2a. Fox owns the distribution of the other 3 Star Wars movies, not Lucasfilm.
3. Lucas's first Star Wars single-handedly SAVED 21st Century Fox which was completely floundering in 1977.
4. RE: Lucasfilm and marketing, Jim Ward, head of marketing at Lucasfilm" Jim Ward, head of marketing at Lucasfilm, said the official site was partly born out of an awareness that especially after the first three "Star Wars" films were re-released in 1997, a new generation of fans was created--one that happened to be very Web-savvy. The site was always intended, however, as more than a sales pitch. "Our site was really established as a way for us to communicate with our core fans. They've sustained us all these years, and we wanted to make sure there was one place they could go to get the official information as promptly as possible," Ward said.
5. My rant: Your age is showing. You have no idea what it was like to see the first Star Wars movie at the age of 7, at the height of the Divorce Years and Looking for Mr. Goodbar morality playing its way through the suburbs, when as a kid, you saw everything falling to shit all around you, and you went to this movie just expecting to see the same hokiness as the Sinbad movies and instead you experienced something that was less like a movie and more like a code of ethics you could live by. A universe where people helped each other at the risk of their own life...A universe where Good and Evil was concrete and knowable...A universe where integrity, bravery, and belief mattered.
If the Phantom Menace touches 7 year olds the way Star Wars touched me when I was 7, then May the Universe Bless George Lucas!
From beograd.com: *********************************************
16:50 According to the last information, "LORAL ORION" has given up, until further notice, disconnecting Yugoslavia from Internet, because of the protests from all around the world that followed the announcement
15:55 FONET - One of the biggest US communication satellites of the firm "LORAL ORION" has informed Belgrade provider "Informatika" last night that because of "vis major" they wiould have to stop Internet emitting toward all Yugoslav providers who are linked to providers in USA. "This decision is the result of the executive order of the President of USA, Bill Clinton, banning emitting of all services from USA into Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Monte Negro)", says the message of "LORAL ORION" to the general Director of "Informatika", Slobodan Sreckovic. "In accordance with that, LORAL ORION will, starting from May 12, 1999, stop its services", it is said at the end of the statement. On Thursday, May 13, in morning hours, "Informatika" confirmed to Fonet this has not happened yet, but they are expecting to be disconnected from USA Internet satellite service toward Yugoslavia any minute/hour now". ***********************************************
Here is the info that went out yesterday on beograd.com. If you want to see it yourself, it has now been archived so go to "Previous News" and look under 5/12/99. We have no confirmation yet of whether it will go down today or not:
US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
BELGRADE, MAY 12 - We have reliable information that the US Government ordered shut down of satellite feeds for Internet customers in Yugoslavia, as a result of NATO air war against this country. This action might be taken as soon as later tonight or tomorrow (May 12 or 13, 1999).
This is a flagrant violation of commercial contracts with Yugoslav ISPs, as well as an attack on freedom of the Internet.
A Web site in protest of these actions should be up shortly. We will supply you with the URL. In the meantime, please be so kind to inform as many people as possible about this tragic event for the Internet community in Yugoslavia and Europe.
Bits http://www.bits.net/ ************************************************ * Here is an article with more specifics on the.yu ISPs found here:
From Yugoslav Net:
Yugoslavia's Internet is a rickety structure that could easily be taken out by NATO bombs. If that happens, one of the few lines of communication from the war zone will be severed. Asked how long the Internet infrastructure will hold up under the assault, the administrator of the Yugoslavia top-level domain said he did not know.
"My answer will be extremely short, since I have to write it between two air strikes," wrote Berislav Todorovic in an email. "The Internet service providers in Yugoslavia will do their best to keep the current quality of service, as long as it is technically possible.
"I can't and don't want to give out any speculative predictions about the possible effects of this disgraceful act of the NATO to the national Internet infrastructure.
"All I can [say] and want [to] say is -- we shall see."
The nation's four large public Internet service providers seem to rely on only three land lines and a single satellite link out of the country.
