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posted by mattie_p on Monday February 17 2014, @04:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the certainly-not-here dept.

stderr writes: "I used to visit a certain website quite often, but if Dice Holdings decide to switch the interface to what is currently known as "Beta", I'll have to find another site for my "stuff that matters" fix. So, SoylentNews, what sites can you recommend for a "maybe-ex" /. user?"

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by kogspg on Monday February 17 2014, @04:06PM

    by kogspg (850) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:06PM (#1017)

    dev.soylentnews.org ?

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by willie3204 on Monday February 17 2014, @04:09PM

      by willie3204 (826) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:09PM (#1021)

      This format/content takes me back and makes me feel good. I started using HTML mail format in gmail also just for the hell(and speed) of it.

      • (Score: 1) by ticho on Monday February 17 2014, @04:13PM

        by ticho (89) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:13PM (#1027) Homepage

        Your (or anyone else's) HTML mail is bad, and you should feel bad! :)

        • (Score: 1) by willie3204 on Monday February 17 2014, @04:15PM

          by willie3204 (826) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:15PM (#1031)

          Thanks ticho. What I meant was HTML View of the email. AKA non javascript garbage. All my mail content is text only....

          • (Score: 1) by ticho on Monday February 17 2014, @05:01PM

            by ticho (89) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:01PM (#1074) Homepage

            Ok, that does make sense. Having never used gmail, I couldn't guess that. :)

      • (Score: 2) by meisterister on Monday February 17 2014, @05:57PM

        by meisterister (949) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:57PM (#1114)

        Don't forget the fact that basic HTML view's layout doesn't change every ten minutes.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by j-stroy on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:06AM

      by j-stroy (761) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:06AM (#1489)

      Arrrrrrrrr! Thank gosh this site is up, kudos all! I participated in the boycott. and am not that likely to participate on the former cool place.. Checked back there and i see what seems to be a LOT more stories than usual.. and generally lower # of comments. Altho some with decent participation and NOTHING about Beta.. did we miss something? or did everyone who cared leave, and others just miss the events over those few days..

      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday March 06 2014, @03:13AM

        by anubi (2828) on Thursday March 06 2014, @03:13AM (#11812)

        I think what we are seeing is a slow migration of people pissed at Dice for doing what they are doing, jumping ship, and coming over here.

        My initial impressions, since I am straddling between one and the other, is this site has far fewer contributors, but the contributions themselves are of a much higher quality. That is Soylent is attracting the cream of the Slashdot crop. Those are the people who made Slashdot what it had become... a mecca for high-tech professionals to seriously discuss events of the day. That seems to be going away as the investors and the techies butt heads over which manner content is accessed. I do not think we want to attract the kind of people who aren't pissed off over what the new owners of Slashdot are doing to it.

        So, if it must be that Slashdot be abandoned because some investor makes it so, I had just as soon leave the adolescent crap over on Slashdot and not attract them over here.

        I was also a member of another top-notch group of professional oilmen over at "The Oil Drum" under the moniker "hardhat". It, too, was a wonderful gathering place to discuss our energy situation. While they were very welcoming to people with an interest in petrochemical affairs, they had little interest in attracting ones to dilute the forums with useless crap posts.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by mattie_p on Monday February 17 2014, @04:07PM

    by mattie_p (13) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:07PM (#1018) Journal

    So, hopefully we'll get some interesting feedback here in what sites people can go to. And then as you go to those sites you can submit articles for this community. This is the main reason I accepted this question for publication. If you have a question that you think the community can help you answer and will benefit the community to hear about, please ask!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by DarkMorph on Monday February 17 2014, @04:10PM

    by DarkMorph (674) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:10PM (#1023)

    This almost seems like a joke. If you've come here to submit such a question you've already found your answer.

    But I'll chip in more than the obvious. During the slashcott I had been following Ars. Their comment system isn't as... elegant as the Slash system but it's an all right destination I suppose. I hadn't ever read Ars before the slashcott for what it's worth.

    There was much discussion in the comments on /. during the "fuck beta" tantrum regarding other sites like reddit. Opinions seem to go both ways, especially for reddit.

    It was interesting that the article at Ars about the /. beta had a handful of commentators who were ex-/.ers!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Monday February 17 2014, @04:30PM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:30PM (#1043)

      I tried reddit -- the cat pic to content ratio was ridiculously high maybe 10/1. I like cats and all, have a bunch myself, but there's youtube for that type of content.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by scruffybeard on Monday February 17 2014, @05:06PM

        by scruffybeard (533) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:06PM (#1080)

        I also tried reddit a while back. The lack of a moderation system made it very hard to wade through the nonsense, trolls, and general self-righteous anger in the comments.

        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by demonlapin on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM

          by demonlapin (925) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM (#1087) Journal
          You have to find the right subreddits. And the hive-mind effect is pretty bad.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @03:54AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @03:54AM (#2220)

        /r/netsec [reddit.com] has a pretty good signal to noise ratio, and appears mostly used by network security professionals. As far as tech news goes, that's about the extent of my use of reddit.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jonh on Monday February 17 2014, @05:01PM

      by jonh (733) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:01PM (#1072) Homepage

      I have a bit of a soft spot for Ars - they seem to attract intelligent (and courteous) commenters. It's one of the very few sites I've found it worth registering an account at.

      (From my POV, there's a lot of websites where the level of commentary is either amusing or depressing, depending on mood and general level of faith in humanity.)

    • (Score: 1) by nukkel on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:41PM

      by nukkel (168) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:41PM (#1789)

      Same here.

      at the start of the 'cott I looked to Ars but it just couldn't capture my interest for more than five minutes.

      Now that soylentnews is live I have my answer ;)

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by The_Deacon on Monday February 17 2014, @04:13PM

    by The_Deacon (884) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:13PM (#1028)

    This isn't exactly on-topic, but the topic got me thinking about it anyway ... does anybody have any statistics (or recommend ways to get them shy of asking Dice) of slashdot.org traffic over the past few days/weeks? It would be interesting to see if the "slashcott" made any sort of dent in their traffic.

