It's Slashdot.
Nobody reads Slashdot anymore.
You don't need to care.
Posted by Name and email address are required. at April 4, 2005 10:47 PMUnfortunately, in fact, hundreds of thousands of people read Slashdot. Now, that's not the end of the story - after all, a large number of people read the National Enquirer too. But, still, it has a huge programmer/net-issues audience, including many, many, journalists.
Well I for one don't read slashdot unless its a story that was picked up on some news agregator and it looks to have some interest to me as well as have something to say. Which most of the time means it ends up on the same level as subsription required. IE I don't read it.
Posted by Trent at April 5, 2005 12:46 AMI appreciate the sentiments. But mathematically, there are two ways of looking at the situation:
a) Approximately 99.99% of the world does not read Slashdot.
b) Several *hundred thousand* people do.
Of course it's never as good as it once was. Nothing is.
However, the reach and power is undeniable. And to have that venue mostly (though not completely) closed to me out of pure ill-will, well, let's just say it has an effect.
If I spend hundreds of dollars out of my own pocket while unemployed to do net-freedom-fighting, devote huge amounts of time, do a 22-hour trip, win an upset victory as my censorware opponent spectacularly self-destructs - I want the reputation-credit. Hundreds of thousands of people should hear that achievement, and would have, if a grudge wasn't being held against me. That matters. And it matters very concretely, in terms of (not) getting a funding grant or credentialed academic position.