Slashdot Announces Idle Section 281
For the last few months we've been beta testing Idle.slashdot.org, our offtopic humor/meme/viral video/pictures section. Like many of you, we spend most of our waking hours on-line seeking stuff to entertain our brains, but most replicators out there pick so much content that it's incredibly boring filtering through the mediocrity to find the funny. We intend to fill our idle section with a very small collection of the very best the net has to offer, making it the most efficient way to waste your time. Some of this content will make it back to the Slashdot mainpage, but much of it will be new content that we wouldn't dare soil the precious Slashdot mainpage with. We are also using it as a test bed for new functionality on Slashdot — currently the page is a reasonably dynamic/interactive experience with various voting controls and filtering options. Finally you will see occasional original content, starting with a recurring special feature today where Samzenpus shares some real tech support email from some of our most intelligent readers. We hope you will enjoy wasting a slice of your day with us, and in addition will submit content through the usual channels, but put it into the 'Idle' section so we know not to take it seriously. Now go about your day — it's mid August, so I'm sure everything you do is urgent, exciting, and oh-so-interesting.
Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: Porn, stupidity, and bugzappers.
I tried visiting idle.slashdot.org once. I was outright embarassed by the content. So much so that I changed my sig in response to Slashdot's, "Never visit idle.slashdot.org" teaser. My reply? "Good idea."
I hate to say this, but Slashdot does attract a lot of intelligent people. They're not always the ones who post, but they frequent the site anyway. Attempting to "entertain" the more intelligent types with the same sort of filth/LCD* they see on their television is a counterproductive goal. Slashdot and Slashdot-Idle cannot coexist.
Sorry guys, but it's time for you to go back to marketing school. Using brand recognition for a product that does not represent the brand will only devalue the brand. You may see short term gains on the new product, but in the end you will see long-term losses across the board. If you want to do something like Slashdot-Idle, try making a new site rather than lumping it in with Slashdot.
* If you don't know what LCD stands for in this context, you should turn in your geek card. Assuming you had one to begin with...
P.S. What's this fascination with making a Digg-like site, anyway? 95% of what's on Digg sucks. Stop trying to be like them.
P.P.S. Idiocracy was not a documentary. Stop trying to bring it about.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think Slashdot is infantile now, just wait until idle goes live! It would be eternal September [wikipedia.org] all over again!
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
You forgot "Wikipedia-linking".
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
[citation needed]
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia#Usefulness_as_a_reference [wikipedia.org]
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:4, Funny)
Wikipedia? Bah, I do my research using Uncyclopedia! [uncyclopedia.org]
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
But this is already happening, people mess with every post theses days.
I hope Idle somehow 'cure' the offtopic/meme/first post/* attitudes that we constantly see here, by moving the Trolls away to a place that fits them best.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Insightful)
Your naivete is adorable.
The idle section won't reduce the trolling on "regular" Slashdot even a little bit. It will just give the trolls yet another place to go. If the introduction of the "Politics" section wasn't sufficient to isolate the trolls then nothing will be.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
you obviously must not real politics here, this place is just as lacking in intelligence as Digg ever was.
The bleed over under the guise of science sometimes astounds me. I guess they knew no one would read some of it if labeled politics so they slip in elsewhere when they can.
As long as idle is off by default I think we are safe. It should be off for anonymous coward surfing as well.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As long as idle is off by default I think we are safe.
Actually, that was the question I wanted to ask. When Idle was still in 'beta' (nice how it never said beta anywhere on it), it was impossible to block it from the front page. Is it now possible? If not, then this would be my biggest feature request, slipping in just above getting support for non-ASCII characters back to where it was six months ago.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel the same way. If I want content like that I'll read fark or digg.
Besides...the only times that I've been to idle they've had stories that were already featured on other websites.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I feel the same way. If I want content like that I'll read fark or digg.
I think that's the reason for it. I'm fine with idle though; no-one is putting a gun to my head and forcing me to read it.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Informative)
You're missing the point, this is great news. If idle becomes a "real" section, we'll finally be able to block it from the front page.
Re: (Score:2)
Idle gives the idiots a place to go, the rest of us can on the mainpage.
I'm sure slashdot doesn't want to lose the idiots -- they are the ones that pay the bills. So instead, they are given a place to drool and mouthbreathe, while the rest of us can have the "enlightened" discussion we are accustomed to.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean such as:
Yes, I see what you mean.
