This is Slashdot, a website based on and running the Slashdot-Like Automated Story-Telling Homepage software. You're reading the FAQ
Slashdot was created in 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it's owned by Slashdot Media. Slashdot is run primarily by a handful of editors and coders, with the help of many others. The editors are Beau ("BeauHD") Hamilton, Manish ("manishs") Singh, David ("EditorDavid"), and Logan ("whipslash") Abbott.
"Slashdot" is an intentionally obnoxious URL. When Rob registered the domain http://slashdot.org, he wanted a URL that was confusing when read aloud. (Try it!)
TopTo submit stories, corrections, or updates, please use the submissions form. Submit corrections or updates just as if you were submitting any other news item, by using the web submission form. Please include a link to the story you're updating or correcting, and explain what the trouble is.
Use the same submissions form; just make clear that you're asking a question. (A good way is to title your submission starting with "Ask Slashdot.")
We often edit submissions for reasons of spelling, grammar, or clarity, or to format them for visual consistency. We're happy when a story submission comes in with no changes needed, but most stories get at least a tweak or two. Sometimes we'll shorten a submission to emphasize its key points or points, remove links not relevant or central to the story posted, swap anchor text to make links easier to read, or substitute a better link for one that may be broken, expired or paywalled (or not the best link for some other reason). When two submissions offer different sources, we may combine them into a single story. Sometimes, too, we may fold links to relevant previous Slashdot stories into the text, or add these links separately. Though we do so in good faith, we apologize in advance and strive to correct any errors that this tweaking introduces.
This is harder than it sounds. We try to select the most interesting, timely, and relevant submissions, but can only run a fraction of those submitted; there are probably as many reasons for stories to get declined as there are stories. Think positive: read our submissions guidelines for some hints about increasing the chances that we'll run yours.
Yes. If you log in, though, the editors can follow up with questions if for some reason we'd otherwise like to run your story but some crucial word or link is missing.
We'd rather you didn't submit press releases—at least not ones that sound like press releases! But if you're going to submit one, please use the submission form.
In short, No. If you email one of the editors directly, the others won't see your submission. (And your mail might hit someone who's on vacation, sleeping, or has a downed network connection.) Assume that any emailed story submission is likely to go unread; please use the submission form instead.
Sometimes we post a later submission rather than an earlier one. There are a variety of factors: the personality of the post, the quality of the submission, or even the quantity of stories already posted when your submission entered the queue—and sometimes, we just mess up.
Be sure to read our book review guidelines so you know what we're looking for. When you're ready to submit it, you can do so on our submissions page.
TopAsk as many questions as you'd like! Just don't ask unrelated questions in the same comment; instead, ask separately, so they can be moderated separately. (More chances to win!)
Often several readers ask similar questions. If yours is the one Slashdot editors believe represents that "group" of questions best, it's the one that gets picked. We tend to pick questions that have meaningful subject lines, and we prefer questions that are short and pithy to long, wandering ones.
It's a human factor. Moderation helps us decide which questions to send along, but often there are interesting ones which haven't been modded up as much.
TopTags are text labels you can add to a story that help categorize stories by content or category. Clicking the tag icon will open a text field for tagging. Type in a tag, then press the space bar. Repeat for all tags you'd like to add to the story.
Note: Adding the same tag more than once does not increase its weight; once is enough. You might, though, tag a story about Western Digital hard drives "wd," "westerndigital," and "storage," or a story about an MIT programming contest "programming," "competition," and "mit." Tags help sort stories, and help you search for related ones. More tags help!
Everyone can see them! Tags are public and flexible (rather than private and permanent). So one day, we might consolidate and change all "canine" tags to "dog," say, or define new system tags and usurp more namespace. (Don't say we didn't warn you!) Because tags on Slashdot are public, and are used to inform the moderation system, tag abuse can hurt your karma. Please tag in good faith.
Certain tags trigger alerts to the editors, which means there are a few cases where we poach the namespace a bit. Just a few, for now:
You can see some of the most popular tags at slashdot.org/tags. (You can see your own tags by visiting slashdot.org/my/tags.)
For any tag, you can see the stories it's been applied to by going to slashdot.org/tag/$tag (replace "$tag" with the term you're curious about). It's fun just to poke around!
TopLogging in lets you save preferences, and gives you access to features that anonymous readers don't have, including a journal, the Friends & Foes system, and comment moderation.
Sorry, but No. It's just too prone to abuse.
Log in, then use the form on your User Info page.
