Introspection is always a good thing, and with that in mind, the suggested topic today – what could we do better at WUWT? Some background first.
I get lots of requests to change things, do things differently, or if you listen to some people, just shut down altogether; because they simply can’t tolerate an opinion contrary to their own views that gets as much attention as WUWT does.
One of the great things (or not so great depending on your viewpoint) about running a successful enterprise like this is that it now has other blogs dedicated solely to taunting that success, much like Obama has invoked taunting more than half of the citizens of the United States who have a different view from him on climate change. I see such blog spawn ( I need to update that page as there are more now) as a measure of success; flak, target, and all that.
A few caveats about things I can’t change right now that I often get asked about:
1. I can’t offer comment editing post facto, to do that I either need to spend $500/month to use the WordPress Enterprise feature (which I tried on invitation and decided it was not worth the price tag) or run on a self-hosted server. Since I don’t have time to chase down script kiddies and bot attacks like Lucia does, staying on WordPress.com is the only real option.
2. I can’t do research for people. Every day I get emails asking me to do research for questions, or go to some blog/newspaper/magazine and offer commentary to counter somebody in comments. I simply don’t have the time, I’m sorry.
3. I can’t change what ads popup on WUWT. They are entirely controlled by wordpress.com. That said, they are also contextually based on your browsing behavior. If you are getting ads that you think you should not be, chances are you’ve been pigeonholed for some reason. Clearing your browser cache/cookies always helps. That said, there was a rogue advertiser this past week that attempted to do re-directs. Alert readers alerted me, and I alerted the wordpress management who booted the advertiser.
4. Climategate 3 file dump: lots of people have looked at it, searched it, and scoured the output – there was nothing new there of any value.
Now that I’m asking you to air your opinions and ideas about what we could do better at WUWT, I’m going to air mine about those of you who comment here.
What I’d like to see different about readers and commenters on WUWT:
1. Saying “off topic” and then posting an off topic comment doesn’t actually make it OK. We have Tips and Notes (see menu below the header) for that.
2. I’d like to see less cryptic comments (like from Mosher) and more in-depth comments.
3. I’d like less name calling. The temptation is great, and I myself sometimes fall victim to that temptation. I’ll do better to lead by example in any comments I make.
4. I’d like to see less trolling and more constructive commentary. One way to acheive that is to pay attention
5. I’d like to see more click-throughs on science articles. I note that articles that discuss papers sometimes don’t get as many click-throughs as articles that discuss the latest climate inanity. While such things can be entertaining, bear in mind it is important to keep up with the science too.
So, tell me, what could we do better, do different, add, or remove from WUWT?
Please be thoughtful and respectful in such comments.
Thanks for your consideration – Anthony
“””””…..Perig (Pierre-Alain) Gouanvic says:
June 15, 2014 at 9:22 am
Grant has an important point: it should be possible to reply to comments……”””””
It already is.
See, I just responded directly to your comment.
richardscourtney: you take a very self-serving stand on our dialogue upthread.
This started with your (less than pleasant) gratuitous post “Such personal remarks by such anonymous cowards are commonly made against Lord Monckton; e.g. untrue claims that he is not a real Lord”. I realised this was probably a reference to me resulting from a previous encounter between us which obviously still rankles with you – and following which this forum seemed to became rather more civilised for a while, when you took a break from posting here.
Lord Monckton is of course a “real” Lord – by Letters Patent he has the hereditary title (3rd) Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, to which he succeeded in 2006. What actually started our earlier encounter was your flat assertion in the earlier thread that Lord Monckton was thereby a member of the House of Lords. I disagreed, since this is contrary to the House of Lords Act 1999, he does not have an exemption order under that Act and, under the supremacy of Parliament doctrine the Monarch of the day (long may she reign), Lords and elected Commoners (summoned to Parliament by her writ – which has never been an entitlement) may validly enact laws changing UK constitutional arrangements. Many times this has included changes to the structure of Parliament itself (numbers of constituencies, their boundaries, creation of life peerages and changes in presiding officer as some recent examples). The 1999 Act was cited by the Judiciary in the Mereworth decision as above, so is clearly now regarded as valid law by each of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the UK government.
And I respectfully suggest that any claim to some half-baked form of membership of our upper legislative house must be a matter of genuine concern and fair comment to anyone potentially subject to any legislation (including laws as to criminality) enacted.
When I (reasonably politely above) drew this to your attention, citing my formal authorities, you responded “I am not a lawyer so I have no intention of attempting to discuss legal questions” – although this is of course an archetypal issue of law, and you seem ready flatly to assert any legal issues as above at any time it suits you. You then proceeded to rant about me as “an anonymous and cowardly troll”.
Anthony sets site policy here, not you. He allows anonymous postings, with the consequence that this is a truly democratic forum where points actually made by contributors, and quality of debate, are ranked more highly than identity or standing of the contributor, so avoiding “argument from authority” issues and permitting challenges to any such authority claimed. If this is not to your taste you can rail about trolls all you like (within policy), but you are actually pointing in the wrong direction – by 180 degrees.
And how would identification practically work, with its obvious risk of personation? Are you suggesting that we all produce photo-ID and utility bills before being allowed to post – what would be the practical admin consequences to our host?
richardscourtney: you produce some outstanding contributions in this forum (your recent “modern luddism” posting as one example) – but is it not time to calm down a little, become rather more civilised, accept this site’s policies and rise above the occasional, inevitable, pinpricks?
