Slashdot is going the way of the buffalo because the intelligent posters are migrating toward other forums while the trolls and crapflooders overrun the stories. Add to that the fact that the journalistic integrity there is NIL (Chris DiBona is especially irritating, as well as CmdrTaco) and you have a losing combination. Not only can I *not* trust what I read there, but there's so little intelligent discussion that reading it is an insult to my intelligence (and yours, too). The intelligent posts hardly ever get modded up, many of the lame posts hardly ever get modded down. It sucks. That's why I hate the fact that I reload that page every 10 minutes - it is habit, and one that has formed over the past 3 years. I have visited that page 100 times daily for over 3 years now, and I am in such a habit of doing so that I cannot break out of it. Yet, there is never anything there for me. The karma cap, quite honestly, takes the fun out of posting. I wish "karma" didn't exist at all, because it's severely broken. At 50 points with 2 +5 mod's in the last few days (on a relatively new account, no less), I can post whatever I want and still have the +2 bonus. Many people take advantage of this. Then they get modded right back up on something else equally stupid. Slashdot used to be something special. But that quality that it once had is now rarely found. I don't know if they actually "sold out" and that caused it or what, but the fact of the matter is that Slashdot is no longer "News for Nerds". It is "Biased Articles Posted by 'Authors' That Have No Fact-Checking Ability Whatsoever". Some of it is just plain fucking bullshit - see JonKatz's article on the Afghani that emailed him.
Worst of all, Slashdot has tricked the world into thinking that it represents Linux. What a shame that is, because it's now a "community" of screaming children that drown out the intelligent conversation of respectable adults. I hate it, yet I am uncontrollably drawn to it. One day, I shall break this habit. One day...
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