Ugh. Another over-hyped "expose" of an "underground" "culture" laced with scare stories. And notice the quotes in the preceeding sentance, because my view is that this article is nothing more than a load of bollocks designed to attract attention. Not that that's unqiue in the modern media.
As someone who regularly uses various chemicals (although not nearly as much as I used to) I can confidently state so what? I very much doubt that drug use is any higher amongst technically orientated people than any other sector where people are earning a decent wage. If drug use is booming then it's because wages are rising, not because of any other reasons. Most of the people I know who do take aren't in the computing industry, no particular field is any more likely to have users amongst it, it's an extremely widespread thing nowadays.
It's too early for formal studies that quantify the problem, but there are ominous signs of its growing proportions.
"Virtually 100% [of stimulant users] begin to use downers--alcohol, Valium or heroin--to sleep," said Dr. Stalcup of the Concord treatment center. He declined to comment specifically about the Bunnell case.
Bollocks. Like most press articles about drugs, they're failing to make the distinction between users and abusers. Almost all people fall into the category of users - they might take a hell of a lot, but it's because they want to, not because they have to. There is a real difference there. I had a big amphetamine problem for a year or so - up four days in a row, sleep for a few hours, repeat. In that year I managed to fuck myself up big time. That was abuse.
Now I use as and when I feel like it, and that's not a problem. I'd imagine it's the same in Silicon Valley, not the den of burnt out addicts that they're trying to portray. Sure there are people that are going to fuck up big time, and it's a tragic loss, but these cases are the minority compared to the huge numbers of people who use regularly without a problem.
As you can probably tell I'm sick of these scare stories taking a complete non-event and trying to turn them into news.
You know I never realised there was a spiralx.com until a week or two ago. And fucking horror of horrors, it appears to be a wrestling site. Still it explains why people keep writing "SpiralX" rather than "spiralx", they're obviously wrestling fans...
I don't have a Natalie Portman obsession (though I wouldn't say no), instead I have this thing called a real life! Hell, I don't even have a net connection at home... this means I have to engage in things like friends, sex and going out. What a bummer eh?
There are in fact a significant number of checks in place to slow down abuses (notice I did not say "prevent abuses"). While it's certainly possible to continue adding more and more, it's equally possible to continue creating spam scripts that get around whatever checks are in place.
Until we get real AI, then things like the "lameness filter" will never work. And the worse thing is, they even encourage the spammers to get around them - I remember there being a spate of spam shortly after the lameness filter was introduced in the first place. It's just asking for trouble really.
Oh, and you might want to tell Rob to pick better names for these things - "lameness filter" and "bitchslapping" are both the sort of name that gets people wound up even more than the thing itself.
Probably the only solution which would actually work in the long run is banning non-logged-in posting entirely, and making it difficult to get a new account. Note that this change would significantly change the way the site operates.
Yeah, it wouldn't be/. then... that's a tough one to answer. The other alternative is to completely change moderation/Karma etc. - there's an interesting proposal at scoop.kuro5hin. org about a "mojo" system of moderation which might actually cut down on spam. Whether it'd work with a site of/.'s size is another question though.
I don't think there is anything of quality posted anonymously - hasn't been for a long time.
Not entirely true, it's just buried under a lot of crap and nobody sees it. Some of the more intelligent AC posters moved to k5 before it died.
Perhaps another solution would be for the general slashdot readership to a) avoid feeding the trolls and spammers and b) moderate freely. It's not ideal, but nothing is.
I don't think a) is something policy can change...:) But b) might help, as long as the problem of "revenge" metamoderation is solved - a lot of people don't moderate anymore thanks to people constantly metamodding them as "unfair".
Slashdot and kuro5hin were at war - the only people who believed this were the pathetic slashdot trolls like spiralx and fluffy grue(who wants DDoSed slashdot) who were always pushing the conspiracy theory edge.
Not to put too fine a word on it, but bollocks. I've never believed/. and k5 were at war or even in competition, its obviously not the case to anyone with half a clue about either site. A few sly jokes was about the most it ever got to.
