Comment by KerrAvon
5 months ago
In practice, the Slashdot moderation system was ridiculously easy to game. You could adjust your viewpoints to subtly praise Linux and denigrate Windows and be assured of a higher rating.
5 months ago
In practice, the Slashdot moderation system was ridiculously easy to game. You could adjust your viewpoints to subtly praise Linux and denigrate Windows and be assured of a higher rating.
I think the problem with Slashdot was that "Funny" was higher rated than "Interesting" or "Insightful", and it made the site a clown circus.
I'm not against memes and jokes, I like them. But I also like some actual intelligent discussion in between.
And that's why right now I visit Hacker News and it's been many years since I used Slashdot.
Because people agreed with you? Why is that a problem?
Because that leads to groupthink, which stifles critical thinking and leads to poor decision-making. Ideally we'd have honest debate instead of ignoring warning signs, dismissing alternative viewpoints, and failing to thoroughly evaluate risks. This leads to overconfidence which can cause blind spots leading to catastrophic failures. We can't adapt to new information or actually learn from our mistakes if our shared groupthink says oh that was bound to happen. We'd stop innovating entirely.
In terms of Slashdot groupthink, no one uses (used) Windows and Microsoft was about to fall, but when looking outside of that at computer sales vs counted Linux installs, the picture was and is still very different. The reverse happened on the server, but Nadella was able to see outside the groupthink bringing Azure to the success it enjoys today.
What a pile of meaningless buzzwords.
Slashdot's moderation system didn't lead people to think "no one used windows", the userbase just didn't like microsoft.
Beyond that, having to re-debate every single idea every single time it's brought up is inefficient to the point of uselessness. We, as individuals, don't have time to verify every single theory from first principles, so we rely on tools like "moderation" as a heuristic to make progress.
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Downvoting and upvoting even if not visible can also lead to groupthink moreso on sites like Reddit than here. Points acquired here eventually let you downvote. But, really no reason to upvote or downvote comments as no one can see the points of a particular comment on this site. I am aware that after so many downvotes that the comment starts to gray out into oblivion eventually but even that promotes groupthink. Factual counterpoints, especially in political threads, are hard to discuss
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Where’d this approach to “groupthink” come from? Did you formulate this all on your own?
ETA: obligatory: /s