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Updated Slashdot Advertising Policy 335

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tightening-our-belts dept.
In response to increased advertiser demand, we have decided that we will post one story a day paid for directly by our advertisers. These paid "Slashvertisements" will appear daily amidst the normal stories you read here. Our first Slashvertisement is for our sister site, ThinkGeek , stuff for smart masses. From Linus' Autobiography to 42" Plasma Screens and Caffeine Products Galore, ThinkGeek has everything you need, except love. But enough of their gift certificates could bribe your way to that too! And check out their current exciting specials!. Also at the request of our advertisers, anonymous posting has been disabled. If you are interested in reaching quality demographics using Slashvertisements for your company, or just have questions about the new ad policy, email Hemos.
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Updated Slashdot Advertising Policy More

Updated Slashdot Advertising Policy

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  • First Slashvertisement! (by Microsoft) (Score:5, Funny)

    by roguerez ( 319598 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:14AM (#3265758) Homepage
    Let's have a close look at the costs involved when running a Linux system.

    An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.

    Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.

    According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).

    The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.

    Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".

    The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.

    I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.

  • Enough with the April Fools already (Score:3, Insightful)

    by adamwright ( 536224 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:15AM (#3265771) Homepage
    Please, please stop! :)

  • WHAT THE FUCK? (Score:5, Funny)

    by kypper ( 446750 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:16AM (#3265778)
    Anonymous posting has been disabled due to advertiser's request? Are you insane?!?

    Part of the beauty of slashdot is the ability to post your view without getting lambasted for it. I'm not a 'fp!' or 'you're a retard, Taco' kind of AC when I do, but sometimes I think things need to be said without my name attached.

    Oh, and I guess you can't bash corporations anymore like you did. What's next, eliminating any poster who isn't in keeping with the various advertisers? God, shut slashdot down before subjecting it to this.
  • Will you be able to immediately discern what are the paid stories -- will they be flagged as such -- or will you have to guess what's an ad and what's an honest opinion?

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:17AM (#3265791)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • The sad thing is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:17AM (#3265793) Journal
    It's believeable. If this had been posted tomorrow, or yesterday, rather than today, would anyone have been surprised?

    If you get DDJ [ddj.com], read the Swaine's Flames column on Slashdot's New Business Model.

  • "But enough of their gift certificates could bribe your way to that too!" Down the toilet...

  • The last castle has fallen (Score:5, Funny)

    by El_Smack ( 267329 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:18AM (#3265802)
    And I thought I was safe from ever reading the words "Feminine Itching" on /.

    Well, it was a good ride while it lasted. :)

  • Subscribers will no longer see advertisements on the pages -- just "advertorials". Nice.

    rOD.
  • I haven't had my coffee yet, so that is how long it took me to figure it out....
    • By my calculations, that would have put you about half way down the comments page at the time of posting before the light clicked on [the same page which is chocked full of afd jokes]... I seriously hope that the coffee is gonna help. =)

  • Thank God (Score:5, Funny)

    by slyfox ( 100931 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:18AM (#3265807)
    About time we had real ads, not these wimpy little banner ads and stuff. Go Slashdot!

    Oh, uh, April 1st? Nevermind.

  • Yeah, right (Score:3, Funny)

    by sab39 ( 10510 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:18AM (#3265808) Homepage
    If *I* was slashdot and planning on implementing a major and obviously controversial new policy, I don't think I'd pick April 1st as the day to roll it out ;)

    The question will be, how many poor suckers will swallow the bait :)

    Stuart.
  • I was wondering when they were gonna finally say something about the lack of anonymous posting on April Fools.

    Not that I'd EVER post anonymously when I post against the /. hive mentality...No, never...Not me...

  • now this would have been funny if... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 1g$man ( 221286 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:20AM (#3265825)
    ...it were a Microsoft advertisement.

  • No love (Score:3, Interesting)

    by notCNE ( 443816 ) <chris@@@uky...edu> on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:20AM (#3265832) Homepage
    Something tells me that Hemos is going to be wondering where the big influx of flamemail came from.

    • Re:No love (Score:5, Funny)

      by CmdrTaco ( 1 ) <malda&slashdot,org> on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:25AM (#3265878) Homepage Journal
      Especially considering Hemos is in Japan this week, and probably sleeping right now!
      • Especially considering Hemos is in Japan this week, and probably sleeping right now!

        Which makes this perfect. You really, truly are a bastard, Rob.

        My heartiest congradulations, and welcome to the club.

        Soko
        Founder and President, Professional Bastards of Ontario

        (All of you bitching an moaning about the Anonymous Posting thing are only providing more laughs. Keep 'em coming!!)

