If Slashdot really has no commercial value, I guess anything the "audience" says doesn't actually matter. Anyway, if the boycott actually happens next week, at least it will eliminate all of the f* beta posts, and the value of Slashdot suddenly will climb back up to zero.
Please realize that Beta will not have the features that we want, because it goes against Dice's plans for Slashdot.
You make some good points, but the thing I don't understand about this idea that Dice is intentionally repurposing Slashdot is that if they do so, they lose almost all the value of the existing site, leaving only a well known domain name and some sort of "brand". The former is easy to come by, and the latter is of no value if all its previous "audience" becomes disillusioned with it. So, can someone please explain to me why the deliberate destruction of Slashdot would be in Dice's business interest? Also, if that's what they wanted to do, why bother with a transition to a new format at all? Why not just pull the plug on the old site if you don't care about alienating the existing "audience" because you'll be doing something completely different with the domain?
It seems far more logical to me that they would try to retain the current "audience" as much as possible, which is where most of the value of the site is. If we assume they're losing money with the current format, it might be logical to for them to change formats, though there's a significant risk of alienating the current "audience" if they change it too much too fast, or otherwise handle the transition badly - as they've clearly done. As the old saying goes, "Don't ascribe to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence."
So, personally, I think they want to restore profitability via a change in format (which may or may not work - probably not), while somehow retaining as much of the current "audience" as they can. That may be an impossible task, but if we assume they're currently losing money on Slashdot, they don't have much to lose by trying. At the very worst, they could make it break even by just shutting it down, then make a modest profit by selling the domain name for $100K or whatever.
There once was a geezer from Kent
Who reeked of an unpleasant scent
With records of rectum
The cops could inspect 'im
His backdoor, they learned, was the vent
One practical example that I know of is Simulink, which can be used to generate code from diagrams. I did some testing years ago on Simulink-generated source code, and the code itself was awful looking but always worked correctly. Not a lot of fun to test when you had to dig into it, though. Also, testing seemed superfluous after never finding any bugs in it. All the bugs we ever found were in the original Simulink diagrams that the humans had drawn.
If Slashdot ultimately implodes, maybe somebody could start an open-source alternative. For example, how about a moderation module for one of the popular CMS's that acts like Slashdot's system? The skills are certainly here.
OTOH, my experience in trying to build a "community" is that it's much easier said than done. I think it would be pretty hard to get this gaggle of geese to flock together anywhere else. And anyone who subsequently irritated them would wish they were at least getting paid for the privilege.
Even better is doggy Prozac. Apparently they have Prozac for dogs - and it's the exact same stuff, from the same factory, but at a fraction of the price. This one is 2nd hand, from my neighbor the veterinarian, but she's not a BS artist. A coworker's wife had a Prozac Rx, so hubby writes an Rx for their dog, and she takes it.
Looks like he finally found a way to stop her from eating the dogfood.
That's actually been my concern: Slashdot becomes so polluted with "f* beta" that nobody wants to read or contribute to it anymore. We keep hearing that the main value of the site is its interesting/insightful/funny comments (true enough), yet most of the comments from yesterday were none of the above.
Yes, the bees are angry. You know it, I know it, the beekeepers know it. So let's all go back to making honey and see how they sort out the hive problem. Otherwise, without honey, the colony won't make it through the winter.
(Sorry for carrying the beehive metaphor a bit too far.
You make some good points. I don't totally disagree, but I just think they've been spanked enough for the time being. I don't think any sort of "owning it" is going to happen anytime soon, but I'd still just like to see things get back to normal now. Fortunately, we seem to be headed in that direction today.
Personally, I'd like to not see Slashdot destroyed, but if they ultimately foist a UI on us that's unacceptable and then remove the option to use the current (and better) one, we can just all go away if we have to. I keep hoping they'll be rational enough to realize that, but if not, that's their loss. Then again, if they're losing money on Slashdot in its present form, its destruction might be part of the business plan.
When you stir up a colony of bees, they buzz around angrily and try to sting you. On the surface, they appear mad, but I think some of them secretly enjoy it. Otherwise, they'd probably go back to the business of making honey as soon as they could.
Just like you would on Usenet.
Wasn't that a Twilight Zone episode? Maybe Rod Serling will come in at the end with a little narration to tie it all together for us.
Honestly its been two days can we stop bitching about the [expletive] beta?
Bitching about the beta actually still serves a useful purpose. It demonstrates that the primary use of the moderation system here is to push personal agendas rather than to objectively rate comments. Objectively speaking, your comment either should be left alone, because your point is obvious, or it should be promoted to +1, because it's valid. However, in terms of the prevailing agenda, your comment actually deserves its demotion from 0 to -1.
Moderators, thanks demonstrating the enforcement of Slashorthodoxy. I'm not sure whether or not my own comment is orthodox, but if you disagree with me that moderators here push their own agenda, feel free to demote it.
And you must draw too many conclusions from too little data to be able to discern my whole career from one paragraph. (Nice trick, BTW.)
Maybe they'll force the beta on us or maybe they'll listen. What would you do if you were them? If I were them, I'd either fix the beta enough to make it acceptable or give up on the idea entirely. They probably won't give up on it entirely, but I'm hopeful that they'll fix it. If so, what's so bad about that? (I know, some folks will say it can never be fixed. I disagree.)
It's clear that they forced the beta on too many folks too soon. I bet they've figured that out. It was a tactical error, probably driven by an arbitrary corporate deadline. (Been there, experienced that. Surprised?) They've told us they get that. What's not to believe?
OTOH, since paranoid thinking is endemic here, I'll play along. Dice has an evil plot to kill Slashdot as we know it by completely alienating its user community. In fact, they've actually gone so far as to pay some web developers to create a new website designed specifically to do just that. But why would they alienate the community (er, excuse me, the "audience")? - wouldn't that destroy all the value of the site? Sure, but look what they'll have left: a valuable domain name. Heck, a really good domain name with no user base might even be worth a few thousand bucks - like the new digg.com. Instead of losing money hosting a site whose ads everybody blocks, they can make a few thousand bucks selling the domain name. Eureka!
You see, corporations aren't just evil, they're stupid. Also, most don't bathe.
it's slashdot. people come here for the freedom to act like whiny children.
I thought they came here to curse. Don't whiny children use much better language?
"What man has done, man can aspire to do." -- Jerry Pournelle, about space flight
