Help Shape the Future of Slashdot

Long-time readers will know that we try not to clutter the front page of Slashdot with much stuff about the site itself; this is a rare exception, but we hope you'll like the reason: we want your opinions. You should see above a link to take a survey about Slashdot, and (just to be heavy handed) here's the direct link. The questions there are simple, but we're going to read the answers carefully. The reminder bar up there will remain active for some time, but this story will scroll down the page like all Slashdot stories. Comments are welcome below; surveys have their limitations, after all, but please don't comment without also giving the survey a visit — if it makes sense, feel free to cut-and-paste any answers from there as comments, too. The engineers who build this site (and the editors, too!) are counting on your honest opinions and hoping for some great ideas; ideas outnumber the hours we have to do things, so we hope you'll make a case for the ways that Slashdot should change (and the ways it shouldn't!).

I want at least on professional editor

[onyxruby]

All I want is at least one professional editor. Somebody to do basic things like check for dupes, make sure stories aren't wholesale ripped off, basic fact checking, that kind of thing. This is done by almost every other professional news media site out there, can Slashdot please make this /one/ change?

Re:Moderation system

[snowraver1]

1) Roll the comments system version back like 6 years. Make it load fast. Make it load all the comments on a single page (according to your moderation score preferences) If i'm browsing at -1, I want to see it all.

2) Make it load faster. Sometimes pages take forever to load, then when they do load, they scroll slowly. I think this is caused by fancy javascripting or something. Just display the comments. We don't need/want any fancy web 2.0 features.

3) We need better trolls. The trolls right now are lame. What happened to GNAA? Maybe you should invite them back.

4) The comment quality is getting worse. Slashdot is now mostly mundane comments. Sure, some are funny, but most lack content.

5) Take a note from Ars Technica. They are getting better commenters, they have original content (why not have feature stories here). Ars's commenting system sucks, but yet they still manage higher quality comments.

6) Delete all accounts numbered 2,000,000+. Remove signup. Invite only.

Tech problems make the site less fun....

[sampson7]

I filled out the survey, but I will share my major concerns here as well. I use IE 7. My company mandates its use and locks things down fairly well. I am a lawyer interested in science and tech policy, but with no actual computer skills (i.e., I programmed a few lines of HTML in my youth, but that's about it).

Over the past few years, my user experience has gone into the gutter, with very few corresponding benefits. Boxes often overlap, and the whole site freezes on a regular basis. Most other sites are fine.

As a result, I show up less. Sure, I could read it on my home computer, but eh. What's the point if you can't sit on a conference call while reading?

Edit your posts

[Dunbal]

Being able to edit/delete your posts would be favorite. Yeah I know there's the preview button but often mistakes can slip through a quick proof-read. For a further example, look at how many actual submission titles/commentaries are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors... Now imagine the comments.

Re:Moderation system

[anyaristow]

I'm assuming meta-moderation is why I don't get mod points anymore. I've modded up some minority opinion and I've been punished for it.

Not that this comment will ever be seen, as I'm also stuck permanently on a score of 1.

Usually when I have the urge to comment I remind myself it's just Slashdot and posting is a waste of time.

Re:Moderation system

[spazmonkey]

I am stuck on 1 as well, and no longer get mod points either. I contributed for years and had stellar karma, then I said one factual but inconvenient thing. Now I am stuck on 1 point forever as well. Actually, this is the first time I have contributed in a long time. The mod system did a very good job of driving me away from /. as a whole, which was probably its intended job the way it was constructed.

Re:Moderation system

[sjbe]

On those cases, I've seen everyone mods "Overrated" a lot. There's someone with a signature on the lines of "'Overrated' is '-1 Disagree'", and I concur.

I agree that happens but it's not just for honest disagreements. There is no way to explicitly moderate something as being factually wrong. Overrated is the only way to moderate something down that isn't a troll or flamebait. I think we need an "innacurate" or "misleading" mod option. Of course like everything it would get abused some but it would be useful too.

Re:This needs to stop

[brentrad]

I disagree. It is useful information, that tells us that we may need to be slightly wary of the article - did the article poster sign up for a slashdot account just so they could post an article from their own blog? On the other hand, if someone has posted many articles in the past, from that we can deduce that they're probably not an astroturfer, but instead a real actual slashdot regular.

Re:Moderation system

[Okian Warrior]

I agree that the moderation system is very good.

I have several opinions which are not mainstream here; for example, that most open source software is of poor quality [slashdot.org].

When I articulate my views clearly and show illustrative examples, my comments get modded up. At the very least, it stimulates discussion and invites people to post counter arguments. Putting up examples puts the burden on them to counter the argument and also explain why the illustrative examples exist.

It makes for real discussion, rather than people just posting their position.

Look at other sites that just allow comments - it's mostly people saying "I feel this..." or "I think that...".

Having the moderation system forces people to be better commentators.

Re:Tech problems make the site less fun....

[StripedCow]

Also, logging in is a disaster.

It often happens that I'm reading a thread without being logged in, and want to reply to a comment. Then, at that point, of course I have to log in, but slashdot of course jumps back to the front page, and I totally lose the point where I wanted to leave the comment.

It is so stupid, I sometimes just want to break things in my office.