Please see email below. Are you in agreement with Patrick regarding the Google Alerts? Please comment.
I am not sure I have the time to run two blogs. I will, however, run a survey to get some more direction for the blog towards the end of the summer.
Prof G
From: Patrick Burke
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 11:47:16 PM
To: Giovannoni Gavin
Subject: Your Blog
Hello Prof G,
Just a couple of quick questions
I think your blog is extremely good and very informative but there are so many entries every day and unless you make a comment straight away then the opportunity is gone. Also this means that it is not possible or easy to start up a thread of conversation.
Personally I would stop Google Alert news, people can always get it themselves. Most of the info is American so of little interst to most of us.
Also maybe have two separate blogs, one with academic information and one with the rest but who will act as God?
Talk soon,
Patrick
1. I get the Google Alerts so having them here isn't much use except when you add your comments. 2. I don't really see the point of a 2nd blog. 3. For me the number of entries is not a problem. (The more the better!)4. With Google & the internet getting lots of information is not difficult. This blog is wonderful because of the perspective you bring and the responses to comments. So, in view of your 18-hr work days, perhaps you could reduce the number of entries. Thank you so much for taking the trouble to start the blog.
I agree about the Google alerts. I have been receiving them myself for about three years now and find it mostly US-related. I would much rather have them come directly into my inbox for "filtering" and look at this blog for information that is unlikely to be available through these general search engines. Having the alerts on here has also meant that there's so much information to go through on the blog that sometimes I just don't get enough time to properly read and digest everything. If I happen to skip a day of blog-reading then it all gets rather much to catch up on!I'm not sure having two blog is the answer – it would take up a lot of your time and also our time as readers. I think the topics you choose to blog on are highly relevant and important for MS'ers and there's no reason why they can't appear on a single blog. I come here for information and rarely find a topic posted that I'm not interested in or think is useful.
I’d recommend the ‘Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre’ website for daily MS news. It’s excellent.http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseaction/show/pageid/2479
You can still find other posts (use the search function) and comment on them – they are not 'gone'. Perhaps just a tweak to the navigation would help: that is, forward/back arrows or a browse list (I don't know this interface so am not sure what is easy).One blog is just dandy – hey, it is tremendous: we owe it to Dr G to do our own filtering (moments of our time) than expecting him to do more – I am humbled how much time he spends on this already.I like the google alerts – and what is wrong with US information? Unless it is to do with local laws/services, why is it not relevant? Same disease, same planet.
I agree with most of what the earlier commentors said. I have the Google alers already, so having them here is not much use unless Prof G is adding something.Google & the internet already give too much information. This blog is great because Prof G puts it in perspective and responds to comments. (btw: i thought i commented earlier, but it has disappeared)
Yes, I like the blog as is but don’t care much for the Google alerts and Prof G’s one-line summation at the end of each headline.There are some blog posts, such as the “Walking Impairment” post, that I would like to see hanging around on the blog as I know it affects so many of us and perhaps more people will comment on it. The problem is it will shimmy down the viable list in no time.