A pet peeve
Ahh, STEMsocial, an ancient curation project on Hive since before the dawn of time, in which I have been a part since, what, 2017? or something ridiculous like that. It's been chugging along as it usually does, supporting those who wish to create content about STEM subjects, while also being open to similar things such as economics, architecture, whatever.
We have been... cruising so far, consistently supporting our authors and helping a lot of regions who truly can benefit from reaping real rewards for the work they have dedicated their lives to, perhaps in countries which simply cannot pay them enough to put food on the table otherwise.
This is great and I always want to support this.
But.
It has been a long time frustration of mine that a lot of the content being written is... well, unnecessary.
Should a blog be necessary in order to get curation? Of course not. But that's when we're talking about a blog. What people write in STEMSocial is not so much a blog, but a wiki article. And I think we all agree this is simply not required nor is it desired reading. Much of the content writers are, for example, writing about a medical condition in this format:
- Hello everyone!!
- Intro: what is it?
- Causes
- Symptoms
- Treatment
- Conclusion
- References
...
We are not an academic journal, a research publication or anything but a blog, and I have to remind myself and others that our goal is simply to bring STEM subjects into the light with a more personal touch, encouraging professional academics to appeal to the masses, and bring scientific literacy forward.
This is not going to be accomplished by making your own wiki or WebMD articles, when those things already exist. However, we also don't want to pander to the clickbait BS, where only the craziest discoveries are heard on LADBible or whatever. A fine balance where all science is represented, is key.
So here is my own hypothetical blog giving a little bit of wisdom on what I think will create a much richer outcome, a more enjoyable writing experience, a better environment for academics, nerds, or just curious people to learn, share, and bring people into. Better yet, perhaps, more enthusiastic curation will soon follow.
I will be sharing this post in the comments of various posts which I think are guilty of these issues.
To be clear though, these views are mine, not an official statement from STEMsocial.
1: Get rid of the Wiki and WebMD mindset
Like I said, nobody realistically cares about a re-worded wiki page, and nobody is 'Hiving' their symptoms when they feel a lump on their neck.
Your best bet is to get rid of that mindset entirely and remember: it's a blog!
2: Figure out who you are as a writer
Like any art form, a blog should have character and personality. When I see art from Picasso, I know it's Picasso. Hell, even at a design convention I went to recently, each artist's stall had very distinct and unique style that they clearly spent years working on. I recognise the guitar tone or grizzly voice in a rock band, and an author of non-fiction is famous for their style and original concepts, too.
Blogs are no different. You need to figure out what your writing style actually is, and although STEMsocial is not an art community so we don't require Bukowski-esque poetry to explain an inflamed gallbladder, we do need to feel like we are connecting with the person doing the writing. Even news journalists writing opinion articles have their own sense of humour, sarcasm or writing style.
This is really important. People don't follow content, they follow the people behind the content.
If it was just content, people would consume it and move on to other content, creator be damned. In this sense, you are losing the battle against AI because you have nothing to offer that ChatGPT doesn't offer already, likely to a higher level of quality and greater speed.
You are a human - take advantage of that.
3: Discover all possible roads, and choose the most fascinating
Let's go back to that basic, dull formula above, but make a few changes. We will approach this hypothetical blog with the subject of tape worms, because why not, they're cute as AI is more than happy to demonstrate:
Hello everyone!!No, get rid of it! This is the Hive equivalent of Youtubers starting every video with 'Hey guys, don't forget to like and subscribe!'
- Intro: Tell a story, something fascinating, something personal, something funny, something shocking. For example, the man who infested himself with tapeworms in the name of science. Or, the world's longest tapeworm (24 metres!!!).
Again, write with style, once your figure out exactly what your style is.
