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There was a lot I loved about Slashdot's moderation, and it really was a step forward, but ultimately it was a failure. The end product was a giant hivemind whe

There was a lot I loved about Slashdot's moderation, and it really was a step forward, but ultimately it was a failure. The end product was a giant hivemind where a narrow range of opinions (essentially: "libertarianism good, Linux good") would be automatically upvoted and everything else was quashed. It was a step forward but I'm not really pining for it 30 years later. I agree about the lack of progress in the meantime, though. Ultimately I'm not sure it's a solvable problem. People don't want to change their minds, and are nearly always going to seek out little "bubbles" of likeminded folks.

rektide 5y ago
I agree I too am not sure this is a solve able problem. But the dominion of Big Social has aborted the freewheeling idea of the web to be able to better suss out democratically truth & idea & reason is absolute & tragic, has been at the wheel for well over a decade, and it fucking sucks and has brought us no good, no attempts. Slashdot was one of the last attempts that seemed to try. We need to loosen back up & start to try again: something we've not done, and something that has let disinformation & malignancy rule for far too long.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  Hopefully I'm spectacularly wrong, but I don't think it's possible. the freewheeling idea of the web to be able to better suss out democratically truth & idea & reason is absolute I think most of the 1990's-style optimism about the web was strictly an illusion, based on the fact that early netizens were more educated/intelligent than the general population, simply due to the fact that they tended to get net access through academic institutions or were highly motivated tech-savvy individuals. It sure wasn't perfect, as many of those people weren't exactly amazing, but it was better than what we see in 2021. That, and the fact that the web's reach was much smaller, making it a much less attractive target for malicious disinformation campaigns. Once everybody's racist, uneducated uncles started logging major minutes surfin' the web things deteriorated fast. I'm not convinced anything can possibly be done, at least not within the scope of better internet forum design, to somehow coax a better level of discourse and truth-finding out of (pardon my frankness) lower-quality individuals who are actively having their minds poisoned by disinformation campaigns. Honestly, the places doing this best these days are some sub-reddits, and HN itself. If you spend enough time on Reddit, you can find some absolutely lovely niche subreddits with strong, caring, and active moderation teams. Most subreddits do not fit this description; some do. HN takes a similar approach; most don't realize the level of human moderation by dang et al that goes into keeping this place from becoming a cesspool. But, we could definitely at least do better than something like Facebook which seems actively designed to reward inflammatory posts and conflict in general.

rektide 5y ago

I agree I too am not sure this is a solve able problem. But the dominion of Big Social has aborted the freewheeling idea of the web to be able to better suss out democratically truth & idea & reason is absolute & tragic, has been at the wheel for well over a decade, and it fucking sucks and has brought us no good, no attempts. Slashdot was one of the last attempts that seemed to try. We need to loosen back up & start to try again: something we've not done, and something that has let disinformation & malignancy rule for far too long.

JohnBooty 5y ago
Hopefully I'm spectacularly wrong, but I don't think it's possible. the freewheeling idea of the web to be able to better suss out democratically truth & idea & reason is absolute I think most of the 1990's-style optimism about the web was strictly an illusion, based on the fact that early netizens were more educated/intelligent than the general population, simply due to the fact that they tended to get net access through academic institutions or were highly motivated tech-savvy individuals. It sure wasn't perfect, as many of those people weren't exactly amazing, but it was better than what we see in 2021. That, and the fact that the web's reach was much smaller, making it a much less attractive target for malicious disinformation campaigns. Once everybody's racist, uneducated uncles started logging major minutes surfin' the web things deteriorated fast. I'm not convinced anything can possibly be done, at least not within the scope of better internet forum design, to somehow coax a better level of discourse and truth-finding out of (pardon my frankness) lower-quality individuals who are actively having their minds poisoned by disinformation campaigns. Honestly, the places doing this best these days are some sub-reddits, and HN itself. If you spend enough time on Reddit, you can find some absolutely lovely niche subreddits with strong, caring, and active moderation teams. Most subreddits do not fit this description; some do. HN takes a similar approach; most don't realize the level of human moderation by dang et al that goes into keeping this place from becoming a cesspool. But, we could definitely at least do better than something like Facebook which seems actively designed to reward inflammatory posts and conflict in general.