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Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan t

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> A couple other clusters could probably be identified, but the three 
> above seem to include the vast majority. If I were to assign 
> descriptive labels to these groups, they'd look like this:
> 
> 1. Web 3.0 headline readers uninterested in what a bunch of old 
> neckbeards think. They want tech news delivered in easily digestible 
> chunks, and want the news source to be cool and modern.
> 
> 2. Focused information seekers looking for community insight on major 
> tech news. They want the insights behind the tech news, and believe 
> that the community (old, grizzled,  and grumpy as it may be) can be a 
> source of wisdom.
> 
> 3. Core community members that see Slashdot as a long-term online home 
> base. They want in-depth discussion of tech news and are willing to put 
> up with chaos in order to get deep insights, but also enjoy (and are 
> fiercely protective of) the community identity.
> 
> So, here's what I think, and it squares with what many people have been 
> suggesting: Dice wants more of group 1 and are willing to dump group 3 
> to achieve that goal, and they're probably betting that group 2 won't 
> decline too much as a result. Why? Probably because group 3 is not an 
> important demographic in their primary line of business, and in 
> addition, is only
>  going to decline in size as time passes. Group 3 doesn't make them 
> enough money, at least not directly... and if they can shift the site 
> in such a way that *they* become the content creators instead of the 
> community, they won't really need Group 3. They'll destroy the 
> community to get where they want to go, because after all, we're just 
> an audience to them.
> 
> Anyway, that's the way I see it.

That's insightful analysis and I believe you are right.  
Demographically there are more of the younger demographic who choose 
flash over substance, though, and if you look at the quality of 
comments from people posting from their cellphones, i don't think it's 
a promising future.  Slashdot comments over the past year started to 
look a lot more like Reddit, which is an entertaining site but not very 
informative.

It may be the executive decision has been made, the budget spent, and 
it's all a done deal.  But I think they're pushing SlashDot into 
territory where it will fail.  It will be a poor clone of Reddit at 
best and since Slashdot never breaks the news (hell, they're often a 
week late) they will compete badly.

I used to enjoy LinuxToday too.  Back in 2000-2002 the comments on 
articles were fantastic, and I used to visit there first and Slashdot 
second (or not at all).  The same thing happened, they chose 
advertising over comments.  The page is awful now: takes forever to 
load because of all the ad servers, the articles are interesting but 
not great, and the comments have been reduced to zero.  I never go 
there anymore, and neither do many others.

Oh well … out of the ashes come new things, hopefully, like this!

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Ars: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevant "Elizabeth T. Knuth" <eknuth@csbsju.edu> - 2014-02-12 14:54 -0600
  Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevant Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-13 02:30 +0000
    Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan t wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 01:20 +0000
      Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan t Koen Lefever <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-02-12 23:26 -0800
        Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan t John Brownalt <deconfliction@filteredperception.org> - 2014-02-14 02:58 +0000
      Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan   t RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-13 07:35 +0000
      Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan   t True Satan <true_satan@fastmail.co.uk> - 2014-02-13 11:45 +0000
        Re: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevan   t RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-14 11:02 +0000
  Re: Ars: Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevant Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-13 09:36 -0500

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