I like kuro5hin and I read it every day during the week whilst I'm at work. I don't post that often, but I do when I've got something to say. I haven't trolled k5 and I won't troll k5, because it simply doesn't have the knee-jerk crowd/. has.
You need to calm down and stop throwing blame around. I don't think anyone really thinks/. attacked kuro5hin.
I've been there since it came back online, but my new job means I'm in a lot more closely packed office - having "SMOKEDOT" come up in big letters at the top of my screen is more attention than I really want:)
Do still read it at home when I get the chance though. It's a good site with some nice articles.
Anytime that something gets even the hint of organization or recognition, people will try to jump to the head of the class.
Yeah I suppose so, some people such as Vladinator take the whole "hidden" troll forum kind of thing waaay too seriously as if it were some kind of massive conspiracy. It's not like we're doing it to be 31337, but some people think that if they try and "out" us or hassle us it makes them cool for pissing us off.
When you've gone through the trouble to put together a HOWTO, even in jest, it helps the thing grow.
As with all of my trolling, the roots for that came out of being very bored at work. It, along with the troll archive, are up at my website:)
And the only reason I picked you is because you are a known troll and the first one I came across.
Yeah, I don't use this account much anymore because it has become known as a troll account, even though it's not - I've never used this account to troll or post shit. *sigh* Can't really blame anyone but myself I suppose:(
... but then again I hate trying to discuss something when you know at least person talking is just bullshitin' to piss you off
Yeah, but there have been some great points raised during the course of trolling and I can honestly say I've learnt a lot. Forcing people to defend a belief makes them explain it which helps everyone to understand it...
for all your funny shit spiralx, you're a big part of this problem. You convince a couple people that trolling is cool and all of a sudden someone with less sense steps over the line.
Why? I've never convinced anyone to troll, and I've never posted about it outside of the troll forums anyway, and anyone who is there is probably already interested in the idea. I don't "recruit" other trolls, and I definitely wasn't the first person to troll/. And I've never trolled k5.
Spamming is fundamentally different from trolling in the mentality behind it. We're doing it for fun and a challenge, they're doing it because they have nothing better to do than fuck things up.
Hell, isn't there an open-source trolling script running around someplace. I've seen it used here, it couldn't be that hard to adapt to k5. Anyway, this whole thing sucks.
It'd take about 10 minutes for someone to write a spam script to hit/. or k5 if they knew how. And yeah, it does suck, I like k5. I'd hate to see it disappear.
Anyway, whether or not I, osm and the dozen or so people who actually write trolls did it or not would have no impact on the amount of spam that/. or k5 received. You may not like what I do, but you're being unfair to attribute all of this to me, directly or indirectly.
It was buried right at the bottom of a thread IIRC, so I don't know how many people saw it. Of course he might have been talking shit, but he does seem kind of hostile to/. usually. If it was him then I don't know why he admitted it.
What/. needs is to cut every post below a certain threshold to say 10 lines with a "Read more..." link below that. So each spam post would only take up a small amount of screen space. I emailed Rob and suggested it to him and he said he liked it, but I dunno if it went any further.
The Jon Erikson type trolls make a certain degree of sense.
As the real poster behind Jon Erikson I can honestly say that people like myself, osm, gnarphlager etc. all like/. and don't want to see it ruined at all. What we do isn't aimed at breaking/. and we all hate idiots like Penis Bird Guy as much as anyone.
Things like Patrick Bateman and hot grits have become funny in the same way a running joke does, and because they are only one comment per article. The cut 'n' pasters are all cunts IMHO and add nothing to the conversation at all.
I've been reading k5 for about six months now and IMHO it was just starting to really take off, probably about the same time rusty introduced the new story moderation system. There have been some great discussions there in the last few weeks - the site probably has a broader focus than/. thanks to its user-moderated story system and it generates a lot of good points.
It's sad that people feel the need to do this. Does anyone remember the twostories that got spammed to death here on/.? One of the posters on k5, fluffy grue, owned up to those, saying he was bitter at how/. had turned out and thought he'd leave with a bang. Some people really need to stop taking these things so personally - if you don't like a site then find another or start your own, don't react like a petulant child.
