inertia187's Journal: How To Get First Post (Pretty Much) Every Time

First of all, you need to subscribe to Slashdot. You need this because you have to be able to read messages in The Mysterious Future.

Second, you need an atomic clock. If not, you'll fail the first time, but from then on, it'll work. Just pay very close attention to the time.

Steps:

1. When an article in The Mysterious Future appears, click on "Read More..."
2. Take note of the timestamp for this message (not so mysterious, is it?). This is a bug, it shouldn't show the timestamp here. If there's no timestamp, then the bug has been fixed. This hack should still work though. The timestamp is just helpful in reducing the number of refreshes.
3. Click the "Change" button. Normally, this is used to change your threashold.
4. Now modify the URL and change the word "Change" to "Reply" and hit enter (you have now hacked Slashdot).
5. You can now write and preview your comment. If you submit it, you'll get an error if the message is still in The Mysterious Future. But once the article leaves The Mysterious Future, you'll be able to post it. Your advantage here is that you get a 20 second head start because your form is older than the timestamp in The Mysterious Future.

It's not a perfect system. Chances are, they'll fix it so that if you modify the URL in The Mysterious Future, it won't show the form or something. And now that I've made it public, you'll probably have a hard time for a while.

If you're the author of a future book titled Slashdot Hacks, make sure and give me credit for this one, assuming they don't fix it by then.

loophole closed?

[turg]

When an article in The Mysterious Future appears, click on "Read More..."

Gotcha

Take note of the timestamp for this message (not so mysterious, is it?). This is a bug, it shouldn't show the timestamp here. If there's no timestamp, then the bug has been fixed. This hack should still work though. The timestamp is just helpful in reducing the number of refreshes.

I can do that too.

Click the "Change" button. Normally, this is used to change your threashold.

Results in the "Not subscriber, or

Re:loophole closed?

[inertia187]

I think you missed the part where it says, "you need to subscribe to Slashdot". There were two "loopholes," but they fixed the one that allowed you to get the exact time of the article in The Mysterious Future. If you subscribe, the steps will work. You just need to refresh a bunch of times (on the minute, actually).

You still get the 20 second advantage, if you do it right.

Re:loophole closed?

[turg]

I am a subscriber and I was logged in -- does it still work for you?

Re:loophole closed?

[inertia187]

Yes, it works for me, except for the timestamp. Perhaps my steps are inadequate.

Re:loophole closed?

[turg]

So do you get different results than I do from pressing the Change button? Where exactly do our results differ? There is a Mysterious Future story up now, set for 1:35 -- I'm getting the same thing I did before.

Re:loophole closed?

[inertia187]

Results in the "Not subscriber, or not subscribed page" error.

I never see the above message when following these steps. I am able to click "Read more..." without being told that I'm not a subscriber.

Re:loophole closed?

[turg]

Same here. Look back at my first post. I don't get this message until I click "Change" -- what do you see when you click "Change"?

Re:loophole closed?

[turg]

It might help if I actually read the whole error message, eh?

Either you are not a subscriber to Slashdot, or you have indicated you don't want comments pages ad-free, or you have set your daily limit of ad-free pages to lower than the default 10. Any of these three possible issues can be resolved at your subscription page. (emphasis mine>

Okay, that fixes that problem, but now I don't see the timestamp on the stories anymore.