    I know for myself, it's been difficult (but I did succeeded!) in not loading slashdot as part of my regular daily litany. That's at least 15-20 page loads over the course of a week that stopped last week. I wonder how many others have done the same...

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by The_Deacon on Monday February 17 2014, @04:16PM

      by The_Deacon (884) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:16PM (#1032)

      s/succeeded/succeed/

      D'oh! My first post and it contains a typo. This better not be par for the course...

      • (Score: 1) by mhajicek on Monday February 17 2014, @04:28PM

        by mhajicek (51) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:28PM (#1040)

        Don't feel bad. I made a "their" / "they're" error on my first post here.

        • (Score: 1) by qwade on Monday February 17 2014, @08:11PM

          by qwade (1006) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:11PM (#1189)

          Your not to blame. Anyone could of done that

          *wince* Man, that was even painful to write :/

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by linsane on Monday February 17 2014, @05:34PM

      by linsane (633) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:34PM (#1098)

      Some stats on the polls, Votes per day and Comments per day going back for the last 20 SD polls. This is I reckon a slightly better proxy than the article comment count (subject to usual caveats, error factors etc):

      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuduJ vnvxxdhdFlYR3BvV1hMYzFnODJPR0xpOWdkcEE&usp=sharing [google.com]

      Jan & Feb definitely lower tho this could be to do with folk just getting fed up rather than the slashcott which only has one data point. I'm sure it is easy enough to extend this but a glance shows that the Votes per Day 12+ months ago was considerably higher.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by kru on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM

        by kru (795) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM (#1169)

        So the slashcott was about equal to their drop during the Christmas-New Years break. That's pretty amazing. I was expecting only a handful of people to actually go through with it.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday February 17 2014, @08:41PM

          by hemocyanin (186) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:41PM (#1221)

          I fully did the slashcott -- I didn't realize what an addict I was till I woke up, checked my instinct to click the bookmark in my toolbar, and then focused on the sites I check second. It was actually a hard week -- I didn't realize how many times I went to /. every day for a small break until I couldn't go there, and left me pretty frustrated all week.

        • (Score: 1) by quacking duck on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:27PM

          by quacking duck (1395) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:27PM (#1776)

          Managed to do it myself. Typed it out on the address bar and hit enter just once, but closed it before anything loaded. And today I typed in "altslashdot" to see the progress here... still haven't loaded the old site yet.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:38PM (#1100)

      I jumped over once to check the site and they'd taken down the "We're listening" post on the main page. Also, none of the comments were about the beta, so either the slashcott people really WERE thoroughly boycotting or they're aggressively censoring anti-Beta sentiments.
      Either way, pretty interesting.

      • (Score: 1) by dry on Monday February 17 2014, @11:48PM

        by dry (223) on Monday February 17 2014, @11:48PM (#1371)

        There are still comments about the beta but generally the people that are left are sick of them and the moderation reflects it.
        One of the problems with Slashdot and probably similar sites is when a meme gets overdone and the beta hate was getting to that point.
        Myself, I'll keep visiting /. for now but if the beta ever is forced I'll be gone. There's also a good chance that this site may replace /. for me, especially if users keep moving here.

        --
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitaria nism
        • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday March 06 2014, @03:24AM

          by anubi (2828) on Thursday March 06 2014, @03:24AM (#11815)

          You probably know how Firefox ( and I guess other browsers as well ) let you put a commonly visited site's icon at the top toolbar?

          I only have room for a little over a dozen of them. Soylent is on mine right next to Slashdot. When I can no longer access the Slashdot I knew, I will delete the Slashdot icon. Once I delete it, the probability is quite low I ever go there again.

          --
          "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by mcgrew on Monday February 17 2014, @05:45PM

      by mcgrew (701) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:45PM (#1104) Homepage Journal

      Hey, why doesn't blockquote work? I re-registered this morning (I had had UID 123 before) and it's still only seven hundred something, so I doubt /.'s numbers were down much. Someone from soylent should be able to give site stats for here.

      Here's a sarcastic parody from fifteen years ago this month that I think applies in this case:

      ----------------
        I want to again thank all you folks that sent mail about that "webmaster too" article on Planet Quake. It seems I have one more regular visitor, who appears to be replacing a dropout. The rest must be Fragfest regulars, as my visitor count is actually down a bit this week (except Sunday and Monday).
              Of course, Planet Quake is being boycotted again by some of the regulars at Planet Crap.
              Nice timing, guys.
              At the last count, the boycott has made Planet Quake's 100,000 hits per day drop steeply to, oh, about 99,994 per day. Give or take half a dozen.
              Meanwhile, the boycotters' pages counts have risen to an average of a phenominal 9.5 hits per week.
              The boycott stems from Planet Quake's "stealing" a domain they paid for from a site they hosted. It does sound like they aren't being exactly nice to the guy, but wtf, I don't have a domain; why should he? Unless he can afford to blow the price of a Voodoo, in which case he would have had it before PQ hosted him anyway.
              Some people can't stand to see anybody make a buck. Commie bastards. 2/25/1999

      --
      Free Nobots! [mcgrewbooks.com]
      • (Score: 1) by ticho on Monday February 17 2014, @05:53PM

        by ticho (89) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:53PM (#1111) Homepage

        I don't think they really noticed any boycott either.

        Ahh, the good old days of quake. The endless hours spent on q1dm4. It really was a Bad Place.

        • (Score: 1) by jones_supa on Monday February 17 2014, @07:08PM

          by jones_supa (554) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:08PM (#1161)
          DM6 was my favorite.
        • (Score: 1) by mcgrew on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:03PM

          by mcgrew (701) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:03PM (#1671) Homepage Journal

          I've been re-running stuff from that site in my journal, of course it's in the guise of time travel now. I'll be posting identical journals here as well, perhaps a day earlier (soylent needs me more than slashdot does).