Anyway, I hope rusty can get k5 up and running again, because it would be a great shame for a site to be shut down because of the actions of one sad little person with nothing better to do than attack others.
P.S. Is someone doing the same to/. as well? It seems to be awfully shaky recently.
Bye, my own personal troll-boy. Get your own life and stop shadowing my posts--I know it's been you these past few times because of your idiosyncratic language use. Grow up, kiddie.
I'm undecided on whether you're being serious or you're just a troll yourself, albeit a more "informed" one. But whichever way it is, you certainly seem to piss people off!
Oh and for your information the British Film Board has just relaxed the restrictions on sex in films. Now we can have closeups of penetration and ejaculation on film. Woohoo!:)
It was said that in only dope dealers use ounces now...
Naah, you can get other drugs by the ounce too...:)
And then theres Tonnes. How heavy is a ton, anybody? Is that metric or imperial?
Is that a ton or a tonne?
How about a billion. How many zeros in a billion? Are you sure?
I don't think I've seen anyone use the British billion (that's 1,000,000,000,000 for our USian friends) ever. Which I'm honestly thankful for because the alternative would be too confusing...
Actually I'm from London now living in Surrey... although there are a lot of upper class twats in Surrey, they're certainly not anywhere near where I live:)
Hmm, dope is by the eighth of an ounce or more up to a 9-bar and then it goes metric but speed/coke is by the gram until you get to a quarter of an ounce (approx 7 grams). Odd that:)
Slashdot Mirror
... whose bio says
"sure, I bombed out of highschool"
Sure makes light of your comment eh?
Ugh. Another over-hyped "expose" of an "underground" "culture" laced with scare stories. And notice the quotes in the preceeding sentance, because my view is that this article is nothing more than a load of bollocks designed to attract attention. Not that that's unqiue in the modern media.
As someone who regularly uses various chemicals (although not nearly as much as I used to) I can confidently state so what? I very much doubt that drug use is any higher amongst technically orientated people than any other sector where people are earning a decent wage. If drug use is booming then it's because wages are rising, not because of any other reasons. Most of the people I know who do take aren't in the computing industry, no particular field is any more likely to have users amongst it, it's an extremely widespread thing nowadays.
It's too early for formal studies that quantify the problem, but there are ominous signs of its growing proportions.
"Virtually 100% [of stimulant users] begin to use downers--alcohol, Valium or heroin--to sleep," said Dr. Stalcup of the Concord treatment center. He declined to comment specifically about the Bunnell case.
Bollocks. Like most press articles about drugs, they're failing to make the distinction between users and abusers. Almost all people fall into the category of users - they might take a hell of a lot, but it's because they want to, not because they have to. There is a real difference there. I had a big amphetamine problem for a year or so - up four days in a row, sleep for a few hours, repeat. In that year I managed to fuck myself up big time. That was abuse.
Now I use as and when I feel like it, and that's not a problem. I'd imagine it's the same in Silicon Valley, not the den of burnt out addicts that they're trying to portray. Sure there are people that are going to fuck up big time, and it's a tragic loss, but these cases are the minority compared to the huge numbers of people who use regularly without a problem.
As you can probably tell I'm sick of these scare stories taking a complete non-event and trying to turn them into news.
SpiralX (sic) is Wos
You know I never realised there was a spiralx.com until a week or two ago. And fucking horror of horrors, it appears to be a wrestling site. Still it explains why people keep writing "SpiralX" rather than "spiralx", they're obviously wrestling fans...
And I'm definitely not Woz... :)
... you managed to get a 5 from finding a story where you could post the link to the game. Maybe I should have given you a 20 instead :)
I love your nick... any reason for it?
Aaaagh! What is it with USians using the term "Xtasy"? For the love of God, it's "Ecstacy" or "pills". And it's E, not X too. *grrr*
I don't have a Natalie Portman obsession (though I wouldn't say no), instead I have this thing called a real life! Hell, I don't even have a net connection at home... this means I have to engage in things like friends, sex and going out. What a bummer eh?