"As soon as the NATO decides to stop violating basic principles of international law and justice and cease their aggressive actions in the country, I'll be glad to give you a better, more detailed story."
With the country's telephone network running beyond capacity, it is almost impossible to get a connection out. The Internet may become the only way for Yugoslavs to communicate with the rest of the world.
Network engineers beyond the country's borders said the situatuon looks bleak.
"It doesn't look very robust," said Scott Ellentuch, a communications security specialist with Internet consultancy TTSG.
"It's not like the United States, where there's a lot of connectivity redundancy and if lines are taken out, the network would heal itself quickly and you'd hardly notice."
Ellentuch said the country's ISPs -- EUnet Yugoslavia, BeoTelNet, SezamPro and BITS -- appear to rely on only three pipes and a single satellite link.
One of the pipes runs through London and is owned by EuNet, a large European network operator.
"It's overloaded," said Pierre Baume, a EuNet network engineer based in Amsterdam. "But it's been overloaded for as long as we can remember."
Meanwhile, the administrators with Eunet Yugoslavia appear to be lying low.
"As a result of recent NATO attacks on Yugoslavia, Eunet Yugoslavia is unable to provide its customers with payment services and customer support," says an notice on the site. "We hope that we will return to normal operation soon." This story belongs to Wired News. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Hypnotik, you can find the rest of world at NewsTrolls
To all: Life can be hell. It is all up to you whether you perceive yourself as an eternal victim or pull yourself up by yourself and laugh at it. The greatest tool you have is your mind. Don't buy into the crap that you're damaged goods in need of saving, rehabilitating, etc. I don't agree with Katz using all of you to up his Q-factor to the rest of media. (BTW, you DO know, don't you, that his next book is called "Geek Voices"...how convenient that the Littleton Murders have provided him with the opportunity to be a self-proclaimed cultural intermediary between "geeks" and the rest of the world!). I don't agree that these kids were "geeks". Playing Doom and Quake and using the Internet makes you a geek??? You are only as fucked up as you convince yourself you are. There is a whole world out there beyond the lint in your navel.
--diva
Size of School and Nameless Faces--A Solution
on
Why Kids Kill
·
· Score: 1
It is easy to kill when you don't see the person behind the nameless face. Basic tool of boot camp training. This is just a theory on my part, but I think the SIZE of the school has A LOT to do with it...
A teenager's #1 modus operandi is to define the self. Perhaps she comes up with a definition of herself by herself but she needs interaction on a personal and familiar level with others to enforce her own view of herself. In a freshman class of 60 (like mine was), you pretty quickly learn about everyone as individuals...it's much harder to categorize them as simply cheerleader or class-officer-geek if you have to interact with them on a personal level 7 hours a day. You're bound to see more of their idiosyncracies and they become individuals to you, whether you like them or not.
In a school of 1800 you have 460 in your freshman class...there's no WAY you're going to learn about each one by name and individual personality. They are a sea of faces to you and as such you can invent and make yourself believe just about anything you want about them..."she's rich and all the boys like her; she doesn't have a care in the world"...(which of course is never true).
State of the Art schools are great but not when it means you've got a WalMart size student body. Of course teachers, parents, other students are going to generalize and categorize, b/c that's what we all do when presented with a large group of people that we have to navigate around...
What's the point of a $12M school with state of the art equipment if you're going to just herd the kids in and out? Better there be 4 or 5 state of the art schools with TOTAL enrollment of less than 400 kids in all four classes. But it's cheaper to build one than 5, so therein lies the rub...
If nobody knows you and nobody cares who you are, how hard would it be to kill people you've objectified into caricatures of whom they really are?
My answer is smaller schools with smaller classes where a teen can not only learn but also interact with other teens...not be shuffled around and suffer the humiliation of no one knowing who you are.
First, correcting 2 typos above (please excuse the oversight):
"NewsTrolls" not "NesTrolls" and
"hear" not "here"
Yes you CAN hang them on the wall...I believe the current packaging includes them...mine did not, but did include fixtures for attaching it to the side of the computer.
