New Zealand Spy Agency Deleted Evidence About Its Illegal Spying On Kim Dotcom 222
An anonymous reader writes "The latest news in this: GCSB appears to have deleted key evidence in the case in a ham-fisted attempt to cover up its illegal activities. Even more ridiculous, GCSB is trying to cover this up by claiming that the material had 'aged off' — implying that it was deleted automatically. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key claims that they had to delete the information under the law. Of course, there are a few problems with that. The first is that under New Zealand law, like most countries these days, parties have an obligation to preserve documents likely to be necessary in a legal case. But, even more damning is that there's video of John Key in the New Zealand Parliament trying to defend against an earlier claim that GCSB had deleted some evidence by insisting that GCSB does not delete anything ever:"
Fuck GCSB! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Fuck NSA ! Fuck GCSB ! Fuck GCHQ ! (Score:5, Insightful)
... and yes, Fuck http://beta.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] !!
Re:Fuck NSA ! Fuck GCSB ! Fuck GCHQ ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Whoa, WTF. Just checked it out after seeing all the FUCK SLASHDOT posts.
I've been on Slashdot since the 90's and the BETA kills the community features.
Slashdot is not a news site. It's a community discussion site. Discussion is almost impossible in the gimped BETA.
Re:Fuck NSA ! Fuck GCSB ! Fuck GCHQ ! (Score:5, Insightful)
i agree with the outrage, but I guess today i'm feeling particularly pessimistic because I honestly don't think anything we do will matter. After all, as long as they maintain ad impressions that's all that counts. Who the fuck cares what the site is about, that can be changed anytime. Just keep those ads coming.
The primary problem with "classic" slashdot is that it devotes entirely too much of the available space to comments when it could have more space for branding and advertising. What the fuck were the morons who developed slashdot thinking? That they were providing a forum or something for people to post in?
FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
FUCK SLASHBETA
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Informative)
If it's as bad as you say (I haven't seen it yet) then there's a simple answer. Boycott the site for a week. Everybody.
You can bet that classic will be back up and running if you do that.
Can't live a week without slashdot? You're part of the problem.
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
Silence demonstrates complacency. The more people are vocal the more they'll feel pressure. Your idea basically amounts to giving up for a week when the time is now more critical than ever to be obnoxiously vocal.
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
The more people are vocal the more they'll feel pressure.
You believe the bean counters read the comments instead of looking at the advertising stats?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Interesting)
I expect what's more likely to happen is that people will spam FUCK BETA and make similar posts in the comments sections of all stories. Comments are what keep people around Slashdot these days and if the comment sections falls apart, the site will follow.
It's much more likely than a boycott and since the idea of doing so seems to have spread rather quickly across Slashdot, people like feeling like they're part of a group of protesters who might actually be able to make the change they're after.
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
I totally agree. I only visit Slashdot for the comments (the news is often posted elsewhere up to 2 days earlier). No comments, no slashdot. And I noticed that the comments section is pretty bad in the beta (far less comments fit on screen, with much more whitespace, making it more difficult to browse the comments).
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At the moment, with no javascript, and only select cookies, I'm managing to stay classic, but I'm prepared to boycott
Can we resurrect Bruce Perens' Technocrat as a home for the old-school nerds?
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If it's as bad as you say (I haven't seen it yet) then there's a simple answer. Boycott the site for a week. Everybody.
You didn't say when. Fortunately, someone else already suggested a week to boycott. :)
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot [slashdot.org] Idea!
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the readability of comments suffers greatly from the beta design.
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
i had only seen the main page. i had not seen the comments.
that.
is.
unusable.
whoever designed that is not a technical person, no matter what they might think about themselves.
so let me join with FUCK BETA
Re: (Score:2)
Does the beta site on your browser look anything like it does on mine? [imgur.com] I think the readability of comments suffers greatly from the beta design.
Well I am using Chrome (32.0.1700.107 - latest stable release) on Fedora 20 and don't have any issues. On the off chance I ran this on firefox (27.0) and still don't have any issues. Ok I will try Konqueror under KDE 4.11.5 ... Nope still don't have any problems. I even tried the Beta without logging in and I still did not have problems.
/. display but IMHO it is not that bad.
