Re:Call me old school...but ....
on
Moderation Ideas
·
· Score: 1
Three things:
1) This guy's got a point, but... (see below).
2) Hey, guys - see how all the surrounding posts are still at their default scores, 12 hours after they got posted? The "too late to moderate" thing is one of/.'s worst problems. In case you haven't noticed, the relative dumbness of comments tends to decrease in proportion to how late in a discussion they're offered, so the degree to which they're moderated up is inversely proportional to their actual worth. Just pointing that out again (presumably to no one, since I'm constitutionally unsuited to reloading all day, and therefore not a valued/.er). The "continuing discussions / great debates box" someone brought up way up there near the middle was a damn good idea - or maybe instead just a "last comment posted at wx:yz EST" on the front-page teasers (which I think would uncomplicate the coding, since comment totals seem to refresh themselves so efficiently, and it's basically the same deal) - to get the attention of the mods, all of whom are apparently/obviously compulsive reloaders....though I guess not within the top 20%. Yikes.
1 cont'd)...but, what I'd propose instead is a little more of an honor system, wherein everyone's user prefs included an "I Don't Know Shit About..." set of checkboxes, which precludes the user from moderating in the chosen categories until he's caught up on the basics. I'd suggest that the average/.er should check "Apple," "Crypto," "South Park," "BSD," "Photoshop" and "Slashdot" for starters, just to keep yourself honest. (And mine would be, say, "Star Trek," "Debian," "Beowulf Anything," "Build Your Own Computer, Yuppie!" and "Pop-psych Analysis of Geekdom.")
It also might be a worthwhile pain in the ass to default-disable "Funny"-scoring and -unscoring ability until the user can correctly connect the words "irony," "mockery," "satire," "sarcasm" "metonymy," "parody," "caricature," "flippancy" and "raspberry" with examples of each (you know, like you used to do on the McDonald's placemats with "Grimace" and "Mayor McCheese" and their respective product-shaped cars), because nothing at/. has pissed me off more than the (real) MAE LING MAK NAKED AND PETRIFIED guy (not his imitators) getting marked "offtopic" unjustly (look up "metonymy," then check out his post in the RHAT trademark story, for example).
3) [Insert tirade about ACs moderating themselves]!!!!!
All right, "shady" was probably a bit much, but it was more a flip-chapeaux allusion to the RHAT logo than a description of RHAT itself, an allusion designed to capitalize on the common/. equation of "corporate" and "evil," the purpose being to subconsciously sway the average/.er to my point of view without really saying anything. You'll note that it did the opposite to you. Congratulations on your not being average. But I'm a writer, it's my job, I do tricks like that for money, and when I come home I keep doing it for fun. Just like porno stars. Didn't mean to get you so worked up.
And we don't disagree as much as you think (or at least not in the way that you think). Firstly, kernel subversion doesn't worry me. The GPL was designed to prevent it, and it works. And note that I never mentioned it, although you "quoted" me on it. Secondly, Linux's open-sourced-ness and coder-community popularity negate or at least greatly lessen the strength of that argument. But again, it's not what I was talking about.
Clarification -
In this stage of "World Domination," public/press/corporate IT dept./newbie perception means more than at any other point in Linux's life, and the untrue RHAT=Linux idea is prevalent enough among those groups as is. If RHAT had succeeded in its early bid to buy Linus, the RHAT=Linux idea would still be untrue, but harder to combat, because "Yeah, but what about the GPL?" doesn't make sense to the people Linux needs to be sold to now. "Linus works for RHAT" does. That, I think, is what RHAT was looking for. Not "subver[sion]," just deceptive marketing. And no, I don't mean the evil Microsoftian kind of deceptive marketing, but de facto deception based on new-customer unfamiliarity with the world of Linux. The resemblence between "Linux" and "Linus" is stronger than non-geek knowledge of FSF/GPL/OSS will ever be. That's all. I should've been more long-windedly clear the first time, but it was early (for me, late).
