Please Don’t Start Another Blog or Podcast!

Update June 29: Now with video.

My presentation at SkeptiCamp Atlanta 2011 this past weekend was titled “Please Don’t Start Another Blog or Podcast!” I chose that title deliberately to to be a little controversial, of course. It verges on ridiculous for someone who both blogs and podcasts to tell others not to do either.

My real point is to highlight the many other online activities skeptics can engage in that are important and make a difference. Regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will find some familiar topics in this. See below for links to the slides, an audio version and other supplemental information.

The video includes some introductory material from SkeptiCamp, the main presentation starts at 6:26. If you prefer to listen on the go, you can hear the audio for this presentation on the Skepticality podcast #158 “Return to Lake Skepticamp.” The audio of the presentation itself starts at about 20 minutes in to the episode. You will hear in both the video and audio that I originally miscounted my subtopics, I say seven and the audience corrects me. This has been corrected in the slides seen after the break.

Continue reading after the break for my slides and a list of links that to more information (mostly prior posts on this blog) that expand on each of the topics I cover in the presentation.

Here are the slides for the presentation:

Surveying the Skeptic Web

My data on the volume of current skeptic output was based on the following:

Note that the data on podcasts in the slideshow is slightly updated since my blog post on that topic. It includes 70 podcasts, where the original graphs only included 56.

The Seven Eight Things You Can Do

Each of the eight things you can do has been covered to one degree or another in previous posts on this blog. Here are some handy links:

Thank you so much to Derek and Swoopy for being so supportive of my presentation.

10 thoughts on “Please Don’t Start Another Blog or Podcast!”

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  3. azatheist

    No comments? I must have snuck into a forgotten corner of the blogosphere…perhaps that’s because there are too many Skeptical blogs on the internet? Take a minute to contemplate the first statement…corner of the blogoshpere…Oh well.

    Thank you Tim for all that you do for Skepticism. I hope it was not really you’re intention to actually stop folks from creating new blogs and new podcasts. I know that there is a large quantity of material produced each week on Skepticism. Perhaps you thought of this title when you realized that one person couldn’t effectively keep up? If that is the case, then I’m almost certain that you’re joking. You might just as well say, there are already too many books written on the subject…stop writing new books on Skepticism!

    In any case, you gave me a good topic for my monthly Skeptics of Tucson meetup. By the way, check out our new podcast on iTunes or http://www.desertairpodcast.com. It’s called Desert Air Podcast and it’s not strictly speaking a Skeptics podcast because the subtitle is Atheists Inquiry into Reality but we do cover an exercise in critical thinking each week along with other Skeptical topics.

    Don Lacey

    1. Tim Farley Post author

      No, of course not, Don – I don’t want to stop anyone from doing anything. (I think that’s clear in both the post here and the content of the talk).

      What I’m trying to do is get folks to consider carefully how they contribute, before they create yet another “me too” podcast or blog, which won’t add that much to the conversation.

      I think there are lots of fantastic ways skeptics can contribute online. But before you rush in to create something, be aware of what is out there already. And consider things other than blogs, vlogs and podcasts as an avenue for your activity. I give lots of examples of the latter in the talk.

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