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Slashdot died several deaths. The birth of Digg and Reddit were a big contributor (as was HN later). You may also remember that /. was sold, first to VA Linux,

Slashdot died several deaths. The birth of Digg and Reddit were a big contributor (as was HN later). You may also remember that /. was sold, first to VA Linux, then to another company, along with its sister, Linux.com. Slashdot's model of editor selected stories also meant that the number of stories per day was lower. The editor selections when CmdrTaco left, along (slowly) with other editors such as Roblimo (RIP) and others changed the site's feel. It's clear the Slashdot product is kept around but not actively developed. Many sites from that era are in much the same state, or shut down entirely. RIP Freshmeat, kuros5hin, and others.

GioM 2y ago
I remember that the "Slashdot Effect" used to be a thing, getting featured on Slashdot generated enough traffic that it routinely took sites down. Then digg came along, and I started using that, but kept Slashdot on the backburner. One day I remember listening to a diggnation podcast, one of the live ones with Kevin and Alex in front of a live audience at (probably) some bar somewhere, and Kevin made a remark about "Slashdot effect.... it's the Digg effect now!" and the crowd roared. And he was right. It had been a fair while since Slashdot had managed to take anything down. I felt a little sad, for a moment, because I knew what it meant.
chefandy 2y ago
The selection definitely changed. As soon as "Slashdot Video" started happening-- obviously a bunch of advertisements presented as news-- I was done. Initially, the aggregation was only part of it-- the discussion was the best part. By the time Slashdot Video started happening, the comments had already gotten a bit 4chan-esque. I consistently saw comments rated "3: Troll" or similar because people were just using upvotes (without any specific descriptors) to counter what others had downvoted as obvious troll comments. Last time I went back, I looked into the comments to see pages-upon-pages of ascii art swastikas and just thought... why the hell would I bother with this? The lack of moderation over there probably started as a philosophical stance that, at that early, naive juncture in the internet, I sympathize with. I'm guessing that after that, it just became a cash cow that they didn't want to bother creating an FTE to manage, and now most of the remaining users are there solely because it's a community that rewards being an obnoxious edge lord spewing out content-free insults as long as they resonate with the obnoxious majority in the comments.

GioM 2y ago

I remember that the "Slashdot Effect" used to be a thing, getting featured on Slashdot generated enough traffic that it routinely took sites down. Then digg came along, and I started using that, but kept Slashdot on the backburner. One day I remember listening to a diggnation podcast, one of the live ones with Kevin and Alex in front of a live audience at (probably) some bar somewhere, and Kevin made a remark about "Slashdot effect.... it's the Digg effect now!" and the crowd roared. And he was right. It had been a fair while since Slashdot had managed to take anything down. I felt a little sad, for a moment, because I knew what it meant.

chefandy 2y ago

The selection definitely changed. As soon as "Slashdot Video" started happening-- obviously a bunch of advertisements presented as news-- I was done. Initially, the aggregation was only part of it-- the discussion was the best part. By the time Slashdot Video started happening, the comments had already gotten a bit 4chan-esque. I consistently saw comments rated "3: Troll" or similar because people were just using upvotes (without any specific descriptors) to counter what others had downvoted as obvious troll comments. Last time I went back, I looked into the comments to see pages-upon-pages of ascii art swastikas and just thought... why the hell would I bother with this? The lack of moderation over there probably started as a philosophical stance that, at that early, naive juncture in the internet, I sympathize with. I'm guessing that after that, it just became a cash cow that they didn't want to bother creating an FTE to manage, and now most of the remaining users are there solely because it's a community that rewards being an obnoxious edge lord spewing out content-free insults as long as they resonate with the obnoxious majority in the comments.