The History of Slashdot Part 4 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Today, on the last day of our 10 year anniversary navel gazing spectacular, I present the final (thank god!) chapter in my 4 part history of Slashdot. I've written about the creation, the explosion, and the corporatization. Today I talk about where we are today, and what I see as our future, and how I feel about it. Clicky click the magic link below to read the last "thrilling" chapter, and celebrate with me the fact that I won't have to spend this much time writing about Slashdot for another decade.

As the dust settled following the dot-com bust, we would see only minor changes to Slashdot. Hemos moved to Boston both to be closer to Andover HQ, and to get his wife in commute range for her grad school work. Nate went to California when his wife got a teaching job. Both moved to Ann Arbor a few years later, as did CowboyNeal, Samzenpus & I. The band was back together, and has been for the last several years.

These days we have a little office in A2 where we do much the same things as we have always done. Jeff spends way to much time in conference calls with corporate offices. He's got a fancy VP title which means he makes the big bucks in exchange for radiating his head on a cel phone. But he's always been a people person so I think that suits him just fine. Nate is an engineer for SourceForge and working on his own advanced degrees. CowboyNeal is on leave right now, but we're looking forward to his return. Samzenpus still sits at the receptionist desk scaring away the door to door salesmen that still seem to show up randomly with no clue what we do. We conduct most of our affairs via a jabber channel where people on both coasts work together.

At the end of all of it, I'm happy that I still get to work with my oldest friends, as well as a number of really honestly great people we've had to good fortune to meet up with in the last decade. And beyond that, I've had the good fortune to work with a number of other smart and cool people that have gone on to bigger and better things. On some level, the memories and people are the most important part of life, and I'm very happy with how that has gone.

As for Slashdot itself, there's a theme in the discussions about Slashdot jumping the shark. That theme has resurfaced regularly for our entire lifespan. From the creation of user accounts in 1998 on, every action we take on Slashdot provokes a 'This is the end of Slashdot' from someone. But what this tells me is that we actually haven't jumped the shark at all- if we had, they'd stop saying the same thing every time we do anything. You learn a lot in my position about large communities: Most of you never say a word... only the most passionate of you ever post. And an angry user is 10 fold more likely to post than a happy one. And when nobody can agree on anything... well there's meaning in that too.

At the end of the day, we've done some reasonably great things over the years. Take for example Sep 11. On that day the mainstream news websites buckled under the loads, and although we had to turn off logging, we managed to stay up, sharing news in a time where it was often difficult to get. That was the day where the team of engineers that make this site happen pulled together and did the impossible, forcing our limited little hardware cluster to handle traffic that was probably triple or quadruple a normal day.

Or take Columbine. When this tragedy hit, our readers took it a differently. Instead of blaming video games, we looked hard at the culture of abuse that drives high school. We talked about how the jocks beat us up. We knew that the terrible events of that day are almost inevitable when you stick kids into a system where certain groups of kids are given free reign to beat up others based on extra curricular activities. During that series of stories many people had a place to talk. It was cathartic. Our role was small, but it mattered.

Darker moments like those are rare, but there are countless other moments good and bad. Many you see on the page, and others you don't. From little successes like trading banner ads for office chairs or the time Gamara chucked Hemos's cel phone into an empty ice bucket... except it wasn't empty. Or the time the crazy guy showed up at our office and offered to give Samzenpus his car in exchange for 5 minutes of time with CmdrTaco, where he would "Reverse Engineer My Life". I proposed to my wife here... and she accepted and now years later we have a baby. I couldn't begin to enumerate the countless moments that have made the last decade here awesome.

I have other thoughts that are perhaps more bleak. There's a possible dark future for Slashdot if corporate interests take over. There's constant pressure from within the company to create new "products". Sometimes these mean new/more/bigger ads which usually result in people installing junkbusters. Far worse is the occasional attempt to create some sort of content partnership that blurs the lines between legitimate Slashdot content, and the paying advertiser's message. I hate these meetings because I have to constantly be the guy that says 'No'. My worst fear for Slashdot is that someday someone with deep enough pockets comes along with a check so big that someone in the company with a shortsighted view of the future is willing to cash over top of my objections.

Likewise, there is pressure for us to grow as a site, but this has 2 major problems. The first is that our audience was here in the 90s: we were the early adopters that made the internet great in the first place. Our growth will never match the population of the net because we are a small group that isn't growing: we were here first. Second is my personal feeling that marketing is just icky: read if you want. Or don't. If you don't find us on your own, you probably weren't meant to be here. That's my Gen-X showing I think, but it's still how I feel. And it really doesn't help when people on-line regard Alexa as legitimate and definitive. We could gain traffic by posting boobs or covering other subjects, but that would distract us from our real focus. And it would drive you guys away.

Similarly, new websites and technologies arise regularly. From Kuro5hin to Digg to Reddit, there have been dozens of websites that do similar things to Slashdot with varying degrees of success. Some have surpassed us, while most have faded into obscurity. From AJAX interfaces to alternate methodologies of content selection, they all have ideas, some good, so bad... some right for Slashdot, and some wrong. Distinguishing one from the other is tricky: you guys all deserve a modern web application, but at the end of the day, our story selection and discussions are what make this site unique. Drastic changes would alienate our long-term user base, so we need to tread cautiously.

A 10 year anniversary is a good time to think about what a 20 year anniversary would be like. And I think that the only way that Slashdot in 2017 is as good as Slashdot in 2007 is if we continue to maintain editorial independence, moderate advertising quantity with a clear distinction between advertising and content, and of course, that we continue to select the right stories to appeal to our existing audience... not to spend our time courting other audiences that would only dilute the discussions that bring so many of you here day after day.

For me personally I've spent a lot of time this month reflecting on Slashdot and my role here. Every day, 7 days a week, from my first cup of coffee until the moment I close the lid on my laptop, Slashdot is a part of my day. It's most of my browser tabs, most of my chat windows, and most of my inbox. And that's fine because I love this place: the readers, the content, and the people I work with. I'm honored that I continue to be the caretaker of this place.

Of course I've been here my entire adult life and I doubt that will always remain true. Certainly to leave would leave a hole in my life. But it's a constant struggle to maintain the site up to my standards. It's a struggle that I often win, but occasionally lose too. On some level, what keeps me here is knowing exactly what would happen within a few months of my departure. I don't like that one bit.

But let me end on a high note: I am very aware of Slashdot's unique place in the history of the internet. There's no way I could thank everyone that made that possible, but you all know who you are. I dream that in 2017 we can look back at 20 years and be just as proud of our second decade as our first. Keep reading. Keep submitting stories. Keep posting, moderating and meta moderating. If it isn't to much trouble, click on a banner ad every now and then. And hopefully I'll see you then.