Also, for those who complained about it's sound...consider it's frequency range and wattage. Again, these are rather lightweight in those departments, but bigger ones are coming. I hope they do a wireless version so they'll REALLY look cool on the wall (or in the ceiling)...
I really enjoy them, especially because of their 360 degree/non-directional sound emission. You can be behind or to the side of the speakers and here the same as if you are in front of them. Also the SRS-3D technology on the subwoofer ROCKS!
The $99 ones are best for computer speakers or jambox/shelf stereo speakers. They are coming out with higher wattage ones soon. The current model is only 3W+3W and 6W subwoofer with a frequency range of 60Hz to 18kHz.
Jon said: Exaggerated or not, techno-hostility forces community underground, into closed websites, mailing lists and e-mail. It stunts the evolution of ideas, movements and communities themselves. Wrong. Techno-hostility is a PERCEPTION by non-members of a community that they know nothing about. Without worrying about pandering to a "larger" audience or "dumbing down", ideas evolve organically and quickly.
It aborts ideas. Absolutely the contrary is true. It allows the community to be an idea-incubator (or womb to use your analogy).
Hostility, from flames to viruses, are an inducement to the many in journalism, politics and the corporate world itching to find ways to control and curb free access on the Net and the Web. How clever! So in order to keep free access, we need to tone down our opinions and statements? Bullshit.
And they are all generally acts of cowardice and malice at worst, unthinking and reflexive cruelty at best. It's no wonder that the most enthusiastic attackers hide behind anonymity. First of all, your parallel usage of flames and virus is suspect at best. The two are apples and oranges. Creating a virus or a flame is neither unthinking nor reflexive, unlike your article's unthinking and reflexive mental masturbation.
Creating a virus is an art. It is no different than the kid of your generation who took the radio apart just to put it back together again, even if some parts were left out. It is a natural instinct in humans to figure out how things work.
If you create a virus to rip off money, you are a thief. If you create a virus in order to show explicitly the obnoxious security holes in Microsoft or other OSs, you are doing the general public a service. You are enabling them to see clearly why security is important to protect their data, why encryption is essential, and why (in the example of David's Melissa) using shoddy MS products is a serious business risk. I hope sincerely that the example of Melissa will be considered by the Pentagon and NATO who currently both use Microsoft Products. And don't even get me started on Los Alamos Lab, the most high-level security lab in the country, that ONLY RECENTLY put up a firewall...
Is the default set at 0 or "all posts" for a new or non-logged-in user?
If it's allposts, cool, if it's still "0", you're censoring.
Sorry to be a butthead but you are the source of Open source community and you're closing down your openess if you decide for a new user or a non-logged-in user that what they see upon first entering/. does not include negative posts.
Most people do not change their default preferences. You know that.
You said: "What I think is novel about the slashdot solution is this: people can see whether a post has already been elected or demoted, and thus not waste their vote on that post."
That is EXACTLY the problem.
I am my only moderator, not you, not a moderator, not a Yale professor. I decide if the post is crap or not...for myself, by myself, without the "pressure" of others' opinions.
As I do in real life...I have a finely calibrated bullshit-meter and since I believe that everyone here is adult enough to have their own as well, I am against this moderation.
It is censoring as long as the default for newbies/not-logged-ins is 0.
IF the default for a new or not-logged in user is always the lowest score...with a big option to the newbie on how to change what she sees (to include the moderation).
If the default is "0", you deprive the world of the reality that is/. as you said "in all it's flamey glory".
It's your site (although that is more questionable in your case since you're an.org instead of a.com) and ultimately you can do whatever you want but I hope you realize the importance of the unadulterated/. to be the first thing a newbie sees...
I did it in the Kipling Hacked and me and Thomas Jefferson promptly got a -4.
Fuck it.
I am an invisible malcontent, proud to be a minus, a nothing, a no one in the suburbs of slashdot.