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, I think we've all pretty much settled on the correct answers to those (vi, Firefox, KDE, and Picard of course).
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
It's vi, Firefox, Gnome, Kirk you mouth-breathing idiot. Go back to idle.slashdot.org!
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
You mean such as:
Yes, I see what you mean.
No all of those issues have been settled once and for all.
The correct answers are:
Pico
Lynx
FluxBox
Janeway
Now if you'll excuse me I have to go settle this little scuffle in the middle east.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
In The Simpsons, Lisa made a graph showing a correlation to Intelligence and unhappiness (the episode where home had a crayon removed from his brain). I think it is because if you made a reputation of being so smart you are afraid to have a good time with the low brow stuff, thus insulting it fighting it, stating it does this and that all negative. I use to be like too. Then I just learned to lighten up a bit and take it for what it is worth. Humor or just non-productive fun... Not everything needs a deep
Re:Can you feel the excitement? (Score:5, Funny)
* If you don't know what LCD stands for in this context, you should turn in your geek card. Assuming you had one to begin with...
Liquid crystal display, naturally. Now what about the posts with titties in them? It was made quite clear that there would be titty.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Attempting to "entertain" the more intelligent types with the same sort of filth/LCD* they see on their television is a counterproductive goal.
It might be that this trend is inevitable. Look at the devolution of the Discovery Channel*, what are they discovering, how to use grinders and say FbeepK. I think that I figured out why this is though. If the average IQ is 100 and IQ distributions fit on a bell curve, where does the bulk of the population lie? Now where does the bulk of the money lie (I don't believe that IQ and income are highly correlated)? Now if you're into making money (aren't we all) then what is the logical thing to do (disrega
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me see. What's the best way to phrase this?
No, no it doesn't.
Re:Critical thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me see. What's the best way to phrase this?
No, no it doesn't.
Wow, I'm sorry that not everyone's tastes line up with yours. I didn't know that to be considered an intellectual everyone has to fall into some narrow regime of likes and dislikes. And this is coming from someone who personally hates reality TV and the like.
Anyone who thinks this narrowly can't be taken seriously as the intellectual that they think they are. To sum up, get off your high horse.
Re:Critical thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll have to forgive me if you find my stance offensive, but reality TV epitomizes stupidity and Lowest Common Denominator thinking.
Fast Food? Not even sure why it was included. It's fine.
Beer? Fine.
Crude Humor? Fine on occasion.
Sitcoms? Sometimes incredibly stupid, but mostly fine.
Interest in fishing, NASCAR, sports, or other non-nerdy pursuit? Perfectly fine.
Reality TV? No.
Reality TV is a trap of the most dangerous and intellectually lethal kind. It encourages people to track the personal lives of others to a point that makes gossiping look tame. Yet like gossiping, it can become a trap that lures people in and encourages them to waste their time, judgment, and critical thinking. In effect, it causes you to stoop to the level of those who would participate in the activities of having their lives bared for all to see. (Which usually means they're the type to appeal to sex and voyeurism.)
The end result is that your thinking becomes stuck in a quagmire of complex personal matters that are not of your own. Which has negative effects on your thinking, priorities, and thus day to day life.
You may think ill of me all that you want. But "reality television" as it is defined today is NOT something I think any intelligent person should see as "entertainment". And I am highly suspect of anyone who claims otherwise. If anything, they are likely to be faux intellectuals who would rather put on a show of intelligence than actually make an effort to *be* intelligent.
Re: (Score:2)
The end result is that your thinking becomes stuck in a quagmire of complex personal matters that are not of your own.
As an aside to your point, in most cases they are not the personal matters of the people on the show, either. Very often all the "drama" in the featured players' lives is manufactured in the editing booth.
Re:Critical thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll have to forgive me if you find my stance offensive...
I don't find your stance personally offensive, I just find it incredibly arrogant.
As I mentioned once, and I will reiterate here, I am not a reality TV fan. But to generalize like you have, to say that an intelligent person can't have mindless escapes like that, is just ridiculous. To generalize like that (which we are all guilty of at one time or another, of course) shows a complete lack of critical thought. Like that t-shirt sold by The Onion says, stereotypes are a real time saver, aren't they?
