Comments
Apart from spam about Viagra and where to meet beautiful Russian women and so on and one racist diatribe I have until now published every comment sent to this post. However, I think it is time to indicate a change in policy. I will publish any comment providing it does not contain negative general comments about the character of a specific individual. Thus I will allow critical comments about citation patterns or the scientific validity of specific research but not, for example, a statement that someone is a "fraud", unless convicted of fraud in court.
Hi Richard, To clarify for your readers, may I explain that you instituted your policy in response to a post I attempted to make, attacking the specific individual named in the masthead of my blog, whom I called a fraud. I think there is enough room in the blogosphere for moderation rules ranging from none to fanatical so I respect your choice. And I do appreciate your allowing links to El Naschie Watch in the comments you accept.
ReplyDeleteI did not mean "fraud" in the legal sense of charged and convicted.
Finally, if you learn of any good places to meet beautiful Russian women, be sure to let me know. ;)
Richard has also not permitted attempted comments that do not use the fr-word, but simply point out that the person in question has not held the positions claimed. That is a simple statement of fact, and easily verified. It does not make sense to post incorrect information, and then block the posting of clarifying correct information on the basis that it is too contentious.
ReplyDeleteIt also means missing what is actually a fascinating story directly related to the primary subject matter of university rankings, namely mechanisms by which those rankings can be strongly influenced by spurious input (careful use of terminology to avoid the fr-censor). It is useful to understand the extreme case of this phenomenon in order to understand the more subtle cases that appear in the data as well.
I just read your article on Blogger: University Ranking Watch - Post a Comment and want to thank you for it.
ReplyDelete