SourceForge and Slashdot Have Been Sold

[a_e_k]

Sounds like this can only be good for SourceForge after the previous scuzziness:

> "When I say trusted – I mean trusted," he went on. "We disagree with some of the previous monetization strategies from an industry and business perspective, and have immediate plans to discontinue programs inconsistent with our being a trusted and reliable resource for the entire open source community.

I wish them luck. I'm not thrilled by the GitHub monoculture.

[meric]

Have you checked out Gitlab? It looks quite cool. https://about.gitlab.com

[krylon]

I was thinking the same thing - it would be really nice if they could return SourceForge to its former status.

I don't feel too strongly about GitHub one way or the other, but having some more options can only help.

[madaxe_again]

That's pure PR bull that'll have no bearing in reality - and if you boil that statement down he's said nothing, committed to nothing.

[gosub]

at least a github exodus is just a git clone away

[NickBourbaki]

Why don't you setup your own private server on Amazon or Azure or whatever? Taking SF that uses Subversion, I'd install SVN server on cloud.

[socceroos]

Slashdot was a big part of my early years in the tech industry. It had it's own cultural quirks, but overall was a great place to get general 'news for nerds'. I still visit every so often as it gives a slightly different angle on the industry to HN. Much like lxer.com.

[abrookewood]

It was a big part of my news in the past too. But I started hating the attitude and snarkiness that overtook the site. People lost the art of discussing and debating things and instead focussed on too-often repeated memes and abuse. Honestly, I fond Hacker News and never went back. I actually think I had forgotten it even existed until this post. As for SourceForge ... good riddance to that malware infested cesspit.

[sixdimensional]

I for one welcome our new corporate overlords! f1rst p0st! How about a Beowulf cluster of those??

Ah, the good old days... :)

[Shivetya]

Early on they were a great site, then they let politics take over, either directly or indirect. The indirect story method happens here too, a moderately technology oriented or business oriented title but an article usually bashing one side of the political spectrum. /. screwed up because they let their bias be known and moderation was obviously affected.

Don't miss the site for it became, do miss it for what it was.

[wslh]

I was a reader too but really hated their pedantic attitude: difficulty for passing their filter to post a news, and the owners not modifying a post when you pointed to an inaccurate news item (e.g: claiming that a security bug was discovered by someone else).

[vermontdevil]

Loved that site until the past few years with the UI changes.

Will never forget CmdrTaco review of iPod.

[mixologic]

> "Indeed, he promised to return SourceForge to its glory days, not only by undoing the harm that’s been done, but by bringing rapid development and much needed improvements to the site’s infrastructure."

I sure hope that means downloading projects from sourceforge can happen on a modern timescale. I have more bandwidth in my bedroom than their infrastructure.

[lgas]

In all fairness, you don't have to move the amount of malware through your bedroom that SourceForge moves through their network.

[kriro]

I haven't been on /. forever but I think a strategy focused more around gossipy/soapy topics and embracing the long tail of your (stereo)typical IT worker (tech gadgets, scify, comics etc.) would be decent. HN covers the "techy" and "startupy" segments fairly well.

I have no idea how SourceForge will turn out. In my mind it's tarnished forever due to the crapware shenanigans. They have some "community building" features that seem valuable, used to have a decent brand name and it's never bad to have an extra place for storing FLOSS.

[yitchelle]

So true for SourceForge. There are lots and lots of lesson learned items in there for folks at Github and friends. Please take note and make better!

[ars]

I wish them every success. I used to use both sites extensively. I still have accounts on both (and a "coveted" 5 digit user ID on slashdot), but I rarely go there these days.

Maybe they'll turn things around.

[rodgerd]

> and a "coveted" 5 digit user ID on slashdot

Filthy casual (3 digit id!).

Seriously though, it looks like I last logged in 4 years ago. As far as I can see it's become more hysterical and niche than before, which I wouldn't have thought possible, given the long threads dedicated to e.g. defending Hans Reiser.

[dhoe]

I have a sub-20k user ID. I use it to remind myself that reading stuff on the web doesn't make you rich.

[stcredzero]

Has any website returned to its former glory, ever?

[santaclaus]

> and a "coveted" 5 digit user ID on slashdot

Next you're gonna tell me you also have a 5 digit ICQ number.

[pjc50]

UID 161200. My account still works!

[kiba]

They have been sold....how many times now?

[jonathankoren]

Three times.

1st) Blockstackers Intergalactic (Slashdot's original parent) sold to Andover.net. Andover.net got bought by VA Linux. VA Linux changes it's name to Geeknet. 2nd) Geeknet sells sells Slashdot and Sourceforge to Dice. 3rd)Dice sells it to these guys.

[blakesterz]

I still wish Malda and the other guys writing the Slashcode would've realized that the future was not in blogging/advertising but in making Slashcode great. They had a good start on building something just like Drupal and a big head start but they never saw that as a business. (not like I saw it either, sadly)

[JohnTHaller]

As part of the nostalgia, I present my favorite Slashdot April Fool's design scheme, "OMG!!! Ponies!!!": http://i.imgur.com/7tmqgN9.jpg

[homarp]

I recommend http://alterslash.org/ as a "real time" best of of what's on slashdot.

[frik]

The previous owner was pretty stupid. The Slashdot "Beta" was almost as catastrophic as the Digg.com fiasco. Well good that Beta vanished, good for Slashdot.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/slashd...

[aikah]

SourceForge could have been a wonderfull thing, especially when it comes to serving binaries from OSS. They destroyed their reputation with them bundling software will malware or hijacking projects... They could have opened their infrastructure to commercial orgs for instance, to build then deliver software ... No, they had to go the cheapest route and violate their core user's trust.

[yuhong]

Slashdot thread: http://meta.slashdot.org/story/16/01/29/0247219/slashdot-and...

[ngtszman]

that's the old day when open source is a new things to MSFT / Apple.

[mratzloff]

Why on earth would anyone buy SourceForge? It's a money pit.

[frik]

Sourceforge doesn't host binary downloads themselves. Big free mirrors like HEAnet host the files.

[davidgerard]

"Users have been contacted and reassured, both of them."