A pause for thought.

Comments in the Pepsi-Blog are not published freely. The blog owner has the right of censorship.
That isn't science at all.

I agree with your stance as a regular reader (if not commenter) and scientist.

Erik:
We truly regret the incident. This is a unpleasant, though expectable, result of exposure over the internet.
Iâm confident that the matter will be quickly dissipated and that all SB blogs will keep their inestimable service to all of us, Science- and Eruptions- bloggers.
As I've often repeated, this is a truly, indisputably, precious environment for healthy discussion shared by both experts and laymen, an unique opportunity to spread scientific knowledge in a world-wide basis, for which we should all be most grateful.

Erik, you're always welcome to have some space over at the Geology Home Companion if you've got some Eruptions news or commentary that you'd rather not put here.

Erik,
you've always maintained a well-written blog that stuck to the science (or at least issues related to it) and maintained the highest integrity. Hopefully the powers that be will get the hint from your participation in the boycott. If ll they care about is the big bucks they'll get from FF then I say to them, "Pogue mo thoin!"

A curious thing: there has been talk about the right-hand column on other blogs, and how it belongs to the advertisers, but right now there are no ads, not a single one.

Are the advertizers voting already?

#6, Kultsi: that is really amazing. Yesterday evening they still were there, now this morning they're gone....

@ Erik: I really enjoy your blog, with a good mix of hard science and some lighter stuff. Also, the comments... I learned a lot in a short space of time. Hopefully the issue will be solved. It really is a fine line - the money needed and the independence which is also needed for real honest and clean science.

Erik: I fully support your stance on this, science must be objective. A corporate=sponsored science blog isn't science, it's propaganda. Lysenko lives!

BTW, Kultsi, I'm still seeing adverts, including one from a well-known firm of bookies. Maybe they're taking bets on the next VEI 3 eruption ?

"Erik: I fully support your stance on this, science must be objective. A corporate=sponsored science blog isn't science, it's propaganda. Lysenko lives!"

*Chuckle* ... It will be fascinating to see objectivity and principle in action when authors elect/decline to withdraw accepted manuscripts from Nature Publishing Group.

I can understand and support you very well on this. If they continue with their course of sponsoring, you could as well spin of and open your own site. With no restrictions like this.

To be frivolous for a moment:

Magma is a liquid (more or less) containing dissolved gas under pressure

Pepsi is a liquid containing dissolved gas under pressure

So they're just the same, really :o)

@#11

One needs not add Mentos to magma...

#8, mike don,
yes, they're back. Maybe a they just had a day of :-D

We support you Erik, in this matter :) you have made a great blog, and I think its a very informative and well written site. thank you

but Mentos in Magma ,Kultsi, thats a recipe to disaster,. hehe

- thor

@all:

I am here going to put on my magical hat and read tea-leafs in my magic eight-ball coffee-mug.

After taking a look at the Food Frontiers blog I have deduced a couple of things.

Is it just me or is this an abandoned ship allready? One posting in 48 hours? Knowing how well prepared companies are before launching something like this there was probably at least 50 pre-written texts to be published one at a time daily. But still there is just the first "hello"-text being published.

It really don't take a Nostradamus to prophesize about what has happened. Somebody at Pepsico rang the alarm pretty much emediatly, saying that it all had back-fired.
About now I would pretty much bet that it is up at the board agenda and that they will go "What? Have we crapped again?"
Believe me in that company boards are used to crapping, we crap a lot. It is in the nature of human beings to think that everybody else will think like we do. One of the first things I learned when I "switched sides" was that I was majestically good at crapping out loud in my belief that everybody would understand me.
I have a friend who sits as the president of a rather unfamous board who made the motherload of crappings by using a rather normal swedish phrase, but translated into english it became rather horrible. Instead of stating that he cares about "average-joe" and his livelihood he said the famous "little-people"... And that is how we on a daily basis become the "Sir Craps-a-Lots" that everybody loves to hate.

But one thing boards are good at are tactical with-drawals. And believe me that is going to happen here, Scienceblogs owners wont know what hit them when they see the spead with which Pepsico with-draws from here. They will probably even leave the cash they payed just for good measure.

For good measure they will probably have Sir Bly Craps-a-Lots head for his rather stupid letter. Boards in large companies like to make someone into a scape-goat and with that letter Bly crapped himself into that spot. And for those who think that Bly is safe think again. Bly small-fish, Pepsico big shark. They will probably also fire some executive VP just for good measure.

So about on monday it will be back to normal with a "Bly-free" scienceblogs, without a Pepsico driven blog, and no other company will ever try the same again. Pepsico will soon do something else with a large bag of money, what only future can tell, but the chance of it being a new bag of crap is good.

This comment was crapped out and presented by a representative of the combined ill will of the energy and military conglomerates.

FOOD FRONTIERS REMOVED:

As I wrote my last missive Scienceblogs removed the Food Frontiers page, probably on direct order from Pepsico. I am now waiting for Bly to resign.

http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2010/07/food_frontiers.php

I totally see your perspective here. A great point to bring up. You offer your thoughts as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith.

someone told me that McDonalds sold hotdogs so i went and ordered a McWeiner and they laughed

Normally the thought of Monkeys with computers pops in my head when I normally browse the net as they call it, but this is actually one of the few glass half full constructed pages I've seen in a bit. Not only is it an Interesting read, but it's also built nicely and visually appealing. If by any chance you need assistance operating this blog or any other projects you have going on shoot me a email or a reply.

When your content's highly rich it's time to go let the world see it. "Build it and they will come" was never a great maxim for the internet. Instead you need to get this content out and about and into people's faces. But how? By releasing your press releases via online news hubs; creating social media profiles on which you can post media, presentations, articles and all your other things; and convincing other bloggers and/or media outlets to feature it on their sites. All of this will extend the reach of your ideas and messages.

Your blog is quite good to me! Good job and keep it up. - In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker. Woody Allen Born 1935

What you said seems sensible. But, think about this, what if you added a little more? I am talking about, I do not want to teach ways to run your website, but if you actually added more stuff that can easily get people's focus? Just like a online video or maybe a photo or 2 to obtain viewers excited regarding what you are talking about.

da*n the article have triggered quite a discussion, not sure what side i am going to take yet.