Journal Enter the Polls! Now On the Front Page 150
We've had polls on Slashdot for most of the site's history (bonus points to anyone who can find the date that the very earliest one actually appeared; hint: it wasn't 1969), and that means more than 1700 browsable questions, from lighthearted to technical, political to geographic, with the occasional venture into the culinary, too.
Starting now, a small change we hope you'll like: you'll see polls appear on the front page of the site, mixed in with the rest of the Slashdot omelet, scrolling down from the top. It's a corner of our site where you can expect more improvements, too: if you have ideas about how you'd like polls to look, please let us know. Have a poll idea you'd like to see on the page? Browse some of the back catalog, or just the news, for inspiration and then -- for now -- please use the submissions form, and suggest away, by naming a question and up to eight potential answers. (It's always good to include an "escape valve" question, too, whether it's "None of the above," or another appropriate option.)
More room for ads on the right! (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like the top right part of the site above the fold is more valuable as advertising space.
Re:More room for ads on the right! (Score:4, Insightful)
And no longer we see the Cowboy Neal option.
Which just looks silly and broken... (Score:5, Insightful)
...if you're blocking advertisements.
Meanwhile, the useful content that USED TO BE THERE is now nowhere to be found on the frontpage.
Like that selection of +5 comments from various discussions...
Or an occasional interesting selection of Firehose stories...
Or that box I had with links to various comics...
Or polls...
It's really kinda bi-polar, depressing and hilarious at the same time, watching the NU-MORONS trying to "fix" the design that worked for years while the site accumulated over 4 million registered accounts.
Re: (Score:2)
Heh, yeah, after the malware that tried to get access to my system a week or two ago, I finally decided that ads on slashdot had to go. They only have themselves to blame. It was either ad block or stop coming here, though I rarely come here now compared to years past.
As an added bonus... (Score:2)
... both corporate overlords and drones forgot that the side-panel was where you'd get messages about replies and moderation.
Now... Unless you got some other channel to inform you, or you deliberately click on your account name, that box is gone.
Which will do wonders for the discussions on slashdot, I presume.
Can't wait for the reddit-style plus/minus infinity "scoring" and facebook "likes" to be added.
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I still get that box at the top right of every single article. Perhaps it's because people aren't replying to your comments. Do you see my reply up there?
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Nope... Plenty of replies, and like I said - check the account and it's there.
Maybe they just fucked up the Classic discussion system.
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Which will pay for the site how, exactly? Like it or not, someone has to keep the lights on.
Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Polls and stories are two different beasts.
Polls accumulate data over a period of days, whereas articles on the FP are generally collect comments over a period of hours - then are done.
Thus putting polls on the FP means that you have totally changed the time that they collect data, and tries to shoehorn a poll into something it isn't.
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That said, the front page also has a 'Video Bytes' line half way down full of crap, so I guess someone is really keen on killing the site. Thank $DEITY for Soylent News...
Re:Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
OMFG I just saw that Video Bytes for the first time. All I can say is that I am thankful that they don't auto play.
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Just wait for it:p
Re:Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
OMFG I just saw that Video Bytes for the first time. All I can say is that I am thankful that they don't auto play.
Not yet, give them a few months.
It seems like they are still trying for beta, just in a more gradual manner now.
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Great, so what am I supposed to change my sig to now?
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Change it to "I'm more active on SoylentNews than here." And start submitting some good stories, especially from Ars Technica or Phoronix or other sites that have developed a reputation as "future Slashdot".
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Be thankful for adblockers, at least ... for the moment we can get rid of them.
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Did I call it [slashdot.org] or did I call it?
I think the poll needs to be in a fullscreen lightbox with auto-playing video ads in the background.
Okay, well, I was close. Give it a week.
Nothing to be thankful for... (Score:2)
...about the lack of turds in a big pile of shit on your doorstep.
Re:Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
This. I thought Slashdot had managed to break their CSS (again) when I first saw that abomination.
Serious "WTF" here, guys! Polls go in the sidebar, and videos go nowhere (or as links in the summaries, if absolutely necessary as a reference for the FP).
Re:Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Polls accumulate data over a period of days, whereas articles on the FP are generally collect comments over a period of hours - then are done.
Not only will fewer people see the poll and have a chance to participate, but it becomes an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue for everyone else. I usually see the poll and vote pretty soon after it's posted but like to go back to see the results and read the comments after a few days. Without the reminder always there on the sidebar I'll never remember to do this.
Stories come and go on a daily basis. Polls last for weeks at a time. It seems prudent to separate them on the page.
