Slashdot's Disagree Mail

Being in a relationship is not easy, more than half of all first marriages fail in this country. That statistic doesn't improve if you spend most of your time reading your favorite website and not tending to the needs of your family. Instead of asking me to help fix your relationship maybe you should try playing with your kids, talking to your wife, and not staring at a computer screen all day. You should realize that the help link doesn't provide help with your life. It's mostly for getting passwords and stuff. Below you'll find a collection of people that should have reached out to Dr. Phil and not Dr. Sam.

It seems to me that the simple fix for this guy is to make a new account and get the guts to tell his wife to stop calling work.

On Wed June 25, 2008 ********* wrote:
"Is it possible to take all of my account information and insert it into a new account? I ask because my wife has started to check on me through Slashdot while I'm at work. She doesn't think I am working if I post during the day. It has reached the point where she will call work if she sees that I have posted. My boss doesn't like it and I can't get her to stop. I'd hate to have to get my karma back up to where it is now or have my posts (which are very good mostly) not associated with a new account. I know I could just start posting anonymous coward but I have a problem with having what I write linked to the word coward. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance."

On Sat July 7, 2007 ******** wrote:
"If I become someone's friend can I see everything they post even if they post anonymously? I think my wife is having an affair with one of your users. I have no direct proof but she doesn't talk to me when I get home like she used to, she doesn't seem interested in what I have to say or planning trips. Worst of all she gets upset at me when I try to touch her. I know she is very attracted to geek types (I can be a bit of a nerd) and she shuts off the screen when I come in. I thought at first she was talking to someone on a singles site or was looking at something inappropriate but when I made her show me one night it was Slashdot. I asked why she didn't want me to know she was looking at Slashdot and her excuse was ridiculous. I assume she's been talking to someone on your site and It would be a great help if you could let me know how to find out what she has been doing. I would be willing to get a subscription if you could help."

I think the obvious solution is that he should leave his wife and marry the first guy. That way there wouldn't be any question as to why anyone was reading Slashdot. They could live the rest of their lives commenting together. It's kind of romantic. Finally, we have a guy who should shut off his machine and play with his damn kids before they come home wearing black mascara and sporting a new face tattoo. His wife is right. They are a lot more fun when they are not telling you how you ruined their lives.

On Sun Jan 20, 2008 ****** wrote:
"I have 2 young kids and it would be great if you made a Slashdot kids section. Your readers are getting older and most are going to have kids soon if they don't already. I'm not sure if you have children but in case you don't let me tell you how hard it is to get anything done in your free-time that doesn't involve yelling at them and putting them in timeout. My wife is always complaining that the kids just want to play with me and that I should be grateful, when they get older they may want nothing to do with us. It would be awesome if I could plop them down in front of a computer next to me and look at kids stuff on Slashdot. That way we would be doing something together. Just a thought. I love the site but would really love it if I could use it to spend time with the kids."

Re:second post

[Anonymous Coward]

I predict the parent will be the most entertaining post in the discussion of this article. Idle is less than useless.

Re:Divorce Rates

[dedazo]

The one about the guy who wants a "Slashdot for kids" is especially disturbing so he can "plop" his children in front of a computer and have them leave him alone is especially disturbing.

I hope that's the exception rather than the rule for geeks who are starting to have families.

Re:Divorce Rates

[geekoid]

I'm sure it's the exception.
Now I would love some sort of slashdot for kids just so my kids have their own avenue for geek news. Not to keep them busy, but to allow them to grow an interest.
Unfortunately to do that would need a very agressive moderator enforcing strict rules.

Oh, and when I say 'for kids' I mean kids under 13.
While kids will get exposed to a lot of stuff, I prefer to protect my 8 year old from some of the crap that goes on in public forums.

Re:Dear slashdot

[geekoid]

After learning good techniques, I don't get nearly as frustrated as I used to, but yeah, some days.
What I do when I get frustrated is stop doing what I am doing, and focus 100% on doing something with my kids. I don't get done what I was working on, but i'm not frustrated anymore. The odd time when I really can't stop what I am doing. I simply explain to my kids what I am doing, why it must be done right now and apologize for not having the time. They seem to understand that.
Besides, in 6 years there not going to want to do anything with me, so I figure I should get it in while I can.

Kids should be a joy.

Re:Divorce Rates

[brocktune]

Folks in the Bible Belt marry younger due to greater inhibitions about premarital sex. Then surprise, lots of married people in their mid 20s decide they made a bad life decision when they were 18-20.

