Slashdot's Disagree Mail

There is no shortage of comments about us selling out or running advertisements as stories. As you might expect there is no shortage of mail with the same theme. What I enjoy most about them is all the different corporate entities and sometimes political parties, that we are supposedly working for. If even half of them were true, I would have a stack of W-2s as long as my arm every year for the tax man. The truth of the matter is, nobody here sits in their Microsoft smart chair, talking on their minion iPhone, while playing in the Google money pool. (If someone knows how to get into the Google money pool, please send me a mail.) Conspiracy theories have been around as long as man, so I guess it should come as no surprise that Slashdot has a few of it's own. Read below to find out who is pulling our strings.

Traditionally the Slashdot community has had a harsh view of Microsoft, its software, and especially its management. All the more reason for us to become pawns in the evil Windows army, and it would have worked if it wasn't for this guy and his irrefutable statistics.

On Mon, 9 Oct 2006 ******* wrote:
"I can't understand how you managed to convince so many *smart* people that you support the open source and free software movement. It couldn't be more obvious that you sold out to Microsoft in 2004. I've kept careful records of your stories for many years and I've got the evidence. Pre-2004 showed a negative Microsoft story rate of 87% and a positive Microsoft story rate of 13%. From 2004 until today the negative story rate has crashed to a mere 62% while the positive story rate has climbed to 38%. Am I to believe that a 25% increase in positive stories is not significant. When i comment on this trend I get marked as a troll, nice. I suppose that is a coincidence to. Good work I'm sure the current political administartion will own you soon. I used to enjoy your message before it became Bill and Bush's."

With the failing health of Steve Jobs, we thought it would be the perfect time to get firmly entrenched into the Apple hierarchy. It's a shame that our rabid love for Apple and all its products made our actions so transparent.

On Fri, 2 Feb ******* wrote:
"Apple sure does pay good don't they! Is there anyone not on the Apple payroll at Slashdot? If you're going to become an Apple mouthpiece you might want to try and hide it better! How much does a frontpage Slashdot story cost anyway? I hope it's a lot. If you're going to become Apple whores you might as well get paid well. Just know that I know it's rotten to the core!"

I have to give him credit for the, "rotten to the core" Apple thing. Usually the rants I get aren't so poetic. Most of the time they are rambling and confused, like this.

On Wed, 23 Apr ******** wrote"
"I noticed today that many Slashdot stories are listed on Google. I thought you were supposed to be a neutral internet party? I can't believe what you have as "news" if you are in cahoots with the "do no evil" gang. Almost everything I used to believe in is on Google now I was hoping that Slashdot would be strong enough to resist the Google money pool but I guess I was naive. Google is going to slowly absorb everything is that ok with you? it doesn't seem so bad when your playing volleyball or bringing your cat to work but it is. A cat is no trade for integrity. Look back at what you used to stand for and not greed or I will have to find a news source that hasn't been swallowed by Google."

Yawn

[sexconker]

Yeah, this disagree mail segment thing has run it's course.
Kill it.

Re:Yawn

[gardyloo]

Agreed. Either kill it or post the email addresses of the people who write the "disagree mail". That would at least make things interesting.

A cat is no trade for integrity.

[robkore]

I have to believe that people are now writing intentionally schizophrenic emails in the hopes to appear in this section, and as such still retain their cats.

Getting into the google money pool

[Wee]

I was in the Google money pool for a few years. Getting in is easy, as long as you can pass 4 hellish interviews and wait 6 months for HR to respond.

Having said that, what you really need is a time machine. Go back to August 2004 and get hired. Even if you get a meager grant back then, you'll make out pretty well. Getting hired now, well, they aren't as forthcoming with the stock as they once were, and the base pay is pretty terrible. Free food, though.

-B

Re:Dear Slashdot...

[SydShamino]

I read it and replied to it. You didn't read it but clicked the link and replied to it anyway?

Man, I only have enough free time to read and comment on the things that interest me. Can I borrow some of your free time to have the luxury of not reading but commenting on boring, uninteresting things?

Re:Yawn

[exabrial]

This poster is obviously from microsoft.

its not that bad

[smashin234]

No one makes you read these stories, if you don't like them, don't read them, that simple.

Although this batch isn't funny, some of the stories were so random that I actually did laugh (of course after my headache stopped due to the bad coloring scheme.) Post more pointless stories imo, like the guy talking about racism...

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's "+1 Tru Dat" when you need it?

Re:Yawn

[mellowfish]

If you don't like disagree mail, then by all means contribute to it. Your clever arguments for its demise should be enough material to get the rest of us through to the next posting. Or if you would rather remain out of the limelight STOP READING THIS and then commenting negatively. Go read about cutting edge technology and leave us troll haters alone.

Re:Yawn

[ultramk]

Actually, I love it. In my opinion, it's the best and funniest thing on slashdot these days (kinda sad I know). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that gets completely nutso, hilarious emails.

See, my random opinion completely cancels out your random opinion. Isn't it awesome how that works?

Plus, my UID is a good bit lower, so my opinion is inherently more valuable. Checkmate.

Misunderstanding

[dedazo]

I think the reason most people bitch about the Idle articles is not due to the fact that there is an Idle section or what it's about, but rather because it kind of a let down. I can't believe that after more than 10 years of being on the cross hairs of every nutjob and bored teenager on the internet, these are the weirdest emails you've received or the strangest stories you can tell.

If you're going to take up space on the front page with this, you better make it worth the while for people who read the site.

Re:Amusing read

[halivar]

I like it, too, but you gotta remember: this is the internet. For every 10 happy people who won't post, there is 1 whiner who will.

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just Disagree Mail, it's Idle in general. I think that the fact the only time a story on idle gets more than a handful of comments is when it gets promoted to the main page, and when that happens, the story is inundated with comments saying, "Please stop". That's a pretty clear indicator that the Idle section as a whole is a pretty misguided attempt to make Slashdot more meme-like and viral, probably to freshen up its userbase (wild speculation). Yeah, you can block it, but that's not fixing the problem. Just like if my city started putting cherry flavoring in the water supply because people aren't drinking enough water, and cherry-flavored anything is in style. I could filter it out, but the point is, I shouldn't have to. I'd likely switch to an alternative water supply, along with a lot of other traditional water-drinkers.

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

You're free to go to any other news site you wish, nobody is stopping you.