  • Ahh, such a wonderful day! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RavenDarkholme ( 27245 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:20AM (#3265837)
    Ahh, the joys of April 1 on Slashdot: where the stories ARE the trolls! Nice one guys. heheh

    I do have to feel sorry for Hemos, though: hopefully his spam filter is on full-blast to catch the flak from this story. Wonder how he's going to pay CmdrTaco back? Perhaps with a story about selling Karma points with CmdrTaco's email address as the contact? :-)

  • lol (Score:2)

    by cjpez ( 148000 )
    This is just about the funniest thing I think I've ever seen on Slashdot. Way to go, Taco! :P

    (note to the people who haven't gotten it: look at a calendar)

  • It's about time Slashdot stopped sucking up to the nerds crowd and joined industry-standard practices of obfuscating advertisements as news stories. Watch out USA Today!

    I for one would love to see more Slashvertisements here since the banner ads explain so little abvout the product I might be clicking through on. Now, when are you going to begin implementing opt-out "Valued Partner" marketing programs?

    ;-)

  • I'm amused (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord Omlette ( 124579 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:22AM (#3265845) Homepage
    but I can't tell what I'm more amused by!

    1. The anonymous button really is missing.
    2. CmdrTaco posted Hemos' email so that's where all the flames will go.
    3. Anticipating how Hemos will get back @ CmdrTaco. (Note to Hemos: don't disappoint your loyal fans!)

  • This is a new policy? (Score:5, Funny)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:22AM (#3265847)
    I'm shocked. I thought slashdot has been doing this for ages.
  • Wow, they even turned off Anonymous posting for this story! The slashdot editors sure are having fun today :)

    Scary thing is, even with today being April Fool's Day, I almost took this story seriously. With how many ads we constantly have shoved down our throats by websites, slashvertisements really don't seem too far off.
  • CmdrTaco, that was cruel. :) I salute you. Poor Hemos, I'm sure what 90% of his email is going to be today...

  • Stop... no.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lethyos ( 408045 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:23AM (#3265867) Journal
    It's the worst Slash-dot
    day of the year!
    With geeks belly-aching
    and everyone telling you
    "a-hundred to one!"
    It's the worst Slash-dot
    day of the year!

    There'll crapping and trolling
    With dumb jokes a-flowing
    And avian-I-P!
    With a thousand and one posts
    Reminding our hosts
    It's 'oh four 'oh one!

    It's the worst Slash-dot
    Day of the year!
    You'll think we're in hell
    When you can't really tell
    You gulliable nerd!
    It's the worst Slash-dot
    Day of the year!
  • So...are these adverstories going to be labelled as such, or are we pulling a Yahoo! here?

    Triv
  • This will be the LAST POST I will put to Slashdot until the no-a/c policy is revoked.

    Or until April fool's day is over.

    Whichever comes last. :-)
  • April fools. You guys, that's so funny. You are such witty people. You really had us going for a while there.
    I was all like "No way!", but then I realised it was a joke and thought "Whoah, you are some far out tricksters, man! They're just such crazy and unpredictable guys, I'm so priviliged to be a direct witness of their wit!"

    In years to come people will be like, "Gee, so you were actually there when they pulled that famous stunt?" and I'd be all like "Yeah, man, I was one of the originals, saw it first hand, it was hilarious"

    God you should have seen my face when I realised you guys were just yanking us. Man.
    How fucking funny can you be?

  • Not bad for an April fools, but i thought Microsofts' "Tech Ed" joke was much funnier:

    (See front page of microsoft.com or goto: http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/teched/)

    PS. Nice touch actually disabling anon posting :)
  • that this is redundant, but..

    I can't help but think of this as selling out hardcore. Before I get blasted with the usual "if you like slashdot, you should be willing to pay for it", I'm used to *NOT * having to pay for it. I don't like paying for things that used to be free. I understand the state of the net economy, etc. etc - that doesn't mean that this won't suck.

    BTW, if this is an AFD thing, then, good job.
  • Buh-bye, Slashdot; I'll miss you.

    Giving advertisers an easy way to gather email addresses from their stories really and truly sucks rocks. Way to go.

    *buckle*

    Dave

  • The good news is that the advertorial stories will be served by an IIS server under Windows 2000.

    That will keep us from seeing them too often.

    -- SysKoll
  • I'd like to submit this proof as this is a joke:

    CmdrTaco posted this. He then references at the end 'if you have questions, email hemos'.

    Gee, that's odd. You don't announce something and then say 'if you have questions, email someone else'. heh

  • I just LOVE thinkgeek [amazon.com]! Especially the "fash" section, where I learned to cut the bottom off of an old shirt to use as a hair enhancement! Oh, and the "dance party" photos!

    Of course, don't forget to read the thinkgeek emails [amazon.com]! Here you will discover how truly difficult it is to decide what to do on the weekends... have a pizza party? A fash party? Go to the mall with all of your friends? Have a sleepover and call boys on the phone?

