Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Empty Toner Cartridges? 189
New submitter MoarSauce123 writes: Over time I accumulated a number of empty toner cartridges for a Brother laser printer. Initially, I wanted to take a local office supply chain store up on their offer to give me store credit for the returned cartridge. For that credit to be issued I would have to sign up for their store card providing a bunch of personal information. The credit is so lousy that after the deduction from the sales price of a new toner cartridge the price is still much higher than from a large online retailer. And the credit only applies to one new cartridge, so I cannot keep collecting the credit and then get a cartridge 'for free' at some point.
I also looked into a local store of a toner refill chain. Their prices are a bit better, but the closest store is about half an hour away with rather odd business hours. Still, at the end they charge more than the large online retailer asks for a brand new cartridge. For now I bring the empty cartridges to the big office supply store and tell them that I do not want their dumb store credit. I rather have big corp make some bucks on me than throw these things in the trash and have it go to a landfill. Are there any better options? Anything from donating it to charity to refilling myself is of interest.
I also looked into a local store of a toner refill chain. Their prices are a bit better, but the closest store is about half an hour away with rather odd business hours. Still, at the end they charge more than the large online retailer asks for a brand new cartridge. For now I bring the empty cartridges to the big office supply store and tell them that I do not want their dumb store credit. I rather have big corp make some bucks on me than throw these things in the trash and have it go to a landfill. Are there any better options? Anything from donating it to charity to refilling myself is of interest.
How about? (Score:4, Funny)
How about hiding them behind an icon?
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Duh, store them in the cloud.
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Throw it away, let the garbagemen earn their pay and haul it away for you.
Re:How about? (Score:5, Informative)
The local big box store has a receptacle for toner cartridges. Hit Best Buy, chuck them in there, call it done, the end.
I had a lot of toner cartridges as well, but no use in keeping them. They are not going to appreciate in value, and as time goes on, that toner cartridge format will be used by fewer printers, so might as well dispose of them properly (and properly isn't the trash can.)
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I'd likely waste more $$ on gas packing up and driving to a Best Buy to drop off a single cartridge, than would be sav
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Google It (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Google It (Score:5, Interesting)
Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.
I wish I could find something on their website that states what they actually do with the returned toner cartridges. All I could find is this:
We will evaluate the opportunities to recycle, reuse, reduce, refuse and reform resources throughout the life cycle of our products.
My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.
Do they actually dismantle and recycle them? Do they refurbish them, or sell them to a refurbisher? Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?
I'm sorry to be cynical. Brother may very well be acting as a good corporate citizen. But when I don't see explicit mention of their actions, I start to wonder what they are.
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Re:Google It (Score:4, Interesting)
I always assumed manufacturers collecting spent toner cartridges to "recycle" was a conspiracy to keep third party re-manufactures from getting used cartridges to rebuild.
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That was exactly my point, per my speculation:
Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?
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Who in hell cares, if they are taking them off my hands at no cost to me?
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Cannon recycle plastics into new products, such as calculators. I seem to recall Brother claiming the same thing in some marketing material in Japan.
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My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.
I don't think so. The problem is as always: lawyers. This is quite likely a very legitimate program started with someone's good idea. But when they went to publish it the legal team would have skimmed through and reworded everything so they can't ever be held liable for anything.
I work for a very large corporation and we do the same. We legitimately run such programs but advertise them with weazel words just in case something doesn't go quite right, so someone doesn't then hold us to account on a stuff-up.
Re: Google It (Score:2)
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Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.
I wish I could find something on their website that states what they actually do with the returned toner cartridges. All I could find is this:
We will evaluate the opportunities to recycle, reuse, reduce, refuse and reform resources throughout the life cycle of our products.
My emphasis. This is not a commitment to recycle. It's feel-good corporate-speak.
Do they actually dismantle and recycle them? Do they refurbish them, or sell them to a refurbisher? Or do they just dispose of them so that they stay out of the after-market?
I'm sorry to be cynical. Brother may very well be acting as a good corporate citizen. But when I don't see explicit mention of their actions, I start to wonder what they are.