Causes<-- No. Instead, this --> Delve into the tapeworm's fascinating life cycle, the most dangerous ones, the regions where people are most at risk. Different types, where in the human body, the reasons they are transmitted more in one place than another, discuss what could be done about it, or more importantly, what is being done. Discuss how they have evolved alongside humans, trace their evolutionary history. If none of this is your profession, take time to read through proper resources from Google Scholar for example, or other freely accessible locations. There's a ton.
Don't forget to check the latest in the scholar's result options:
Sometimes, you might not even know what you want to write about until you start going down a rabbit hole or two. 3 hours of digging around later and you have 100 stories to tell of the latest developments on a given topic, and you have yourself a 7-part series on tapeworms. For example, digging in this rabbit hole, I find a fascinating connection between tapeworms and vitamin B12 deficiency.
This is what the world looks like if you don't take enough vitamins
Symptoms<-- Nobody cares, unless it's particularly gruesome or fascinating. As I mentioned above with B12 deficiency, having tapeworms can cause depression, impaired cognition/memory and judgement, a dodgy walk, impaired two-point discrimination and proprioception, anemia, and more. Tapeworms can also cause epilepsy.
Treatment<-- Nobody cares. However, if there is ongoing research reporting breakthroughs in developments or huge nationwide trials, encouraging results, or just an interesting history on a cure's discovery, this is more worthwhile. In this case, don't exclusively look for research papers; journalism can be your friend. Find anything that was worth reporting on recently.Conclusion- You can if you want, but there's no real need.
You can also try looking at your topic from a new perspective. Tapeworms are bad? How about...
Tapeworms are good??
Parasite loss is probably the biggest biodiversity crisis we’re facing - Chelsea Wood.
It turns out parasites are a critical and necessary part of the global ecosystem. The more we get rid of them, the more damage we're doing to the environment. Damnnnn, tell me more!
When you hear a parasitologist talk about tapeworms, you get a whole new perspective:
...when we look at these parasites at their own scale, under the microscope, that we get to see how truly gorgeous they are...They absorb all their nutrients right across their body wall, but their heads are armed with these four curlicue tentacles that they can evert quickly right out of the head end. And each one of those tentacles is equipped with thousands of backward facing spines. So when you look at these things under the microscope, the spines catch the light and refract the light and make it look kind of rainbow. - Chelsea Wood
What an eye-opener...
- References - Yep, credit everything you find. Feel free to contact anyone in a given field via public email - I've done this a few times and almost always got a nice reply within a few days. Better yet, ask people you can find within the STEMsocial community who might happen to have expertise in the area too!
As you can see, even in this brief, lazy example of a blog about an arbitrary subject I picked out of thin air, I ended up digging deeper than planned and got totally engrossed in tapeworm trivia.
I'm more informed, more fascinated, and I am going to tell my girlfriend all about it.
But more importantly, by writing it down I can make a blog - or a whole series - that can earn me some pennies, because I put time, effort and passion into it.
Sure, my hypothetical tapeworm blog was still 'unnecessary', but it was interesting, I hypothetically wrote it with some pizzazz, some humour, my personal fascination bleeding out of my words. Being necessary or not is irrelevant because I'm blogging, not wikipedia-ing.
And that's what it means to blog STEM subjects on Hive, in my opinion
So there you have it
Again, this is by no means a requirement, but as the a member of STEMsocial, and as somebody who cares about the quality of the literature we consume on here every day as well as the engagement and overall health of Hive, I think we will all be way better off by actually releasing all that pent-up inspiration we feel about the world around us, and letting others ride the waves.
(Awesome video by @gtg!)
I could not agree more.
I would only add that a well-written text usually respects these three properties: Adequacy, Coherence and Cohesion.
Adequacy
-What is the genre of your text? How technical is your writing?
-Have you clearly outlined your purpose? Are you consistent with it? Who are you writing for? Do you think your target audience will understand what you are saying?
-Does your text show good spelling and typography (headings, quotes, font decoration)?
Coherence
-Did you choose only the necessary amount of information?
-Is your speech well organized? Have you previously schematized the flow of ideas?
