First off, it took many years for Gates to get to the point that the foundation was more than just a dream. It benefited heavily from the dot-com boom and even now, the Gates Foundation gets money from Bill from dividends off his stock ownership (as noted in todays news conference).
Given some time and the newness of being uber wealthy, we can hope that the Googlers will follow in Gates' footsteps as far as charity. They are "young" and assuming they stay frugal with their money, maybe they see that some good can come from being that wealthy.
Here's the issue. Slashdot is a staple in the tech community. It ranks up there with many other sites as the first place to check the pulse of what's going on tech-wise. If you are so wrapped up in it's day to day operation maybe it's time to take a step back and look at what's going on. Many CEOs of companies have no idea what's going on at the street level of the company. If you don't know that your customers are unhappy about things then how can you as a "leader" properly lead?
Dupes are going to happen, people are going to have mistakes in typing, gramatics and a list of other problems that in the rush to get a story posted will miss. Editors by default are supposed to catch them, otherwise filters could be put in place just to cut out the dupes and send the rest through.
Spelling is VERY important and suggestions have been made about a spell-checker, but in all honesty, how many people, unless forced, would use it? A degree of professionalism is important to gain respect (and to keep it!) which includes not only the QUANTITY of stories (don't confuse that with just having tons of stories) but the QUALITY. Quality consists not only of relevant, on-topic, up-to-date subjects, but items that are of a higher caliber than a middle school research paper.
Editing a story submission to keep in down to a Cliff's Notes version is essential. I'm more apt to read more often if I have less to read. I hit the hot topics that interest me and can cut through those items that don't mean much to me very quickly.
Is Slashdot's goal to provide news or provide personal insights? Editor's comments could add weight to a story, swaying the court of public opinion one way or another. Comments from the editor should be reserved for replying to a story just like the rest of the readers and should not be held at a higher standard and surely not a higher quality.
Oh, it's absolutely the area. I try to make sure that stuff that I post to the Freecycle group is not something that should just be tossed in the first place. There are some good things that appear from time to time, but when you are more the type to give than take, Freecycle serves well for cleaning out space!
Following this train of thought, I can easily see Tivo (or other DVR systems) start downloading commericals and somehow forcing you to watch them -- very much like DVDs in how you can't fast forward thru copyright notices now...
Would this be bad? Not really presuming that the DVR understood that it was me watching it and it knew what I like and what type of commericals that I would actually watch/need.
I'd be interested in learning a little more about the solution that you are using, so obviously, offline would be a better option for communication. I can be reached at dcsteve72 at yahoo.com.
=Steve
Slashdot Mirror
First off, it took many years for Gates to get to the point that the foundation was more than just a dream. It benefited heavily from the dot-com boom and even now, the Gates Foundation gets money from Bill from dividends off his stock ownership (as noted in todays news conference). Given some time and the newness of being uber wealthy, we can hope that the Googlers will follow in Gates' footsteps as far as charity. They are "young" and assuming they stay frugal with their money, maybe they see that some good can come from being that wealthy.
Here's the issue. Slashdot is a staple in the tech community. It ranks up there with many other sites as the first place to check the pulse of what's going on tech-wise. If you are so wrapped up in it's day to day operation maybe it's time to take a step back and look at what's going on. Many CEOs of companies have no idea what's going on at the street level of the company. If you don't know that your customers are unhappy about things then how can you as a "leader" properly lead? Dupes are going to happen, people are going to have mistakes in typing, gramatics and a list of other problems that in the rush to get a story posted will miss. Editors by default are supposed to catch them, otherwise filters could be put in place just to cut out the dupes and send the rest through. Spelling is VERY important and suggestions have been made about a spell-checker, but in all honesty, how many people, unless forced, would use it? A degree of professionalism is important to gain respect (and to keep it!) which includes not only the QUANTITY of stories (don't confuse that with just having tons of stories) but the QUALITY. Quality consists not only of relevant, on-topic, up-to-date subjects, but items that are of a higher caliber than a middle school research paper. Editing a story submission to keep in down to a Cliff's Notes version is essential. I'm more apt to read more often if I have less to read. I hit the hot topics that interest me and can cut through those items that don't mean much to me very quickly. Is Slashdot's goal to provide news or provide personal insights? Editor's comments could add weight to a story, swaying the court of public opinion one way or another. Comments from the editor should be reserved for replying to a story just like the rest of the readers and should not be held at a higher standard and surely not a higher quality.
Oh, it's absolutely the area. I try to make sure that stuff that I post to the Freecycle group is not something that should just be tossed in the first place. There are some good things that appear from time to time, but when you are more the type to give than take, Freecycle serves well for cleaning out space!
On Freecycle it's not a/s/l it's "what crap do are you giving away today?"
Following this train of thought, I can easily see Tivo (or other DVR systems) start downloading commericals and somehow forcing you to watch them -- very much like DVDs in how you can't fast forward thru copyright notices now... Would this be bad? Not really presuming that the DVR understood that it was me watching it and it knew what I like and what type of commericals that I would actually watch/need.
I'd be interested in learning a little more about the solution that you are using, so obviously, offline would be a better option for communication. I can be reached at dcsteve72 at yahoo.com. =Steve