Gunga Din says, I’ve found some of my old comments that way but my alias happens to be the same as a famous poem and movie.
________
Yes, it is and it was one of my favorites as a child. Your name brings a smile to my face every time I see it along with fond memories of many hours of pleasurable reading.
TimC:
re your long-winded and gratuitously offensive post addressed to me at June 17, 2014 at 11:34 pm.
I refer you to my earlier (and probably far, far too polite) reply to you which is at June 16, 2014 at 10:27 am and is linked here.
Richard
If WordPress has an option to paginate only the comments, go for it. Waaah, I have to scroll to much.
I trust this blog… Keep that up!
WUWT is a info machine, full time job now to actually follow, do not know how you keep up. Whatever, just keep full throttle and redline the cause…Thank you
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I still haven’t been able to find the email but I did find this. (The email referred to a different but related training.)
http://www.cscaweb.org/EMS/sector_team/support_files/page_1/History_of_EMS.pdf
We do EMS where I work. They even have people come around to do “EMS audits”. Part of the audits involves asking random people questions about our EMS policy.
We are even supposed to give a paper copy of it to people that make deliveries here. (So much for “Save the Trees”.)
I’m not saying this to defend the “snipers” but rather to put in mind that not all who use an alias do it so they can be “snipers”.
I would second Greg White’s suggestion (far) above, in that some basic “anti-alarmist” factsheet would be a great diving board for the site. Thanks for the site just as it is!
” L. E. Joiner says:
June 16, 2014 at 3:27 pm
otropogo says:
June 16, 2014 at 2:54 pm
. . . I find the constant sneering at “alarmists” tiresome and offensive, and sorely wish some of the prestigious poster would speak up against such essentially bullying behaviour.
“Bullying”? Surely you jest! Or did you forget that the Alarmists are the academic and government elite, including the President of the United States and his Science Advisor? ”
Examine your logic, please. It’s not the President of the USA who’s being bullied here by those using the term “alarmist”. It’s being applied willy nilly to anyone who thinks that the sky might conceivably fall, and that we should take some timely precautions.
So many posters seem so focused on ridiculing climate change zealots, they throw everyone who has any concern about a host of ills that beset humanity into the same category, whether it be concern about overpopulation, food distribution, pollution of our drinking water and air, or nuclear accidents. They’re all “alarmists”.
It sometimes seems that the ONLY THING the loudest posters here, and, I’m sorry to say, our host, are worried about is “alarmism”, presumably because (apologies to Voltaire), if it were not for alarmism, we would be living in the best of all possible worlds.
Please eliminate the… ” Watts Up With That? ” and link to the home page , OR wuwt_header10.jpg and link to the home page. One of them is redundant, and uses valuable real estate.
“WUWT Top Stories” is not of any help to this user. When I arrive on the home page I would like to know if any new stories have been added (old behavior), without scrolling down. Another reader noted that Top Stories is already available in the side bar.
The current home page has nothing of use above the “fold” most of the time.
… Recent Posts in the side bar might be useable if it were above the fold.
“””””…..Gunga Din says:
June 18, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Gunga Din says:
June 16, 2014 at 3:38 pm
Some have made comments about people commenting using an alias. A valid point is that some use the alias to be able to “snipe” from cover. But some of those who do so do it, not so much to hide themselves but to protect themselves.
Some of you will trust that I’m not making this up but, where I work an email was sent out (I looked for it but couldn’t find it.) that basically was about a training that included AGW issues. The line I remember was about it being a guide to hiring. (I have a government job.) So there is a push for government employees to not just be “politically correct” but ‘environmentally correct”.
Just something to keep in mind……”””””
Well your post raises several issues Gunga.
1/ You apparently don’t feel you are able to defend your position (whatever it is) regarding posts made here (or elsewhere). So if you couldn’t convince your employer (us taxpayers), why would you expect others to take your posts seriously ?
2/ I hope you are posting on your own computer on your own time, and not misusing our tax paid computers, and wasting tax paid time doing so.
I use MY computers, and MY time, so I have no problem using MY name, because if I didn’t firmly believe what I post, I would not waste my resources; and everybody else’s time, posting stuff I can’t defend. People actually pay me, only for what I do for them; not for what I spend MY resources on.
And anybody, can probably find a bio of some sort out there , and I can guarantee, that at least one I know of, has errors of fact; none of which came from me, but were the product of un-necessary over-hype. I’m happy to rely on the reality; not the hype.
You, after all, are best qualified to judge, what your stuff is worth. It’s hard to claim any kudos, without braving the flak.
George
So glancing at this entire thread, it seems that “what can we do better?” is the gist of the discussion; well just as Anthony asked.
My conclusion is that WUWT is just like the climate.
It changes. Not drastically; a change here, a tweak there. At the time I can question the change; do I like it, or don’t I ?
More importantly; can I live with it ?
Adaptation you say!.
You know something. regardless of how I might vote on some tweak; (or irregardless as the case may be), I simply adapt. Not even aware I’m doing it.
So why do I even bother to vote; silently or in the cement. A few time constants go by, and I don’t even remember how it used to be.
So right on Anthony; I take it for granted, you know how to steer the ship. I know a little about rowing a ship, so I’ll just do that, and when you want to change the heading; well I’ll just keep rowing. It’ll probably work out ok.
George