You also talk about the negative effect that reality TV has on a person's priorities... I find that statement interesting from someone who is so up in arms over this issue and wasting all this time bitching about it on Slashdot.
If you don't like reality TV, you don't have to watch it. If you dont like idle.slashdot.org, then you don't have to go to that section. If you don't like that Slashdot has idle, then you don't have to come here.
Re:Critical thinking... (Score:4, Insightful)
-1 Offtopic? Apparently some folks don't like well thought out answers. Too bad. Stupid troll mods.
As usual, mod abuse will not be tolerated. Here is the post again:
--
If you were looking for a more specific answer, ask a more specific question [slashdot.org]. General issues raised will result in general answers given. One cannot apply further critical thinking to a matter for which further data for consideration has not been presented.
In this particular case, I can say that watching Reality TV in general is definitely NOT a sign of intelligence. If you were to bring up specific examples, however, you'd get more specific answers. Some which would seemingly disagree with the general statement. Such is the way of things.
You seem to be suggesting that Slashdot is a priority for me. Which I can assure you is far from the truth. In fact, it has always been more of a release for me. I mean, where else can you have entire conversations in hex code* or about RC4 encryption [slashdot.org]?
I enjoy my day life and I enjoy my work. But sometimes it's nice to just plain geek out. :-P
(* Sorry for the lack of a link, but the hex code conversation is a bit hard to find in Google.)
Re:Critical thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
You may think ill of me all that you want. But "reality television" as it is defined today is NOT something I think any intelligent person should see as "entertainment". And I am highly suspect of anyone who claims otherwise. If anything, they are likely to be faux intellectuals who would rather put on a show of intelligence than actually make an effort to *be* intelligent.
Hey, dude. I read lots of your posts, and frequently agree with what you've said. But I think the quote above comes across quite elitist. I know where you're coming from, but it may be that there exist some reality TV (henceforth RTV) shows out there that you would probably even like if you gave them a chance.
I'm speaking for myself, of course, but I imagine there are others reading this thread who follow a few RTV shows but fear stating such, expecting to get blasted as "faux intellectuals".
I've regularly watched (with my wife) Amazing Race, Survivor, America's Got Talent, Rock Star (cancelled now, I guess?), various Food Network competition RTV programs, Wife Swap, Super Nanny, Biggest Loser and others. That being said, I'd never watch Big Brother, Fear [Gross Out] Factor, and many others that are perfect tens on the "stupid" scale. I realize in writing it down, that this list mostly illustrates that I watch too damned much TV (although RTV is far from the only fare I watch).
And you know what? I do think I'm intelligent, and I do think that many of them are reasonable entertainment. I'm also capable of keeping my perspective. I find many of them to be good fun, but I don't get so emotionally invested as you seem to suggest. So my friend, AKAImBatman, I think you're generalizing a bit much about the viewers of these kinds of programs from a rather high horse.
Respectfully in disagreement,
Kozz
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers are not what I think of when someone says "Reality Television". If anything, those shows ride the reality wave for a chance to do more documentary-style television. No, I think shows like Big Brother, Wife Swap, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, The Bachelor, Simple Life, and other such crapola. (And yes, I had to look those up some of those names.)
Other shows like American Idol are often incorrectly lumped in as "Reality Shows" even
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If only the world conformed to your definitions, your thoughts on the matter would make a difference.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Does this mean... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
The thing I like about idle is that the score filter is on the top, allowing the comments to span the entire horizontal width of the page.
Re: (Score:2)
That the CSS on idle.slashdot.org won't suck ass and/or be ass ugly? I'd really prefer that no ass be involved in the layout or design of the page.
Most stories you can just remove the *.slashdot.org and get the default CSS.
Not so with idle.slashdot.org
Slashdot Users Announce It Sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, you've already rammed it down our throat enough for us to hate it, now we can hate it even more.
It's not funny, it's not clever, and it's not even a good waste of time. It is pointless.
I see the tag beat me too it (Score:4, Interesting)
I have my worries, and my hopes. (Score:5, Insightful)
With any luck, it will hopefully become something more along the lines of Daily Wtf [slashdot.org], which still provides insight while remaining humorous. And in any case, congrats on rolling out a new feature for us
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I have my worries about this, and I have no doubt that we all do here on /.. What I definitely do not want to see is /. becoming another digg/reddit/delicious. On the other hand, hopefully slashdot will be able to mold the content more so that it doesn't just become a "HERE'S ANOTHER FUNNY CAPTION PIC FROM 4CHAN" fest. Don't get me wrong, those things have their place and are sometimes humorous, but it doesn't fit the niche that is /.. Remember, the slashdot tagline is "News for Nerds" - not "Funny Image of the Day for Nerds".
