Comment Re:Why not call it its actual name? (Score 4, Insightful) 199
I'm only asking because I'm on the lookout for techniques to derail a discussion. A "misdirect" is calling attention to something irrelevant but intended to provoke an emotional response. It's used to push more-relevant posts down the page - hopefully below the fold.
You must be new here. The majority of the intelligent and thoughtful discourse evaporated when Slashdot was bought out by Dice. If you want to see what the future looks like, punch in beta.slashdot.org. Then vomit in your mouth. It's been replaced with paid schills and hobbyists. There are a few of us left from the old guard, but we're only here because, frankly, there's nowhere else to go. Every promising new forum website seems to be shortly after swallowed whole by "Web 2.0" and it promptly goes to shit in an effort to look trendy and hip, at the expense of actual content and relevant discourse.
The post you're replying to was not accidental. It was quite deliberate. Like all things Web 2.0, very little of what is passed off as original or user-contributed content actually is. About a third of the posts here on Slashdot are now by 3rd parties who may or may not be affiliated with Dice, who in turn are just subcontractors for larger business ventures; Shell companies within shell companies.
It's part of a new "dark net" of small companies in quiet office complexes filled with nothing but a few cubes and employees who show up and are handed a 3 ring binder with pre-cooked posts and responses to "criticism" of whatever position they're being paid to represent under a pseudonym.
Welcome to the real Web 2.0.