Topic: Slashdot down?

[Bonk]

The front page responds but none of the articles will load anymore since they tried to use search engine friendly urls. (pretty obviously broken - but others are commenting... how? Do we need to manually recontruct the old style urls there...? I think it went something like *article.pl?...) Does anybody know the old Slashdot url formula so I can read the stories and comments?

example: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/05/29/1558241/Palm-Pre-To-Sync-Seamlessly-With-iTunes
gives the following error every time: "The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again."
...as do all the other articles there.

Am I just being a dumb user? Did I miss something obvious? Do they require Internet Explorer now? (I would majorly shocked) Was there some announcement that I missed?

Perhaps perl just can't manage apache's mod_rewrite as well as php?

What is going on there? Is the site dead now?

[Czar Mohab]

If it will put your mind at ease some, IE8 says:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
   
   What you can try:
    Diagnose Connection Problems 
 
     More information

This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including:

•Internet connectivity has been lost.
•The website is temporarily unavailable.
•The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.
•The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain.
•There might be a typing error in the address.
•If this is an HTTPS (secure) address, click Tools, click Internet Options, click Advanced, and check to be sure the SSL and TLS protocols are enabled under the security section.

For offline users

You can still view subscribed feeds and some recently viewed webpages.
To view subscribed feeds

1.Click the Favorites Center button , click Feeds, and then click the feed you want to view.

To view recently visited webpages (might not work on all pages)

1.Click Tools , and then click Work Offline.
2.Click the Favorites Center button , click History, and then click the page you want to view.

Firefox, however, went right for the link with no problems.

Czar "Sorry not much help," Mohab

[marstone]

Opera pulls up the link just fine also.

[Bonk]

Still broken for me. Poop. I used to like that site.

It works in Iron but not Firefox.

I wonder if the noscript add-in is doing it.... yup. If I "allow all this page" then it works.

Since when does an SEO URL need javascript to work? I'm guessing this is an effort to force ads. A bad one.

Slashcode is just about the worst web apps I have ever seen, this is just another example.

[Bonk]

I took another look at it today. They are using javascript links. OMFG! Are they smoking crack or what? SEO style text for the anchors, then a javascript link!!!

This must be a pointy haired boss / corporate overlord thing. It just makes no sense whatsoever.

I just might make a Firefox extension called SlashFix which will correct the links to actual urls that actually point somewhere.

[Bonk]

Heh, no more anonymous posting either. Poop. (I won't register because registered users can be banned by other users.)

It's too bad. I'll just have to find a better tech news site that is not in the process of self destructing and make all my comments here instead. Which is probably a good idea anyway.

[Bonk]

They fixed it! Hurray! Slashdot has real actual URLs that point somewhere again! I bet someone gave the pointy haired boss a clue. Probably one of their main advertising clients like newpseudoscientist complained.