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Friday, July 13, 2007

Sandwalk Resists

 

Afer considerable debate, and much agonizing, I've decided not to join ScienceBorg ScienceBlogs at this time.

When I first started Sandwalk, I was anxious to be part of that group but now, seven months later, there doesn't seem to be a good reason to give up this site for one in the SEED consortium. There are very few advantages to joining ScienceBlogs. They do not come close to outweighing the one major disadvantage—you have to give up a great deal of independence in order to become part of the SEED site.

At one time it seemed as though ScienceBlogs was cornering the market on good science blogging so it was desirable to be associated with a group that had a reputation for quality blogging. That time has past. Now there are lots of good science blogs that have resisted assimilation so it's not so bad to remain on the outside.

[The image is from Borg trioM copyright Paramount Pictures and CBS Television. Its use is consistent with fair use laws in many jurisdictions throughout the world.]

22 comments :

SPARC said...

"Its use is consistent with fair use laws in many jurisdictions throughout the world"
I guess this argument would be a quite optimistic one in Germany.

Anonymous said...

There are very few advantages to joining ScienceBlogs.

You'd get to chum around with fine upstanding folks like Rob Knopp.

Anonymous said...

The companies that they allow to advertise on their site would probably be enough for me to pass on them too.

blogger display name afheihgi3eh said...

I'm curious. Exactly what do you have to give up, anyways?

Anonymous said...

Tegumai Bopsulai said "You'd get to chum around with fine upstanding folks like Rob Knopp."

I will happily trade Rob for Brayton. Rob at least knows some science.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the club. Both Panda's Thumb and De Rerum Natura reject Seed as well.

Monado said...

I would be worried about the amount of blogging required. I like it to be as the spirit moves me.

Janet D. Stemwedel said...

As long as you keep blogging (and that you're still having fun blogging) it doesn't matter to me if you do it here or as part of the Borg.

Although you will miss out on the customary "One of us! One of us!" chant. You'll get over it.

Anonymous said...

I've got Sandwalk bookmarked, so it doesn't matter to me!

Anonymous said...

I've got Sandwalk bookmarked, so it doesn't matter to me!

Yeah really. It's the same damn internet. Besides that, Sandwalk should probably be the one doing the assimilating.

The Ridger, FCD said...

Stay where you're happy! I read you and them and others ... it's the same internet (as others have said).

Anonymous said...

It doesn't really matter to me either; I've got sandwalk bookmarked as well. I do like seeing all the scientists in one spot though. And the way the front page of scienceblogs is always updated.

Orac said...

"I'm curious. Exactly what do you have to give up, anyways?"

Nothing, really.

In fact, you get paid based on your traffic, and there is no editorial interference.

Larry Moran said...

Taylor asks,

I'm curious. Exactly what do you have to give up, anyways?

Quite a lot actually. I'm surprised that Orac didn't mention it.

You have to sign a contract agreeing that everything on your blog is original work that has never been published. That means I can't publish excerpts from my books and I can't publish some images and photographs that I normally put on my blog here at Blogger.

You have to sign over to ScienceBlogs the rights to the work published on your blog. That's a really serious issue for me since I want to be able to use some of my articles elsewhere and I need to retain copyright or at least prevent it from being assigned to a third party.

You have to give ScienceBlogs permission to use your name, likeness, articles, and biographical information throughout the world in advertising and promotion for ScienceBlogs and the company. While most ScienceBloggers seem to be comfortable with that, I'm not. I'm not that happy with the reputation of ScienceBlogs or SEED magazine and I don't really want to give them permission to use my name to promote their agenda.

These are substantial concessions. The monetary compensation is trivial for a blog like Sandwalk. It's enough to pay for a night at the movies every month.

Orac said...

"You have to sign over to ScienceBlogs the rights to the work published on your blog. That's a really serious issue for me since I want to be able to use some of my articles elsewhere and I need to retain copyright or at least prevent it from being assigned to a third party."

Seed's rights are nonexclusive, which means you retain your copyright under Creative Commons and remain perfectly free to republish your articles elsewhere. Ask PZ if you don't believe me (or whoever was recruiting you for Seed) or if you think I'm misinterpreting.

Larry Moran said...

Orac says,

Seed's rights are nonexclusive, which means you retain your copyright under Creative Commons and remain perfectly free to republish your articles elsewhere. Ask PZ if you don't believe me (or whoever was recruiting you for Seed) or if you think I'm misinterpreting.

You may be right but I don't need the complication in case you're wrong. There's nothing in it for me.

Larry Fafarman said...

Larry Moran said,
>>>>>> You have to sign over to ScienceBlogs the rights to the work published on your blog. That's a really serious issue for me since I want to be able to use some of my articles elsewhere and I need to retain copyright or at least prevent it from being assigned to a third party. <<<<<<

Can free websites be copyrighted? In years of surfing the Internet, I have never seen a copyright notice posted on a free website.

Steve Higgins said...

"you have to give up a great deal of independence in order to become part of the SEED site. "
You don't have to give up anything .. and the rights are non exclusive as Orac says. There is practically no minimum amount of blogging - perhaps a couple times a week? The only reason not to switch... you make more money from google ad words or something.

mythusmage said...

Check out Gene Expression and Gene Expression. No reason you can't maintain two blogs. The SciBlogs one for general interest work, and your Blogspot one for more indepth work.

Russell Blackford said...

Yeah, I'm thinking that most of the disadvantages could be overcome if you have another blog. There might be advantages, anyway, to running two blogs if the result was actually to increase traffic (as going over to ScienceBlogs would probably do) rather than simply creating confusion. If it were me, I think that I'd probably keep my current blog alive for some purposes, as a few other people have.

Larry Moran said...

I'd like to thank everyone for posting information that tries to limit (or mitigate) the disadvantages of joining ScienceBlogs.

But that's only part of the equation. What are the advantages that compensate for possible disadvantages. I don't see them.

Having to maintain two different blogs doesn't seem like an advantage to me.

chamalilem said...

OOh ... nice book in the internet! *lol* im a BIOLOGY Major student and I would really like to confess the struggles of being one. hmm, can you help me?? thanks sir!