With any luck, it will hopefully become something more along the lines of Daily Wtf [slashdot.org], which still provides insight while remaining humorous. And in any case, congrats on rolling out a new feature for us /. staff.
Agreed.....so mudkips,,,you like em?
Re: (Score:2)
Sir. You have mis-spelled "liek".
Re: (Score:2)
Sir. You have mis-spelled "liek".
No I deliberately used the correct spelling. This isn't 4chan.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. The more disuse, the better! Bring on the mold!
Re: (Score:2)
Let's hope that as Idle will be generated by slashdotters the content will be of a better quality than that of Digg etc. Slashdotters are intelligent, thinking beings and could never be accused of being purile or infantile, could they?
Re: (Score:2)
Why wouldn't be "light" edition of Slashdot for pointless surfing and pointless discussions?
We already have that, it's called "slashdot.org".
Goatse (Score:4, Insightful)
Not enough people post goatse or rick-rolling links in Slashdot, so we needed to dedicate an entire new area to it?
I look forward to all the lemon party and meat spin misleading links.
Natural order (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Natural order (Score:5, Funny)
I hate examples written in Perl.
Re:Natural order (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So everything turns into a Perl script eventually?
It's perl all the way down.
a Slashdot article aboutSlashdot (Score:2)
Re:a Slashdot article aboutSlashdot (Score:4, Funny)
I come to Slashdot because it *isn't* Digg. (Score:5, Insightful)
If I want LOLcats, I go to Digg.
If I want Pseudo-Politics, I go to Reddit.
If I want to know about the latest announced Apple product, I go to appleinsider.
If I want to know about the worlds largest TV, I go to The Register.
If I want actual Intellectual articles with in-depth discussions, I come to slashdot.
Please don't ruin this for me.
Re: (Score:2)
If I want actual Intellectual articles with in-depth discussions, I come to slashdot.
Gold, Jerry! Gold! /been here since before user accounts
Shadowbanning (Score:2)
In case anyone doesn't know, shadowbanning is where you can post and see your comments as normal, but nobody else sees them. Basically, you're screaming into the void - and if you're a donor you're paying for the privilege.
In other words, it's a rather childish type of fraud.
Yes I am shadowbanned on Fark, for the crime of replying to a comment which mentioned a rival site. I hope Slashdot can avoid that crap.
Re:I come to Slashdot because it *isn't* Digg. (Score:5, Funny)
Boy, are you in the wrong place. You were supposed to take a left turn at Albuquerque.
Hmm (Score:2)
And judging by my test here of the idle page, not something I'll be trying until we "upgrade" to IE7 here at work finally :/
Damn I hate IE6...
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Informative)
Don't worry, it doesn't work under IE7 either.
Anyone else... (Score:5, Insightful)
thinking CmdrTaco has hit some hard times? I mean, let us look back of the past few months...
1. No funny April Fool's this year.
2. Various off hand comments about stuff. (Java, Olympics, etc.)
3. Just up above he's kinda of an ass. I mean, some people are probably working pretty hard. I know End of Fiscal year for some people is going on.
4. I dunno, maybe getting tired of being squeezed by other sites like reddit or digg or other stuff?
Anyone know more or want to spread light on the matter?
Re:Anyone else... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm confused. When did Slashdot do funny April Fools?
Re:Anyone else... (Score:5, Informative)
When did Slashdot do funny April Fools?
OMG Ponies!!! [desiringmachine.org]
Re:Anyone else... (Score:5, Funny)
That wasn't funny. That was terrifying.
Oh, and thanks for reburning that shade of pink into my retinas. I just managed to recover, you jerk!
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone know more or want to spread light on the matter?
This is the internet. You don't ever ask for something using the word "spread", because someone will invariably link goatse.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the internet. Someone will invariably link goatse.
T, FTFY. HAND.
