Aspects of this blog/forum that could be improved?

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1. Hannah Dee19 March 2010 at 07:23 AM

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   I think your first point (about the loading) is a fair one. The point about bumping up previous posts could also be fixed by having a longer list of recent comments, or even a "comments since my last visit" for those of us who are logged in. I think that might work better than a forum thing (or maybe I'm just attached to the blog idea).

2. Tennie Videler19 March 2010 at 12:01 PM

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   dear Blanka, thank you very much for taking the time to put up this post! And I really appreciate your comment at the end. Yes, the slowness of the site is very frustrating.... As for the format: I have worked with what was available but I am happy to explore what options we have regarding bumping up of posts with recent comments on (maybe there could be an option of displaying the posts like that). I'll get onto the webdesigners to explore (but it won't be done in the very near future). I am still a bit hazy on the difference between a blog and a forum. I tend to think of this as a blog because of the great content of the posts, which tend to be very thoughtful, wherease I think of posts on a forum as more in passing- but am completely happy to be corrected on this idea!

3. Blanka Sengerová19 March 2010 at 01:56 PM

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   Hi Tennie, I think I agree with your view of the blog versus forum distinction - with a blog the main focus is the original article, with a forum the main focus is the discussion that arises from an original comment, which is likely to be shorter than on a blog. So I guess on a blog people will spend a bit more time and thought on putting the original article together, whereas on a forum you can often see quick off-the-cuff comments. I think on here the discussion has become a mixture of the two - although people put quite a lot of article writing effort in the initial posts, sometimes, the discussion is in itself quite interesting and thoughtful. It would be good to retain the blog feel of this discussion place, i.e. people start of with reasonably substantial articles. Together with that, to give the ensuing discussion more prominence, bumping up active topics seemed like a good idea to me, although Hannah's idea of setting up a "new comments since you last read the forum" feature might work as well. In any case, many thanks for taking the comments on board - I realise that this blog probably started off as a side project somewhere along the way and you cannot spend too much time on improving this at the expense of other projects.

4. George Whale20 March 2010 at 04:24 PM

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   I agree with your second point, Blanka, but for me the main problem with this blog is how to turn ideas into action. If, for example, somebody here identifies a specific problem relating to the employment of researchers, and if they also have a possible solution, how do we make sure that the problem is acknowledged and the solution is implemented, or at least seriously considered, by those who control our fate?

5. Blanka Sengerová21 March 2010 at 07:52 PM

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   Hi George, nothing that gets discussed on this forum will lead to specific solutions unless some of us take it to our universities/employers/MPs/whoever else we think may be able to influence issues. So if there is anything you feel particularly strongly about, take it to the appropriate place (Your Uni? A Downing Street petition? Something else?) rather than expecting the 'powers that be' to read this place, because they won't. Having said that, perhaps this is where the UKRSA could be a useful link from real researchers (the people who write on this forum) to places that may be able to make a difference? As for me, I am relatively happy in my job as a (first) postdoc and don't really have any qualms with how my interview/recruitment/review process has been going. If I found there was a problem I would probably go and talk to my boss in the first instance rather than using a web-forum to air my moans, because that is likely to lead to a most constructive solution. What do you think about doing that if you have some issues with your own situation?

6. George Whale21 March 2010 at 10:43 PM

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   Blanka, thanks for your suggestion, but I don't have a "uni" at the moment, as I've been out of work for more than a year. Vitae is one of the few forums open to me, which is why I like to air my criticisms here. Regarding constructive change, I wonder whether piecemeal approaches to individual institutions are the best way to bring it about. I agree with you that such actions do work sometimes, but overall the process seems very, very, very slow. In any case, my criticisms (and a number of constructive proposals by other contributors here) are not directed at any particular organization, but seem to apply generally. As you might have noticed from some of my earlier postings, I am especially concerned at the way political correctness, affiliation and other factors can distort processes of selection and promotion in academic research. This is an issue that most senior academics avoid (for obvious reasons), which is why I raise it here. For me, it would make sense (if possible) for issues affecting many or most institutions to be addressed at the supra-institutional level, rather than for us to be continually fighting the same battles over and over at institutional level. You mention the UKRSA: perhaps a member reading this blog could clarify their role, how they decide which issues to raise, and with whom? I am pleased that you are happy with your own interview/ recruitment/ review procedures, but you should recognize that not all have been as fortunate as you, and I would argue that those whose careers have been mismanaged (as was my early career in London) have every right to draw attention to that.

7. Blanka Sengerová22 March 2010 at 02:22 PM

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   Hi George, sorry to hear about your situation and being out of a job, I realise it is not a nice situation to be in. I hope you find a job soon enough, but I maintain that it is mainly you who is responsible for bringing issues to a higher level rather than expecting someone to read this blog and "sort out the UK academic world" for the rest of us. This place (in my opinion) is somewhere where we can share our experiences of the academic (and non-academic, I guess) world and it is possible that other people who have been through a similar situation as yours may be able to offer advice to you in what sorts of places you can look to for careers' information etc. Similarly, it can help to see that there are others in your situation and you start seeing your problem in slightly different perspective. However, if you want change, you have to campaign in the appropriate place (in any case, my intial article was concerned with technical improvements to the blog so the debate we are now having is a little off-topic, but since it's been started we may as well continue it). In your comment, you said: >> I would argue that those whose careers have been mismanaged (as was my early career in London) have every right to draw attention to that. << Are you trying to suggest that it was solely somebody else's fault that your career was, as you say, mismanaged? I obviously don't know your exact situation, but surely at every point it was *your* choice whether to take a job/stay in a job/take a promotion/hand in your notice/leave academia for industry, so it seems a little harsh to blame *others* for mismanaging *your* career. In any case, I wish you luck with finding a job soon. Perhaps it may be productive to ask potential employers who reject your application whether they would be willing to provide you with feedback on your CV/interview performance/etc. as this may help with future applications? Good luck!

