What's amazing to me isn't that/. has carried on this long, but rather that the comment quality on here hasn't gone the way of most social new sites. It seems that in general as a social news site ages, matures, and grows, the comment quality follows an inverse pattern. Or more simply, as the number of users approaches infinity, the comment quality approaches 4chan. Digg used to be a decent site for discussion; now you'd be laughed at for even suggesting that the comments might be notable. Reddit is quickl
Tragically this is because the degradation is instead shifted to the editors. Slashvertisements, things in "ask slashdot" that should instead get someone redirected to google, and kdawson....
I agree with you about the editors. It is amazing how little Slashdot editors
seem to have learned about editing in the last 12 years. Sometimes stories
have not even been spell-checked. It is very common that a Slashdot story is
misleading in some way.
However, even with the sloppy editing, Slashdot is the best way of
learning about computer and other technology events. It's indispensable in my
life. Slashdot editors have been very good at choosing stories that are
interesting to us.
I think there is some sort of sociological principle at play here... some sort of emergent property of systems. As the number of people frequenting the internet, and social networking sites, grow... there's an effect that both drives most sites toward absolute mediocrity, the most populated part of the bell curve... but if you are sufficiently above or below the middle, you may be pushed further to that extreme.
The smart people need a site, and there's more smart people than ever... so there is a demand
Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Tragically this is because the degradation is instead shifted to the editors. Slashvertisements, things in "ask slashdot" that should instead get someone redirected to google, and kdawson....
Sloppy editing, but indispensable. (Score:3, Interesting)
However, even with the sloppy editing, Slashdot is the best way of learning about computer and other technology events. It's indispensable in my life. Slashdot editors have been very good at choosing stories that are interesting to us.
The comments have
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
The smart people need a site, and there's more smart people than ever... so there is a demand
Re:Sloppy editing, but indispensable. (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Law [wikipedia.org]
specifically the second one...