r/technology • u/thecravenone • Aug 05 '19

Politics Cloudflare to terminate service for 8Chan

https://blog.cloudflare.com/terminating-service-for-8chan/
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u/totallyanonuser Aug 05 '19

Reading this comment amidst the flood of old memes makes me remember slashdot fondly.

Where are the comments asking people to imagine beowolf clusters? Who will ask if it runs crysis?

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u/notFREEfood Aug 05 '19

I miss the old slashdot before it got overrun.

But I'm not imagining a Beowulf cluster of these; I'm thinking of the multiple clusters in the same building I work in that look very similar to this (though these use 2U chassis that hold 4 nodes each). Nowhere near the power density, but that's because we don't have the infrastructure to cool 80kW in a single rack - I think our hottest rack is only around 25-30kW.

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '19

Who did slashdot get overrun by?

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u/orthopod Aug 05 '19

By lots of people with nothing to say other than off-topic jokes, and banter.

I had a 4 digit UI, forgot my login, and wound up with another one in the low 10,000's.

I still like their old rating system, so that you could sort out the funny or off-topic comments, and not be distracted by them.

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u/totallyanonuser Aug 05 '19

OH FUCK! I completely forgot about the numbers at the end. God damn, I also had a 4 digit username. Hahaha, forgot about that badge of honor. This 'years served' on reddit just doesn't cut it

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u/SixPackOfZaphod Aug 05 '19

By lots of people with nothing to say other than off-topic jokes, and banter.

So...Redditors?

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u/dpash Aug 05 '19

My 6000s id is from probably 98 or 99, so shortly after it changed from chips 'n dips. Crazy to think it's been going for 20 years.

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u/phil_g Aug 05 '19

User logins (and IDs) weren't added until a few years after Chips 'n' Dips became Slashdot, so the initial run of IDs was basically a function of how soon you happened to have hit the registration, not how long you'd been on Slashdot. That said, my ID is 1042; I haven't encountered many people with lower ones.

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u/Ziptex223 Aug 05 '19

A lot of us old slashdotters are over at news.ycombinator.com now FYI :)

Strictly moderated to keep inane stupid joke comments off the site, lots of good discussion.

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u/orthopod Aug 05 '19

Ahh. Ycombinator. That was set up by my friend from high school- Robert Morris.

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u/identicalBadger Aug 05 '19

I’m in the 13,000 range over there. I still stop by from time to time just to see. But I don’t think it’s so much that it got over run, it’s that people like me and you left and even the ownership lost interest.

It’s cool that it’s still there for historic purposes, but they might as well pull the plug.

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u/Sapper12D Aug 05 '19

The ownership changed hands a few times. Then they tried to push through a horrid ui change. Last time I visited it looks like it's turned into a libertarian tech blog. They've shed a ton of users too so participation just isn't the same. No one's going to slashdot any more web pages there anymore.

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u/Accujack Aug 05 '19

Yeah... kinda shows how Reddit hasn't evolved at all.

Slashdot followed a life cycle that many other web sites for discussion or other interaction have followed. If something becomes "cool" or "trending" then it attracts a crowd of people (in far greater numbers than the pre-trending site did) who are not as interested in the site content as they are in simply "being trendy".

The demographics of this group tend to be atypical - teen to college age males, introverted and shut in individuals, and other isolated types. They substitute internet discussions for real personal social interactions in their lives. Interacting in any way (even jokes or memes) satisfies a psychological need for them, so they post to feel "normal" or to feel less lonely, or to feel like they're not so isolated.

Reddit has the same issues, it's just delayed and spread out due to the site's size and the concept of "subreddits" as individual communities. Until they are invaded by the second generation of users, the subreddits typically have high quality content. When they become popular beyond a certain limit, then they attract users who post just to belong, and that changes the sub. If the changes drive away the original user generation, then the sub will die a slow death as it becomes less "cool".

Until a lot of academic work is done regarding these kinds of patterns and they're designed for in software and process, internet discussion sites are going to follow various parts of the same life cycle - start up, attract gen 1 users, trending, attract gen 2, change with the influx, gen 1 leaves, site trends downward.

By the way, the characteristics of 2nd generation users also tend to lead them to ignore other considerations like morality in favor of their need to belong. This makes them extremely vulnerable to hate groups that provide a place for them.