I suspect there are two problems for them in being too clear. First, I suspect they can't guarantee to reuse every cartridge - some of them will be damaged or contaminated, I imagine; second, they won't want to validate third party cartridge refills by admitting they actually do refills themselves! I recycle my Lexmark cartridges by mailing them back (with a prepaid shipping label they include with every new cartridge); my guess is they will refill and reset perfect-condition cartridges, recondition damaged
Re:Google It (Score:4, Interesting)
Damn, that's a nice program. Kudos to Brother.
It's not just Brother, just about every printer manufacturer will send you packing materials and / or a shipping label, all for free. Brother laserjet cartridges get a few points by frequently having the return label already in the box with the new one, so you just put the old one in the box, slap the label on it, and drop it in the mail.
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Re:Google It (Score:4, Interesting)
Imo, if you're an average-use household it's at least worth looking into the refill kits. I've had a Brother HL2280DW for over 4 years (?) and have never bought a new cartridge (or drum unit). As opposed to just popping a new cartridge in, it does take some time to reset the gear and refill from the bottle. But it solves both problems of recycling and high cost of a new unit/cartridge.
One of the keys to success may be blowing out the old toner before refilling (the refill vendor mentions this). So each refill I'll grab my compressor and head outside, give it a few good blasts then refill with fresh toner. Of course canned air would probably be fine too. Realize though that the low toner light on the printer lies. You don't want to be blowing out a ton of perfectly good toner so I always wait until the print is actually degraded before doing the refill.
All told, it takes about 15 minutes and the printer is up and running just fine again. We've never noticed any quality differences.
As far as finding a vendor, when you find one you like, be sure to bookmark them or save the receipt because their names all sound the same (i.e. I finally remembered mine is printer ink warehouse...and that's after placing more than 5 orders ;)
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Excellent point, neglected to mention that I put on a respirator mask while blowing it out.
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They probably will accept them.
They don't do private households in that they won't do business with you. They are often more than happy to take em
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He doesn't want to give up all that info to make an account. I think something similar about that was in the summary somewhere. I can't tell if it makes a difference to give it to the store or ship it back to the factory yourself.
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Recycle them (Score:2)
There is very little you can do with it. The stuff is carcinogenic, dangerous and mostly plastic. In some states it's illegal to just dump them in the general waste.
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The best part.. you pick them birds up and you have free dinner!
They seem to sell on ebay... (Score:1)
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/empty-toner-cartridges
Refill (Score:5, Interesting)
For most Brother cartridges you can find refill kits for a fraction of what even generic toner carts with poor reviews cost. I've had good luck with mine, though you WILL want to buy new end caps as they get damaged enough when you remove them that they will almost always leak toner which makes a mess and ruins prints.
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Links?
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Here's [amazon.com] the one I bought for my color MFP last time I bought, the frequently bought together caps are what I bought after having a mess with the black cart after refilling it.
Re:Refill (Score:4, Informative)
Thanks for this. My experience with the refurb vendors has been fair to terrible. I wonder if I should just replace the caps on a leaky refurb toner I got. Brother makes good machines and sells their carts for a king's ransom. I was literally contemplating $50 more for a new Brother color laser than for a set of toner carts for my existing Brother color laser. The refurbs run 25% of the cost, but I'd rather refill them myself now that I know it's possible.
As to the OP - don't spend a gallon of gasoline to bring a toner cart in for recycling - just toss in the trash if that's your only option (for a brand without a mail-back program). Economics is hard, but recycling without considering economics is stupid.
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Just FYI, the cartridges that come with new laser printers hold around 1/10th the toner of a new cartridge. So you aren't quite getting the deal you think, but I will say I am seriously considering the same thing now that I have two carts showing empty on my Brother Laser.
Re:Refill (Score:5, Informative)
You can extend the useful life of the Brother cartridges by resetting its "flag gear" as shown here. [youtube.com]. Resetting flag gears is an essential skill for anyone who buys a Brother laser printer with the hope that the per-page printing cost will be low. Like many printer makers, the thing starts refusing to print when the cartridge has a long way to go. Luckily, the folks at Brother have engineered a way around that problem for us.
Unfortunately, the teaser cartridges that come with the printer are missing some small parts that are required for reset. Those can be bought as part of a toner refill kit [amazon.com], though I ended up buying new cartridges before I knew that.
