I'm pleased to say that my Columbia Journalism Review piece has started to make some ripples. It was discussed on Slashdot, which is always a big deal. And it was discussed by Andrew Sullivan, which is also always important.
I've also gotten some very thoughtful emails, too--although, alas, I feel like this idea is still a bit too radical for people. Which is unfortunate. What do folks think I ought to do at this point to make more bloggers wake up and act in their own self-interests?
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With this post, I say goodbye to ScienceBlogs.
Am I leaving because of the fiasco with the PepsiCo blog? Not directly.
That's not to say that there weren't serious issues raised by the whole incident. Many of these lie in the realm of journalistic ethics, at least as understood by people you…
The start of the new term brings not just new students and qualifying exams, but another round of introspection and soul-searching among the academic set. Which is a good thing for lazy bloggers, because it provokes lots of interesting articles to link to...
First up is the always interesting…
Thanks to everyone who participated in the unscientific survey on commenting. The results are back, and I'd like to share them with you.
As many of you have noticed, we've been talking about comments a lot here lately, both at BioE and on Sb in general. There's also a big session on online civility…
About a month ago, I migrated from the safe, stable climate of Wordpress to the unknown but promising habitat of ScienceBlogs. With four weeks having flown by, this seems like a good a point as any to have a bit of a navel-gazing retrospective about what's changed since the move.
And the answer is…
Too many people see blogging as "putting your diary online" or semi-literate spew. So when they ask "why would anyone want to pay for that?", they probably have a point. The idea that there is a huge difference in quality gets lost. I agree that, if you are "hiring" bloggers, you should pay them. If you are making money off bloggers, you should pay them.
The point is made that there are millions who would do the job for free. That is true. No matter how many people you convince of the need to expect pay, there will always be someone willing to do the job for free. But if you convince enough people to expect pay, then the pool of people willing to work for free shrinks to the point where publishers can't get the quality they need for free. But how do you build that perception? Actually, it's remarkable that so many of us see our time as having little or no real value...
Well, a bit of income for the commenters will certainly be welcome! Will I be paid per word or per character? Because I can put lllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooottttttttttttts of characters in if need be.