--
Rob Malda
Pants are Optional

Not now my friends, not ever

[Ckwop]

I hate these meetings because I have to constantly be the guy that says 'No'. My worst fear for Slashdot is that someday someone with deep enough pockets comes along with a check so big that someone in the company with a shortsighted view of the future is willing to cash over top of my objections.

I share your fear that one day that will happen, Rob. I don't want to see that happen: not now, not ever. To make this absolutely clear, the day that happens is the day I tip my cap and leave this site for good.

Personally, I wish you'd never sold the site and continued to run it with the original team but there is no use crying over spilt milk. We are where we are.

At some point, Rob is going to have to take a stand against these goons and defend Slashdot from corporate greed. He says he already is but I fear like the Ring of Power, the pull becomes stronger over time and it will develop in to a darker more insidious threat. To defend against this threat successfully he will need convincing evidence that Slashdot will be thoroughly destroyed if the enemy prevails.

I hope people will stand with me today and that this thread will form part of that defence.

If you agree with what I've said can you please reply to this thread with "I agree." Let's send these people a message that ultimately this site exists for us. We are their customers, not the advertisers.

Simon

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[Cerberus7]

There used to be about a dozen web sites I visited on a daily basis. Of them, all that remains is Slashdot. Why? Because it hasn't gone off the corporate deep end and become that blurry mess of marketing and content that Rob's talking about in this essay. Now and again I see that deep end getting closer on this site, but it always seems to fall away into the horizon. If it ever does actually go all the way, I'm with you. I'll leave.

I agree.

Re:

[cyphercell]

I agree, if I wanted a Digg/Cnet/facebook/ad-driven abomination, I'd be on those sites. Honestly I don't understand what the hell these arseholes are thinking when they take a good site and try to blend it with four other decent sites. It's ridiculous, people watch ESPN because it's the sports channel, people like slashdot because it's "news for nerds", why anyone would think that changing that would lead to anything other than yet another crap-ass-inthered-social-network is beyond me.

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[kebes]

I agree. I would leave Slashdot if it became just another ad-encrusted site.

I think one of the problems is that businesses are almost always under pressure to expand. Merely maintaining the same revenue year by year is considered a failure, even though everyone is making good money (and even if the revenue is growing enough to offset inflation, and pay investors a reasonable return).

The obsession with expanding means that businesses are always trying to think in terms of "getting more customers" and "appealing to a wider base" and so forth. The problem is that there are already lots of companies (or websites in this case) that appeal to that generic audience. Adding yourself into that pool certainly doesn't guarantee increasing profits.

If Slashdot remains true to its roots, it will continue to do well, and to attract a very particular audience. Our numbers are actually growing, since each new generation will have some proportion of nerds/geeks who, upon discovering Slashdot, think to themselves "I have finally found people just like me! This place is great!" Of course Slashdot's readership won't grow as fast as something like Facebook that is designed to appeal to everyone... but that shouldn't be its focus.

In short, if Slashdot continues to pander to its unique demographic, it will continue to have a dedicated readership, and hence a guaranteed revenue stream.

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[Eponymous Bastard]

The obsession with expanding means that businesses are always trying to think in terms of "getting more customers" and "appealing to a wider base" and so forth. The problem is that there are already lots of companies (or websites in this case) that appeal to that generic audience. Adding yourself into that pool certainly doesn't guarantee increasing profits.

And yet, expanding is not a bad idea, but that is not the only way to expand.

It used to be that TV shows would get dumbed down or junk the shark to appeal to a wider variety of people. Now instead you see more and more spinoffs. They leverage the skill and some of the familiarity of the old show to create a new show that appeals to a different group, or to get more views to what could in some ways be "the same show".

If slashdot wants to grow I hope they do it by setting up sister sites instead. They have the experience, code and hardware to set up sister sites for different audiences. Maybe something as simple as spinning off politics and YRO, with more politically savvy editors. Maybe doing joint stories with AnimeFu, to liven things up. Maybe setting up a digg-wannabe site, with a slash-style discussions. You could try out (marked) slashvertisements on other sites and see how people react while the mother-site stays the same (since you already know ./ers would reject them).

Or work with a social networking site to connect user profiles, journals and discussions together with all their other features (if the users choose to).

Of course, you'd have to help these sites grow. Joint stories, publishing selected top stories on each other's front page, ads back and forth, advice to the editors of the new sites, etc. Growing while keeping the original community alive and safe, but leveraging the experience of your old admins.

The styles of the sites should diverge, and some sites will sell off more than others. Some sites will use more AJAX, more pictures, more OMG ponies, more whatever. Rob knows already what this community needs. Start another site and figure what their community needs. It's a lot easier to do this for /. and co than for anybody else.

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[Kemanorel]

Oh! Oh! I know! Spin off a site about ponies!

OMG PONIES!!!

(That was just me needing to vent off some of the stupid I acquired trying to teach set-builder notation to 13-year-olds)

Re:DIGG

[djdavetrouble]

I remember for while when digg became popular, people would often complain that they had seen it on digg yesterday.
I decided to give digg a try, but found that so much crap got through as well that I was wading around trying to find the
"good stuff". Also, the comments are about on par with a pre teen message board, and headlines frequently look like a 9 year old wrote them.

This kept me on slashdot, where the worst that I have to endure is old jokes (that still make me laugh when executed correctly).
Most trolls get modded down pretty quickly, and I have actually end up learning something most of the time.

I still check digg every now and then, and the new fad is for a single (AWESOME!) picture to get dugg up.

I had an interesting IT experience about a year back, and said to myself, "self, I bet you could make the front page of digg with this [blogspot.com]".

So, as an experiment, I created a blogger blog and submitted it to digg. Lo and behold a few short hours later this non news story, personal
blog had hit the front page of digg. I enabled adsense and made about $20.00 from the thing. Its just not a news site anymore, and easily gamed.

Re:

[EMeta]

You say your story supports the idea that Digg is easily gamed, and I have to disagree. (Not that I'm disagreeing that Digg can easily be gamed, just that's not what you did.) You found something that you thought would be interesting to Digg's patrons. You submitted it in an appropriate context (even a new blog can be worth reading--and often more so: the writer still has new ideas).