And, obviously, "not all corporations behave like assholes," but the vast majority of corporations do behave like corporations, which isn't inherently bad, but doesn't command trust. RHAT's being a corporation isn't inherently bad, but its occasional/slight/growing(?) tendency to behave like one might be. They certainly have started talking like one (see article). I was just pointing out, with an example that hadn't made it onto/. lately, that we should be wary of RHAT's (not always acknowledged) potential for harm to other distros, if they decide to push more in the RHAT=Linux direction than in the Linux-ain't-Microsoft direction. The attempted purchase of Linus and the planned jump into Suse's market suggest that I'm not totally insane, but don't prove that I'm right either. Hence the presence of a lot of words like "seem" in my original post.
And, obviously, Alan and Dave have nothing to do with this. As far as I can tell, they're two guys who write code, and some of that coding is done for money. This is an admirable vocation, and I wish I could be as good at it as they are, because then my posts would be marked "insightful" when they're more like "non-responsive." (And I'll refrain from using my M2 status to nail the chump who did that - ain't I the coolest?)
And re: Bob Young....well, I want good things, hope they happen, wish they would happen really fast, but I don't share your surety in expecting them. And this is not just because RHAT's gone public. That was the "R"ight "T"hing to do, and I think Mr. Young had something to do with that.
and who's gonna page down this far this late anyway, but -
Here's the thing. There's a lot of "RHAT does not equal Linux" here on/., for good reason(s), whenever a RHAT story comes out. "We" (dorks) understand that, and we know it's important. But, RHAT tried to hire Linus!...Doesn't that creep you out? Luckily, Linus seems like an all-around good guy who doesn't go for anyone's bait, so RHAT isn't Linux, but, dammit, they tried to be. They tried to buy The Man Himself. That, I think, makes RHAT look more shady (in a sort of typical not-really-frightening-but-crappy-anyhow corporate kind of way) than the (pretty g.d. silly) IPO pseudo-fiasco and RHAT's pseudo-responses to it.
But then again, I'm not a *real* Linux guy (it won't let me do any of my work on it, yet (...waiting!)), so....
and PS: FREE DAVEO from Bad Karma! His posts don't blow.
Slashdot Mirror
Three things:
/.'s worst problems. In case you haven't noticed, the relative dumbness of comments tends to decrease in proportion to how late in a discussion they're offered, so the degree to which they're moderated up is inversely proportional to their actual worth. Just pointing that out again (presumably to no one, since I'm constitutionally unsuited to reloading all day, and therefore not a valued /.er). The "continuing discussions / great debates box" someone brought up way up there near the middle was a damn good idea - or maybe instead just a "last comment posted at wx:yz EST" on the front-page teasers (which I think would uncomplicate the coding, since comment totals seem to refresh themselves so efficiently, and it's basically the same deal) - to get the attention of the mods, all of whom are apparently/obviously compulsive reloaders....though I guess not within the top 20%. Yikes.
...but, what I'd propose instead is a little more of an honor system, wherein everyone's user prefs included an "I Don't Know Shit About..." set of checkboxes, which precludes the user from moderating in the chosen categories until he's caught up on the basics. I'd suggest that the average /.er should check "Apple," "Crypto," "South Park," "BSD," "Photoshop" and "Slashdot" for starters, just to keep yourself honest. (And mine would be, say, "Star Trek," "Debian," "Beowulf Anything," "Build Your Own Computer, Yuppie!" and "Pop-psych Analysis of Geekdom.")
/. has pissed me off more than the (real) MAE LING MAK NAKED AND PETRIFIED guy (not his imitators) getting marked "offtopic" unjustly (look up "metonymy," then check out his post in the RHAT trademark story, for example).
1) This guy's got a point, but... (see below).
2) Hey, guys - see how all the surrounding posts are still at their default scores, 12 hours after they got posted? The "too late to moderate" thing is one of
1 cont'd)
It also might be a worthwhile pain in the ass to default-disable "Funny"-scoring and -unscoring ability until the user can correctly connect the words "irony," "mockery," "satire," "sarcasm" "metonymy," "parody," "caricature," "flippancy" and "raspberry" with examples of each (you know, like you used to do on the McDonald's placemats with "Grimace" and "Mayor McCheese" and their respective product-shaped cars), because nothing at
3) [Insert tirade about ACs moderating themselves]!!!!!