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Polls accumulate data over a period of days, whereas articles on the FP are generally collect comments over a period of hours - then are done.
Without the reminder always there on the sidebar I'll never remember to do this.
Stories come and go on a daily basis. Polls last for weeks at a time. It seems prudent to separate them on the page.
Why not Both? When the poll changes, post it on the front page while keeping the traditional side bar position.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Polls on the Front page are stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
So far, the overwhelming response is "Are you insane?"
Here is an idea SLASHDOT Designers ... why don't you ask before you implement new "features", you might get valuable feedback and avoid looking stupid. Or in this case MORONIC!
To be honest, if you want to kill Polls, because you're bored or whatever, just kill them. This is just stupid.
Did I mention, it was a LAME idea?
Open Development (Score:4, Informative)
They need an open development process. They could get half of this stuff done for free if they give up this top-down development model. Obviously people are willing to go to the trouble to make Soylent News, that could easily have been effort spent on improving this site. And yes, most of us are willing to incorporate effective and unobtrusive advertising, or whatever else Dice feels is necessary.
Dice's Slashdot is closed-source and closed development. Soylent News is open source. It's not like there's a huge barrier to entry for hosting web pages, even high traffic ones. Slashdot can either burn through a decade of good will with stupid decisions, and ultimately fail, or they can recognize that their readership not only is their greatest asset but that we, collectively, have far more ability and insight to develop this site than they could ever hope to hire.
Honestly, I pity anyone trying to deal with the readership here. We are extremely vocal and hostile about any change, good or bad, and also about not changing things. Probably the polls didn't attract anywhere near the amount of traffic they used to. Probably the ad space is more valuable. Probably a statement to that effect would be better received. But just as likely the people who need to feel outraged on a regular basis would still pour forth their bile. The only real certainty is that the only thing worse than involving these people in a decision making process is not doing so.
Slashdot, open your development. You can benefit from your readership, or you can ignore them and die — and at this point I don't really care which you choose.
Re: (Score:2)
Here is an idea SLASHDOT Designers ... why don't you ask before you implement new "features", you might get valuable feedback and avoid looking stupid.
Everyone is an expert in something, but you are not an expert in change management. When you implement change whether it may be for good or bad reasons or good or bad features you NEVER ask. The reason is that you will get drowned out in noise of opinions heavily biased by the fact people only ever get worked up about negatives.
The way they rolled out Beta was inexcusable, but the way they are making these changes is pretty much change management 101:
1. Roll out minor changes at a slow pace.
2. Watch all met
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You NEVER ask end users in any kind of open way. The result is that any meaningful data is completely drowned out by bias, noise, sometimes even just plain trolling and an incredibly shitton of groupthink.
I agree with you Slashdot's administration is not the same as medicine production software the the principle still stands. You don't go out to all end users and say "hey guys, what features would you like?" You formulate working groups of experts, and have them drive the change.
The key problem of change ma
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Hate it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Put the polls back where they always were. **HATE** this change. Hate. Hate!. HATE!!!
I swear, I'm -->this-- close to not coming back here anymore. It feels like I'm the proverbial frog in the pot of water, and this bath is finally getting a bit too warm.
Re:Hate it! (Score:5, Insightful)
While I don't hate it with the same zeal as Mr. or Mrs. Maniac.. I agree that this is a bad change. Polls sat fixed on the right so that people could vote for days.. where as mixed into stories they will vanish within hours.
Polls are not "News Flashes", they are Polls. Polls require larger numbers to be accurate, so longer durations of time visible on the front page.
Re:Hate it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hate it! (Score:5, Informative)
The rest of us frogs are over here, if you haven't heard it yet. [soylentnews.org]
Re: (Score:2)
THANKS!!
Just knocked /. off of my "daily hit list" bookmarks list.
That "Video Bytes" thing makes me sad.
Re:Hate it! (Score:4, Insightful)
What does it tell you that there are more comments on /. saying "let's all move on to SoylentNews!" than there are comments on SoylentNews in total?
Re:Hate it! (Score:4, Informative)
Wha?
It looks like Slashdot used to look! With many of the same stories. Think I'm going to have to follow it a bit more than /.
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Yes, and you can get a 4 didgit UID FTW!
What would I want with one of those? :-)
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Who Moved My Cheese? (Score:2)
I wonder if you've read a certain novella by Spencer Johnson about two mice and two Lilliputians. It's called Who Moved My Cheese? [wikipedia.org], and if you don't care to read the whole thing, you can watch the short film adaptation [youtube.com] or just read its storytelling patterns [orain.org].
Re: (Score:3)
I swear, I'm -->this-- close to not coming back here anymore.
