If I ever give up blogging for good, it will be because of comments like this:
I just don’t get it. What a lame blog topic that should have been left on the cutting room floor. There is no science here. Evidently cited just to provide an opportunity to express a personal belief. Why not blog on the news of the day..the successfully trapping the first “anti-atom” and its potential implications? This is real news, real science and in keeping with your expertise. You could teach me something. Instead you give me this?
Obviously the sensible reaction is to laugh and move on, but few of us achieve that level of Zen detachment in dealing with the world. Many of the comments at CV are great, and I’ve certainly learned a lot from the interactions here, but quite a high percentage are of this form. When you put a lot of work into the blog and care about how it turns out, this kind of stuff wears you down. Why are people like this? I understand that not every post will interest every person; is it really more satisfying to take time to lash out in the comment section (when you have never left a constructive comment yet), rather than just skipping to something else on the vast and endlessly amusing internet?
[/grumpy]
Brian, Mike:
Given that our humble host felt like grumbling about it and how often he gets comments like that, I think it’s worth a little bit of venting on the part of people who *don’t* ever feel that way, who enjoy the blog, and who don’t want to see it diminished because of people who feel entitled to entertainment, and if people who make those comments see a bunch of folks pitching a fit whenever it happens, maybe they’ll be less inclined to do so in the future.
So goes the hope. Obviously naive, I know the internet doesn’t work that way, but there it is.
Beyond that, even as he “took it back” (since when does that grant immunity from criticism?) he made comments about how Sean is “better than this post”, which I know would piss me off if it was sewn in with the retraction that doesn’t seem to recognize at all why the original message was aggravating. Maybe Sean was gleeful to see it, I obviously can’t speak for him or read his mind.
I wonder how many of you telling a stranger to lighten up frequently find yourself and your efforts criticized by strangers? Just a thought.
This page Grumpy Kvetching of the Day | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine hit the nail on the head. I will be sure to return here often to find out what you have to express. You won a visitor.
I always enjoy reading a dialogue between a real guy named SEAN CARROLL who uses his real, actual name when he writes and an “it” who calls itself “Jack” and calls SEAN CARROLL a big fake.
It’s seemingly inexplicable. All of us scientists on CV are tops in our field and when we write on CV, we work really hard to write a good post. Yet some guy called “Jack” can write a spurious commet and get under our skin. We should be above that, but the more “Jacks” we get commenting, the fact is the less we write. We are, afterall, human, and CV is not our main job. It’s our hobby. And if the comments start to seriously detract from the enjoyment of our hobby, then we stop writing blog posts and concentrate on our research. Just sayin….
yes agree with you that no every visitors like you every post . people does’nt have time to fill forms and comments on post . its your ability to bring a visitor to your blog and share your info with his network;
“I wonder how many of you telling a stranger to lighten up frequently find yourself and your efforts criticized by strangers? ”
What?
I thought the point of blogging was that every post doesn’t have to be a gem, but here I don’t even understand the complaint about the post. The article is covering a pretty hot&important topic on the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology (well, it’s hot at places like Brandeis and I think Caltech). Why *not* point out there’s more to science than particle physics?
(The beginning of the above being a point about the informality of blogging, not a critique of the enterprise).
I like the posts on personal beliefs – much more interesting than the ones on non-personal beliefs, or even some of the ones on science (the ones I don’t understand well). I’ve often considered commenting just to say there should be many more such posts, but then I realize, whoa, probably not cool.
Jack, I feel for you, man. Slip up once around here and they swarm on you like bees – even if you apologize. Sheesh!
I suggest ignoring any comment that has ” you should” contained it it as a comment for what to blog about. You are free to write whatever you please. Readers are free to tune in or out.
Perhaps you need more folks to simply comment – nice job, keep it up, I enjoy your blog posts and have followed for years.
@61 George
There is a big difference between expressing disagreement polietly and offending and hurting others.
I am expressing my view as reader, Dr. Sean don’t offend his readers or disrepect them, so why his readers don’t do the same.
There are blogs, I am really afarid even to comment in it, I am worry that the author may insult me if he didn’t like my post or at least critcize my comment viloently. The author sometimes disribe some of his readers as stubid, non intelligent and worse than that.
I don’t find that disrespect to me in Cosmic Varience honestly!
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Apparently, commenters also feel entitled to leave open italics tags cluttered about.
[/i]Please don’t let a vocal minority put you off – lots of people read with pleasure what you write but do not put finger to keyboard. You inspire and care for your subject, which makes you a special blog to read, but also makes it easier to be knocked back by negativity.
There seem to be a lot of “glass is half empty” folks in the world, people who simply don’t like much and enjoy complaining. I see the same thing reading book reviews on Amazon.
I read several blogs. The author decides what to write about. I decide if the entry is worth my time, and sometimes an entry just doesn’t catch my fancy, so I just skip it. It’s easy to do.
Clear skies, Alan
I would feel jilted having wasted the time it took to learn to read should you give up blogging.
I liked the article very much! But I guess it’s also just human to keep silent (and lurk) if you like something, even if you like it very much and only raise your voice to complain. At least this post ended my (years long and very enjoyable) time as a lurker here on CV.