mysticgoat's Journal: Six month update

It's been a little over 6 months since my last entry to this journal, so an update is in order.

I scan the slashdot offerings at least once a day, along with the NYT headlines, usually as I have my first cup of coffee. Depending on what I find and what else is going on, I may come back to slashdot a few times as the day goes on.

I almost always have metamod status now. It's a chore that can take less than 5 minutes to sometimes 15 minutes. I usually do metamodding once a day only-- there's more to my life than slashdot.

Here are some of my metamod rules:

1. Never do "unfunny", unless it's grossly obscene. I've got a more highly developed sense of humor than most slashdotters, but it's not my job to try to upgrade the humor of geek culture.
2. Rarely do "funny". If it hasn't made me blow my coffee out my nose, just don't rate the "funny/unfunny" at all.
3. "Interesting" and "insightful": Judge these as I am now, then try to judge them as I would have when I was fifteen, then go with the most positive of those separate judgments. So usually I score these as "Fair" though sometimes I don't score them at all. When I score an "interesting" or "insightful" as unfair, it's usually because I see the post as a troll or flamebait. Or sometimes because it's an unthinking bleat of flock noise that only serves to help keep all the sheep together, making the same stupid sheep noises.
4. "Troll" and "flamebait": These can require a lot of time and no little effort to metamod. Often I need to look at the post in context and read the threads that led to it.

Something that has occurred to me is whether discourse on slashdot would be improved if a "-1 Personal Attack" option was added to the moderation choices.

I'm getting moderator status about once a week, which is good since I don't have time for much more than that. When I'm setting out to moderate, I read at the -1 level, and that can really slow me down. But it seems to me that one of the better uses of my mod points is to correct the misuse of "flamebait", "troll", and "over-rated" by people who are pushing their own private agenda. For instance, there are people on slashdot who work in Redmond and given the opportunity will mod down any criticism of Microsoft out of a Louis L'Amour cowboy sense of "riding for the brand" infantile loyalty to their employer. And there are those whose use of mod points is too much influenced by an over reaction to the MSer's fudding around. The metamod system should weed these assholes out, over time, but correcting some of the specific damage they have done seems to me to be worth the effort.

It isn't just MSer's and the ones they have antagonized, either. There are other sharp divisions of prejudice on slashdot-- the MS thing is just the most obvious one.

Waht else? Erm, I currently read /. at the +1 level, but lately I've been wondering about whether I'd be happier using a higher level. I think I'll try the +2 level for awhile-- then maybe I can cover more ground with less frustration with the chatter. I'm not opposed to the chatter-- /. is a social phemomenon-- but I don't have all day to mosey through all the sidebars and cocktail conversations.

Well, I've finished my morning coffee and should get to work. Until next time, then...