I made an account at Soylent News that day /. gave the lamest excuses ever for the incident with Sourceforge malware. Also changed my sig. Go ahead, make an account, you don't have to switch but you might as well get a head start since you know people will slowly continue migrating away from /. due to their new and overly eager to earn a buck overlords.
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Just created an account over there myself. Been following it on and off for a few months, but now it looks as though Dice is going to force beta on us regardless & /. is a shadow of it's former self. Time will tell if Soylent can keep up the old spirit of 'in soviet russia', overlords, hot grits and Cowboy Neal
Do not want (Score:5, Insightful)
Listen, the polls are great. I've answered to and read comments in them for years.
But they absolutely do not belong at the top of the news feed. Put them back in the sidebar where they belong.
And by the way, I think you meant:
It's always good to include an "escape valve" ANSWER.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Do not want (Score:4, Insightful)
Listen, the polls are great. I've answered to and read comments in them for years.
But they absolutely do not belong at the top of the news feed. Put them back in the sidebar where they belong.
And by the way, I think you meant:
It's always good to include an "escape valve" ANSWER.
+2
Who comes up with these ideas to make Slashdot worse? Who in the world would think that having a poll visible for just a few hours would be more valuable than having them visible on the side regardless of the flow of articles?
I'm seriously considering giving up on Slashdot. Over the years, I've contributed quite a bit of money to Slashdot, and have gotten quite a bit of use from the site, but it's really going downhill fast and there are plenty of other sites that are now doing a better job at providing news and commentary.
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Agree with this. This is a stupid change. Put it back on the side. Who asked for this?
This is stupid. (Score:2, Insightful)
What's that? You want to know what the latest poll is? Now you have to skim the front page, page 2, maybe page 3 and beyond in order to find it.
Buck feta (Score:5, Insightful)
I am Slashdot!
Polls Belong on the Side... (Score:3, Insightful)
look hea mang (Score:1)
fuck yo poll nigga
how we be disable dis?
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an while we hea mah brutha, how we be gets rid dis video bites bool sheeit?
nigga pleez now all yall have done went an lost yall wig
And the new Poll Results format sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
Combining the numerical results and the bar graph has made both less legible. It is a huge step backwards in usability.
Oh .. and that orange/green colour scheme sucks donkey's balls big time and doesn't help things either.
Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
I turned off the poll slashbox years ago... (Score:5, Insightful)
...for a reason. And that reason is, I don't care about /. polls.
At least if you're going to do this, add polls to the exclusions list.
There is a reason I turned off slashbox polls (Score:2)
fuck you (Score:1)
just because
No, thank you. (Score:5, Insightful)
Please put the polls back to the way they were, and while you're at it get rid of 'video bytes'.
stop it (Score:1)
how do i get back to the old slashdot???
Title prefix (Score:5, Insightful)
Can you at least prefix the title with "Poll:" or something? Right now I see a collapsed article with the title "Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison, and ...". Expanding that (because I'm a sucker for some clickbait) hoping to get some information about poor Ross and getting a poll instead leaves me feeling like I got a dead bunny for Christmas.
Please think of the bunnies.
Re: (Score:2)
Same here. Mixing polls in with the articles doesn't make any sense.
You would think on a site that's been around for more than 15 years that they could come up with a single change that's an improvement. I'm still waiting.
Not the end... (Score:2)
Demographic change? Marketeers? Bean counters? (Score:5, Insightful)
Either the demographic of /. has suddenly changed, or Dice isn't terribly interested in what users want. Moving the polls to the front page is gratuitous at best. Actually, it makes the polls harder to find. I would say it reduces their usefulness, only they never were useful, only entertaining.
Someone else commented on the video section. I have trouble imagining anyone on /. wanting to watch videos on this site. Am I wrong? Hmmm......just because I'm writing this comment, I went and looked at three random videos: one with 0 comments, one with 25 and one with 29. So a few people, but nothing compared to the normal stories.
Then the apparent conflict of interest demonstrated by the delayed SourceForge articles. The whole Beta mess that just won't die.
I think recognize the symptoms, because I've seen similar things happen elsewhere. This is what happens when the marketeers and bean counters take over a small company. The marketeers want to try out all their fancy ideas, without actually bothering to understand what their actual customers actually want. We need tweets? Social media? How about Vine? Look, pretty! One bling-filled idea after the next, while the users wander away to SoylentNews, PipeDot, or wherever. Meanwhile, the bean counters are only interested in short-term results; the phrase "long term" isn't even in their vocabulary. So they give the marketeers free reign, in hopes of getting those quarterly numbers up. Certainly the concept of a money-spinner that doesn't need changed never enters the minds of either group.
