Chacham's Journal: Slashdot habits: Starting to read the dot again.

Wow, it seems to have been over a year without Slashdot. Though over the past few days, i have looked at the front page yet again.

I went and looked at some comments too. It's the old games. Most comments are meant to be funny, and the profanity is plenty. I've trained myself for the most part to simply skip messages (here and elsewhere) at the first sign of vulgar speech, but it is in the hope that it was an aborration. When many posts are like that, it is simply annoying.

My main problem is, i am out of touch with the techy market. I could not tell you right now what the latest technologies are, which processor is better, or what type of memory you need. Then there's price. It used to be i could tell a price range, or what was a a "good deal". I really have no idea anymore.

This does not come from just not reading Slashdot. In a sense, i have lost interest in the whole process. Or, even in the cult of reading to know the latest. If Slashdot killed the monthly report of technology due to sheer speed, apathy killed slashdot due to the work involved.

I feel "out of it" and want to "be in the know". Keeping up with solidus-full-stop seems to be the best solution. I exited because of the amount of stories that were really ads, and the lack of quality in the reporting itself. But, perhaps, i gave up too much.

Comments here are a range. At first, comments were amazing. I've been reading Chips and Dips for a long time now, though it was after the C & D shift. It's got to be a decade now, hard to believe as it is. As time passed, and the green-and-white became a popular site, many youngsters started showing up. Their particpation is appreciated. But, when they refuse to recognize their immaturity, or worse, believe they are on top of the world because of what they know, they become annoying. And there's also the vulgarity factor. Not yet being tempered they have a "what's your problem" mentaility that pushes them to break any barriers, if only just to break them.

So, moderation came along and fixed that. The sea of users will correct itself, and nonsense replies do not stand for long. But, now that the youngens have become the majority, even the moderation falls down.

Most moderation seems to be "funny". I need to put a -6 back on those. Or maybe just -1 to keep them out of +5. The rest of the types of moderation mean very little to me. I just use the score so i read less, and get to the more informative ones faster.

Why do i want the comments? Well, the reason to post the stories is to pass on information. The reason to read the comments is to apply the noise filter. They story may be good, or wrong. And even when good, some points may be totally bogus (dude), while the rest is okay. Explanations and expositions can ensue, and some are highly informative. As if the story merely is used to stir the readers. A conversation topic of sorts.

In a sense, i need to sort stories into two categories. "Informational" and "Discussion Topic", though the borders do cross. When it's a discussion, use +5 to filter out main points, and if i have the time and interest, the expositions.

There's also digg, but i'm not sure where it stands. And, there's plenty of review and hardware sites. But, i have an urge not to read them either because they are tedious, or perhaps i don't always know their context.

Hmm... i think i'll turn email stories back on. There's no real reason to check the front page.

I have a theory

[ncc74656]

It won't be too long before Slashdot starts handing out seven-digit uids. My theory is that the day they start doing that will be the day that the adage about a million monkeys with a million typewriters will be disproved once and for all.

That said, there's still the occasional nugget among the dross. I guess that's why I haven't kicked the habit.

Re:I have a theory

[Chacham]

that will be the day that the adage about a million monkeys with a million typewriters will be disproved once and for all.

Heh.

Please, turn that into a one-liner. :)

selectivity

[Bill Dog]

In a sense, i need to sort stories into two categories. "Informational" and "Discussion Topic",...

I guess that's what I do, unconciously. For example, some day I just have to jump on this new AJAX bandwagon, to keep my web development skills from getting too outdated. So I make a point to scour the discussions for that topic, since there tend to be a lot of links posted for tutorials and references that I want to save. I.e. "informational".

The only "discussional" discussions I can stand to venture into for

Re:selectivity

[Chacham]

Interesting. (I mean your whole reply.)

Where is the magical site that has what was once here?

Filtering obscenity

[superyooser]

You can filter bad words with the customizable clean-language script [arantius.com] for the Firefox Greasemonkey extension [mozdev.org]. I used it for a while, but it was taking too long to load comments pages in Slashdot. However, I have an old system, so it may be more tolerable for you. Regardless, if you browse at score level 4 or 5, it would work pretty well anyway, I think.

I should try that. Since I watch virtually no TV, and people are mostly clean-mouthed in my community, Slashdot is my only regular exposure to obscenity. Th

Re:Filtering obscenity

[Chacham]

Heh. I could repeat your second paragraph as my own. :)

I have mentioned it before [slashdot.org], that it is not only the words, but also the approach of the user to the post. Many times profanity is used casually, and that reflects an attitude i care not to hear, even if the rest of the post would have otherwise been informational.