Why I Stopped Reading Slashdot
I used to be an avid Slashdot reader. I still somewhat read Slashdot, but only via my RSS aggregator and if I see a title that looks interesting, I click on the ‘Complete Story’ link, read the brief and then click on the actual article that Slashdot is referencing. That’s the limit of my Slashdot interactivity. Am I abusing their service? Perhaps. But then again, I still have 155 page views left on the 1000 page view subscription I bought a few years ago.
Anyway, why did I stop reading Slashdot? Because Slashdot is a neverending battle between four groups of people: people bickering back and forth about which technologies are better (ie. MS vs Mac vs Linux vs whatever), people fighting for ‘Slashdot karma’, people who just plain n00bs and regular people just looking for information. Take this article on the Optimus Keyboard I read today over on Slashdot. The first dozen or so comments from readers are about the cost of a good mobile phone/plan. It really is nothing more than ridiculous speculation around a comment made by the keyboard manufacturer. In any case, long gone are the days when the site was relatively small and the comments were insightful and honest. That said, every once in a while (read: rarely) there is a really funny comment, though you can find that sort of thing anywhere.
For those who continue to read Slashdot, here’s a blog entry on how to read Slashdot. If you are looking for an alternative to Slashdot, try Digg or kuro5hin.org. There are tonnes of others. Though realistically, the best alternative to Slashdot is to simply use an aggregator to source the articles yourself. Of course, I could care less if you quit or not, but if you are still not convinced to give up Slashdot then read through this article on quitting Slashdot. It worked on me.
Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:40 Posted in General
