On 02/06/2014 06:35 AM, Barry Roberts wrote: > I don't like it much, but I'm admittedly old, inflexible and > curmudgeonly, so I'm trying to withhold judgement. It is cleaner, and > I can't quantify exactly why I don't like it, other than it just seems > harder to read with my old eyes.
I think I can quantify why I don't like it. The problem is, and this is something slashdot's owners don't understand, is that the actual content on slashdot isn't the stories, it's not the pretty pictures; it's the moderated comments. That is the reason slashdot exists and why it's not just another headline aggregator, or even another reddit. While the design is "cleaner," it makes it harder to read the comments at least compared to classic. The other content (pretty stock pictures, summaries and links) is placed first, and then comments are added in via slashdot, disqus-style. Clearly sending a message that the comments are just "oh by the way." And come on, you can't even use the site via elinks! ;) No I understand how javascript is useful on modern sites, and makes them more interactive, but in this case it's silly. The comments should load with the page, and then maybe be change-able via javascript after loading. certainly that can be done. Disqus is the way it is because its designed to be added to existing pages and sites. Slashdot's comments are THE content of slashdot, not optionally added on. Shows me that Dice just doesn't get what slashdot actually is. If Dice is losing money on slashdot, this is only going to make it worse. I'm all for a fork of slashdot. The source code (though a bit crufty by now I think) is available. Story editing (oh who am I kidding, there is no story editing on Slashdot) would require volunteers. Maybe they could use moderators in some way to approve stories and then vote the story up or down. Though would that just be copying dig? And hosting a site as popular as slashdot is expensive. Maybe I'll just move on and be productive with my time, and just stick to reading headlines on the other tech aggregator sites... /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
