Back in the mid-2000's when Slashdot was "working" -- It was this: A bunch of yahoos would post enough inane comments, that an expert who actually worked there would get annoyed enough to write a long, insightful post full of actual facts.
In the late 90s, everyone who was technical and cared about Linux/open source/etc monitored slashdot. EVERYONE.
A lot of the experts who got annoyed, probably had been following it from then. But as time went by, being said expert got tiring. Eventually the trolls drove them away.
Yep. "News for nerds. Stuff that matters." It used to have some useful software news. Then it turned Randian and political, and it was just too tiring to wade through the BS. It apparently still exists, but I see no reason to look at it.
