Sirsha.com

I read Slashdot quite frequently. I also read about Slashdot quite a bit. People often erroneously refer to “Slashdot” as if it were a single entity with a single opinion (usually the direct opposite opinion of the person speaking/complaining). This is wrong but a widespread opinion. Usually within any post regarding Apple, Sun, Linux or MS, you will see someone complaining about “Slashdot” being Apple apologists and someone else complaining about “Slashdot” hating Apple. or MS. or Whatever. I think this is due to people tending to overlook opinions that agree with theirs and getting mad when someone says something stupid/wrong/contrary to their own opinion (this effect is also demonstrated by asking anyone in the US whether the media is slanted right or left. The person will almost always answer that “The Media” leans to the opposite of the direction the person leans).

The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of people commenting on Slashdot. Some are smart. Some are stupid. Some are trolls. Some love M$. Some invested in SCO. Some think the iPod is ugly. I am user number 616247. I am guessing there are about 800,000 registered users at this point. Some are duplicates, some are dead, some never come, etc, but still. 800,000 users. Think about that. The signal-to-noise on that would be crazy if not for the moderation and filtering system Slashdot has developed. This system has a learning curve, though, but I am here to help you with that.

Slashdot Moderation
The moderation system is the basis of all that is good and evil on Slashdot. Depending on who you ask, of course. In order to help sift through the noise, Slashdot semi-randomly chooses moderators occasionally. I moderate quite often.

1. When I get “mod points”, I have 5 points to use in 3 days or so.
2. Each of those points can be applied to a comment as either a +1 or a -1 for “funny“, “insightful“, “informative“, “troll“, “flamebait“, etc.
3. You can not moderate on a post that you have commented on. If you comment on a post you have moderated, the mods vanish (I think, never tested this).
4. I almost never waste points modding a comment down.
5. A comment can have a minimum of -1 and a maximum of +5 points.
6. The points accrue for users as “karma“ which determines such things as whether the user can moderate or meta-moderate.
7. If the user has enough good karma, they can post starting with +2 on their comment. (this helps the cream rise to the top, so to speak)
8. Users that are able to meta-moderate can do so at almost anytime (once a day maybe?).
9. Meta-moderators supposedly get mod points more often.
10. I rarely meta-mod (weekly at best, these days).
11. Meta-moderating allows me to view some random comments and a single moderation point and I judge the moderation as “fair”, “unfair”, or either.
12. If I moderate every anti-MS post as “Troll”, the meta-moderators will mark that as “unfair” and I will eventually stop getting mod points.
13. I get mod points almost too often, so I think I am doing a good job with my moderation.
14. Registered users can apply their own filtering rules according to how a comment is moderated. You can add 1 point to 6 points or subtract points for each moderation value (funny, insightful, troll, etc).
15. These rules apply for your viewing pleasure.
16. Users can add “friends“ and “foes“.
17. Additional points modifiers can be set for your friends, foes, friends-of-friends, etc.
18. When you read posts, you set the minimum karma points required for a post to be visible.

That is how the system works. Now here is how to work it:

How to Read Slashdot

1. Register. You've registered everywhere else, if you're going to read /. you should go ahead and register. Membership has its privileges.
2. Go to your preferences page, to the Comments section. Set the modifiers so that your fans, friends, friends-of-friends, and any insightful or informative posts get an additional +2. If a friend gets a +2, has good karma and posts at +2, they will be at +4 off the bat. Set it for +3 for friends and they'll be maxed at +5.
3. Set the modifiers to -1 to -6 (your choice) for Anonymous users. Membership has its privileges.
4. Set the modifiers to -6 for trolls, funny, flamebait. This means that even +5 funny posts will be safely hidden from your view.
5. When you read, read at +5. This means that only comments with 5 positive points will be shown. You set this “threshold“ at the top of the comments page. You can set it anywhere from -1 to +5. Trust me, you want +5.
6. When you read a smart, good post, click the gray marble beside the user's name. Add them as your friend.
7. When you read a completely stupid post, click the user's name. Read their previous posts. If they are consistantly idiotic, make them your foe.

That's it. Reading at +5 with the modifiers for good posts means that you get to read /. the way it was meant to be read. If you think “slashdot hates M$”, you need to follow the steps above and check again. There are a lot of intelligent people that post on that site. There are a lot of idiots, too, but there are probably more users there than people in your hometown, so it is expected.

The fact that I moderate so much is an indication of the balance at the site, I think. If my moderations were viewed as unfair, I wouldn't have mod points so damn often, right?