Another thing that follows, though perhaps a little less obviously: be polite. Bloggers are a community, and how you behave matters. If you disagree strongly with someone, express your disagreement through superior logic or mountains of evidence, not by calling the other person an idiot. There are a few bloggers out there who not only like to show that they are smarter than other people (most of us fall victim to this temptation), but come out and say that they are smarter than other people, and judging from their traffic (Alexa can show this for you) that strategy has not been successful for them. I am on good terms with some of the people whom I have disagreed with most strongly; some of them send me emails pointing out posts they think I may find interesting. Bloggers are people like everyone else; whether they will help you depends largely on whether they like you.You can thank James Kwak, over at The Baseline Scenario for this one.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Blogging Etiquette - James Kwak on Blog-o-sphere rules to live by
Tne Number One Reason why I hate wading into the waters of the "New Atheists" vs. "religious scientists" is that BOTH SIDES violate this rule:
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2 comments:
The whole thing is rather depressing. At this point, I don't think Chris and Sheril are helping themselves much by responding to PZ, and now it appears that Coyne is demanding (goading) they address him.
PZ certainly knows how to get under people's skin, and his countless followers have learned from the best, but Chris and Sheril need to know when to say when and just let it go.
I think a huge portion of the scientific community agrees with the idea of framing. I think we all do it unconsciously when we're outside the lab, we just have to work on it when we're really pushing an agenda and not just talking over a couple of beers.
And this is precisely why I have stayed out of much of the commenting. If it was a stunt to drive traffic (which would be so unlike Sheril and Chris I'd be worried) it has succeeded.
I'm reading the book now, and want to do a review when I'm done, which will pull in this controversy. It's just hard to do, what with the job, family and all.
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