          --
          Free Nobots! [mcgrewbooks.com]
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Angry Jesus on Monday February 17 2014, @06:36PM

      by Angry Jesus (182) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:36PM (#1133)

      I know for myself, it's been difficult (but I did succeeded!) in not loading slashdot as part of my regular daily litany.

      I still visited, I just didn't write any comments.

      For some reason I rarely get mod points there anymore. I've got great karma and a low uid, typically post 10+ times a week, frequently get moderated +5, but I can easily go 6 months without getting mod points.

      This morning I had 15 mod points over there. I'm not going to use any of them, now that Soylent is up, I won't even be visiting there as much. But it sure made me suspicious.

      • (Score: 1) by Angry Jesus on Monday February 17 2014, @06:42PM

        by Angry Jesus (182) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:42PM (#1139)

        Ack! Why doesn't the quote tag work here?

        It's making me angry.

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by dry on Monday February 17 2014, @11:52PM

          by dry (223) on Monday February 17 2014, @11:52PM (#1376)

          Ack! Why doesn't the quote tag work here?

          Use the italic tag as we used to do on /.

          --
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitaria nism
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by stroucki on Monday February 17 2014, @06:37PM

      by stroucki (108) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:37PM (#1135)

      Does it matter? Don't you feel better about doing what is right, rather than second guessing yourself just because it may not have had the impact you were hoping for?

      • (Score: 1) by efitton on Monday February 17 2014, @10:10PM

        by efitton (1077) on Monday February 17 2014, @10:10PM (#1288) Homepage

        It matters a lot less now.

    • (Score: 1) by No Respect on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM

      by No Respect (991) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM (#1170)

      'Twas difficult for me as well, but I also did it. Today I went there to see what was going on, saw NO comments in any story about the beta and figured the /cott was having its desired effect. I can't be sure of that, however, without data. Maybe comments about beta aren't getting modded up like they were 2 weeks ago and fell below my viewing threshold.

      I did see, however, a link to SoylentNews, came here, registered, and hope to be here for a long time.

    • (Score: 1) by hatta on Monday February 17 2014, @08:48PM

      by hatta (879) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:48PM (#1227)

      Block it at the router, and your muscle memory will soon fade.

    • (Score: 1) by el_oscuro on Sunday February 23 2014, @11:24PM

      by el_oscuro (1711) on Sunday February 23 2014, @11:24PM (#5486)

      I of course boycotted "the old site" from the scheduled 10-17 Feb. Reading and commenting on soylentnews helped keep me from clicking on that RSS feed. Venturing back into there a few days ago, and beta is gone! The boycott appears to have worked. However the damage is done. CommanderTaco is gone and dice is in charge. It won't be long before it gets crappified again.

      Now we have Dopefish [dopefish.com] in charge. What could be cooler than that? An now soylentnews has an RSS feed so I can get my fix without having to go to "the old site"

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by SurvivorZ on Monday February 17 2014, @04:14PM

    by SurvivorZ (792) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:14PM (#1029)

    I've been active on Twitter #slashcott, and I have to say, as of 5 minutes ago, I have added the entry

    198.58.127.22 slashdot.org

    to my hosts file.

    Good bye, Slashdot! After 15 years, you broke my heart ;(

    • (Score: 1) by ls671 on Monday February 17 2014, @07:07PM

      by ls671 (891) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:07PM (#1160) Homepage

      APK, is that you?

      --
      Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
      • (Score: 1) by JeanCroix on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:47AM

        by JeanCroix (573) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:47AM (#1621)
        Shhh, that's all this place needs!
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by CmdrTaco on Monday February 17 2014, @04:15PM

    by CmdrTaco (178) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:15PM (#1030)
    Let me recommend Trove.com [trove.com]
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Koen on Monday February 17 2014, @04:16PM

    by Koen (427) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:16PM (#1034)

    There is an active group of slashdot refugees on Usenet [wikipedia.org]: comp.misc

    You can use a usenet news reader through (among others) an account at eternal-september.org [eternal-september.org] and then use a reader like Thunderbird or Pan [rebelbase.com].

    Alternatively you can get there through Google Groups [google.com] or, if you want an interface which resembles Slashdot, through s'qute [squte.com].

    Here's an article about the /. refugees on Usenet [ngrblog.com].

    --
    /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
    • (Score: 1) by Covalent on Monday February 17 2014, @04:43PM

      by Covalent (43) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:43PM (#1054) Journal

      Ugh. S'Qute is uglier than Beta. Pass.

      I'll stick with Soylent for now, thanks.

      --
      You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
      • (Score: 1) by Koen on Monday February 17 2014, @04:54PM

        by Koen (427) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:54PM (#1066)

        "Ugh. S'Qute is uglier than Beta."

        True. But my beef with Beta is not the esthetics, it's the loss of functionality.

        The impressive thing about s'qute is that it builds a slashdot-like interface with moderation etc... on top of Usenet. If one day Slashdot or SoylentNews folds, all old comments are gone. If s'qute or Google Groups go down, all comments are still available through Usenet's distributed database.

        --
        /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
      • (Score: 5, Informative) by tdk on Monday February 17 2014, @04:58PM

        by tdk (346) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:58PM (#1070) Homepage Journal

        I'm the developer of s'qute. It's a proof of concept not a beauty contest.
        You can always use custom style sheets [mozilla.org], and when you're happy with them, send them to me and I'll add them as an option on the site.

        --
        Moderated Usenet [squte.com]
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kru on Monday February 17 2014, @07:30PM

          by kru (795) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:30PM (#1174)

          This is why Slashdot (and now Soylent and other alt sites) are awesome. Some user posts a comment about an unknown (to me) utility and the actual developer him/her-self chimes in with a brief and useful reply. That's the sort of stuff that I've been missing.

    • (Score: 1) by forsythe on Monday February 17 2014, @04:56PM

      by forsythe (831) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:56PM (#1068)

      While I must second the recommendation for Usenet, I ask those interested to please, PLEASE not use the Google Groups interface. The post editor does strange things to quoting, provides no sane way to limit line length, etc. Posts made through Google Groups are very irritating to read unless the author formats them meticulously.

