SlashChick's Journal: Slashdot and the "anti-Microsoft conspiracy"

I have been testing the waters of Slashdot recently. I consider myself a pretty good writer, and I have plenty of experience fighting off people who think that Microsoft sucks no matter what. So I've taken to writing thinly-disguised pro-Microsoft posts to see how they would get moderated. Now, mind you, I don't lie, and I don't say that Microsoft is great no matter what. However, I do point out the good things about the company, and I refrain from bashing.

The results are quite interesting. Here are the posts I have written recently (summarized by the main point of the post, not by the post title):

February 5: The desktop wars are over. Linux developers need to stop parroting Microsoft. (Score:5, Insightful)

February 22: Windows XP is one of the best OSes I have used, and Linux is still a pain to set up. (Score:4, Insightful ... was 5 for most of the time the article was up.)

February 22: Negative response to a "Linux will rule the desktop" advocate. (Score:4, Insightful ... again a 5 for quite a while.)

March 4: Craig Mundie of MSFT has a point when he says that GPL'ed software will hurt the software industry. (Score:5, Interesting.)

March 5: ACPI and Windows 2000/XP (also noting the stability of these OSes and the fact that the OS won't cause a freeze.) (Score:5, Informative.)

I have also noticed that the moderation tends to go like this:
Insightful: You're abso-freakin'-lutely right, and I agree with you 100%. If you were a politician, you'd get my vote.
Interesting: I don't necessarily agree, but you make a thought-provoking point that is worthy of consideration.
Informative: Thanks for providing lots of links and background information to help me make the right decision.

The main point of this is that the "Slashdot anti-Microsoft conspiracy" really doesn't exist. Slashdot is really about what the users want, and I have shown that people are willing to listen as long as you can convince them that your point is a good one. "Microsoft r00lz, dude, and Windows XP rocks" will get you modded down just as fast as "Linux rocks and Windoze blows." But well-thought-out arguments that prove a point will get you modded up even if the majority disagree with you. (I'm not even sure that the majority of Slashdot readers even think that Microsoft sucks in all cases. In fact, judging from the blatant Windows XP campaigning I did in one of my posts, I'm actually surprised I only got one "Overrated" moderation point.)

The big lesson is that you should learn how to write, and write well. It will make you that much more successful at convincing everyone that the point that you have is valid, no matter how much those people would have otherwise disagreed with that point.

--SlashChick

It's all true but still

[epsalon]

We all know M$ sucks and Linux rulez!

[Mods: This should be a joke]

Conspiracy? No. Bias? Definitely.

[Hal-9001]

You present good anecdotal evidence that there is not an overall anti-Microsoft bias in the /. readership, but I think you would agree that there is a definite anti-Microsoft bias among the editors, both in story selection and commentary.

The Anti-MS Conspiracy

[FortKnox]

It exists, just not in the comments. Its in the stories.

Go look for a "MS Delivers XP and its stable", or anything positive (excluding sarcasm) about MS in a story. Better yet, look for a story that doesn't end with somehting along the lines of "here we go again" or some other sarcastic remark.

The "author squad" are linux zealots. Even though they all have Win partitions (for games, quicktime, etc...), they all claim they don't most of the time. They all use Win98 (not 2k or XP or ME) and make remarks on 2k/XP/ME as if they've tried it (I doubt they've even tried them once).

I just have one of those things against the authors, I guess. They always claim people need to be "open minded", which is either hypocracy or really meaning "try linux". "Open minded" goes both ways.

Re:The Anti-MS Conspiracy

[gmhowell]

Hey, I'm a linux zealot. Well, sorta. Actually, I use it in as many places as possible. Routers, cheap DB servers, cheap file servers. This is both at work and at home.

But there are some things that MS just does better or has enough marketshare to make more feasible. Games is the biggie. And I'm not a total sped: I don't worry about that 'separate partition' bs. I have a separate machine. Guess what 'partition people': if Linux is so great, slap it on your old machine! That's what I did. And what I will keep doing.

What's the point: I'm sure I'm not alone on slashdot. First, the home of nerds/geeks/whatever. Then the linux zealots showed up and remade the place. Then they were astroturfed (yes, this happened), and now... Now the MS comments are much more rational, thanks to posters like SlashChick, but largely because (from what I've read. I have no experience, so forgive my errors) the current crop of MS offerings is MUCH better than attempts past.

Who knows, perhaps the shouting by the psychos got enough attention to get MS moving on certain fronts (stability to name one). Regardless, I think there is a detente that the readers have that, like you indicate, is not yet apparant to the editors.

If the eds and VA are of a simliar mind, it is no wonder that VA isn't a commercial success. They need to kiss a little more ass. Rather than making comparitive statements where linux is ALWAYS the winner, they need to speak on the merits of linux alone. Germany prevents comparitive ads for a reason.

