perfessor multigeek's Journal: Now I remember why I don't hang out here anymore.

So I've let myself get caught up in a couple of recent threads.

How depressing.

Go further down in the thread on Purdue and you'll find a few good comments but still.

I know that I'm probably the hundred thousandth person to do a JE on this, but man, I just don't enjoy being here anymore. Seems like there was a time that this place was full of experimentalists. Now it seems to be salarimen, amateurs, and (no offense) folks talking about things like sports and gaming that simply don't interest me at all.

I'm really bummed to have zero responses to my biofuels JE. I was all jazzed about the responses I expected, including some hope of a convincing partial refutation. But all that I got was dead air.

Man, I just don't fit in here anymore.

-Rustin

Evolution...

[FortKnox]

We talked about this quite a bit while you were out. The community used to be fun, but we've almost evolved into a buncha friends that get together. We know each others opinions on most stuff, so conversations are just on really relative topics that won't offense (like sports and weather). I guess you missed a good chunk of that evolution...

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

The other thing is that the front page has also devolved. A lot of the NASA/JPL/FOSS/NIH/whatever types have left or are just lurking because they're fed up with the way people are trying to milk the mod system or are flat-out impostors or just talk like experts about things they know absolutely nothing about. More often than not, front page discussions devolve into who-has-the-bigger-schlong contests and/or flamewars of some sort, with little really relevant or interesting discussion. The sad thing is that

Re:

[richie2000]

Specifically regarding your article, the sad thing is that it was interesting, but for my part I just didn't have anything relevant or interesting to say. I don't know enough about it to debate you and generally agreed with what you wrote. I guess most of the others thought the same thing. So maybe it's a compliment of sorts. ;-)

Ditto.

I COULD have added my own musings about the way we're currently strip-mining our forests for raw material - for lumber, fiber boards, heat, electricity, pellets and now ethanol, there's nothing left to nourish the soil and grow new trees from.
But, I didn't take the time to. Sorry.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

But I need him to be my mad scientist in my new empire!

Cheers,

Ethelred

That's why I left

[banky]

like the blagotron in general, it's either an echo chamber, or silence. And then out of nowhere you stick your dick in the mashed potatoes ('cause it is that kind of party) and suddenly you're in the middle of a storm (eg a thoughtful post about biofuel garners no response, and a foul-mouthed little diatribe is #1 on technorati - this happened to me for real, kinda).

I came back to /.'ing because
1)I hate Digg with a passion. Digg is everything wrong with ./, 5 years ago.
2)At least here I have a smaller echo

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

Personally I think this place could only improve if they'd only allow all caps all the time.

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:

[banky]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I THOUGHT THEY ALLOED CAPS HUGALGLAHUALGHLAUGAHUHGA

Oh. Oh? Oh! Yeah, I see what I did there.

Does anyone still get off at all on defacing posts in /.? I thought they'd all moved to Digg.

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

You kiddin'? I still get off on those ASCII goatse.cx things.

Cheers,

Ethelred

No one here is interesting. Or smart, either

[mekkab]

And really, who here CARES that you can get live ATC feeds from http://www.liveatc.net/feedindex.php [liveatc.net]? Things have splintered off into the boring.

Whatever.

They grew up

[Com2Kid]

Seems like there was a time that this place was full of experimentalists. Now it seems to be salarimen, amateurs, and (no offense) folks talking about things like sports and gaming that simply don't interest me at all.

But yah, people grew up.

Read my (coming in 10 minutes) journal entry for a solution.

R-E-A-D I-T

stopped reading slashdot

[gotih]

i don't care to analyze exactly what happened but yeah, slashdot got lame. i still come here when i'm procrastinating. but that's about it, mostly i read the journals. but re: biofuels. perhaps. all i can reply to is A) i think most people are going for the grease conversion, not home biodiesel production these days. i used to hype biofuels, now i wish everyone would ride a bike.