Joseph, thanks so much for telling me about the readability extension – that was my biggest concern about blogging there, was the readability. I’ve already got the blog set up in 14 point type, so it should be fairly readable.

I’ve spent my whole life talking to empiricists – that’s not a problem for me – and my blog will still be my blog, wherever it goes.

Sharon

I’ve been writing at scienceblogs for 3.6 years. This is what I would share with your readers here:

1. Many of the criticisms are valid, if painted with too broad of a brush. Most of the writers are oddballs of various stripes, so it is exceedingly hazardous to employ stereotypes with this bunch.

2. The site is not aesthetically balanced. Readers are encouraged to use the Readability extension (http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/) when reading the posts. It makes all the clutter go away.

3. Bloggers have complete editorial freedom, every bit as much as they did on their old sites.

4. Several book authors have blogged there. I am not one of them, but I have the impression that it has been good publicity for them. Also, it helps keep them sharp.

5. If you have ideas you are playing with, try them out there. If there are problems with it, someone will let you know. This can be very annoying, but it is better to be corrected for a stray thought in a blog post, that to put it in a published book. While that can happen on a freestanding blog, too, the greater breadth of exposure will ensure that your readers are not always persons who are predisposed to agree with whatever you say.

6. A lot of the persons who blog there are dyed-in-the-wool empiricists. Yes, it can be like the logical positivists’ version of talk radio: strident, and annoying. But it generally is respectful and humanistically oriented.

7. Their theme is “Science is culture.” They aim to make science more palatable. You can help.

8. Most of the bloggers there had blogs elsewhere, and those old blogs are still around.

9. Change bothers some people. There is nothing you can do about that.

10. Scienceblogs is not as much fun as it used to be, when there were a couple dozen bloggers. But it still is fun.

Welcome aboard.

Folks, this site isn’t going anywhere – eventually the archives may be duplicated over there so that people can easily find old posts, but they will remain here. And I’ve definitely decided to keep this site active, although that will be my primary blog. If we all hate it, well, I can always come back here.

I think Cat put her finger on why I want to do this – don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that my readership takes as a given that we have to make such profound changes. But I know that most of the world doesn’t. But let’s just see how it goes!

Sharon