not_hylas( )'s Journal: On Slashdot Becoming Digg

Aside from the time worn tradition of not reading the articles but commenting anyway here on Slashdot. Slashdot has, as of this writing, been invaded by the clueless, it seems in these last few years. These thought challenged, part time "content editors" that, besides not reading the articles, don't bother reading comments either.
These A+ community college dropouts, two bits shy of a word, seem hellbent on spreading a particular brand of stupidity by way of the moderation features, using it as a "digg-down" tool to shape comments to their brand of quality.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/03/72835

http://searchengineland.com/diggs-kevin-rose-fails-to-stop-the-bury-brigade-10646.php

The technique is to bury (as a de facto delete) using "Flamebait", "Offtopic" "Overrated", etc. thusly moderating relevant comments down below a normally visible threshold, deserved or not. This "moderation style" has been used as a censoring tool and has it's roots on Digg, where packs of dirty, uneducated "hunt and peckers" typing on the keyboards with their nose roam at will, essentially deleting comments - clearing pages of legitimate, thoughtful comments, promoting their, or their group's brand of content.
Or just being dicks.

This technique is becoming a problem here, on Slashdot. Even though there's less opportunity for abuse, it still has an impact.
Maybe you just can't fix stupid.

http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml#cm1900

http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml#cm1300

http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml#cm600

"Concentrate more on promoting than on demoting."

These folks don't read the articles, much less understand what facts relate to said articles - they're here for the "Funny", "First Post" and the three word comeback / post - looking for "fanboi-dom", "elevating" the discourse to a fight with the witless and the worthless content merchants whose antennas don't pick up all the channels.

These all-around lamers, 8080s in a POWER6 enviro, have overtaken the "Informative" and "Insightful" and remade it in the image of "Snappy Comeback" or, "pwned" therefor devoid of anything resembling the previous.

The new functionality of Slashdot aids them unwittingly in making comments essentially invisible, and of no interest or consequence to anyone.

At some point it damages any meaningful exchange, Slashdot has visablly suffered. I, and I'm sure others are having a difficult time giving, much less receiving relevant information on the subject at hand.
On Slashdot the first few post are usually for the "Funny", but now whole threads are being used as IM channels absent of what we come here for.

hylas