MondoMor's Journal: I can't believe he did it.

CmdrTaco actually went through with the plan to allow subscribers (those who pay Slashdot) to read stories before they're posted for the unwashed and slashdotted.

What a fucking moron.

The editors are too stupid to fact- and dupe-check articles before submitting them, so he enlists the help of the people PAYING HIM to do this in his stead. Those of us viewing Slashdot for free get higher-quality (cough) content, because the poor bastards who pay for it are now doing the work of the paid editorial staff.

That's the most ass-backwards bit of idiocy to make its way through Taco's cholesterol-encrusted synapses yet.

So what happens when your paying customers get sick of doing your job for you, CmdrTaco? Ah, I see you haven't thought that far ahead yet. Mind if I just start laughing at you while I wait? Thanks.

Funny enough, CmdrTaco complains that

I didn't really get a single negative email about the idea. As usual, the negative nellies in the crowd don't bother emailing me, they just post offtopic in the main site discussions.

That might be because your email address isn't particularly easy to find, you grabasstic baboon. And I'm not digging through his stupid fucking personal site just to find it. Why not put it in a mailto: URL for your name? Oh, yeah. SPAM.

CmdrTaco complains endlessly about the number of SPAM messages he receives (and is apparently incapable of using any of the many anti-SPAM tools out there).

CmdrTaco, you mouthbreathing shithead, why don't you get off your ass and deal with it, and put your email address up where someone can find it without picking through your website... which is akin to picking through shit looking for a chewed-up raisin.

I swear to fucking GOD Sloth in The Goonies could do CmdrTaco's job better, probably upping the credibility of Slashdot in the process.

It's sinking, folks. Keep playing.

YHBT. HAND.

Customary Edit:
Apparently, some people take Slashdot too seriously. Yes. Their names are michael and timothy, and they're making your site an even bigger joke than you are, CmdrTaco.

Cost vs. benefit

[Safety Cap]

The subscriber base cannot do anything but construct.

Look at the benefits:

• You're supporting a site that you like - feel-good, nothing wrong with that.
• You see stories early - BFD. You can never see a story that isn't "available" (there used to be a hole, but someone closed it). If you're an unwashed non-subscriber, then a story's availability is later than for subscriber. You can never, ever see a story before it is "ready" and it may or may not be slashdotted. If you troll /. enough so that you see the story soon after it is posted, you may or may not be able to get to the subject's site before it gets /.'d. If not, you'll wait a few hours or a day and try again.
• No more/fewer ads WGAF? You and I ignore them anyway. If Taco really wants to piss everyone off, he can either invest in the Salon Method [salon.com], the X10 popunder method, or the obscuring flash method where the ad covers the content for a few seconds. The latter is guaranteed to drive everyone away, alienate the users, create negative feelings towards the advertiser, etc.
• 400 friends/foes instead of 200 f/f Another WGAF? If you have 200 friends and you have JE/post messages turned on, you are sucking on a spam sandwich every day... sucker!
• Posting ability to private parties Wow, maybe Taco will let you wash his feet with your tongue! You can also prevent non-friends from posting in your journal. Scuse me, but there are only a few people - FortKnox [slashdot.org], CleverNickName [slashdot.org], and $$$$$exyGal [slashdot.org] that have so many friends that their journals get many messages, but do you really think they get enough trolls that this would be useful? Only Taco "needs" this "feature."
• You can see more comments for a person (or yourself) This would be handy, I'll admit. What would be better is if they fixed their database so that the problem is solved, rather than band-aiding it by preventing the majority of people from searching. The fact that they are allowing it for a select few means that they recognize it as a useful feature. Too bad their DBA skills are insufficient for actually fixing the problem.

These "benefits" are no sufficient to make a large number of people subscribe. Even if they do, the value of the aforementioned will not induce more people to sign up. Only those who want to "support the team" will go for it, but you will start losing those guys through natural attrition. Once the novelty wears off, then either Taco needs to drop some trinkets (you heard it here first: /. hats and t-shirts) to keep the zombies forking up the moolah, or they will start dropping like flies once their subscriptions are up.

When I subscribe to National Geographic, I know I'm going to get twelve issues of a magazine with pretty pictures and well-written articles. When someone subscribes to /., what are they getting? Some intangibles on a dork* board? Wow.

* I like /. -- no really, but admit it: if you tried to explain what this place is to a non-tech person, you WILL feel like a dork.

ugh

[AnimeFreak]

As I said in #trolls...

http://animefreak.arkaic.com/screencaps/slashdot.j pg [arkaic.com]

I need a subscription to filter ads? I think it is time for me to finish the Proxomitron filters I am writing to end the need for a subscription to block ads.

Also, CmdrTaco can suck a cock on this story preview thing.