    In short, if you haven't checked out thinkgeek [amazon.com], you don't know what you're missing!

  • Advertise with a story on Slashdot! Have hundreds of thousand of people read peoples opinions about why your company sucks and why your product sucks.

    Even given bad quaility service? Advertise with a story on Slashdot! You'll have every instance of bad quaility service recounted in detail.

    Does your product ever break? Bits fall off? Advertise with a story on Slashdot! Etc etc.

  • This story was an interesting way to show how few people read the story!

    Read what is being advertised! Then decide if it is serious.

  • Posted By an Anonymous Coward (Score:3, Funny)

    by 9633 ( 570325 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:38AM (#3265961)
    Really now cmdrtaco. You guys have taken this April 1st thing too far.
  • I actually got my blood pressure up a bit before i remembered that that it's april 1.

    I visited The Open Directory Project [dmoz.org] , which had Microsoft pasted everywhere and a notice that it had changed name to The Microsoft Directory Project and Gates Open Directory (GOD).

    My first thought was "Hey, all those hours I've done for free and now Gates will get rich on it".

    It even has a clippy (or what ever it is that the annoying paperclip from the office apps is called).

  • No returns on a $5,999 (their "special" price) Sony Plasma Screen "due to the cost of this piece"?

    Is the item itself an April Fools joke, then?

    Linus' autobiography was at least real.

    I can't help but think this faux advertising is going to result in at least a few sales, therefore being the only April Fools joke I can think of that's not really an April Fools joke at all ...

    It feels a bit like perverting the whole meaning of April Fools.

    Oops.

    D
    • Is the item itself an April Fools joke, then?

      That, or Thinkgeek is just entirely unethical. I think the latter is true unfortunately.

      They're advertising that unit as a "High resolution flat panel with 3.1 mega pixels (3 x 1024 x 1024 pixels).". That's a flat-out lie. The real resolution is 1024 x 1024.

      • How can it be 1024x1024 when it's rectangular, not square?

        The horizontal pixels must be about double the size of the vertical.

        Sounds like it would be a royal pain to produce stuff for this thing.

        D
    • that's a good thing though, I think most of us support ThinkGeek so that using them for this joke works well.


      Of course on the other hand... maybe it's a AFD conspiracy, maybe they hatched this scheme knowing that it would drive some sales, and what better way than to hide it as an April Fool's joke. Maybe it's not a joke, maybe it's just a one time deal, Rob and the rest are looking at their brand new windowed cases and neon lights that arrived as payment and cackling. Maybe... ah forget it who cares ;)

  • Ahh, yes. ThinkGeek. I love them.

    Their Caffeine candy sampler really helped me out on late-night coding on my latest project [hackerheaven.org]. Especially the penguin mints. I have lots of their t-shirts in my wardrobe. I bought mousepads and desktoppers from there. My office is plastered with posters. I am a true fan. Good to see initiatives like this on slashdot.

    (Oh, and a happy april fool to you all)

  • YRO, Spam, and Privacy articles brought to you by the folks responsible for the X2 wireless camera.
  • April Fool's day alwyas sees a flurry of interest in a "retract my last post" feature for Slashdot. This would enable people to pull posts after coming to the embarassing realization that they've just been trolled by CmdrTaco.
  • I always thought that those ZDNet editors were pretty funny. The same guy who told us all to convert to MAC OS X last week will come back with a new article and tell us all how great Windows is then he comes back with another article and tell us how Solaris is amazing.

    I don't know about you guys, but I don't want Slashdot to become that dumb. Unfortunately, everyone has a price, ironically we've even seen MS ads on Slashdot.

  • No Love? (Score:5, Funny)

    by "Zow" ( 6449 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:47AM (#3265996) Homepage
    ThinkGeek has everything you need, except love.

    Does that mean they've stopped selling "Sandra: The tech support doll"?

    • Re:No Love? (Score:2, Funny)

      by shaji ( 32462 )
      Once this [mozilla.org] bug is fixed in mozilla, you dont need to go to slashdot or thinkgeek for love..

    • Re:No Love? (Score:3, Funny)

      by sharkey ( 16670 )
      Yep. Taco is getting married. Kathleen found out that he was personally performing "Quality Assurance Testing" on each Sandra sold, and pressured ThinkGeek to stop selling that sort of merchandise.
  • Realizing that this may NOT be an April Fools joke, please clarify and expand on the new policy regarding AC postings. Which advertiser(s) requested it?

  • Good Way To Test A Big What-if... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GeekLife.com ( 84577 ) on Monday April 01, 2002 @11:52AM (#3266013) Homepage
    They've been thinking about trying the no-AC idea for awhile now...What better way to test it out than to put it in as a big joke on 4/1?

