finalrain's Journal: How I Became an Anonymous Coward

I've been using Slashdot for a relatively long time. I'm more given to lurking on Slashdot than to heavy participation, posting, etc. I've posted a few things here and there. Actually, the only reason why I even have a Slashdot account is so that I can post occasionally. When I first started posting, everything seemed to go well. I had been reading the articles and comments for awhile, I had a pretty good idea of how Slashdot. I'd actually read the entire faq.

Well, as I said before, things were going well. A few of my posts were even modded up. Then it happened (how's that for dramaticism?). I posted a response to a comment that was modded down just after I posted the response. My comment hung up towards the top of the page, while the post I'd responded to ended up at the bottom of the page under most user's "Below Your Current Threshold." Someone saw my post, and, not noticing the [Parent] at the bottom of my post, moderated me -1 Offtopic. (if you don't believe I posted correctly, you can check here to see that I posted correctly)

I was angry and upset when I'd seen my reduced Karma. There wasn't anything I could do about the situation. Well, actually, I did do something. I put a nasty little note in my User Bio about how I meta-moderate and any mod-downs of good replies to bad posts would result in terrribbbllle things. I also stopped posting regularly.

I started seeing a lot of really good AC posts and decided to post AC too.

At this point, I've heard a lot of people complain against the system (ie the way slashdot is layed out). I don't think the system is the problem, the problem is people who, thrilled with their authority to smack people on the wrists, go crazy and don't bother to look for [Parent]s, etc. I think this type of problem is a serious detriment to the growth of the slashdot community. I know there are some people here who don't really care whether or not new members find a friendly environment here or not. Some think of Slashdot as a club that you have to earn your respect in. However, I don't think that even those people would want to raise the bar so high that even God couldn't reach it.

Something that irritates me is the people who say, "don't read AC posts, no one who has anything worth saying posts anonymously." That may have been true at one point (I don't believe that this is true, however), but it certainly hasn't been accurate in quite awhile. It is amazing how many good AC posts I've seen in my metamoderating days.

I've only posted AC twice, but I've already been moderated up once already. Of course, this didn't count towards my karma, but I also didn't risk my karma in the hands of those who couldn't care less. That seems like a fairly decent trade to me, at least for now. I may not post AC forever, but, for the time being, I'm going to be mostly an Anonymous Coward.