Net: Slashdot dupes!

Ok, I know today (well, November 28th) is the American Thanksgiving Day Holiday, but that is no reason for Slashdot to have so many duplicate stories. They’ve had “When Personalization Runs Amuck” (posted at 7:25pm) which was a repeat of “When Profiling Goes Wrong” from 4:36pm on November 26 (both about the same article on the Wall Street Journal about how the personalisation profiling services as used by TiVo‘s and Amazon can sometimes suggest things that make you have a ‘double-take’). Before that, at 4.55pm they ran “Face Transplants On The Way” which was a repeat from November 27th’s 05:07pm story “Getting More Face Time” (both about the same BBC news article that facial transplants could take place in the next six to nine months).

The Slashdot editors then round it off by posting “Hark! I Hear a Dropped Packet” at 3:15am, which – you’ve guessed it – is a repeat again. But this time from the same day, okay at 1:47pm when “Using Sound To Test Internet Connections” was still on the front page (so even the Slashdot editors looking at their own site would have seen it). Ok, it didn’t have so much “lead information” about the article on New Scientist but still…

You’d think if Slashdot really wanted to get people subscribing to them (instead of relying on advertisement revenue), they’ll make at least a little effort to run things professionally wouldn’t you? [end rant]

At least a few readers managed to make a couple of comments which made me laugh….

I quite enjoyed the following comments people made on the duplicate articles though:
Post 4775546 by thatguywhoiam was quite Matrix orientated:

“Huh… deja vu.”
“What?”
“Nothing… just a deja vu.”
“What exactly did you see?”
“Uh… an article was posted, then the exact same article was posted again.”
“Are you sure it was the same article?”
“Pretty sure, yeah. What’s wrong?”
“A deja vu is a glitch in Slashdot. It happens when they change something…”

which was closely followed in the same vain by 4775659 by whterbt:

“Are you saying I can dodge spelling errors?
“No, Neo. I’m saying that when the time comes, you won’t have to.”

starburst posted 4778076:

I get it, on April 1st all the stories are false; On Thanksgiving the stories are dupes.
Does consuming gigantic quantities of turkey and dressing cause this — I demand a study.

Oh, on the “Audible Pings” story, a couple of contributors/readers placed the following joke from Monty Python and the Meaning Of Life‘s “Part I – Birth” scene:

OBSTETRICIAN: More apparatus, please, nurse: the E.E.G., the B.P. monitor, and the A.V.V.
NURSE #1: Yes. Certainly, Doctor.
DOCTOR SPENSER: And, uh, get the machine that goes ‘ping’.