Lots of other people also found it interesting. I don't know the numbers, but I guess that means a thousands of people f

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[apdyck]

I likewise agree. On that note, it should be mentioned that, a few years ago, I moved to a small community in the Northwest Territories, and they only had 33.6 dialup there. During this time, despite the fact that I had a second phone line that was dedicated to this slow connection, I stopped visiting many of the web sites that I previously frequented. In fact, there were only two that I visited every day. One was slashdot, and the other was User Friendly [userfriendly.org]. Slashdot kept me in touch with the tech community, something that was very needed in a community where there was a grand total of ONE technical person (aside from myself) in the whole town. That guy had to wear multiple hats - he was the IT guy for the oil company in town (the #1 employer), and he was the line tech for the phone company. He has moved on to bigger and better things, and now the new IT guy for that oil co is struggling just to maintain the status quo - he even begged me to move back and take over his job. Of course, to do that would be to give up my high speed Internet connection (AKA my lifeline), and that's not going to happen.

Anyhow, I digress. Slashdot has been a big part of my life. I first came across it when I was in high school, back in the early days, and am now on my second account (I lost the password on my first one, and no longer had the e-mail address) - and I love it. Slashdot has been my source for all IT related news for almost nine years now, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Keep up the good work, guys, and we will all keep coming back!

I would also like to make a note that, in my younger days, I was involved in some minor Slashdot-related graffiti - I have on a few occasions written /. in bathroom stalls and various other places, a stark contrast to the graffiti that most people leave. I can only hope that this has encouraged some people to find out what the site was, and to increase the knowledge of the site. Unfortunately, I think it only contributed to the amount of work that the janitorial staff had to do. This isn't something that I continue to do, as I have grown into a much more respectable person than I was then, but I still am tempted any time I walk into a washroom that is covered in graffiti!

Re:

[nocomment]

I seem to remember those days too. I was thinking a few days ago that I remember going to more websites per day. I tried to remember their names, but got stuck at geek.net. Now I pretty much just hang around slashdot, and userfriendly, with occasional stop-offs at multiply or linkedin.

Re:

[OglinTatas]

too bad the moderators will mod every "I agree" post redundant :-D

Hear, hear!

[AltGrendel]

I agree.

Re:

[MarsDefenseMinister]

Selling out is the American way! It's going to happen to Slashdot eventually. For proof, look at the great rock band the Who. First, they're bathing in baked beans on the cover of a record, and next their tunes are being hacked up for the opening music on three different CSI TV shows. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing is more American than making a buck.

Re:

[j-pimp]

Selling out is the American way! It's going to happen to Slashdot eventually. For proof, look at the great rock band the Who. First, they're bathing in baked beans on the cover of a record, and next their tunes are being hacked up for the opening music on three different CSI TV shows. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing is more American than making a buck.

There was no compromise of principals there. They sold the rights to existing back catalog material.

Re:

[cayenne8]

"Nice analogy - except for the fact that The Who aren't exactly American."

Ok, how did that go...

"Fool me once and...err, Fool me twice, and then...I won't get Fooled Agai....uh, Who?"

Re:

[Broken scope]

You have my bow!

Re:

[truthsearch]

* There's a knock at the door *
Taco: Who's there?
Door: Goons.
Taco: Who?
Door: Hired goons.
Taco: Oh, c'mon in!

On a more serious note, I agree!

Re:

[Alu3205]

I agree. Slashdot is unique because of the community. That community can be moved or rebuilt to another site very easily and quickly.

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[posdnous]

I agree. Slashdot is unique because of the community. That community can be moved or rebuilt to another site very easily and quickly.

Not on you life, once slashdot is gone, it will be gone forever. What makes slashdot so great is not the people who post on every single story giving their opinions, it's the people who only post rarely but when they do, they REALLY know the topic area, that's why you can be guaranteed to learn something in every discussion. If slashdot is reduced just to the "regulars", in the event of a rebuilt clone site, the level of groupthink would make the level of discussion monotonous and ultimately uninteresting.

Re:

[morethanapapercert]

I Agree...'nuff said.

**off topic, but am I the only one who seems to get singularly apropos captchas on a regular basis?
 

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[moderatorrater]

I agree. I think that Rob realizes what some C-level executive might not: this is a community of technically skilled people. Most of the people here are early adopters and have come to slashdot because it's different. If Slashdot becomes a clone of something else, then the people on this site will migrate elsewhere and they'll have to settle with the scraps from Digg's table.

That said, Rob's done a great job, and I'm sure he'll continue to do so. And when the corporate overlords overpower him, I'm sure he'll rise again, more powerful than they could possibly imagine ;) Or, at the very least, with another high-traffic site that's profitable, but not as much as it could be if it sold out.

Re:

[cayenne8]

"That said, Rob's done a great job, and I'm sure he'll continue to do so. And when the corporate overlords overpower him, I'm sure he'll rise again, more powerful than they could possibly imagine ;) Or, at the very least, with another high-traffic site that's profitable, but not as much as it could be if it sold out."

Hmm...when they sold to the corp. types....did they sell the rights to the /. domain too?

Would be sweet if he owned that and could take it with him if they tried to strong arm him too much..

Re:

[moderatorrater]

If not he could always come up with a domain name that indicates he's taking a step back from slashdot, like maybe dotdotslash...

Re:

[budgenator]

Bruce Parens has a site, technocrat.net the articles aren't too shabby, the theme is stone ugly and the code needs plenty of work, the kind of thing that could explode if /. goes down the tubes.

Re:

[multisync]

If you agree with what I've said can you please reply to this thread with "I agree." Let's send these people a message that ultimately this site exists for us. We are their customers, not the advertisers.

I agree. If Slashdot ever starts pandering to the advertisers or putting corporate interest ahead of those of long-time visitors, I'm out of here too.

Now, about the boobs ...

They don't think that way

[A nonymous Coward]

To their way of thinking, you are a fossil living in the past. You think that what is must remain. They think how to grab new consumers today, and if they think they can get twice as many adclicks by trading in all the old customers for new consumers, their cold blooded short term calculations will lead them that way.

History is bunk, they say.

Re:

[mattOzan]

I went to a 10 Year Anniversary party in my hometown to celebrate this website. *That* should indicate the unique place Slashdot has internet culture. It transcends webspace and enters meatspace.

The idea of getting together with strangers over *any* other news website is just absurd. The idea of anyone even wanting to organize such gatherings is absurd.

The symbiosis between this site and its users makes it a community like no other, and you have done very well at maintaining that relationship.

IMO, i

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[porcupine8]

I agree.

I've been reading some books on nonprofit management lately. The biggest thing they all push is "Know your mission, stick to your mission." I have a feeling that for-profit businesses probably benefit from the same advice. Hopefully the people who own Slashdot will follow it.