You can delete your account using this form.
Hit "Log In" anyhow, then click "Forgot your password?" Still have trouble? Email feedback@slashdot.org for help.
Make sure you have cookies turned on, and that your computer's date and time are correct. If you've turned cookies on, and still have trouble, email feedback@slashdot.org for help.
A login session is a glorified cookie; to provide some added security, you can determine the duration and location for your session. The duration options should be self-explanatory: "Lasts Forever," or "Closes With Browser." The former is good if you're the only person using your computer. If you're slightly paranoid, or often log in from remote terminals, choose "Closes With Browser" instead.
The second decision is your location. The first choice is "Never Moves," appropriate it you have a static IP and you never log out of Slashdot or share your computer. "Moves within Subnet" is useful if you have a desktop and never log out, but your ISP sometimes changes your IP. "Follows me Everywhere" is the right choice for machines that move from network to network. This option is the least secure, but oh-so-convenient, and it's also the default.
Slashboxes are configurable mini-feeds that appear on the right-hand side of the page. If you're logged in, they're configurable: you can select which Slashboxes (from dozens of choices) show up on your page—everything from single-source news feeds to webcomics to recent tags, etc.
TopModerate! Read comments (preferably at a low threshold) and when you see comments that are very insightful, or perhaps just plain off topic, select the appropriate option from the drop down list. When you're done, hit the 'Moderate' button. That's it! Moderation is like jury duty: You never know when you'll be selected, and when you get it, you only do it for a little bit.
Concentrate more on promoting than on demoting. Try to be impartial about this; simply disagreeing with a comment is not a valid reason to mark it down. The goal here is to share ideas, to sift through the haystack and find needles, and to keep spammers and griefers in check.
For every moderator out there pushing an agenda, there are usually several good ones making sure that everyone is getting a fair say. To counter unfair moderation, though, we've come up with a system of meta-moderation (moderating the moderation).
Metamoderation is a second layer of moderation. It seeks to increase fairness by letting logged-in users "rate the rating" of randomly selected comment posts.
M1 and M2 are Slashdot shorthand for "moderation" and "metamoderation," respectively. We also use these with suffixes For example, if you see the term "M2ed," it means "metamoderated." Likewise, the term "M1er" means "Moderator."
In order to metamoderate, your account must be among the oldest 92.5% accounts on the system.
Remember, M2 rates the moderations, not the comments. If the same comment was moderated more than once, it may appear several times to a meta-moderator, too.
Don't sweat the small stuff—both have a +1 effect on the comment. Rate the moderation "Fair" and move on.
TopYour "threshold" is the minimum score of the comments displayed to you. Comments are scored from -1 to 5, and you can set your threshold to any score within that range. If you set your threshold to 2, only comments rated 2 or above would be displayed. Setting your threshold at -1 will display all comments. 0 is almost all comments. Higher threshold settings reduce the number of comments you see, but (in theory, anyway) increase the quality of the posts you see.
A widget attached to each story's comments contains two sliders; these allow you to control the score threshold at which comments are displayed. You can drag and drop them and adjust your preferences to find the balance of score and comment text you want.
We've tried to make this difficult (for example, the system won't let you create an account named 'CmdrTaco' because one already exists) but that doesn't prevent ninnies from doing what ninnies do. Read cautiously.
The Slashdot editors are also readers; we have unlimited mod points, and have no problem using them to highlight good comments, or to moderate down abusive comments of which we become aware. (Hey, get your own sandbox! And get off my lawn!) Abusive comments make it less pleasant for people to read the site. Not to mention, we'd like people to be able to read Slashdot behind ham-handed filtering systems that would block the entire site. If you're posting in good faith, this will probably never affect you. (And if you want to read all the comments, set your threshold to -1.)
Below and to the right of each comment is a small "Anti" symbol; click on this, and (optionally) explain why you consider the comment abusive. (Slashdot discussions are and should be robust; only cry "Abuse!" for comments that are utterly without redeeming value -- spam, racist ranting, etc. For everything else, use the other moderation options.) Reported comments will be reviewed and moderated by the editors, if appropriate.
This probably means you're reading from behind a web proxy that allows connections from any host. This functionality has been abused. Comments can't be posted from this address until the proxy is better secured. Please notify your Proxy Admin.
Occasionally we ban IPs from which we see abuse, or disallow accounts from specific actions (such as posting or submitting stories) in response to spam, persistent flamebait, etc. If this happens unfairly to you, please read How do I get an IP Unbanned. These bans are relatively rare, but necessary when specific users or IPs disrupt service for others.
