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The thing about slashdot is they tolerated/encouraged low-quality posts ("first post!") from the start - and it worked... for some people while there were also
by joe_the_user 3y ago
The thing about slashdot is they tolerated/encouraged low-quality posts ("first post!") from the start - and it worked... for some people while there were also good quality posts. But I think it had the problem that when some factor causes your good posts to decline, the garbage ratio goes up and then you can't recover. I've seen similar dynamics with smaller forums - tolerating various kind of bullshit can work for a fair while but the end is sudden.
I'd say HN has overall declined in quality over the last years but it's managed to avoid a precipitous decline by having basic standards.
- sam0x17 3y agoIt was more a funy/quirky part of slashdot culture though. As a teen at the time this was a useful hook for getting me interested in tech news.
- jhbadger 3y agoIt also allowed you to upvote a comment in different categories. So you could, for example, ignore the upvotes for "funny" comments in favor of "informative" ones if that's what you wanted.
- pxc 3y agoAnd 'funny' posting didn't earn you post karma, which eventually conferred moderation powers (by lottery, sort of). IIRC there was at least one other way that they nerfed using humor to farm visibility and karma, as well.