Hacksaw's Journal: Ten years!

You should read the title like the guy in "Grosse Pointe Blank."

Back then when Slashdot was this odd little web log with a comment system, I was working at BBN Technologies, i.e. the people who invented the internet. (All three of you reading: I know one of you is thinking, wryly, Al Gore invented the internet. I have a link for you: http://xkcd.com/307/ ).

It was an interesting place to work, but for me it was mostly a paycheck, and great net access, past the first year and a half.

Slashdot got into trouble very early on, intellectually, because of the people who read things, and just had to do things like try to claim "first post", behavior adults find cute in seven and eight year olds, who are often quick to take up anyone on a race of any kind.

In older people, it's not cute, so our kind hosts tried to make things better by implementing a system to rate comments. It had detractors, it had critics, but it also had a lot of fans.

It might never be perfect, but it does a pretty good job of hiding the fact that the internet, like many other places, is inhabited by brainless scum who should be burned for their calories.

To those of you oldsters who aren't BSWSBBFTC, here's to progress. To those of you who have never seen an unmoderated /., well, go look around at some younger web logs with less sophisticated systems, you'll see it.

As for our fearless hosts, thanks folks, I'm still a regular.