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]
I think the commenter missed the key point: ” … you give me this?”
If you go to Language Log, you will occasionally find them offering dissatisfied readers their money back. I don’t always find the posts that interesting, but damn! Sometimes I don’t even find what I say all that interesting. So just keep it up and ignore the ingrates.
People are like this because many folks have started to rely on good science based blogs for our daily ‘fix’ of real useful thoughts and information. Compare it to the teaser and vacuous content of local TV, and you can see why we have come to expect a lot from you.
Write off the complaint as just someone having a bad day, and realize that folks out here have very high expectations of you. Obviously we think well of you, or we would not have expected perfection. 😉
Seriously, there is a compliment in there, no matter how badly it was voiced by the commenter. Keep up the good work!
I think it says something about the human psyche that we do seem to revel in the anonymous anger, criticism and general meanness.
The safety of not being rejected from the social pool makes it easier. Our culture of self aggrandizement makes it easy to think that our particular point of view should be shared by others and that our particular expectations should always be catered to.
And then there is the fairly universal feeling of superiority when we get to criticize someone, particularly who might appear to be superior to us.
Finally, I think the internet’s feeling of separateness, of non-reality makes us forget that there is a human being on the other end of the words.
Well, for what it’s worth, I thought the topic of the post was interesting.
Apologies Sean, I did not intend to offend, I just think you are better than this post. I enjoy your posts and I enjoyed your book too. Please keep writing both. Best wishes.
I have bundled all my bookmarks for blogs I visit and the list is long. I almost always visit CV first. It’s probably operant conditioning based on the liklihood that I’ll be rewarded. I haven’t started drooling yet though. Please keep it up.
Well, how about I balance your day by complimenting CV? My friend and I were just lamenting how we feel that science reporting in most news articles / tv segments is somewhat shoddy (reminds me of this more often than not: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174). I mentioned that I probably have higher standards for science writing due to the well-written and informative science magazines and blogs I read…like this one.
“If I ever give up blogging for good, it will be because of comments like this”
Just think how good you have it compared to PZ! 🙂
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Not surprising that an astrophysicist would not be hyper-aware that … well… that people suck in general. No, not when you’re talking to them. Not when they’re your friends… not when your second cousin is dating them… but all the rest of the time? They suck. They push their drama where ever they can looking for an opportunity to feel important or the center of attention. Generally, they mill about trying to find self worth and accidentally suck up all the goodness in life while they are looking. People suck. Don’t worry about it too much. Write because you like to, and at least several other people enjoy reading it. That you have that much is nearly amazing on the wild whack web.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought the point of bogging was so that you could write about topics that interest you without having to live up to some odd, “we’re better than this story” garbage?
I didn’t find the post in question interesting, I don’t find a lot of your posts interesting, but I know I’m not your only reader, and I know you have readers that found the post interesting. I also know that your blog posts more interesting posts than most other science blogs I read.
I say keep up the good work, if Jack thinks that post is beneath you somehow, maybe Jack can point us to his infallible, always interesting to everyone blog so we can all marvel in his greatness.
Isn’t there an intermediate step you could use? Instead of giving up blogging, just disable commenting. Then you could still blog happily without being bothered by internet trolls.
Another option might be to impose some minimal cost level to a comment – enough of a
disincentive to drive away the pathetic fools who like to feel important by berating those that
provide a free service.
This post is boring! As is Jack’s comment! I’m going away and I’m not coming back until you go back to posting actual interesting content on glowing green peanut-shaped space rocks, and tiny weird microstructures that may or may not vaguely resemble life. SO THERE.
I agree with Brad about imposing a cost. One system I’ve seen is comment scoring, with the score accruing to the commenter’s overall “popularity” score. Lesswrong.com uses this system, with good results. I have a hunch that Discover wouldn’t allow it though.
It’s interesting that Jack immediately asserts that Sean is trying to “express a personal belief.” Well, duh. The fact that he’s upset by this strongly suggests that the post challenged a personal belief of his own. Throw stones much, Jack?
Personally, I enjoy the vast majority of the posts at CV.
Sean and rest of CV: in my view, this is one of the very best science blogs around!!!. The best thing about CV is that it is not only about physics or even science in general but about how science intersects with other human activities (such as the arts, philosophy, politics, etc). This is what makes this blog truly special.
To those party-poopers that think that CV’s only function is to entertain them: relax, the world doesn’t spin around you. If you just write to complain about how a particular post does not amuse you, set up your own blog and try to post fun, engaging, thoughtful and thought-provoking posts on an almost daily basis. It isn’t that easy, is it?
And no, I am not sucking up to Sean and company, I am just a bit tired of reading so many comments that simply suck the life out of any cool discussion going on at CV or any other interesting blog.
I just think you are better than this post.
what does that even mean? i’m sure it’s concrete to you, but sean isn’t your personal writer. so how is he supposed to take advertisement of a sentiment from a total stranger out of the thousands who visit his blog every day?
i empathize, though i probably tell such readers where to shove it enough that they think the better of offering such ungrateful crap up. the most obnoxious was one reader who was pissed that i wasn’t posting enough! he stated that he would stop reading my blog if i didn’t post more.
You’re the only blog I read, after 4 years of getting into blogs, Mr. Grumpy!
And it’s OK to feel grumpy. Wasn’t there a saying somewhere that the brightest are the most sensitive?
Even TED talks get abuse in the comments… Even TED talks 😉
I’ve left what I thought were some very good comments that you have totally ignored. I guess that’s better than saying my comments suck, but it would be even better to get a reply.
I like the idea of imposing a cost.
Henceforth, if anyone would like to leave an obnoxious comment, first send me a million dollars.
FWIW, most of us understand that it’s your (y’all’s) blog and you can talk about whatever you want. Keep calm and carry on, good sir!
Dear Sean,
I have nothing of substance to contribute to your blog, and I’m too lazy to click on the self-conscious-looking lady with the black tee-shirt ten thousand times to pay you for your work, so I’m just going to complain petulantly.
Why can’t you blog in a manner that makes up for my unwillingness to figure things out for myself?
You do a great job, Sean! Don’t let the minority bring you down;-)
I spend my summers producing music festivals in the Northwest. This sort of comment is much like those that i hear all the time from attendees; such-and-such band didn’t play up to “my” standards of them (and this is usually based on the band not playing a favorite song). It is, as if, somehow magically, the band owes its entire existence to each and every fan.
I believe Mr.Z makes a point, but i think he might not have gone far enough. People suck energy from those around them, as much as they possibly can.
So you’re saying Jack is a psychic vampire. I sense a future blog post…