Site Development Slashdot started in as Chips and Dips by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. He posted links to news articles that interested him, mostly on open-source software and tech news. Between working as an ad programmer and going to college, he ran it off of a single server. In October of 1997, he registered it (with financial backing from Jeff "Hemos" Bates) as Slashdot.org.It exploded in 1998. After adding , Slashdot added Web forms for story submissions, as opposed to sending them directly to Malda's email. In March of that year, Malda rewrote the old website, introducing the "" on the 28th.Slashdot introduced user accounts in the summer of 1998. "" debuted on May 13 of that year, with a question on potential ways to convince hardware manufacturers to be more compatible with Linux.In 1999, broadened from 25 editors to a rotating pool of more than 400 users. It was followed by in September, which let the older user accounts on the site rate moderations as fair or unfair.Slashdot introduced in March of 2002. For every 1,000 pages, $5 bought users a no-ad experience. In 2003, subscribers were allowed to view articles before they were published.For April Fool's Day 2006, Malda announced that Slashdot didn't have enough . Accompanying this announcement was a hot pink layout that replaced the familiar "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" with "" It lasted for only a day, but the comments ranged from " You guys are totally invited to my sleepover" to "April Fools. Haha. . My eyes are bleeding already." For another April Fool's Day in 2009, Slashdot introduced . There were a few joke ones, but the feature does actually exist.In June of 2006, won the Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest, prompting Slashdot's first permanent layout change since 1998. The second site redesign happened in .On August 25, 2011, dropped a bomb on the community by announcing his resignation from Slashdot. He had posted more than 15,000 stories to Slashdot in his 14-year tenure. "For me," he wrote in his final post, "Slashdot of today is fused to the Slashdot of the past. This makes it really hard to objectively consider the future of the site." He did not list any plans for the future, but in , he found a new home as Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large for WaPo Labs at the Washington Post.Slashdot launched on March 28, 2012. In 2016, Slashdot TV was shut down Corporate To support its growing readership (and time-consuming nature), Slashdot went into business. In 1998, the editors formed to become the "corporate shell" for Slashdot, said Malda. The site began selling advertisements. The first few, with Herman Miller and Penguin Mints, were barter ads that resulted in furniture and caffeinated mints for the, according to Slashdot editor Rob "samzenpus" Rozeboom.On June 29, 1999, Slashdot was sold to , with the stipulation that creative control remained with the Slashdot editors. Malda reported it was the best way they could think of to support operating costs. And Andover.net was happy to let them keep on doing what they were doing.Andover.net embarked on a path riddled with name changes. In February of 2000, it merged with . Slashdot became a part of their subgroup, Open Source Development Network (OSDN), said Timothy "timothy" Lord. VA Linux became in December 2001. In 2004, OSDN renamed itself the , which changed in 2007 to . The organization changed names yet again in 2009 adopting the brand . In January of 2016, Slashdot , and new editors included msmash, BeauHD, and EditorDavid, along with whipslash overseeing operations. Slashdot and the News Slashdot is well-known for its users. They might not be the first to break the news, but they are the first to go at it--fact checking, discussing, and debating. Sometimes, though, they make the news.On October 4, 1999, , the deputy editor of Jane's Intelligence Review, reached out to Slashdot concerning an article on cyber terrorism he had received. He wanted readers to go over the piece and answer some questions. After compiling the comments, Ingles the original article. Instead, he wrote a new one based on .In early March of 2001, an anonymous user posted a comment that contained the whole text of OT III, which was copyright material of the . The church contacted the editors, threatening legal action if the content was not removed. Slashdot conceded, at the advice of their lawyers, but posted links to the copyrighted material that was located in other places on the web. Milestones The oldest article in Slashdot's archives, "" from 1997, is not its first one. Rob Rozeboom estimated about 1,000 earlier articles were lost in a database migration.In April 2001, Slashdot Japan launched, publishing its on the 5th of that month.Slashdot's was published on February 24, 2000 and the was published on December 11, 2009.On November 3, 2004, Slashdot published the article "." The piece generated more than 5,600 comments, making it the most discussed submission in Slashdot history. That August, Slashdot's submission, "" was posted, which has generated more than 1.2 million hits.2008 saw a new president elected in the United States, and became the third most discussed story in Slashdot history. In the last 12 months, the election of Donald Trump gave rise to . was also one of the most discussed and visited stories of 2017. Featured Interviews In July 1999, a flipside of "Ask Slashdot" was introduced where users could pose questions for a guest, and the highest-rated questions were answered. , a big name in the Linux/Open Source Movement, was their first interview.Slashdot Interviews are conducted regularly. Some star interviewees include: , the sci-fi author who helped shape the , , , , the founder of Wikipedia, and author . Onward! So where does Slashdot go from 20? Well in a world where the internet is always changing, Slashdot stands almost alone in that it boasts a site and community that have remained quite consistent over two decades. Slashdot is News for Nerds,, Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters. Timely news source for technology related news with a heavy slant towards Linux and Open Source issues., On March 28, 2012, Slashdot launched Slashdot TV. [47] Two months later, in May 2012, Slashdot launched SlashBI, SlashCloud, and SlashDataCenter, three websites dedicated to original journalistic content..