Re:Not now my friends, not ever

[cloricus]

I nearly left when the Intel section crap started... It was a good idea if Intel would have been serious about it but it quickly became blatant that it was an ad driven dream for them and a monster for Slashdot. It is as simple as that for me, as long as Rob (or for more fun CmdrTaco) is in charge and calls the shoots I can't see myself leaving, when it becomes clear he no longer has control I'll be off.

A note to the corporate overlords now and in the future; I often click on the ads on this site, as they tend to be topical to services we need to implement and we have gone on to purchase several services from ads here. While us readers mostly would have been in high school and college when we started reading the majority of us now work in IT and call the shoots or suggest solutions to problems. As time goes on our potential to increase profits through ads increases and from that point of view do you really want to piss us off and replace us with a digg like crowd who can't even afford their own broadband from their parents basements?
Erm, yes, I agree. :)

Re:

[drachenstern]

I agree

To the mods, ignore this whole part of the thread (All the "I agree"s) as we are not interested in being called redundant. We are voicing an opinion and a belief.

Re:

[budgenator]

you don't really need adblocking, nine time out of ten I've scrolled past where the ads are placed before the lamo servers can serve them.

So wise...

[KingSkippus]

You're so wise it makes me sick. Why can't more people be like Rob?

Seriously, if you want to make a killing off of Slashdot without making changes that would kill Slashdot, you should expand your articles into a full-length book. Your site is officially an Internet institution. You are a bonafide part of geek culture now, which makes your perspective unique and interesting. You also have proven experience in building a successful community from nothing to millions, which would come in very handy in lots of industries and fields, both small and large.

Plus, when the book is reviewed and the link is posted in the article, you could earn royalties AND sales commission, how sweet is that?

Who knows, maybe you could even patent some of your methods of community-building, and then post an article on how evil you've become. ;-)

Re:

[TopShelf]

That's an outstanding idea, actually - a Slashdot retrospective in book form, featuring some of the bigger stories, memes, etc. could represent both a good business opportunity and avoid conflicting with the site's overall direction.

One issue I could see would be how they would include comments in such a book and not get into royalty issues, since, as they've always said, "Comments are owned by the Poster."

Re:So wise...

[jamie]

We're unlikely to try including very many comments in a book. That didn't work out so well [slashdot.org] last time...

Re:

[mbrod]

I remember the issues with the book. However I do wish you would publish a monthly magazine highlighting the hot topics of the month and reference some of the better points brought up in the discussions on the site.

Charge like 20-50 bucks a year and throw a symbol of some sort next to the names of those users subscribing. This would help with revenue, give us a service we would like, and keep the Corporate overlords off your backs for a while due to the increased revenue.

Re:

[rucs_hack]

When I did an undergraduate course on ethics and law in computer science in 2002 at Reading university, the lecturer said in the very first session that if we were serious about understanding such things we should all read slashdot regulerly.

Before that day I didn't even know slashdot existed, and to start with I didn't get it. Now though its in my set of 'during morning coffee' bookmarks, and gets looked at a few times a day.

Congratulations!

[nbvb]

Congratulations on 10 years of hard work. You have a lot to be proud of.

Keep fighting the good fight.

I still swear some days that the trolls are going to drive me out, but here I am .... still here.

And as an aside - Slashdot (and its ads... believe it or not.) led me to one of the best decisions I ever made in my career.

Moons ago, you had an ad running for some company called "Ironport". They had a neat device that was just a mail delivery engine. As a company that has over 60 million customers, that's important to us. When customers' bills are ready, we're sending, well, 60 million emails. So such a "spam cannon:" is important.

Anyway, that simple banner ad on Slashdot put me in touch with the folks at Ironport, and here we are, 5+ years later, with a completely modern email infrastructure that Just Works (tm). The Ironport folks made some changes to their appliances to meet our particular needs, and it's been a great partnership for us.

Thanks guys. And if it weren't for that "icky" advertising, it would've never happened.

Re:Congratulations!

[cerberusss]

Thanks guys. And if it weren't for that "icky" advertising, it would've never happened.

Many months ago, I installed AdBlock and Filterset.G Updater. Then proceeded to never give it any thought again.

Rob's request and your comment made me think. In Firefox,

• I clicked Tools -> AdBlock
• Then checked the [x] whitelist this whole site

I didn't start clicking ads right away; I only will do so if I'm genuinly interested. However, I encourage everyone to whitelist the site. It's a way to support slashdot.

Re:

[LWATCDR]

I have white listed Slashdot but then I have to turn it off again. I just can not stand animated ads! They are just two distracting.
I will probably try again because most of the companies that advertise on Slashdot have products I am interested in but for good grief don't allow animated banners!

Re:

[cerberusss]

I see. So slashdot is no different to you than, say, cnn.com?

Re:

[josephdrivein]

Congratulations on 10 years of hard work. You have a lot to be proud of.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Agreed.

Thank you, Rob. Slashdot wouldn't be the same without you.
I hope to be here in 2017.

~joseph

Re:

[pcol]

Congratulations on 10 years of slashdot.

I think you've found the formula for the best discussion of technical and scientific issues on the web - editor selected stories and reader moderated comments.

Whenever I think of a story to post to slashdot, I try to anticipate how people are going to respond, but when a story is accepted [hughpickens.com], I am always amazed by the diversity of opinion and the startling insights I see generated. Slashdot is online brainstorming at its best with the benefit of tens of thousands

Re:

[nbvb]

Ooh, sorry, I forgot the obligatory "I'm just a happy customer" comment. Really. I have no relationship with Ironport whatsoever besides being a happy customer.

I guess that any positive comments instantly become astroturfing? Believe me, or don't. It doesn't matter to me. I just wanted to share a story about how something most people see as negative can be a positive.

Too long, didn't read

[Trespass]

The future of Slashdot is identical with it's past: Hot grits, Digg circlejerks, and all the Roland Pipperqquualalllelee you can eat.

Sept 11th

[lthown]

Actually, Slashdot was where I first heard about it. It's was just after the first plane hit - I seem to recall at the time it was thought it was a small plane. The second followed shortly with additional information.

Re:

[nbvb]

I heard about it when I saw the black smoke out the front window of my house. I was living at the time on the lower side of the New Jersey Palisades, so I was able to see the smoke rising, but not the tips of the towers (The palisades cliffs were between me and the towers.)

I drove to Boulevard East in Weehawken, just in time to watch the Southtower collapse.

One of the most awful days of my life.

