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A Pre-History of Slashdot

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Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#91

Post by smacktoward »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #50
jedberg wrote: post #42

Thanks Rob for the trip down memory lane. I have two to share: I started using Slashdot in ‘97. I remember back then you had a cron to update the front page and we figured out you only run it every 10 minutes, so I built small shell script on my Linux desktop that would pop up a notification reminding me to reload slashdot every 10 minutes. My second memory was when I was working for Sendmail. Because we were “famous…

> I started using Slashdot in ‘97. I remember back then you had a cron to update the front page and we figured out you only run it every 10 minutes, so I built small shell script on my Linux desktop that would pop up a notification reminding me to reload slashdot every 10 minutes. I did something similar but then at some point I ended up blocking slashdot.org in my hosts file because it was killing my ability to focu…

> I need a beowulf cluster of attention at work.

I used to have one of those! Sadly, Natalie Portman filled it with hot grits.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#92

Post by cannam »

jandrese wrote: post #24
conesus wrote: post #11

I never publicly announced this but I loved Slashdot’s friend/foe system so much that I built it as a cross browser extension for Hacker News. It’s called Hacker Smacker and it’s on GitHub. https://github.com/samuelclay/hackersmacker Supports not only friends and foes but also friends of friends and foes of friends. Makes it easy to scan the HN homepage and comment threads and see what’s good. Much like how Slashdot’…

Funnily enough, every time I see the friend/foe dots/pills on a post my first thought is "that's an old-timer". I'm betting well over 75% of the current Slashdot readers don't even know it exists.

I have a four-digit Slashdot ID and I don't remember friends and foes. Is it after my time, or is it just that I don't remember anything any more?

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#93

Post by ktta »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #83
AndrewStephens wrote: post #79

I remember the early days of slashdot fondly, although I didn't actually make an account until a few years later. It was such an interesting mix of serious discussion, in-jokes, and amusing trolls (even the infamous goatsx troll that I fell for more than once.) I still think that the moderation and meta-moderation was one of the most interesting experiments in a self-governing commenting system, even though it was cl…

More like: 1. Group #1 joins who care about site 2. Group #1 improves site. Sense of "community" keeps things in check. 3. Site grows in popularity and group #2 joins 4. Site loses sense of community and ability to moderate itself effectively. 5. Group #1 leaves

For some reason I think this going to happen to HN too, and I feel it is at 3. And I'm not sure if I'm in group #1 or group #2.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#95

Post by crusso »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #83
AndrewStephens wrote: post #79

I remember the early days of slashdot fondly, although I didn't actually make an account until a few years later. It was such an interesting mix of serious discussion, in-jokes, and amusing trolls (even the infamous goatsx troll that I fell for more than once.) I still think that the moderation and meta-moderation was one of the most interesting experiments in a self-governing commenting system, even though it was cl…

More like: 1. Group #1 joins who care about site 2. Group #1 improves site. Sense of "community" keeps things in check. 3. Site grows in popularity and group #2 joins 4. Site loses sense of community and ability to moderate itself effectively. 5. Group #1 leaves

That general pattern is followed by companies, social organizations, and even countries - to an extent.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#96

Post by wiremine »

I worked at The Image Group a few years after Rob left, and one of the designers there confirmed the story.

> "I took a rejected template from a project at work"

The version I heard was he pitched this as the actual website for The Image Group, except it had different colors and the boxes where on the left instead of the right. Crazy to think if ownership had accepted it.

Side note: I built sets with Rob in high school: crazy and all around nice guy. Very high energy back then. I'll never forget his rant/love letter for Pascal I heard one day during a break.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#97

Post by crusso »

I was on slashdot from the very early days until way too recently. In 2011, I joined a startup company of young guys and one of them saw that I had a slashdot page up. He said, "Slashdot is for old people. Let us show you Hacker News".

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#98

Post by geezerjay »

rhizome wrote: post #87
geezerjay wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Slashdot was awesome right up until the point that they forced the redesign on everybody and drove away all the users that made it great. The redesign wasn't what killed it. The constant astroturfing and (what I assumed to be) collusion between astroturfers and site maintainers killed it real dead.

No, the redesign made it unusable, with an inscrutable learning curve. The astroturfers then took over once the organic traffic dropped off a cliff.

I recall that the redesign might have been very ugly but didn't increased the learning curve. Yet, the userbase stuck around and pushed for at least a way to get their old slashdot back. Complaining about slashdot's lack of unicode support was a in-joke.

But then the astroturfing problem blew up and in no time killed slashdot. The community tolerated trolls, even the infamous GNAA, but slashdot's industrial-level astroturfing campaigns in what I believe to be collulsion with site maintainers was something that was massively abhorrent.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#99

Post by baseten »

hprotagonist wrote: post #9

I have some real fond memories of reading slashdot before classes in high school. I think my favorite was the day Rob proposed, and I was late to AP chemistry because I was frantically reloading the page to see what happened.. Through it i discovered the EFF, the jargon file, the FSF, and much else (hot grits, anyone?), and I miss that community. I haven't spent any serious time there in about 8 years.

I haven't thought about Natalie Portman covered in hot grits in some years, so thanks for that.

Re: A Pre-History of Slashdot

#100

Post by zen35 »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #83
AndrewStephens wrote: post #79

I remember the early days of slashdot fondly, although I didn't actually make an account until a few years later. It was such an interesting mix of serious discussion, in-jokes, and amusing trolls (even the infamous goatsx troll that I fell for more than once.) I still think that the moderation and meta-moderation was one of the most interesting experiments in a self-governing commenting system, even though it was cl…

More like: 1. Group #1 joins who care about site 2. Group #1 improves site. Sense of "community" keeps things in check. 3. Site grows in popularity and group #2 joins 4. Site loses sense of community and ability to moderate itself effectively. 5. Group #1 leaves

I don't know what you guys are talking about. What happened was very clearly:

1. Group #1 joins who care about site

2. Group #1 improves site. Sense of "community" keeps things in check.

3. Site grows in popularity and group #2 joins

4. ?????

5. Profit

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