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I've been trying to refill my toner cartridge with your hosts file, and I can't quite mange it. Can you help me out?
You need to spend more time on it. For every hour of ad-free toner cartridge you need to spend 3 weeks updating your host file - or just download the latest updated host file from APKs ad revenue financed web site. The download is currently 500MB (and you need to update every hours - those advertisers keep changing the address of your toner).
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But the hosts file toner refill prints fewer adds, so you can print 10,000% MORE pages with the same toner. Totally worth 3 weeks.
That's your opinion - and I don't doubt you deserve to hold it. But for me - I don't want no steenking black and white ads.
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I wonder how much more you could print when you install ad block plus to your printer.
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Our experience with refurbs at work are horrible. They always leak and we've had a few damage printers. We stick to OEM now. It's just not worth the bother.
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I've had good luck with the toner refill product you linked. Here's a corresponding link to the caps [amazon.com]. I always end up damaging those in the process of removing them, so I always replace them with new ones.
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Thanks Googleing is all fine and good but a recommendation from someone that used it makes all the difference IMHO.
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Not Brother, but I've used TonerRefillKits [tonerrefillkits.com] for Samsung printers. Pretty good instructions, custom kit for every model.
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In any case, won't the store take catridges, even if you don't sign up? Sure you won't get paid, but why is that an issue.
if the question is how to get rich by recycling cartridges, that answer is to get a warehouse and postpaid return envelopes. Refill then yourself, list them on ebay, and watch the buck roll in.
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The proper equipment being a shop vac.
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What in the printer is going to be damaged by stray toner? If stray toner was an issue then laser printers wouldn't exist because no fuser can possibly hope to keep every particle charged and then melted without any falling off. As to the carcinogenicity of carbon black I'll quote the EPA [epa.gov]
RTECS posts a 90-day intermittent inhalation "lowest published toxic concentration" of 50mg/m3 for 6 hours/day (TOXID9, as cited in RTECS) for respiratory tract changes in the rat,
If you think that refilling a toner cart is
Re:Refill (Score:4, Informative)
I work in a very dusty industrial environment. The laser prints coming out of our 14 year old HP LaserJet 5000 come out perfect every time. Which is surprising given how dirty the inside of the printer is. Not just the printer, you'd be amazed at how dirty electronics can be and still function.
As to the toxicity of Toner, there is more than just carbon black. There's something iron based to hold a charge, and something plastic based to melt under the toner.
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California *causes* cancer... Soooo glad I escaped that state back in the mid 90s, of course, being I'm in an adjacent state (Nevada) all the current refugees from there are bringing the stupid mindless liberal idiocy with them, trying to "Californicate" Nevada.... (shudder)
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all the current refugees from there are bringing the stupid mindless liberal idiocy with them, trying to "Californicate" Nevada
Yes, because things like equal rights for black people is such a horrible concept. **rollseyes**
Toner Refill Kit (Score:1)
Available all over the place, a toner refill kit gives you a bottle of toner, a soldering iron with a circular cut-out tool attached and some stickers. Cut a hole in the cartridge, fill it with ink, stick a sticker over the hole and throw it back into your printer. Works for me.
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No need for the soldering iron with Brother, they've got little plastic caps that can be pulled, though you'll want replacement caps as they get damaged almost 100% when you pull them out.
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Also, it appears as though at least some Brother laser printers have a "used" flag on them that can be reset and the cartridge will print as if you replaced it.
HL-3070CW directions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
So, look up your printer, and flip the flag and keep printing.
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Yeah, on the TN210 carts you have to buy a special reset gear that resets the flag, most of the refill kits come with them or the seller sells them alongside.
Kinda similar ... (Score:3)
We have a couple of Brother laser printers in the house .. one's just a printer, the other is the same laser printer base with a scanner/fax/photocopier thing on the top. The both use the same cartridge.
The problem is that a new toner cartridge costs as much as a new printer, which comes with a toner cartridge. It's almost not cost effective to replace the cartridge.
Every time we need a new cartridge my wife wants to recycle the printer and buy a new one.
The idea of that makes me cringe, but I can't defend that it costs less to buy the toner cartridge attached to a printer.
