I Will Derive

Jamie stumbled upon a very choice video this morning called I Will Derive. To the tune of some song you've never heard before, singing about subjects you know nothing about... oh and a a TI-84 cameo. It features the dopiest dancing you'll see on YouTube today. I promise.

Slashdot linking to Youtube Videos

[Talisein]

Now Slashdot is going to be posting every funny cat video on the Internet? What the fuck?

Re:Excuse me while I gouge my eyes out with a spoo

[Vectronic]

Indeed... I was ok with "Idle" being its own little sub-section that you had to choose to go to... but not making the front page.

News For Nerds, Stuff That Matters.

  Is now...

News For Sheeple, Stuff That Doesnt Matter.

In breaking news...

[OpenSourced]

Slahsdot to change name and become Slashitt!

Please

[QUILz]

Why can I still not turn off seeing this stupid section? It's pathetic.

Fuck you, Slashdot.

[Spazntwich]

This is a fucking travesty.

TODAY - slashdot jumped the shark.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice knowing you slashdot

So many years of wonderful service.

d~y

Fitting captcha: crested

Re:Fuck you, Slashdot.

[r_jensen11]

Even worse:

So far, we're still unable to automatically filter the Idle section out of our front pages. /.: Either let me blacklist the Idle section via my user preferences, or remove this shit, seriously

Jumped the shark?

[quarrel]

How bad is this? /. idle? /. has jumped the shark..

(no dispespect to the video makers, but we can all browse youtube randomly if we want...)

--Q

never heard of?

[Speare]

Uh, just from the title alone I knew it would be a filk of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." It's not exactly an obscure song... even for those who aren't going gray. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Will_Survive [wikipedia.org]

Please Don't Become Another Digg

[WiiVault]

n/t

Derive?

[Anonymous Coward]

The verb meaning "to take a derivative" is differentiate, not derive.

Re:News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.

[stoolpigeon]

I think the problem is that due to the way slashdot operates - and I think it is a good choice - stuff like this will already have been old news on at least 3 extremely high traffic sites before it shows up here. People don't want to come here and get the exact same stuff they've already seen at fark, reddit, digg, etc. An exception might be those topics that have some intrinsic value. Because I think one way slashdot sets itself apart (and I'll get torn up over this but I still think it is true.) is in the quality of the comments.
 
Or at the very least, as has already been mentioned a few times, they should make it possible to filter idle, like everything else.
 
The reaction does seem a bit strong, but I think it is a cumulative thing - and this post just produced a watershed of responses.

Re:Fuck you, Slashdot.

[Skuld-Chan]

I thought it was funny, mellow out.

For Pete's Sake!

[Phoenix666]

Yes it was obvious and we've all seen a lot of stuff like it before, but it was still funny. Don't be a killjoy. It's Memorial Day weekend.

Go outside and play or something!

Re:In breaking news...

[neomunk]

Diggslot?
Tubedot?
Growingincreasinglyirrelevant.org?

I love slashdot, been here for years, and defend it often against the 'slashdot sucks' trolls, but this is ricackulous. Please oh please slashdot powers-that-be, reconsider your decision to put idle stories on the frontpage.

YouTube Happens

[_aa_]

You can't hide from it, and that's OK. It's not so bad guys. You may be disgusted now, but if the past decade has taught us anything it's that people can tolerate a lot of shit before it actually motivates them to action.

In St. Louis, it took a 100% increase in gas prices to motivate people actually start carpooling, up ~30% recently. Every dime increase instigated vocal outrage, but little to no action. But when it starts eating into our beer budgets, then we call Ride-Finders.

Slashdot has jumped the shark about 30 times now, and we still read it, we still participate. Heck, this is the first post I've been motivated to comment on in quite some time.

All you youtube player haters best just chill. If you hate it so bad, it's a relatively free internet for the time being (legislation pending). Go start your own slashcode site with zero youtubes. We'll be right behind you in the other car. No seriously. We're not going to ditch you, honest.

News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters

[Wise Dragon]

Well, Slashdot, I am ok with seeing this on the front page, because it is so nerdy that it makes up for being irrelevant. I mean, Ask Slashdot isn't news, but its ok to have occasionally on the main page. As a regular reader of Fark, I know that most of what passes for "news" isn't. So to the haters: Relax. Simmer down a bit. Some of us enjoy a little nerdy goofiness.

Re:So what do you guys disklike about this?

[Qzukk]

I thought the idea was awesome, myself. Everyone is just flipping out because an idle story made it to the front page.

This is what makes /. great

[Al Al Cool J]

I know it has been said many times, but this is what makes slashdot great - the moderation system! When I first saw this video, I laughed. I enjoyed it. I thought it was funny and was glad that Slashdot had linked to it.

