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
As do I. Having comments separated by funny/insightful/etc, capping them at +5, and only letting a select few upvote is a surprisingly effective strategy.
Apparently it is, it would be very interesting to know why exactly this works. I mean, seriously, comments almost never get deleted here, right? (unless it's related to scientology?). And you can post as anomymous coward without logging in? It's a miracle that it isn't full of crap posts and automated spam messages.
I think it has to do with the attention factor. ACs can post what they want, but they aren't going to get more than a few views before someone mods them out of view to the default filters. They lose the attention a controversial topic may bring and they soon get bored and move on to those other sites. In this case, "Don't feed the trolls," seems to be working!
It's a miracle that it isn't full of crap posts and automated spam messages.
At least part of that stems from the aforementioned moderation system, the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1 (which means we wouldn't actually see AC spam even if it was occurring), and perhaps also because geeks are not good marks for the sorts of products generally plugged via spam; that and geeks have the means, motive, and opportunity to take active technical measures against spammers making us doubly not worth the effort from the spammer's point of view. In short, The spammers don't spam Slashdot because picking fights with the geeks is not in their interest; it wastes their time and invites sophisticated and targeted retaliation which only distracts their attentions from their real prey (i.e. grandma's AOL account).
the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1
Actually I would recommend that everyone browse at -1. There isn't really that much spam/trolling to contend with -- in exchange for having to scroll past one or two racist trolls you'll get to see raw unfiltered discussion that may not have survived the group think that permeates the moderation system.
I stopped caring or paying attention to moderation a long time ago. Give it to me raw baby!
Amen. There's a lot of great trolling and off-topic humor that doesn't make it up to the surface at default. Also some pretty good posts come from people who are willing to post things that have killed their karma. I think most of the really useless trolls must be getting discouraged by our system, considering how many there actually aren't.
Actually I would recommend that everyone browse at -1. There isn't really that much spam/trolling to contend with -- in exchange for having to scroll past one or two racist trolls you'll get to see raw unfiltered discussion that may not have survived the group think that permeates the moderation system.
The problem is that the/. comment display system chokes on pages with more then 100 comments if you like to read in Nested mode.
Sure, it shows you multiple pages, but the splitting logic is absolutely
D2 solved that issue. It spits out 250 comments at a time and you can keep requesting more of them until you have the whole damn discussion on one page if you are so inclined.
erm how do I get to D2? (BTW I surf with my colors so some images or colors may not show and I could be missing a gif or png sometimes until I notice the cursor turns into a pointy hand)
At least part of that stems from the aforementioned moderation system, the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1 (which means we wouldn't actually see AC spam even if it was occurring)
The Slashdot moderation system, while flawed ("Offtopic" is superflous as a means to moderate crap posts and only serves to punish topic diversions), works impressively well even if you browse at -1. I browse at -1 and have a bonus of +1 given to AC posts -- so that every post starts out at 1 (or 2, as normal) -- and Slashdot is still almost entirely free of trolls and such to me.
Well, Slashdot still is only thought halfway to the end. The idea is a trust-relationship model trough action rating. Or in other words: People rate other people’s works, which given them a karma. which then is used to determine what a moderation of that person is worth. But on Slashdot, instead it determines, who gets mod points. Which is a bit more binary, as there are no people with e.g. 10% moderation power, or anything in-between. You either have points or you don’t.
Also, the ordering of comments. Sites where the most recent comments come first encourage repetition, circling around the same arguments and bad quality, whereas a thread you can follow allows picking up an existing conversation on top of arguments already made.
Actually, Slashdot has just the opposite problem. If you want people to read your post, you're better off replying to the GNAA First Post versus making a root-level post at the bottom of the page.
A whole lot of slashdot discussions are really only one or two root-level threads
"Flattery is all right -- if you don't inhale."
-- Adlai Stevenson
Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:-1, Offtopic)
CmdrTaco touched my junk! Right after he finished taco-snotting me. And in Korea, only old people use email.
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it has to do with the attention factor. ACs can post what they want, but they aren't going to get more than a few views before someone mods them out of view to the default filters. They lose the attention a controversial topic may bring and they soon get bored and move on to those other sites. In this case, "Don't feed the trolls," seems to be working!
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a miracle that it isn't full of crap posts and automated spam messages.
At least part of that stems from the aforementioned moderation system, the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1 (which means we wouldn't actually see AC spam even if it was occurring), and perhaps also because geeks are not good marks for the sorts of products generally plugged via spam; that and geeks have the means, motive, and opportunity to take active technical measures against spammers making us doubly not worth the effort from the spammer's point of view. In short, The spammers don't spam Slashdot because picking fights with the geeks is not in their interest; it wastes their time and invites sophisticated and targeted retaliation which only distracts their attentions from their real prey (i.e. grandma's AOL account).
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Insightful)
the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1
Actually I would recommend that everyone browse at -1. There isn't really that much spam/trolling to contend with -- in exchange for having to scroll past one or two racist trolls you'll get to see raw unfiltered discussion that may not have survived the group think that permeates the moderation system.
I stopped caring or paying attention to moderation a long time ago. Give it to me raw baby!
Re: (Score:2)
Amen. There's a lot of great trolling and off-topic humor that doesn't make it up to the surface at default. Also some pretty good posts come from people who are willing to post things that have killed their karma. I think most of the really useless trolls must be getting discouraged by our system, considering how many there actually aren't.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that the
Sure, it shows you multiple pages, but the splitting logic is absolutely
Re: (Score:2)
D2 solved that issue. It spits out 250 comments at a time and you can keep requesting more of them until you have the whole damn discussion on one page if you are so inclined.
It's one of the few redeeming qualities of D2.
Re: (Score:0)
erm how do I get to D2? (BTW I surf with my colors so some images or colors may not show and I could be missing a gif or png sometimes until I notice the cursor turns into a pointy hand)
And occasionally I use a text mode browser...
Re: (Score:1)
I need my viagra and I certainly would love to cozy up to the wealth of the Nigerian prince you insensitive clod!
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At least part of that stems from the aforementioned moderation system, the fact that most regular users don't browse at -1 (which means we wouldn't actually see AC spam even if it was occurring)
The Slashdot moderation system, while flawed ("Offtopic" is superflous as a means to moderate crap posts and only serves to punish topic diversions), works impressively well even if you browse at -1. I browse at -1 and have a bonus of +1 given to AC posts -- so that every post starts out at 1 (or 2, as normal) -- and Slashdot is still almost entirely free of trolls and such to me.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, Slashdot still is only thought halfway to the end. The idea is a trust-relationship model trough action rating. Or in other words: People rate other people’s works, which given them a karma. which then is used to determine what a moderation of that person is worth.
But on Slashdot, instead it determines, who gets mod points. Which is a bit more binary, as there are no people with e.g. 10% moderation power, or anything in-between. You either have points or you don’t.
So it’s pretty clos
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Re: (Score:2)
I wrote a long essay on this subject [kuro5hin.org] over at another (essentially failed) competitor to Slashdot.
Re:Age and quality. (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, the ordering of comments. Sites where the most recent comments come first encourage repetition, circling around the same arguments and bad quality, whereas a thread you can follow allows picking up an existing conversation on top of arguments already made.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, Slashdot has just the opposite problem. If you want people to read your post, you're better off replying to the GNAA First Post versus making a root-level post at the bottom of the page.
A whole lot of slashdot discussions are really only one or two root-level threads