I won't deny that the Beta display is not the same as the original
Of course if I hold my control button down and scroll I can ge
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That is not zoomed in nor out. And I don't know why you would think it was zoomed, the ratios would still be the same; only about half of the window's width is actual content, ie. comment text.
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Forgot to add that whether it's bad or not, or if you see any issues with it is obviously subjective, but in case the comments are wider (relative to window size) on your system I'd be very interested to find out why (and how to fix it on mine as well.)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what your beef seems to be with anonymous posting. Why not try judging people based on the content of what they post instead of what name they chose to post under? If you have a problem with the content of a post, then say that. Choosing to post anonymously or not has nothing to do with whether someone has something legitimate to say or not other than there might be a few more off-topic AC posts (and even that's not exclusive, there are plenty of off-topic and silly posts coming from non-ACs).
No my beef is not with AC's in general since some do produce quite good comments and as a moderator I will mod them up. My main beef is with AC's who spam this site and what they are doing at the moment is spamming or if you like, writing ridicules amounts of "off topic" comments. Yes there are off-topic and silly posts coming from non-AC's but they are normally moderated as such.
You do notice that I am responding to you since you have an account and giving you the curtsy of a reply explaining why I am an
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if you use classic mode from prefs then you're not on beta. but every fucking reply takes you to a new page, which is kind of annoying as you can't see the whole thread.
probably less annoying than the beta look though.
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if you use classic mode from prefs then you're not on beta. but every fucking reply takes you to a new page
probably less annoying than the beta look though.
Ummm....no. When I hit 'reply' a box appears below the original message and I can type there.
Check your noscript settings or something if it doesn't.
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I have those plus "slashdot.org".
Re:FUCK BETA (Score:5, Insightful)
Just tried it. It's far from unsalvageable but it has a couple of simple, but massive flaws. One is the skinny comments section. That sucks hard, make it full-width. The next is that Slashdot seems to be following the trend of many sites to become more like Instagram. Lay off the pictures, don't put a big pic with nearly every article for the sake of having pictures, which is exactly what's happening. If it's really relevant use a small one, not some giant pic I have to scroll past taking up big chunks of valuable content space.
Last one, and it's not a big one, I'm not sure I like the more minimalist content section. I'd definitely miss the comment ID link and friend/foe indicator.
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Well, you know why it's skinny, don't you? Because everyone reads Slashdot on their phone and phones are skinny! Unless you turn them sideways, but no one does that! I hope they cut the comment width to about one inch. That way we can all see the quality ads that Dice wants us to see. Maybe they can make their ads blink, too, so that we have the full FUCK SLASHDOT BETA experience!
Maximum penalty... (Score:4, Insightful)
There should be a law that says "Assume guilt, apply maximum penalty, put people in jail" when stuff like this happens.
Same for Arthur Anderson and their shredding parties, etc.
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:5, Insightful)
Judges don't take kindly to things like this, plus Evidence Tampering is a separate crime.
Then there's the fruit of the poison tree argument. I don't know about NZ, but here in the US all evidence that comes from illegal evidence is considered illegal. So if the original evidence against Dot Com was illegally obtained by the GCSB, then everything, including all the search warants, is inadmissible. That's probably why it was deleted. When Dot Com's lawyers go to make that argument expect the government to say something like "you have no proof."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
All very true, except that the judge isn't going to care what the government does.
"For reasons of national security, and reasons that can not be made public that had nothing to do with my pension, the government has displayed a compelling argument that demonstrates complete constitutionality with regards to these absolutely necessary actions. Won't somebody think of the children before they are turned into terrorists."
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, we do but its not like the one in the US, ours is a collection of documents see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_New_Zealand
I am from NZ and I seer this from the inside, the problem is the Govt has been caught doing something illegal so now its face-saving time, I very much doubt that the documents have been "lost" or "Aged off" Simply because the documents are not that old (your supposed to keep your Tax receipts for 7 years) I doubt that any information was deleted with no other sources
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, Slashdot Beta is absolute crap, and if the morons, idiots, and assholes pushing it persist in this stupidity, then they should expect a boycott.
