OldMiner's Journal: Feeling friendly?

My friends list balloons, and I felt obligated to explain why. Obviously this is a sign of a larger problem.

Wasting time. First I read Slashdot's stories because they passed the time that would otherwise have been dedicated to homework. Soon I began reading the comments when I had run out of unread stories of interest. Working a long shift with little work and a computer helped hone the unhealthy habit. Having found it possible to spend too much time reading Slashdot, I found it necessary to read it efficiently. As such, I created myself an account primarily so I could view the "sparse" mode and view comments at a threshold of 2 by default.

Highly commented stories I've mostly avoided. I've tried reading such things at a threshold of 1 (300 comments) somewhat randomly, and found valuable information in posts rated at 2 or 3. Several times I've tried reading such things at 5 (38 comments) only to find 12 'Funny' posts that are dreadful, 10 'Insightful' posts which are underresearched demagogeury, 6 comments consisting of sentences searching for predicates, linking to previous articles on similar subjects, 3 links to the same google-cached page, and 7 or so comments of value to me.

More recently, I've discovered I could actually get value out of those 500 comment stories with tweaking of my comments. Although adding a "Funny" [-2] definitely aided matters, perhaps the most beneficial thing I discovered was the use of friends and foes.

In short, if I find a comment especially insightful, I've found a friend. If a comment is particularly base and highly scored, my foe list lengthens.

Trolling annoys me. At +4, I find a "Micro$oft sucks" comment veiled in larger words than normal but still with the dollar-'s': '5 (Interesting)'. We've all wondered what Bill could fit up there. But I don't want to read your ruminations on it just now. 'Foe' [-1]. The shortness of my foes list hopefully indicates a mostly intelligent moderation population.

College has taught me to respect good research. But simple, fast statements get modded up quickly and research takes time. Unfortunate because I'm often left dumbfounded by otherwise seemingly fascinating articles. Background material comes in the comments, but frequently rated at 1 or 2, after all of the "Your-anus" jokes have reached '3 (Funny)' and one '4 (Interesting)', once again, due to a Microsoft reference. If I have the time to read a story at 0 and see someone who posts clearly thoughtful and researched commentary, I have a new 'Friend'.

If only I could give +1 to AC, but keep Funny from reaching 5, I'd have a lock.