Then I read the comments and realized that the video wasn't funny or appropriate, and was in fact a harbinger of the Apocalypse. I shouldn't be smiling and happy - I should be ranting and outraged. I should be writing my elected officials and forming citizens action committees.

How dare slashdot trick people into a watching a silly youtube video buy disguising it as a story about a silly youtube video. Don't the slashdot editors realize that there is only a limited amount of webspace space on the internet, and they shouldn't be wasting it on stuff like this?

I am so glad I have seen the error of my ways. Now I just need to know where I can get one of these giant sticks to ram up my pigu, so I too can be a diligent defender of Slashdot integrity.

Re:Jumped the shark?

[Ash Vince]

I know I could browse utube and all the other similar sites for interesting videos if I wanted, but I don't have time to look for stuff I may find amusing amongst all the other crap.

This is not that different from news. I could read all the news sites that are feature on slashdot, but I don't have time to so I quite like someone else picking stuff thats vaguely geek related and putting it in one place.

I always see some stuff on slashdot I am not interested in. My solution is simple: I don't click on the read more link and skip to the next article. Its not like there are so many stories on slashdot that you cant see all the previews easily yet and there is no need to read every single thing thats gets posted to the front page even if the summary indicates you won't like it.

In this case what were you all expecting when you clicked on a summary which told you that it linked to a utube video featuring maths and crap dancing?

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

We need to put a limit to these kinds of jokes.

A lot of non-nerds must be reading /. these days

[jejones]

...because all true nerds are laughing their heads off at this video. It's a hoot.

Re:I get to say vitriol...and probably spell it wr

[macshit]

It's the same shit, so why does mindless news incite anger and "sheeple" references when being sold to doesn't?

Well if there's one thing that's been constant about slashdot over the years, it's that people love to whine about the stories. They still read them and comment of course.

Idle is important

[unity100]

im a web developer, also a sysadmin, one of the things you call as 'all in one'. i come to slashdot for serious stuff. i laugh at many comments that are sprinkled within, true, but for relaxation and fun, i have to go to a profession forum. a SINGLE section, the 'lounge' section meets my online watercooler needs. because i dont have it on slashdot.

it would be good to have some place to chill out in slashdot. therefore i would be able to get everything related to internet and geekdom and tech and what goddamn culture we have going on the net, in one place.

i see the exaggerated reactions against this idle thing as a bit overblown. that video may or may not have place on the main page, however idle definitely should be a an accessible part of slashdot. yes. i want to see funny geeky stuff in some insert, some box or whatever here, on slashdot.

so then get a hold on yerselves and start acting sensible. propose ways in how idle thing can be made a part of slashdot and enrich whatever we have here, instead of ranting like an elitist.

Idle section? That's *news* to me.

[Das Auge]

I'm a casual Slashdot reader. I usually just check the front page on Slashdot. This is the first time that I've heard about the Idle section.

If it has funny stuff like this, I'm there.

I think that, once in a blue moon, putting something on the front page from other sections that don't normally make it there is a good thing.

Drop Idle, Keep Comment bar

[RyoShin]

For those who don't know, Idle has been around for a few months now, though I know of no official announcement. This tells me that Slashdot is trying to throw it in under the radar, for whatever reason.

Please, Slashdot, drop this. This isn't Fark, this isn't Digg, this isn't StumbleUpon. While I don't hate those sites, this kind of stuff belongs there. Slashdot is about "hard" news (with an editorial bias) and science/tech industry, not "LOL THATS FUNNAYE". Not to say we can't have humor, but it should be the tongue-in-cheek or irony kind.

One good thing Idle does have-- the comment bar. Compared to the comment bar on regular Slashdot entries, this is light years ahead. It's much smoother, it doesn't take up a large amount of space on the left side (making some comments look longer than they really are), and overall is just cleaner.

Take that, go back o the old "Reply to This|Parent" stripe (instead of those unnecessarily large buttons), and you'll be doing Slashdot a great service.

But drop Idle first. Seriously, it's completely worthless. I'm really glad I'm not paying for this shit.

Re:Ugh

[professorfalcon]

That's a better summation of the argument.

Friendly adivce to CmdrTaco

[a.ameri]

Listen CmdrTaco

I love slashdot. I was a teen when I found it, and to this day I've told countless number of people that I've learned more from slashdot and its community than from all my 6 years and 2 so-called prestigious academic degrees combined.

I am hugely in debt to you for creating slashdot.

I understand the motivation behind this post, but thinking of the longer term, I'm sure you realise that this really will put a dent in ./'s readership. We are not here to watch youtube videos. Slashdot is not, and should not bring itself down to the level of any jackass blog out there. After all, you existed long before the word 'blog' was conceived.

PLEASE do not ruin slashdot. Keep idle out of front page, and make it an opt-in option for anyone who wants to view it on their front page.

I trust you will act according to your instincts and convince your overlords to heed this advice.