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:4)
You're correct but it's not obvious that the law will actually be applied in this case. Clearly, the NZ and US both really, REALLY want to crucify Dot Com and are willing to break the law, cheat, lie, steal, defraud and everything else in order to do it.
As an American, I can tell you that US definitely wants to get him as it's what our overlords in Hollywood (including the RIAA) want. It's really difficult for me to see why NZ would care much at all, but I can understand that the US might use pressure to make them care. However, I have to agree with what another poster said in saying that NZ might be deliberately screwing up as a way to (secretly) protest being goaded into action by the US.
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The question I keep asking is: Why?
Oh I know that businesses and corporations the world over hate Dot-Com, but why would public employees in NZ and the US be willing to break the law over this? I cannot grasp why civil servants would go out on a limb like this over what basically amounts to a frivolous case.
If you were a desk-jocky in NZ law e
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There should be a law that says "Assume guilt, apply maximum penalty, put people in jail" when stuff like slashdot beta happens.
FTFY!
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There should be a law that says "Assume guilt, apply maximum penalty, put people in jail" when stuff like this happens.
I don't know about there, but at least in the US the judge is likely to instruct the jury: "assume the worst about what the destroyed documents contained".
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:4, Insightful)
The point, the very essence, of the electronic surveillance state is that YOU have no privacy or hope of leniency. Your watchers, however, are secret, immune, and implacable. Whenever someone says, "Just don't do anything wrong!", or, "What have you got to hide?" or, best, "Get the fuck over it, privacy is dead.", remember this story. The people who run the panoptikon, who can call in Copyright Commando raids against a home *in another country*, can accuse and prosecute and steal; however, they themselves can lie, hide, destroy evidence, and operate in total secrecy. Power without consequences for the corporations and governments, while *you* will be held responsible for every bad thing you've ever said or did. Anywhere in the world that has power that can get access to the panoptikon can drag your ass back to their jurisdiction (well, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia can, anyway).
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:4, Funny)
What's Slashbeta ?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, that's what that message was....(!)
When I looked at slashdot this morning it said something like "You won't be able to see 'slashdot classic' for much longer". There must be some sort of redesign that I didn't see yet.
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:5, Insightful)
As was stated before, lucky you.
I was one of the happy few 'til yesterday when I decided I should take a look. I took. And I was kinda glad I didn't have lunch yet or it would have been a waste of money.
Slashdot beta looks like, well, pretty much any mediocre news aggregation site out there. Not really awful, but it feels a load slower and it looks like someone took a course in some kinda edgy new technology and now feels the urge to show it off. Remember when the AOLlers found out about HTML and how many bells, whistles and FLASHING gadgets you could fill a page with? Like it or not, that was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw it. It sure felt like someone wanted to do a "wow, look at me" stunt.
I might be an old nerd, but to me, less can be more...
What I like about the "old" Slashdot is not only that it's faster. That's an additional goodie. But first of all, the pictures are smaller and the text gets more real estate on the page. Yes, I like it that way. If I wanted a picture book, I'd turn to the son of a friend of mine, he's 3 and he has plenty of them. I don't need a news page that looks like it's aimed at 3 year olds. I feel kinda insulted that way. I know, it's the trend with newspapers and online magazines all over, and guess what the net effect was: I STOPPED READING THEM.
It seems the makers of /. fall for the same fallacy the makers of MMOs all over the planet fall for: WoW did it a certain way, so we have to, too, because WoW is the biggest out there. Possible. But you will not attract the players of WoW because, guess what, they already have what they want! The only thing you can accomplish by becoming more like them is to lose those that are with you exactly because you're NOT like them and because they hate what they are.
But I trust the market in this very special case. As soon as /. is no longer useful, something else will pop up to fill the void. As I usually say when it comes to others that piss their users off: They need us. We don't need them.
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What I like about the "old" Slashdot is not only that it's faster. That's an additional goodie. But first of all, the pictures are smaller and the text gets more real estate on the page. Yes, I like it that way. If I wanted a picture book, I'd turn to the son of a friend of mine, he's 3 and he has plenty of them.
"Pictures"???
My window is showing edge-to-edge text, I don't recall ever seeing "pictures" on slashdot apart from an icon next to the summary (eg. a blue padlock for this story).
