This article contains a lot of surprising points about Greek debt - namely that a large part of it was essentially preallocated to serve as bank bailouts, and as repayment of other debt. Back in 2010 those issuing the cash knew it was doomed to fail, yet it went ahead anyhow. The general populace of Greece saw relatively little of the cash borrowed by their elected government, which goes a way to explaining why the campaigns run by Syriza were so successful:
http://jubileedebt.org.uk/repo...
Nice how certain bloggers, not beholden to the interests that define and distort so much media now, end up presenting actual facts over the masses of bluster and propaganda that qualifies for reporting in the news media nowadays.
How many places even mention that back in the 1950s, the Greeks voted to cancel 50% of the war debt levied on Germany? Or raise the shocking idea that it would be good of Germany to reciprocate that favour?
You'll notice that there was virtually no griefing or trolling in old MMOs.
I call bullshit.
From 2001 till 2004 I played the oldest of the popular online MMOs; Ultima Online. Trolling occurred through excessive player killing, disruption of guild activities and dungeoneering plus people doing some honest mining. It was characteristic celebrated amongst perpetrators and adrenaline junkies but reviled amongst those wanting a less combative, PvE experience.
It was already on the decrease when I joined up thanks to the introduction of a non-combat realm. Nowadays a few thousand people yearning for the lawlessness of the old UO have founded their own free servers replicating the 'Wild West' culture.
Trolling isn't exclusive to new MMOs or modern forums, social media and so on. It was present in the early days of Usenet, the earliest chat rooms and IRC channels, and from the very first online games venturing beyond LAN and Intranet play.
Taco Bell should release a Bland Sauce for her. It would basically be chopped tomatoes with a little onion.
Plus a couple of preservatives, some xanthan gum, and a few other chemicals to match those in the food itself.
Fuck Slashdot Beta. Fuck it straight to oblivion.
Contact Alice Hill, honcho at Dice/Slashdot, to make yourself heard: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/al...
CowboyNeal: Governor Alice. I should have expected to find you holding Beta's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard.
Alice Hill: Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate Slashdot.
CowboyNeal: [sarcastically] I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself.
Hill: CowboyNeal, before Slashdot's execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make the Beta shitfest operational. No tech site will dare oppose Dice now.
CowboyNeal: The more you tighten your grip, Hill, the more tech sites will slip through your fingers.
Hill: Not after we demonstrate the power of this revamp. In a way, you have determined the choice of the website that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the rogue site relaunch base, I have chosen to implement Beta's destructive power on your favorite website of Slashdot.
CowboyNeal: [shocked] No! Slashdot is peaceful. We have no hot grits. You can't possibly–
Hill: You would prefer another target? Then name the system! [stepping closer to CowboyNeal and pinning him against Slashdot's editors] I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the revamp based?
CowboyNeal: [looks at Slashdot for a moment, then, resigned] AltSlashdot. They're on AltSlashdot.
Hill: There. You see, editors? She can be reasonable. [to sysadmin] Continue with the operation. You may launch Beta when ready.
CowboyNeal: [panicked] What?!
Hill: You are far too trusting. AltSlashdot is too small to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry. We will deal with your revivalist friends soon enough.
CowboyNeal: No!
Fuck Beta! Everyone get in touch with Alice Hill, the person who actually runs the show at Dice - her LinkedIn.
There's some talk of this in another submission thread - http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3319369.
What's needed most at present is unity and a little organization.
How about simply 'AltSlash.org' ? So long as the site isn't too similar to Slashdot classic it might just work. Sounds a bit reminiscent of Usenet though, and there are certainly technical hurdles as unitron says.
Look at how people are condemning Beta, getting twenty or so Beta condemning submissions modded up and flooding topic after topic. If we could rally around a single revival and steadily promote it, especially in the days and weeks leading up to when Classic dies off for good, then a percentage of people will likely make the exodus. Even if it's a small hardcore, it'll still be more than Slashdot had in its early days.
We could even ask CowboyNeal to join the show!
Without life, Biology itself would be impossible.
