konohitowa's Journal: Score:-2, Insightful

How hard is it to understand the difference between informative and insightful? For that matter, how hard is it to really understand what insightful means? I currently browse with Insightful modded down by 2 points and my score threshold at 3. This still doesn't remove the many obtuse comments masquerading as insightful, but it helps.

The trigger for this rant: I just got done modding two Informative comments to Insightful. They contained no links nor did they expound upon the story providing additional information (nor even tangential information). They were insights into deeper points within the story -- you know, insightful.

Really. How hard can this be? I understand why moderators often get Flamebait and Troll wrong. They're subjective and frequently emotional judgement calls. That's also why I browse +6 Troll +6 Flamebait. I've somewhat recently (maybe 18 months ago) added Offtopic +6 to the mix. Unfortunately, that means I'm subjected to the CmdrTaco scat posts, but it's easy enough to spot them quickly and scroll past. And, frankly, I may have that story somewhat burned into my retina by now anyway (along with "The Receiver" goatse - sigh).

I do realize that one person's insight is frequently another person's "Gee. Ya think?" I'm somewhat willing to let those slide, although I can certainly be a condescending ass about those things. I try to leave that behind when I moderate, but I'm not always successful. However, I also have higher expectations of the slashdot readership. If the coffee shop dialogue in "Dogma" seemed insightful to you rather than the ramblings of some people who replaced reading and intellectual inquiry with a quarter ounce of skunk and a bong, then I'm gonna have a hard time agreeing with your insightful mods.

In as much as it would be nice to think someone other than me will read this, I figure the odds are against that happening. However, I do feel a whole hell of a lot better. Perhaps I'll start writing more of these. The only other times I've used this feature is for technical postings. Unfortunately, most of what I do falls either so far under NDA or so far outside most people's expertise that I haven't felt the need.