Comment by karlshea
12 years ago
I have a 5-digit uid there and remember when it really was a great site. But the comments started to become pretty terrible almost immediately.
I still visit it every day just to skim the articles, but only about 20% of them are interesting/something I didn't see posted somewhere else.
Slashdot always had a large number of terrible comments (four digit UID here - right from the start the site had a huge troll contingent), however the moderation really did yield a better S/N ratio if you browsed the higher rated comments: On Slashdot you earned the occasional ability to moderate, with a limited ability to do so once you did. That resulted in more careful and considered moderation and I still believe it is an unmatched model.
I remember the days without trolls. (uid 872 here) The first one I remember showing up was meept. There's an entry for him on Everything2 dated Dec 05 1999, and it speaks of him in the past tense, so the troll-free days must have been few. I feel old.
Smarter moderation might work here in the short term, but ultimately the only thing that works is quietly sneaking off to a newer forum.