NetBSD gets New sysctl Infrastructure 44
jschauma writes "NetBSD's Andrew Brown has committed a complete rewrite of the kernel's sysctl infrastructure. To test these changes, he cross compiled 150 kernels for 30 architecures to see where some problems might come up. Additional information can be found in Andrew's email to current-users."
Will it be picked up by Open/Free? (Score:4, Interesting)
Kudus, that is a lot of dedication!
Moderation in BSD Section (OT) (Score:3, Interesting)
Boy, that looks like moderation is working for me. But, perhaps there was some lag in this effect. Also, I give a -1 Anonymous modifier. You might try it. (Granted, it would be valuable if modifiers and thresholds could be made per section or dependent on the number of comments, but beggars can't be choosers.)
The issue, I believe, is that troll patrol is done in large amounts by the slashdot admins who have infinite moderator points. As was shown in the early days of Slashdot, one admin with infinite mod points per 100 users spread across 10 articles is sufficient. The same works for the small sections like Developer and BSD. It just takes more lag time for admin to notice these things in small sections because they're concentrating on more highly commented stories. Once more, as you noted, there are less people with mod points reading. So, as near as I can tell, the system works, albeit maybe a little more slowly than you like.
Now, then there's your reaction. To be honest, the grandparent post was mildly humorous. Since I don't see many troll posts, I don't know if these is a unique post, or just another unoriginal copy and paste. The reason it was made, however, in either case, is because of people -- well -- like you. You're reacting strongly to a stupid post of relatively little significance which most people won't see. The post offends you and raises your ire. But consider the lack of talent required to make such a post and how little effect it truly has. It's a dying joke that anyone who reads Slashdot has seen before in some form or another.
If that doesn't help you, consider this strategy: give anonymous posters -6. Give foes -6. Foe logged in trolls. You won't see trolls. But, as always, please don't feed the trolls.
You really want to be paranoid? For EVERY time someone metamods you as unfair, even if everyone else mods you as fair, you lose karma. Don't believe me? Check out metamod.pl in the CVS [slashcode.com]. Now if that makes you uncomfortable, I think you lack perspective. If you're not a troll yourself and have useful things to say, your karma will recover. And that second part isn't wholly necessary.
Trolls exist because some guys just plain don't have the right chemical balance in their brains, and they will always be that way. They can destroy a community if not properly regulated because to be a troll is to simply not see value in that community. But it looks to me that they are being properly regulated on Slashdot. Consider that it only takes one active non-troll moderator on average to cancel the effects of an active troll moderator. How many active troll moderators do you think there are? How about non-trolls like you and me? The bad thing is that in individual cases, someone might be poorly treated by the system, but I don't see any reason for your prediction of chaos. System works fine for me, on average.