What's wrong?... easy... but digg and the register are worse
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| Author | Content |
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| sxf Mar 12, 2006 12:45 PM EDT |
Slashdot used to have editors who knew what they were talking about, real developers with relevant expertise (e.g. Jim Jarielski - apologies if I spell his name incorrectly - on the Apache sub-forum). People who did know straight away what a story was worth, and did their job with admiring professionalism. Then the company was bought. I agree with you, this was a turning point: the priorities shifted to short-term profit maximization. Dupes, sensationalism, plain misunderstanding by the editors of the issues at stake, over-coverage of talked-about issues and pseudo-scientific trivia (with questions over possible under-the-table commercial agreements with submitters never fully clarified - Roland Piquepalle anyone?) are now a everyday stuff. However, the community is still alive and well, sort-of. There is still to learn from the best comments and I still visit the site. Why? Because no other tech news aggregation service has been able to take advantage of the deterioration in quality of Slashdot. Just look at Digg. Well, where to start... Basically nobody knows what s/he talking about (until very recently, virtually all the comments were one-liners like "kwool" "shweet shtuff" and "digg"). The community is just one notch above the MySpace teens, except that they are mildly interested in technology and science as opposed to parties and boybands. And this is reflected in the average quality of the stories that make it to the first page. I don't have anything against the digg readers, don't get me wrong. But please let's not compare it to Slashdot. We'll see what happens now that readers can moderate the comments, but I pessimistic. And now let's consider the more traditional media (i.e. based on the so-called "journalists"). The Register has become the gutter press of the tech world, obviously targetting the Inquirer readership: it used to be provoking and cynical, now it's downright trollish. Ashley Vance has (allegedly) created this fictitious character, Otto Z. Stern, and publishes outrageous comments using the most colourful language possible under this nom-de-plume - a sort of poorman's imitation of Hunter S Thompson, really depressing - while bashing Wikipedia seems to have become Andrew Orlowski's main purpose in life. Trying to take the positive view, OSNews is improving - perhaps from a low-ish base (again, the comment-moderation system is taking off and there is also the possibility to rate the stories). KernelTrap has the some interesting, original pieces sometimes and Mad Penguin's reviews of Linux distros are kinda good. As for Lxer, let's just say that, as good as it is, it does not seem to be generating any comment volume worth speaking of (although I should perhaps check what is going on at LQ). Whether it is for the large number of stories posted or absence of reader-moderation, I do not know. It's not a lot, is it? There seems to be a fall in standard across the board in online tech journalism. Dvorak is becoming a role-model in the hunt for cheap clicks as yellow journalism becoming the dominant fashion (I think I know the underlying reason for this, but this comment is becoming long...) In all this, Slashdot actually is doing better than most other websites, I find. (I hope I do not get bashed for expressing my opinion). |
| tadelste Mar 12, 2006 1:08 PM EDT |
Bashed? This is LXer not /. We don't bash, except on the command line. ;-) I appreciate you taking the time for voicing your opinion and making some valid points. It gives me something about which to think. And, I sure we have readers who agree with you. |
| cjcox Mar 12, 2006 3:33 PM EDT |
I agree with the digg "teen" comment somewhat. And ... I like The Register (uk version). But it's not as good as it used to be. It used to much more like the National Inquirer of the internet. They've tamed down a lot! Every once and awhile you get a bit of "dirt" on something real at The Register. Their new conservative style (yes.. I said it) isn't as fun their old "shoot from hip" style. This is why NTLUG's news page contains feed info for LXer, Digg, Slashdot and... The Register. |
| grouch Mar 13, 2006 5:06 AM EDT |