-Do you present the information logically and congruently (repeat when necessary, reveal new ideas progressively, do not contradict yourself, show the relation of the topic with reality)?
Cohesion
-Do you make good use of grammar?
-Do you make sure you do not have hackneyed words and phrases.
-Do you use synonyms and alternative names intelligently?
-Do you use paragraph and sentence connectors?
-Do you make good use of punctuation marks in your text?
Also, I want to mention that sometimes it is important to show authenticity and trustworthiness as authors, especially if you claim to be a physician or something like that. While we don't force people to reveal their identity, those who do get better results in this regard, as it's easier to trust someone who can decently demonstrate that they are a medical doctor and that their posts were made in the context of their profession or expertise. Let's not forget that there are many scammers and abusers on these social media networks.
Love the additional points! I think at the end of the day, if the mindset leans more towards 'how can I make this better?' - then everything will improve rapidly. This comment is a good stepping stone to answer that question.
For authenticity, yeah, although anonymity is always an option here, as social creatures it's always beneficial to be known, at least to the best of one's ability while still feeling safe.
I suppose the level of information depends on the individual. I always trust people and systems about as much as I think is reasonable, but never 100% XD
Wow, am already enjoying my ride in this community, it opens you uo to a lot of insight and understanding of things. It's really awesome creating an original copy of your work the joybof it is endless
Yeah I also think just getting good at writing is really fun and valuable for everything else in life. Great skillset not many people have!
Exactly sir @mobbs excellence is the key to greater achievement and I hope to get to that point of excellence in writing
This is one of the best places to be on hive, @stemsocial.
I learn more from here more than what I learn from school daily. Thanks for the platform.
The more people we get on it, the better it becomes
That's the point.
Thanks for the reply, it makes me feel noticed and worthy of joining the community. Thanks so much.
We will always be one our toes working as Scientists, architectures, Technologist who research to give the best to their readers. Not to gamble the system for upvotes. I agree with every information put here. We must surely make @stemsocial an interesting blog to attract more readings base on the quality content that we share. Per every point you stressed here, I'm going to keep them in my Diary so that I can reflect and make good usee of them all. Thanks for this informative update!
Great idea - I'm sure these things need practice. I've been writing for years and years and I wouldn't say I'm some master of literature at all. The journey is the fun part =)
Agreed with everything you said. But in my mind the word "blog" has bad connotations. In my normal life, I don't know if I've ever read/followed a science blog - never mind enjoyed - but I definitely visit wiki and wiki-type pages on a regular basis.
What I do sometimes enjoy reading is relaxed "academic" articles, like ones you'd find in newspapers, or, now, increasingly, substack, like Michael Shermer's column there, or Timothy Snyder's.
For me, originality does matter, i.e. I do want it to be necessary. The writers I mentioned above, do not rehash stuff written elsewhere. Carl Sagan's or Richard Feynman's books or lectures written for popular consumption contained original thoughts and arguments. Maybe that's too much to ask, and definitely an interesting blog is better than an uninteresting rehash of a wiki page, but here's to setting the bar high!
Your advice here should be pinned on the discord channel or smt.
Well, I was using blog just as a generic term for whatever we do here. One can write a fully fledged, groundbreaking publication here if they want, or somewhere in between a blog and that.
The difference is that we're not a science journal, but closer to a form of social community which I think we ought not to forget (comments are a large part of presence here)... and I think if you're somebody who is going to re-hash information, you better put your own spin on it (and do an excellent job as you might typically do =P)
Mayyybe, though I haven't seen lemouth around for a while to check with him as it's not an 'official' stance, just mine
Thanks for the guideline, I sincerely appreciate everything that makes me a better writer in this field. It won't be easy but growth will definitely happen.
Not being easy is what makes it so much more interesting and satisfying! Feels so accomplishing when you truly earn for hard work
Hello everyone! 😉
This is genuinely great advice. When I write my medicine blogs, I try to write in the type of human language I'd use to explain things to patients. When teaching topics, I also try to use a similar tone of using simplified language compared to how I've learned. If it's communicated in an interesting way, it will be more engaging. If it's based on personal experiences, it also adds a bit of that human touch that can stick with people.
