The S/N ratio and discussion here is better, but I think Slashdot is very competitive in peak comment quality. In the midst of a crap Slashdot discussion there will often be one to three very good comments from knowledgeable people. And the moderation is not too bad at highlighting these, if you browse at +3 or +4.
Great comments happen here too, but I feel (possibly incorrectly, haven't done a survey or anything) that they come on a smaller range of subjects. You can count on tptacek for very good crypto comments, grellas for law, there are some old-school Lisp hackers around, and on a lot of web-related stuff you have the people who wrote the system in question around to comment. But we don't seem to have as many non-computer technologists around: pilots, nuclear engineers, chemists, etc. I think Slashdot has a userbase that averages somewhat older, somewhat less Silicon Valley, and somewhat less startuppy, which has its pros and cons.
Comments
The S/N ratio and discussion here is better, but I think Slashdot is very competitive in peak comment quality. In the midst of a crap Slashdot discussion there will often be one to three very good comments from knowledgeable people. And the moderation is not too bad at highlighting these, if you browse at +3 or +4.
Great comments happen here too, but I feel (possibly incorrectly, haven't done a survey or anything) that they come on a smaller range of subjects. You can count on tptacek for very good crypto comments, grellas for law, there are some old-school Lisp hackers around, and on a lot of web-related stuff you have the people who wrote the system in question around to comment. But we don't seem to have as many non-computer technologists around: pilots, nuclear engineers, chemists, etc. I think Slashdot has a userbase that averages somewhat older, somewhat less Silicon Valley, and somewhat less startuppy, which has its pros and cons.