Chris Blattman

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Feedback bleg

My aggressive bleg received so many superb comments, I’ve decided to bleg for more general advice: what could be done better at this blog?

The easiest fixes are technical fixes. Is it tricky to subscribe? Want easy email or tweet feeds? Hate the color scheme? Wish I wrote in Comic Sans?

The hardest fixes are one that implicitly say, “spend more time on X”. Time is the scarce resource here. But do chime in anyways. For example, “It would be nice if you actually read all the papers you link” is not bad advice.

20 Responses

  1. Please don’t make any changes that will make blogging a chore for you. I don’t want you to stop.

    I tend to take change hard. And mostly I read this blog in a blog reader. But the way you’ve organized information on the right column is really quite brilliant and appreciated. So I suspect I’ll like any changes you decide on,

  2. This is sort of a time comment so my apologies but I really love when you comment back and reply to posters. I know it is not possible in all instances but it would be fabulous if you chimed in a tiny bit more to some juicy (reply-warranting) posts related to some of the big issues. That would make it infinitely more interactive.
    Otherwise, great blog.

  3. Actually, how about more blegs? I liked the “aggressive bleg” discussion, and as I remember there was a similar bleg about the recent elections in Cote D’Ivoire where someone wrote in with something really interesting. So, whenever something comes up that piques your interest but you don’t know much about, bleg about it, and let your broad and knowledgable readership do some of the work!

  4. i think you do a pretty darn good job. my only gripe ever, was the posting of that hideous israeli paper a while back, with no context. as a poster said then, it was pretty irresponsible.

    other than that, its great. thanks!

    s

  5. Chris – of course your experiments aren’t done – that’s why I thought blogging about stuff as it’s going on might be cool – you must be hearing something back, no? Visiting the field side, getting impressions etc. – once you write up your findings I don’t need your blog – I can just go and read the working paper…

  6. Love the blog. But the banner image is strange to me — why is it mirrored? Would love a change… otherwise, don’t change a thing.

  7. I’d also love to hear more about your findings, and would second the observation that the industrial policy piece seems to have disappeared for a bit.

  8. graphical information! This can lead to interesting comments regarding the proper interpretation

  9. Based on the response to the aggressive bleg and other posts, it seems your readers have a lot to say and contribute. It’d be nice if you could stimulate more debate or discussion, and I don’t think that would necessarily take more time for you. I’m guessing a lot (most?) of us read via RSS feeds, so while a discussion forum would be cool I’m not sure it would get used much. What you could do is have a weekly or biweekly open mic for discussion amongst you and your readers. I think it would work best if you gave it some sort of direction, so you could just have a post with a question/prompt, and then we would discuss. If it was occasional and had high quality prompts, I’d definitely click through from Google Reader and participate. Some suggested example leads:
    1. “From your respective academic (or work) field, what’s the most surprising or counterintuitive paper/story/report you’ve read this week, and why?”
    2. “I’m sure there are some readers out there who aren’t development economists — what do you do, and why do you find this field applicable to what you do?”
    3. “I’m interested in [controversial issue X] but am not satisfied with the arguments I’ve heard. What do you think?”

  10. I actually don’t care if you read the papers you link to as long as they’re interesting.
    Personally, I’d actually like to see more about your findings. I’m especially interested in your small industry stuff – haven’t heard about that for what seems like ages.
    Oh – and less channeling MR – those of us who read TC probably do so already…

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