Writing this journal only makes me feel very old, but then, what I have to do, I have to do
Back when Internet was still sparking new, we old-timers didn't exactly have a lot of "places of interest" to go, but fortunately for us, even then we had some marvelous places to hang-out, Slashdot was one of those
The first time I visited Slashdot was on its 2nd day of existence - I read about Slashdot in a day-old article on another site - and I registered for this account couple of weeks later
The reason I did not register on Slashdot then and there on my first visit because, at that time, I had yet to have an email address - I didn't even have an Internet access account at that time ( Long stale story, but the short version was, the country I was residing back then just only introduced dial-up service to the Internet and it took weeks - even months - for the authority to process our applications )
Don't get me wrong, I am not stressing my "seniority" on Slashdot or anything just because I have a 4-digit UID - and as I mentioned in the beginning of this journal, talking about this only makes me feel old, very very old ( relatively, in Internet time frame, of course )
Back then, Slashdot was filled with vigor. Geeks from all places came and share information just like the geeks are doing today, but with a marked difference - most of those "ancient Geeks" were open-minded and being very acceptance and very seldom they would criticize others for being "different", unlike many Slashdot visitors today
Most of us who flocked to Slashdot back then also frequented the many usenet newsgroups - if not because of the uncontrollable spam in the usenet newsgroups many would have still stay there - and in Slashdot, we carried on our conversations we had in the Usenet newsgroups, but time took its toll
Of course, there were jerks, even back then, but they are few and far between. Today, however, the jerk-index seemed to have risen quite a bit - from insensitive racist comments to those who come with the "I know everything bow down to me now" attitude
I can't speak for all the old-timers, I know, but generally speaking, most of us old-timers know that we do not know enough. That is why we still ask question and we are not shy to let others know that we don't know
Not the young-ones, however.
To them, asking questions is like exposing your own weaknesses to the world.
What is wrong with asking question? Even when the question is very basic - like the one I asked in this thread ( http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2655637&cid=38940481 ) - the main point is still that I did not know the answer that was why I asked the question.
Another incident that brings about this Journal is this --- http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/17/1235204/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-has-passport-confiscated
I read about what happened to Julian Assange, I sensed something was about to happen, I submitted the article, CmdrTaco, aka Rob Malta approved it, and we had this kind of response --- http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1654714&cid=32236268
Perhaps the incident on passport confiscation of Julian Assange was a complete non-story, but perhaps it wasn't. No matter how you look at that incident, the passport thing was the prelude of what was to come.
It's the mindset of the newcomers that Slashdot is attracting today that has changed Slashdot. I don't know if it's for the good or for the bad, suffice to say that Slashdot of today no longer feels like the Slashdot that I first visited, not that long ago
Do I feel sad? Nope. I just feel different
I can't speak for CmdrTaco either, maybe he left Slashdot for the same reason - that the Slashdot he created is no longer the Slashdot he envisoned
