Comments on: Why I rarely go to Scienceblogs.com anymore

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:27:55 +0000

ScienceBlogs has a front page? I’ve never gone above the channel level.

By: ChrisR

ChrisR — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:25:11 +0000

The only entertainment to be found in the framing debate is Nisbet and co.’s god-like inability to ‘frame’ their points in a way that doesn’t get most scientists’ backs up. It’s not exactly a recommendation. I’m glad that I was on holiday for the latest dust-up…

By: BrianR

BrianR — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:33:58 +0000

zsylvester … I agree, and their attitude of ‘we are better communicators than you scientists, so leave it to us’ does not seem to be adequately demonstrated. So, even if it was right to say ‘shut up, let us handle it’ (which it’s not), are these the right people to have handle it? They seem to have bungled this whole kerfuffle.

By: zsylvester

zsylvester — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:05:26 +0000

I find it amusing when Nisbet et al. think they know so much about communicating science that they can tell the author of ‘The Selfish Gene’ to shut up.

By: Laelaps

Laelaps — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:25:27 +0000

Just to throw in another idea about the front page, posts only appear there if they’re flagged by the bloggers themselves. Some bloggers, for whatever reason, just don’t flag the posts. Most of the bloggers who appear on the front page are the same people (myself included), so there’s going to be a lot of similar stuff over the long term. That’s why I’ve been using the 24 hour feed more often to cast a wider net (there’s plenty of good stuff that never shows up on the front page), but I still find the front page useful when there’s a “hot topic” that everyone’s writing about.

By: Larry Ayers

Larry Ayers — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:18:58 +0000

I realize that there is a lot of fluffy, contentious, and insubstantial crap on some of the SB blogs, but I still check the umbrella site every day. Darren Naish’s Tetrapod Zoology is an example of an SB blog which doesn’t seem to feature the vapid and incestuous cross-postings and endless streams of flame-war comments common on a few of the SB blogs. Janet Stemwedel’s Adventures in Ethics and Science, Laelaps, and Afarensis are three other favorites.

I never would have known of this blog if I hadn’t seen a link to it at an SB blog!

I have about a dozen favorite SB blogs and I generally ignore the “most active/most e-mailed” sidebar menus.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:14:53 +0000

Silver Fox, no worries … I can “hear” your tone alright. It didn’t sound sanctimonious to me.

By: BrianR

BrianR — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:09:19 +0000

Yami, you’re absolutely right … I am indeed complaining about two things in one post. It’s a twofer!

And, you’re right again … any sort of control or stated-position from Sb editors regarding these issues would be the worst thing to happen.

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:03:40 +0000

Hey – didn’t mean for that to sound sanctimonious, my comment way above was commenting about not getting involved – yet I am doing it here – that’s what I meant. Sorry if it sounded that way1

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:50:36 +0000

Yami, I think you are right that no one should be telling you (all -anyone) what to blog about – and BrianR, yes we are all (some of us?) kind of indulging in a little paradoxical commenting, perhaps?