    • (Score: 1) by Aiwendil on Monday February 17 2014, @05:07PM

      by Aiwendil (531) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:07PM (#1082)

      Speaking of newsreaders I'm a fan of slrn. It's a nice little commandline* newsreader that has all the functions one really wants, and take a little while to set up to taste.

      I also recommend eternal september as a newsserver.

      * = crossplatform, originally for unix-like platforms, dates back to 1994, last update was in 2012, and yes, it's in debian so just apt-get it.

      • (Score: 1) by cykros on Monday February 17 2014, @07:30PM

        by cykros (989) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:30PM (#1173)

        Tin is another reasonable option, if you're for whatever reason not happy with slrn. It's what I got the hang of quickest back in my early *nix days, and has aged just fine.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by cykros on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM

      by cykros (989) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:24PM (#1171)

      Usenet has been almost surprisingly working quite well for us for the last week, though naturally, there's no moderation system in place. On the plus side, I get to write my posts in Vim (emacs would work too, but that'd be a questionable decision :-P)

      • (Score: 1) by wjwlsn on Monday February 17 2014, @11:53PM

        by wjwlsn (171) on Monday February 17 2014, @11:53PM (#1377) Homepage Journal

        Hail Vim! :)

        I agree about comp.misc... it has been a good place to be during the past week. There seems to be good core group of insightful posters there, and the signal-to-noise ratio has been high. I think all of us would agree, though, that more participants would be very welcome.

        --
        I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
    • (Score: 1) by paulej72 on Monday February 17 2014, @08:23PM

      by paulej72 (58) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:23PM (#1203) Journal

      Can someone who is already setup post to usenet about this site? They may want to hear about it.

      --
      Team Leader for SN Development Dev Server [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 1) by Koen on Monday February 17 2014, @09:45PM

        by Koen (427) on Monday February 17 2014, @09:45PM (#1274)

        Can someone who is already setup post to usenet about this site? They may want to hear about it.

        At comp.misc everybody is aware of SoylentNews.

        Which of the 110,000* other newsgroups on usenet would you like to inform? I'll put a note on alt.folklore.computers [alt.folklore.computers].

        --

        * Wikipedia estimates [wikipedia.org] that 20,000 of those are still active, but that number is tagged [citation needed].

        --
        /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
        • (Score: 1) by paulej72 on Monday February 17 2014, @10:45PM

          by paulej72 (58) on Monday February 17 2014, @10:45PM (#1307) Journal

          How about the one in your sig. I figured I did not need to mention it because of the context of this thread.

          --
          Team Leader for SN Development Dev Server [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 1) by wjwlsn on Monday February 17 2014, @11:40PM

            by wjwlsn (171) on Monday February 17 2014, @11:40PM (#1364) Homepage Journal

            We've had multiple posts about SoylentNews on comp.misc during the past week. I posted the one announcing that the site had gone live, immediately after signing up here myself.

            --
            I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
        • (Score: 1) by JeanCroix on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:57AM

          by JeanCroix (573) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:57AM (#1627)

          Which of the 110,000* other newsgroups on usenet would you like to inform?

          All of them, of course.

          Regards,

          Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, Esq.

    • (Score: 1) by dry on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:03AM

      by dry (223) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:03AM (#1383)

      There's also aioe.org as a free usenet server and I've been using astraweb.com as payed usenet server. Astraweb is very cheap if you only use text, something like $10 for 5GBs, at least that is what it was some years back when I signed up.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitaria nism
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:18PM (#1035)
    You could try http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/ [unnecessaryquotes.com]
    • (Score: 1) by Open4D on Monday February 17 2014, @06:25PM

      by Open4D (371) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:25PM (#1127) Journal

      > You could try http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/ [unnecessaryquotes.com]

      If you are referring to "News for Nerds" quoted in the headline then I think you're wrong. Firstly, the quote marks help to emphasize that the term really is being used as a quote (it's part of Slashdot's tag-line) rather than just generically. Secondly the quote marks tie those 3 words together for their purpose in the sentence, which is as a 'modifier' applying to the word "Sites".

      Not convinced? Then why not ask the people at that blog you linked to?

      Anyway, I commend you for trying, but it's probably worth you building up your expertise in this area before your next attempt.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:22PM (#1037)

    Gaynigger seed contains all the nutrition you need. While you suck, your nigger master will tell you the news. Don't forget to swallow.

    • (Score: 1) by animal on Monday February 17 2014, @04:29PM

      by animal (202) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:29PM (#1042)

      Really I don't think racist comments belong here.

      • (Score: 1) by Koen on Monday February 17 2014, @04:39PM

        by Koen (427) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:39PM (#1049)

        "Really I don't think racist comments belong here."

        I completely agree. However, there is no way to prevent this without giving up anonymous posting - and I think many of us don't want to pay that price.

        Somebody with mod points will mod it down soon enough - if not: don't feed the troll and ignore him.

        --
        /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:41PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:41PM (#1052)

          New site needs trolls. Soylent News is White People. Crackers be tasty.

        • (Score: 1) by animal on Monday February 17 2014, @04:44PM

          by animal (202) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:44PM (#1057)

          I don't mind foul language. Nothing really wrong with it. But I think we are all above racism.
          I had 10 moderator points and wanted to delete the comment and couldn't find out how lol.
          So please any mod can delete this AC's comment?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:49PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:49PM (#1061)

            Censor the animal! Censorship for some, bite site soy protein bars for others. Idiot.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by unitron on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM

            by unitron (70) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM (#1085) Journal

            Once you start deleting comments, where do you draw the line?

            That's why those type of comments can be modded down to -1.

            If you don't browse at -1, you never see them, but we avoid the slippery slope of censorship.

            --
            something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:23PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:23PM (#1093)

          Comments such as these are the essence of the community, they are to ignored and down-moderated.