If your IP is banned, it's probably because one of these is true:
Email banned@slashdot.org. Be sure to specify the IP itself, your user ID, and any other pertinent information. (If you're connecting through a proxy server, you might need to have the admin contact us instead.)
Your karma is a reference that primarily represents how your comments have been moderated. Karma is used to determine who moderates and who doesn't. You can improve your karma by posting intelligent, funny, informative or comments generally impressive to your fellow readers.
Karma is structured on the following scale "Terrible, Bad, Neutral, Positive, Good, and Excellent." If a comment you post is moderated up, your karma will rise. Conversely, bad karma usually indicates a user account used to spam or otherwise hurt the discussion.
Factors besides moderation also affect karma. Having a story submission accepted raises your karma. Also, metamoderation can cause your karma to change. This encourages good moderators, and ideally removes moderator access from bad ones. Don't worry too much about it; it's just an integer in a database.
A handful of filters have been put into place to try to make sure that people don't abuse the system. For instance, the same person can't post more than once every 120 seconds. Also, if a single user is moderated down several times in a short span, a temporary ban will be imposed on that user ... a cooling off period, if you will.
If you believe you've been unfairly banned, let us know, so we can fix it.
Your user page displays the comment's "Natural" score. That reflects things like moderations up or down, default posting bonus, and so forth. When you see the same comment in a discussion, though, its score reflects bonuses or penalties associated with your own user preferences. (You can choose to tailor the comments you read, for instance, by bumping up comments that others have rated "Insightful”)
TopThe Firehose is powerful viewing tool for Slashdot content, from comments and journal entries to RSS feeds and story submissions. You can filter and interact with the Firehose in a number of ways. The plus/minus box on the left side of each Firehose entry lets you vote on that item. A context menu will appear when you click on the plus or minus, giving you the option of adding certain tags. You can also expand the submission if you'd like to add other tags, such as "northdakota" or "spaceflight." Voting and tagging are helpful; they inform other Firehose users, and help the editors decide which ones make it to the front page.
You can enter filter terms in the text field at the top of the firehose page. Sort for any particular type of entry by entering its type into the field and hitting enter. For example, entering "journal" there would sort for journal entries. You can also sort for story, comment, feed, bookmark, and submission. Putting a "-" in front of a type will exclude that type. For example: "-feed" would exclude all RSS feeds. You can also sort for things like "linux," "openbsd," or "riaa" to see stories with those tags or comments and submissions that mention them.
The colors serve as a rough quality rating for entries in the firehose. You can sort for colors by using the color-picker next to the filter field. Red is the most popular, black is the least popular, and story submissions enter the firehose at blue. Your nods and nixes affect this, so the more often you vote, the more useful color sorting becomes. The lower your color threshold, the more content you'll see.
TopSearch for the user. Click. Add the user as your friend or foe.
You'll find those symbols on users' comments as well, and elsewhere on the site. Basically, anywhere you see the following symbol you can decide to add a user as friend or foe.
To remove a friend or foe, click on their friend/foe symbol and change them back to Neutral.
http://slashdot.org/my/friends and http://slashdot.org/my/foes, respectively.
Sure. It's similar to checking your own friends or foes list (http://slashdot.org/my/friends); simply replace /my/friends with /~username/friends. Follow the same pattern for checking other users' foes list.
When you select someone as a friend, it makes you that user's fan. To see people who have chosen you as a friend (your fans): http://slashdot.org/my/fans. To see other users' fans, replace /my/fans with /~username/fans.
"Freaks" are people who name you as a foe: http://slashdot.org/my/freaks.
Comment modifiers (see http://slashdot.org/my/comments) let you filter comments in a story. There are many comment modifier options. For instance, you can attach a comment modifier to a friend, foe, fan, freak, friend of friend, or foe of friend.
The reason this is cool: let's say you want to be able to read all your friends comments, but many of their comments lie at the threshold of 1, and you read at a threshold of 2. If you go to your comment preferences, you can make all of your friends' comments appear at a score of 5.
TopYour journal can be found at http://slashdot.org/my/journal.
Use it for whatever you'd like! we don't care (much). We reserve the right to moderate down abusive journal entries (including spam), just as with comments.
Anyone can read your journal. (And you can read anyone else's journal, too.)
Nope—Sorry.
TopWe log the usual stuff (IP, page, time, user, page views, moderation, and comment posting, mainly), and a few other bits, too. The data is used mostly to make moderation possible.