Re:Moving account info

[Oktober Sunset]

Or he could just divorce his clearly mentally unbalanced and hostile wife, and thus solve that problem and many more.

Re:Divorce Rates

[Proteus]

My personal theory is that since there's less social stigma against divorce now, people are more willing to actually get divorced when they realize they're not in a functional relationship. It used to be that people (especially women, due to their relative social status) would stay in an entirely unhappy marriage simply because being divorced was worse.

I don't see what the big "concern" is over divorce rates anyhow, unless your brand of morality includes the idea that people shouldn't get divorced. From a pragmatic point of view, who cares?

Can't believe it

[chord.wav]

1 - Didn't your wife told you not to post?!? Get back to work bitch! Just kidding. C'mon man, talk to her!

2 - Why don't you ask her directly instead of trying to caught her in the act? You know, some relationships actually benefit from being honest to each other... some even are based on that!

3 - You should have thought about that BEFORE having kids! Put your sh1t toghether, act like the father you are supposed to be and spend time with your kids. And you better enjoy it.

Re:Divorce Rates

[g0bshiTe]

The honest truth is, that people are lazy. It's easier to move on in a relationship to another fresh new relationship than to sit down with your mate and work things out. We have grown into an "all about me" society and this is the reason divorce rates are so high. Taking into account that it's more acceptable in society to leave someone these days as well. It's no wonder many relationships end in divorce.

For the record my wife and I just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. She has been married once before first marriage lasted 13 days before annulment, I have not been married before.

Re:Divorce Rates

[Proteus]

Their kids probably care.

Yes, because the kids would be so much better off with parents who are unhappy, no longer in love, but lack the gonads to admit it and move on with their lives.

Kids are better off having divorced parents than having married parents in an unstable relationship.

Re:Divorce Rates

[ahodgson]

Pesky libertarians. They should just move to a country where freedom is encouraged.

Re:Moving account info

[AntEater]

You may get your karma back after a little while but you'll never get your low UID back.

Nerd psychology

[AlpineR]

I thought this batch of disagree mail was an interesting look into nerd psychology.

#1) Terrible irony: you don't want to post as a "coward" but you appear afraid to stand up to your overbearing stalker wife. Or maybe you're not afraid and have stood up, but you're stuck with an unreasonable spouse.

#2) Sorry dude, she hasn't been fooling around on Slashdot. She's fooling around alright, or at least looking at sites that she doesn't think you'll approve of. But you know how you leave an Excel window open all day so you can quickly hide Slashdot if your boss comes by? Well she opened a Slashdot window to hide what she was really doing.

#3) Some people aren't meant to have kids, at least not yet. Unfortunately you have kids you don't want. And anyways, would having your kid reading kids.slashdot.com next to you really be any better than having them surf pbskids.org next to you?

ALL) Not only do Slashdot readers have girlfriends, but they have wives and kids (you insensitive clod)!

Not so sure

[PeanutButterBreath]

I'm not so sure it is laziness. Getting divorced is a hassle. Heck, getting *married* is a hassle. Neither is necessarily cheap either. There are probably lots of lazy people who drift from relationship to relationship but I am not convinced that they are responsible for the divorce rate.

Rather, I think that people are deluded. They pumped full of bogus sitcom representations "marriage", they have unrealistic views about their own desirability and unrealistic expectations of others. As such, they fail to appreciate a perfectly serviceable relationship when they are in one. They constantly think that they can do better and they always believe that they *will* do better -- thus they get divorced and re-married.

Re:Divorce Rates

[xouumalperxe]

Gay couples probably have roughly as many problems as anyone else. But one can argue that if you're in a state that's very prejudiced against homosexuality, you're likelier to have closet cases marrying "straight", which is a recipe for a failed marriage.

Re:Divorce Rates

[Reckless Visionary]

Well, you act as if this is an unarguable point, and that only two options ever present themselves (misery/divorce). While I tend to agree with you in cases of abuse or other extremes, I think it's a leap to assume that all divorces are the result of irreconcilable misery. Some are a result of selfishness, lack of maturity, a degradation of the principle of keeping your word, etc. I think giving a free pass to parents who divorce because "they're unhappy" is a mistake. Successful marriages are neither a great coincidence, nor something that only worked for people born a long time ago, nor a result of a subjugation of women. They are a result of work, willingness to compromise, openness, and a mutual lifelong commitment to make yourself/her/himself a better person for the benefit of yourself, your partner, and possibly your child. Divorce can indicate that one or both partners just isn't willing to do that. Kids care about that.