Good to see the Slashdot editors still not editing. Like I said in a previous journal entry, I'll gladly pay for a Slashdot subscription when, among other things, I don't see any horrible, glaring grammar and spelling errors for a month. While it's been getting better (I've only been seeing obvious ones 1 or 2 times a week), I think today proves yet again that's only because the people submitting the stories have been getting better.

First, we find this gem:

Your Rights Online: DVD-Watching Driver Charged with Murder

Posted by michael on Tuesday July 27, @16:19

joke-boy writes "CNN reports that a driver in Alaska is being charged with second-degree murder for allegedly causing a fatality accident by driving while watching the movie 'Road Trip' in an in-dash DVD player...

Wrong. This should either read, "Causing a fatal accident..." or, "Causing an accident involving a fatality... ." The first one works better, but both would have been correct and worked better than what's there now.

2 stories later, we find this:

IT: Motorola Field Tests Wireless Broadband At 300Mbps

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 27, @18:29

cft_128 writes "Motorola Labs just finished field testing its new ODFM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) wireless broadband technology that prove it can attain 300Mbps.

This one is a bit trickier, since you have that brief explanation thrown in there, but take that out and you can see the fuck up plain as day:

cft_128 writes "Motorola Labs just finished field testing its new ODFM wireless broadband technology that prove it can attain 300Mbps.

In case you missed it, field testing that prove it can. That should have been either, "fields tests" or, "technology, proving it can... ." The way it currently is, it's just a cluster fuck of bad grammar/word usage.

There was another one, but I can't find it right now. It doesn't really matter though, I think you get my point. And, Slashdot still doesn't get my money.

I will pay for a Slashdot subscription when I go 1 month without seeing on the main page:

1. Any clear, horrible grammatical errors. Things like "For those slashdotters who is not familiar" and the ever present "IBM are about to" are more or less unacceptable from any place with this many editors that says it is a news site. I catch virtually every single one of those mistakes, why can't they? I'm in college to be a History teacher, not an English teacher, and these are blazingly ovbious to me.
2. Any Dupes. I read Slashdot maybe 3-4 times a day, though sometimes as little as once every couple days, depending on my schedule. I notice every dupe story. I think there has been 1 I missed in the last year. Now, if I can do this, why can the editors not? Especially Taco. I mean, yeah, you've done some great work here, but is it really so much to ask for you to read your own creation enough to be familiar with what is and isn't posted on the front page? I have seen far more dupes from him than anyone else. And, then there's shit like this, which is about 192734% unacceptable. There is no excuse for that. It wasn't a big deal, but imagine if CNN was covering (as in today, Jan 24, 2004) the re-election of President Bill Clinton as if it was a breaking news story. See where I'm going with this one?
3. A story which I submitted a better, more complete write up for several days earlier that was rejected. Look, I've seen at least 3 instances where I submitted a story and had it rejected, only to see another, weaker write up accepted several days later, or see it included as a minor point to another story, at least 1 time with the editor more or less quoting me and taking it as his own work. Again, pure bullshit. I've also seen at least 2 times where a better write up has been taken, and I'm fine with that. I have no problem with my stories being shot down if a better version exists or they aren't really news worthy. I do have a problem with inferior stories making the cut and editors stealing my work with no credit.

So there are my 3 simple demands. Actually edit stories, check for dupes, and don't reject superior stories or just plain steal the content and not give credit. Easy enough. Or so you'd think. Let's just say I've more or less had these criteria in my head since the whole subscriber thing started. And I still have yet to give $1 to Slashdot. Until then, I will consider my payment to them being my constant metamodding and occasional modding. As well as my general contributions to our little slashciety.

I found this in a sig at MacRumors.com. I think it more or less sums up the difference between Panther, Longhorn, and their respective (future in Longhorn's case) users:

Panther-\Pan"ther\, n. A large dark-colored variety of leopard with fierce carnivorous instinct.
Longhorn-\Long"horn\, n. A long-horned beef cattle formerly common in the southwestern United States.

Which would you rather be at the end of the day? Think about it...