Editing Slashdot (section)

==Culture==
{{See also|Internet meme|List of Internet phenomena}}
[[File:Tux.svg|thumb|right|upright|Tux, the mascot of Linux]]

As an online community with primarily user-generated content, many in-jokes and [[internet meme]]s have developed over the course of the site's history. A popular [[Internet meme|meme]] (based on an unscientific Slashdot user poll<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1483&aid=-1|title=Best Meme in Slashdot's First 10 Years|date=October 1, 2007|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=June 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624210420/http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1483&aid=-1|url-status=live}}</ref>) is, "In [[Soviet Russia]], ''noun'' ''verb'' you!"<ref>As an example, the phrase "You use the computer" would translate into "In Soviet Russia, the computer uses you!"</ref> This type of joke has its roots in the 1960s or earlier, and is known as a "[[Russian reversal]]". Other popular memes usually pertain to computing or technology, such as "Imagine a [[Beowulf cluster]] of these",<ref name="beowulf_cluster">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.linux-mag.com/id/3534|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509014040/http://www.linux-mag.com/id/3534|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 9, 2008|title=Cluster Urban Legends: Build Your Cluster With Facts Not Fiction|last=Eadline|first=Douglas|date=June 21, 2007|magazine=[[Linux Magazine]]|access-date=January 7, 2010}}</ref> "But does it run [[Linux]]?",<ref name="engadget_doesitrunlinux">{{cite news|url=https://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/ibm-unleashes-infoprint-4100-the-330-pages-per-minute-laser/|title=IBM unleashes Infoprint 4100, the 330 pages per minute laser printer|last=Dybwad|first=Barb|date=September 12, 2005|publisher=[[Engadget]]|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=October 7, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007003733/http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/ibm-unleashes-infoprint-4100-the-330-pages-per-minute-laser/|url-status=live}}</ref> or "[[Netcraft]] now confirms: [[BSD]] (or some other software package or item) is dying."<ref name="netcraft_bsd">{{cite web|url=http://bsd.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=228247&cid=18495137|title=Making OpenBSD Binary Patches With Chroot: BSD is Dying|last=Anonymous Coward|date=March 26, 2007|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=June 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624210421/http://bsd.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=228247&cid=18495137|url-status=live}}</ref> Users will also typically refer to articles referring to data storage and data capacity by inquiring how much it is in units of [[List of unusual units of measurement#Library of Congress|Libraries of Congress]].<ref name="LOC">{{cite news|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/a-dump-trucks-worth-of-quirky-conversions-122/|last=Bialik|first=Carl|title=A Dump Truck's Worth of Quirky Conversions|date=June 7, 2007|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=October 7, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007003606/http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/a-dump-trucks-worth-of-quirky-conversions-122/|url-status=live}}</ref> Sometimes bandwidth speeds are referred to in units of Libraries of Congress per second. When numbers are quoted, people will comment that the number happens to be the "combination to their luggage" (a reference to the [[Mel Brooks]] film [[Spaceballs]]) and express false anger at the person who revealed it.

Slashdotters often use the abbreviation TFA which stands for ''The fucking article'' or [[wikt:RTFA|RTFA]] ("Read the fucking article"), which itself is derived from the abbreviation [[RTFM]].<ref name="RTFA_CapnGuts">{{cite news|author=Capn Guts|title=Meta musing, RTFA.|url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/06/11/345286/-Meta-musing,-RTFA|access-date=September 6, 2011|newspaper=[[Daily Kos]]|date=June 11, 2007|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053203/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/06/11/345286/-Meta-musing,-RTFA|url-status=live}}</ref> Usage of this abbreviation often exposes comments from posters who have not read the article linked to in the main story. Slashdotters typically like to mock then United States Senator [[Ted Stevens]]' 2006 description of the Internet as a "[[series of tubes]]"<ref name="stevens_internets">{{cite web|url=http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/2/232335/3120|title=Ted Stevens on the internets|last=kos|date=July 2, 2006|publisher=[[Daily Kos]]|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=August 16, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090816102747/http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/2/232335/3120|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="slashdot_stevens_tubes">{{cite web|url=http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/03/0643238|title=How The Internet Works - With Tubes|last=Zonk|date=July 3, 2006|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=February 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207192523/http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/03/0643238|url-status=live}}</ref> or former Microsoft CEO [[Steve Ballmer]]'s chair-throwing incident from 2005.<ref name="Fried_Ina">{{cite news|url=http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/networking/2005/09/05/ballmer-vowed-to-kill-google-39216371/|title=Ballmer 'vowed to kill Google.'|last=Fried|first=Ina|date=September 5, 2005|publisher=[[ZDNET]]|access-date=April 4, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505062154/http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/networking/2005/09/05/ballmer-vowed-to-kill-google-39216371/|archive-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Zonk_Ballmer">{{cite news|url=http://yro.slashdot.org/story/05/09/03/0515250/Balmer-Vows-to-Kill-Google?art_pos=8|title=Ballmer Vows to Kill Google.|last=Zonk|date=September 3, 2005|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=May 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511101128/http://yro.slashdot.org/story/05/09/03/0515250/Balmer-Vows-to-Kill-Google?art_pos=8|url-status=live}}</ref> Microsoft founder [[Bill Gates]] is a popular target of jokes by Slashdotters, and all stories about Microsoft were once identified with a graphic of Gates looking like a [[Borg (Star Trek)|Borg]] from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''.<ref name="wired_bill_gates_of_borg">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1999/08/21448|title=Slashdot: All the News that Fits|last=Glave|first=James|date=August 26, 1999|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|access-date=January 15, 2010}}</ref> Many Slashdotters have long talked about the supposed release of ''[[Duke Nukem Forever]]'', which was promised in 1997 but was delayed indefinitely (the game was eventually released in 2011).<ref name="DNF">{{cite web|url=http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/07/0146233|title=Duke Nukem For Never|last=samzenpus|date=May 7, 2009|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=January 7, 2010|archive-date=May 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090525065048/http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/07/0146233|url-status=live}}</ref> References to the game are commonly brought up in other articles about software packages that are not yet in production even though the announced delivery date has long passed (see [[vaporware]]). Having a low Slashdot [[User identifier|user identifier (user ID)]] is highly valued since they are assigned sequentially; having one is a sign that someone has an older account and has contributed to the site longer. For Slashdot's 10-year anniversary in 2007, one of the items auctioned off in the charity auction for the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] was a 3-digit Slashdot user ID.<ref name="user_achievements_2"/><ref name="EFF_auction">{{cite journal|date=October 31, 2007|title=Thanks Slashdot!|journal=EFFector|volume=20|issue=43|issn=1062-9424|url=http://w2.eff.org/effector/20/43.php|access-date=January 25, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015020623/http://w2.eff.org/effector/20/43.php|archive-date=October 15, 2010}}</ref>