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Journal Surak's Journal: It's official: Slashdot is dying 41

Journal by Surak

Note this post. A full hour and a half after this article was posted, there were no posts attached to it. I witnessed this anomaly.

Seriously, the signal-to-noise ratio keeps getting worse, and serious discussions now seem to relegated to the journals. The trolls are taking over. In the next article, posted at 11:13 est, there were hardly any posts at 12:00 est, and almost all of the posts were trolls.

I think Slashdot as we know it really is dying. My theory is that people are so busy posting in each other's journals, that they aren't very much interested in the main stories anymore. The quality posters are all off in the journals somewhere and what's left are the n00bs and trolls and maybe a few diehards.

Whatchya think?

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It's official: Slashdot is dying More

It's official: Slashdot is dying

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  • I do quite agree; the main problem as I see it is not really the signal-to-noise ratio - browsing at +3 unless I have moderation points takes care of that quite effectively, the main problem is that the range of topics on offer is quite limited.

    The system of 'friends' tend to shift the momentum to the journals as well, since it's easier to keep track of people whose viewpoints you find interesting... a way out, I should think, is to allow comments to main stories be submitted simultaneously as journal entr

    • That's an interesting approach, but it sounds like, as you say, the problem is lack of interesting topics, then it really wouldn't work. There has to be someway to make it so that more people can get stories on the main page, thus creating a wider variety of topics.

      Basically the system has to be come more open and more decentralized. Slashdot would become more of a discussion in the bazaar mode, rather than the cathedral mode it basically is now. There would be more topics, and people would have to filt

      • That's an interesting approach, but it sounds like, as you say, the problem is lack of interesting topics, then it really wouldn't work

        I failed to suggest that a Kuro5hin-style user voting approach be implemented. Any story that the users find interesting gets to the section page or main page, ergo any posted story would be interesting.

        There is a problem in that the submission process is slower, but if this is added as a secondary method for getting stories published (so that stories are published if e

        • Then it could happen that a single person with ~20 accounts can get his/her friends to all vote for their story (with all of their troll accounts) and then very dumb stories make it to the front page.

          Now if the effects of a smaller more active community are minute compared to the rest of the community, then this would not happen. There could even be a user voted limit of 2 stories per day. This would let The Authors(tm) still get in their stories and it would expose some of the more popular user's JEs.

          r
          • Then it could happen that a single person with ~20 accounts can get his/her friends to all vote for their story

            IP matching, probably. But that would wreck havoc at tech companies that use internal NATs, bummer.

            Or let premium subscribers have moderator access provided a certain amount of karma? We need some proper uses to get our money's worth after all...

    • There would be a fundamental problem in the /code because JEs and main page articles are each assigned a discussion number. Each JE has a unique discussion # and same goes for each main page story. It seems like (and I haven't read through any of the /. code) a majore change is involved in changing this system. Unless posters could choose some sort of association between the current main article and a JE (or the other way around) that is easy to do. This would rule out a "Enter Related Discussion Number
      • Unless posters could choose some sort of association between the current main article and a JE (or the other way around) that is easy to do

        I would think the way people might want to do it, is write a comment, then thought 'hey this might be interesting as a journal entry' and click on a checkbox to open a linked journal entry.


        Actually, to think about it, there is nothing stopping the user from doing it manually anyway.

        • Right. I occasionally link a to JE in one of my posts to a main page article, or to a nother JE. In fact I love posters that use links. That way I can research!

          robi
          • It just occured to me that it would be nice to have an extension for Firebird that would let you highlight some text in a text-entry box and turn it into a link... that would really simplify linking!
    • If not, why would that have changed? There's a clue right there...

      In other words, /. has lost any credibility that it has had--to the point where bad-mouthing /. is de-rigeur in OSS mailing list circles.

      Other than that, I agree with you when you say that the range of topics discussed is also a problem.

      Slashdot is too biased to be credible, too "top heavy" to be a community forum [all users are created equal, but some Users are more equal than others], and too monotonous to really be fun.

      So yes, I do bel

  • Seriously, the signal-to-noise ratio keeps getting worse, and serious discussions now seem to relegated to the journals. The trolls are taking over. In the next article, posted at 11:13 est, there were hardly any posts at 12:00 est, and almost all of the posts were trolls.

    We always have the journals to go back to when the trolling starts to hurt.

    I think Slashdot as we know it really is dying. My theory is that people are so busy posting in each other's journals, that they aren't very much interested i

    • How did I know when I saw that name that I should've just registered it to keep asshat's like you away.

      Okay, ya know what? Ah, never mind, you'll find out what's going to happen to you soon enough .... heh.
      • Why do you threaten me? You're making my wife cry. Thanks a lot.
        • Who's threatening? I see no one making threats. I made a simple statement of fact, not a threat. the Universe works in ways you don't understand. Those who don't learn the lessons of Karma (not in the slashdot sense) are doomed to repeat them.

          And you don't have a wife. You're fooling no one.
          • It sounds like you learned this lesson of Karma quite well. I think the universe thought me up just to hand out retribution to you for something you did in the past.

            As for me, I understand Karma well. There is no Karma. Look at it closer. Not with your eyes. Look at it. Close your eyes and look at it. Now do you see it?

            I found your homepage [cornerstonecms.org]
            • It sounds like you learned this lesson of Karma quite well. I think the universe thought me up just to hand out retribution to you for something you did in the past.

              What? Did I scare you poor friend $$$$exyGal away? That's when you started trolling me, when I started trolling the hell out of $$$$exyGal. If $$$$exyGal can't stand the heat from the limelight, maybe she/he/it shouldn't be standing in it.

              Yeah, yeah, take your own advice. I can hear you now. You started the game. I'm just playing along.
  • That describes my surfing habbit to a T. I check for new messages first (JEs) then if I didn't see anything interesting, I'll swing over to the main page and check out some top level headlines. I usually don't actually open the discussion associated with it, but I may view the linked article.

    I ran across this JE by the world's coolest JE [slashdot.org]

    robi
    • Would you say that it's because the lack of topic depth on the main page, or would you say it's more related to signal-to-noise ratio and the failure of the moderation system?

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