There are in fact a significant number of checks in place to slow down abuses (notice I did not say "prevent abuses"). While it's certainly possible to continue adding more and more, it's equally possible to continue creating spam scripts that get around whatever checks are in place.
Until we get real AI, then things like the "lameness filter" will never work. And the worse thing is, they even encourage the spammers to get around them - I remember there being a spate of spam shortly after the lameness filter was introduced in the first place. It's just asking for trouble really.
Oh, and you might want to tell Rob to pick better names for these things - "lameness filter" and "bitchslapping" are both the sort of name that gets people wound up even more than the thing itself.
Probably the only solution which would actually work in the long run is banning non-logged-in posting entirely, and making it difficult to get a new account. Note that this change would significantly change the way the site operates.
Yeah, it wouldn't be /. then... that's a tough one to answer. The other alternative is to completely change moderation/Karma etc. - there's an interesting proposal at scoop.kuro5hin. org about a "mojo" system of moderation which might actually cut down on spam. Whether it'd work with a site of /.'s size is another question though.
I don't think there is anything of quality posted anonymously - hasn't been for a long time.
Not entirely true, it's just buried under a lot of crap and nobody sees it. Some of the more intelligent AC posters moved to k5 before it died.
Perhaps another solution would be for the general slashdot readership to a) avoid feeding the trolls and spammers and b) moderate freely. It's not ideal, but nothing is.
I don't think a) is something policy can change... :) But b) might help, as long as the problem of "revenge" metamoderation is solved - a lot of people don't moderate anymore thanks to people constantly metamodding them as "unfair".
Anyway, just some of my thoughts...
Slashdot and kuro5hin were at war - the only people who believed this were the pathetic slashdot trolls like spiralx and fluffy grue(who wants DDoSed slashdot) who were always pushing the conspiracy theory edge.
Not to put too fine a word on it, but bollocks. I've never believed /. and k5 were at war or even in competition, its obviously not the case to anyone with half a clue about either site. A few sly jokes was about the most it ever got to.
I like kuro5hin and I read it every day during the week whilst I'm at work. I don't post that often, but I do when I've got something to say. I haven't trolled k5 and I won't troll k5, because it simply doesn't have the knee-jerk crowd /. has.
You need to calm down and stop throwing blame around. I don't think anyone really thinks /. attacked kuro5hin.
I've been there since it came back online, but my new job means I'm in a lot more closely packed office - having "SMOKEDOT" come up in big letters at the top of my screen is more attention than I really want :)
Do still read it at home when I get the chance though. It's a good site with some nice articles.
Anytime that something gets even the hint of organization or recognition, people will try to jump to the head of the class.
Yeah I suppose so, some people such as Vladinator take the whole "hidden" troll forum kind of thing waaay too seriously as if it were some kind of massive conspiracy. It's not like we're doing it to be 31337, but some people think that if they try and "out" us or hassle us it makes them cool for pissing us off.
When you've gone through the trouble to put together a HOWTO, even in jest, it helps the thing grow.
As with all of my trolling, the roots for that came out of being very bored at work. It, along with the troll archive, are up at my website :)
And the only reason I picked you is because you are a known troll and the first one I came across.
Yeah, I don't use this account much anymore because it has become known as a troll account, even though it's not - I've never used this account to troll or post shit. *sigh* Can't really blame anyone but myself I suppose :(
Yeah, but there have been some great points raised during the course of trolling and I can honestly say I've learnt a lot. Forcing people to defend a belief makes them explain it which helps everyone to understand it...
for all your funny shit spiralx, you're a big part of this problem. You convince a couple people that trolling is cool and all of a sudden someone with less sense steps over the line.
Why? I've never convinced anyone to troll, and I've never posted about it outside of the troll forums anyway, and anyone who is there is probably already interested in the idea. I don't "recruit" other trolls, and I definitely wasn't the first person to troll /. And I've never trolled k5.
