Popular Science recently decided to shut down web comments on its online articles. http://www.popsci.com/science/artic...ories&con=why-were-shutting-off-our-comments- [rquoter]Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off. It wasn't a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter. ... A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to "debate" on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science. ... [/rquoter] I thought this was an interesting issue. Is this a good or bad decision, in your opinion?
In the context of a science magazine trying to maximize online readers, maybe not. It'd be a little easier to gauge if they were an honest to goodness science journal, were more concerned about impact factor and could charge $100/year to compensate for only marketing to grad students and above.
That and whatever spam was getting through. Also it might have been more about admin cost v. ad revenue than editorial principle.
I wish more sites would do this (on a case-by-case basis). Too many sites have comment sections that add nothing whatsoever of value except to generate hits from the anger-junkies who comment.
/thread. Agree completely. There is nothing more useless than the modern comments section, in most cases.
Comment sections goes to show others reading the article to think for themselves and that not everybody believes the bs the establishment is trying to push. It's sort of a check and balance and allows another POV.
Let's say you are an expert pastry chef. You post articles about cooking patries. Then anonymous posters show up in the comments and post things like: "NU-UH, THIS IS TEH WRONG! I BAKE AN NEVR USE HEAT! JUST PUT DOE ON COUNTER WITH TEH RATTLESNAKE BEER ON TOP AND IT MAKES REAL GOOD PASTY. DON'T BELIEVE THE ESTABLISHMENT!" And that happens everytime you post a simple recipe, then yeah, you would quit fielding a comments section. The "bs" of science is about as accurate as saying using an oven to bake is "bs". If you are anti-science, I applaud your right to hold your beliefs, but I recommend: do not use a light switch today; do not use a computer today; do not use a car today; never visit a doctor again; and so forth, and so on.
Tinfoil hat idiots don't have valuable opinions that should be surfaced. In fact it's rather destructive as it just reinforces their resolve even when you patiently explain to them that they're being idiots. Your POV isn't that useful to us.
An expert should never be afraid to hear a dissenting opinion. If they're truly an expert, they'll easily be able to refute the dissenting opinion. If they cannot, well, maybe they shouldn't be called an expert...
Surely you recognize science's limitations. Science cannot even explain but a fraction of how the human body works! Cure for cancer? Nope. Origin of life? pfft. Science is merely the best ideas of the time, and most would laugh at the best ideas of only say, 500 years ago. I'm not totally anti-science, but come on, put things in perspective.
Actually, bigtexxx's many posts are showing me one thing and one thing only: an "ignore" feature could do wonders for online comments sections. It has really done wonders for my experience of the BBS and even this thread.
bill maher did his closing monologue on this topic after the miss America contest (which there is a thread about)
Such an enormously incorrect and ignorant comment. Science is a method/process. It is limited only by our intellect. "Science" doesn't explain anything, it bears no blame or credit. We do.
You know, I always thought that you were a decently intelligent guy who just had dumb views. Now I realize you are actually a dumb guy who has dumb views.