I'm the kid you don't want to let your sister go out with. I'm the old man in the weird house down the street who coughs too much and doesn't bathe enough. I'm the Stepford wife propped up on Jesus and Mother's Little Helper. I'm the overgrown weeds.
I GUESS I SHOULDN'T USE BOLD OR UNDERLINE OR USE LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EITHER.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading. - Eric Hoffer
Every man...should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is pleasing to one is to make a pillow of the mind. - St. John Ervine
If all mankind were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, then he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. - John Stuart Mill
Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth - Thomas Jefferson
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. - Leonardo da Vinci
As always, thank you to the invaluable people of FreedomsNest for providing the quotes database.
I slept on this issue and this morning I'm more convinced than ever of it's wrongness. So I will write an article about it. Rob, hemos, I am still hoping you will reconsider this decision.
I want a default where I only see the posts from -10s and worse...those are your core readers, rob. Those are "the truth". Flamers, 1st Posters, Me toos...all of them...
I don't want to read what the rest of you hipster marketing wanks who went to one Comdex event and think you're cool have to say...you know nothing. You're only regurgitating whatever feeble minded crap your feeble minded 3rd rate business schools spooned into your heads. I want to read from the angry, the illiterate, the strange and the vicious. They have clarity.
Fuck this.
I'm writing an article on this one it makes me so nuts.
You have no idea where this kind of "your-voice-is-not-as-important-because-you-don't- post-as-well-as-I" mentality will lead you...How about no posts from competitors? No posts from women? No posts from Jews? It's the SAME THING.
Rob, Hemos...you know I know what I'm talking about here. DON'T DO THIS TO SLASHDOT.
You're ripping the soul of/. out and leaving an empty useless shell where everyone's comments are nice and somewhat intelligent AND SAY NOTHING...
I had no idea this would affect me so deeply...shit I've posted 5 times now in this Thread...
(If that works) it shows you the 3 comments that were "deemed" appropriate for the Wired on Kipling article... one of them just asked where he could buy the bag???
There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason as to what is deemed more than one (although I apparently am not deemed more than one.)
This is censorship.
What next "Slashdot Lite" with comments 3 and above only that you can market to ZDNet or so advertisers will overlook your "controversial-ness" so you can sell Fucking Pampers????
No this is wrong.
NewsTrolls will never do this. Ever.
I guess this will make me a negative number now...
Slashdot Mirror
HEY! Why does -1 score get "Troll"??
--diva (Troller extraordinare)
Heh...HehHeh...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!...but why'd you tell?...just when it was getting fun...hrmph...
Computers are neeto.
--diva
Think hard....that's right: FOX.
There's your real article, Jon...
Jon, didn't have time to do much research for your latest, did you?
1. Lucasfilm is independently owned and as such Lucas represents the triumph of the artist over the corporation (Fox)
2. Fox, a unit of News Corp. is projected to make $100 Million profit via distribution on The Phantom Menace.
2a. Fox owns the distribution of the other 3 Star Wars movies, not Lucasfilm.
3. Lucas's first Star Wars single-handedly SAVED 21st Century Fox which was completely floundering in 1977.
4. RE: Lucasfilm and marketing, Jim Ward, head of marketing at Lucasfilm"
Jim Ward, head of marketing at Lucasfilm, said the official site was partly born out of an awareness that especially after the first three "Star Wars" films were re-released in 1997, a new generation of fans was created--one that happened to be very Web-savvy. The site was always intended, however, as more than a sales pitch. "Our site was really established as a way for us to communicate with our core fans. They've sustained us all these years, and we wanted to make sure there was one place they could go to get the official information as promptly as possible," Ward said.
5. My rant:
Your age is showing. You have no idea what it was like to see the first Star Wars movie at the age of 7, at the height of the Divorce Years and Looking for Mr. Goodbar morality playing its way through the suburbs, when as a kid, you saw everything falling to shit all around you, and you went to this movie just expecting to see the same hokiness as the Sinbad movies and instead you experienced something that was less like a movie and more like a code of ethics you could live by.
