Cow Vs. Computer
One of the things that I first learned when I joined slashdot
is that I never felt comfortable posting on the actual site.
I could read the website until my heart was content, but every
time I went to actually post, someone had already said what I
wanted to say, or were just trolling for a response. This greatly
frustrated me and made me wonder why people commented at all;
it also made me wonder whether if I could participate.
However, after a couple weeks, I realized something, that I
had noticed, but never noted. All the news I talked about with
my colleagues and friends stemmed from slashdot. Whether it was
the 2 inch super computer that was going to save our lives, or
how the government was going to kill us with scent sensing robots!
We are slashdot!!!
Duh!!! I came to learn everyone I talked to had accounts and
never posted as well, I stared
asking why,
and the basic response was that they felt it didn’t contribute
to anything. I found this interesting because we all felt that
our commenting on slashdot posts within our physical group was
honorable. One of my colleagues Brandon Wiley told me the only
time he posts is when he wants to be slashdoted. All of this
information made me question whether slashdot was a virtual community.
The website is virtual and much of the news does blur between
software and hardware, the real physical space and the virtual.
I think I have to conclude that at least for me, slashdot is
a virtual space, where I “download” information for
use in both my virtual and real spaces.
This
finding is intersting in the context of hypertext because unlike
a magazine or news paper, the media generated here is really
generated by a group and a quasi two dialog is created. However
many do claim that since slashdot's buy out by a major corporation,
the news has suffered. I personally noticed this by the posting
of many product releases. However, I do have to admit I have
noticed slashdot's ability to give insight into new open source
efforts and happenings. So is the cow beating technology? I
think for now, technology is still a crude prosthesis at best,
but with a little help from slashdot, maybe the cows minds
will see how to fully optimize such bodly extension.