Himring's Journal: What's wrong with /. editors?

Yes. This is an official rant/complaint/whine. I've had news submissions rejected in the past, but for the most part, I understood it. Someone else would submit it first perhaps, or the story was something only few would care about. And, heck, who isn't miffed when it happens? However, August 15, 2007 marked a pretty darn significant event IMO. It was the 30th anniversary of the most significant discovery, ever, pointing to the possible existence of ETI -- Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. I submitted the story on the same day and waited. As I waited for 3 days, watching the anniversary pass, watching the submission read "pending" and, believe it or not, watching submissions get posted such as The 25th Anniversary of the CD Drive, I began realizing that the thing was going to be rejected. I thought surely it was something others were on to, and it would get submitted and posted by another. This would have been more than acceptable to me, but it did not. /. never breathed a word about, to me, one of the most important "news for nerds" events ever.

So, I ask a legitimate question: what's wrong with /. editors? Overwhelmed? Tired? Bored? Favoritism? Are only 25th anniversaries good enough? I'll accept any answer. More than anything, I would like to hear from an editor proper. Trust me, if you give me a logical explanation I will understand. 'An' explanation is better than nothing at this point, and I still feel that something should be said about the 30th Anniversary of the Big Ear discovery.

Here is the submission. Check it and tell me if something is wrong. That way, I will do better with the next:

Slashdot Story Submissions
Preview Submission
30th Anniversary of the Wow! Signal
Space
Himring writes "Today marks the 30th anniversary of the single most significant event, to date, that points to possible evidence of ETI. On this day in 1977, Dr. Jerry R. Ehman circled data retrieved from the "Big Ear" radio telescope of the Ohio State University Radio Observatory. The telescope has since been destroyed, and although other, modern telescopes have tried (such as the VLA) none of have successfully reproduced the results of that day. By and large, all possibilities of an earth-based signal causing the event have been ruled out as well as any possible natural phenomenon. Still, Dr. Ehman has remained reserved and stated that he doesn't want to draw, "vast conclusions from half-vast data." Here is the link to Dr. Ehman's 30th Anniversary Report."

It's hard to say.

[nahdude812]

It's hard to say. I do know that there's a really large number of stories that get submitted, I would actually be surprised if they have time to read every one of them completely. Or maybe one editor set it aside (didn't reject it immediately) to be used on a day with fewer already approved stores, and another just isn't into ET stuff and tossed it.

Neat

[dexterpexter]

I think that it is a perfectly fine article submission, certainly more interesting than some of the stuff that lands on the front page. I have had articles accepted, and some rejected, and there often doesn't seem much rhyme or reason to the rejections, except as the other poster pointed out: It seems that it has to be the right write-up, about an interesting article, submitted on just the right day, amongst just the right number of other articles, to just the right editor. If any one of those things a