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#SBFail

The title is the Twitter hashtag for the ongoing implosion at Scienceblogs. Now several more have left the building, PZ is on strike (and so Twittering up a storm), others are thinking about it, and people are making snide satires at rival networks.

My friend Mike Dunford has left, which is sad, and so has Grrl, but so has Zuska, which is less so. John Lynch does a good retrospect on this. Carl Zimmer is maintaining a list of motile rodents…

Later: Ex-Scibling Dave Munger makes sensible points.

55 Comments

  1. I think it’s interesting that so many of the early community has seen this most recent debacle as a reason to move on. It’s also interesting to see who is choosing to stay – some surprise me, some less so.

    • Mike Dunford Mike Dunford

      I think it’s (still) a bit early to say that all the people who have not yet left have definitely chosen to stay.

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      Yes. I find it interesting that Janet is still there. Did you see that Isis has a parallel site at WordPress?

  2. Ease up Dunnie, these two obviously still have entire shedfuls of axes to grind. It helps them grieve and nurse their hurt feelings and cracks the rest of us up so no harm no foul, eh?

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      Ah yes, I remember you. One of the main reasons I left Sb.

    • Mike Dunford Mike Dunford

      Good people who I consider good friends were on both sides of the 2009 debacle. I’d really rather not rehash it here.

      • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

        That’s why I’m here and not there, actually.

      • ERV ERV

        There was no question about who the ‘good people’ were in ‘the 2009 debacle’. Yet ‘integrity’ is why people are now leaving.

        The reasons afarensis quit a year ago were ignored by ‘The Community’, and yet now its a main DEMAND.

        I respect no one who is quitting now, but didnt last year. Or is making a stink now, but didnt last year.

        I am what I am, but Im not a hypocrite or a poseur.

        • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

          I think that you have always shown that you have integrity, and I deeply appreciate your standing up to the schoolyard bullies. So far as I am concerned, whether you go or stay, you have earned my respect.

      • What John said. It’s only your punctuation that needs work 🙂

  3. Ben Breuer Ben Breuer

    I’m wondering: Could the ex-SMG-sciencebloggers and the active SMG-sciencebloggers (iff Sb stays active) put together a blogging carnival?

    I liked the idea of vastly different posts on one site, perhaps a “Sbling Zombie Carnival” would heal some of the pain.

    Depends of course on someone to keep this running, perhaps Bora.

    • Bob O'H Bob O'H

      Grrl and I were setting up a twitter account for ex-Sbers. Ex-Sbers should email Grrl for more information.

      Not being an ex-Sber, I won’t be involved. But we hatched the plan after a couple of glasses of wine, and I was only the coordinated enough to type the Captcha words in correctly.

      • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

        I gather the wine is ongoing?

  4. Zuska Zuska

    Hahahahahahahahaha!

    • Wes Wes

      That is quite possibly the most substantive, well reasoned and calm-minded thing I have ever read from Zuska.

      Anyways, I’m sad to see SciBlogs turn into the internet science blogs version of the Big 12. I loved both. I even loved to hate the parts that I hated, like Texas Tech/Zuska and Baylor/Drugmonkey. Oh, and also Nisbet/The mixture of puke and soft stool some drunk left in the john at the football game. Love to hate that. Part of the sports experience, it is.

      • That is quite possibly the most substantive, well reasoned and calm-minded thing I have ever read from Zuska.

        Indeed. It’s up there with some of her expectorations on the Sb back-channel 🙂

        Drugmonkey is not up with Baylor. He’s more of a Division III team.

  5. EMJ EMJ

    Zuska and JW are two of my favorites. Consider me a bridge if you ever want a Dr. Phil reconciliation (ask Cromacrox). DrugMonkey’s not so bad. We all enjoy being a hard ass from time to time. Blogs bring that out in us.

    A good thing about tribal boundaries breaking down is that allegiances that once seemed so important are now in flux. I just heard DM praise Greg Laden. I expect the apocalypse is nigh.

  6. Susan Silberstein Susan Silberstein

    And Zuska even snarky linked back here, which is supposed to bring you bad mojo or what?

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      There is a definite ebbing of my mojo, yes.

  7. EMJ EMJ

    My dear cromercrox, the times we’ve had: http://j.mp/abo1NU (and below). I believe that Sb and NN are natural allies. I’d like to see a combined network that includes both parties from across the pond. After all, we’re only separated by a common language (though, I’m not sure what the feeling is for those barbarous Aussies).

  8. cromercrox cromercrox

    Well, you can ask me, but I won’t have a clue what you’re on about.

  9. Boy, am I glad I kept to my own network with a readership of three! Absolutely no politics to deal with. No intra- and inter-house spats. It’s great.

    Shut up and write, people!

  10. cromercrox cromercrox

    A combined network of Sb and NN? I never thought I’s want to quote Zuska, but …

    Hahahahahahahahaha!

    • EMJ EMJ

      You see? Reconciliation is already underway. 🙂

  11. What makes me laugh is that after all this time you’re still carefully nursing your grudge and tending to your wounded feelings like a third-grader. That’s philosophy in action, baby! Elevates the mind and all that.

    Actually, I feel sorry for you. What a lot of wasted energy you must spend on hate and anger. Good luck with that.

    • Bob O'H Bob O'H

      “What a lot of wasted energy you must spend on hate and anger.”

      Ouch, there goes my irony meter.

      • Hate is wasted energy. Anger properly focused at institutional sources of oppression can be useful and help people realize that they are not the source of the misery that oppressors create in their lives. Anger tended over time because of petty grudges over hurt feelings from personal interactions is energy-sapping. Especially anger tended over time from hurt feelings from interactions with people on the internet you don’t even know. I mean, it cracked me up when someone sent me the link to this post. I didn’t even remember this dude existed, but apparently he’s been spending months feeling cranky about my existence, and he doesn’t even know me.

