Q. How many bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb?
\nA. YOU’RE CLEANING YOUR TEETH THE WRONG WAY! EVERYONE KNOWS YOU SHOULD GO FROM LEFT TO RIGHT YOU MORON!<\/p>\n
\nThat’s the kind of surrealism I’ve been encountering the last few days. There is a lot I could say. Maybe I should say it\u2014after all, I’ve found myself being insulted and (willfully? I can’t tell) misunderstood\u2014but you know, science blogging is a very small niche in a very small ecosystem in a great big world. And frankly, it’s not worth it. <\/p>\n
\nInstead, I would like to say thank you to Cath and Bob and Eva for some nice things they’ve said elsewhere. And I would like to say a word about Bora Zivkovic.<\/p>\n
\nI said that I didn’t read certain blogs. I said this was because of the comments that are made. Bora pointed out, quite rightly, that there are many of these blogs, and it wasn’t fair to use such a large brush. But the thing is that a little bad does tend to go a long, long way, and Bora has found this out first-hand. <\/p>\n
\nBora, as you probably know if you’re reading this, co-organizes the Science Online unconference in North Carolina each year. By all accounts the one this year was as amazing as the previous ones\u2014I had the opportunity to go but decided not to for reasons that don’t concern you. A colleague went instead, and had a fantastic and useful time. Unfortunately, a single session at that event has become something of a monster, gaining more and more ugly with each re-telling (and version of re-telling). To such an extent that the entire event is in danger of being overshadowed. Rather like how a small number of commenters can stop me reading what might be very interesting.<\/p>\n
\nThis is doubly frustrating because in the recent Scienceblogs\/Nature Network spat, I’ve noticed that Bora has tried very hard to be the voice of reason. Yet I’ve heard things that make me cold: people pissing on these very small carpets are having real effects in the real word. We might be a small part of a small part of something huge, but what we say here affects people. Pettiness, bullying, outright aggression\u2014what place do they have anywhere, virtual or corporeal? There are people with hopes and aspirations and relationships at the other end of the long damp piece of internet string. We tend to forget that, I think. And Bora, I, for one, am sorry it’s been so smelly of late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Q. How many bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb? A. YOU’RE CLEANING YOUR TEETH THE WRONG WAY! EVERYONE KNOWS YOU SHOULD GO FROM LEFT TO RIGHT YOU MORON! That’s the kind of surrealism I’ve been encountering the last … Continue reading