That said, I'm not sure whether I can give up the "Hi everyone." I'm so used to greeting people! 😂
I was also interested in asking about a more out-there type of weekly blog I've been posting, which apparently may qualify for STEM based on the development of my own method of data collection and processing. It's an ongoing experiment specific to Hive and Ecency. While there's a template for the presentation, the analysis section is quite off-beat yet descriptive. What do you think of this type of weekly post, or other series?
How about 'Howdy' or 'Hi-diddly-ho neighbourinos!' - These get my stamp of approval lol
As for the weekly posting, I think any concept that can keep you writing consistently is probably a positive, so weekly, or series based things I personally encourage.
I think if you can spin it in a way that is bringing STEM to a wider audience it might work, although I'm not an authority, per se, on curation, that's more of a team effort. Not sure what @eniolw thinks.
I should say this post doesn't set a limitation to what people can write about, it's just trying to cut off some bad habits. Mathematical analyses and graphical representations are totally legitimate alternatives in a STEM community
I like "Howdy" as an alternative! I'm not from that region of the U.S., but it's the type of friendly vibe I'd like to give off. 😁
Consider it done.
I also post about my blogs on Threads and sometimes Discord, so I'm hoping that brings in a wider group of people. I've given up on all other forms of social media aside from Hive, so that's about all I can do for the time being lol.
The internet in its entirety is a shithole so, understandable choice!
A couple of little mobbs of birds told me that you're a fan of bloggy scientific posts such as the medical Motivational Mondays. 😉
I did actually have one question about something I came across in the Discord, but can't seem to find now. Is there a limit to how many times one can be curated over the course of a week? For example, writing daily about events that happen to a patient while hospitalized.
There's no hard rules, but generally we see it as abusing the system if, for example, large, well researched blogs are being done frequently. This is generally a sign of AI generation, plagiarism or something else, so more investigation is needed and cautious voting.
I think if they are quick blogs about progress we may give them a small vote, or pick and choose - short-form is quite a new phenomenon in our community, I think. More discussion needed!
Understood, I see what you mean.
My consecutive posts would actually kind of reflect what I do in the hospital: write about the patient's daily progress, and then reflect on it with specific teaching about topics, often as we go along through the day. We sometimes teach our medical students (and ourselves) this way. I'll resume those "Chronicles of an Inner City Hospital Resident Doctor" pretty soon, and I'm expecting some will be that way because of evolving situations. AI isn't sophisticated enough to make up these types of stories yet, haha.
It's essentially become a principle for me. If I'm not bringing or getting something valuable (whether it be educational, entertainment, etc.), then there's no point in carrying on. Working as a training physician is stressful enough without the added crap from social media!
Haa...cool. Almost missed this due to malaria.
I hope those concerned will read this and try to adjust accordingly. Left to me, if we must reward those WebMD-styled posts, the maximum should be 10. I mean, they are usually less informative than an average WebMD post anyway.
Yeah agreed. Though I think it's not a bad thing to balance quality with a bit of context regarding loyalty, beneficiaries, and such.
Not again! Take serious care...
Well said...I wish more people could write about their interests. If you believe in anything that is worth talking about, there is a science to it...it probably requires calculation, it was made in a certain way and there is technology evolving in every field. I don't think there is more to STEM than that...
Writing about what I am interested in and devoting my life to is really not hard...I renew my devotion to it everyday, I might as well share the experience with people on the internet as I do with those around me.
Nice post, I hope it achieves its purpose.
Yeah doing it yourself also just has the benefit of solidifying those thoughts for your own benefit. Even for me, with music as my specialty, I still enjoy learning the basic 12-bar blues all over again, or any of the basics, because it just helps.