Spamming is fundamentally different from trolling in the mentality behind it. We're doing it for fun and a challenge, they're doing it because they have nothing better to do than fuck things up.
Hell, isn't there an open-source trolling script running around someplace. I've seen it used here, it couldn't be that hard to adapt to k5. Anyway, this whole thing sucks.
It'd take about 10 minutes for someone to write a spam script to hit /. or k5 if they knew how. And yeah, it does suck, I like k5. I'd hate to see it disappear.
Anyway, whether or not I, osm and the dozen or so people who actually write trolls did it or not would have no impact on the amount of spam that /. or k5 received. You may not like what I do, but you're being unfair to attribute all of this to me, directly or indirectly.
Wrong account idiot. I've never posted a troll under this account at all.
Yeah I know that but there are two problems with that method:
It was buried right at the bottom of a thread IIRC, so I don't know how many people saw it. Of course he might have been talking shit, but he does seem kind of hostile to /. usually. If it was him then I don't know why he admitted it.
What /. needs is to cut every post below a certain threshold to say 10 lines with a "Read more..." link below that. So each spam post would only take up a small amount of screen space. I emailed Rob and suggested it to him and he said he liked it, but I dunno if it went any further.
The Jon Erikson type trolls make a certain degree of sense.
As the real poster behind Jon Erikson I can honestly say that people like myself, osm, gnarphlager etc. all like /. and don't want to see it ruined at all. What we do isn't aimed at breaking /. and we all hate idiots like Penis Bird Guy as much as anyone.
Things like Patrick Bateman and hot grits have become funny in the same way a running joke does, and because they are only one comment per article. The cut 'n' pasters are all cunts IMHO and add nothing to the conversation at all.
I've been reading k5 for about six months now and IMHO it was just starting to really take off, probably about the same time rusty introduced the new story moderation system. There have been some great discussions there in the last few weeks - the site probably has a broader focus than /. thanks to its user-moderated story system and it generates a lot of good points.
It's sad that people feel the need to do this. Does anyone remember the two stories that got spammed to death here on /.? One of the posters on k5, fluffy grue, owned up to those, saying he was bitter at how /. had turned out and thought he'd leave with a bang. Some people really need to stop taking these things so personally - if you don't like a site then find another or start your own, don't react like a petulant child.
Anyway, I hope rusty can get k5 up and running again, because it would be a great shame for a site to be shut down because of the actions of one sad little person with nothing better to do than attack others.
P.S. Is someone doing the same to /. as well? It seems to be awfully shaky recently.
Then again, how often have you bought a half kilo of smack? ;)
Not often enough :)
Yeah, yeah, you know what I meant... and I'm not even American. *sigh* :)
Bye, my own personal troll-boy. Get your own life and stop shadowing my posts--I know it's been you these past few times because of your idiosyncratic language use. Grow up, kiddie.
I'm undecided on whether you're being serious or you're just a troll yourself, albeit a more "informed" one. But whichever way it is, you certainly seem to piss people off!
Oh and for your information the British Film Board has just relaxed the restrictions on sex in films. Now we can have closeups of penetration and ejaculation on film. Woohoo! :)
It was said that in only dope dealers use ounces now...
Naah, you can get other drugs by the ounce too... :)
And then theres Tonnes. How heavy is a ton, anybody? Is that metric or imperial?
Is that a ton or a tonne?
How about a billion. How many zeros in a billion? Are you sure?
I don't think I've seen anyone use the British billion (that's 1,000,000,000,000 for our USian friends) ever. Which I'm honestly thankful for because the alternative would be too confusing...
Actually I'm from London now living in Surrey... although there are a lot of upper class twats in Surrey, they're certainly not anywhere near where I live :)
Hmm, dope is by the eighth of an ounce or more up to a 9-bar and then it goes metric but speed/coke is by the gram until you get to a quarter of an ounce (approx 7 grams). Odd that :)
Well I've just wasted quarter of an hour at work trying to find the area of Surrey on the web to no avail. My best guess is several times bigger :)