Saturday June 12, 2004

I like reading discussion groups. After following them for a while I start to build up a database of those people I respect and those that are completely off the edge of reality. One of those guys I respect is Cameron Purdy who posts to TheServerSide.com. Another is Ron Hitchens who blogs at java.net (who I happen to know personally but I still would have come to the same conclusion). Pretty level heads on their shoulders. I agree with them on some topics and disagree with them on others. But they make reasoned arguments, which I value.

The following comments have no intended animosity on my part. I used to be a big slashdot reader. It was on my daily read list. Now it is pretty far back in my "occassionally check up on" list. I found the noise-to-value ratio to be extremely high based on my interests. Part of the "noise" factor is that it is just such a large community with varying opinions (which is good and bad) and (unfortunately for me) highly varying topics. Today slashdot doesn't meet my needs but not every community is going to meet everyones needs. What I think put the nail in the coffin for me was the anonymous poster factor.

Anonymous posting encourages things an individual wouldn't say due to the fear factor. For example, "I don't like this product because (insert reasoned argument here)", while perhaps they were the person who decided to utilize that product for their project. I think the most important point of the last sentence was "insert reasoned argument here". Anonymity unfortunately encourages posts that are so chock full of opinion with baseless claims that you wonder if the poster was really a computer program that generated random words. This is a shame because it can easily drown out those who make reasoned arguments. Slashdot does allow the ability to rate (and filter out) posts which is a feature I rely on heavily!

I have found myself reading more of javalobby. Perhaps i will try that again. I don't recall why I stopped hitting javalobby, I actually just think it "fell off the to-do list". perhaps I'll take a stab at osnews.com as well since I have been getting some referral hits from there. That tells me we have something in common. Both of these sites are more targeted at my professional interests. What will be a factor of long-term participation is which side of the wall the anonymous posts will fall on