Public service announcement: guidelines for the community, commenting, debate and discussion
I’ve been working on this for some time, but now is the best time to make explicit guide lines for behaviour.
These guidelines will be permanently housed under About > Community and discussion guidelines
Watching the Deniers has grown in both readership and content over the past three years. And while WtD started as a “pet” project it has gained a (moderate) audience.
With that increased profile comes responsibilities for both myself and readers/posters of comments.
It would be remiss of me not provide guidelines of behaviour: not merely for myself, but to ensure all readers and community members of WtD are protected.
This includes “alarmists”, “sceptics” and “luke warmists” alike.
I will be paying strict attention to all comments from this point forward. If the blog gets to the point were I cannot handle the volume, I will be seeking (trusted) volunteer moderators.
I like homophonic comments. I’m sure you didn’t mean for them to incur the wrath of disciplinary action…
“This includes “alarmists”, “sceptics” and “luke warmists” alike.”
I don’t see the word “denier” there. Is this a shift toward political correctness, or an unintentional slip up?
And deniers.
The title of your blog is a ‘little’ atagonistic, perhaps!
‘Deniers’
to quote a UK climate scientist Dr Tamsin Edwards:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/geography/people/tamsin-l-edwards
http://highheelsinthelab.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/real-deal-tamsin-edwards-climate_17.html
“Primarily I am a physicist: one that takes science, impartiality and transparency extremely seriously. [...]
“Talking to Bish [Andrew Montford] and Barry [Woods], and on occasion others, is helping me to understand the concerns of the sceptic community (or non-alarmist, or other related names/groups). I’m still learning…
“I do apologise for my use of the word denier in the past. When I wrote that interview reply I put quotes around it, thinking that was sufficient to show it was other people’s term. But since talking to Barry et al. I’ve stopped using it completely.”
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/9/11/whats-all-this-then.html?currentPage=3#comments
I have a strong feeling that WTD won’t ever consider taking marching orders from Bishop Hill, even under the guise of coming from Tamsin. (Montford and his clan show a lot of cheek given the way they have and continue to treat science and scientists.)
(In any case, ‘Watching Climate Science Rejectionists and Disinformation Peddlers’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.)
Sou – you are very correct re marching orders
@ Barry
1) Won’t be chaning the name of the blog, it’s my brand (lulz)
2) denying a scientific consensus is just that, denial
3) I don’t modify my views for concern trolls
4) you’re very welcome to comment, discuss and debate just see the above guidelines
I changed the name of my blog – it used to be realclimategate (shelved it)
It was a very good ‘sceptic’ (lukewarmer actually) ‘brand’ !
Now post at unsettledclimate.org.
As the name of my blog, was coming a distraction, for ‘some’ of the people I wished to talk to, when they 1 or 2 said it was offensive to them, or others off-putting, I stopped twittering as @realclim8gate and didn’t blog for 6 months, and then finally moved to WordPress.com
It just depends what you want to achieve.
My reasoning for changing, in detail at the end of this post. You might find the published emails, and artcile interesting as well. (Peter Gleick and me, had a chat)
http://unsettledclimate.org/2012/02/02/clarifications-and-how-better-to-communicate-science/
If you wish to consider me as a ‘concern troll’ fair enough.
I was also concerned enough to write to Marc Morano, and Heartland to see if they would one the rheoric down, because I was concerned for Pete Gleick’s personal well being. I’mnot on his Xmas card list as you can see, in the URL
(Dr Katie Hayhoe was part to those emails I belive as well, Tamsin forwarded them to her) I was also concerned eough to try to get Morano to stop publishing email addresses, and have interviewed Leo Hickman (Guardian) about it (and that takes trust and goodwill)
‘Watching the Denier’ will not bring you much goodwill, and is just polarising which will ultimately achieve nothing.
Nah. Not changing it to “Watching the Luke Warmists”.
I’m not concerned about the feelings of the Marc Morano’s etc. of the world.
Barry, I would be interested if you and others read this as scepticism or denial,
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/ipcc-no-evidence-after-more-than-20.html
.
Very few, if any comments, someone who is angry, need toning down, a lot… right out there on the fringe. utterly irrelevant. unable, like many of the far opposite fringe of the debate to communicate, with any but a small group of people,
I would probably get as many rude comments back (possibly more) than you, at that blog.
“What We Deny”
“We deny that Earth and its ecosystems are the fragile and unstable products of chance, and particularly that Earth’s climate system is vulnerable to dangerous alteration…”
“We deny that alternative, renewable fuels can…”
“We deny that carbon dioxide—essential to all plant growth—is a pollutant…”
“We deny that such policies, which amount to a regressive tax…”
Roy Spencer, Joe D’Aleo, Ross McKitrick and others of the Cornwall Alliance (2010).