Mike the Mad Biologist

Serious Programming Note: We’ll Probably Be Moving

Posted by Mike on August 21, 2011
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As some of you might have heard, National Geographic has decided that pseudonymous writers (other than Mark Twain) aren’t going to be part of their online presence. I usually don’t discuss ScienceBlogs inside baseball stuff, but I’m not getting any response from them (I’ve received emails telling me how much they want to talk to me, followed by no response). The odds are really, really good I won’t be here for much longer, but for now, I’ll still be posting here, if for no other reason than my contract requires a certain number of posts per week.

Once that’s sorted out, unless I can be convinced to expose myself (so to speak), I’ll be moving (already set up a site ‘n everything!).

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Comments

  1. #1 patrick
    August 21, 2011

    We’ll follow wherever you go. Couldn’t care less about blog collectives. It’s the individual contributors that matter.

  2. #2 eNeMeE
    August 21, 2011

    What he said

  3. #3 Me
    August 21, 2011

    I get here by via your links on twitter, I don’t much care where your blog lives.

  4. #4 george.w
    August 21, 2011

    We’re just a minor RSS feed update from tracking your new home address, wherever that winds up being. And of course Twitter.

    You listening, SB? The room is about to start echoing…

  5. #5 John Savage
    August 21, 2011

    this is a case where 1 and 2 make 5. love this blog, read it daily, frequently post portions of it to my Facebook wall. I don’t care where it lives, just that it lives.

  6. #6 Greg Laden
    August 21, 2011

    I hope you stay, one way or another.

    Maybe you could tell them that you were born on the day some famous comet passed by the earth, and plan to go out with it too.

  7. #7 Mike the Mad Biologist
    August 21, 2011

    Thank you all for the kind words. If I’m contacted by the powers that be, I’ll know more.

  8. #8 cc
    August 21, 2011

    I’m following you too. Keep it coming, Mike.

  9. #9 Martin
    August 22, 2011

    Aaaaagh! Too many bookmarks! First Afarenis and John Wilkins, then Ed and PZ, and now you. Who’s next? Orac? Why not join Ed, PZ, Cuttlefish et al. on FtB, and blog anonymously to your hearts content?

  10. #10 coeruleus
    August 22, 2011

    Yup, you definitely won’t lose this regular reader.

  11. #11 Carl Weetabix
    August 22, 2011

    Will happily update my RSS in that case.

    It is hardly a secret that part of the employment process is to Google applicants and read through their Facebook accounts etc. (I’ve anecdotally heard some require you to give access). Given that there’s a quite legitimate reason to want anonymity. Unless you’re independently wealthy are absolutely sure about your employment future, there is no other sane course of action. One does not want to be silently rejected simple because (s)he called Obama, Perry, whoever, a weasel.

    In the mean time, keep up the good work.

  12. #12 Nomen Nescio
    August 22, 2011

    i don’t read you for your RL name, i read you for the thought-provoking link farms. i’ll keep reading them wherever your RSS feed may move to.

    hint for firefox users: i use the “sage” plug-in. it’s an RSS feed tracker and reader that works in a sidebar, sort of like the history panel. it may not be the best RSS reader out there, but it’s darn handy and works well enough.

  13. #13 Virgil Samms
    August 22, 2011

    If NG is so concerned with authenticity, maybe they should investigate why photographers for their magazine are now using artificial techniques such as color saturation to tweak their photos.

  14. #14 Isis the Scientist
    August 22, 2011

    Come on over to the dark side. It’s lovely over here.

  15. #15 Kaleberg
    August 22, 2011

    Just give us your new URL. We’re with you. As far as we are concerned, you are Mike.

    BTW – Did we ever say thanks for running such a great blog?

  16. #16 Physicalist
    August 23, 2011

    It’ll be their loss. Just give us the new address, and we’ll be there.

    (I find it interesting that there seems to be big anti-pseudonym push at the moment, with G+, NG, and perhaps others. It does not make me happy.)

  17. #17 MovableBookLady
    August 26, 2011

    This is very upsetting, this whole “real name” business. I’m a layperson interested in all sorts of science topics, so I like this collection of blogs. I’m not always interested in your post of the day but there’s always something I’m interested in posted by someone else. If all the scientists scatter to their own domains, I won’t follow and I’ll be poorer intellectually. Sniff.