        • (Score: 1) by koreanbabykilla on Monday February 17 2014, @06:28PM

          by koreanbabykilla (968) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:28PM (#1129)

          Speaking of mod points, it is weird seeing the familiar interface, but not having any. lol

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:39PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:39PM (#1050)

        Oh well... it even feels like the slashdot now

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:02PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:02PM (#1075)

        You must be new h... uhh, never mind.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by tristram on Monday February 17 2014, @05:19PM

        by tristram (836) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:19PM (#1090)

        Really I don't think racist comments belong here.

        Well, if you're trying to replace Slashdot, then they certainly do.

        This type of community is always going to attract trolls. The trick is to find ways to deal with the problem without making discussion worthless.

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Iskender on Monday February 17 2014, @05:56PM

          by Iskender (470) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:56PM (#1112)

          >Well, if you're trying to replace Slashdot, then they certainly do.

          This a thousand times! We need junk.

          We need it because it's part of the Slash culture, but also because AC is the only way for some to post about their employers, post interesting but controversial links and so on. Anonymity gives rise to bad posts, but without it everyone will behave so well, they will never manage to say the most interesting things.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:55PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:55PM (#1148)

          One idiot posting racist crap has 10 others comment on it, spraying around the same subject line even on +5 posts.

  • (Score: 1) by wjwlsn on Monday February 17 2014, @04:25PM

    by wjwlsn (171) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:25PM (#1038) Homepage Journal

    There has been a good amount of message traffic in comp.misc during the past week. You can check it out at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.misc [google.com] or http://squte.com/groups/comp.misc [squte.com] ... or if you have a newsreader but no Usenet feed, sign up at http://www.eternal-september.org/ [eternal-september.org] for free text-only newsgroup read & post access.

    Many people observing the Slashcott have been at comp.misc, and there have been quite a few food discussions going.

    --
    I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
  • (Score: 1) by cmn32480 on Monday February 17 2014, @04:28PM

    by cmn32480 (443) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:28PM (#1041) Journal

    Some threads from the past week had a few hundred comments... most topped out at 100. Some as high as 600-650.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by gallondr00nk on Monday February 17 2014, @05:41PM

      by gallondr00nk (392) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:41PM (#1102)

      There's a discussion on the comp.misc about the boycott entering a second week. [google.com] It's pointed out that while the comments are still plentiful, not that many are moderated as +4 or +5.

      Looking at /. again today, I was initially disappointed by the small impact it seemed have on the comment numbers, but it's worth remembering the quality of comment is more important.

      As for the topic, I mainly read comp.misc and Ars. I was pleasantly surprised by the comments section of the latter, which I've never bothered with before. Not /. standard, but it certainly has a decent SNR.

      • (Score: 1) by dmc on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:31AM

        by dmc (188) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:31AM (#1394)

        "
        As for the topic, I mainly read comp.misc and Ars. I was pleasantly surprised by the comments section of the latter, which I've never bothered with before. Not /. standard, but it certainly has a decent SNR.
        "

        Same basic comment here. I'll add that what I don't like about the Ars comment system is the unthreadedness of it. Combined with good moderation and high quality comments, and you get IMO a better picture of both sides of the debate. I.e. the common situation of a particular well known point getting modded highly, but then right next to it, the less known but insightful counterargument upmodded. On Ars it seems any insightful counter to a highly modded well known point gets kind of lost in the noise and distance from the 'parent' comment.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by evk on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:54AM

        by evk (597) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:54AM (#1474)

        Boycott? What boycott? Sure they changed the domain name and went from green to red, but I still think _this_ is a great site.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by VLM on Monday February 17 2014, @04:37PM

    by VLM (445) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:37PM (#1047)

    We could make jokes all day about the stereotypes found on HN, because, frankly, it is extremely stereotypical, but on a regular basis you'll find something cool.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Angry Jesus on Monday February 17 2014, @06:26PM

      by Angry Jesus (182) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:26PM (#1128)

      The problem with HN is the arbitrary and opaque "hell-ban." They make it hard to even know you've been banned - your posts are only visible to your account (and other people who have set an obscure flag). I set the flag because I was just fiddling with knobs one day. I saw a few people who have been submitting stories and writing posts in good faith for months not realizing that they were invisible to everyone else. Going back through their post history to see when they got hell-banned didn't reveal anything particularly egregious either so it isn't like they "should have known."

      I'm sure it isn't intentionally malicious, but the effect is just outright cruel. No notification and if you do figure it out, there is no mechanism for appeal either. Given that HN is the creation of a big famous venture capitalist, I thought it was a pretty good metaphor for the industry's focus on being clever blinding them to how their work can so easily dehumanize people.

    • (Score: 1) by everdred on Monday February 17 2014, @07:25PM

      by everdred (110) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:25PM (#1172) Homepage Journal

      > but on a regular basis you'll find something cool

      I subscribed to HackerNews's front page RSS feed for a little while, but found the post volume to be unbearable. For a little while, it almost seemed like the quality of the 'signal' posts was enough to make the low signal-to-noise ratio worth putting up with...

      --
      We don't take no shit from a machine.
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Udo Schmitz on Monday February 17 2014, @04:38PM

    by Udo Schmitz (625) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:38PM (#1048)
    You already have your hands in ... the snack that's people ...
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Papas Fritas on Monday February 17 2014, @04:50PM

    by Papas Fritas (570) on Monday February 17 2014, @04:50PM (#1063) Journal

    I think I will read both flavors of slash for a while.

    If I find one to be more interesting I will just naturally drift over to spending more time on it to the eventual exclusion of the other.

    It is all going to depend on the quality of the stories and the quality of the community that builds up.

    In any case, just having Solynet News up and running is going to be a strong motivator for Dice to continue maintaining the classic version of slashdot in parallel with the beta version which is what I am most interested in.

    So it's all good.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @04:55PM (#1067)

      How soon before Soylent Beta? It is inevitable.

