Except that RIGHT NOW, TODAY, Firefox supports a plug-in architecture which allows Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight to run and play DRM-encumbered content. Just like every other major browser we've been using for the last two decades. Now they want to make a better, safer, way to do it, and people are upset?

In case you've been sleeping under a rock, this is the 21st Century. Not knowing something doesn't stop the media from reporting on it.

Feel free to start such a team, and get that competing implementation going.

Well yeah - that's why you add exceptions: to indicate that this tool shouldn't be used for that job, because it's the wrong tool for the job.

Exactly this. I feel its worth pointing out that the code was reviewed, and the reviewer missed the bug too.

He doesn't have an act, that you've seen. Have you ever seen him out of character? The man is brilliant, and I'm excited to see what he does with the new role.

"...We recommend that Microsoft Access be used solely for development purposes and not for production." - Microsoft

After Firefox dropped support for the blink style, I implemented a workaround in JavaScript. It's not as elegant as I'd like, but it's functional.

You're assuming the desired target is within range...

Thanks for your response. Keep them coming.

What I think would help the most is to display a small box at the top of every page on the beta site that lists all the major problems you've identified that you know have to be fixed before the new site can become the default. Ideally, each one should be a link to a page that explains the problem in more detail. This will help us to understand that you really are listening, and trust you not to plow ahead with something that's obviously currently broken.

The problem isn't that the beta site is broken. The problem is that we don't trust you to fix it, because we don't understand why you broke it in the first place and we're afraid you don't think it's broken. Please, put our fears to rest! :-)

Well put!

What I said in another comment: Nobody comes here to read your content. They come here to read ours.

Did you notice the little gear menu, to the right of the links for funny/insightful/etc.?

What does seem to be missing is collapsed comments - comments that are scored below a certain threshold being displayed as a single line that I can click on to expand them.

Not quite. That's what we THINK we want. What we REALLY want is slightly different.

We don't want you to say you'll slow down, because we hear that as "continue to do exactly the same boneheaded thing you were going to do, just delayed for awhile."

But we don't really want you to stop and go backwards. What we want is for you to make sure that you're not leaving anything important behind when you do move forward. Lots of us have our own little irritations with things we consider to be "broken" in the beta site - my big one is that I couldn't see a way to set up abbreviated comments (where I see only a single line for comments that are scored below my threshold, but I can click on it if I decide I want to expand any specific comment). I have that now, but on the beta site, it appears to be missing. Others have complained about other functionality that seems to be missing. We need to be assured that you're not going to plow ahead without these features.

That doesn't mean you have to go backwards, because Lord knows the old site has some issues that need fixing. But remember that if you alienate your user base in an attempt to attract more users, you'll be left with nothing, because the existing user base is the only thing that makes Slashdot worth a damn. Nobody comes here to read your content, they come here to read ours.

...EVEN IF THAT'S NOT HOW YOU MEANT IT. Understand that we'll translate it this way anyway, so be careful what you say.

Alternately, if you know the comment system isn't finished but want to get people testing everything else so you can fix those bugs first, great! Understand that the comments are what makes Slashdot worth anything, and therefore the comment system is the metric by which the average Slashdotter will judge everything else that you do. So, put a big obnoxious warning at the top of every page on the beta site saying "Hey guys, we know comments are broken, we're still working on that part! Please give us feedback on everything else for now. Specifically, we know we have the following problems which we plan to fix before rolling this out to everyone..."