I don't know what to tell you to do. If the choice is jump through ridiculous hoops, pay extra, or say to hell with it and bin the cartridges ... I'm afraid chucking them in the garbage is the easiest choice.
If they're going to make it impossible to recycle the toner cartridges, people might give up on trying.
Re:Kinda similar ... (Score:5, Informative)
The lost leader carts in new printers generally have half or less toner than replacements so you're paying 2-3x as much per print AND you're contributing to e-waste. What I do is buy a toner refill kit and fill up the out of box cart with the same amount of toner as you get in the "high capacity" cartridges that cost more than the printer in some cases. My last 5 bottle refill kit (2 black, CMY) was $30 and printed a few thousand pages.
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What? Are you saying that those beancounting corporate MBA bastards have outsmarted a guy on the internet?
That simply can't be true.
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Well, for many things, I'm sure outsmarting me probably isn't rocket surgery.
The problem is we're a low-volume printing household -- so when the time comes to start looking for a new toner cartridge, we go online and determine we can buy a whole new printer for considerably less than the replacement cartridge.
Even accounting for the partially filled cartridge, it's still cheaper. I think we've literally seen printer+cartridge for 1/2 the price of the cartridge if you get the right sale.
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Plus, the AC and the guy who replied to him are both wrong re: Brother. The starter carts are full, just missing the reset gear. When the printer says the cart is empty, pick up a reset gear on Amazon for $2 and install it, you'll get "new" cartridge life out of it.
Check with the local dump (Score:1)
The recycling building at my local dump has a bin specifically for spent toner cartridges right next to the one for dead UPS batteries.
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They don't accept dead FedEx batteries?
holy black lung, Batman! (Score:4, Funny)
Call Goodwill and similar places (Score:2)
Call Goodwill and other charities that specialize in job-training. Some of them may do printer-cartridge-recycling in-house and would love to have your recyclable cartridges.
Others charities may not do it in-house but they may have buyers lined up to buy cartridges in bulk and will take your donated cartridges.
Bludgeon Dice employees with them (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously who ever screwed up the front page so it all renders on the left all of a sudden needs to be clubbed over the head a few times.
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Best solution (Score:5, Funny)
I bought a laser cutting machine, put it on low, and just burn the text onto the paper. No cartridges to return or refill ever. I currently use solar panels for power, but I don't like the 80% inefficiency, so I am looking into using a lens and fiberoptics to use the light directly. This way I can also incorporate a prism and do color printing.
What and Why? (Score:2)
What are your printing so much of and, more importantly, why are you printing it?
We are half way done with 2015. I can't remember the last time I had to have something printed.
Wait, do you work for the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving [moneyfactory.gov]?
Only in the US.... (Score:5, Interesting)
would you even consider to throw these into normal trash. Here in Germany, that would get you fined - (almost) empty laser printer cartridges are nearly on the same level of nastiness as old engine oil.
On the other hand, if you do not find a commercial recycling program you like (every toner manufacturer and seller on the German market has to take back its empty cartridges at zero cost, and of course we also have companies which specialize in refills and pay a few dimes for used cartridges), every communal recycling center accepts toner cartridges free of charge. And in case they'd manage to make some bucks of them, it goes into the city budget. No need for charity shopping.
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I am genuinely interested, what in a toner cartridge is so hazardous that it must be recycled? Yes it will take up space in the landfill like every other piece of plastic, but as far as I know it's not like PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyl), so what's so hazardous?
I always assume manufacturers taking used cartridges for recycling was a conspiracy to keep remanufacturers from gaining access to rebuild.
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Its not littering, its inspiring a young mind! (Score:2)
Wait until you have a bag full of them. Leave them on the curb near an art school. let someone turn them into a performance piece.
Funding Factory works for me (Score:2)
FF provides prepaid shipping labels: just tape a few boxes together, slap a label on it, and call UPS.
The school district has garnered more than $10k over the years, which is pretty awesome for them.
