Digg Is Great

#21 I find the fact that the post is rated as "5 - Informative" amusing given some of the 'rantier' posts.

In the end, I find it best to keep to a steady diet of posting on carefully selected forums like the one here at GG.

It's just to easy for people to behave like complete asses and prevent any meaningful debate or conversation with there antics when they're protected by the anonymity of the internet.

The short version: "Opinions are like @$$holes. Everybody has one and they all stink." Heh.

#22 I got banned from the Federal Judiciary's internal NNTP forum over an argument. This guy wanted to turn off all the cisco routers all 600+ of our locations. But I had spent a lot of time working with cisco on upgrading and testing the Y2k issue. They had judges that thought clocks would like jump off wrap cords around people. Well you know me, I said "Y2k is gonna be nothing your making a big deal out of it, focus on the science not your emotions". Well I got called into the big guys office and banned for life from posting there.
The guy I insulted was Chief of a whole circuit hehehhe. BTW It took them 2 months to get all the routers back up. They never tested a full up down just one by ones. Austin Fed Courthouse took 6 weeks as an example without connectivity. One of the learning experiances as to how bad a post or email can turn.

#23 Maybe I'm just not seeing the problem here.. You went to a historically Pro-Linux site and posted positive things about a microsoft product. Yet you're shocked you got flamed.

Let's go over a few things, first I'm one of those pro-linux anti microsoft sorts. I make my money using and coding for Linux. I post on slashdot maybe once a year, but I don't expect any useful replies. Slashdot doesn't represent me nor a cross section of real Linux users. A site more like Linux Journal is a more accurate representation of the type Linux guy I am.

Back to slashdot - it's a personal blog site that got really big. People pay money to log in and flame people who promote microsoft. That's pretty much their business model. It's much like this site, sure I could come here and post about this other cool uber game engine and does xyz and you'll tolerate the post but I'd eventually get flamed. But what else could I expect? Hordes of garagegames folk to magically convert over to this new uber engine just because I said a few good things about it?

What you can take from slashdot is the method of ranking posts by moderation. I think that would really improve my garagegames.com post reading experience as I find myself becoming more and more fustrated wading thru the mountains of "how do u compil?!?!" posts just to get to something useful.

Just a thought..

#24 @David: I think the Linux elitism aspect is what keeps a lot of people away from it. That, and you guys can't take any criticism. If you, personally, demonstrated respect towards the "other side" as I do to the Linux crowd (I've got quite a bit of experience with Linux and I run BSD servers), then I wouldn't be posting this and would be agreeing with you.

I don't mean to cause controversey, but the same "open mindedness" you preach in your profile is severely lacking in your comments.

I'd just like to give this example of why I believe that:


That taken from this blog post by someone who seeks to better the Torque community through his contributions.

This site is very different from Slashdot. The people here come from many different backgrounds but are all here for one purpose: the promotion of games. Any kind. Indie or not. Linux or Windows or Mac. Whatever.

We don't flame each other because of our different views on an operating system.

Jeff, I think you made the right decision. I don't read Slashdot anymore because it's full of morons. At least the Microsoft crowd is a bit more accepting of open source. I wish it went both ways.


____
Footnote - I'm by no means a "Microsoft zealot". They make good products, and I use them; but I also use open source products if they do the job, and most of the time they do.

#25 Heh, first time on /. in a few years I think. It hasnt changed a bit.

One issue I have not heard much about is the possible intrusion of advertising into games, especially on the XBox. I may be waay off base here, but one of the early 'features' promoted to devs was the ability to stream ads into games.

Do I need an adblocker installed on my XBox or what?

Also, indies will take advantage of the arcade feature to get their games on XBox. Thats fantastic. I just cant see the big studios ignoring a potential revenue stream, so I think the markets going to get crowded very quickly if it starts paying out.

#26 It was about a year and a half ago, maybe a bit more, when /. really died. It was around then that you stopped needing to check it three times a day to avoid stories from falling off the bottom. Now it can go two days without losing a story. I've also avoided the comments for at least 2-3 years and will continue to do so. It's just pointless bickering.

#27 /. used to be a great read until it became infested by such an immature crowd that anything that even hints at been Microsoft related turns into a thread where the most intelligent response is usually "M$ r t3h g3y, u SU>
Plenty of sites on the net that are worth reading, sadly /. just isn't one of them anymore.

#28 After reading the posts on /. all I can say is that I repent that I ever had respect for geeks. The one thing I can't help thinking while reading the posts is 'who the f*** are these people and what the f*** are they talking about?'. It was literally like listening to a group of people arguing over whether or not Tom Cruise is gay or some other gossip topic. Nothing anyone said was more than hearsay?! Wow... I read movie websites and at least the dickheads there know how to write a whole sentence and KNOW the difference between rumors and facts. These guys... I swear... are some of them just paid by companies to talk shit? If they are, can I have that job. I can do better than these guys. In the movie website world we have a name for dicks who fake post to either promote or bash something... they are called plants. I felt like I was in a f****** greenhouse in there! Wow.