Reading this thread I feel like I'm seeing a completely different web site than everybody else.
Re: (Score:3)
To return to sanity, scroll to the bottom again and click "Slashdot Classic". It's in the grey box which takes up the whole screen at 1280x1024.
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Sometimes, rarely, but yes, sometimes, there is a picture right in the topic text. Sometimes even a video gets embedded!
But at least they're usually relevant to the article discussed... ok, not really. But at least they're few and far between!
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The beta needs work. The comment forum is problematic. Images are a bit too big for my taste and they're not well selected to fit the theme of each story - but that's an editorial problem, not a software glitch. Still, the software clearly isn't ready for prime time. Yet a site update is warranted. And I think /. has plenty of life left in it with the right community and editorial mix.
ADMINS: If you're reading this, why not post a sticky for community bitching and get the site designers involved? Yank this
Re:Maximum penalty... (Score:5, Insightful)
But to the bitchfest crew, this shitstorm of offtopic crapflooding has made /. comments utterly unreadable for ontopic discussion. That sucks. I actually clicked this link to read real comments and got nowhere.
Hopefully, everyone will tire of the beta ranting and we can all go back to ranting about all other things soon. And hopefully, the editors already get the message, so all this beta mastering can stop soon. Personally, I'm still on classic (after 30 seconds or so on beta) so I don't even have anything to complain about until they actually take classic away. If that happens, I'll either adjust or go away, I'm not sure which. Meanwhile, they risk destroying the site, ala Digg. (It's not smart to even roll such Dice, Kids...)
I remember when the current look came in several years ago. I think it had round corners and a different color scheme. I didn't like it at first - cosmetic change is as hard for nerds as math is for Barbie - but I soon got used to it. Hopefully that can happen again if necessary. If not, sayonara Slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
The beta commenting system is so bad I couldn't even preview and post from there. But I'm sympathetic to beta fuck ups. What's actually broken will work out in time and the stylistic issues people dislike will either lead to an exodus or be resolved in some unexpected way. For example, I dumped Final Cut Pro when Apple went to X and have been pleased with Adobe Premier
Re: (Score:2)
Well get used to it.
If beta goes live people will exodus slashdot, granted no more fuck beta posts, but on the other hand, the people whom you want to have a discussion with will have moved on, leaving you with spambots.
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I tried that in Internet Explorer, just to make sure I had the full experience.
Ew!
Was I supposed to be viewing it on a touch screen tablet or something?
please abandon the beta (Score:5, Insightful)
pretty please?
Should've deleted Beta (Score:5, Insightful)
Beta sucks. Fuck Beta.
Oh NZ, I had such hopes for you (Score:2)
Re:Oh NZ, I had such hopes for you (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes I get the feeling that NZ is deliberately messing this up.
That the US might have pushed them to get Kim and this is just NZ's way of protesting it.
The amount of mistakes made in this case is approaching comedic levels.
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I find it hard to believe that the government of NZ is subjecting itself to ridicule, expense and possibly legal jeopardy to protest the actions of the US. They have diplomats to protest whatever they want to the highest levels of the US government anytime they like. No, I'd guess that they really are just that incompetent. That US, entertainment industry, pressure and bribes caused them to ride rough over NZ's laws. With their actions starting to come out into the open and be seen by the NZ public they ar
Re: (Score:3)
It could be a little of both. If you were an investigator/prosecutor/advisor/etc and the case is against a genuine criminal, you care about catching/convicting them; this is why you became an investigator/prosecutor/etc. You are going to push for an effective investigation, follow every lead, and try to prevent screw-ups which will harm the investigation/prosecution.
But if you feel the case is due to political pressure by the US and obsequious douches in government, you just don't really try very hard. That
Not just NZ (Score:2)
What would Ron Burgundy say about Beta? (Score:4, Funny)
You stay classic Slashdot!
SLASHBETA ADMINS (Score:4, Insightful)
FYI, The slashbeta admins are modding threads and replies as -1.... like 5-10 posts all at once. No REAL COMMUNITY MEMBER MODS are doing this, but the admins.
Users don't want Slashbeta, but the admins are trying to suppress this obvious reality. The last 3-4 stories all comments are 99% anti-slashbeta and they still want to pretend they're listening to us and asking for our feedback.