Re: (Score:2)
Go for it (Score:2)
I've dipped into 'Idle' a few times now and it's a great way to waste your time....my wife already moans about the ammount of time I spend 'do-ing' /. and it ain't going to get any better. Great idea!
Re: (Score:2)
So what do you guys think? Is this:
A) A plant
B) A poor attempt at humor
C) A truly ironic post
You can begin "do-ing" your responses... now.
Out of beta? (Score:3, Interesting)
For being beta it added several stories to the main (in production?) slashdot site in the past months. This will mean that it will really add a lot (daily) from now on?
Uh (Score:5, Interesting)
Horrible site. Poorly organized, old content, just terrible.
BTW, Fark already has a geek section. Just link to that.
Is this news? (Score:4, Insightful)
In my humble opinion it's a terrible idea to dilute the slashdot brand at a time when it's already pretty weak.
Great... (Score:3, Funny)
I can smell the pink slip from here!
Viral? (Score:4, Funny)
Please don't (Score:5, Insightful)
I frequently read slashdot.org/palm from my blackberry and this idle crap keeps appearing there. It's just horrible, not to mention that very little of the content in idle is mobile friendly. The only comments are things like "is this Digg now?" Please, don't do this. Create a whole new site if you feel like this is really what you want to do with your time, but don't associate with slashdot.
I never would have thought it possible to make slashdot appear any less credible, but you may have just found a way.
Don't do it. We've all had grand ideas that got abandoned and I know it feels bad, but you should cut your losses now before it's too late. Really. Stop.
Where is the tech support email? (Score:2)
special feature today where Samzenpus shares some real tech support email from some of our most intelligent readers
Where do we find this? I sought and did not find.
Will. Never. Go. There. (Score:2)
Typo in the summary (Score:2)
we spend most of hour waking ours on-line
Fixed it for you!
Re: (Score:2)
we spend most of our wanking hours on-line
Fixed it for you! Huh? Eye yam knew hear? Eye yews a spill chucker!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Whooosh...
The worst is that I initially misread your post as tongue-in-cheek, I thought it read "It should read: "we spend most of our wanking hours on-line"". Dunno if that would have made sense anyways.
Shadowbans (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we have pillow-biting nancy moderators and shadowbans and a filter to censor naughty words too, like they do on Fark?
But... but....! (Score:2)
/headasplode
Cool, thanks! (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for making Idle official and full-time!
Because now I can adjust my preferences so that I never see this unfunny garbage again. If I want "teh funnay," I'll visit 4chan, k thx.
Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Insightful)
IIRC Taco has full control over the stories and editing of slashdot, but marketing, advertisement and other things are mandated by corporate overlords. I somehow suspect that a bunch of trained monkeys in the marketing department created a lot of pressure to make Slashdot more Digg-alike and in a moment of pure genius, Taco created idle - the best parody of Digg the world has ever seen. It's colorful and flashy to please the marketing department, contains the worst stories and oldest mémes out there to convince them this isn't going to work out, all the while preserving the rest of Slashdot and consuming the least money and effort possible.
I mean just look at it and the way it's announced. It's as if the Slashdot team wants us to hate it.
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, it's every other new feature of Slashdot that we hate. This one we actually think is fun.
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Funny)
I suspect you to be an agent of the Psychic Friends network.
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Funny)
We have an Idle section now?
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Funny)
Please enjoy the shiny and click on our ads.
Re:Conspiracy Theory! (Score:5, Funny)
Content selection for this audience (Score:2)
Tag this section ... (Score:2)
... redundant.
stop complaining (Score:2)
i took a look at it a long time ago, it's not for me so i don't click on the link. Where's the problem? Maybe some of the less mature posters will head over there instead of cluttering up the main stories.
stop your whining
Old Funnies (Score:2)
How about updating the Funnies list instead? Many of the ones there don't even update anymore (Under Power, Totalitarian Burger), and a few (Helen) the links don't even work anymore because the comic is dead. And a bunch more have devolved into sitcoms and soap operas. Fix the bugs first, then add new features!
What are you doing? (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, seriously, was there some demand for this I missed? Some void the
I agree with other posters. Start a new site for this garbage; it has no place at
Hope you've got a big ramp... (Score:4, Funny)
off-topic - moderation (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Actualy I believe he was talking to you southerners, since up here in the northern hemisphere it's too dmaned hot for us to be urgent, excited, or interested in anything except staying cool.