James A. A. Joyce's Journal: Overused Slashdot Cliche: Joe Sixpack

I saw this article and I just knew - I was absolutely certain - that at least a dozen Slashbots would immediately splurge identical comments vaguely muttering about Linux and its "accessibility", "ease of use" and the inevitable references to "Joe Sixpack", "Jane Sixpack" or "Joe User". These references are stupid. We know about them. All too well. I even wrote about the Joe Sixpack character as a mode of trolling not entirely unlike the Right Wing Maniac, and how he has been rendered obsolete due to overuse by uninformed maniacs and morons who use him to project their own Linux-related inadequacies at every opportunity.

Why do people continue talking about the "fact" that Linux is not as easy to use as Windows? We are fully aware of that. And yet every time somebody parrots the concept back in a discussion, the moderators immediately leap on the comment to moderate it "Insightful" and "Interesting", and "Informative" too, if they include a made-up anecdote which vaguely involves Linux. It's not Informative, because we already know. It's not Interesting, because we already know. It's not Insightful, because we already know. It's old news.

Talking about Linux on Slashdot will not make any difference to the situation. It's as counterproductive as mentioning Natalie Portman or some similar trolling motif. Why don't the people who write these comments get off their arses and code something better themselves, instead of endlessly reusing the same old tired fluff as it degenerates into self parody?

Get this, moderators: maybe some of us don't actually care about whether or not "Joe Sixpack" uses Linux or likes Linux. If he doesn't like it, then quite frankly, Microsoft are welcome to take him.

(As a footnote: yes, I am fully aware that the word "cliche" has an accented 'e' but Slashdot changes it to a normal 'e'. Thanks a bunch, Malda.)