he front door to the office of Slashdot bears a nerdy little joke. A computer key is glued to the door: "Enter." The other side of the door has an old "Return" key.

That's the geeky essence of Slashdot.org, an online publication with a fanatical community of millions of readers that combines a rich view of technology with quick, off-kilter wit.

Could it be that this is the 21st-century model for Internet publishing?

The highest-flying print publications of the dot-com bubble burbled about technology and the businesses that it fertilized. But now they and their glossy paper have fallen to earth. Just last week, Forbes ASAP and Upside joined the once-fat Industry Standard in the glossies' graveyard. "There is no market for a dedicated new-economy publication," said Monie Begley, a spokeswoman for Forbes.

But far away from the buzz and the glamour, Slashdot survives and thrives. Run out of a basement office in a suburb of Ann Arbor, Mich., Slashdot has remained true to the slogan: "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."

The secret to the online publication's moderate success? "They didn't buy a Super Bowl ad," joked Sean Bergeron, a fan from Virginia.

It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. The company keeps its expenses low. Its creators write about what interests them. And — here's where the business model may not be everyone's cup of Bawls Guarana energy drink — they don't seem to care if the operation actually makes any money.

Publishing without paper is cheap and cheap is good, said Richard Seltzer, an Internet entrepreneur and author of "Web Business Boot Camp: Hands-on Internet Lessons for Managers, Entrepreneurs and Professionals" (Wiley, 2002). He said online publications like Slashdot could flourish "in a down market, and especially when the market for online advertising is in disastrous shape."

Slashdot persists as a must-read publication for the wizardly set, and especially those within the community of developers and fans of "open source" software like Linux, which is created and improved by legions of volunteers. The Web site provides the technically inclined a place to keep up with news, submit articles on their own, and discuss it all at length that can make a neophyte's head throb. The 25-year-old creators of the site, Rob Malda and Jeff Bates, estimate that in their five years online they have published 30,000 articles, served 500 million pages and amassed an audience estimated at 2 million people — including some 50,000 who regularly enter the continuing conversation at least once a month.

"Slashdot is the best site in the world for techies that want to know," said Daniel Hedblom, a reader in Sweden.

The site's editors look for news and interesting sites, and cull hundreds of daily free submissions from readers and then edit and post a dozen or so articles each day. Those pieces are short, rarely more than 200 words, and offer links to other Web sites or news reports. The discussions then can go on for hundreds and even thousands of postings by readers, offering comment, argument and further research. Those who want to post without using their names are allowed to, but the system automatically gives them the user name "anonymous coward."

And, of course, there is the goofy stuff. Along with arcane discussions of software technology and licensing schemes, the editors post gleeful critiques of Microsoft and its wares, and approving commentary on pop/nerd culture, including Natalie Portman, Aibo robot dogs, Lego projects and fun science projects.

The creators also let pictures substitute for a thousand words. Small icons are attached to each item, including a much-used image of Bill Gates made up to look like a Star Trek Borg — a race of half-man, half-machine beings that spreads across the universe and whose members drone: "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." It conveys everything that the geekerati think about the software mogul Mr. Gates.

"They have this fun combination of total geek cred and a good editor's eye for the weird and interesting and compelling," said Michael Hirschorn, senior vice president of news and production at the cable channel VH1, and co-founder of the late Inside.com, which was an online report on the world of media.