It's kinda hard to argue with "depends". Sure, if a slashdot thread were a primary source, e.g. if a Perl personality were engaged in an interesting discussion there, then a News post pointing to it could make sense. But in a case like the above, pointing to a slashdot post only adds an unnecessary level of indirection. In general, threads on slashdot, use.perl, et al. are not news-worthy; they're junk. Those of us who are interested in reading flamefests on other sites are already doing so. Think about it: what sense would it make for someone at yet another site to link to this thread in order to announce that "Larry Wall Talks Perl, Culture, and Community"? To be frank, I felt like I had been rickrolled when I clicked marto's link.