Re:

[DerWulf]

there is some hilarious joke about dupes in their ...

More boobs!

[OglinTatas]

"We could gain traffic by posting boobs ... it would drive you guys away."

Posting boobs wouldn't drive me away! I promise!
(unless they are saggy granny boobs or man boobs)

Re:

[xgr3gx]

Ah-ha, perhaps we can have a "sideboob" slashdot section. sideboob.slashdot.org.
Postings about various sideboob sightings. Don't they have a website like that? Oh yeah...tmz, E entertainment, etc etc.

Re:

[Spy der Mann]

Ah-ha, perhaps we can have a "sideboob" slashdot section. sideboob.slashdot.org.

How about "slutdot"? :)

Re:

[Bayoudegradeable]

What are these "boobs" you speak of? Would I need to leave the basement to see them? Oh, you don't mean IN PERSON! Whew, you scared me there for a sec...

Re:

[0racle]

Look some ideas are just plain bad and you can see that, but I think this one has promise. Don't be so quick to dismiss it.

Re:More boobs!

[n3tcat]

What boobs do you like?
A) Saggy boobs
B) Granny boobs
C) CowboyNeal's boobs

Re:

[Mattintosh]

It's not a poll without...

Missing option: Nice, round, perfect-handful boobs.

Re:

[Luyseyal]

Uh... I think that was the joke...
-l

Re:

[fbjon]

Mssing option:

D) Breasts

Running out of steam?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

What disappoints me more than anything else is the slow creep of the "Slashdot groupthink" that, which once was merely a quirky attitude prevalent among a few vocal members, has grown into the mindless anti-IP/anti-corporation/anti-establishment theme of most of the stories posted here. There are very few "nerdy" stories on this site anymore. Most of the stories are either devoted to Google and Apple fanboiism, "IANAL but.." topics, Microsoft/SCO/Bush bashing, or tech update minutia.

The only readable sections are Science and Developers. YRO has got to be a honeypot for trolls, but how can you tell the difference anymore?

The 2002-2005 troll eradication has left this site impotent and truly enmeshed in hivethink. Say what you will about their abuses of this site, trolls provided an entertaining, if not reasonably useful, devil's advocate. With only hiveminded thinkers left, like any monopoly, this site has stagnated.

The heydays are over, I think. And while I hope you make it 20 years, I have serious doubts that this site will make it that far. There are so few things actually covered here at Slashdot, and that list is being constantly trimmed, that I think at some point YRO will be the only section that survives intact. And if that's the case, then that will be a sad day indeed.

Re:Running out of steam?

[east coast]

With only hiveminded thinkers left, like any monopoly, this site has stagnated.

You God damned shill!

Seriously, I agree with you. It's getting old that you can't post an honest opinion that isn't pro-OSS, pro-Google or pro-Apple without getting the beat down with the overrated mod.

I'm sure my protest falls on deaf ears but it really has changed my outlook on how and what I contribute to Slashdot. I've noticed a couple of stories recently that I thought would make good Slashdot material and I simply will not submit them since I think the site has lost so much value. Not to mention that I also lost my mod points for not doing the Slashdot goosestep.

I don't blame the trolls anymore. Sometime I do a bit of the trolling myself since honest and well thought out posts end with the same moderation in a world where not being dogmatic makes you "just another shill".

Re:Running out of steam?

[King_TJ]

I hear this complaint often. (One of my best friends subscribes to the "Slashdot makes me sick with all the group-think and one-sidedness" theories, in fact.)

I guess I look at it differently. I think one of Slashdot's strengths is its bias. Right now, I can visit any number of commercial web sites, purportedly about "computers and technology", and get a very Microsoft-centric view of things. Problem is, just because 90%+ of the systems out there run Microsoft products doesn't mean I want to read about those products 90%+ of the time! (That would be like a gourmet settling for reading stories about fast food chains 90% of the time, just because fast food operations are that much more prevalent than gourmet restaurants.)

I really think the *truth* is, there are "best", "good" and "not so good" choices out there in the world of technology and computing. Skashdot takes the stance that OSS is either in the "best" or "good" category (and some stories directly address arguing over which of those 2 labels best applies). Slashdot takes the stance that Apple is doing good, interesting things right now too. Considering I went 10+ years using nothing but PC compatible Wintel boxes, and now I'm almost all converted to Macintosh, I'd say I agree with THAT bias too. And Google? I think anyone bashing them, yet claiming to be into technology, is foolish, bordering on hypocritical. So yes, I'd mod down an "anti Google" post myself, too! (Are they "too big", becoming "evil", or anything else? Nobody seems to be bringing any solid evidence to the table on any of that, right now. All I see is a company that's been giving out an awful lot of really useful, really cool stuff for FREE, and seems poised to put downwards price pressures on the cellphone industry next. Works for me!)

Re:Running out of steam?

[east coast]

While I'm receptive to what you're saying I have a certain issue with the same person who praises OSS and Google praising Apple and their known anti-competitive sentiment. Hell, we had yet another major story about it today.

Also note, I never said "anti Google". There is a gulf of difference between being anti-something and not being pro-something. This kind of attitude brings me to say fanboism. Simply saying "I'd mod you down for being anti-Google" with no real consideration of the content screams fanboi to me. Are you seriously saying that Google doesn't fumble the ball? Are you saying that there aren't moves done by Google that don't leave you thinking "slippery slope"? To say otherwise is fanboism. There isn't a large entity that has made the front page of Slashdot that hasn't done something that's between lunkheaded to down right intentionally user unfriendly (to use a term).

Sure, Google has brought lots of positive stuff to the table. So has everyone else for the most part. It doesn't mean that companies that I think are bringing something positive to the community are beyond reproach. That's just blind dogmatism and, frankly, it stinks.

You may have a dim view of me after this post but that's simply the way I see it. No one and no company is 100% solid. The bias on Slashdot makes it very hard to bring the failings of these entities to light and for a supposed scientific community that's not only foolish but also dangerous.

Re:Running out of steam?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Seriously, I agree with you. It's getting old that you can't post an honest opinion that isn't pro-OSS, pro-Google or pro-Apple without getting the beat down with the overrated mod.

I'd like to offer an opposing view, then. I'm hardly in the Slashdot groupthink box: I consider (reasonable implementations of) copyright to be a viable, ethical system; I don't run Linux on my home PC (for all the same reasons other people don't); I think Microsoft does produce some good software (though far from all of it and I have no problem with saying that either)... You get the idea.

