Slashdot and the value of Online Communities

Published 13 November 03 07:20 AM | alexcampbell

My 18th birthday today!  Hooray.

I read the latest articles on Slashdot every morning, mostly so that if I get bored during the day I can give the latest tech issues a bit of thought.  I have however become increasingly frustrated at the low quality of debate and thought that occurs there, and also the repetitious arguments that break out so regularly.

The single most frustrating part of Slashdot is that every news article relating to any closed-source product/company is followed by 500 comments stating how much better open-source software is.  The same arguments ensue every single time, and they are not only boring but also pointless.

What this indicates is that there is no point in having an online community of people who all think the same and sit around telling each other how right they are.  As Nietzsche said, “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently”.

In any case, business people and consumers aren't going to go to Slashdot, read the debates, and think “Gee, this open-source stuff is great”.  They are more likely to think “Why don't these loser Star-Trek fanatics get a job?”.  It is in this situation that the proponents of open-source are its worst enemy.

If Slashdot people want to give Linux etc momentum in the corporate desktop and consumer markets, they would be better off taking two actions:

1) choose a number of articulate, intelligent advocates to actively promote open-source software in the media and business circles

2) team up and make Linux so simple that it could be used by (gulp) the average Windows user

Alternatively, they could just enjoy having their egos affirmed by people who agree with them.  This might actually be the easiest option for the Slashdot geeks, because of how a common enemy (in this case Microsoft and its Windows product) can unite people.

Comments

# OmegaSupreme said on November 12, 2003 05:55 PM:

I agree whole heartedly. I think it reflects badly on them when they just berate mircrosoft constantly or M$ as they say ;). I read that site alot but have never been encouraged to go and check out any open source software as a result.

Every time theres an article on there about 'M$' it usualy gets the most posts of the day which shows how obsessed some of them are.

Happy Birthday :D

# Chris Frazier said on November 12, 2003 06:36 PM:

Happy Birthday, Alex!

# Jason Nadal said on November 13, 2003 09:19 AM:

You're opening yourself up to flaming there. You should see all of the flames/trolls when one of my posts made it onto slashdot.