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Type of site | Subreddit |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Founder(s) | u/spez[1] |
URL | www |
Users | 30.4 million members[1] |
Launched | October 18, 2006[1] |
r/science is an Internet forum on Reddit where the community of participants discuss science topics.[2] A popular feature of the forum is "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) public discussions.[2] 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.[2] It has almost 30.4 million members as of 2023.[1]
History
[edit]Nathan Allen
[edit]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.[2] 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.[2] Allen has advocated that chemists should be more active in communicating with the public in online forums such as reddit.[3]
AMA series
[edit]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.[2] 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.[2][4] Outgoing links posted in the forum must go to peer-reviewed science articles published within the last six months.[5]
The discussion series was instantly a success, and established the world's largest two-way discussion between scientists and the public.[2] Allen does most of the organization for the talks, including soliciting scientists to participate and training them to communicate in reddit's discussion format.[2]
In May 2018, the series ended due to a change in Reddit's ranking algorithm making AMA talks less visible and less engaging.[6][7]
Featured content
[edit]r/science has an ongoing content partnership with PLOS.[8] 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.[8]
Editorial decisions
[edit]Editorial decisions in r/science are made by the moderators who themselves follow rules that they present for the forum.[5] If new rules are introduced then those are discussed with the community of readers.[5] Rules for r/science include guidance that contributors keep discussion on-topic and thoughtful.[5]
Allen led the decision to ban discussion in r/science which gives credibility to climate change denial.[9][10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "/r/science". Reddit. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Owens, Simon (7 October 2014). "The World's Largest 2-Way Dialogue between Scientists and the Public". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ Widener, Andrea (20 November 2017). "Head moderator of Reddit's science community says chemists need to be more active online". Chemical & Engineering News. 95 (46): 22–23. Archived from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ Allen, Nathan (21 January 2014). "Announcing the r/science AMA Series". Reddit.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d Owens, Simons (14 April 2015). "Should Reddit's powerful mods be reined in?". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ Tracy, Philip (23 May 2018). "How Reddit killed one of its most popular AMAs". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ nallen (18 May 2018). "r/science will no longer be hosting AMAs". reddit. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ a b Costello, Victoria (15 April 2015). "Ask our authors anything: new PLOS 'AMA' series debuts on redditscience". PLOS. Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ Allen, Nathan (16 December 2013). "Reddit's science forum banned climate deniers. Why don't all newspapers do the same?". Grist. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ Lee, Jane J. (20 December 2013). "Reddit Science's Ban on Climate Change Denial Posts Rears Its Head Again". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
Further reading
[edit]- Quartz published a series of journalism articles describing the outcomes of r/science AMAs
- Hasenkopf, Chris (15 January 2017). "Why every scientist should hold an AMA on Reddit and how to do it, step-by-step". Medium.