/r/science

/r/science is an Internet forum on Reddit where the community of participants discuss science topics.[1] A popular feature of the forum is "Ask me Anything" (AMA) public discussions.[1] As of 2014, /r/science attracted 30,000-100,000 visitors per day, making it the largest community-managed science forum and an attractive place to host discussions.[1]

History

Nathan Allen speaks about /r/science to the American Chemical Society

Nathan Allen

Nathan Allen is an American chemist. While working as a chemist at Dow Chemical Company, Allen began to imagine that scientists could use Reddit's "ask me anything" (AMA) interview format to create discussions between scientists and the public.[1] Allen became a forum moderator there and has since been prominent in guiding the culture of the community there and as a spokesperson for the forum.[1]

Establishment of AMA series

As of 2014, /r/science attracted 30,000–100,000 visitors per day, making it the largest community-managed science forum and an attractive place to host discussions.[1] In January 2014 Allen began the /r/science AMA series with the goal of raising the visibility of scientists who are producing groundbreaking work in their fields but who are not well known outside of their fields.[1][2] Outgoing links posted in the forum must go to peer-reviewed science articles published within the last six months.[3]

The discussion series was instantly a success, and established the world's largest two-way discussion between scientists and the public.[1] Allen does most of the organization for the talks, including soliciting scientists to participate and training them to communicate in reddit's discussion format.[1]

Featured content

/r/science has an ongoing content partnership with PLOS.[4] As an academic journal, PLOS invites authors who are publishing scientific papers to publicly present their work in /r/science and to participate in community "ask me anything" discussions in the forum at scheduled times.[4]

Editorial decisions

Editorial decisions in /r/science are made by the moderators who themselves follow rules that they present for the forum.[3] If new rules are introduced then those are discussed with the community of readers.[3] Rules for /r/science include guidance that contributors keep discussion on-topic and thoughtful.[3]

Allen led the decision to ban discussion in /r/science which gives credibility to climate change denial as a scientific concept.[5] Commentators from National Geographic,[6] The New American,[7] ThinkProgress,[8] and other media outlets discussed this editorial decision.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Owens, Simon (7 October 2014). "The World's Largest 2-Way Dialogue between Scientists and the Public". Scientific American. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Allen, Nathan (21 January 2014). "Announcing the /r/science AMA Series". Reddit.com. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Owens, Simons (14 April 2015). "Should Reddit's powerful mods be reined in?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 Costello, Victoria (15 April 2015). "Ask our authors anything: new PLOS 'AMA' series debuts on redditscience". PLOS. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Allen, Nathan (16 December 2013). "Reddit's science forum banned climate deniers. Why don't all newspapers do the same?". Grist. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Lee, Jane J. (20 December 2013). "Reddit Science's Ban on Climate Change Denial Posts Rears Its Head Again". National Geographic. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Jasper, William F. (24 December 2013). "Reddit Joins LA Times in Banning Skeptics from Climate "Debate"". The New American. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Atkin, Emily (17 December 2013). "Why Reddit's Science Forum Banned Climate Deniers". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 6 May 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.