I really, really hope this is good news. I miss the actual "News for nerds" ethos that brought me here, and I've waded through a lot of sponsored "posts" and clickbait to sift out the kernels of actual news that remain.
New/. overlords? Get this site back to "News for nerds" and news that matters, and you'll keep me here.
I don't believe it. Is Slashdot going to stop those ridiculous paid links to forbes.com? What about the relentless left-wing social justice stories that blame nerds for everything wrong in the world? What about constant news-today-gone-tomorrow political stories that are general news, at best? I don't see any of those going away under any kind of new management. Irritating as fuck content has been around since the Jon Katz stories wouldn't stop appearing.
I think I can answer some of those (obviously, I'm not part of the/. team):
Is Slashdot going to stop those ridiculous paid links to forbes.com?
No. 'Anything for money' seems to be at the core of the ethos in online media. I would encourage/. to do us hardcore engineers a favour and flag up any article with links to the glossy magazines, so we can ignore them. There are, believe it or not, people who actually want to read that stuff.
What about the relentless left-wing social justice stories that blame nerds for everything wrong in the world?
You have completely lost me there - to anybody other than an American, there seems to bo nothing in American news that can be called 'left-wing'. As for reports on activism - I don't recall seeing many reports on that; certainly not enough to call it relentless. But unlike the glossies, these are actual news: actual stories about things some people actually do. News are not necessarily something we like to hear about - I certainly don't like to hear about Daesh, but it is necessary to keep in the loop to some extent. And I don't see nerds being blamed for everything in the world; I see discussions about spammers, hackers, scams and other abuses of technology. Are nerds involved in this? Some are, no doubt, but nobody claims that every nerd is a criminal.
What about constant news-today-gone-tomorrow political stories that are general news, at best?
I like those - as a nerd, I am in fact intensely interested in politics, philosophy, religion, science etc - anything that requires deep thinking. If you don't like it, don't waste your time on it. Politics has its own category, so it should be easy. Technology doesn't exist in isolation - if there is an anti-science trend in politics, then it is likely to have a bearing on what we are doing, if the States doesn't invest in education while China invests massivly, we will end up lagging behind, and that will have a bearing on what we are doing,... I think it is important, and the political stories are one of the main reasons why I haven't left/. a long time ago. That in itself may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your view, of course.
Take back Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
New /. overlords? Get this site back to "News for nerds" and news that matters, and you'll keep me here.
Re: (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Take back Slashdot (Score:2)
I think I can answer some of those (obviously, I'm not part of the /. team):
Is Slashdot going to stop those ridiculous paid links to forbes.com?
No. 'Anything for money' seems to be at the core of the ethos in online media. I would encourage /. to do us hardcore engineers a favour and flag up any article with links to the glossy magazines, so we can ignore them. There are, believe it or not, people who actually want to read that stuff.
What about the relentless left-wing social justice stories that blame nerds for everything wrong in the world?
You have completely lost me there - to anybody other than an American, there seems to bo nothing in American news that can be called 'left-wing'. As for reports on activism - I don't recall seeing many reports on that; certainly not enough to call it relentless. But unlike the glossies, these are actual news: actual stories about things some people actually do. News are not necessarily something we like to hear about - I certainly don't like to hear about Daesh, but it is necessary to keep in the loop to some extent. And I don't see nerds being blamed for everything in the world; I see discussions about spammers, hackers, scams and other abuses of technology. Are nerds involved in this? Some are, no doubt, but nobody claims that every nerd is a criminal.
What about constant news-today-gone-tomorrow political stories that are general news, at best?
I like those - as a nerd, I am in fact intensely interested in politics, philosophy, religion, science etc - anything that requires deep thinking. If you don't like it, don't waste your time on it. Politics has its own category, so it should be easy. Technology doesn't exist in isolation - if there is an anti-science trend in politics, then it is likely to have a bearing on what we are doing, if the States doesn't invest in education while China invests massivly, we will end up lagging behind, and that will have a bearing on what we are doing, ... I think it is important, and the political stories are one of the main reasons why I haven't left /. a long time ago. That in itself may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your view, of course.