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Internet celebrities (according to the WSJ)
Here's the WSJ article on economics blogs (subs.) and here is the list. I was pleased to see this shout-out to Marginal Revolution commentators. Keep up the good work!
One of the things that makes Marginal Revolution good is that where other economics blogs are plagued by rude comments (Greg Mankiw has shut down the comments section on his blog) commentators on Marginal Revolution are usually civil and often thought provoking.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on July 16, 2009 at 08:25 AM | Permalink
Comments
I think the reason that posts are typically civil is that there seems to be an effort to minimize the extent to which you address politics. It just seems to hard for people (myself included) to stay thoughtful when they have so much invested rooting for a particular team.
Posted by: Michael Foody at Jul 16, 2009 9:00:08 AM
Agree on the politics, but after GWB, why anyone cares which team is running the ship into the ground is a mystery to me.
Now we have a SupCo who thinks the right to 'privacy' is constitutionally settled law (but, of course only privacy about your abortion, not your finances or anything else) but promises to 'keep an open' mind about the 2nd Amendment.
We try, but civility is much much more than these people deserve.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 16, 2009 9:26:31 AM
Paul Krugman is an "Internet" celebrity? The man does have a Nobel Prize...
Posted by: Geoff NoNick at Jul 16, 2009 9:33:48 AM
People get uncivil about politics, because politics is abstracted violence. Essentially with all government policies and programs, we are ordered to obey or we will be killed or tortured, or we are ordered to pay for it or we will be killed or tortured.
It is hard to be civil about politics because politics is not civil.
Posted by: Vehical Driver at Jul 16, 2009 9:37:55 AM
Who are those three guys mugging with Alex Tabarrok?
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 16, 2009 10:22:04 AM
Hey, they cropped me out of the picture!
Posted by: Cowen's Coat Tails at Jul 16, 2009 10:56:33 AM
Haha, so no one remembers MR's comments after Tyler and Alex (at least one of them I remember, but I assume both) endorsed Obama? That was a funny joke.
Brad Delong's comments are pretty tame for how shrill his blog often is, so I'm not sure that it's the lack of ideology keeping MR comments civil.
Posted by: dm at Jul 16, 2009 11:14:58 AM
Broad Deround censors comments. Krugman is a cad. Mankiw has stopped accepting comments. So the winner is......
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 16, 2009 12:18:19 PM
How do they measure "Originality"? Is it something like the ratio of
(original posting) / (original posting + assorted linking) ?
Or do they judge the originality of the whole concept?
Posted by: londenio at Jul 16, 2009 12:18:42 PM
I would guess that the reason MR has not had the comment problems of, say, Mankiw's blog has less to do with political partisanship and more to do with the quality of the blog posts themselves.
Thoughtful blog posts provoke thoughtful comments. Umm, usually.
Posted by: Eric at Jul 16, 2009 12:19:36 PM
Not a very good list, done from their bias. It must have killed them to have to put Krugman and DeLong. Megan McCardle, an economist? She has an English degree and an MBA.
Posted by: Tom at Jul 16, 2009 12:35:38 PM
Why on earth is Thoma on that list? All his blog does is quote other people; rarely does he provide his own analysis, and when it does, it's deeply flawed but cooed at by his fanatics.
Posted by: Silas Barta at Jul 16, 2009 12:53:00 PM
i think it's the nature of the posts, which can seem cryptic and need some unpacking, and thus don't spur knee jerk political responses (the way megan can). and i do think the comments here are better than elsewhere, it's often like a seminar in how to analyze issue X (way better than provided by my high-priced, high-prestige education, i'm sometimes amazed that it's free, but so few people (relative to population with access to internet) follow/play along).
Posted by: dj superflat at Jul 16, 2009 1:24:42 PM
Sites seem to follow a pattern where the comment quality declines as the site becomes more popular. It will be interesting to see what happens on MR in the future.
Posted by: Don at Jul 16, 2009 1:41:08 PM
@ Don:
MR seems less popular than it was around christmas time, if just judging from my memory of the number of comments. On the other hand, I really like this blog in large part because of the comments. The posts are interesting and stimulate discussion, but the real gold is in the comments.
Posted by: Doc Merlin at Jul 16, 2009 2:30:04 PM
fuck that!
Posted by: goodnessOffit at Jul 16, 2009 2:58:40 PM
Answer. What is: Sarah Palin...discuss.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 16, 2009 3:17:52 PM
Guess the comments are in the margins. Blog on !
Posted by: Rama at Jul 16, 2009 3:26:57 PM
Bloggers banning comments seem to not want to be challenged. Your blog posts are very good but the discussion in the comments make it a complete balanced read.
Posted by: SN at Jul 16, 2009 4:26:40 PM
I rarely comment but I think commentators here are awesome and we urgently need to close the gates to outsiders before they ruin this great community we have here.
Posted by: myself at Jul 16, 2009 4:53:28 PM
The audience of a blog is an asset that affects the overall value of the blog. I use the term "asset" very loosely here. The "loyal readers" grow over time driven by investment in the quality of the blog and by keeping the community alive. Once you have smart loyal followers, you have something that others cannot quickly imitate. Alex and Tyler created a nice audience that seems to get along. MR is more like a moderated club than a blog.
Posted by: londenio at Jul 16, 2009 4:55:47 PM
Mankiw shut down his comments because he couldn't stand people disagreeing with him, calling him out, and pointing out when he was being a "we economists are smarter than everyone else" jerk. The comments over at Mark Thoma's site are also pretty civil, and there are plenty of smart people commenting there. You just have to scroll past whatever copyright violoation "anne" has perpetrated.
Posted by: michelle color me shocked at Jul 16, 2009 5:08:23 PM
The comments are especially good on the rare occasions when Tyler and Alex raise the topic of immigration.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 16, 2009 5:36:24 PM
The comments are especially good on the rare occasions when Tyler and Alex raise the topic of immigration.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 16, 2009 5:36:48 PM
The comments are especially good on the rare occasions when Tyler and Alex raise the topic of immigration.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 16, 2009 5:37:06 PM
