maynard's Journal: In general support of /. editors

I've seen the comment forums filled with off-topic posts about a badly deployed beta upgrade. Community members are pissed and they're venting and they want site owners to not just listen but act on community concerns. And so we see a temper tantrum that likely has only alienated corporate owners and made life for editorial staff miserable.

I have sympathy for both perspectives. The upgrade really is a mess. Commenting doesn't work, layout wastes space, fonts are poorly chosen, etc. Yet I also recognize that software upgrades are necessary. Slashdot is looking pretty creaky. Another coat of whitewash over cracks in the woodwork won't do. Deciding to rewrite and build something new is a defendable choice. But owners should know that simply deploying something new is not the same as building something that works. As an old timer here, I'd like functionality considered above mere design. Ideally, a good new site would merge the two seamlessly.

Of course, no one screaming out there in the community cares what I have to say. I've been absent so long I'm barely a member these days. But I think the continued tantrum is going overboard and risks causing more damage than good. Destroying /. to save it is no solution. Make a stink, get your views known, but editors have posted a place for dialog and it's time to use it. Crapflooding every article with off-topic rants about the beta now diminishes community goals. It's counterproductive.

I'd like to see /. resurgent. I think Reddit has gotten too big and the Internet needs competitors in link aggregation and commenting as a checks and balancing mechanism. Slashdot still has popular heft and a functioning community. I'd encourage owners and editors to consider this community response as an encouraging sign. People care. And that means that with appropriate management-community dialog, the site remains viable going forward. The question is: after this period of decline, how do you retool to challenge competitors like Reddit and grow at their expense? Throwing away your community doesn't solve that problem.

Oddly enough

[Arker]

That was my first reaction too.

Then I took a few minutes to try the 'beta' and read timothy's post on it and I am now afraid the reaction may not be severe enough.

No doubt slashdot could use a good redesign. But this is just not a good redesign. And I am afraid it is not a matter of some tweaks and fixes and then it will be good - it's not a poor implementation, it's fundamentally wrong specifications from the get-go. No amount of minor fiddling is going to fix it.

The whole 'we are listening to you, the aud

Re:

[maynard]

I'm going to defend the current state of that beta. It's shit. I'd be hard pressed to believe that even editors and owners don't realize the problems. And that they continue toting a ridiculous public line in opposition to obvious reality is simply an expected part of playing their public relations game. They can't speak truth. To do so would harm a set of internal and external business procedures entirely orthogonal to truth-telling.

Look, they've got all these sunk costs dumped into this ongoing project. I

Get going. And please, get mobile.

[Hacksaw]

As another long time reader, I agree with Mr. Maynard. People do care. I hope those in power see that.

At the same time, I was reading this on an iPhone, and a classic mistake was made: I agreed I wanted to see the "mobile site", and got redirected away from Maynard's journal entry, despite having been directed there from an email message.

I want the editors and developers to get it right, and this is a part. Please think deeply about priorities and vision. Don't just react, but act to make a site which will

Re:

[maynard]

Well of course you agree with me. My UID # is lower than yours. It's axiomatic.

LOL. Have you seen those complaints that the new system doesn't display UID numbers? Now there's a decision /. beta devs made I agree with.

Sandwich Geeks is going through a rev 4 rewrite. Much earlier opening, rearranged story line, slower build up, less backstory more frontstory.

Belated happy new year dude!

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[Hacksaw]

Happy New Year to you, glad the writing is going. I've been practicing guitar and bass and math. Though I am building out a spiffy server for a friends company.

I'm glad they're hiding UIDs. I think they might also want to assign random names. :P Okay, maybe that's going a bit far. Have you perused the Stack Exchange sites, like Stack Overflow? I find the reputation system pretty compelling. You get points for posting answers which people find helpful, and for interesting comments, and you can vote up answer