A universe where people helped each other at the risk of their own life...A universe where Good and Evil was concrete and knowable...A universe where integrity, bravery, and belief mattered.
If the Phantom Menace touches 7 year olds the way Star Wars touched me when I was 7, then May the Universe Bless George Lucas!
Thank you to everyone!
From beograd.com:
*********************************************
16:50 According to the last information, "LORAL ORION" has given up, until further notice, disconnecting Yugoslavia from Internet, because of the protests from all around the world that followed the announcement
15:55 FONET - One of the biggest US communication satellites of the firm "LORAL ORION" has informed Belgrade provider "Informatika" last night that because of "vis major" they wiould have to stop Internet emitting toward all Yugoslav providers who are linked to providers in USA. "This decision is the
result of the executive order of the President of USA, Bill Clinton, banning emitting of all services from USA into Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Monte Negro)", says the message of "LORAL ORION" to the general Director of "Informatika", Slobodan Sreckovic.
"In accordance with that, LORAL ORION will, starting from May 12, 1999, stop its services", it is said at the end of the statement. On Thursday, May 13, in morning hours, "Informatika" confirmed to Fonet this has not
happened yet, but they are expecting to be disconnected from USA Internet satellite service toward Yugoslavia any minute/hour now".
***********************************************
Your Internet voice has infinite power...
--diva
Here is the info that went out yesterday on beograd.com. If you want to see it yourself, it has now been archived so go to "Previous News" and look under 5/12/99. We have no confirmation yet of whether it will go down today or not:
*
.yu:
* * .yu ISPs found here:
**********************************************
LATEST UPDATE: [5/12/99]
US shuts down Yugoslav Internet - For immediate release
BELGRADE, MAY 12 - We have reliable information that the US Government ordered shut down of satellite feeds for Internet customers in Yugoslavia, as a result of NATO air war against this country.
This action might be taken as soon as later tonight or tomorrow (May 12 or 13, 1999).
This is a flagrant violation of commercial contracts with Yugoslav ISPs, as well as an attack on freedom of the Internet.
A Web site in protest of these actions should be up shortly. We will supply you with the URL. In the meantime, please be so kind to inform as many people as possible about this tragic event for the Internet community in Yugoslavia and Europe.
BeoNET
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
***********************************************
Here is info on the ISPs in
Eunet Yugoslavia
Obilicev Venac 4
11000 Beograd
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Contact : Radoslav Stankovic
Phone : + 381 11 328 2608
Fax : + 381 11 328 2760
E-Mail : info@Yugoslavia.EU.net
WWW : http://www.Yugoslavia.EU.net/
(DI = modem access number(s))
BeoTelNet www.beotel.yu/
Telefonija www.telefonija.co.yu/
SezamPro http://www.sezampro.yu/
Bits http://www.bits.net/
***********************************************
Here is an article with more specifics on the
From Yugoslav Net:
Yugoslavia's Internet is a rickety structure that could easily be taken out by NATO bombs. If that happens, one of the few lines of communication from the war zone will be severed. Asked how long the Internet infrastructure will hold up under the assault, the administrator of the Yugoslavia top-level domain said he did not know.
"My answer will be extremely short, since I have to write it between two air strikes," wrote Berislav Todorovic in an email. "The Internet service providers in Yugoslavia will do their best to keep the current quality of service, as long as it is technically possible.
"I can't and don't want to give out any speculative predictions about the possible effects of this disgraceful act of the NATO to the national Internet infrastructure.
"All I can [say] and want [to] say is -- we shall see."
The nation's four large public Internet service providers seem to rely on only three land lines and a single satellite link out of the country.
"As soon as the NATO decides to stop violating basic principles of international law and justice and cease their aggressive actions in the country, I'll be glad to give you a better, more detailed story."
With the country's telephone network running beyond capacity, it is almost impossible to get a connection out. The Internet may become the only way for Yugoslavs to communicate with the rest of the world.
