Serious question: is this a feasible approach? If we can cash them out on a firesale and restore the site back to the ownership of someone who gives a damn, is it worth the psychic damage of giving these fuckers our money? I know Hackaday tried to go private with a kickstarter but failed... could Slashdot have more success?

Well played. :)

You know the only moving most of us have ever down was downstairs to the basement.

NERDBOTS ASSEMBLE!

If they hear our feedback, and yet do nothing to address it, then it is clear that they do not care about our opinions. If they were truly listening to the user base, there would be a simple story announcing "BETA is over - we were wrong, forgive us." At this point, that is what it will take.

That's great for the short term... but when the exodus is over and the forums are silent and stone-cold, they won't feel quite so accomplished.

We tried submitting feedback and we were ignored. So what do you propose we do instead to affect the change (or lack of change) we desire? Sitting by passively and watching something we value go to hell isn't an option.

I respectfully disagree. I expect good changes would be welcome (or at least go unnoticed) by the denizens - lord knows /. classic could do with some bugfixes. Instead, we have change that is roundly regarded as being negative.

You can call it childish, but I think we have good justification for caring about the quality of Slashdot as a community forum. Failing to acknowledge negative changes would be negligent of us and risk the demise of something we value. You can stand by silently if you want, but we won't.

THIS! A THOUSAND TIMES THIS!

I'm sorry Dice, but you don't make Slashdot great - we do! Piss us off and we'll leave, and you can enjoy the eye-atrocious tumbleweeds and crickets.

Arguably Google Betas were better and got worse when they went 1.0... which is really saying that no matter what label or lipstick you put on it, things go to tell when they get corporate.

I don't think you have understood. We don't want you to slow down. We want you to stop; reverse; appologise for being so out of touch with your user base; and promise to never do anything so stupid again.

This is the first of many boxes - the soap box. If we run a poll (unlikely) we will move to the ballot box. Once that option is exhausted, the only step is the ammobox. In our case, that means leaving and never coming back. So really, it's a choice between public outcry and destruction of slashdot. That's why making ourselves heard matters!

The problem here is one of a corporation taking a community website and then systematically ignoring that community's input. We've seen it with the moves into business intelligence and the hell-or-highwater drive to beta. While a community website such as Slashdot is valuable to both its users and its owners, the relationship between the company and the community is asymmetrical.

There is relatively few effective mechanisms available to the community to have its will heard, short of simply leaving and never coming back (which defeats the point). Thus, concerned users are identifying the fulcrums around which this problem is revolving and applying leverage there to attempt to restore some balance between the goals of Dice and its user base.

While I agree that we should not be hassling private citizens outside their role as an employee, we are certainly at liberty to express our views and have them listened to. We're trying to save Slashdot's profitibilty, and by extension their employment, by ensuring that the website remains one that is attractive to its user base.

While the designer of the website is on the clock and responsible for the design and deployment of Beta, we are obliged to try to make them see that this is a terrible decision.

"Oh no, Beta!" - Snake

I am viewing from classic, and I assure you your comment has all the beauty of a cup of coffee in the morning, lit by a soothing green glow.

That's how I will always remember Slashdot when this place is gone. It will be just a memory, but such memories they will be: people like OG and Taco and Ethanol and the GNAA, copypasta tolling about Obama and Al Gore, hot grits and the slashdot effect.

Good memories.