I think that this should qualify as a bug... two of the posts in the SkyOS thread which were locked down as -5 by the system were actually being voted up by OSNews readers at the time they were locked, which indicates its accuracy isn't all that hot. Besides, if posts can be automatically declared 'trollish', shouldn't this be checked before the post is added to the conversation?
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Member since:
2005-04-01
As I've said before, there are two ways a post can be locked. One is if certain circumstances exist during a mod-down. I'm not going into the details, but the system can and does auto-lock posts given certain criteria.
Secondly, an admin can lock a post at any point, at any score. I do not recall ever seeing an admin locked post at anything but -5. As far as I'm concerned, one of the things you surrender on an admin run site is that complete control.
We could simply remove the posts. We could just hide them. We could just remove abilities from our users. But now you can see these things in action.
I don't think this makes for a bug. I think this transparency is good.
And, of course, I just want to remind you that post-locking has been around since v3 was rolled out. We just didn't show it in the UI.
Member since:2005-07-06
As I have already said, I had never come across a locked post before. I insist, I find the overall idea a bit odd to say the least. It is a well known fact that I was against peer moderation since the beginning, but once you have it there shouldn't be any rule which is blatantly against the basic principle: that is like saying that one moderator, or worse, a program, are wiser than the thousands of OSNews readers.
I want to quote another comment, in order to make my point clearer:
Johann Chua wrote:
"Repeat after me: The Internet is NOT a democracy. Moderators are not fascists or dictators. Your civil rights are not in danger."
I agree. Using a forum is much more like playing a game. Every game has a set of rules, and you expect them to be fairly consistent across the board, which doesn't seem to be the case here.
Member since:2005-04-01
You have almost certainly come across a locked post. However, you didn't realize it was locked because it was at -5 and below your threshold. And if not, it was almost certainly not something you decided to mod back up. And furthermore, it wouldn't tell you it was locked.
To prove my point, the first locked comment is this one: http://www4.osnews.com/permalink?46 from 7/6/05. There are not too many others in the db. Like I said - admins use it very sparingly and the right conditions must exist for it to happen automatically.
Member since:2005-07-06
"Windows 8 has a problem â" it really can boot up too quickly. So quickly, in fact, that there is no longer time for anything to interrupt boot. When you turn on a Windows 8 PC, there's no longer long enough to detect keystrokes like F2 or F8, much less time to read a message such as 'Press F2 for Setup'. For the first time in decades, you will no longer be able to interrupt boot and tell your PC to do anything different than what it was already expecting to do. Fast booting is something we definitely want to preserve. Certainly no one would imagine intentionally slowing down boot to allow these functions to work as they did in the past. In this blog I'll walk through how we're addressing this 'problem' with new solutions that will keep your PC booting as quickly as possible, while still letting you do all the things you expect."
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This is interesting news. According to WinUnleaked.tk, and given credence by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrot, Adobe has given Microsoft the source code to Flash, so that Microsoft could fully integrate it into Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8. Interesting move, and probably not a bad one considering just how popular Flash still is, especially for games.
We've got some really good news for all of you: the jury verdict in the patent phase of the Oracle v. Google trial is in, and it's a unanimous one: no patent infringement. This means that the most Oracle could possibly get out of this is a few hundred thousand dollars if (and that's a very big if) judge Alsup rules that APIs are copyrightable. Oracle pretty much lost everything. Permit me to say, in your face, Ellison.
"Seagate this morning announced plans to acquire LaCie, a Paris-based producer of consumer data storage devices, for at least $186 million. Seagate said it has agreed to buy a 64.5% stake in LaCie held by Philippe Spruch, the company's chairman and CEO. On completion of that transaction, Seagate intends to made an all-cash tender offer for the rest of LaCie's shares."
"Just over two months ago, Chrome sponsored the Pwnium browser hacking competition. We had two fantastic submissions, and successfully blocked both exploits within 24 hours of their unveiling. Today, we'd like to offer an inside look into the exploit submitted by Pinkie Pie." A work of pure art, this. Also, this is not the same person as the other PinkiePie. Also also, you didn't think I'd let a story with a headline like this go by unnoticed, did you?
"Sure enough, a product listing provides a lot more detail about the tiny Chrome OS desktop than Samsung gave us in January, including its use of a 1.9GHz, dual-core Celeron B840, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 16GB solid-state drive and six (not five) USB ports. We haven't seen mention of the promised wireless keyboard and mouse bundle, although the retailer's configuration might reflect a stripped-down trim level: at $330, it's a lot less than the $400 we were quoted at the start of the year." A $400 ChromeOS desktop box? Good luck with that.Google CEO Larry Page: "It's a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound - as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That's why it's a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I'm confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come." Strong hint that the Motorola purchase isn't so much about current devices and patents as it is about acquiring the hardware know-how for the device form factors of the future."When Tudor Brown stepped down as president of ARM Holdings earlier this month, he left behind one of Britain's and indeed the world's, most successful technology companies." Thanks for a fantastic architecture. The technology world would be poorer for it without ARM.
"Over half of PC users worldwide have admitted to using pirate software last year, according to a study by the trade group Business Software Alliance. BSA's ninth annual Global Software Piracy Study has shown a sharp increase in software piracy, especially among emerging economies. In the UK, more than one in four programs users installed in 2011 were unlicensed." If people decide en masse not to adhere to a law, said law is worth about as much as the paper it's written on. Laws become functional not because of the Queen's signature, but because the people decide to adhere to it. It's becoming ever clearer that as far as digital goods go, the law is not functional - for better or worse."He's one of 10 reverse-engineers working full time for a stealthy company funded by some of the biggest names in technology: Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, and Ericsson. Called the Rockstar Consortium, the 32-person outfit has a single-minded mission: It examines successful products, like routers and smartphones, and it tries to find proof that these products infringe on a portfolio of over 4,000 technology patents once owned by one of the world's largest telecommunications companies. When a Rockstar engineer uncovers evidence of infringement, the company documents it, contacts the manufacturer, and demands licensing fees for the patents in question. The demand is backed by the implicit threat of a patent lawsuit in federal court." And then people wonder why I call Apple and Microsoft patent trolls. These are the people destroying this industry, with Apple, Microsoft, RIM, etc. money. Sickeningly low.