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday March 22 2014, @11:28PM

      by Reziac (2489) on Saturday March 22 2014, @11:28PM (#19875) Homepage

      Same here. And Pipedot too, when I remember. (No daily mailer yet. :(

      Tho of late I find myself spending more time on SN than on /.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM

    by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:11PM (#1086) Homepage

    I am doing the last bit of work before bringing Technocrat.net back online today. The software is brand new, and not as functional as the slashcode here (moderation doesn't work yet) but it's going in a different direction that I hope will raise the level of discourse. No ACs. Extra status for people who post using their real name. Moderation of submissions once they're published (Haven't you wanted to down-moderate bad articles on Slashdot?). Moderation of comments on two axes: comportment (behavior) and content. Editors get to delete comments, the garbage we're so used to on Slashdot doesn't get to stick around. Optimized for caching (I serve through Cloudflare, so this is a scalability thing, but if you can use a proxy it helps there, too). Minimal Javascript (you need Javacript to moderate, and to submit, but not to read at all). Device agnostic. Very sparse styling.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:22PM (#1091)

      Sounds horrid. I'll stick to Soylent, but thanks for trying to poach from a brand new site!

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Schafer2 on Monday February 17 2014, @05:57PM

      by Schafer2 (348) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:57PM (#1113)

      Bruce
      For those that don't recognize the name, Google Bruce Perens. He has a long, solid history with our community. He's helped define the open source movement, lead Debian, and your home router is probably running some of his code.

      Technocrat.net
      As the /. beta progressed, I thought his resurrection of Technocrat.net would be the best option, and said so. While working on the site, it would have been nice if he had URL forwarded Technocrat.net to Slashdot classic--it would have been a great way to indicate who was ready to move, both to ourselves and to Dice.

      Technocrat.net vs. SoylentNews
      It was disappointing to see Bruce take a dig at the SoylentNews team on the Technocrat.net placeholder page. Due to the heroic efforts of the SN team, I've already changed out my /. links. Of course, I'll give Technocrat.net a try once ready, but I feel really good about SN starting out from the best of what /. was in the past.

      • (Score: 0) by buswolley on Monday February 17 2014, @06:06PM

        by buswolley (848) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:06PM (#1118)

        Well. Welcome. :)
        The revolution turns on itself?
        nah...there isnt a revolution.

        --
        subicular junctures
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @06:39PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:39PM (#1137) Homepage

        What was I supposed to forward to? Soylent news just went live yesterday, at which point I already had news about the new site debut posted at technocrat.net.

        I'm impressed by the success of the SN team with the old slashcode. But IMO, the Slashcode has always been a pain to maintain (I ran it a long time ago) and the effort to bring it forward to work with today's software will get thrown away, unless you want to stick with that software forever, which isn't the best idea. I know spending any more time with that code would have made me really unhappy. And it took me a week to bring up basic Rails code with many the features I wanted, from zero, working alone. It would have taken less time, but I've had to get up to speed with changes in Rails 3 and 4 since I've done much web development.

        • (Score: 2) by tdk on Monday February 17 2014, @07:03PM

          by tdk (346) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:03PM (#1155) Homepage Journal

          When I first set up squte.com as a slashdot look-a-like, I tried to use slashcode but found it so difficult, that like you I gave it up for a more modern framework. Other people had similar problems. [kuro5hin.org]

          All of which just makes the achievements of the soylent news dev team more impressive. Maybe they should move to something more modern - but the goal was to get something as similar to /. up as quickly as possible. There'll be plenty of time later to experiment.

          --
          Moderated Usenet [squte.com]
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:31AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:31AM (#2186)

            As others have pointed out, the "killer" feature of Slashcode is the mod/commenting system. So far, no other forum code has been able to match it feature-for-feature, but I'm sure a lot of developers out there have recently been inspired to try!

    • (Score: 1) by anthem on Monday February 17 2014, @06:29PM

      by anthem (17) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:29PM (#1131)

      > No ACs.
      > Extra status for people who post using their real name.
      > Editors get to delete comments, the garbage we're so used to on Slashdot doesn't get to stick around.

      Given the above, I have no desire to support your venture as a would be user. Just personal preference. The craziness of AC trolls or registered trolls is a force of its own, and when I don't want to see it I just filter out -1.

      This is also way different than Slashdot / Soylent news philosophy - Not like that's wrong but why do you take a slight at Soylent News on your site. Or it seems like you do. Good luck sincerely, but the tone of your comment turns me off to your idea.

      • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @06:51PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:51PM (#1144) Homepage

        Yes, I understand that I will lose some people this way. I must have the courage to lose them if I want to try new stuff. It might work, in which case it would be worth it.

        I explained in another comment my feelings regarding the old slashcode, please see that.

    • (Score: 2) by koreanbabykilla on Monday February 17 2014, @06:33PM

      by koreanbabykilla (968) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:33PM (#1132)

      But the "garbage we are used to on ./" gets handled by the moderation system. Nothing being deleted means I can surf at -1 and see all the stuff the moderators don't want on the site. There is some good shit at -1 sometimes. I think the non-ability to edit/delete posts is the best part of slashcode.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @06:48PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:48PM (#1142) Homepage

        I'm pretty sure you can present any information whatsoever without being a troll, and I'd like to promote more people learning how to do that and how to participate in a civil discussion. Unfortunately, presenting trolls at -1 rewards the trolls, because they will be read by some segment of the audience. Rewarding the trolls means they will repeat their behavior. Wiping out their mess as quickly as possible means they've wasted their time and demotivates them from repeating bad conduct.

        There's a famous social study about leaving a car on a city street with a broken window, and it being on blocks with the wheels gone within a short time, when a similar car without a broken window remained untouched. Slashdot is like that, it actually promotes its bad conduct.

        So, what if we try to never reward bad conduct, and consistently reward the good?

        • (Score: 1) by koreanbabykilla on Monday February 17 2014, @06:56PM

          by koreanbabykilla (968) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:56PM (#1150)

          Interesting thought. I would always worry the "Powers that be" at any site that deletes trolls instead of modbombing them, would at some point delete a "troll" that would have been something ontopic I would like to discuss. Perhaps some notifier that a post was deleted with a link to the deleted content so people can verify what is being removed is what ought to be?