The feedback is to take your fucking redesign and rm -fr
Die in a fire slashbeta
Re:SLASHBETA ADMINS (Score:5, Insightful)
not sure about that - most people with mod points will mod "fuck beta" posts as -1 as they are offtopic, and such posts are easy to moderate (ie you don't have to think if something is insightful or informative for example).
However,I don't think there are enough mod points available to kill all the fuckbeta posts.
BTW fuck beta. Really, fuck the stupidity of it. (I wouldn't mind if it still delivered what is important about slashdot but its just sidelined the comments and stories as if they're the irrelevant parts).
Re:SLASHBETA ADMINS (Score:5, Insightful)
not sure about that - most people with mod points will mod "fuck beta" posts as -1 as they are offtopic, and such posts are easy to moderate (ie you don't have to think if something is insightful or informative for example).
I always mark things off topic, but not this time. I'm making an exception and I'm not the only one with mod points making that exception. The Dice overlords didn't hear the first dozen times we screamed about the beta site so we're screaming louder since they are telling us they are going to take away our classic view. Really... this is the last time before Slashdot implodes. If they move ahead to the beta crap and force us on it, Slashdot is going to be a ghost town.
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot [slashdot.org] Idea!
Re: (Score:3)
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre - forget boycotting it, make one of those days the "fuck beta" day where no comment shall be allowed except to say "fuck beta".
Re:SLASHBETA ADMINS (Score:5, Insightful)
Well at least I shall use all my mod points to flag fuckbeta posts as “Insightful”, because they are. Off-topic, but insightful.
Forking Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)
We need a forking plan for near future when everything goes "Beta" permanently.
Who the fuck is Beta... (Score:5, Insightful)
...and what's up with all the hate agai...(click).
Oh. What in the holy fuck is this?
Nevermind. Fuck Beta.
Fuck Beta (Score:3, Insightful)
Keep Classic
Fuck Beta
Slash Beta Slash (Score:2, Funny)
Hans Reiser would know how to deal with this bitch
I couldn't comment on Beta in the proper link (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I couldn't comment on Beta in the proper link (Score:5, Insightful)
I couldn't comment on Beta in the proper link because it's down, so I'd like to go offtopic for a moment, and note that the Beta interface is unwieldy and takes longer to load (which makes a difference on 2G/3G tethering). Therefore, I'd like to vote against it. Thank you.
And ah, no need to apologize for being off-topic my friend. Apparently, every topic has a similar answer here lately. "Fuck Beta".
And when Beta turns out to be a hot porn star, that answer will be an accurate one.
Until then, it's the new SlashWarCry to insist our beloved aged-like-XP interface remains unchanged.
Or at least stop us from migrating to that thing I've now politely labeled as Slashdon't
Slashdon't. Please.
Re: (Score:2)
you know what's funny? it's supposed to be more mobile friendly.
which it ain't.
It starts to be amusing in a sad kind of way. (Score:5, Interesting)
This site is probably the reason I didn't finish my university degree in 2000.
I have spent ages here, and took part in some very intelligent discussions.
Slashdot has always been about the highly educated user base, you could always count one at least one knowlegable person in the comments getting to the heart of TFA.
It has been in decline the last few years, maybe because new users find reddit first (and then they are reduced to drooling zombie basement dwellers) or maybe because the editors are worse (though complaining about the editors is nearly as old als /. itself), I don't know.
But this site redesign will be the end of it once and for all. The main selling point of slashdot is it's userbase. Scare them away and all you're left if is a generic 'news' rehashing site.
But the stubborn pushing of this disastrous beta (office politics? nobody wants to be mean to the nice new designer?) makes shure it will at least go out with a bang and not slowly fade away.
I watch with a sad sort of amusement as if my old college dorm where I spend so many good parts of my life is burning to the ground because the homeowner thought it would be a good idea to replace all woodwork with cardboard.
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I watch with a sad sort of amusement as if my old college dorm where I spend so many good parts of my life is burning to the ground because the homeowner thought it would be a good idea to replace all woodwork with whitespace.
FTFY
Slashdot Beta sucks balls! Fuck beta!
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe the design is form the best. Maybe we are spending too much time here.
