Another "Why I don't read Slashdot" post, despite what bought and paid for Microsofties think.
The biggest argument for why people read Slashdot, is everything is there. Who cares about the style of the page, it's look or lack or conforming to W3 standards? It has all the tech related news that the nerd readers want. Well, I'm here to tell you that, while the content may be fairly good, there is much better content out there. Case in point, ZDNet Blogs.
First off, it all boils down to whether or not you want to search for your content. The whole reason you visit Slashdot, or other tech related pages, is because a certain topic is on your mind, and your looking for the content. Sure, not all the time. You also mainly visit the page to see what was recently posted. I know I do. But everything is on the page at Slashdot, and things get buried quickly. You can visit certain categories of Slashdot, instead of the main page, but they aren't laid out very well, and don't really cover what is important today. When all is said and done, you end up searching Slashdot for the content you are looking for.
On the other hand, ZDNet Blogs has all the necessary categories that the average nerd would be interested in. Also, when visiting the main page, I am presented with the categories first off. Whatever I am in the mood for, I can read. The latest blog posts are also on the main page, making it easy to read anything and everthing, just like Slashdot, without all the annoying comments.
But here's the big Slashdot killer for me. First, we are talking professionals in the field. Not some nerd who stumbled across the news, and posted a link to it with a summary. Second, we are talking professional journalism here, not just editors posting as they please. The quality of the content is much higher.
All-in-all, I don't mind reading the occasional Slashdot post, but generally I avoid it. The content is just marginal, and the comments are way annoying. The layout of the page needs a serious overhaul, as do the structure and markup. Again, Slashdot isn't for me. There are better alternatives, just like ZDNet Tech Blogs.
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