I say VA and /. need to take a note from Linus regarding treatment of MS. To paraphrase: "I don't care what MS is doing. I just want to make Linux as good as it can be."

Let me also say that it's quite idiotic to assume that /. can thrive on pure hatred of MS. They've occasionally posted browser stats. We've heard the comments. Probably 80%+ users of /. use MS products. So instead of slamming them, how about learning to deal with them?

Finally, let me say that this also points out the contradiction and lies by the editors. As I've said before, they worship money more than OSS. Similarly, they worship money more than taking any sort of stand. If IE, and by extension, MS, were so evil, why not block all attempts to access /. by people using IE? There goes your bandwidth problem. Why? Because even though /. could then be run out of a dorm room again, CT and the rest are afraid of pissing off the advertisers. As usual, it's all about the Benjamins. (Geez. I feel pretty lame using the parlance of the kids these days. Probably look it also. Bet it looks as stoopid as the 35 years olds who used the word 'phat' back in the day.)

Re:The Anti-MS Conspiracy

[nickjennings]

They all use Win98 (not 2k or XP or ME) and make remarks on 2k/XP/ME as if they've tried it (I doubt they've even tried them once).

And you think they should have to fork out hundreds of dollars just to "try" it? I keep a Win98 partition because sometimes, during work or play, I just want to do something that isn't supported in linux. Whether it's use my cell-phone as a modem, or play a new game. I use Windows because sometimes I have to if I want to do what I want to do. Win98 is easy to obtain for free these days, and I don't plan on purchasing any of their products.

So your point? Their somehow unable to comment on their beliefs simply because they aren't buying into their latest product line like you? Your somehow justified in griping about your wasted money?

Re:The Anti-MS Conspiracy

[FortKnox]

So your point? Their somehow unable to comment on their beliefs simply because they aren't buying into their latest product line like you?

They spout off their "beliefs" as if they are fact. They spout of how windows crashes (try win2k, I have yet to see it crash).
If they want to be linux-only users, fine. I have no problem with it. But when they say how horrible the new version of windows are without trying it, then I have a problem.

Your somehow justified in griping about your wasted money?

Spoken like a true zealot. How am I "wasting my money" on an OS like Win2K if you've never tried it?

Anti-Microsoft

[Safety Cap]

I agree that the whole Linux vs. MS thing is a waste of time. The best OS will win for its niche. Everything else is fluff.

What many people and companies fail to do is look towards the future. Sure, it is hard, but that is the only way to insure long-term survival. While I don't pretend to be able to predict the future, I can say with a reasonable level of confidence that...

within 5 years

• The OS will become less important, with the fallout from states' antitrust case, the lack of a "killer app" to entice businesses to upgrade, and the fact that W2K is "good enough" for most tasks.
• Microsoft will have to expand more into other areas; their XBox may finally crack the home market they've coveted for nearly 20 years.

within 10 years

• There may not even be an OS, per se; the OS as we know it must converge to being embedded, with very low maintenance required. One of the most common newbie complaints about computers is that one cannot instantly turn them on and off like any other appliance. An embedded OS would be a significant step in this direction.
• We might find the more common computer functions (e.g., most of the things in StarOffice/MS Office) getting imbedded as well.

within 20 years

• Take a look back. Where were we 20 years ago? The OS was still DOS. Mice were wooden blocks. "Color" was limited to the CoCo, et. al. 5 meg hard drives were $750.
• Now look forward: will there be a separate device for computing? Maybe. Will the beige box be the same as it is today? Probably not, given the rapid changes of the past. I see the computer becoming an appliance much like every other household device. Do you care what ROM your DVD player uses? Nope. Do you fret over the software version in your TV? Hardly. They both do what you expect and they do it simply and efficiently. For 99.99% of the population, this is all that matters. For the 0.01% that reads Slashdot, this won't be good enough -- but those folks may not ever go for the PC-as-an-appliance bit, either.

I don't believe the computer industry will go the way of the automotive for a very long time, if ever. If you recall, the automotive industry has not significantly changed in 50 years. We still have an inefficient 4-stroke engine driving four wheels and several seats. Here and there some minor innovations were made and quickly ignored (the Wankel engine) or quietly used (airbags, the third headlight), but the basic operation and efficiency has not been affected for decades.

opportunistic mindset, thank god

[mito]

Your Slashdot "Journal" is great summary of why women are not creative
types, have never significantly been poets, made revolutions, advanced
science. Why? You have no ideal, no utopia to drive you.

You use linux for what it serves you, period. You can't see beyond
linux's present state as a "cheap webserver". Linux on the desktop will
never happen according to you, because you can't grasp that linux is
much more than an OS, it's a way of life. As most women you have no
vision, no dreams beyond your own little logical utilitarian self.

It's great that women are such rocks, deeply anchored into reality, with
a very immediate, practical vision of things. Otherwise the human
species would probably have been extinct.