      • ERV ERV

        I was actually having a fun discussion on this topic last night.

        Some people lead such pathetic, worthless, boring lives, that they need to construct An Enemy so they dont blow their brains out due to the nihilistic nature of their existence. You see, if someone is ‘out to get you’, if someone is ‘against you’, you must be important enough for someone to WANT you to fail.

        For some people, The Enemy is The Government. For some people its The Devil. For some people its 50% of the worlds population.

        This is usually coupled with the delusions that these people are WARRIORS! Protecting children from BIG PHARMA! Saving souls from SATAN! Or defending poor pathetic woomyn from OLD WHITE D00DS!

        You see why this alternate reality, where Zuska, for example, isnt a random old woman who could be hit by a bus tomorrow with relatively little impact on the universe, but is actually this ANGRY WOOMYN WARRIOR, would be attractive to her.

        But I think I live a happier life accepting that very few people, and certainly few people of any political or social power, give a crap about whether I succeed or fail in life. Thus my success or failure lies in my hands, not others. *shrug* Internal vs external locus of control thing. Look it up on Wikipedia 🙂

  12. Cromercrox Cromercrox

    Did someone just say something? I was vaguely conscious of a high-pitched whine in my left ear.

  13. Bob O'H Bob O'H

    Sorry, Henry. I’ll speak lower next time.

  14. Bob O'H Bob O'H

    .

    Like this.

  15. cromercrox cromercrox

    Thanks Bob, much better. For a moment I thought it was a parrot.

    • afarensis, FCD afarensis, FCD

      Nope, no parrot, rather it is someone wasting energy on someone she doesn’t care about based on a trivial and insignificant mention on a blog post.

      • You do realize she’s going to call you a “sexist pig” (or whatever that phrase she and her muppet chorus use) for that link, now don’t you?

        • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

          The approved term is “d00d”.

  16. Cromercrox Cromercrox

    I thought it was ‘asshat’ ?

    • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

      That works too.

  17. afarensis, FCD afarensis, FCD

    I really shouldn’t have, it is so unlike me, but I couldn’t resist. That was the most idiotic thing I have read in quite awhile. Also, it wouldn’t be the first time this earned me that epitaph.

    • Susan Silberstein Susan Silberstein

      Medicine Man! One of my favorite movies. Great theme music. The woman in the photo above your review looks sick. What’s wrong with her?

  18. Kea Kea

    Gee, this guy certainly looks like he needs to evolve.

  19. Tyler DiPietro Tyler DiPietro

    “Anger properly focused at institutional sources of oppression can be useful and help people realize that they are not the source of the misery that oppressors create in their lives.”

    Shorter Zuskaids: “Men are responsible for my failures.”

    • What failures would that be? I’ve had an immensely satisfying life. Plus, my life is full of amusement provided by spectacles like this one, where a buncha d00ds just can’t seem to get over their obsession with one irrelevant feminist blogger (remember! nobody reads her blog!), and one sad female blogger obsessed with her body image cackles inanely, pretending to herself she’ll never grow old and all the boys will always treat her as their favorite girl. It’s better than tee-vee! Keep it up! I’ve just made a fresh batch of popcorn!

      • Susan Silberstein Susan Silberstein

        While it is certainly true that most of the readers/writers here are men, not all are and the mere fact of gender does not automatically equal anti-feminism. This is not an unfriendly place for women; JW would not allow it to be so. I would certainly not be here if that were the case.

      • Tyler DiPietro Tyler DiPietro

        Easily trolled woman is easily trolled.

      • John S. Wilkins John S. Wilkins

        How amusing that a feminist would need to denigrate a woman like that. Abbie has never behaved in any way that would justify such vitriolic denigration (apart from being critical of Zuska). If a d00d had said that, Zuska would have puked on her shoes.

        This is also skirting the edge of the comment policy.

      • ERV ERV

        I actually am very concerned about body image.

        I have hypochondria (thankfully I became aware of it early, and got help before it took over my life) (insert irony of HIV/AIDS and cancer researcher with hypochondria here, its okay, I lol over it too), which is a form of OCD grouped with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and anorexia.

        I am admittedly reflexively protective of these groups of people because of this connection. Considering the millions of women and girls who suffer from body image problems and disordered eating (if not full blown BDD and anorexia/bulimia), you would think this would be a natural feminist issue, but apparently its not.

        The Official Position appears to be to attack women who encourage a healthy relationship with food (which totally includes consuming ‘bad food’), healthy fitness goals, and being confident in your own body.

        *shrug* Dont ask me. Im not w00myn enough to get it either.

      • Tyler DiPietro Tyler DiPietro

        Pwned.

      • Bob O'H Bob O'H

        *sigh* I’ll fetch the mop.

      • Wes Wes

        and one sad female blogger obsessed with her body image cackles inanely, pretending to herself she’ll never grow old and all the boys will always treat her as their favorite girl.

        What a flagrantly sexist thing to say. You’re no feminist.

      • ERV ERV

        What a flagrantly sexist thing to say.
        And heteronormative.

  20. Wes Wes

    I decided to preempt Zuska and puke on my own shoes. Boy, do I regret that Taco Bell now…

  21. cromercrox cromercrox

    Wes, do something useful and puke on Dr Isis’s shoes instead.

  22. John C. Welch John C. Welch

    It’s so funny when feminists play “no true scotsman” to justify stupid.

  23. matty matty

    I wondered at the time about the mysterious ‘incident in the back room’ that prompted John to leave sb. Now seeing what I assume is a small taste above I’m glad not to know. Was there ever a disagreement *about* anything or was it all insult trading?

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