Kuro5hin

See also: Collaborative writing websites | Scoop | Slashdot

Home Page: http://www.kuro5hin.org

Wiki (unofficial): http://ko4ting.maddash.org/cgi-bin/k4/Ko4ting

A collaborative writing site created by Rusty Foster in December 1999. Kuro5hin, which is pronounced “corrosion” and frequently abbreviated as K5. So frequently, in fact, that a Google search for “K5” turns up Kuro5hin in the first place. The name “Kuro5hin” is a pun on Rusty’s name. Kuro5hin, like infoAnarchy uses Scoop. This allows users to both submit stories and vote on the stories which have been submitted (voting is done in the so-called “moderation queue”). Originally it covered a somewhat broader range of subjects than the more popular Slashdot; early stories were about subjects like programming, security, and geek political issues.

But the scope of Kuro5hin kept on expanding, as it was solely defined by its ever growing audience — Rusty only provided the framework of sections and topics, which is broad enough to allow stories about every imaginable subject. Long series have been published about particle physics, personal finance, military operations, gambling, the history of Israel, early technology, and many other subjects. Kuro5hin is perhaps the largest single source of quality-controlled content provided only by volunteers. In addition to such stories, K5 also publishes Slashdot-style “blurbs” about stories reported elsewhere. These are called “MLP”: “Mindless Link Propagation”.

Kuro5hin is known for its high signal-to-noise ratio, which is often attributed to its collaborative filtering system that basically allows every registered user to rate a comment from 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good). Users that are consistently rated highly also get the option to rate 0 (comment should be hidden). This allows a core of “trusted users” to quickly hide spam and other noise (abuse of the zero moderation is quickly punished as all zero moderations are logged).

Some others think that the signal-to-noise ratio is mostly due to the good leadership of Rusty. His laid back and personable style has endeared him greatly to his readership, which in turn has smoothed over many potential conflicts and sources of animosity which might have fatally disrupted the site a long time ago.

Kuro5hin was for some time a somewhat elitist discussion club, but now has become more of a public forum on all subjects that gives almost everyone a voice but also prevents abuse quite effectively.

Articles

At Kuro5hin you can find really good articles such as;

Introduction – We are entering an age where it is easier than it has ever been to produce professional quality audio and video, and get the word out about it. Rather than taking advantage of this to their own and consumers benefit, the music industry and movie industry have chosen to maintain their old, inefficient system by any means possible. This has meant that instead of attempting to improve not only the quality of goods offered, but the way in which they are distributed, the “content industry” is trying to protect their profits through an agenda consisting of legislation and tort.
The year is 2007. The “war on terrorism” has gone on for years and there is no end in sight. FBI investigations of “suspicious persons” at American companies and the media frenzy about Middle Eastern terrorists has gotten to the point that many Muslim Americans have lost their jobs because they are considered “security liabilities.” Word leaks out that the all-seeing eye of the Information Awareness Office, headed by Bush’s crony John Poindexter (the Reaganite of Iran-Contra fame), is using its powers to spy on “leftist radicals,” which in actuality is just about anyone criticizing Bush, Israel, American foreign policy in the Middle East, reading Chomsky, or sympathizing with the plight of Muslims. It is the new McCarthyism, and you do not want to be its next victim. What do you do?
A brief guide to software development in the real world. Aimed mainly at new developers: experienced programmers already know most of this. This guide is for hands-on programmers, not managers. This article was created (http://ko4ting.maddash.org/cgi-bin/k4/Politics-Oriented-Software-Development) as a collaboration (http://ko4ting.maddash.org/cgi-bin/k4/Story-Collaborations) on ko4ting (http://ko4ting.maddash.org/cgi-bin/k4/Ko4ting) the K5 wiki by clover kicker, motty, R Mutt, Scrymarch and TheophileEscargot.

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