How many complaints about the beta... (Score:5, Insightful)
...will it take for slashdot to abandon this course? I'm only asking because I love this site and want to continue to to support it as long as I am able. Tell us please, this really is a case of Dice asserting it's supremecy isn't it? I can't fathom why the usual slashdot admins would subject their usership to these shenagagins.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm surprised nobody gets this. The new slashdot isn't for you; it's not for the current userbase. They want a more marketable userbase. They want companies to pay to have stories posted (speculation, but I get that impression from the new layout since the focus is more on the posts than the discussions.) Why? because good community driven discussion sites simply aren't profitable enough.
The new site doesn't "suck"; it is designed for more consumption and less interaction. Of course it actually sucks,
Re: (Score:2)
The AC above me http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... [slashdot.org] pointed this out but I'd like to add a "me too".
In my opinion, dice have taken a look at the amount of ad revenue they get from /. and decided it's not worth it. A very sizeable percentage of people here will run adblockers and the click-through rates of the ones that don't are almost certainly minuscule, and the community here has been traditionally very wary of paid placements masquerading as news, shills and all the rest of it. People come here for the di
Yeah, (Score:2)
Beta sucks balls (Score:2, Insightful)
Does anyone notice a cycle?
They ask for feedback, they say they care.
5 stories now 99% of comments pure hate. The disgust is everywhere.
They continue to make it worse pretend that no one fucking hates it.
We get more pissed
They tell us we're "griping" and want to know what's wrong...
Well them what's wrong (everything...again ).....
Nothing changes...
LIP SERVICE
No, we won't "get used to it" (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey Dice, remember Digg?
July 2008 Digg took part in advanced acquisition talks with Google for a reported $200 million price tag
August 25, 2010 Digg v4 site redesign
July 12, 2012 Digg announced its sale to Betaworks for $500,000
Is that what you want?
Not really topical, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you want to hear from us on the beta, why does mail to the given email address bounce? Maybe fix your stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
If you want to hear from us on the beta, why does mail to the given email address bounce? Maybe fix your stuff.
Mine went through this morning. I expect it's directly related to mailbox capacity and the sheer amount of hate they've received today.
FUCK BETA.
Re: (Score:2)
The beta email bounced? Now that's just funny!
-- Common Joe
Slashdot Valentines Day Massacre: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's Alternate Slashdot [slashdot.org] Idea!
They should make a story about the beta (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Googling "Fuck Beta" brings up Slashdot as the 10th search. It will be racing to number 1 in no time.
Have you noticed how much weight Google gives to Slashdot in its searches, Dice? Maybe find a way to monetize that instead of pissing the whole user-base down the drain with a "Let's do something!!!" idea.
Did you know that Google is easily the world's most profitable web service, Dice? What is most remarkable about their design? Ah yes, the CLEAR UNCLUTTERED INTERFACE.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:They should make a story about the beta (Score:4, Interesting)
Now that would be an interesting story. Hear it from their side, and gain some insights into why deathmarches like Unity, Metro, and Slashdot Beta continue on into production despite overwhelming negative feedback.
It's like nobody in IT understands the sunk cost fallacy: when you're in a hole, stop digging. Managers think they can resolve the waste of dollars in the past by digging up, and in so doing, throw away good money after bad.
Beta (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
All gone (Score:2)
Well, of course (Score:2)
They deleted the evidence of spying because it's spying. If they didn't try to hide it, then it would be spying now, would it? They have a word for spying where you don't hide the evidence. It's called "watching". And, rest assured, they're doing that too.
I mean, duh.
Governments really get off on this super-secret shit, don't they? It's almost like they've got something to hide. What is it about all the so-called "free societies" that seem to be dying to turn themselves into East Germany circa 1962?
HOLY SHIT FUCK BETA!!! (Score:2)
Okay I just tried it. OMG FUCK ME. ./ on phone ever again if that braindead clusterfuck goes through,
Viewed on my phone, htc evo 4g.
Very serious image display errors, stretchef to
many screen heights. The links to the article are all broken.
Dont think from-the-xx-dept tags are there.
Wont view
which is most of the time these days. Cannit see posts either!!!!!!
FUCK BETA!!!!!!!
