“One of our readers described the problem as "slashvertisements".”Parables and all aside, too many people are beginning to raise concerns about Slashdot as a portal which revolves around geeks and open source news. I get E-mails about this from several people. The Web talks about this also. The last voice of complaint (just hours ago, as a matter of fact) comes from noooxml.org, which spotted something that other people spotted as well.
Sladshdot is filled with a great deal of 'fluff' nowadays (less technology, more of the rest), which is reminiscent of Digg's steep decline as a technology Web site. It is not easy to find a good explanation for this, but here are some experimental observations, courtesy of ours readers.
In recent week we raised concerns and passed on complaints about Slashdot's somewhat unhealthy news bias, which was reported by long-time subscribers. One of our readers described the problem as "slashvertisements". We covered more than a couple of examples fairly recently. You are encouraged to read these if you haven't because we strive to reduce repetition of arguments and recycle links/text instead.
Nothing seems to have changed since the last time. One reader of ours writes:
[reader: ]
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[reader: ]
“There are few other conclusions other than someone with access to Slashdot has been fiddling the tags.”There are few other conclusions other than someone with access to Slashdot has been fiddling the tags. If more were known about Slashdot's tagging process, it would be possible to say more precisely how much it's being gamed from the outside and how much requires help from the inside.
Certainly Slashdot is being spammed lately. Laundering of the tags may be separate or part of it.
[...]
PS. I wrote that about at least 10 hours ago and lost focus before sending. During that time I started to cache articles as PDF for printing on Monday. I thought it would be a small number, but after 5 hours, I've wearied. There are as many, if not more, articles complaining about how Microsoft Vista sucks, than there were for XP or even XP SP2. As usual, these are coming from various windows oriented magazines.
[...]
Irregardless of what the group may call itself, it operates like a political movement or a cult. If you have eyes, you can see it. If you have ears, you can hear it. However, if neither are good enough, then the court provides you with the cult's own words about how it works: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071023002351958
Damage from Windows-only malware runs into the billions of dollars annually, just for the USA. The cult of Microsoft even causes great damage in terms of stifling competition and innovation. Add to that the damage the low quality design and development cause. From Windows you get late trains, delayed planes, power outages, misplaced contracts, the works. It's so bad in places that many tasks would be more efficient if they dropped not just Windows but computers.
[...]
It's perfectly legal for armed services, under the direction of their national government, to respond to threats to national sovereignty. Bill's got to be the biggest seen since the British. Though one could make a case that the militias have a stake in things and should respond in kind.
Osama is a problem and has caused damage. He also small potatoes compared to Bill, if one counts in dollars. Though as Windows heads into critical components or infrastructure, you start to be able to tally a body count as well. The east coast US power outage is attributable to Microsoft, so was the 5 hour airspace shutdown in California. California is the world's 7th largest economy. How much damage is done daily from just the Windows malware? When you start to get into the problems from other design defects, the figures go higher. At some point even a raw dollar value begins to cost lives because resources are then coming from things that increase safety, reduce risk, increase health, etc.
Or take a milder approach. Look at XP SP1 licensing.
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/
Ask executives at 20 random businesses the following:
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Comments
Woods
2008-03-10 07:50:22
As an aside, the Pentagon data theft was also attributed to flaws in Windows: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/06/pentagon_breach_assessment/
Are there any examples of people/groups having been invited to Microsoft, who have *not* bowed down? (assuming in the first place than any bowing down actually happens...)
CoolGuy
2008-03-10 09:44:22
Roy Schestowitz
2008-03-10 10:02:23
http://esr.ibiblio.org/index.php?p=208
:-)
chair.emballmer
2008-03-10 11:33:39
i feel microsoft eventually will crumble under their own weight of corruption, it is a matter of time. honest people within may help speed up the evolution.
Roy Schestowitz
2008-03-10 11:44:32
Microsoft challenges 'Vista Capable' class action
"If granted, the motion would also postpone any new disclosures of potentially embarrassing company e-mails."
I still opine that for each such leaked dirty trick (with hundreds more here and here, there must be like 10 more that go along with people into their graves. Intel and Microsoft thriving in crime is nothing new (not to me at least, having watched them closely for a couple of years).
Intel's antitrust in the EU resumes today. Microsoft is already running low in terms of cash (yes, it's true, but it's not to be confused with wealth of employees -- both past and present). The next few years will be particularly interesting.
Victor Soliz
2008-03-10 13:21:27
Look at this: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/07/1854247
I submitted the same story earlier. Whatever prevented mine from getting to the home page, was not working during the time that one was submitted, that's my theory at least.
apol
2008-03-10 14:24:01
What do you think of sending a last post message there?... Here is mine:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=482032&cid=22700566
We can eventually make a collection of links to last post messages... If we all write use "last post" string in the message it's even easy to search.
I wrote a random ontopic message to avoid OT moderation...
Thanks for the investigative effort, apol
Roy Schestowitz
2008-03-10 14:32:50
It would be interesting to know who runs the show. I noticed that Rob Malda rarely runs /. nowadays. His name is attached to very few posts. I know nothing about kdawson and I rarely find Zonk and Tim. A shift in editorial power is probably the thing to look into. Where is old-skool Slashdot? The frequency of Linux stories is extremely low.
RlillySR
2008-03-10 15:22:53
Roy Schestowitz
2008-03-10 15:43:34
It's not the first by the way. To just quote one friend, with whom I shared thoughts about a pattern was identified and seen for quite some time:
This may be a form of viral marketing from Microsoft and it works because people blog about it, having seen it in Slashdot. I've seen the viral effect, which only increased dissatisfaction with Slashdot seeding it all. Sometimes it's not even news, but just a pointer to Microsoft jobs (as in Silverlight's case).
More on Microsoft's viral marketing here. There is a long history to it, so suspicion seems justified. And to add another quote from a friend: