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You all know about the dinosaur that acts like a vacuum cleaner, or a lawn mower, or whatever. This is a new find reported in PLoS. There are at least two important scienceblogs.com connections here, and since neither is to me, I feel comfortable talking (ranting) about this.
The first connection is that PLoS is an OpenAccess publication, and there is a lot of support and chatter and specific connections there. The second is that many of us are not only into but somewhat knowledgeable about dinosaurs and evolution and stuff.
So, why has the following disgraceful situation come about?
If you check on SlashDot.com, the number one story about the new vacuum cleaner dinosaur is from USA Today. Why isn't it a Science Blog, either one of ours "Scienceblog.com" or some other science blog out there?
If you look at Digg for this story, do you know who has the number one number of diggs? Yahoo!
OMG, people, do you not have index fingers?
Services like Digg and Slashdot provide a lot of people with their news using a sort of "popular" or "democratic" process. Admirable. But we must also recognize that "popular" and "democratic" can lead to insipid and mediocre.
Why don't you have a look at these posts on this new find. At least look at one or two of them. If you dig it, Digg it. If you wish others might stumble on one of these posts rather than stumbling on USA Today or Yahoo, then Stumble! it. Or send it to slashdot.com if you you'd like to slash into the insipid and mediocre news market.
Extreme Dinosaur: Nigersaurus, the Mesozoic Cow!
Nigersaurus taqueti!
Lightweight dinosaur, heavyweight publishing event
Nigersaurus, a Cretaceous hedge-trimmer
The world's most amazing sauropod
Open Access dinosaurs and way to go Paul Sereno
Every Scienceblog.com post has a set of thingies at the bottom of the post where you can submit the post to one of these services. Other science bloogers not on this network often have a similar set of icons.
Comments
Heh. I think about this a lot. I find that many times, even when I am the first article on a topic out of the gate, other sources get more Diggs than mine. This is the way of things, but it can be frustrating when I see articles of, um, lesser quality getting more attention. Short of exhorting my readers to Digg my articles, I don't see what to do about it, except write as best I can and understand that people *will* notice.
Posted by: Phil Plait | November 17, 2007 2:04 PM
Try digging this one that I put up on there.
Posted by: Coturnix | November 17, 2007 9:25 PM
The Vacuum Cleaner could soon be as extinct as the Dinosaur. It will be replaced by the Air Recycling Cleaner. If you dont believe me take a look at the web page www.edginton.info/arc
Posted by: Ben | November 19, 2007 8:51 PM
Coturnix: You have six digs so far (one of them mine)
Come on, folks, let's get this man dug!!!
Posted by: Greg Laden | November 19, 2007 9:51 PM