Slashdot 10th anniversary shindig @ Murphy's

[d_goddard]

error has organized a Slashdot 10th anniversary shindig at Murphy's Taproom!

Trivia: I got my Golden Porcupine because of a few slashdot posts. This could be you!

[error]

Don't forget to mark yourself as attending on /. !

[d_goddard]

Don't forget to mark yourself as attending on /. !

How? I couldn't find a link :-/

[error]

Don't forget to mark yourself as attending on /. !

How? I couldn't find a link :-/

Huh? You reposted the link!

[d_goddard]

Don't forget to mark yourself as attending on /. !

How? I couldn't find a link :-/

Huh? You reposted the link!

When I go to that link, I see no option for "Yes, I'll be there!" or anything similar.

[error]

Hey, wait, you're right! You have to search by state and then the option will be there. Apparently it's a bug.

[d_goddard]

Hey, wait, you're right! You have to search by state and then the option will be there. Apparently it's a bug.

What?!?!? A bug in slashcode? 

Anyways... I'm in

[error]

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/COLUMNISTS03/310170082/0/news20

Dave Brooks
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Revelry of the nerds

Here's a test to determine whether you will entirely understand this column:

Which of the following comments is funny?

1. In Soviet Russia, computer monitor watches you!

2. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those.

3. CowboyNeal

If you answered "all of the above," you're in good shape. Otherwise, expect a bit of puzzlement.

You see, those comments are among a host of in-jokes that have evolved over time at Slashdot, the "news for nerds" Web site that is, incredibly enough, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

"When the thing started, the people using it were your average live-in-the-parents'-basement geeks. But in 10 years, they've moved on to become today's IT professionals," said Michael Hampton of Manchester.

Hampton's own geek credentials should get a big boost Saturday when he hosts the only Slashdot anniversary party in New Hampshire. (It's the only one that has been organized through the Slashdot site as of Tuesday; somebody might sneak in another one at the last minute.)

He'll have some T-shirts and gift certificates to give away to attendees, a couple of people he already knows, but most of whom will be strangers.

"There is a community there, but I don't think too many of them have gotten together in real life. . . . They're scattered all over the planet – never had a way to connect to others in their physical community," said Hampton, who admits he has no clue how many folks will attend. "I figure this is probably the kind of crowd that will just show up anyway without saying."

Slashdot grew out of a computer major's Web site (The name is a feeble joke on the slashes and dots that make up addresses like "www://http. slashdot.org")

For a decade, it has presented a dozen or more stories each day of the sort that would appeal to the technical crowd. They include the technical ("Ubuntu's power consumption tested"), the oddball (" 'Manglish' – Manga in English"), the political ("Internet Tax Ban Will Not Include VoIP") and more Star Trek news than you can shake a Klingon pain stick at.

As is now to be expected but was unusual at the time, it also features a thriving community of people with weird nicknames or no nicknames at all (the latter's comments are all signed "Anonymous Coward") who comments about articles, and whose appearance rises or disappears depending on the amount of "karma" they have accumulated through past behavior.

This kind of moderated-ranking system is now old hat – any eBay seller knows its power – but Slashdot was the first to bring it to widespread attention. That and the personality of founder Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda have kept it current, even as cooler news-for-nerds-ish sites like Digg have come up.

Speaking as somebody who has scanned Slashdot for most of its existence, even though I can't program or rewrite circuit boards, I think it can be best described as an online version of early Wired magazine. It provides a window into the technical world that is changing so much of our existence, without being too geeky or too gee-whizzy.

Hampton seems to fit pretty well into the Slashdot mold: He has been a computer user since he was a kid, is one of those rare people who makes his living off his Web site (www.homelandstupidity.com), and his Slashdot nickname is an obscure geek joke (IO error).

Even his politics is Slashdotty: He moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project and supports online fave Ron Paul, the Republican congressman from Texas, for president.

But Hampton is no living-in-parents-basement guy. Among other things, he is friendly enough with the owner of Murphy's Taproom to get permission to hold the local anniversary party there.

And that, he says, is more typical of the online world than stereotyping might lead us to think.

"Probably the mix of stories on Slashdot is pretty close to the same; what I think has changed is the demographics of the people that are on Slashdot. . . . Now you've got a really good mix of people still in their teenage years, who are in college, people who have gone on to have a career, and others," he said.

"I think a lot of non-technical Internet users actually do know about it – may don't read it, but know about it. You can't be on the Internet very long without hearing about it," he said.

Or you can hang around in a Murphy's Taproom on Saturday and hear about it. Your choice.

By the way, the best way to understand the in-jokes at the start of this article is to (fittingly enough) check the Wikipedia article about Slashdot. All will be explained.

Science from the Sidelines appears Wednesdays in The Telegraph. David Brooks can be reached at 594-5831 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.

[error]

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/COLUMNISTS03/310170084/0/news20

Dave Brooks
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

IF YOU GO

The local Slashdot 10th anniversary party is upcoming. Anyone is welcome, although you may not get a T-shirt if you don't register in advance on www.Slashdot.org.

WHERE: Murphy's Taproom, 494 Elm St., Manchester.

WHEN: Saturday from 4-10 p.m.

[error]

http://nashuatelegraph.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=354331

Michael Hampton, 35, of Manchester recently made the move from Nashville, Tenn. in March after being inspired by the freestateproject.org movement, a Libertarian non-profit organization aimed at swaying political vote in New Hampshire. Their mission statement reads, "The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 libertarian activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. The success of the Project would likely entail reductions in taxation and regulation, reforms at all levels of government to expand individual rights and free markets, and a restoration of constitutional federalism, demonstrating the benefits of liberty to the rest of the nation and the world." Their goal is to have 20,000 people move to the Granite State and currently have 492 with 7961 committed. To add to his political resume, Hampton has been running his own political website since 2004 called homelandstupidity.us, which aims to call out cracks in the Bush administrations policies of national stability. "I just got fed up one day," Hampton said. "I voted Libertarian in 2004, it was depressing, I had to do something. Next thing you know, I have this site that's taking up my whole day."

Michael Hampton, 35 of Manchester will be hosting the 10th anniversary party this Saturday for slashdot.org, according to Google a, "Source for technology related news with a heavy slant towards Linux and Open Source issues." Other groups will be celebrating around the country with Hampton heading up the only known party in the Granite State.

[KBCraig]

 

+1 to Michael for co-opting the MSM. 

[d_goddard]

The Telegraph got the URL wrong 
Error is famous 

We luvs ERROR!!

[Russell Kanning]

If I wasn't busy doing non-geek work that day, I would want to attend.

[dalebert]

Ack! That's the day of the Keene Pumpkin Festival that Russell said we mustn't miss back when he gave us a tour of Keene during Porcfest!