Precision without accuracy is meaningless, hence the "significant digits" we were all taught in science class. Mentioning accuracy when bragging about precision would be redundant. Why split hairs?

Page is unreadable due to obstrusive ads, including sound ads. -1 would not click again.

Without RTFA, was there any attempt to remind survey participants that astrology is the one with animal symbols, and astronomy is the one with black holes? If not, this isn't measuring acceptance of astrology, so much as measuring name recognition.

I seem to recall the exact same thing happening to Digg. Does that mean I'll see you on reddit in a few months?

Meh. I've taken a long enough break from slashdot that an entire decimal place of userids has come and gone without my noticing. Another, more eternal break won't be so bad. If they want to destroy comments, and hence destroy the site, I'll be happy to vacate.

What the hell? I don't know what that social media B2B page you linked to is, but how can anyone read something with font so small and a giant, conspicuous, two-second-scrolling hype banner?

Meh, slashdot comments aren't bad, but they're not great either. Specialized subcommunities on reddit -- the ones with strict moderators -- do fairly well.

I didn't expect to be enlightened by reading anything in the comments, but you proved me wrong. This is a point I always knew but didn't consciously appreciate until you said it. I don't come to slashdot for the crappily written summaries, I come for the sometimes-accurate comments that enhance the discussion.

I read the summaries. I come here to argue about how bad the summaries are.

Bring it on!

Jesus, the summary's written like an indictment of capitalism. "The only thing that matters now is money", as if that weren't the stated purpose of every company. Dell's not a charity created for its employees. And even if it were, can you argue that this wouldn't be in the best interest of the remaining ones, so that the company still exists a few years from now?

I get the whole Let's-hate-on-private-capital bent. Sure, Mitt Romney was a tool. But you're really not helping your credibility with this Corporations-are-evil hippyism.

No, it's bad for businesses. It means they have to invest funds in protecting their brand. Just like how the .xxx domain people blanketed television with ads, saying how they'll extort your non-porn business by registering your name under their TLD.

That layout looks like the stuff I skip over when I go to any news linked news site. If it had an unscrollable fixed background it would be twitter.

Is it unfair for slashdot to be "American slanted"? I've always thought of it as an American site. Does the fact that it is available in other countries obligate it to give them a proportional share of the news?

I agree that the notion of news feeds filtered by interest is essentially the same as reddit. But I'll take this opportunity to bicker with you about /. vs reddit.

What annoys me most about /. is the poor quality of many of the submissions that make it through, despite (or because of) the fact that it's curated. Sure, there's the almost mandatory trope of closing a summary with a rhetorical question. But often the whole summary, or even the news story, is crap -- FUD, nonsense, or obviously loaded rhetoric that wouldn't even make it over the radar on reddit.

Of course, reddit has its own cliches, some of which make me want to tear my hair out, but that is partially mitigated by unsubscribing from the worst offending subreddits. (Initial customization to leave the default subs is required if you want to avoid becoming suicidal.) But the crap stories that make it through there are at least *interesting*. Sure, they may blatantly appeal to reader biases, especially in politically oriented subs, but at least you know what you get from looking at the headline and know not to read any further.

The crap that gets through on reddit is successful for a reason -- there must be an underlying "quality" in the submission that appeals to at least some large collective of users. Whereas the crap that gets through on slashdot is often a complete fluke.

First comment I got on that line since I started using it since Fall 2005. FYI, it's a quote from a textbook by Koenig and Moo. I know recursion jokes are done to death (and were trite even back then), but I liked that one in particular because of the smugness of the second sentence.

And it's also true, of course.