With sometimes arcane online help (or lack of it), open source software is often tough to master, and Slash 2.0, the open-source weblog software package, is probably no exception. Written in a notably clear--and often entertaining--style, this title provides an insider’s view of what works best with Slash. Starting with the history of the software behind Slashdot (www.slashdot.org), a popular developer Web site, the evolution of Slash as an open source software package is traced. While this is interesting reading on its own, you’ll also get acquainted with the concepts behind a moderated weblog, where individual users contribute content which is edited for others in the community.

A chapter on installing and configuring Slash (along with Apache and Perl support) will help demystify getting started. There’s a suitable level of detail here, which should help newbies get started with Slash without much trouble.

The heart of this book looks at how Slash works and what features you’ll need to master to run a weblog effectively. You’ll master basic Slash terminology (like authors, moderators, and stories) and the process of getting different users to contribute, edit, and post content to a site. The in-depth coverage of different configuration options available in Slash will help you customise your site, while taking advantage of built-in features (like user polls).

Slash moderators not only edit and police content, but meta-moderation ensures that moderators’ behaviour can be adjusted on-the-fly. The success of this is discussed (including earning and losing "karma" points) along with plenty on the nuts-and-bolts of managing your site, whether you’re getting new content, controlling abuse and filtering out the bad stuff (using regular expressions), in order to keep your weblog running smoothly.

Later sections dig into how to customise your Slash site, from using basic content options (like Slashboxes to display stories) plus how to customise the look-and-feel of your site. Advanced material on ways to tweak Perl scripts provides even more options for developers. For programmers, the book concludes with useful references to the architecture, database, template language, and Perl APIs used within Slash.

Written with notable wit, Running Weblogs with Slash will allow users at all levels to get started with Slash successfully, whether you want to run it out of the box or do more heavy-duty customisation. Besides some valuable technical detail, it provides an in-depth look at one of the most intriguing open-source software efforts to emerge from recent online culture. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to Slashdot, weblogs, and the Slash open-source project; overview of the Slash user and author interfaces; the Slash publishing cycle; installing and configuring Slash (including Apache and mod_perl hints), basic administration tasks in Slash (editing authors and configuration variables); editing and updating stories (basic story editing options plus linking stories to other content); reviewing and approving submissions, comments and filters (including using regular expressions to filter submissions effectively); content moderation (including criteria for allowing moderation rights for users), meta-moderation (evaluating moderators, plus karma points explained), guidelines for topics and sessions (including choosing icons), hints for managing Slash communities (establishing tone, how to choose stories, finding content, site promotion); managing authors and users (the self-governing moderation system); deleting stories and anti-abuse features; customising Slash sites (the Site Block Editor), headline swapping with XML, RDF, and RSS; Slashboxes, managing user polls; advanced customisation techniques (changing the look-and-feel of your site); using templates and banner ads; themes and plug-ins (including the Slashprint plugin), hints for customising Perl modules in Slash, internationalisation tips; advanced administration techniques (tweaking daemons used to run Slash tasks); Slash utilities (including template-tool, and runtask), and appendices for Slash architecture; database tables; template language reference, the Slash APIs and configuration variables.

Dave Aiello, slashdot.org, Feb 2002
I would strongly recommend this book to you if you plan to build a Slash-based site...

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