Network engineers beyond the country's borders said the situatuon looks bleak.
"It doesn't look very robust," said Scott Ellentuch, a communications security specialist with Internet consultancy TTSG.
"It's not like the United States, where there's a lot of connectivity redundancy and if lines are taken out, the network would heal itself quickly and you'd hardly notice."
Ellentuch said the country's ISPs -- EUnet Yugoslavia, BeoTelNet, SezamPro and BITS -- appear to rely on only three pipes and a single satellite link.
One of the pipes runs through London and is owned by EuNet, a large European network operator.
"It's overloaded," said Pierre Baume, a EuNet network engineer based in Amsterdam. "But it's been overloaded for as long as we can remember."
Meanwhile, the administrators with Eunet Yugoslavia appear to be lying low.
"As a result of recent NATO attacks on Yugoslavia, Eunet Yugoslavia is unable to provide its customers with payment services and customer support," says an notice on the site. "We hope that we will return to normal operation soon." This story belongs to Wired News. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Copyright © 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved
NewsTrolls uses it and it's clear and no FTP...
Gossamer Threads' File Manager
--diva
What an excellent idea!...Very cool!
Finally a sensible post...
Hypnotik, you can find the rest of world at NewsTrolls
To all:
Life can be hell. It is all up to you whether you perceive yourself as an eternal victim or pull yourself up by yourself and laugh at it. The greatest tool you have is your mind. Don't buy into the crap that you're damaged goods in need of saving, rehabilitating, etc. I don't agree with Katz using all of you to up his Q-factor to the rest of media. (BTW, you DO know, don't you, that his next book is called "Geek Voices"...how convenient that the Littleton Murders have provided him with the opportunity to be a self-proclaimed cultural intermediary between "geeks" and the rest of the world!). I don't agree that these kids were "geeks". Playing Doom and Quake and using the Internet makes you a geek??? You are only as fucked up as you convince yourself you are. There is a whole world out there beyond the lint in your navel.
--diva
It is easy to kill when you don't see the person behind the nameless face. Basic tool of boot camp training. This is just a theory on my part, but I think the SIZE of the school has A LOT to do with it...
A teenager's #1 modus operandi is to define the self. Perhaps she comes up with a definition of herself by herself but she needs interaction on a personal and familiar level with others to enforce her own view of herself. In a freshman class of 60 (like mine was), you pretty quickly learn about everyone as individuals...it's much harder to categorize them as simply cheerleader or class-officer-geek if you have to interact with them on a personal level 7 hours a day. You're bound to see more of their idiosyncracies and they become individuals to you, whether you like them or not.
In a school of 1800 you have 460 in your freshman class...there's no WAY you're going to learn about each one by name and individual personality. They are a sea of faces to you and as such you can invent and make yourself believe just about anything you want about them..."she's rich and all the boys like her; she doesn't have a care in the world"...(which of course is never true).
State of the Art schools are great but not when it means you've got a WalMart size student body. Of course teachers, parents, other students are going to generalize and categorize, b/c that's what we all do when presented with a large group of people that we have to navigate around...
What's the point of a $12M school with state of the art equipment if you're going to just herd the kids in and out? Better there be 4 or 5 state of the art schools with TOTAL enrollment of less than 400 kids in all four classes. But it's cheaper to build one than 5, so therein lies the rub...
If nobody knows you and nobody cares who you are, how hard would it be to kill people you've objectified into caricatures of whom they really are?
My answer is smaller schools with smaller classes where a teen can not only learn but also interact with other teens...not be shuffled around and suffer the humiliation of no one knowing who you are.
---diva
First, correcting 2 typos above (please excuse the oversight):
"NewsTrolls" not "NesTrolls" and
"hear" not "here"
Yes you CAN hang them on the wall...I believe the current packaging includes them...mine did not, but did include fixtures for attaching it to the side of the computer.