That's our image server; if you block it, you'll miss all the graphic violence.
Whitelisting slashdot.org is necessary for the fancier parts of the site to function. You'll need to whitelist a.fsdn.com too; that's our CDN, and if you block it, many things may break.
TopThe mobile site can be accessed at http://m.slashdot.org/ from your mobile device (smartphone or tablet). Note that if you attempt to access this from your desktop, you will not be able to click on items. For proper Android support, all actions must be registered as touch events, which aren't in desktop browsers.
The Slashdot mobile website uses the latest technologies to deliver a clean mobile experience. Due to the wide variety of mobile devices, we cannot support every combination. Therefore, below is a list of recommended configurations.
We recommend:
Note:
We support:
If you're having trouble viewing our mobile site, please view the Supported area above and ensure that your device meets these requirements. Also, ensure that JavaScript is enabled.
If you are still having trouble with our mobile site, please email feedback@slashdot.org with:
We're using a delightful potpourri of Backbone, Zepto, Underscore, Hamstache, Jasmine, and Sass. Apache & mod_perl serve up the framework.
TopThe syndication feed for the Slashdot front page is available in RSS 0.9, RSS 1.0, and Atom 1.0 formats. Please don't request feeds more than once every 30 minutes.
On most pages, if there is feed content available, it
will be noted in the <HEAD> of the
page.
Wherever you see rss below, you can also substitute with atom to get an Atom 1.0 feed, such as content_type=atom and journal/atom, or append atom to the end of the rss.slashdot.org URLs, like slashdotGamesatom (although some feeds, like Zoo and some search results, need some more work for Atom).
Where you see $username below, substitute the URI-encoded username of the user in question (such as Clifton+Wood).
Where you see $logtoken, you must include
a token so the server knows you're you, in lieu of a
cookie, as most newsreaders can't handle cookies well
(you can find it in the <HEAD> of
the page, if you're a logged in, and a subscriber).
NOTE: your logtoken is subject to change when you log
out or change your login preferences. See the
Accounts FAQ
for more information.
Append the section name to the index link for individual section feeds. For example:
Journals (add "/$logtoken" if you're a subscriber, to get full HTML in the feed)
Messages
Search Results
Use the filter field to sort for whatever type of content you like. On the section menu, you'll see an "untitled" section, which you can use to save those settings. Once that's done, hitting the edit button again will bring up an RSS icon, which you can use to subscribe to the custom feed.
Our policy is to allow one request every 30 minutes. We'll allow a few more before you'll get banned, and we are more flexible still with proxy servers. You should still be able to access the rest of the site, just not the .rss, .rdf, and .xml pages.
If you're still banned after 72 hours, please email banned@slashdot.org for help. Include the approximate time of the ban, the srcid hex string from the ban message, and what you think your IP number is. If you're connecting through a proxy server (or think you might be), please mention that, too; you might need the proxy server's admin to contact us.
TopThese are advertisements; that's what the label means. Just as with the advertisements on the page, the content of these advertisements is not created by the Slashdot editorial team. You're free to ignore their content, of course, but advertising is what allows Slashdot to exist. If you spot any advertisements that are not clearly labeled, that's a bug: please email us to let us know.
This marks the current comment for the purpose of key-stroke discussion navigation. You can navigate the discussion with your WASD keys—no mouse required!
We have rules meant to keep our advertisements sanely polite, but occasionally one slips by that breaks them. If you see a 500k banner, or one that is launching Java, say, please complain to feedback@slashdot.org.
The achievements system began as an April Fool's Day joke in 2009, but the system itself is real. You can view your own accomplishments (or others') by visiting slashdot.org/~${your_username}/achievements.
You can add a badge or link to your page (or for a blog, to your page template, to get one on every page) to easily allow your readers to submit it to Slashdot for consideration; and once submitted, take them to the discussion.
A Slashdot badge is an easy, powerful tool to do this. Add a badge to your page by including this snippet of HTML:
<script src="https://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
Please email feedback@slashdot.org with as much relevant detail as you can. (When? What browser, and what version, under what OS? Did you get an error message, and if so what was it? Screenshots are great, too. We appreciate it!)
Like most FAQs, this one usually needs pruning and watering. If you have a burning question, please send it to feedback@slashdot.org with "FAQ suggestion" in the subject line so we can consider including it.
TopThe opossum is a very sophisticated animal. It doesn't even get up until 5 or 6 PM.