    No one can justifiably get mad, but they still get to test out if there are less posts, view the overall quality of posts, and generally assess the pros and cons of the idea.
  • The scary thing is, any other day I would believe you would do this.

    In fact, I'm sure you will at some point.

  • I'm afriad that this just isn't outragous enough for 4/1 ...... now if it had been a MS ad...
  • .... but now we've all reformed and learned to love the bomb.

    Especially on April 1 ...
  • ... i didnt catch the fact that its april 1 today at first...
    but then i read the part where i'm supposed to email Hemos... and its posted by CmdrTaco...

    This sounds suspicously like geeks in space when ur supposed to email The Pope 1024 copies of 0 :)

    I'll be Hemos is getting KILLED by ppl who dont get it :) One way to weed out the not-so-quick users :)
  • In a related story, VA Software (LNUX) reaches a new high [inbox.org].
  • Hmmm, advertisements mixed in with the stories and disguised as stories? Perhaps /. has become a testing grounds for some kind of newspeak? This could be Orwellian in scope! Head to high ground, everyone!

    Happy pagan new year... I mean April Fool's Day.
  • I amazed that there are so many people here who actually believe this.. Man, even geeks are suckers. Either way, since according to Taco, noone reads the posts, looks like a good number of people are going to believe this, and Hemos is gonna get flamed like crazy.

    I have to say I feel bad for the guy as he seems like a nice guy. Had a problem with one of the ads breaking NS4.7.x and he took care of it right away. Oh well, I have to admit, it is pretty funny :)

  • No love? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mutende ( 13564 ) <klaus@seistrup.dk> on Monday April 01, 2002 @12:05PM (#3266086) Homepage Journal
    ThinkGeek has everything you need, except love.

    Thus spake Paul [gospelcom.net]:

    If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

    There you go...

  • You actually had me going there for five minutes you bastards. I had to look twice, think about it, then realise hey, it's april fool's.

    Now I think I'll go call my mother and tell her I'm pregnant out of wedlock. That should turn a few hairs grey.
  • he he .. April Fools, right? he he (nervous laughter as I switch over to K5) :-) CmdrTaco, you rock! (today is April 1st right?)
  • If $username reply = true and sid=02/04/01/1452256
    Then set $rtbl= true

    D'oh!

  • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Dear god I hope so..... otherwise I'll have to expand my policy of not buying from intrusive ads.... no way will anyone take this bs, good thing it isn't true.
  • I suggested a similar idea [slashdot.org].
  • Questions: Will we be able to post comments in slashvertisements as with normal news stories? Will they be clearly marked as ads? If so, they could actually be sort of fun - we could post rebuttals to the ads, make jokes about them, etc. The only problem would be if the editors modded down such posts in order to unfairly present the impression that slashdotters all love the product being advertised.

    I have to say, I'm not going to miss the anonymous cowards. The only thing that troubles me, though, is that they are not being banned to make slashdot better. They are being banned because the advertisers want to see - probably - who is saying what, so they can market to them better.

    Are the new changes going to keep me from reading slashdot? No, of course not - but I can't avoid thinking we're losing a little bit of specialness here.

    One last thought: if the advertisers are paying to post stories, might they also pay to keep stories about why their products are bad from being posted? And will Taco say no to that?

  • Oh. My. God. (Score:3)

    by alexburke ( 119254 ) <alex+slashdotNO@SPAMalexburke.ca> on Monday April 01, 2002 @08:27PM (#3268419)
    In response to increased advertiser demand, we have decided that we will post one story a day paid for directly by our advertisers. These paid "Slashvertisements" will appear daily amidst the normal stories you read here.

    Hmm. Okay, maybe I can handle this.

    Our first Slashvertisement is for our sister site, ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com] , stuff for smart masses. From Linus' Autobiography [thinkgeek.com] to 42" Plasma Screens [thinkgeek.com] and Caffeine Products Galore [thinkgeek.com], ThinkGeek has everything you need, except love. But enough of their gift certificates could bribe your way to that too! And check out their current exciting specials! [thinkgeek.com].

    Come on. Don't just paste the ad copy into the story. Make it sound interesting.

    Also at the request of our advertisers, anonymous posting has been disabled.

    Okay, that's bullshit. Slashdot is NOT Slashdot without ACs and the ability to post anonymously. Lots of good information has been posted anonymously, including people posting information we find really interesting that could cost them their job.

    If you are interested in reaching quality demographics using Slashvertisements for your company, or just have questions about the new ad policy, email Hemos [mailto].

    Slashdot has now completely sold out. Period.

    No ACs, and advertisements mixed in with real articles. Without even so much as an "Advertisement" icon (or, therefore, a way to filter them out).

    Rusty [kuro5hin.org], I'm coming back. Sorry for ever doubting you.

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