Also, for those who complained about it's sound...consider it's frequency range and wattage. Again, these are rather lightweight in those departments, but bigger ones are coming. I hope they do a wireless version so they'll REALLY look cool on the wall (or in the ceiling)...
--diva
I received a pair of these for Christmas and I reviewed them for NesTrolls.
DIVA REVIEW: Benwin Flat Panel Speakers
I really enjoy them, especially because of their 360 degree/non-directional sound emission. You can be behind or to the side of the speakers and here the same as if you are in front of them. Also the SRS-3D technology on the subwoofer ROCKS!
The $99 ones are best for computer speakers or jambox/shelf stereo speakers. They are coming out with higher wattage ones soon. The current model is only 3W+3W and 6W subwoofer with a frequency range of 60Hz to 18kHz.
Jon said:
Exaggerated or not, techno-hostility forces community underground, into closed websites, mailing lists and e-mail. It stunts the evolution of ideas, movements and communities themselves.
Wrong. Techno-hostility is a PERCEPTION by non-members of a community that they know nothing about. Without worrying about pandering to a "larger" audience or "dumbing down", ideas evolve organically and quickly.
It aborts ideas.
Absolutely the contrary is true. It allows the community to be an idea-incubator (or womb to use your analogy).
Hostility, from flames to viruses, are an inducement to the many in journalism, politics and the corporate world itching to find ways to control and curb free access on the Net and the Web.
How clever! So in order to keep free access, we need to tone down our opinions and statements? Bullshit.
And they are all generally acts of cowardice and malice at worst, unthinking and reflexive cruelty at best. It's no wonder that the most enthusiastic attackers hide behind anonymity.
First of all, your parallel usage of flames and virus is suspect at best. The two are apples and oranges. Creating a virus or a flame is neither unthinking nor reflexive, unlike your article's unthinking and reflexive mental masturbation.
Creating a virus is an art. It is no different than the kid of your generation who took the radio apart just to put it back together again, even if some parts were left out. It is a natural instinct in humans to figure out how things work.
If you create a virus to rip off money, you are a thief. If you create a virus in order to show explicitly the obnoxious security holes in Microsoft or other OSs, you are doing the general public a service. You are enabling them to see clearly why security is important to protect their data, why encryption is essential, and why (in the example of David's Melissa) using shoddy MS products is a serious business risk. I hope sincerely that the example of Melissa will be considered by the Pentagon and NATO who currently both use Microsoft Products. And don't even get me started on Los Alamos Lab, the most high-level security lab in the country, that ONLY RECENTLY put up a firewall...
---diva
Yes, I am being the fly in the butter, here...
/. does not include negative posts.
Is the default set at 0 or "all posts" for a new or non-logged-in user?
If it's allposts, cool, if it's still "0", you're censoring.
Sorry to be a butthead but you are the source of Open source community and you're closing down your openess if you decide for a new user or a non-logged-in user that what they see upon first entering
Most people do not change their default preferences. You know that.
BTW, meept!, first post!, etc...
--diva (Invisible Malcontent)
What is the default set at for new or non-logged-in users?
If it is "all posts viewed" I don't have a problem.
If it is 0 so no negatives appear, it's no longer Open...
I'm repeating myself, I know...
BTW, meept!, first post!, etc.
--diva (Invisible Malcontent)
You said:
"What I think is novel about the slashdot solution is this: people can see whether a post has already been elected or demoted, and thus not waste their vote on that post."
That is EXACTLY the problem.
I am my only moderator, not you, not a moderator, not a Yale professor. I decide if the post is crap or not...for myself, by myself, without the "pressure" of others' opinions.
As I do in real life...I have a finely calibrated bullshit-meter and since I believe that everyone here is adult enough to have their own as well, I am against this moderation.
It is censoring as long as the default for newbies/not-logged-ins is 0.
-diva (boola boola!)
IF the default for a new or not-logged in user is always the lowest score...with a big option to the newbie on how to change what she sees (to include the moderation).
/. as you said "in all it's flamey glory".