I went through a phase a while back where it seemed like many of my non-groupthink-supporting posts were modded both (+1, Insightful) and (-1, Overrated), with the latter sometimes stacking up to hide a post because of the "two strikes and you lose your +1 bonus" rule even if it was also modded up multiple times.

For the past few months, I've seen this much more rarely. I assume you still can't M2 a (-1, Overrated) mod; I've certainly never been offered one. So I can only conclude that modding down posts you disagree with is giving way to more reasoned discussion. At the same time, I have noticed a welcome increase in non-trivial, constructive responses to my posts, both agreeing and disagreeing with me, and those often lead to the interesting discussions I come here for. I, for one, say good riddance to our (-1, Overrated) modding, non-reply-posting underlords. :-)

The only thing I have given up with for now is submitting stories. I'm sure there were good reasons all my recent submissions were rejected, and several of the topics made it via an alternative submission anyway, but it's just depressing to go to the effort of writing something up carefully and with checked links, only to see a day full of substandard press release jobs making it instead. This mainly predates the Firehose system, though, so perhaps it's better now. One of these days I might just find out.

Re:

[BendingSpoons]

Good points. I used to read the YRO & politics sections - there are some interesting posts buried in the bitchfest - but the echo-chamber effect has grown to repulsive proportions. Much like the Apple or MS stories, there's no posts in there that I haven't already read a million times. "I'll never buy anything connected with DRM!" Really? I would never have suspected. "Creationists are such idiots, here's the difference between faith and science." Alright, got it already, thanks.

That's why I much prefer

Re:Running out of steam?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

I just don't get the "groupthink" complaints. Yes, it's probably fair to say that majority of Slashdot readers are pro-F/OSS and anti-Microsoft, but I've seen plenty of good posts defending Windows (for example) modded up. The posts that get modded down tend to be the ones that repeat the same "most popular = best" arguments that anyone with half a brain and any experience knows are simply not true. If you make a well-written, well-thought-out, and factually correct post that points out why Windows does something in particular better than Linux does, people will recognize that and mod accordingly. If you post something that's just a slightly more sophisticated version of "open sores is teh suxorz," don't be surprised when you lose a little karma over it.

Re:

[gatzke]

The pro-microsoft posts that get modded up are just done by MS astroturfers with mod points.

I thought everyone knew that?

Re:Running out of steam?

[Captain Splendid]

Man, am I tired og this tired old argument. The only groupthink I see is a natural one. Get a lot of people with IT/science backgrounds in one place, and you're bound to get large majorities of opinion on at least some issues.

But to say there's no diversity is foolish. Stop browsing at +5, you weenie.

Re:

[DerWulf]

he is right you know. You wouldn't post in such length if you didn't care anymore. People who don't care wouldn't bother. It's similar to the WoW forums where every minute action by Blizzards causes a torrent of "WoW will die [has already died/will die even more quickly] because of this". WoW and slashdot's death will have one thing in common: it's going to be silent.

Re:

[Dystopian Rebel]

I will troll at thee, Sir.

Maybe there needs to be a Slashdot for OLD nerds. ;^)

Re:

[Panaflex]

I've got to agree. I made a post which was (admittedly) antagonizing towards eBay security - but it was a far cry from the -2 Troll rating I received. I find the hyper-criticality of some people is really destructive.

Rob - I have a great proposal to fix this.

When you mod something down - both the post and the moderator's karma loose the point. I know this sounds bad - but I really think there needs to be something to dissuade the casual misuse of negative moderation. Something that enforces positive d

Re:

[east coast]

Can't expect much from someone with an slashdot id of nearly a million.

Are we to expect more from someone without a UID? Or at least someone who can't be public about it?

the thing about ads ...

[bwthomas]

... is this: I read adds on slashdot. For the very simple reason that i believe that, while you may be relatively ad agnostic (a good thing), the kinds of companies interested in advertising to a community like this are the kinds of companies that i just might be interested in. I'm much more likely to click on an ad on a slashdot page than i am on a google results page any day, and that's because the community that has been established around this site dictates a certain amount of honesty, legitimacy, and

Re:

[Shadow Wrought]

I always thought that they should just rent out the Slashdot effect. Pay the site x-amount of money, and then Slashdot posts a link to that site so you can stress test your system- when you're expecting it;-)

Why not take your idea and roll with it?

[ByOhTek]

here's constant pressure from within the company to create new "products". Sometimes these mean new/more/bigger ads which usually result in people installing junkbusters.

You said they always want new ideas - how about slashvertisements?

Not the usual lingo here - but an ad agency/division of /., designed behind the principle of making advertisements that are respectful to the viewer and not worth blocking or bypassing.

- text, and maybe pictures
- no or limited animation
- no sound
- no suggesting the the viewer is a moron (either in general or for not using the product)
- require a maximum size that an ad cannot exceed
- require any client put the ads in only a limited set of locations
- Ad voting, similar to the comment karma system here.

Advertising - done non-evil.

As another data point

[Lally Singh]

I'd like to point out that as of now, there are only 10 (+ this) comments at +2 or better, while we have crap-tons of comments on far-less relevant articles.

10x more likely to bitch :-)

Slashdot's greatest moment: 9/11?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's interesting to me that CmdrTaco sees 9/11 as one of Slashdot's greatest moments. Personally, I have mixed feeling. The fact that Slashdot stayed up indicated that Slashdot is run by some quality people but, more broadly, I see a tremendous failure of the media to keep 9/11 in perspective. This failure to maintain perspective has had profoundly negative consequences - most notably the US invasion of Iraq but also the USA's human rights abuses and reckless deficit spending.

Back when Slashdot started there was all kinds of interest in computers and the power of technology and science to change the world for the better. Now, the focus is on conflict and war accompanied by a loss of basic human rights.

The energy crisis (and associated problems - such as global warming) is real. But imagine that, instead of spending hundreds of billions a year on the mess that is Iraq, the USA instead spent hundreds of billions a year developing the science and technology to overcome these energy problems permanently rather than just prolonging the inevitable by fighting over the last reserves of oil. The USA put a man on the moon back in the days when most computations were performed by sliding two marked sticks together (slide rules).

If there was the will, the USA could solve our energy problems permanently - but by failing to maintain perspective after 9/11 the USA has lost it's way. That's not to say that Slashdot was the one thing that caused the USA to lose it's way. Merely that Slashdot was powerless to prevent it.

Re:

[PCM2]

It's interesting to me that CmdrTaco sees 9/11 as one of Slashdot's greatest moments. Personally, I have mixed feeling.

Sure, but in this post-Columbine world, what choice do we have?

(If you don't get the reference, don't worry about it.)

