Sunday, October 25, 2009

Most Posting

Dr. No, has thrown down a gauntlet suggested a meme that got me thinking. Dr. No has requested the information in bold below, and since I should be writing and will take any excuse to procrastinate, I've got my answers.

Most Liked Post? (by you)
This one took me the longest to figure out, but I settled on starting the Sciblogs NFL pool, because that's been a lot of fun. That narrowly edged one of my new favorite products and the why are you reading meme, because that was interesting to get feedback from a number of people who had not previously commented.

Most Liked Post? (based on readers comments or hits)
I think my post on NSF Boarder Impacts, based on the hits. If you google that phrase, it actually shows up second, behind NSF itself, which I find hard to believe.

Most Memorable Post?
That would have to be after realizing that Drug Monkey had blog rolled me and all of a sudden my readership increased by an order of magnitude, maybe more. I never really expected many readers, but all of a sudden they were there.

Most Indicative of Your Blog Identity Post?
Maybe my early post on sales reps. I was still kinda figuring the blog out and that post helped me hit my stride.

Most Humorous Post?
Hmmm, I guess poop is always funny. This post actually gets a lot of hits from people using the search term "long hair lab hazard", which always makes me laugh when I imagine their reaction to clicking the link.
Nudity is also funny and people seemed to delight in my inability to not blurt out what I'm thinking in my locker room post.

Most Regrettable Post?
I got rid of most of the posts in which I talked about my department directly. I put a bit too much faith in the thin veil of pseudanonymity and although I didn't get burned by it, I left the door wide open.

Most Misunderstood Post?
Probably my post in reaction to anonymous commenter letting me know they had figured out who I was. It was a little too knee-jerk and not thought through well enough. It came across as angry when I actually was just more upset that the commenter hadn't gone about things differently. It wasn't meant to be an attack, although it came across that way. The commenter and I chatted by email and worked everything out. A mistake by both of us, but I handled it poorly. I guess this could go in the category above as well.

Most Satisfying to Write Post?
I'm not sure satisfying is the right word, but venting about my frustrations with a recent round of grant reviews at least gave me a venue in which to freak out without terrifying my students or colleagues. It's also the post where I was left feeling the most naked, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Most Likely To Never Be Posted Post?
I never leave posts on the shelf. If I think it's worth going up I send it, for better or for worse. However, you will never see criticism of my students here.

Most Important Post?
Do I have "important"posts. Probably not, but the most important to me was probably my post of my daughter's anxiety over moving because it resulted in some really helpful advice over email.

Most *Adjective of Your Choice* (I choose "Euro-angry") Post?
My post on the ridiculous evolution video put together by a European group based in Germany received an irate response from one of it's creators that required a series of back-and-forth long emails to sort out. We never really agreed that it was effective and my complaints about diversity and understandability were not really heard, but I haven't really received hate mail like that for anything else I've posted.

11 comments:

  1. That was fascinating, thanks for biting. There is something reassuring/intriguing about sharing these little blogging insights.

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  2. keep going dude, hope your daughter is settling in just fine. jc

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  3. Would "NSF Boarder Impacts" be about the probable effect of your research on the bed-and-breakfast industry?

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  4. You never complain about students in your posts, but will comlain about your department and then pull them down. Sounds like mirror oposite of me.

    You state: You will never see criticism of my students here. Why do you draw that line??

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  5. Dr. No - It is interesting to see how people view their own blog, thanks for the idea.

    JC - She's doing much better now. She'll actually ride in the car for a while and read by herself, which has been nice. Elmo is a constant companion.

    Schlupp - Not so much. NSF asks you to demonstrate that you will have a larger educational effect than simply doing the research and presenting at meetings / publishing.

    PUI Prof - The difference is that I don't supervise or have an authority position over faculty in my department or the university administration. If I complain about them and they get pissed, the consequences come to me. OTOH, if I bitch about my students and they read it, it's a betrayal of my mentoring. If I have a problem with what they are doing I'll talk to them directly, not complain about it on the internet.

    I might ask for advice in mentoring from time to time, but not as a way to undermine my students.

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  6. Sorry, to clarify I was specifically referring to trainees in the lab with the above distinction. I have also only once posting anything that I intended to take down, so I don't make a habit of that either. In reality, if I don't feel like I can leave something up I shouldn't be posting it in the first place.

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  7. Great meme - like you mentioned, it's interesting to see how one views their own blog.

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  8. Thanks, PLS. I see the wisdom of your ways.

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  9. Very interesting, PLS. I enjoyed reading this!

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  10. Sorry Schlupp, I missed your play on my crappy spelling and wasn't sure what you meant until it was pointed out to me. I think we would have to discuss the impact on hostels.

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  11. Well, it was obnoxious of me to start with, but the point is that I am a crappy speller, and even crappier typist, myself, so I sometimes find it hard to resits. "resist", that is

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