Sometimes, making yourself simplify a complex or difficult subject helps you better understand it and see new angles.
I'm glad we have people like you keeping their passions alive here!
Exactly... I hope to make more video content...but zi really want to know what I'm saying and be able to defend it... right or wrong it is very respectable to hear someone who can.
I'm glad you guys have noticed my content...I feel blessed.
I love music too... I look forward your views on the basics... I've left the piano for so long but I'll be back soon.
I think you're talking about dynamics, style and above all, creative input when making posts in this niche. I understand quite well what you mean, and believe me, at least I try to do it the way you suggest. Not because it might be worthy of curation, but because I understand writing that way; with essence. Good post. I would say, even necessary. Add me, I'd like to be your friend. @mobbs
I'll add you, though I don't see the point, I don't really communicate in Dm's at all unless provoked into it XD
But yeah, what i'm talking about is really just a reminder of what STEMsocial is really about: the key word being 'social', basically!
Maybe it's time to open up the topics we use in this community a bit, my friend. Science is fundamental and really awesome, but you should also use and promulgate more content on psychology, anthropology and above all, psychiatry. Sciences linked to the innate human capacity to socialise but also to think. @mobbs
I mean I spent years writing about topics I previously knew nothing about. The discovery part was the best bit. I just had to make sure I was writing about it properly based on what actual professionals say. It's great fun to explore new horizons
I totally agree!
For example, I have just uploaded a post about a topic that is really little understood, entropy, but which is nevertheless present in absolutely all states of nature... However, I used what I wrote more directed to the inevitable end of existence itself, and also applying philosophy along the way. I hope you will be encouraged to read it, I think you will like it a lot. @mobbs
Acknowledge reading this. There should be a touch changes from now. I actually do not like the "Hello everyone" thing afterall.
Glad you agree haha, the hello thing is fine if you want to I guess, but you have to also say goodbye! XD
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Heh. Still struggling with those? 😂
Oh I don't imagine it will ever go away... across all of Hive, really - but several users were DMing actively asking to improve, so... figured this was a convenient way to do so!
Very good article man! I never thought about it. Next time take care of what you said. A blog should not be just a vomit what we have crammed, it should be made interesting so that people can connect with it. Thanks for sharing wonderful thought.👌
No problem! Yeah I guess you only start thinking about it after being part of the curation for yearssssss. There's always 'better', no matter what
Greetings friend @mobbs, being in other occupations I was missing to read and analyze the perspectives of your wise words, but still there is the need to share my point of view.
I dare to say that your writing is a feeling that I have been having for some time, where the fear of expressing it ended up boxing my writing and stagnating my blog, I believe that doing the same thing and repetitively makes us lose the essence of what we do and more in the Stem content where many see it as something abstract and meaningless.
The scientific literacy phrase you use fascinated me, as well as the passion with which you visualize this content in our mother platform #Hive, we must aim for content that arouse the opinion of users and generate traffic to our publications, which is evidenced by solid comment threads on it.
After reading your writing, I ran to my blog, to my surprise after more than 2 years sharing Stem content I realize that the interaction between us users of science is almost zero, which generates little traffic on my blog specifically and at that very moment I realized the importance of the publication that you share with us, we must change the approach, for one that is more attractive and that leaves a real value to users who make life in this great community.
Thank you for opening our eyes to the mistakes we are making. Regards
@stemsocial
Happy for the insight!
I think it's not just about the writing style that affects engagement, but a couple of other things:
The community itself, if it wants to be called a community, should by nature communicate more with each other by commenting and exploring each other's content, rather than just posting then replying to people on their own.
I think it's also a good idea to do this across communities. For example if you do biology posts, you can start commenting and engaging in nature-based communities, or photography. The more people treat this platform like something that is social, the more engagement will happen. We can't just write content and expect people to find it if they're not actively looking for it!
This is a whole new beautiful fresh perspective that would not only add up to writers skill and knowledge but make us better at what we do by putting ourselves in what we share, thanks so much for this
That's all I'd like!
