Comments on: Comment Policy

By: New Directions at The Intersection | The Intersection | moregoodstuff.info

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 03:45:05 +0000

[...] policy is, in general, much the same as that of Carl Zimmer–”light but firm”–though he’s more eloquent. But the same basic principles apply. We are [...]

By: s krishna

s krishna — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:07:02 +0000

I am using this site as I was unable to get your email address.

I am a 61 years old retired structural engineer and I have been reading English literature, western philosophy, biology and physics. Of the books that I have read so far on Evolution, I found your tangled bank the most informative, extremely clear and written elegantly. I wanted to know what you have studied and spent hours on Internet searching for it but in vain.

Can you satisfy an old man’s indecent curiosity?

Sorry for troubling you for what you probably consider trivial.

regards
krishna

By: Oroboros

Oroboros — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:33:37 +0000

I like this policy, and appreciate that you have it. I’ve seen a variety of different ways to handle the matter, and yours is more than fair.

The one and only request I’d made is to enable comment editing. I don’t know why I only catch certain mistakes after hitting the Submit button, but even having “Preview” would make it easier to fix stupid mistakes. I think that the Discover blog software supports editing for up to 15 minutes after comment submission, because Phil has it enabled for comments on his blog. I’d say that I edit about 75% of the comments I submit for very minor grammar and spelling mistakes and also to clarify things.

I also tend to embed a lot of links to other science stories, and occasionally may make a mistake in HTML formatting. Not being able to edit or preview comments makes me a fair bit less liable to include them. For example, I could have included any number of references to the bark beetle and aspen blights in this comment.

By: Laying Out a Comments Policy | The Intersection | Discover Magazine

Laying Out a Comments Policy | The Intersection | Discover Magazine — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:25:33 +0000

[...] policy is, in general, much the same as that of Carl Zimmer–”light but firm”–though he’s more eloquent. But the same basic [...]

By: roy

roy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:01:59 +0000

Remember Erik Von Danikin? Yuri Gellar? Jonathan Schell? All the great buncombe of the 60s and 70s? Where are they all now? There’s always going to be drag and waste where there’s productive work. You can’t let it get you down.

By: Anonymous Benefactor

Anonymous Benefactor — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:43:22 +0000

“Alan Fox’s job is to make sure John keeps his focus on other things, good tactics by Darwinian “scientists” all around…bravo!”

Whoops…that was a typo:

Alan Fox’s job is to make sure John keeps his mouth shut at all costs.

By: Anonymous Benefactor

Anonymous Benefactor — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:40:51 +0000

Actually, Alan Fox made a visit to Carl Zimmers blog not for the reasons he himself suggested. He actually follows John A. Davison wherever he goes hoping John A. Davison gets banned before he manages to expose much of the Darwinian fairytale. Yaa see, John has a reputation of exposing the Darwinian fairytale in a few sentences. Alan Fox’s job is to make sure John keeps his focus on other things, good tactics by Darwinian “scientists” all around…bravo!

By: roy

roy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:38:22 +0000

A comment policy should attempt to mold a useful discussion, not degenerate into a bile-fest (unless it’s a blog about the liver!). If someone abuses your hospitality, by all means ban them. I find that quality tends to repel junk over time.

By: Ford

Ford — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:07:55 +0000

My policies at This Week in Evolution are similar. I did set up a Troll Refuge for people who want to argue about evolution without going to the trouble of reading about actual data, but it doesn’t get much use.

I also delete generic comments (“Very interesting!”) whose only purpose is to advertise an unrelated commercial site.

By: Alan Fox

Alan Fox — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:00:58 +0000

Carl,

Apologies if a couple of my comments caused you grief. I have been an irregular reader of your blog over the last few years and was here most recently to read Ken Miller’s guest post regarding, Behe, Kitzmiller and the blood clotting cascade, following links from Panda’s Thumb. I noted your thread on Charles Darwin, and commented about re-reading his account of the Beagle voyage. Distraction ensued. Comments are like applause or catcalls from your audience; any response at least indicates you have one!

I think you do a great job as an ambassador for science. Keep it up!

I now resume my role as enthusiastic lurker.

By: eshuon

eshuon — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:07:28 +0000

why do i no longer see the comments below articles now?…a response to the e-mail address i have included would be superb. thanks.

By: Mike Haubrich, FCD

Mike Haubrich, FCD — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:42:08 +0000

I have the same sort of policy at my blog, and it is quite the same. If people don’t like it, WordPress and Blogspot are free. I enjoy fruitful threads often as much as I do the original post to which they are attached, but quickly lose interest in hijacked threads.

By: sdrDusty

sdrDusty — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:38:25 +0000

tedious viciousness, purely narcissistic self-justifications, and other pointless enterprises

Ah, intrigue!
OK I have to admit, I’m a bit of a rubber-necker. Actually, I like (what I remember as) the Dutch expression for it- Ramptourist- or basically a disaster tourist.

Sometimes it is amusing to read some of that and wonder what on earth could be going on in the writer’s mind!

But, aside from being a curiosity, such can be an annoying distraction, so I’m glad you apply some moderation.

By: tobi

tobi — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:02:32 +0000

I’m a chemistry student from Austria and I’ve been following your blog for about 1,5 years if I remind it correctly. I think this might be the first comment I’m leaving on this blog, but nevertheless I think this might be the right post to do so. I like to following your blog, your mixture of science and society and I hope I can follow the blog for some more years.