          That being said, I'm no Bruce Perens, so I will for sure be trying anything you think is a good idea.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kru on Monday February 17 2014, @07:48PM

          by kru (795) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:48PM (#1180)

          The loss of ACs is a devastating blow to the discussion of a site. Many people want to express views or admit ignorance in the security that their self wont be injured by the revelations. Anonymity allows growth in ways that its absence wont. Anonymity can also be abused for trolling, and it will be, but to remove it completely may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I was looking forward to technocrat all week, and I will likely still give it a chance. However, I am deeply disappointed in the loss of AC. I hope that you reconsider this one aspect.

          • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @08:19PM

            by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:19PM (#1200) Homepage

            What is the problem with Pseudonomity, as presently exercised on Slashdot? Peolple post from handles and you don't learn their names unless you reveal them.

            • (Score: 1) by koreanbabykilla on Monday February 17 2014, @09:10PM

              by koreanbabykilla (968) on Monday February 17 2014, @09:10PM (#1241)

              Do you think killing anon will just up the number of sockpuppet accounts? I might as well be an AC on ./ and here, for all the good knowing "Koreanbabykilla" does anyone. I made the ./ account, and stay logged in, simply so it will remember I want to browse at -1 nested. Now, if I post enough, people will be able to form some picture of who I am. If I then want to post something that could cause loss of a job or freedom or such, I would need a sockpuppet if there is no AC option. Not anything I ever will need to worry about, but I think something to think about.

              • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:53AM

                by Bruce Perens (916) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:53AM (#1473) Homepage

                Yes, pseudonymity is the alternative to being an AC. A sock-puppet, on the other hand, is intended to be deceptive. I have some vague thoughts on using reputation to discourage them. It helps that I have the comportment axis for comment moderation, that might catch them. We would need to show reputation values right next to their user ID (rather than moderating the comment). I'll work on it.

                • (Score: 1) by Aiwendil on Tuesday February 18 2014, @07:53AM

                  by Aiwendil (531) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @07:53AM (#1545)

                  Just a crazy idea if you implement reputation. Allow registered users to post with their uid/username hidden, and apply all reputation-changing effects to the poster and as soon as it isn't possible to moderate the comment anymore (archiving or maybe time-limit) unlink all references between the "posted as hidden"-comment and the account (excepting the reputation-changes).
                  This would allow for an anonymity that still incurs a "cost" on the account for trolls.

    • (Score: 1) by Hombre on Monday February 17 2014, @06:41PM

      by Hombre (977) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:41PM (#1138)

      Sounds (mostly) interesting. Not sure about letting editors delete comments (unless they're so completely off topic or unambiguously flamebait, but even then... isn't that what moderation is for?)

      As someone who does not code and has no interest in coding*, will I still find Technocrat interesting? I liked /. just fine I like having a news aggregator for technical type stuff, even if much if it doesn't apply to me, and I like having it presented in a style that doesn't look like someone just puked all over my web browser. So if Technocrat fits the bill, I'll hang out there too.

      Do you mind if we just call you Bruce? You know, just to keep it clear. It'll cut down on all the confusion.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:49PM (#1143)

      You can't have honest commentary without the ability for people to post anonymously. Unless your site takes countermeasures, people can still make up a name; wouldn't it be better to just let people be open with their anonymity? :)

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but "real" names won't improve anything over fake names in terms of concern over one's reputation, but I can see advertisers lick their fingers for that data.

      I think I would prefer a site like SoylentNews instead.

      • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @07:05PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:05PM (#1158) Homepage

        Correct me if I'm wrong, but "real" names won't improve anything over fake names in terms of concern over one's reputation, but I can see advertisers lick their fingers for that data.

        I doubt we'll be able to compete with Facebook in that market!

        I have been posting under my real name for a long time. I even put my phone number on the web: 1-510-4PERENS. And my email's on my web site. It doesn't get me additional advertising. I do get additional advertising from what I look at on some store web sites, though.

    • (Score: 1) by chebucto on Monday February 17 2014, @07:00PM

      by chebucto (36) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:00PM (#1152) Journal

      In terms of subjects covered, with technocrat.net fill in some of the gaps left by groklaw's closure?

      Thanks for your work on this. I look forward to seeing technocrat.net. After years of decline at slashdot, we now have Soylent news, pipedot, and technocrat.net . Exciting times!

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @07:08PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:08PM (#1162) Homepage

        Yes, I would like to dedicate one of the first discussions on Technocrat.net to planning what we will do to replace Groklaw. I am not sure that news blog software is the right platform. Maybe a wiki?

    • (Score: 1) by tristram on Monday February 17 2014, @07:02PM

      by tristram (836) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:02PM (#1154)

      Haven't you already pulled the plug on technocrat.net twice already? Not to give offense, but why would anybody want to move their community to a site with that track record?

      If you can contribute software that improves upon Slash, that's valuable -- but I'm not sure that trying to suck people to your site is where you should be expending your effort.

      • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Monday February 17 2014, @07:11PM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:11PM (#1165) Homepage

        Yes, I pulled the plug twice, mostly due to lack of readership and having more important uses of my time (because the lack of readership didn't make the activity worthwhile). The only difference now is that Slashdot stinks worse than it did back then.

        If you can contribute software that improves upon Slash, that's valuable -- but I'm not sure that trying to suck people to your site is where you should be expending your effort.

        This brings us back to the lack of readership issue. It's a chicken-and-egg problem, isn't it?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @07:18PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @07:18PM (#1167)

          I have to disagree with your ideas. Your site failed once, due to a lack of readership. I am not interested in visiting it in the future as I feel it will probably fail again. In fact coming here to get users will likely result in neither site having enough users to make it worthwhile. Good luck to you, but I have no intention of switching again. I can appreciate that you are trying to do good things, but I have no desire in the community splintering any more then it already has.

          • (Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Monday February 17 2014, @09:02PM

            by hemocyanin (186) on Monday February 17 2014, @09:02PM (#1235)

            I don't think there will be so much competition between the sites -- Maybe I'm unique, though I doubt it -- I have a series of sites I check everyday. The existence of one does not make me avoid the others at all.