#29 >I don't mean to cause controversey, but the same "open mindedness" you preach in your profile is severely lacking in your comments.

There's no controversey here. I'm the Linux guy who is so sick and tired of asking "So you gonna make a Linux version?" that I just don't have the time nor patience for products that don't. If I *really* need something for win32, I'll attempt to run it under wine. If it doesn't run under wine, screw it, I move on. If you flat out refuse a Linux version, screw it, I move on - but I'm going to complain like a consumer would.

You can label me as elitist if you wish, as the term pretty much fits. I have zero respect or tolerance for anything microsoft. I do have some respect for osx (os9 and below are pure crap) and if granny needed a computer, I'd buy her a mac.

My "open mindedness" is limited to a few rules:
It's not my job to make you use or like Linux.
It's not my job to teach you how to use Linux once you do give it a try.
Installing Linux on the crappiest box you can afford to give it a "test drive" won't give you a positive Linux experience.
I have zero tolerance for windows vs linux debates - stick with the OS you like and leave the rest of us alone.

>The people here come from many different backgrounds but are all here for one purpose: the promotion of games. Any kind. Indie or not. Linux or Windows or Mac. Whatever.

People come here to buy engines and tools to make games and discuss those products. Any other purpose is a byproduct of that and is paid for by the sell of those products. I'm here specifically because Torque works under Linux. As soon as that stops being the case, I'll move on.

#30 Exposing yourself to /. is like slamming your head into a stack of bricks.
Kind words of advice is definately dont go to a place with a bunch of backpeddling egos and flamers such as that. A majority of /. posters showing there little/no intelligence through their little/no tolerance for anything they dont like is attrocious.

#31 In the end, even here on GG we have our own group of people who think nothing of talking shit while on a forum, but would likely never dare act the same way in person. The anonymity of "them thar intrawebs" simply makes it easier to be a dick with no repurcussions. You just need to choose sites to visit where the assholes-per-capita is to your liking. Here it's pretty low, /. it's pretty high.

Now that I think about it, someone should create a site that lists the assholes-per-capita of forums. Save us all some heartache when we find a new site we *think* we might like to peruse on a regular basis...

#32 David, would you be willing to help people like me port their games to linux free of charge?

#33 Jeff,

I have personally never actually read the forums on /., instead only taking the time to read the headlines. After seeing the responses you were given - not a single of which appeared to be in good taste or even willing to have a friendly debate over outright flaming - I think I shall refrain from reading these forums. It's sad to see the kinds of things people will shout out when they are not forced to see you in person.

You have my condolences.

On another note, I agree with you whole-heartedly about the XBox 360. Pre-IGC I had questioned if I would ever get one as the only game I had any interest in within its lineup was Kameo, and the fact that I only ever truly played 1 game on my original X-Box. After IGC, however, my opinion has done a '360' of its own, and I have every intention of buying an XBox360, Kameo, and enjoying the excellent download content.

Keep it up, Jeff. You've been at this longer than most of us... you know a good thing when you see it. =)

-Dave C.

#34 Bryan, maybe could work out some sort of barter system, I could use some help pushing the goodness of twitch action networking into T2D.

#35 David Bunt,

Do you really want to consider yourself an 'elitest' when you're represented by people with this kind of mindset?
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=168366&cid=14036506
I really wouldn't want to fall in that category. There's a fine line between knocking Microsoft and knocking the developers that are supported by Microsoft. I'm quite sure Garage Games would be more than eager to do work for a Linux based gaming system if one were to ever release. On the unfortunate note; there isn't one.

Other than that it's merely a matter of not posting at all on big message boards like that. No matter what you're going to find idiots with bad tempers towards everything, which is really depressing because Jeff had some good points towards Microsoft's coming support to smaller game companies.

#36 >Do you really want to consider yourself an 'elitest' when you're represented by people with this kind of mindset?

I hardly call some anonymous poster on some website my representation. If you want a real cross-section of "normal" Linux folk, subscribe to a LUG mailing list or three.

#37 David,

I wish there were more people like you that really stood up for, and purchased things on, Linux. :)

#38 Too many Linux Loving Losers on Slashdot ... has been for quite awhile ... believe me there are MUCH better news sources. Even ones with sites that don't look like they were made by a geocities fanboy :P

#39 There are a lot uninformed opinions in that thread. I've actually found myself reading less and less of Slashdot over the last 2 years..better news now in other places in my honest opinion, especially if you use RSS to collect a bunch from various places. :)

#40 digg is an incredible service. I'm firmly against any sort of buzzword-affiliated crap, but digg delivers. i can't wait to see what next set of features they roll out. i can't stand anti-m$ people either, it's amazing how angry they are just the mention that microsoft from time to time delivers quality products that push envelopes.

i'm a java guy too, i have no dot net interest whatsoever for my day to day work, but you have to recognize m$'s importance. anyway, slashdot is just an overhyped geek fest. their discussion groups haven't ever been interesting for me.

with this "web 2.0" going around its great to see that all these new ideas are actually adding value. flickr is just a wonderful site, i'm amazed by how much i want to just browse it.