jared_hanson's Journal: Cliche Slashdot comments

Is anyone getting annoyed with the standard comments that get modded up to +5, Funny on damn near every story? Well, I sure am.

What I see as moderation injustices have become my most recent crusade. I am trying to point these things out in the hope that moderators will use their points more wisely. Here is my case in point:

Read this post I made, deliberately using not one, but two cliche jokes. It promptly got modded up to +4, Funny, at which point I made this post explaining my motivation. The orignial post received another Funny point after the motivation post to get to +5, Funny. The motivation post then got modded up to +5, Insightful, which shows that people must agree with me.

Anyway, the original post then took a dip down to -1, Funny and the motivation post fell to +2, Insightful. I highly suspect had I not made the latter post that the former would have remained at +5, Funny. This only demonstrates my theory that the cliched funny posts are not really funny.

However, the moderators continue to award these comments with funny points, which only ensures that they will continue. It is an experiment that would make Pavlov proud.

In any case, I'm hoping that those who are sick of these reduntant comments will make their feelings known. You can start by posting in reply to my journal entry. Hopefully, if enough of us make our feelings known, and use mod points we recieve to moderate down, we can eliminate some of these comments.

Maybe it's not so bad?

[RobertB-DC]

In any well-aged discussion, browsing at +4 or +5, I'll see one or two of the standard running jokes modded up. But it doesn't take long to find a dozen or more additional entries down at the +0 and -1 level that have been modded down.

The problem is that if we mod down the one dumb joke that's at the +5 level, someone reading at +2 or so will think that nobody has thought of making a Beowolf cluster of Natalie Portman. They post, mods see it and mod it up to +5, we knock it down, and someone else has an "original" thought. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Slashdot moderation is like the old dancing bear example. It's not that the bear dances poorly... the amazing thing is that the bear dances at all.

Re:Maybe it's not so bad?

[jared_hanson]

My solution is to mod all the lame jokes down immediately. The reason the additional ones are modded down is that they are redundant. However, the first one is redundant as well. Perhaps redundant isn't the right word, but there is no cliche moderation on Slashdot.

Anyway, if the mods mod them all down, eventually no one will waste their time anymore. And you won't have to be berated with lame jokes on every story.

I highly suspect people make the jokes over and over again because it is a sure way to ge

Re:Maybe it's not so bad?

[FroMan]

Not to be too negative here, but perhaps it is the folks who are moderating them funny are the same folks that continnue to make the cliche jokes. Obviously they are not doing it in the same article, but they are doing it as an instant karma grab for troll accounts and they use some of the mod points to mod cliche jokes and then turn around and troll.

Re:Maybe it's not so bad?

[RobertB-DC]

Not to be too negative here, but perhaps it is the folks who are moderating them funny are the same folks that continnue to make the cliche jokes.

I think that what you describe happens, especially with the real trolls [wikipedia.org], but I doubt that's what's going on with the over-and-over SCO jokes and other cliches du jour.

Purposely subverting the moderation system implies a degree of evil, for want of a better word. The GNAA trolls that get (briefly) modded up could only happen if the moderator has a pro-troll age

No.

[jared_hanson]

I've mentioned him in a grand total of two of my comments (including this journal entry), and I've made a lot of posts. The first time it seemed very relevent, so I thought I'd use it again in the journal entry. I'm done now. I hope you're happy.

Incidentally, I'm not trying to feign intelligence by referring to a well known researcher. I'm simply trying to convey my point by referring to someone people recognize. It works out better this way, as opposed to using someone esoteric.

Anyway, I may or may

You must be new in here

[avij]

(the subject is another cliche joke)

This is the way /. has always been, there have been such long-running jokes all the time. Kind of like the CowboyNeal option in polls, although some people have started a crusade against that option as well. It's not clear from your message if you know this, but here goes anyway: "Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass." (from the FAQ [slashdot.org]). Get over it.

I'm not new here.

[jared_hanson]

I know this is the way Slashdot has always been. The point is, these long-running jokes are no longer funny, yet they still get moderated as such.

I also know being moderated as funny doesn't get you karma. However, people are still forced to read them. No, I don't want to set a personal modifier to the Funny posts, because I enjoy a good laugh. There are plenty of people out there making original jokes, and I enjoy that.

If I had to push for a solution, I'd suggest a Cliche moderation. Someone else po

An excellent case of -1, Cliche

[RobertB-DC]

Someone replied to a .sig (that'll look silly some day):

Funny how my posts get ranked (-1, Troll) five times as often when I throw the "Esq." at the end of my name.

Man! so that's why my karma's suddenly in the toilet! Makes so much sense!

Sincerely,
Darl McBride, Esq.

(original is here [slashdot.org])

Clearly, the comment is offtopic to the discussion (Taiwan Under Cyber Attack from China). It's offtopic to the parent, which does discuss the (supposed) attack. And it's cliche -- another SCO joke.

So of course, it's got