[jlawer]

Seems to be starting from a technical place to replicate slashdot. Slashdot is a great site and the new beta sucks, however I would try and take what works (Curation & community (and historically moderation)). Slashdot kept its relevance for many people because of the community and the curation. I read hacker news for the most up to date feed, But I read sites like slashdot for their insight and summarisation. Not being so caught up in the moment means the stories often have more information available, and are less likely to "jump the gun".

I wouldn't use slash code though. Slashcode is older style perl code, hacked as was required to keep slashdot running on modest hardware at a time (less powerful then your phone) where it composed of a significant portion of internet traffic. This means that your going to have a whole pile of technical debt that your going to have to deal with.

You would be better off with a new minimal interface + moderation system (hell make it look like old slashdot, just build it in <INSERT MODERN STACK> ). I would even say taking the HN interface and simply reducing the number of articles in half, and adding a blurb to each article would get you a quick start.

I really want the slashdot to be reborn, but I think this will be more a case of a spiritual successor shall succeed as opposed to a clone. Slashdot worked because Cmdr. Taco was strongly interested in journalism and technology and brought those two together to make Slashdot.

[pstack]

Slashdot stopped working well before Malda left. More ads, desiring to become an Engadget style site filled with videos (almost all seeming like paid segments by the interviewee), and native advertising. I suspect his influence waned greatly near the end and things only got even worse after he left.

Nothing has really yet replaced it in quality, but that is only due to the stubborn userbase that clings around. Even us stalwarts will eventually give up the ship, though and say goodbye to our three and four digit UIDs after being thoroughly fed-up with the direction the site has taken.

I keep looking for a new home on the internet, after about seventeen years on slashdot. I haven't found one yet. Places have a user base that is too fleeting. Or a poor signal to noise ratio. Or a poor curation/submission process. Or a poor discussion system. Or awful moderation. Or too much moderation. Or they mix in too much non-tech/geek content.

Really, it is kind of sad. It was an almost daily part of my entire adult life, stretching back to late '97. That, usenet, and IRC have been the most enjoyable, content-filled, tools I've ever found and each filled with a great group of people.

[secstate]

Amen. You said it better than I did. Slashdot is not just an aggregation site, is was Taco's baby and reflected his ambitions to curate a meta-news site and a healthy community.

The irony I find with the recent beta backlash is that Slashdot hasn't been relevant in my life in close to 10 years. The last redesign was a mess too ... and that's the nature of the audience Slashdot has. The site was always doomed to irrelevance eventually because 1) impermanence 2) their geeky audience hates change. Always have, and apparently, always will.

[eli]

I don't think it's a geek thing. Most people don't like it when something familiar changes. And this is doubly true when that something is a platform they feel invested in.

I think you are correct, though, that Slashdot probably peaked somewhere in the early 2000s.

[stompin]

> older style perl code

some bad advice here based on bad assumption. You assume and suggest that going with another "modern stack" is somehow going to be worth the extra effort. Re-inventing the wheel is a recipe for wasting time and effort that can be better spent elsewhere - like on building and driving the community.

[jlawer]

Normally I would agree with you but I think with a code base like slash code your going to end up having a lot more time free going back to something much simpler. Your going to spend ages dealing with little foibles with a code base that old, and struggle to find people who are willing to spend the time maintaining a legacy stack. If you have a team of perl monks who are wiling to take it on, then by all means keep the existing code base.

However if you don't, I think your going to be better rolling a minimal site as your able to tap a wider pool of volunteers. Slashdot isn't some technological marvel, yes it will take time to rebuild it, but you will be able to execute much quicker being able to tap existing resources that have developed since.

[r00fus]

Apparently the Beta ruins the moderataion/metamod system. That's a fatal mistake IMHO.

Slashdot has the best moderation system I've seen implemented on any forum (note: it is more than implemented, it's been grown, including the metamod culture).

[cmdrtaco]

You are to kind :)