Slashdot
Ranked 5 of 17 discussion forums by recommenders
People recommend Slashdot for its comment moderation and voting system and for its curated tech headlines. Critics say the site has declined, with ads and trolling.
People recommend Slashdot for its comment moderation and voting system and for its curated tech headlines. Critics say the site has declined, with ads and trolling.
50 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 32
- criticize it
- 18
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 32 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong comment moderation and voting
“Being able to flag a comment as insightful, funny, offtopic, redundant, etc... adds a lot of information and gives more control to readers”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Should "I asked $AI, and it said" replies be forbidden in HN guidelines?” “Yeah, I really like Slashdot's approach to both regular and meta moderation.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “What AI did to stackoverflow in a graph” “worked quite well in the olde days of yore when Slashdot used such a system”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI Next Industrial Revolution” - Comment from 13 May 2026 in “We accidentally recreated old Facebook”
- Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe”
- Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Kimi K3 Architecture Overview and Notes”
- Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Unsealed Briefs in Authors’ Case v. Microsoft/OpenAI”
- Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Toxicity on Social Media – The Noisy Room”
- Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Slashdot effect”
Curated articles and headlines
“more curated and with a more complex (and arguably better) moderation system”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Slashdot effect” “consistently producing interesting articles that I would otherwise miss”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties (2001)” “I actually rely on Slashdot more for tech news.”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” - Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties (2001)”
- Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet”
Thoughtful community and discussions
“Great submissions and great personality amongst the admins and commenters.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Slashdot effect” “I still miss the old /. It was like HN + Hackaday + Usenet.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Tell HN: HN was down” “slashdot - practically a masters program”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Coding expertise is going to collapse from AI reliance” Fun, nostalgic reading
“Slashdot is firmly in this stage of its existence, and honestly it's kinda fun”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI” “I still miss the old /. It was like HN + Hackaday + Usenet.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Tell HN: HN was down” “I have fond memories of Slashdot in 1998.”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Where did the old web go? We followed 657,607 links to find out”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ads and malware risk
“Slashdot has devolved further and added AI banner ads to the bottom of their site”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “FSF threatens Anthropic over infringed copyright: share your LLMs freely” “an ad infested site that'll prolly give you malware”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Text Is King” Trolls and low-quality comments
“the down vote brigade that really killed most genuine criticism”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Claws are now a new layer on top of LLM agents” “That one is flooded with russian trolls nowadays”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How did you discover Hacker News?” “after it turned into too much of a cesspool”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Is there any solution to the AI infestation?” Declined, no longer worth visiting
“Basically, slashdot was hollowed out and the shell is all that's left.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Slashdot effect” “I, too, wish Slashdot was worth visiting again”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub” “Slashdot was fighting valiantly to say up”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “During Helene, I Just Wanted a Plain Text Website” Moderation limits participation and criticism
“The big downside of the moderation system on Slashdot is that you can’t both participate in a discussion and moderate at the same time.”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “What AI did to stackoverflow in a graph” “the down vote brigade that really killed most genuine criticism”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Claws are now a new layer on top of LLM agents”
Other discussion forums people recommend
The four most recommended other discussion forums, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News | 361 | 156 | 70% | 12 | 10 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| 261 | 988 | 21% | 13 | 14 yrs54 owners | — | |
| Lobsters | 105 | 31 | 77% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Old Reddit | 60 | 47 | 56% | 12 | — | — |
| SlashdotThis page | 32 | 18 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 52 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I do like the headline curation”
“I actually rely on Slashdot more for tech news.”
“still think /. moderation scheme is thr gold standard”
“consistently producing interesting articles that I would otherwise miss”
“Slashdot to be much better curated than HN”
“after it turned into too much of a cesspool”
“I used it for ages before I created a user account.”
“slashdot - practically a masters program”
“I have fond memories of Slashdot in 1998.”
“on Slashdot you could vote on insightful, humorous, etc.”
“the voting system was the only thing slashdot did right, but it was good”
“The big downside of the moderation system on Slashdot is that you can’t both participate in a discussion and moderate at the same time.”
“Yeah, I really like Slashdot's approach to both regular and meta moderation.”
“letting quality content sit on top of the discussion without turning it into a game”
“it's sad what it ultimately became”
“That one is flooded with russian trolls nowadays”
“Slashdot is firmly in this stage of its existence, and honestly it's kinda fun”
“Old Slashdot had the right ideas. You could mark anyone as friend or foe.”
“Slashdot's rating system was the best I've ever seen.”
“worked quite well in the olde days of yore when Slashdot used such a system”
“I, too, wish Slashdot was worth visiting again”
“It makes me a little sad that I can't bear to use it anymore.”
“Slashdot pissed everyone off with their Beta a decade or so ago”
“Slashdot has devolved further and added AI banner ads to the bottom of their site”
“the site was basically the same throughout the day, and I wanted faster updates”
“the down vote brigade that really killed most genuine criticism”
“Slashdot, HN, lobsters have similar flaws with different strategies to overcome them.”
“I still had Slashdot in my RSS feed, purely out of inertia.”
“The comment section is like a time capsule from the 00s”
“Slashdot isn't as fun since they cracked down on trolling”
“an ad infested site that'll prolly give you malware”
“Slashdot was fighting valiantly to say up”
“I still miss the old /. It was like HN + Hackaday + Usenet.”
“Being able to flag a comment as insightful, funny, offtopic, redundant, etc... adds a lot of information and gives more control to readers”
“I had sort-of known that it was a wasteful time sink”
“Basically, slashdot was hollowed out and the shell is all that's left.”
“Great submissions and great personality amongst the admins and commenters.”
“What I really miss was the moderation system.”
“more curated and with a more complex (and arguably better) moderation system”
“I'm hoping people rediscover/reinvent slashdot.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.