Yes, I work in a paperless office, so of course we do a LOT of printing ;-)
There is ... (Score:2)
Slingshot (Score:2)
Go to the hardware store. Get some 2x4s, 2x2s and a whole lot of elastic rubber tubing. Make a really big slingshot. Shoot them at an angle where they go over your neighbors houses and land a few streets down. The houses in between will block the recipients view of the source.
Change your behavior (Score:2)
Here in Central Europe (Score:2)
I don't know how you function in what I presume is USA but here in Poland in small to mid sized companies nobody would even consider buying general purpose office printer without knowing that there are cheap substitute toners aviable for that model. I work in small company and we only buy printers for which we can get cheap toners. And the price difference is like 1/2 (!). Right now we go only with Lexmark and annually we do a market research to emerge the cheapest company to supply us with substitute toner
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> I don't know how you function in what I presume is USA but here in Poland in small to mid sized companies nobody would even consider buying general purpose office printer without knowing that there are cheap substitute toners aviable for that model.
Yeeeeaaahhhh........ so,... the way it works in the USA is that toner cartridges have encrypted DRM chips and when you put in an aftermarket cartridge, or refilled cartridge, your printer shows it as empty or invalid. So if you'd just pony up for those prop
Trash (Score:2)
Sorry, but if society wanted you to recycle toner cartridges, it'd be easy, or at least take a reasonable effort, to do so. When it takes more than a reasonable effort to recycle, it's trash. (With a caveat, enumerated below.)
I still change my own oil. And I take the old oil to any Autozone (there's one only a few blocks away) and they recycle for free. The same for car batteries. That's the way it should work.
One question, though: If you did not expect remuneration, that is, if you just took a bunch
I'm perplexed by your problem (Score:2)
I'm perplexed by your problem. Every toner cartridge I have ever bought, both OEM and off-brand clones, have been shipped with prepaid return labels to ship the spent cartridge back to be recycled. The off-brand clones really want them since they're going to refurbish and refill them, anyway.
The solution? Find a better toner supplier.
Disposal of used Brother cartridges (Score:2)
I have two Brother Laser printers. I usually buy genuine Brother refills from Amazon. They come with a postage-paid return sticker. I just put the old item in the box the new one came in, attached the sticker and drop off at Post Office. There is a sticker for UPS also.
Use the credit to buy other things (Score:2)
Proper disposal (Score:2)
Find a 100,000,000 pound counterweight, fit it to a trebuchet, and fling your cartridge into the sun my friend. Problem solved!
I wonder if a 100 million pound weight is actually heavy enough to get the cartridge to escape velocity and into the sun's inexorable gravitational pull. It probably isn't. Oh well.
OK, I don't print a lot .. (Score:2)
What's the normal lifetime for printers these decades?
I still haven't opened the second bottle from the refill kit. Does this stuff have a shelf life, and if so, why?
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I would argue that a slashdot article with question is one way to "go check online", one may learn things that do not appear in the first couple dozen ines of a google search.
Many communities are hosting "recycling" events that not only take electronics but also printer cartridges, for example. My town has those in late spring and summer. I don't see that in first few pages of google search.
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Use the empty toner cartridges.
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Use the empty toner cartridges.
Doh! And I thought you needed a toner refill kit. Who knew?
Re: Recycle them, Look online on how to. Gosh (Score:2)
You should just remove 'ask slashdot' from your feed 'cos pretty much every possible question can be answered better by Google than it can be by slashdot. Alternatively if you're genuinely interested in what other geeks have to say about a particular subject and not just so you can write pompous remarks to people trying to start a discussion, stick around.
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Re:retire and let me have your job (Score:5, Funny)
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C'mon folks, do you really have to be so mean when someone asks a simple question?
MoarSauce123, meet The Public. The Public, meet MoarSauce123. I hope your new relationship is pleasurable for both of you.
Heh, all of the entertainer, movie stars, etc have known this about the public. They are mean, rude, evil, etc. Just relax, what you are seeing is perfectly normal. Read the responses in a week or so and you will see some good stuff too. The moderation system helps make the good stuff more visible.
With your UserID, I can see why you might be surprised. Hang around for a while. The crow
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This would have been an OK thing to ask 10 years ago here. But these days, Slashdot is chock full of assholes, shills, right-wing extremists, and just trash in general. Very few worthwhile people are left here any more.
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