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Anna Kushnir

Wednesday, 18 Jun 2008 16:35 UTC

I am feeling subversive this afternoon. NN, while I love it dearly, occasionally doesn’t cut it for me. I need a blog roll and I need it now, especially if I am to fulfill my new role as online community management intern (my job is cool, it’s true).

So here’s what I am going to do. I am going to fake a blog roll and hope that contributions from others (this means you) fill it out and keep it going.

Please add your own favorite science blogs. I will also write a blog post devoted to the list of blogs that I am reading and hopefully, the handy RSS feeds will keep people coming back to my list every time I update it. Please do the same. In doing so, maybe we can integrate the outside science blogging world into our own.

A Blog Around the Clock
Bug Girl’s Blog – Hilarious and painfully smart.
Cocktail Party Physics – My inability to achieve anything higher than a C in college physics doesn’t stop me from enjoying this blog.
Omics! Omics!
Pondering Pikaia
Skepchick
Terra Sigillata
The Daily Transcript

Updated 18 Jun 2008 16:38 UTC

  • Replies

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    • Hi Anna,

      I think getting us more tied into the “outside” science blogging world is an excellent direction to head in. A rising tide lifts all boats, in this case the rising tide would be website traffic.

      My suggestions (from my blogroll!):

      The Intersection
      Neurologica
      RealClimate
      Science-Based Medicine

      and although not exactly a blog…

      PHD Comics!

      -Sam

    • Food job on the PhD comics! I am a fan. Occasionally, the comics are too close to home for comfort, but I am willing to overlook it. I like that you listed a few team blogs. They are interesting in that it’s almost like getting a bunch of blogs in one – different voices and different opinions within the same framework. Very cool. Thank you!

    • These are all from my current “Science Favourites” folder in my Google Reader. They’re all a bit whimsical, but I like whimsical and I can’t deal with anything with too many words right now.

      Cells in Culture
      Jacks of Science
      Carl Zimmer’s Science Tattoo Emporium
      Inky Circus

    • Blog rolls rapidly become unmanageable, in my experience. I think it’s the last thing NN needs.

      Why not use your online feed reader (Google Reader, Bloglines, whatever) to generate a public page of feeds and point people to it. Or export your feeds as OPML, import them to Technorati and point people there.

    • I’m actually with Neil on this one. I quite like the non-blogginess of NN.

      Do we really need another blogspot?

    • Well, it’s also a stupid indexing thing. Blogs with many links going to them rank higher in Technorati and in Google, and that makes people think they’re more important. I don’t think that’s accurate in this age of RSS feeds, but this is (still) the way it is.

      I don’t actually use the blogroll anymore on my other blog. I mean, it’s there, but I don’t click on things from there. But I do get regular clicks from other people’s blogrolls, and nobody ever clicks on the things that are in my feed reader unless I make them public like this. So it’s a kind of advertising too. I still get asked for reciprocal links once in a while, which I think is kind of weird (and rude) but I get the idea behind it. I recently honoured a link request for a blog that I had actually been reading for months through my feed reader. They didn’t know that I even read their blog until I blogged about something they wrote and linked back to them. You just can’t see who’s reading what, and sometimes that’s interesting.

      It’s very 2001, though.

    • But it means we’re advertising them. Which is … weird.

      A blog roll doesn’t mean that anyone links back here.

    • I believe the new blogging platform, when it’s finally ready, will allow blog rolls for those who want them.

    • What about those that prefer blog bagels? Or blog crumpet?

    • You sure have got a bit of a thing about cakes, Scott!

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