Dice killed SourceForge years ago with crapware - this latest is just tossing dirt on the coffin. I suppose they've sucked some short-term cash out of it, but it's long-term value is now essentially zero. Looks like /. is following along nicely...
Change is Evil (Score:2)
That said, I don't like this. And I am your audience.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm probably older and definitely crankier. I hate change, too, but will come to accept the change if it's an improvement. But the changes on /. in the last few years have not been improvements. They seem geared towards nothing more than watering down /.
Here's an idea (Score:5, Funny)
Make a poll about whether people want polls mixed in with stories.
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Poll: Do you want Slashdot polls mixed with the headlines instead of in the sidebar?
* No.
* No Dice.
* Hell no.
* No way.
* Never!
* When hell freezes over.
* Yes, and please also use the freed space for more advertizing.
* Only if they're gallop polls written by CowboyNeal.
Why? (Score:2)
I suppose if you only want a visible poll for a day or less, it's fine. Otherwise, it just hurts the poll.
No thanks (Score:1)
I hate it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Not all change is good, not all change is bad, but when something works and has for years, it is pretty stupid to change it. This is like the "New Coke" of design ideas.
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I disagree with your assessment because there were actually some people who liked New Coke.
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And 12 or 13 will also think this is a good idea. The rest won't. Like New Coke.
FrontPage == Stories. ONLY STORIES GET IT!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
If I wanted to see polls or video nonsense or any other kind of carp I would enable it in my customizations to show up in my sidebars. Now the Slashdot front page is starting to look like Facebook, fill with shit and crap.
All this is doing is crufting up Slashdot with garbage. I hate it...hear me...hate it
At least let me turn this shit off if I do not want it
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At least let me turn this shit off if I do not want it
Already done [soylentnews.org]
goodbye (Score:2)
This site has turned to shit... see y'all somewhere else.
Why not make it an option? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, whoever made the decision to do this, please comment:
You obviously knew that some people were going to dislike putting polls in the front page. (People have already brought up multiple valid reasons why it's a bad idea in this thread.) Making it possible to exclude polls from the front page should be trivial -- most obviously, just create a new "poll" topic and then existing options can be used to exclude those from my news feed. So why didn't you do that?
Every time there's a controversial decision in regards to Slashdot, the editors are always quick to claim that they're trying to do what's best for the users. But decisions like this make it obvious that you're not. If you actually were considering what your readers want, you would never have made this change without at least providing an option to turn it off.
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I too would like an option to block polls.
I don't come here for polls.
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Good luck with that. Usually when these things happen there is complete radio silence until days or weeks of community unrest pass.
Usually, yeah, although I figured that on a story about a change to Slashdot that they might actually read the comments, which would be almost guaranteed to be useful them.
But apparently that would just make too much sense.
What is wrong with you people? (Score:5, Insightful)
Current Event vs Generic Poll (Score:1)
The Ross Ulbricht [slashdot.org] question is about a current event (his recent sentencing). In a way, this particular poll isn't that unlike a story and does somewhat fit the new location. However, a generic poll, such as How do you contribute to open source projects? [slashdot.org] is pretty much timeless and probably would be a better fit for the sidebar. That question is just as valid today as it was 15 years ago and keeping it visible on the front page for a longer period would keep it from being lost in the forever scrolling news s
Honestly? (Score:2)
Popularity is important only to the 12-17 demographic.
I don't want to be negative -- but I must.
There's a front page? (Score:2)
Polls (Score:3)
I will continue to not give a crap about polls wherever they go.
Polls are for entertainment only. Who cares? (Score:1)
Can you inject the polls with malware too? (Score:1)
Let it be noted early and often that Slashdot's sister site, Sourceforge, likes to impact your system with malware so they can profit from it.
"SourceForge locked in projects of fleeing users, cashed in on malvertising":
http://arstechnica.com/informa... [arstechnica.com]
*NOT* appreciated. (Score:2)
There are worse things you could do, and that's about the highest praise I can give this choice.
This is the way the site ends... (Score:5, Interesting)
... not with a bang, but:
_ a whimper
_ a hiss
_ no, wait, it was a bang
_ polls mixed in with stories
_ CowboyNeal
Seriously, this is FUCKING BRAINDEAD. Do you even know how this site works? Polls will get literally 5% of the votes and comments that they currently do. If you're going to take them out of the right column, you may as well just get rid of them. Seriously. Not kidding. Just fucking axe them. It's not like you give a shit about this site or its visitors or its history anyway.
