5 ms·

Kind of funny to find this on the front page of HN. Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. (I'm aware it's

Kind of funny to find this on the front page of HN. Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. (I'm aware it's still around.)

SirFatty 11mo ago
yeah, it's around, but a ghost of its former glory.
- ricksunny 11mo ago
  I still check t regularly alongside HN. Need a counterpoint to HN submission coverage and crowd-editorial zeitgeist.
  - bartvk 11mo ago
    Yup, me too. What’s funny is that your slashdot account can make friends (or enemies!) with other accounts, and there’s a limit of 200. Sometimes I spot comments of friends I made like 20 years ago.
  - SirFatty 11mo ago
    Same.. however I've been using Alterslash as a story summary for years. https://alterslash.org/ https://alterslash.org/
  - jiehong 11mo ago
    Maybe lobste.rs?
    - esseph 11mo ago
      Mostly HN reposts and extremely limited ability to post there if you don't have Bay Area social circles.
- theideaofcoffee 11mo ago
  It's sad to see its decline. I started reading right around 2000 and even noticed that it started to decline even as early as 2008, after and around some of its redesigns. I know I quit regularly stopping around there probably around that time too.
  - romanhn 11mo ago
    Yup, around 2008 is when I noticed that many of the Slashdot front page submissions were discussed on this new site called Hacker News 1-2 days prior, minus the trolling and the comedy threads. It was a pretty easy switch at that point.
joshdavham 11mo ago
> Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. I definitely missed out :( What was it like?
- jdlshore 11mo ago
  It was a lot like HN, but more curated and with a more complex (and arguably better) moderation system. More focused on Linux and open source than HN, but still a technology news site with comments.
  - hnlmorg 11mo ago
    To be honest I never liked the community much. But back then I still stubbornly clinging to smaller, more specialised communities (plus OSNews.com haha)
    - esseph 11mo ago
      Very happy OSNews is still around, just wish it had more traffic :(
- standyro 11mo ago
  Slashdot was somewhere between a well curated tech subreddit and Hacker News. It had its own in-jokes like: This is finally "the year of the Linux Desktop" and Jonathan "CowboyNeal" Pater, the site's moderator who often posted polls and commented. In the late 2000s, most migrated their Slashdot reflex to Digg - and then eventually the YC-backed Reddit when there was a disastrous rollout of Digg v4 (in 2010) Reddit then became less of a technology-focused site as it gained popularity, and HN became the defacto "tech news" aggregator with a well rounded comment section that resembled the early days of Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit.
- ihaveajob 11mo ago
  What I really miss was the moderation system. There was a simple 1-5 score and a main trait (insightful, funny, flamebait, underrated, overrated...). To moderate you had to earn points which would you then spend, so careful consideration mattered. The result was that you could filter for 5+Insightful and get the core of the discussion, or 5+Funny and have a good time, etc.
firefax 11mo ago
>Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. Please don't out me as a ghost parent
- gizajob 11mo ago
  Slashdot was the shiznitt back in the day of ye olde web. Great submissions and great personality amongst the admins and commenters. On occasions when I’ve brought that attitude here I’ve been slapped down by dang…
  - firefax 11mo ago
    It certainly had an impression on me in my younger days -- moving over to Firefox and later messing around with Knoppix and becoming an open source geek probably stemmed in large part from seeing all the "Install Linux, problem solved" memes.
    - gizajob 11mo ago
      Yeah Knoppix jeez… what a mind bending revolution that was.

Kind of funny to find this on the front page of HN. Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. (I'm aware it's still around.)

SirFatty 11mo ago

yeah, it's around, but a ghost of its former glory.

ricksunny 11mo ago
I still check t regularly alongside HN. Need a counterpoint to HN submission coverage and crowd-editorial zeitgeist.
- bartvk 11mo ago
  Yup, me too. What’s funny is that your slashdot account can make friends (or enemies!) with other accounts, and there’s a limit of 200. Sometimes I spot comments of friends I made like 20 years ago.
- SirFatty 11mo ago
  Same.. however I've been using Alterslash as a story summary for years. https://alterslash.org/ https://alterslash.org/
- jiehong 11mo ago
  Maybe lobste.rs?
  - esseph 11mo ago
    Mostly HN reposts and extremely limited ability to post there if you don't have Bay Area social circles.
theideaofcoffee 11mo ago
It's sad to see its decline. I started reading right around 2000 and even noticed that it started to decline even as early as 2008, after and around some of its redesigns. I know I quit regularly stopping around there probably around that time too.
- romanhn 11mo ago
  Yup, around 2008 is when I noticed that many of the Slashdot front page submissions were discussed on this new site called Hacker News 1-2 days prior, minus the trolling and the comedy threads. It was a pretty easy switch at that point.

joshdavham 11mo ago

> Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. I definitely missed out :( What was it like?

jdlshore 11mo ago
It was a lot like HN, but more curated and with a more complex (and arguably better) moderation system. More focused on Linux and open source than HN, but still a technology news site with comments.
- hnlmorg 11mo ago
  To be honest I never liked the community much. But back then I still stubbornly clinging to smaller, more specialised communities (plus OSNews.com haha)
  - esseph 11mo ago
    Very happy OSNews is still around, just wish it had more traffic :(
standyro 11mo ago
Slashdot was somewhere between a well curated tech subreddit and Hacker News. It had its own in-jokes like: This is finally "the year of the Linux Desktop" and Jonathan "CowboyNeal" Pater, the site's moderator who often posted polls and commented. In the late 2000s, most migrated their Slashdot reflex to Digg - and then eventually the YC-backed Reddit when there was a disastrous rollout of Digg v4 (in 2010) Reddit then became less of a technology-focused site as it gained popularity, and HN became the defacto "tech news" aggregator with a well rounded comment section that resembled the early days of Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit.
ihaveajob 11mo ago
What I really miss was the moderation system. There was a simple 1-5 score and a main trait (insightful, funny, flamebait, underrated, overrated...). To moderate you had to earn points which would you then spend, so careful consideration mattered. The result was that you could filter for 5+Insightful and get the core of the discussion, or 5+Funny and have a good time, etc.

firefax 11mo ago

>Makes me wonder what percentage of today's HN readers didn't live through the Slashdot era. Please don't out me as a ghost parent

gizajob 11mo ago
Slashdot was the shiznitt back in the day of ye olde web. Great submissions and great personality amongst the admins and commenters. On occasions when I’ve brought that attitude here I’ve been slapped down by dang…
- firefax 11mo ago
  It certainly had an impression on me in my younger days -- moving over to Firefox and later messing around with Knoppix and becoming an open source geek probably stemmed in large part from seeing all the "Install Linux, problem solved" memes.
  - gizajob 11mo ago
    Yeah Knoppix jeez… what a mind bending revolution that was.