Re:Slashdot's greatest moment: 9/11?

[Mr.Bananas]

The parent's post is a rambling tirade of unconnected concepts that have nothing to do with CmdrTaco's statement about Slashdot not crashing during the 9/11 attacks. I don't see why it got modded so highly...

I believe what CmdrTaco's referring to is that he is proud of the technical achievement of having kept the site from crashing despite the incredibly high volume of traffic, and of running one of the few sites that still provided any useful information at the time. Many other conventional news web sites buckled under the intense traffic, while Slashdot still worked on that day.

I agree that the U.S. government used 9/11 as an excuse to do some bad things later on, but during those attacks, most people here in the U.S. were mainly confused, scared, and panicked, largely due to the lack of information at the moment (I remember some people repeating farfetched rumors of nuclear attacks). I think CmdrTaco and his team should be very proud of this accomplishment because they overcame a huge technical challenge and provided an important public service at the moment.

Re:

[VJ42]

Dear Anonymous Coward -

1. Are you an American? If so, fine. If not, let me explain something to you. Watching thousands of people die in a terrorist attack is certainly horrifying whoever you are. But when it's your own country attacked, and your own countrymen dying, it's different in a way that would have been impossible for me to articulate before 9/11. You only really understand when it happens to you. I don't mean to sound patronizing about this -- I didn't understand it either, before 9/11. Very few Americans did. Of course, I knew all about Pearl Harbor, for example; but I suddenly realized how Americans of the time *felt* when they saw those newsreels and heard the radio broadcasts. That's our "perspective."
- Alaska Jack

I don't know about the OP, but I'm British, and have lived through more terroist attacks on my countrymenthan I care to remember. We disn't proclaim "the world has changed forever" after each and every one. Indeed I'd argure that's the reason we eventually beat the IRA. The times we took over the top action it backfired; ask the provos what they thought of internment; they loved it.
The key to defeating terrorism is not let yourself be terrorised, just go out and live your life as normal; otherwise the te

Taco: A question about user interface

[Alaska Jack]

CmrTaco: I'm not a computer guy -- though I do learn a lot by reading /. -- so bear with me if this is a stupid question. What I've taken away from CSS Garden is that, through CSS, you can provide drastically different interfaces with the same content. Why couldn't Slashdot do something like that? Provide users with different ways of viewing the forums?

To be, by FAR the best forum interface ever is provided by Google Groups (in the "Tree View" mode). It's the only forum presentation I've ever seen that provides intuitive navigation from a left-hand pane, letting you see immediately where you are in the "tree". It is so superior, I am baffled as to why it hasn't been widely emulated. Other forums make you constantly go up to the top of the screen to see the hierarchy, which is obviously useless.

Where I'm going with this: I wonder if you'd ever consider approaching Google and asking them to share that code with you. I bet they'd do it -- it seems like a good, high-profile PR move for them. And what a huge boon for users. Man, Slashdot with a navigable left-pane hierarchy -- that would be a dream come true.

      - Alaska Jack

Re:Taco: A question about user interface

[Night Goat]

What I've taken away from CSS Garden is that, through CSS, you can provide drastically different interfaces with the same content. Why couldn't Slashdot do something like that? Provide users with different ways of viewing the forums?

Alaska Jack, one thing that you might not be aware of with CSS is that it's possible to write your own CSS style sheets and make your web browser use them instead of the one that the website designer has created. Slashdotters who are so inclined could make their own version of Slashdot's CSS file and make their web browser load that instead. If you want to do this, try downloading core-tidied.css [slashdot.org] and try editing some of the features on it. Then make your web browser load it, and see how you can change the layout. Hope this is helpful for you.

Re:

[Alaska Jack]

Ha ha, maybe you missed the part where I said I'm not a computer guy :^)

Seriously, I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to make the the suggestion. But to me, the page you linked to looks about the same as a what you'd get from the proverbial monkey banging on a keyboard. I might be able to change the color of an element, but I highly doubt I'd be able to create anything as sophisticated as a completely new layout.

I am good at some things. Computers aren't one of them. :^(

- AJ

Thanks Rob for all the years

[C. Alan]

The editorial independence of slashdot, and the meta moderating has keep me coming back here for years. I am glad you have been able to resist the coporate culture as long as you have, and maintain a quality site.

Back a couple of years ago, I was giving a presentation to a bunch of high school seniors on careers in engineering. I asked if any wanted to be CS majors. A few timidly raised their hands. I then asked if any of them had hear of slashdot.org. None of them had. I told them point blank that if they wanted to get anywhere in CS, they had better start reading slashdot.

Good luck on the next 10 years!
--C. Alan

Thank you -thread

[PKJedi]

Thank you, slashdot.org, for your existance! :)

Thanks for everything

[MMC Monster]

It's been great so far. See you in another 10.

My prediction for /. 10 years from now...

[MMC Monster]

We'll finally be rid of the .gif images on the site. :-)

Hopefully to be replaced with scalable SVGs. Hey, I can dream, right?

Against the grain

[athloi]

Or take Columbine. When this tragedy hit, our readers took it a differently. Instead of blaming video games, we looked hard at the culture of abuse that drives high school. We talked about how the jocks beat us up. We knew that the terrible events of that day are almost inevitable when you stick kids into a system where certain groups of kids are given free reign to beat up others based on extra curricular activities.

This is what I like about Slashdot. A focus on technology and a view that solutions are no

Bring Back Geeks In Space!

[Brazilian Geek]

I never posted this request before since I thought that the crew was split apart but since you're all in Ann Arbor, bring back Geeks in Space!

I used to have a ball at listening to CowboyNeal, Hemos and CmdrTaco chatting about what was happening online and whatever else happened to come up. I still remember CmdrTaco bitching about how lossy MP3 compression was and since then I've used his cymbal noise as an example of why FLAC is better.

Call it a podcast, I don't care! Since the quickies are dead (and I miss them too), I wanna hear what you guys think about the latest South Park episode, how your female WoW characters are doing and other nerdy, nerdy, silly stuff.

Anyway, throw us an audio bone and bring back Geeks in Space, please!

Ten years is a long time, hope to see you in 2017!

[bushboy]

I can't recall when I first read Slashdot, but as my nick here is the first online nick I had (subsequently changed, for obvious reasons), I figure it would be around late '98.

The net back then was a very different beast, but what is so great to see is that Slashdot has matured with *cough* some dignity and grace. What makes it good now is what made it good 10 years ago.

I've had my private rants at Slashdot, permanently removing it from my bookmarks on a few occassions - I can never really recall what makes

Wait unitl your baby has his own Slashdot account.

