My Answer to the Charge
One of the most interesting aspects of being a blogger is the feedback I receive. Take for example my previous post “Are Hub Science Blogs are Unfair”. The feedback of course, showed many different opinions. Some commenters felt that the autism science bloggers, myself included, may be quick to jump on the logical errors or bad science of others, but showed a reluctance to do so for theories that we support. And others thought that our pattern of analysis was reasonable, within the confines of our interests.
Probably the most interesting question that emerged from the comments concerned if what the authors write about should be determined in part or whole by the readership’s interest. I think there are some good reasons to do so, the most obvious reason is, that if you don’t produce posts interesting or relevant to your readership, then they won’t visit and your ideas won’t be promulgated.
However, there are also some reasons not to. The first and foremost, would be that it may not mesh with the purpose of the blog. A second is reason would be that the desired theme has little of worth that can be said about it at the moment.
I think that one of the things I learned when considering the above, is that there is a time and place for writing a requested article. One of the times I have found it appropriate to do so, was when the readers request closely matched my own interest. When the issue involved a strong accusation against a theory I advocate for. And also when answering a challenge.
I have traditionally stayed shy of issues like education and advocating for what I think evidence suggests works. Yet, I find some of commenters asking for just that. My reasons for avoiding these issues include the fact that to address these points is beyond the scope of this blog.
Other issues include the fact that advice is always necessarily very individual, and should be in my view confidential, neither of which is realistic on the internet. I would prefer that readers deal with their local education teams or visit specific advocacy sites to learn what to do.
I think one of the effects of this has been to somewhat isolate this blog, into a more academic niche. This is a place were one could go to dig into meaty issue of autism science and statistics. This also means that my blog may not be right for new parents or those first learning about autism.
I think however, since there is interest in education, that there may be room for an occasional discussion of some educational technique or issue. To this end I am creating a series to be run every Saturday through November. It will begin tomorrow.
Probably the most interesting question that emerged from the comments concerned if what the authors write about should be determined in part or whole by the readership’s interest. I think there are some good reasons to do so, the most obvious reason is, that if you don’t produce posts interesting or relevant to your readership, then they won’t visit and your ideas won’t be promulgated.
However, there are also some reasons not to. The first and foremost, would be that it may not mesh with the purpose of the blog. A second is reason would be that the desired theme has little of worth that can be said about it at the moment.
I think that one of the things I learned when considering the above, is that there is a time and place for writing a requested article. One of the times I have found it appropriate to do so, was when the readers request closely matched my own interest. When the issue involved a strong accusation against a theory I advocate for. And also when answering a challenge.
I have traditionally stayed shy of issues like education and advocating for what I think evidence suggests works. Yet, I find some of commenters asking for just that. My reasons for avoiding these issues include the fact that to address these points is beyond the scope of this blog.
Other issues include the fact that advice is always necessarily very individual, and should be in my view confidential, neither of which is realistic on the internet. I would prefer that readers deal with their local education teams or visit specific advocacy sites to learn what to do.
I think one of the effects of this has been to somewhat isolate this blog, into a more academic niche. This is a place were one could go to dig into meaty issue of autism science and statistics. This also means that my blog may not be right for new parents or those first learning about autism.
I think however, since there is interest in education, that there may be room for an occasional discussion of some educational technique or issue. To this end I am creating a series to be run every Saturday through November. It will begin tomorrow.
posted by Interverbal at 10:35 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you Jonathon, for opening this line of dialogue with your readers in such a polite and reasonable fashion.
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