        • (Score: 1) by tristram on Monday February 17 2014, @08:28PM

          by tristram (836) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:28PM (#1210)

          Well, this response kind of tells me that when you lose interest again, you'll yank it yet again.

          This brings us back to the lack of readership issue. It's a chicken-and-egg problem, isn't it?

          An obvious solution would be to try to work with those who produced this site, rather than working against them. Yes, they may not have a history of success in running a discussion site -- but at least they don't have a history of failure.

          I don't know whether the administrators here are married to the idea of using Slash or not, but hopefully they're at least willing to take a look at available alternatives.

    • (Score: 1) by Khyber on Monday February 17 2014, @07:16PM

      by Khyber (54) on Monday February 17 2014, @07:16PM (#1166) Journal

      Despite the ribbing you get, Bruce, you've done a great service to the community as a whole over the years. For that, thanks!

      --
      Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @11:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @11:38PM (#1361)

      Oh wow. Until someone else commented, I did not realise the who the person was.

      Bruce, what time zine do you live in. I want to check http://technocrat.net/ [technocrat.net] first thing in the morning in your TZ.

      • (Score: 1) by Bruce Perens on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:57AM

        by Bruce Perens (916) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:57AM (#1475) Homepage

        It's not going on the air until around mid-day (US-Pacific) Tuesday. For regular articles, I have given submitters the power to choose the publication start date (although editors can override) so that you can set your articles to run when you'll be awake.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by unitron on Monday February 17 2014, @05:13PM

    by unitron (70) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:13PM (#1089) Journal

    ...check out theregister.co.uk

    If for no other reason than the occasional BOFH episode.

    --
    something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
  • (Score: 1) by sgleysti on Monday February 17 2014, @05:27PM

    by sgleysti (56) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:27PM (#1095)
    Matter [medium.com] may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it does have a slow trickle of brilliant long-form journalism on topics that slashdotters or soylentils would find appealing.

    It seems to be more deep and thoughtful than most news articles on /., for instance.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by aliks on Monday February 17 2014, @05:49PM

    by aliks (357) on Monday February 17 2014, @05:49PM (#1107)

    phys.org

    is pretty good.

    And this is my first post on Soylent!!

    --
    Fraid my stuff is just Soylent Red
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by linuxci on Monday February 17 2014, @06:01PM

    by linuxci (913) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:01PM (#1115)
    I recommend fuckbeta.slashdot.org [slashdot.org] :) go on there and spread the news, show Dice that they made a big mistake.

    It does feel like a trip down memory lane using this old version of the slash code base. It just shows that the owners of slashdot gave up on releasing their updates long before dice.

    This does mean there's a Goidelic chance this site could become a better slashdot than slashdot.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @06:08PM (#1119)
    It depends a bit on the exact tech niche you are interested in but both http://reddit.com/r/technology/ [reddit.com] and http://news.ycombinator.com/ [ycombinator.com] are good options to check out with strong communities.
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by tomtomtom on Monday February 17 2014, @09:19PM

      by tomtomtom (340) on Monday February 17 2014, @09:19PM (#1252)
      One of the topics on the HN front page right now is "Ask HN: What are some alternatives to HN?" [ycombinator.com]. It's Turtles all the way down, it seems...
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @10:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @10:25PM (#1296)

        All those pages of subreddits makes me laugh. Too funny.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by lubricus on Monday February 17 2014, @06:42PM

    by lubricus (232) on Monday February 17 2014, @06:42PM (#1140)

    Another vote for Ars Technica. I especially like their general science reporting. ...of course, the experience is different: the stories are reported, and the comments are less useful.

    Which I prefer (the more top-down experience of a long, well reported piece, or a more bottom-up approach of a well-moderated crowd) really depends on the subject of the piece.

    I have been surprised though, when I didn't expect there were any more viewpoints on a story, only to be proven wrong by the crowd.

    --
    ... sorry about the typos
    • (Score: 1) by gilgalad55 on Monday February 17 2014, @10:23PM

      by gilgalad55 (314) on Monday February 17 2014, @10:23PM (#1295)

      I agree -- I find Ars to be a nice balance of science reporting and tech reporting.

      I also enjoy the -- typically nostalgic -- editorial comment. E.g., the recent diatribe about the Star Wars expanded universe :)

  • (Score: 1) by Popeidol on Monday February 17 2014, @10:04PM

    by Popeidol (35) on Monday February 17 2014, @10:04PM (#1284) Homepage Journal

    Everybody else has covered most of the good sites, so here's a few Australian-specific sources for those who like to keep up with local news.

    http://delimiter.com.au/ [delimiter.com.au] - Independent news site. Covers most topics, but spends a lot of time on politics
    http://www.itnews.com.au/ [itnews.com.au] - Primarily business IT.
    http://whirlpool.net.au/ [whirlpool.net.au] - A good round-up of local news. Their discussion forums should be your first port of call to discuss anything tech.
    http://www.overclockers.com.au/ [overclockers.com.au] - forums with a hardware bent, but they have regular news posts on the main page (and RSS).

  • (Score: 1) by bryan on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:00AM

    by bryan (29) <bryan@pipedot.org> on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:00AM (#1381) Homepage Journal

    shameless plug - http://pipedot.org/ [pipedot.org]

  • (Score: 1) by tdk on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:33PM

    by tdk (346) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:33PM (#1730) Homepage Journal

    Some sites I like:
    http://www.osnews.com/ [osnews.com]
    http://xkcd.com/ [xkcd.com]
    http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/ [lowtechmagazine.com]
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/ [theregister.co.uk]

    --
    Moderated Usenet [squte.com]
  • (Score: 1) by Hyper on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:44AM

    by Hyper (1525) on Thursday February 20 2014, @08:44AM (#3389)

    http://thedailywtf.com/ [thedailywtf.com]

    They are out there. They walk among us. You will never know them until you see their code, read their helpdesk ticket or watch them work.