This blog has just passed its 15th anniversary, and there hasn’t been a lot of change in format since the first postings in March 2004 (there hasn’t been a lot of change in string theory either, but that’s a different topic…). I’ve been hearing a lot in recent years from people who have urged me to update the format of the blog, moving to formats more in tune with the way people now use the internet. One innovation in recent years has been that the blog content is available through Apple News.
I’ve decided to follow some more of the advice I have been getting, and have started up a Not Even Wrong Facebook site. No longer will you have to navigate to my WordPress site to access the blog content, instead it will be available the same way most people are now getting their news, through your Facebook News Feed. This will make it much more convenient for everyone to get notified about new posts and share these with others. I’m looking forward to the expanded readership and connections to the rest of the world that becoming part of the Facebook information eco-system will provide.
Update: Just unblocked a lot of comments that somehow were stuck in a moderation queue. Some people don’t seem to understand that for an international blog like this, the date is best calculated according to UTC.
The uniformly hostile response here to the Facebook idea has been extremely reassuring. No, I don’t intend to move the blog to Facebook. The fact that a sizable fraction of the US population in recent years has been getting its news off their Facebook News Feed seems to be one of the main factors in the 2016 collapse of democracy here, and the same thing is happening all over the world. This has also significantly moved along the ongoing destruction of the economic viability of conventional journalism. Going through the exercise of putting up a Facebook site made me aware of some aspects of how Facebook works I’d never realized. For example, on a Facebook post you can only hyperlink text to other Facebook material, not to the outside world.
It has become all too clear just how ugly the world created by Facebook is, that it is a sociopathic organization, and a danger to a healthy democracy. If you must stay in contact with friends and family this way, avoid any engagement with anything else on the Facebook site. Best would be to delete your Facebook account, now.
Update: For a book-length explanation of why you should be concerned about Facebook, see Roger McNamee’s Zucked, reviewed here.
I am hoping this is an early April fool’s joke.
People are fleeing Facebook like it was the plague.
Please do keep this old format! I’ve deleted my Facebook account so I don’t have access to material there. (And I wouldn’t go there even if it were available without a Facebook account.)
Interesting advice – medium is a place many people use to amplify their reach, as facebook struggles to reach younger people and those disillusioned with what the web has become.
Here’s hoping that your blog will stay because that was the real thing all along 🙂
Peter,
Please don’t abandon this site! Your blog is one of the best, and I can’t be the only person who dropped FB and refuses to visit it.
not everyone likes to use Facebook, they have absolutely atrocious privacy-violating business model.
By the way, the format of Not Even Wrong is fine as it is. Making it more flashy could only add a web page bloat.
April Fools! You almost had me there, but that last sentence rather gave the game away.
I hope you will continue to post here in parallel – I’ve sworn off Facebook and have it blocked on all my devices. Plus, this site is integrated with my RSS feed-reader, while Facebook makes it extremely difficult to do so.
The range of single-click responses in Facebook needs to be extended for the purpose.
“Like”, “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry” do not cover it.
We need to ask also for: “Give me a break!”, “You’re a crackpot”, “Yeah, alright (I am tired of arguing)”, “So what?” and “See my web site/scientific papers”
Are you going to keep the blog? I’m not on FB and don’t want to be.
Everyone has a browser but not everyone is using facebook.
Time to start a new movement: #youtoo
I am hoping this is just a 1st April joke as I enjoy reading via RSS and won’t be able to follow nearly as regularly on Facebook.
I hope you will continue to post your content here as well, so that those of us who dislike Facebook (probably more malevolent than String Theory all things considered), can continue to read!
I gave up my Facebook account, shortly after the 2016 US election. I hope you will continue to post here in parallel.
Please don’t switch to Facebook. I canceled my account years ago, I’m sick of it and refuse to visit it. I don’t know where you are getting your advice from, but in my circle of adult friends and colleagues, people are abandoning Facebook in droves.
April Fools?
Disappointed about your engagement with Facebook. I think this institution is one of the symptoms of the “disease” within our society and our culture.
Yes please no Facebookization
I would prefer that this blog remains as it is. I don’t ever use Facebook, or any social media, and I find the clean presentation and simplicity of this blog’s format to be very comfortable and a refreshing change from the ‘improved’ internet formats.
April Fools?
Completely agree with the comments so far, but I wonder whether in some other timezone, the date of the post might be different?
I hope this was a joke related to April Fool’s Day.
I can’t shake the feeling the the post date for this should have been today… ^^
Let me add my small voice to the chorus asking you to continue the existing newsreader format and support.
Hopefully an April’s fool post.
Hmmm. I read this on April 1.
Commenters, please check the date.
This decision is unexpected and disappointing, even if posts continue to appear on this site in parallel. Trailmut’s characterization of Facebook as an etiological factor of social disease (freeing that term here of those mitigating quotation marks) is likely not inaccurate.
Though this post is dated March 31, 2019 (9:51 PM). Hopefully it is in fact only an early joke intended for the following day.
April 1st ?
Is this an April Fools joke?
I join with all the others who ask that you not drop this site. Post in parallel, if you must, but there’s too much on Facebook that’s Not Even Wrong as it is.
Please keep it up and running here — if you can. I left Facebook two years ago — no regrets whatsoever. By the way… How are you going to police comments on Facebook?
“Informed comments relevant to the posting are very welcome and strongly encouraged. Comments that just add noise and/or hostility are not. Off-topic comments better be interesting…”
…On Facebook?
I agree we all the above. Don’t go Facebook. Nothing is gained. It’s a pleasure to read blogs like this one, not having to be interupted by silly AI-s who think they know what you want.
Second thoughts: is this an April’s fools joke?
(friends, check the date)
A facebook post once a year would be fine, I guess.
And I thought that I was the only one…
Also not on FB, and probably never will be, and I’m hoping you’ll continue with this “old” format.
I hope this posting is an April Fool’s joke posted on March 31 by mistake. I can’t imagine that Facebook’s ideals, past issues with fake news and other questionable content, its likely role in helping to elect Donald Trump, massive personal data collection in the name of more profitable advertising, etc. are particularly compatible with your own ideals. In the past, I also haven’t noticed you being especially preoccupied with massively expanding your readership…
Anyway, assuming this posting is tongue-in-cheek, it gets a chuckle from me. It it’s not a joke, uh oh… Like many others, I rarely visit FB and have never left a comment there.
As another long time reader who won’t touch facebook with a 20 foot pole, I’ll just add my voice to the chorus hoping that you’ll keep this site going and not migrate to FB entirely.
Excellent choice of material for today
Thank goodness it’s April 1. Almost bit it!
Ditto to all the comments regarding not being on Facebook.
Please tell me this is an April fools joke …
Also a non-Facebook user. I will miss this blog if it is only available there.
Ok , now I will leave my April Fools comment… except I don’t have one. I have been ground down by the bastards but am still able to stand…
Is it an April Fools’ joke?
Dear Peter,
Please keep the format as it is.
The date at the top is supposed to be 1/April, surely!
I notice that if you don’t have a facebook account, and scroll down to look at old posts, it blocks you after you’ve scrolled past the top (most recent) 3 or 4 posts. Not helpful.
I think the existing site could do with a make-over – it doesn’t display well on mobile devices with a small screen, for example, but FB is not the way to achieve that.
Mr Woit,
This is the best one I read on this fine day.
Well done sir, well done, indeed.
Am I the only one to think this post was delivered just a bit in advance ?
Gee, on 1 April…
Happy April fool’s day!