(i have not started my job yet, so I have time to putz (in about one month, start making 100k!)

Anyway, I understand the original intent of AC. If someone had some very important information, they could post it without fear of reprecussions. In thoses cases, I think this is a noble idea, but I have yet to see it in practice. I am not saying it doesnt happen, just that I havent see it.

What I do see happening with AC is more Coward than Anonymous. I have usually gotten many, many replies to some of my good posts, and almost to a fault, the only worthy ones have been made by logged in users. usually if I see an AC post a reply to me, I can count on it trying to be insulting, but usually failing because the AC poster usually has a fallacy of logic that tends to amuse me. BUT the point is, that on the whole, AC just tend to be like asshole guys who yell at people as they ride by fast in a truck:. Redneck, Racist, Ignorant, and defintely not Elite.

Anyway thanks!

Ok, here's another rant :)

I have noticed that several times, I have been modded as Over-rated.

Im trying to think of what this could mean and for now I can only come up with the thought of someone who mods Over-rated:

"That's their thought! Hell, I could have come up with that!. You don't deserve credit for that thought"

Of course, my reply is:

  "But you didnt, did you?"

Another thing I've been thinking about is the slashdot user themselves. While its true that a large number of them are thoughtful people, I have to say an even greater number of them really don't have a clue. This is mostly the fault of the narrow education system that is now encourage. When you teach someone only science (technical matters) than all they know and believe is that science is the only valid method to anything.

It is very clear from reading a lot of post that while most are technically proficient they really dont have any idea of the environment in which they grew up.

Recently there was post about how buying computers for poor people would be a waste of time. The main thread through out all this was that good equipment was being wasted on the poor because they wouldnt know what to do with it.

The degree of racism and just plain ignorance was astounding. When I pointed this out, I was modded out of existance. But the key is, and here is what is surprising is, that they never once considered how they came in contact with their own first computer.

Someone gave them their first contact with a computer, someone else gave them an environemt in which computers were something they could have access to. I was astounded when one of the posters said that they worked all summer to buy their first computer. This person was obviously oblivous to the fact that this was not his first exposure to his computer, but a result of a previous exposure to computer. (mind you I am not discounting his hard work, this is a product of culture and his own initiative) Anyway it was clear that the mind set was: The poor and rich get what they deserve, that the "Free Market" works fairly IS a Mantra with no clear idea of what free markets really are and how they really are controlled.

I was called a commie! (ohhh the horror)
I was called a socialist (ohhh)

But I'd like to point out that if it werent for the government sponsered funding of the ARPANET (http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/docs/arpa--1.html) we would not have this. I dont think the FreeMarket brought the internet around. In the end, the FreeMarket may end up destroying the internet as we know. I think SCO's free market tactics are capitalism at it's freest form, and we all should take heed

I cant rememer where i read it but someone had written that mods points should only be positive and not negative. As I understand the whole point of mods points to be is to highlight comments. Unfortunately what I am seeing are people who mod things down because they disagree with them. Instead of writing a reply, they mod down the opinion they dont like. Instead if we only could mod things up then the trolls would even get the meagar attention of being modded down and also and more importantly, different view points (esp minority view points) would be modded up. ANd esp unpopular opinions wouldnt suffer the dummies who cant understand that just because you dont agree with someone doesnt mean that they are idiots as i suspect some slashdot readers think

Update: I've thought about it again, and I'll just add to the above. It really doesn occur to me that part of the problem with moderation is that when you are a moderator and you find a really intersting argument that makes you seethe, you only recourse is lose your modding priveliges if you really want to reply and no one wants to do that, so what happnes is that someone mods you down. Even posts that are offtopic arent offtopic if someone else thinks they are interesting.