8. George Whale22 March 2010 at 03:20 PM

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   Blanka - your comments are appreciated, and of course I'm already aware of these things, having been involved in research for quite a while. I raise my concerns on vitae mainly to obtain feedback, to see whether others have experienced similar, or are of similar mind. That is a legitimate function for this forum, I think. Obviously if I want action - for example on the issue of biases in selection and promotion in certain areas of higher education - then I will put my case to the relevant higher authorities. But I haven't yet decided whether I want to take such a drastic step (it wouldn't help my career), or even if it would do any good, given the pervasiveness of political correctness at every level of academia, management and government. Regarding poor research management, you will be in no doubt of it when you experience it - but I hope you never do! Anyway, that's probably enough on this, but thanks again for your constructive input.

9. Elizabeth Dodson22 March 2010 at 11:16 PM

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   >> You mention the UKRSA: perhaps a member reading this blog could clarify their role, how they decide which issues to raise, and with whom? Hi George. I'm one of the current co-chairs of the UKRSA. As a very new organisation, we are still in the midst of finalising our remit and how we intend to support researchers – but as things stand we will be trying to connect with local research staff associations across the UK to support their development and to be advised of issues that need to be raised nationally. Of course the Vitae RS blog also offers a lot of insight into the individual issues that researchers face, many of which apply to researchers across academia. This blog will therefore help to keep UKRSA members in touch with a range of such issues, as well as providing a forum for us to update the research community on our current activities. We need to work through how issues will be prioritised and taken forward, but we are already getting opportunities for members to meet with established research staff associations and to put forward representatives to sit on influential groups and panels. We also have an advisory role within Vitae. We would welcome any feedback on what users of this blog hope that the UKRSA might achieve over the coming years and of course we welcome expressions of interest from individuals who would like to become involved in the UKRSA in the future.

10. George Whale23 March 2010 at 10:55 AM

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    Thanks Elizabeth.

11. Matthew Salois26 March 2010 at 02:46 PM

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    Just another suggestion, if we could sort posts by author that would be very helpful. Often I want to read something I know was written by a particular person, but I cannot remember the name of the blog post. Also, I do not think that the "search" function is working. Aside from taking a very a long time to obtain "results," it does not seem to be able to find anything. For example, I tried keyword searches for research', 'interview', and 'career', and nothing comes up. I also tried to search by author to see if I could search for all the articles written by Tennie, for example. Nothing seems to work.

12. Elizabeth Dodson27 March 2010 at 01:07 AM

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    Agreed that both search by author and by most recent comments would be excellent. Would also really really like to see the return path sorted - so that it always directs people back into the main RS blog rather than the 2009 development conference blog. Probably asking too much now - but would be great if comments had an edit facility - at least for a few minutes after initial posting - for those moments when we write in haste and then annoyingly spot the mistakes about 2 seconds after clicking send!

13. Blanka Sengerová27 March 2010 at 11:48 AM

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    Hi Elizabeth, yes, an edit facility for comments would be great - I assume you are aware that when you post the intiial article you *can* edit that through the 'my discussion articles' dropdown menu? If we're adding suggestions for useful feature, how about 'follow this article'? At the moment, you get e-mailed about new comments on articles you wrote but it would be niceif you could pick an article and ask to be informed of comments on this topic by e-mail. Are we making our wish list too big now, Tennie? :o) Thanks!

14. Elizabeth Dodson29 March 2010 at 12:27 AM

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    Yes - you can at least edit your own articles - exactly as you thought

15. Kathryn North30 March 2010 at 02:26 PM

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    One way I have found to 'speed up' looking through the blog is to open a link in a new tab (right click, select from menu in Internet Explorer). This tends to appear rather quicker than waiting for the page to load on the exisiting tab. The Vitae website plays up for me in general.. no idea why! I'm fascinated by so many of the comments on here. I think it works well in general but agree with the suggested improvements to navigation and searching. Just from a presentation point of view, could the column width be increased so that you can see more of the blog and comments on one screen? I seem to do a lot of scrolling...

16. Simon Smith31 March 2010 at 06:43 PM

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    With regard to the blog/forum distinction, I think I'm in favour of keeping a blog format, i.e. giving pride of place at the top of the screen to the latest author, not the latest commentor. Most of the posts people publish here are very well-constructed, and as long as that's the case, they deserve to be treated as 'articles', to which comments and discussion add value, but should be seen as secondary. However it would be nice if there was an easier way of exploring the recent comments, as Hannah suggested. And editing comments (say, within 5 minutes, just to correct mistakes). I'd also wondered if the search function was working ...