I’m not much of a joiner. I can be, but more and more, I’ve found that I do just fine as a lone wolf. Knowing, however, the value in community and the ability to play well with others, is the difference between just being comfortable on your own and being a stone cold loner.
That said, when I noticed that Scientific American was literally calling for people to join its blogging community, I thought I’d take them up on it. After all, it afforded me the ability to have a voice in a community of other science and technology minded individuals and to also see what others were up to. The status of it being located at the official Scientific Community site also added more than a little class to the whole affair. So I signed up.
I began to post papers concerning research that I was doing, the first my critical analysis of the duration dilation research of David M. Eagleman of Baylor College. I could tell that I was beginning to get a good number of readers, especially after I began posting comments to other discussions concerning articles. I began to feel a momentum building as I engaged in exchanging ideas with others, and I read others contributions to what I felt were important discussions on topics that ranged from what was on their mind, to items that were in the news.
Then it came. The announcement that to improve the online community at Scientific American they were going to drop the blogging community and make it easier to comment on the articles. What they were going to make easier posting comments to their articles by keeping another window from popping open to ccomment in. I thought it then, and I’ll say it now – anyone who couldn’t deal with posting in the new window has no business posting on a science and technology site.
In any case, their community – our community, was going to be eliminated. That’s right. The one that they begged everyone to join. The one that we all had invested so much time and effort in contributing to. Gone.
So that’s why I’m here. No one asked me to join and like any lone wolf worth half his salt, I sniffed this little territory out on my own. All of my articles from the old Scientific American site will end up here and I’ll continue to post work on my research and my commentary on science and tech news that I feel motivated to.
Don’t be surprised if a few more stragglers arrive from the old Scientific American community. If they do, you’ll know why.
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