So anyway, I was 17 when The Simpsons came out.* LOVED IT. Loved it for over ten years. Then it started sucking, then I started watching it less, then I quit watching it completely, and I was sad for a while (and watched the first ten seasons on DVD for a while), then I was still sad and wondering how it was doing, but couldn't quite be arsed** to find out, and just this year, I watched a couple episodes... and literally smiled once or twice during each -- nothing more -- and decided "Oh well, it's done, and it's kind of sad, but it sucks now, and I'm older, wiser, and can get by without it, and I won't even bother to watch unless I hear an episode is really great."
Finding a point in that narrative is an exercise left to the site owners.
Remember these stories? Good times.
http://meta.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
http://meta.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
* I might have been wearing an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time.
** USian here, but I *love* that term.
Re:This is the way the site ends...amazing (Score:1)
... not with a bang, but: _ a whimper _ a hiss _ no, wait, it was a bang _ polls mixed in with stories _ CowboyNeal
Seriously, this is FUCKING BRAINDEAD. Do you even know how this site works? Polls will get literally 5% of the votes and comments that they currently do. If you're going to take them out of the right column, you may as well just get rid of them. Seriously. Not kidding. Just fucking axe them. It's not like you give a shit about this site or its visitors or its history anyway.
So anyway, I was 17 when The Simpsons came out.* LOVED IT. Loved it for over ten years. Then it started sucking, then I started watching it less, then I quit watching it completely, and I was sad for a while (and watched the first ten seasons on DVD for a while), then I was still sad and wondering how it was doing, but couldn't quite be arsed** to find out, and just this year, I watched a couple episodes... and literally smiled once or twice during each -- nothing more -- and decided "Oh well, it's done, and it's kind of sad, but it sucks now, and I'm older, wiser, and can get by without it, and I won't even bother to watch unless I hear an episode is really great."
Finding a point in that narrative is an exercise left to the site owners.
Remember these stories? Good times.
http://meta.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
http://meta.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
* I might have been wearing an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time.
** USian here, but I *love* that term.
very nice and informative blog http://www.astroprediction.com... [astroprediction.com]
Still waiting to see one positive comment (Score:3)
I demand a refund (Score:2)
I want my money back, Slashdot!
GO GO GADGET (Score:2)
How do I remove my account and all posts from /.? (Score:2)
I'm out.
Awesome "feature". How do I disable it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Great uhh, "Feature". How do I turn it off? Also the video "stories" as well.
Give us the option to disable this crap, or a lot more of us are going to not only leave for good, but also start adding etc/host entries for slashdot/127.0.0.1 just so we don't forget and accidentally load your website in the future, either.
In case you haven't been able to get it from the other comments yet, let me sum this up for you, in terms the few remaining competent editors and admins of this site can hopefully understand:
DO NOT FUCKING WANT.
P.S. Hit my karma, admins. I'm long past giving a shit about this site, which is probably why I haven't logged in in the last 5 years. Congratulations on that as well.
P.P.S. You finally got me to start logging into this POS site so my preferences can be remembered and I stop seeing this garbage. Except uhh...there is no preference. Imagine that. If we wanted Alpha to become Beta, we would have voted for Beta and not staged a massive protest against it you ignorant asses.
Two steps forward, three steps back... (Score:2)
I agree that having polls as something searchable is a great thing (never occurred to me before whether this was already possible, so I don't know if it is a new feature, but this event at least brings it to light), but it is likely very short sighted and detrimental just shoving polls into the news feed. Not only does it make the polls harder to notice (or should that be "easier to miss"?), but as one of the earliest complaints in this thread pointed out polls are supposed to accumulate data over a much l
Re: (Score:2)
Hello, wall of text.
Let's have a poll to see where the polls should go (Score:1)
Polls gone after one day? (Score:2)
OK I happen to like... (Score:2)
OK I happen to like polls to look like brass.
Ya know the ones in those fancy-girl dance places.
Not the monster ones at a firehouse.
The best ones make the crystal structure visible
as perspiration etches the surface just so.
Chrome -- absolutely not. Chrome belongs on a
tricked out auto not on a poll.
How the polls are created tells more about the.... (Score:2)
Slashdot leadership is stupid, or they cannot read (Score:2)
It still says
"Polls on the front page of Slashdot? Is the world coming to an end?! Nope; read more about it."
at the top of every story, one week after it had already become obviously clear that the Slashdot community unanimously judged polls on the front page to be a monumentally stupid idea.
Either Slashdot leadership do not read the page they urge us to read, or they are monumentally stupid themselves (or both, which I do not exclude)