Slashdot to enter the wasteland (Score:2)
I like Slashdot - I really do. The news may be a little stale, but the design is clean and efficient, and the commenters are generally reasonable adults. Now, a lot of successful web pages have been redesigned to "freshen" them or expand their market. I wonder how well that works out, in general? I no longer use Google News, Google Images, Slate, or a family of humor sites - was it cheesburger? - I used to visit. I can't think I'm so much an outlier that I'm the only one.
I actually like beta, but... (Score:2)
Design issue: there needs to be a 'no images' option for people running on restricted bandwidth.
How about if they delete the new /. version? (Score:2)
Everybody should provide the "feedback" they want (Score:2)
That javascript pop-up at the top asks for feedback with a link to feedback@slashdot.org, subject beta_feedback. (I'm not doing an actual link, because the beta site appears to not allow links).
I've already sent an email stating that, if beta becomes permanent, I will be deleting my account and not returning to Slashdot. If everybody gives their feedback about the Beta, perhaps they'll realize that they're going to lose all their money when we stop visiting.
Used to be this nice site called SlashDot (Score:2)
Beta means the end for Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
I have been a regular visitor to Slashdot for around 15 years. For that, I get the checkbox to disable ads, though I browse with Javascript disabled so my browser does not slow down.
I come here for the discussions, and often read comments at +5, changing that only if I find a discussion interesting and warrants reading at a lower level.
The new beta uses JQuery for the comment threshold selector, and changes that on the fly. This means all the comments are loaded, but not visible, and processing any page with considerable number of comments will slow down MY computer! If I have a few tabs open to read later, my computer will be unusable.
What is worse it that they require you to click on the slider on every article to change the threshold! This is just insane!
If they insist that I enable Javascript to browse the site at the threshold I want, then they will lose me as a long time. I imagine that others long timers will hate the site too.
Dice have to remember that this site has two unmatched features, interlocked: a moderation system that is good at cutting down the trolling, spamming, and noise, and a comment section that is frequented by many people who are passionate about technology and other nerdy stuff.
If they wanted to intentionally ruin the site and drive people away, they would not have done any worse than what they are doing now.
If they manage to aggravate a lot of their users, the comment section will no longer be attractive to the audience. Perhaps we should revive kuro5hin?
I wrote the above in a feedback form that I filled a while ago, and I am emailing this comment to their feedback@slashdot.org. Please send them feedback too.
And mod this up so Dice can see what they are getting themselves into.
Law people have never respected the law. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Please do not commit a Windows 8 .... err..... I mean suicied!
FUCK BETA!
I haven't got beta yet - is it really that bad!
Re: (Score:2)
Words can't describe it. You must try it yourself. [slashdot.org]
I see what you mean - everything compressed into the screen with a big space to the right. That's ... much worse
Re:Nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)
AC opined:
They don't delete externally collected data. They obviously delete or age-off internal records.
Prime Minister John Key, who is in charge of GCSB said [nzherald.co.nz]:
This is a spy agency. We don't delete things. We archive them.
Key's office confirmed that Key was talking about the video that his lawyers had claimed was deleted.
AC opined:
Isn't claiming that Dotcom was illegally spied upon putting the cart before the horse here? Where is the evidence? Regardless of whether it was deleted or not, by making the statement one is assuming the conclusion and puts their own credibility at risk.
Here are some links from the fine article showing that the government and the police have already admitted malfeasance:
Police Admit That NZ Spy Agency Illegally Spied On Kim Dotcom [techdirt.com]
NZ Prime Minister Admits That The Government Illegally Wiretapped Megaupload Employees [techdirt.com]
Oddly enough you are correct that these admissions of malfeasance do put the credibility of the police and the Prime Minister at risk although that is probably not what you meant.
And in conclusion: FUCK BETA!
Re: (Score:2)
I agree that the hatred here is much deeper.
And I suspect the reason is that the "upgrade" to Beta isn't actually upgrading anything. There's not a single new feature or improvement.
The change to the current UI added things like collapsible threads, reply windows within the thread, etc. Beta is struggling merely to keep standard features like threads, moderation, or even the most basic stuff like displaying fonts correctly. Once they have code which broadly replicates most of the current functions, but in t