ERV wrote:welch wrote:I've also said that if Abbie and other "proper" scientists don't like the fact that Scibabe has become one of the main faces of public science communication, especially in the food woo arena, that maybe they should get off their asses and fix that, if they really think it's a problem.
Jesus fuck, welch. Did you recently take a railroad spike to the brain? 'Hey, person who had a science blog for 8 years! Person who talked to the general public about science whenever asked, despite terrible stage fright! If you want to educate laymen on science, get off your ass and do something about it!'
Whatsamatter Abbs, there's a set of lips here not firmly on your ass? Oh, if only I had acknowledged your blog over and over as I have in this squabble.
But hey, fuck accuracy right? This is your safe space, I'm probably wrong for questioning you on anything at this point.
Not that you care, because you've pretty much shit accuracy away in this case, but the point isn't that you don't have a blog, because you do. It's that
outside of the sciblogs audience it effectively doesn't exist.
Here, let me put this in simple terms you might understand: Blogs parallel papers in this respect. If barely anyone reads a paper or cites it and no one really knows it exists, what value does it have in a practical sense? The blogs that matter are the ones that people know about, otherwise your winking in the dark.
It's why Mendel's work didn't mean fuck all until long after his death, because no one read his work or knew about it. He was right, mostly, and he'd done good work, but no one knew about it, so effectively,
it didn't fucking matter. You could have the cure for fucking cancer in a box in your closet, but if no one else knows about it, it does no one any fucking good. Three steps outside of sciblogs, no one knows about shit there, so in terms of general effectiveness, it's a circle jerk in a basement at midnight. Feels good for the participants, no one walking by knows or cares.
ERV wrote:Know why I stopped? It's a thankless job. I have actively supported numerous 'food scientists', who have also run blogs for *years*. They don't get their stuff plugged by Gawker. They haven't had news sites run cutesy biographical sketches. They don't get invited to skeptic events to discuss their area of expertise. Skeptic blogs don't give them awards for their work.
Poor fucking baby, you didn't get feted by Gawker. Wah. None of you want to do the work to get the (highly valuable) stuff you're writing about marketed out to the larger world. You're like those moronic Indie Devs who think marketing is for suckers, then wonder why no one is buying their shit. Words on a blog is only the FIRST part. The rest of it involves making sure the right people know you're writing it. You can shit on Watson all day long, and deservedly so, but she has out-marketed and out-PR'd you every which way possible.
Dawkins gets this. Tyson gets this. They do things like PR and marketing so their words get in the right ears. But you are right, it is regularly thankless work. Which is why so few people do it. But the way shit works outside of the lab is pretty well-established. Facebook. Twitter. The shit you love to laugh at and dismiss. Don't bitch that by not doing the necessary work, you didn't get the attention you think you deserved.
ERV wrote:A seemingly endless parade of people who didn't give a rats ass about science communication (until they need to pay the water bill) do, though.
I've complained about this for years. Why the fuck would anyone fly Watson to Australia (or Mid Missouri) to speak about science, when so many qualified, eager scientists are on their doorstep?
Because no one knows who they are, because they
never leave the fucking lab long enough for anyone to know they're there. Jesus christ, how do you fucking think this stuff works? You think a conference organizer has shit loads of spare time to beg people they've never heard of and don't know exist until they go trolling through a facutly list at a local university? If that's what you think, you are so very wrong it's not even funny. Organizing a conference, while not hard in terms of science, is really fucking hard in terms of logistics. It's the worst kind of cat-herding, and if you can save six seconds of time by getting speakers
you actually know about, you're going to, because that gives you time to deal with the dickheads at the venue, the stupid fucks doing the catering and the unending ceaseless demands from the special snowflakes who thinks buying a conference pass entitles them to a daily rusty trombone!
ERV wrote:Totally cool when I said that about Watson. Epic tantrum when I say it about your dear, dear Facebook friend.
If the worst thing watson had done was, once, say she should have had a title she didn't really deserve, then you would have totally been overreacting. But it wasn't the first time Watson had been a raging cock to some random person who didn't deserve it. Different situations warrant different responses. I figured you knew this. Evidently I was wrong.
ERV wrote:I stopped 'sci comm' because it takes a ton of time and effort, with very little reward, and I can't afford that right now. Science rewards me for my hard work, when it can. So if you want to improve sci comm, welch, I would suggest supporting people who do it, even if they aren't endorsed by Gawker, or whatever future click bait website takes it's place.
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The people doing the hard, thankless work of trying to talk to people who aren't other scientists do get my support. Like Kevin Folta, who got massacred far worse than you ever came close to.
But he at least gets how this whole publicity thing works. Contrary to what you seem to believe (but hey, you're a scientist, you're an expert on goddamned everything, right?) "build it and they will come" isn't even a line from a movie. It's a fantasy based on zero real world experience. If you want people to listen to you, you have to do the work to get their attention. You don't to do that? Totally cool, that's a valid choice. Most other scientists don't? Totally cool, totally valid choices for all of them.
But having made that choice, you don't get to decide who DOES do the communicating. You opt out of the process, you get to fucking live with the results. It's like voting. Don't want to vote? you don't have to, but at least have the spine to shut the fuck up when your voice goes completely unheard because no one knows it's there.
The problem isn't that you made your choice. The problem is, it's not working out the way you think it should and that's burning your ass so hard, you have a sunburn on your nose.