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Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

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Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#91

Post by hemos »

icebraining wrote: post #61
ac-slater wrote: post #44

I went to go see CmdrTaco speak in 2005. Someone asked him how to make a website as popular as Slashdot. Malda said to start it in 1997. Of course in the next year the meteoric rise of both digg and reddit began. I think there is a moral here about not resting on your laurels and never thinking no one can catch up with you.

>thinking no one can catch up with you. Did he actually do that, or just told the only way he personally knew how to do it?

The latter. I can testify to that. And if you look back at when Kevin Rose was doing the G4 stuff, there's an interview with Rob where Kevin asks Rob what he would do different. Rob outlines basically Slashdot + user voting. A few months later, Digg comes out. True story.

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#92

Post by blhack »

jseliger wrote: post #66
nicpottier wrote: post #5

I don't visit /. anymore, but definitely grew up on it. I don't think you can understate the impact it had on a generation of geeks. Especially when it comes to Open Source, I think /. was incredibly important in educating people on a concept, history and philosophy many of us take for granted now. And hot grits aside, it really did set the bar for intelligent discussion. /. was the first site where the comments were…

One of the most amazing /. pieces ever: Neal Stephen's interview ( http://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/Neal-Stephenson-R... ). And some of the comments are as hilarious as the interview. I, too, read /. in the late 90s and up to around 2005, when I became more interested in other things, and other sites began making the changes that /. (and presumably CmdrTaco) were resistant to. I also remember trying to read…

Interestingly, it's those changes that eventually drove me away.

It's a really dumb thing, but being able to type: http://slashdot.org/~blhack and see how my comments were doing karma wise was really important to me. For a young, budding geek, the karma was valuable feedback on how well I was contributing.

A tiny change to http://slashdot.org/~blhack/comments was just...annoying. Typing that first URL was something that I did probably 15 times a day; having it change was annoying. Like if for some ridiculous reason, gnu decided to change "ls" to "ks" or something. Tiny, but still annoying.

Then they kept screwing with the comments system. Reading the comments at "3" was part of my daily routine.

Yeah, I can change it back in preferences, but it feels like every time I try to get back into /., I have to spend 20 minutes hunting around for a way to get it back to usable.

To me, when slashdot started changing things, it felt like there is a bar that I've been going to for a decade, but the owner recently decided to change the interior design.

My bar is gone. The same people still go there, but the building has changed. It's not the same thing anymore.

Eventually, it seemed like a lot of the people left too.

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#93

Post by r00fus »

nicpottier wrote: post #5

I don't visit /. anymore, but definitely grew up on it. I don't think you can understate the impact it had on a generation of geeks. Especially when it comes to Open Source, I think /. was incredibly important in educating people on a concept, history and philosophy many of us take for granted now. And hot grits aside, it really did set the bar for intelligent discussion. /. was the first site where the comments were…

The comments were valuable in part because the moderation system was the first really good implementation... this was a huge win, and it's really sad that all other discussion sites haven't learned from it (slashcode is open source, so it's not a complete black-box).

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#94

Post by r00fus »

joeyo wrote: post #60
ekanes wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. Annnnd you just blew mine. I always thought it was "Kooroshin"

It helps to know that the founders name was Rusty. :)

IIRC, Rusty moved on to help with DailyKos, which later used Scoop (the K5 commenting/moderation system).

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#95

Post by dredmorbius »

cdibona wrote: post #32
allwein wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rob doesn't strike me as the sort of person who'd enjoy just kicking back and relaxing forever. He's comfortably well-off, but is looking for a change. 14 years is a lot of time to dedicate to one project, especially when it's mature and stable like Slashdot is. I imagine he's going to take a well-deserved break and then like a lot of tech entrepreneur's, come back for round two and start another company.

You're spot on. Rob is not good at being Idle.

That, sir, is truth spoken.

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#99

Post by neurotech1 »

blhack wrote: post #92
jseliger wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most amazing /. pieces ever: Neal Stephen's interview ( http://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/Neal-Stephenson-R... ). And some of the comments are as hilarious as the interview. I, too, read /. in the late 90s and up to around 2005, when I became more interested in other things, and other sites began making the changes that /. (and presumably CmdrTaco) were resistant to. I also remember trying to read…

Interestingly, it's those changes that eventually drove me away. It's a really dumb thing, but being able to type: http://slashdot.org/~blhack and see how my comments were doing karma wise was really important to me. For a young, budding geek, the karma was valuable feedback on how well I was contributing. A tiny change to http://slashdot.org/~blhack/comments was just...annoying. Typing that first URL was something t…

Actually it was Hacker News that directed me away from /.

Re: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot

#100

Post by hitechnomad »

hollerith wrote: post #41
Alex3917 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the span between the Columbine shooting and 9/11 was probably their peak. So many of my memories of /. involve national disasters.

/. is how I found out of the 9/11 attacks.

Me too! I was trying to get a router working, and was pinging slashdot to find out if I was routing to the net. No response from slashdot - hmmmm, must have a network problem at my end. A bit later and I realised the net was up, but slashdot was down. It took me another few hours to realise that the reason slashdot was overwhelmed was because a major world-changing event was happening!
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