.org instead of a .com) and ultimately you can do whatever you want but I hope you realize the importance of the unadulterated /. to be the first thing a newbie sees...
If the default is "0", you deprive the world of the reality that is
It's your site (although that is more questionable in your case since you're an
(Article this weekend)
--diva
I did it in the Kipling Hacked and me and Thomas Jefferson promptly got a -4.
Fuck it.
I am an invisible malcontent, proud to be a minus, a nothing, a no one in the suburbs of slashdot.
I'm the kid you don't want to let your sister go out with.
I'm the old man in the weird house down the street who coughs too much and doesn't bathe enough.
I'm the Stepford wife propped up on Jesus and Mother's Little Helper.
I'm the overgrown weeds.
I'm the geek.
VIVA THE MINUSES!
-diva
I GUESS I SHOULDN'T USE BOLD OR UNDERLINE OR USE LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EITHER.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
- Eric Hoffer
Every man...should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is pleasing to one is to make a pillow of the mind.
- St. John Ervine
If all mankind were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, then he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
- John Stuart Mill
Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth
- Thomas Jefferson
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
- Leonardo da Vinci
As always, thank you to the invaluable people of FreedomsNest for providing the quotes database.
I slept on this issue and this morning I'm more convinced than ever of it's wrongness. So I will write an article about it. Rob, hemos, I am still hoping you will reconsider this decision.
I like you because you have a Tom Waits quote...but you said:
"They have no idea what they think, generally because they cannot and do not think"
That, Louse, is dangerous thinking...commonly known as FASCISM.
Don't fall for it.
VIVA THE MINUSES!
--diva
If any of you are interested, we're discussing /. decision here.
And say what you want.
NewsTrolls does not censor.
VIVA THE MINUSES! VIVA THE NEGATIVES!
--diva
I'm still completely flabbergasted.
- post-as-well-as-I" mentality will lead you...How about no posts from competitors? No posts from women? No posts from Jews? It's the SAME THING.
/. out and leaving an empty useless shell where everyone's comments are nice and somewhat intelligent AND SAY NOTHING...
It is SO WRONG.
I want a default where I only see the posts from -10s and worse...those are your core readers, rob. Those are "the truth". Flamers, 1st Posters, Me toos...all of them...
I don't want to read what the rest of you hipster marketing wanks who went to one Comdex event and think you're cool have to say...you know nothing. You're only regurgitating whatever feeble minded crap your feeble minded 3rd rate business schools spooned into your heads. I want to read from the angry, the illiterate, the strange and the vicious. They have clarity.
Fuck this.
I'm writing an article on this one it makes me so nuts.
You have no idea where this kind of "your-voice-is-not-as-important-because-you-don't
Rob, Hemos...you know I know what I'm talking about here. DON'T DO THIS TO SLASHDOT.
You're ripping the soul of
I had no idea this would affect me so deeply...shit I've posted 5 times now in this Thread...
Please reconsider.
--diva
So I reset to 2 and looked around...
2 /0950223&pid=0#420
http://www.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99/03/2
(If that works) it shows you the 3 comments that were "deemed" appropriate for the Wired on Kipling article... one of them just asked where he could buy the bag???
There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason as to what is deemed more than one (although I apparently am not deemed more than one.)
This is censorship.
What next "Slashdot Lite" with comments 3 and above only that you can market to ZDNet or so advertisers will overlook your "controversial-ness" so you can sell Fucking Pampers????
No this is wrong.
NewsTrolls will never do this. Ever.
I guess this will make me a negative number now...
VIVA THE MINUSES!!!
Bullshit bullshit bullshit.
Bad penguin...no fish!
--diva
I put my threashold at 10 for the intelligent comments and got nothing...
You said:
"Just saying "M$ sucks, or RH sucks, etc. is liable to get nailed quick, unless the poster (AC or not) has a good point to make."
WHOA! You mean you're moderating CONTENT, not just swear words or personal attacks?
Editing or deleting or low ranking "Microsoft sucks"???
This is going to get interesting...