Nice content! You have done well.
Writing with the webMed format makes the article look like something people already know. With these methods you have listed, the article would be inspiring and interesting.
This is so helpful.
Happy this is appreciated!
Hello, good post about how these titles are viewed, I am new to this community and I would like to know how to post here since from what I have analyzed the people of the communities some ask in one way or another, there are many tastes and others, so I would like to know, how to make one in this community? Since I am interested in scientific topics.
The same way you post in any other community, I suppose! Just go into the community, click 'write post' - and write it. If you want instructions on how to write content suitable for curation by us, feel free to join our discord = the announcement room has a lot of info worth checking out (although it does need updating a bit)
ah, thanks
Hey, @mobbs, in five hours from now I'll be posting a pretty good and sustained analysis. If you please, read it and tell me what you think.
Everytime I post on this community, I read this article and realise how important is to reach ability in order to write quality work. Thanks for made this, friend @mobbs
I'm glad it has a little positive effect around here! (sorry for the late reply)
No need to apologize, @mobbs! Hope you can read my posts and reply there.
After disappearing for so long I just got a chance to read this post... I actually came back to my posts, and I just figured that most of 'em aren't that interesting to read (aside from title most of the time lol), and I was about to post something but after reading ur post, I guess the change is a must now.
Gotta be myself as much as possible from now on, bringing that humor into posts would probably make 'em better. So, thanks for this post!
Glad you picked up on the post! Yeah it's really important. We're far past the age of dry news articles, but I also hope to avoid becoming nothing but clickbait with amazing titles and then shoddy quality writing to follow. It's a delicate balance that needs practice, for sure!
I will try to be myself in making posts, and make it more like I'm talking to someone or explaining things to my friend and see if it will be a better read than before, and for sure will consider the balance you mentioned.
Hi. I just recently subscribed to this community, but it turns out that just yesterday I made a post perhaps in the wrong community because after thinking about it, it fit more in this one because of the focus. I wanted to know if it was possible to leave you the link to cure it in your community (I'm really still learning how Hive works and I don't know if something like that makes sense). Sorry if I'm asking for something absurd.
Feel free, just drop it here or DM me on the StemSocial Discord channel =)
Thank you so much. The publication is in Spanish and English. I hope you find it useful for the community.
https://peakd.com/hive-123046/@genrigp/realmente-que-es-el-medioambiente-una-propuesta-desde-la-psicologia-ambiental-esen
Well, we don't support AI-generated content, which this seems to be
AI-generated content? No, I didn't use any AI for anything of what I wrote. All that content is from my own. I'm environmental psychologist and that is just result of my own study.
It might be due to translation, but I'll have to check it tomorrow morning my time - in the meantime join the discord if you havent yet!
Ok, no problem. It might be that. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with this. I'll join to the Discord.
I'll need the link to the Discord server
Hi again. Could you finally take a look at my post?
Have a nice day🙋
This is wonderful community to be, with good information
hmmm... are tapeworms bad to have in body?... do they reproduce induce if they pocess us... haa...haa...
Ok... I don't read these kind of scientific topics, I write on blockchain and post it on stemsocial and many times I get duration support. I don't write wikipedia style, I write articles and share my knowledge, its easy for me because I am a writter, grown from Hive only. Always take pains to improve my writing, writing well on the subject I write on.
Wow... you going to tell about tapeworms to your GF!!! ... interesting, maybe they are not gross, and should have better idea about tapeworms.
I been a victime of B12 defiency, it can be like... you won''t have energy and sucks if you have a active life, doing home chores or like doing outdoor activities... anyway
Added to bookmarks as "useful for everyone"
What I take away is, just be a human stop being a bot 🤣
Basically yeah lol. The more AI comes into force, the lower that requirement really feels. Just... don't be AI, to start? pleaseeee? heh
Exactly, you said it! 💯
Thanks for this information it really helps