Closing up shop

After approximately 90 days and over 150 posts, and several full-length articles, reviews, and interviews, polyscience is closing up shop. I’m not going to stop writing, though. You might say I’ve been “acquired” — Ars Technica is launching a new science journal to go with their other technology journals. It will most likely be going live tomorrow.

It is with a small amount of sadness that I’m saying goodbye to polyscience.org. I will leave the site here as it stands now, with comments still open. (I get email notifications of new comments so I’ll still reply.) I accomplished more here than I ever really thought I would. I learned quite a lot about a great many things, and I’ll be referencing some of the posts that I wrote here in my journal entries for Ars. When I say I accomplished more than I thought I would, you have to understand that most of the projects I start start well, and then fizzle out in about a month. You see, I’ve got a fantastic first gear, but when it comes to doing things for the long-haul, well… I’m not the greatest at consistency. I am surprised and pleased that I ended up having several full-length features. I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that that happened without someone holding a gun to my head.

It was nice to have my own sandbox to play in. I’m a little depressed because I won’t be able to write longer features like I used to here. I am pleased, though, to be writing under Ars’s “pirate” flag for lack of a better term. I will be free to speak my mind to a much larger audience. I will have to elevate my game, though, and I know that. More background research, more review time before I click the publish button, as recent comments by Hat Monster have shown. And this is fine; I look forward to the new challenge. I’m sure I’ll get flamed plenty often by people who know more than I do about a given subject — that is simply the nature of the game when you write about such a broad field like “science.” As I said in my very first post, I am a science enthusiast, not a scientist.

Some closing stats for you all. All of these are figures from July 3 up until now.

• 17,638 page impressions
• 156 comments and pingbacks (more comments than PBs, though)
• 152 posts (including this one)

And an immeasurable amount of pride. :)

9 Comments »

1. Sorry to see PolyScience go… but at least I’ll catch you on Ars.

   Pork Chop

   Comment by Pork Chop — October 11, 2005 @ 3:51 pm

2. link the new science blog from here and I’ll just change over the link on my site. :)

   Comment by wynk — October 12, 2005 @ 3:22 am

3. Show me how to find Ars!

   Comment by Sandra — October 13, 2005 @ 12:28 am

4. I linked it above.

   http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars

   :)

   Comment by Rian — October 13, 2005 @ 9:04 am

5. [...] You may recall me talking a lot about polyscience.org. Well, I’ve closed up shop on polyscience, because I’m now writing for Ars’s new Nobel Intent science journals. Writing two science publications would have been overwhelming as well as a conflict of interest. I knew I was going to write for Ars a few weeks ago, but the last I had heard, it was still about 8 months out. So 8 months -> 3 weeks was a nice little surprise. [...]

   Pingback by rianjs.net » Revisiting “It’s already an excellent day” — October 13, 2005 @ 9:18 am

6. What a shame. I had very much enjoyed reading your articles. This may seem a strange remark, but it would interest me to see you write on peak oil. Recently I have heard it mentioned increasingly often, and although I am not convinced by its arguments, I should like to read more about it, particularly informed argument. Just some random food for thought for when you start writing at Ars.

   Comment by Dom Howells — October 13, 2005 @ 2:46 pm

7. Well thank-you for the compliments. I’ll consider it when I write for Ars.

   Comment by Rian — October 13, 2005 @ 5:31 pm

8. I’ll keep reading you on ars, but I have to say I’ll miss having polyscience.org on my list of websites that require a daily visit.

   Comment by Mike — October 14, 2005 @ 3:43 am

9. [...] After a lot of thought and consideration, I have decided to start writing here again. Previously, as I mentioned in my last — and what I thought would be my final post back in October — I’ve been writing for Ars Technica’s Nobel Intent science journal. [...]

   Pingback by polyscience.org » Grand re-opening… — January 25, 2006 @ 11:34 am

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