[sphealey]

> proposed to my wife here... and she accepted
> and now years later we have a baby.

Wait until your baby creates his/her own Slashdot account - mine did this year. That made me feel both proud and old...

sPh

Of course you may have reserved userid 10 for that purpose a long time ago...

Re:Wait unitl your baby has his own Slashdot accou

[Datamonstar]

Damn, my first one's on the way and You just made me feel old thinking about seeing him (I hope it's a boy) browsing /. and hacking away.

So when do you get IPv6?

[anticypher]

Only halfway kidding on that. At a recent conference on IPv4 address exhaustion, /. got called out by name when the main speaker said that IPv6 wouldn't take off until Slashdot supported it.

I had started to write a question for the "Ask Rob" story, but ended up wandering off before hitting submit. In short, it was a question on future technologies, and whether there was any youthful geekiness left in the /. crowd.

But then, there was Rob's excellent response to similar question.

"I think the single biggest threat to Slashdot is for us to try to be something we're not."

Which is why slashdot still has legions of followers after 10 years. The moderation systems, the layout, the filtering systems are quite good for what slashdot is. The addition of RSS feeds, CSS, and the few other improvements over a decade shows that slashdot grows as necessary, too much too fast would only hurt.

That being said, there is a part of me that wonders if adding some AJAX navigation or publishing an API so people doing mashups can make a /.++, would hurt much. Certainly, IPv6 would add some tech cred without any damage. A working API like google maps or facebook have might be interesting just to see what new ideas are floating around.

Rob, do you even have time to play with new technologies like AJAX, or look at what other places are doing with their APIs and mashups? Do you get out to conferences or trade shows (I know, with a new baby, probably not much)?

I'm not really asking for slashdot2.0, the newest paradigm for a social mashup avatar-driven search engine portal, because I probably would never use (or be able to use) it.

the AC

Fun workin' with yahs!

[Kurt Gray]

I enjoyed my years working behind the scenes on Andover/OSDN/VA's network admin and much of that because Rob and Jeff were fun to work with. For example there was LinuxWorld in NYC, when we drank a few too many Gin & Midori concoctions to the point where [name withheld] couldn't remember his hotel room, or what floor it was on, or even coherently explain where the jacket he was wearing came from.
Good times.

BTW: The fish restaurant in Boston mentioned in history of Slashdot part 3 was Anthony's Pier 4, a good place in its day but Boston has better nowadays.

The most painful moment

[CaptainZapp]

Not sure that this was mentioned, but in my opinion the most painful moment in Slashdots history (at least as far as I was reading) was when the Scientology(R) church managed to get a post actually deleted.

You could really feel the pain oozing through the /. crew being forced to do something, which goes so much against the grain and the spirit of this board. Nevertheless I think it was the right decision since this would have been a fight with no way to win.

However, and to stay in Scientology(R) slang, the whole sordid affair was a big win for Slashdot. As usual: the good Scieno(R) burgers created so much rotten publicity and once again so many folks, who didn't give a shit in the first place, learned about the sinister methods of this "applied religious philosophy".

And all for the price of pulling a piece of bad science fiction. Science fiction for which some less enlightened members of our species pay 300'000 or so bucks to read at that. But then again you can find it on a lot of other places on the net for completely free.

The "Intel" section

[cerberusss]

Far worse is the occasional attempt to create some sort of content partnership that blurs the lines between legitimate Slashdot content, and the paying advertiser's message.

Rob and colleagues, if you're reading this: the above quote reminds me of the Intel section that's now gone. Actually I think it's a shame. I really liked the section. I checked it every so often and liked the idea that I could talk straight with the engineers and other people of the business.

If it was up to me, the section was re-established. Perhaps periodically with another sponsor or so.

Re:

[LuckyStarr]

If it was up to me, the section was re-established. Perhaps periodically with another sponsor or so.

Did you mean something like:

The evil-corporate-overlord-of-the-week is: [insert company name here]. Please post your questions.

Actually, that could be interesting.

Ditto - thanks

[scottm]

Thanks Rob & the entire slashdot crew. I've been around, mostly lurking, since long before user accounts. Professionally, I've "grown up" with slashdot, and it's shaped a lot of my career, solved a lot of problems, and of course provided a dependable distraction. Other sites have come and gone (and as you allude to, some probably have staying power and many probably have features worth "stealing from"), but at the end of the day I'll keep refreshing /.

geeks in space

[nocomment]

If 'the band' is back together, where's my 'geeks in space'?

God! This place has SO jumped the shark...

[Chas]

=)

Just kidding!

Ah Slashdot... how we love/hate thee so

[cavemanf16]

I have been reading and posting to Slashdot since at least 2001. I've posted 1,376 comments during those years. Slashdot mods have both lauded my postings and bitch-slapped them for complaining about the "rules" on Slashdot, ranting on Creationism vs. Evolution, the MS vs. Linux debate, and probably hundreds of other somewhat random topics. Sep. 11, 2001 was particularly memorable as this is where I too first learned about the awful events of that day. But it's also funny that this is the one site, that despite all the other newer and shinier sites out there (Digg) that come along from time to time, keeps me coming back for more. There IS discussion on this site, not just adolescent e-penis boasting like you find on sites like Kuroshin or Digg. Why? Because this site found its nitch early on, and never strayed. I have found over these past 6 years, that all of my favorite brick-and-mortar entities, be they church, shopping, or entertainment, also do the same: they cater to exactly their nitch and never stray from it. So keep up the hard work, gang, and don't stray!

BTW, corporate entities: many if not all of my favorite technology things that I have bought over the years were in one way or another promoted by others on Slashdot at some point in time, I looked into their recommendations, and decided to buy the technology for myself. By no means does this mean that I WANT comment spam from corporate shills - I most certainly will see such fraudulent shilling and resent all the more your product... but if you produce a good product and your customers appreciate your efforts enough to mention the product on Slashdot, WITHOUT compensation for doing so, then you're doing the RIGHT THINGS and should keep it up! A short list of things I've used based on customer recommendations on Slashdot:

Godaddy
Fastmail
nVidia graphics cards
Linux - Mandrake first, and now Ubuntu (love it!)
O'Reilly books
Edward R. Tufte's books
Firefox
iPods
and a host of other stuff that I've recommended to friends and family as well

Re:Cowboy Neal jokes?

[grahamsz]

The great refreshing taste of Pepsi. The preferred Cola of 1 out of 1 CowBoy Neals!

Re:

[Samus]

Almost Jeff spends way too much time in conference calls with corporate offices