All right, "shady" was probably a bit much, but it was more a flip-chapeaux allusion to the RHAT logo than a description of RHAT itself, an allusion designed to capitalize on the common /. equation of "corporate" and "evil," the purpose being to subconsciously sway the average /.er to my point of view without really saying anything. You'll note that it did the opposite to you. Congratulations on your not being average. But I'm a writer, it's my job, I do tricks like that for money, and when I come home I keep doing it for fun. Just like porno stars. Didn't mean to get you so worked up.
/. lately, that we should be wary of RHAT's (not always acknowledged) potential for harm to other distros, if they decide to push more in the RHAT=Linux direction than in the Linux-ain't-Microsoft direction. The attempted purchase of Linus and the planned jump into Suse's market suggest that I'm not totally insane, but don't prove that I'm right either. Hence the presence of a lot of words like "seem" in my original post.
And we don't disagree as much as you think (or at least not in the way that you think). Firstly, kernel subversion doesn't worry me. The GPL was designed to prevent it, and it works. And note that I never mentioned it, although you "quoted" me on it. Secondly, Linux's open-sourced-ness and coder-community popularity negate or at least greatly lessen the strength of that argument. But again, it's not what I was talking about.
Clarification -
In this stage of "World Domination," public/press/corporate IT dept./newbie perception means more than at any other point in Linux's life, and the untrue RHAT=Linux idea is prevalent enough among those groups as is. If RHAT had succeeded in its early bid to buy Linus, the RHAT=Linux idea would still be untrue, but harder to combat, because "Yeah, but what about the GPL?" doesn't make sense to the people Linux needs to be sold to now. "Linus works for RHAT" does. That, I think, is what RHAT was looking for. Not "subver[sion]," just deceptive marketing. And no, I don't mean the evil Microsoftian kind of deceptive marketing, but de facto deception based on new-customer unfamiliarity with the world of Linux. The resemblence between "Linux" and "Linus" is stronger than non-geek knowledge of FSF/GPL/OSS will ever be. That's all. I should've been more long-windedly clear the first time, but it was early (for me, late).
And, obviously, "not all corporations behave like assholes," but the vast majority of corporations do behave like corporations, which isn't inherently bad, but doesn't command trust. RHAT's being a corporation isn't inherently bad, but its occasional/slight/growing(?) tendency to behave like one might be. They certainly have started talking like one (see article). I was just pointing out, with an example that hadn't made it onto
And, obviously, Alan and Dave have nothing to do with this. As far as I can tell, they're two guys who write code, and some of that coding is done for money. This is an admirable vocation, and I wish I could be as good at it as they are, because then my posts would be marked "insightful" when they're more like "non-responsive." (And I'll refrain from using my M2 status to nail the chump who did that - ain't I the coolest?)
And re: Bob Young....well, I want good things, hope they happen, wish they would happen really fast, but I don't share your surety in expecting them. And this is not just because RHAT's gone public. That was the "R"ight "T"hing to do, and I think Mr. Young had something to do with that.
and who's gonna page down this far this late anyway, but -
/., for good reason(s), whenever a RHAT story comes out. "We" (dorks) understand that, and we know it's important. But, RHAT tried to hire Linus! ...Doesn't that creep you out? Luckily, Linus seems like an all-around good guy who doesn't go for anyone's bait, so RHAT isn't Linux, but, dammit, they tried to be. They tried to buy The Man Himself. That, I think, makes RHAT look more shady (in a sort of typical not-really-frightening-but-crappy-anyhow corporate kind of way) than the (pretty g.d. silly) IPO pseudo-fiasco and RHAT's pseudo-responses to it.
Here's the thing. There's a lot of "RHAT does not equal Linux" here on
But then again, I'm not a *real* Linux guy (it won't let me do any of my work on it, yet (...waiting!)), so....
and PS: FREE DAVEO from Bad Karma! His posts don't blow.