Editorial Archive
Blogging the Sports Economics Community
May 19, 2010
OK, here goes. I really don't like blogs. I know they
are free-wheeling, instantaneous exchanges. There is a sense
of moving mountains at the speed of light. There is
exhilaration at joining a community and, for some, the dominance of
hit-and-run posting. There is the ability to simply lurk and
see what others are doing. And all of this is OK for Q&A with
experts or for the expression of differing opinions.
But here is why I think none of this outweighs the detriments for
those of us in pursuit of sports economics knowledge.
It is really difficult to carry on conversations with unnamed
correspondence and blog "handles."
It becomes nearly impossible to track good ideas through the tens
upon tens of posts on a given subject. Equally hard then to
attribute correctly.
And I know others out there disagree, but there is also some value
in peer review. But blog give-and-take never really seems to
get to any conclusion on this dimension.
In my own experience, while a few useful (to me, of course) posts
occur, by-and-large, it's just junk that's off track.
Fortunately, for those who disagree, the experiment goes on. I'll be dead before I know whether I'm right or not.