Most people forking take Debian, remove half of it, add themes, a few "user-friendly" interfaces, a couple of bugs along the way, then proceed to shipping something twice more outdated that they won't maintain. If your problem is with an outdated piece of software, Debian people cannot help you.
There are, however, some "distributions" that *are* Debian. These are called Debian Pure Blends, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Pure_Blend
Dear Greg,
rather than waiting until Ralink crosses your blog, I'll point you immediately to http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/
The rt2x00 team is developing Linux drivers for RT2500 and other Ralink wireless chipsets since over 2 years. Yet no release happened since over a year, so one wonders how long it will take until a stable version is completed, integrated in the main Linux tree, and in distros.
If over 15 months ago, you would have specifically buyed a barebone laptop in order to be able to choose a wireless card with good [potential] Linux support, and chosen one which had already GPL drivers from Ralink iself, was also used by tens of thousands of Linux users, and was Linux Journal's 2005 "Product of the Year", you would definitely wish that the Linux community had made this announcement sooner...or just that it stopped wating until someone knocks at the door.
NB: Despite the previous sentence, I am not blaming the Linux community. I just think Greg needs to be brought back to the ground.
This is certainly the best post in this thread...not that it's hard to figure though.
I mean, you read the title and think "Ah, another time Slashdot ridiculizes itself".
"apt is flexible enough to work around that."
Really? The possibility of mixing software from several releases is interesting, but you make it sound better than what it is really. Sarge/Sid mixes are really useful, Woody/* mixes bring dependency hell. Of course Gaim is the perfect example of software so outdated that it's broken, but there's more. php4 and 2.4 kernel source have unfixed known holes since monthes. They're just too out of date for anybody to care. If you can't get a secure LAMP under Debian (stable), why use it?
Yep, but I think that FF/TB have Gnome integration, unlike KDE apparently.
+1 for FF mailto: raising TB being a Basic feature:(
At least for me TB links does bring up FF (well, more or less quickly and correctly):S
Slashdot Mirror
"cryptocurrency" isn't just a bubble... see http://www.philippecloutier.co...
What you describe is much more than continuous voting. It is also direct democracy, or at least liquid democracy.
If your question is not rhetorical, the first answer which comes to mind is that we did not have online voting. Online voting is still extremely rarely used by governments (below 1%).
If you are describing a form of direct democracy, then I would say this is rare because real direct democracy is highly inefficient (I described disadvantages in an introduction to liquid governance).
If you are describing "liquid democracy", then I would say it has been considered by many, just not deployed yet. So if are asking why liquid democracy has not been deployed, I would say this is because implementing liquid governance is much more technically challenging than implementing representative democracy. Liquid governance basically requires electronic voting, and even electronic representative democracy is still marginal. The page linked above also discusses the implementation status of liquid governance.
Well, at least as secret as old-school voting. E-voting and voting inside a voting booth are not exclusive.
I'm not sure what you mean by "ask". I can blame Slashdot for this survey, but I don't blame it for having an issue tracker (or one for Slashcode). Having an issue tracker should not even necessarily be considered as asking for input. An issue tracker may be useful for the sole purpose of documenting issues and workarounds. Putting up a survey *is* on the other hand definitely asking for input, which appears to be terribly inefficient if Slashdot doesn't already have an issue tracker, doesn't let it be found, or indeed doesn't minimally respond to issues reported there. Asking for feedback to black boxes like Contact Us forms and email addresses when you don't have a prominent issue tracker seems like a marketing campaign to me. That will be my feedback :-|
I figured from the other reply to this that this comment is about Slashcode, Slashdot's engine, not Slashdot per se. If not, I'd like to know where the Slashdot issue tracker issue. I'd certainly have feedback to give, but I'm not interested in giving it to a black box.
If you're using Ubuntu (or Linux Mint, or Mepis...), you're really using Debian with some enhancements.
Oh, please. I hurt when I hear people saying Mepis, Knoppix, Xandros or whatever is Debian [except foo]. A non-insignicant portion of questions on Debian forums is about derivatives, please don't encourage. If your Debian-based distribution has some issue, Debian people most likely can't even help you. If the distribution you use is not Debian, then you're really *not* using Debian. Most people forking take Debian, remove half of it, add themes, a few "user-friendly" interfaces, a couple of bugs along the way, then proceed to shipping something twice more outdated that they won't maintain. If your problem is with an outdated piece of software, Debian people cannot help you. There are, however, some "distributions" that *are* Debian. These are called Debian Pure Blends, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Pure_Blend
It's already mine. Nevertheless, the default is GNOME. The way to choose KDE instead of KDE was improved with Lenny, but it could still be improved.
Greg, thanks once again for your wonderful blog, but I'm afraid that the absence ofc id=17839388
Q: Are developers really going to do this?
indicates that you missed http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=219556&
Dear Greg, rather than waiting until Ralink crosses your blog, I'll point you immediately to http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/ The rt2x00 team is developing Linux drivers for RT2500 and other Ralink wireless chipsets since over 2 years. Yet no release happened since over a year, so one wonders how long it will take until a stable version is completed, integrated in the main Linux tree, and in distros. If over 15 months ago, you would have specifically buyed a barebone laptop in order to be able to choose a wireless card with good [potential] Linux support, and chosen one which had already GPL drivers from Ralink iself, was also used by tens of thousands of Linux users, and was Linux Journal's 2005 "Product of the Year", you would definitely wish that the Linux community had made this announcement sooner...or just that it stopped wating until someone knocks at the door. NB: Despite the previous sentence, I am not blaming the Linux community. I just think Greg needs to be brought back to the ground.
This is certainly the best post in this thread...not that it's hard to figure though. I mean, you read the title and think "Ah, another time Slashdot ridiculizes itself".
"apt is flexible enough to work around that." Really? The possibility of mixing software from several releases is interesting, but you make it sound better than what it is really. Sarge/Sid mixes are really useful, Woody/* mixes bring dependency hell. Of course Gaim is the perfect example of software so outdated that it's broken, but there's more. php4 and 2.4 kernel source have unfixed known holes since monthes. They're just too out of date for anybody to care. If you can't get a secure LAMP under Debian (stable), why use it?
Actually there are no release notes yet, only a copy of 0.9 notes. You'll have to wait if you want l10n too :(
Yep, but I think that FF/TB have Gnome integration, unlike KDE apparently. +1 for FF mailto: raising TB being a Basic feature :(
At least for me TB links does bring up FF (well, more or less quickly and correctly) :S
Oh my God, I was forgetting it was April 1st. Uuufff! :)