(My first comment on LXer. Hope I'm not violating any comment norms). Glad I'm not alone in thinking TheReg has fallen off. If I ever wanted to hire a professional troll, I'd talk to Orlowski first. He seems to attack Google as much as Wikipedia. I've detected a Microsoft slant to his stories lately which is very surprising for TheReg. (Examples in support of opinion: His "OK, RIM. How about that 'public interest' audit?" began with a description of a Windows Treo tv ad, then bashed RIM for the defense they offered in court while saying Microsoft never used the 'public interest' defense. A John Lettice article in TheReg, during the anti-trust case, says MS did use such a defense, threatening to withdraw Windows from the market rather than separate IE. Orlowski's RIM-bashing article was published 3 days after RIM and NTP settled, with no patents actually remaining. Orlowski followed his high criticism of RIM just 2 days later with an article titled "Origami's the wrapper for a small PC". It included pictures worthy of ads, but the worst he could say was, "But for now it looks like a heck of a clunker. Great things should be expected next year, we were told." A day later, Orlowski's "Google offers MS-style Seattlement for click fraud suit" was published. He compares Google's offer to settle a $90 million "click fraud" suit with advertisers to MS's offer of reduced price Windows to the states. I would expect him to be harsh concerning Google, based on his expressed opinions, but I don't see any connection between the settlement offers. One merchant, without a monopoly, whose customers complained of under-reimbursement for invalid clicks on past purchases, offers credits for future purchases as a remedy. The customers agree. Another merchant, a monopoly convicted of predatory monopoly conduct, whose customers complain of predatory monopoly conduct, offers to extend its monopoly influence by spreading its monopoly product at reduced prices. The customers do not agree. Orlowski published "Only in a bubble is Google's web WP an Office-killer" 2 days after that. It's mostly a rant about "Web 2.0" but it curiously includes a quote from Joe Wilcox of microsoftmonitor.com. Checking that, you find that Joe says, "Microsoft's risk here isn't Google competition but its rival (and others) accelerating the commodization of the consumer wordprocessing functionality." No mention of Open Document Format, which seems to be terrifying MS. Joe seems to think a "highly fragmented" market is 1 monopoly vendor whose older versions of a product are still in use. He does mention OpenOffice.org 1 time in the 168KB page, "For competitors, increased complexity and increased software acquisition costs is good news. Uncertainty is a great sales opportunity. That said, I regard WordPerfect as the only really competitive product used by businesses or consumers. OpenOffice isn't there yet, if it ever will be." Curious. In the middle of talking about Web 2.0 and bubbles and blonde jokes, for an article supposedly about Google's Writely, Orlowski proclaims, "Citrix, which pioneered multi-user NT, is now offering a consumer hosting service of what it does best, in the shape of GoToMyPC, which is aimed at large enterprises as well as its primary market, SMBs. If we're using hosted services in five years' time, it'll be this, or something very much like it - with a full feature set, native clients at each end, and an internet connection between them." Citrix. A Microsoft partner.) My account on Slashdot is little used because it's been difficult to wade through the piles of misinformation to find the jewels there for years. The moderation system is notorious for fostering group-think. It obviously can be gamed by any determined group. I spent a little time there, back in 2001 when Linux Today collapsed, but there's no way I could take it on a daily basis as a place to get the news about Linux. IMO, there have been no Linux news portals to take (original) LT's place in the interim. There have been more news portals, but none with the quantity, quality, community or interaction of the old LT. It was _the_ portal to keep up with what was happening with Linux. Certainly it attracted the bad as well as the good in the commentary, but the good far outweighed the bad. I am not sure how much moderating the editors had to engage in to prevent spamming, flagrant trolling and astroturfing, but there was considerable self-policing by the commenters, too. At least there was until the editor astroturfing began and wrecked the site. LXer appears poised to fill the void left by LT. It already has the quantity, quality and focus of news links and summaries. If it hasn't already, I think LXer should begin preparing for 'member' growth spurts. I'll shut up now. Thanks for the opportunity. |
| Herschel_Cohen Mar 13, 2006 9:36 AM EDT |
You may be a grouch, but the numbers we are now seeing validate your predictions. Something about that alias I really like: grouch (nice sound to it, reminds of a Txt. / dino bash fest ...) |
| grouch Mar 13, 2006 10:48 AM EDT |
Thanks, Herschel_Cohen. I'm still doing a marathon catch-up here. It's wonderful to see some familiar names along with some new (to me) talent. Fantastic content all around! Dino and I may have growled at each other sometime in the past. :) |
| phsolide Mar 13, 2006 1:21 PM EDT |
I bailed on Slashdot when I sensed that a large proportion of the commentors seemed to have attained MSFT shill status. I'm convinced that Wagg-Edd or someone has people with multiple Slashdot Identities and that these Sock Puppets act as both pro-linux, "F*ck Microsoft!" crazies and as "centrist moderates", who say things like "To be fair, that's True of Windows, too...", or "I'm a hardcore gamer, so I have to run XP on at least one machine!" |
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