Re: [Myexperiment-discuss] myExperiment policy about negative comments

[Marco Roos]

Oops, I just see that I responded to an older mail in a much longer thread. Hope my response is not completely outdated :-[
Marco.

Marco Roos wrote:

Hello Giovanni,

You raise an important point, especially because I think myExperiment needs negative (but not destructive) comments to mature.

For example, my first workflow on myExperiment had serious flaws that a reviewer rightly spotted when we submitted a paper about it. The paper did not make it. If the workflow had had negative comments, I would have submitted a better paper. Ultimately, only positive comments will not help anyone. NB the review reports I got were very constructive, I would have had no objection if these would have been 'negative' comments on myExperiment. Which does make me think: myExperiment developers, can you link comments/ratings to /versions/ of workflows, because naturally I improved the workflow in response to the reviews?

>From what I've seen on the net in forums and shopping sites, it is all about the tone of the comments. It is quite possible to bring forward constructive negative comments. As myExperiment matures, I would like when moderators could remove destructive comments and block destructive commenters. Also, I think we should see what the new generation of scientists, brought up on blog- and online shopping sites, will make of myExperiment.

Additionally, I've been an advocate of additional expert rating on myExperiment. This is common on shopping sites, and would be reminiscent of peer review. This may add credibility for some users of myExperiment, but perhaps more importantly add creditability for the traditional scientific community. I imagine selected experts would be asked to review workflows (or packs of scientific research objects). This could be anonymous, addressing the problem you raised. On a still young site like myExperiment, it may also get the rating system started.

As for your angry scientists scenario's: they are true, but I don't think this can be solved completely. I happens in anonymous peer review just the same. We generally guess who is refereeing, don't we? In the user ratings everything is out in the open, so a notorious foul commenter would be visible too. What about rating raters? ;-)

Hope my two cents help,
Marco.



Giovanni Marco Dall'Olio wrote:

I would like to discuss about the issue of negative/positive comments on myExperiment, quoting a statement from another mail:

Secondly, I don't think you should post negative comments, but instead direct them ath the person who directly. That way you save both yourself and the person involved any embarassment. Positive comments are, however, suitable, giving others a chance to be notified about a good items and see for themselves.

A few years ago some people from the University of Amsterdam organized an user-trial on CiteULike, a web servive of social bookmarking for scientits.
- http://cf.uba.uva.nl/nl/projecten/academic_social_referencing.pdf (it's a pdf)

One of the results of the study was that some people were scared of using the web service, because they were afraid that their comments could offend other colleagues, who could take revenge when they will be their peer-reviewers. It's on page 8, the 3rd point; and there are other statements on that in the rest of the document.

This could happen to myExperiment also.
Let's say you publish a workflow, but I think there is an error on it. There are some possibilities:
- I don't tell you about the error. You live happy, but later you notice that all of your results were wrong. Other people that have used your workflow, also have had wrong results.
- I tell you about the error and you fix it. Everybody is happy
- I tell you about the error, but you get mad at me and don't fix it. Or, I put a positive comment on somebody else's workflow saying that it is better.
Later, I submit a paper to a journal using a different workflow, and you are my peer reviewer. You are still mad at me and give me negative comments, saying that I should have used your protocol, because you are anonymous, and you think I am an incompetent.
In the meanwhile, people can always see my negative feedback on your workflow, and decide whether I am rigth or not.
- I send you a personal comment, but you don't like it, and decide to don't change the workflow.
In the time we discuss about it, people will continue using the protocol, but without knowing that it can possibly contain an error.

Honestly, I though you were already sensible about this problem that affects any social web network for scientists, and I wasn't expecting such a rude answer for a negative feedback. 

So, what will be your policy about negative comments on myExperiment? Are you going to allow them? Are you going to explain this issue to your users, so they can understand the problem and maybe be less prone to go angry? Or put some kind of moderation (having someone in charge of moderating comments)?

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Marco Roos
Faculty of Science
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403, room F1.02
1098 SJ Amsterdam
tel. +31 (0) 20 525 7522
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.roos1 (includes links to social networks)
Note the change of e-mail address to address@hidden
  

-- 

Marco Roos
Faculty of Science
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 403, room F1.02
1098 SJ Amsterdam
tel. +31 (0) 20 525 7522
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.roos1 (includes links to social networks)
Note the change of e-mail address to address@hidden