Frequently asked questions about the site
- Why do you use that huuuuge font?
- I'm trying to find your e-mail address, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere. Are you trying to mess with my mind?
- You seem to write about all kinds of stuff. What do you actually work on?
- I'd like to use one of those drawings in a paper. Where did you get them?
- I'd really like to meet other people/post my angry opinion/fawn over your blog/try to convert you to creationism. Why don't you allow comments?
- I linked to your post, now how do I trackback?
- The layout of your site seems really cool/really ugly/really unfamiliar to me. What weblogging software do you use?
- I have a great product that would interest your readers...
- Your "advanced search" doesn't seem very advanced...
- You seem to have all this new stuff on January 1. But I was reading the site then! I don't remember all that stuff being there! What gives?
- You said "x", which sounds just like something your undergraduate advisor/graduate advisor/postdoctoral advisor/current colleagues/random person on the street would say. I'm beginning to think you're nothing but an intellectual clone!
- You cited my work as saying "x" when what it really says is "y". I don't think "x" at all, indeed I think my data conservatively show "something only slightly short of x". Can't you see the difference?
- You keep talking about these "readers" as if someone actually reads this site. Exactly how many readers do you have?
- Why isn't my site on your blogroll?
- Everyone knows that a non-peer-reviewed site can't be a real forum for scientific communication! I choose to ignore your non-peer-reviewed reality and create my own!
Why do you use that huuuuge font?
Because I use and read the site myself, and that's what I can comfortably read. And because electronic reading is easier with bigger font sizes, generally -- although it leads to more scrolling.
But perhaps what you are seeing is bigger than what the rest of us are seeing. Browsers do vary in their font size presentation (in particular between some versions of Internet Explorer on Windows and the rest of the world. Most recent versions of browsers allow you to scale the text larger or smaller at the push of a button. The site works well with this feature: if you want to see more text, then scale it smaller and everything will still stay where it belongs.
I'm trying to find your e-mail address, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere. Are you trying to mess with my mind?
My e-mail filters capture around 100 pieces of spam e-mail a day. A little under half of these harvested my e-mail from the UW anthropology faculty list. So I try not to proliferate my e-mail address more than this.
I am always pleased to hear from readers who brave Google to find my address. I especially appreciate tips, and use them for many stories.
But please keep in mind that I teach around 400 students a semester, all of whom have e-mail priority.
You seem to write about all kinds of stuff. What do you actually work on?
I have done research on australopithecines, early Homo, Neandertals, archaic humans in Java and China and modern human origins. Some of this work has been historical, but most has used fossil and genetic evidence. My dissertation research was an investigation of population size in human evolution.
What ties things together in my work is the application of innovative quantitative methods. Every paper so far has used a new one. What I like to do more than anything else is to test assumptions.
I really can't talk about what I'm working on right now. I have many coauthors, and some of them are providing data that is not yet public. There is some exciting stuff coming soon, though....
I'd like to use one of those drawings in a paper. Where did you get them?
I drew them. It was a lot of work. My children like to eat. Please don't use them without permission.
I'd really like to meet other people/post my angry opinion/fawn over your blog/try to convert you to creationism. Why don't you allow comments?
Comments mean comment spam, which I would have to clean up. As long as I have young visitors, I'm not having escort services (or worse) cluttering up the comments.
Personally, I think that most sites that allow comments are really just trying to double their page views for advertising purposes. I don't have any ads.
If you are interested in meeting people with interests in human evolution, there are several excellent message boards at Yahoo! Groups and elsewhere. I think that discussing new stuff on those boards is a much better solution than allowing comments here would be.
I linked to your post, now how do I trackback?
Sorry, at this time I don't have trackbacks.
What do you mean, you don't have trackbacks? Everybody has trackbacks! It's so easy! On Movable Type/Blogger/LiveJournal you just do x...
Yes, I know how to implement trackbacks. I even post them myself at other sites. It's just a bit more trouble for me to administer, because they are integrated with comments on my system. When I make it easy for myself, they will likely magically appear one day, and I can remove these FAQ entries.
The layout of your site seems really cool/really ugly/really unfamiliar to me. What weblogging software do you use?
The site runs on Blosxom, which is a lightweight collection of Perl scripts to manage content and serve it as a blog. It uses my file system as a database, which is invisible to you, but has immense benefits to me in portability, maintainability across several computers, backup, and ease of use. All my posts are plain text, and the system presents them automagically in order based on the file modification dates or other criteria if I choose. Also, the appearance of the site is almost infinitely flexible.
I chose the system because of my other writing requirements. In particular it makes it easy for me to transfer material across computers, between the weblog and my books, and between the weblog and class handouts.
But it does take some technical knowledge to make it work, and it requires certain kinds of control over the server. I don't recommend it for first-timers, especially if you don't have a facility for programming.
I have a great product that would interest your readers...
If I move to a paid-hosting service, I'll be back in touch.
Your "advanced search" doesn't seem very advanced...
Try using "and" between search terms. Also, the results are listed by date, which doesn't always put the most relevant entry at the top.
You seem to have all this new stuff on January 1. But I was reading the site then! I don't remember all that stuff being there! What gives?
First of all, thanks for being a long-time reader!
The system processes every new file for inclusion on the main page. But sometimes I don't want something to appear there, like this FAQ, for example. So I give those files a date sometime in the past, so they won't look new to the system.
You said "x", which sounds just like something your undergraduate advisor/graduate advisor/postdoctoral advisor/current colleagues/random person on the street would say. I'm beginning to think you're nothing but an intellectual clone!
If you only knew what they say about me behind my back...
You cited my work as saying "x" when what it really says is "y". I don't think "x" at all, indeed I think my data conservatively show "something only slightly short of x". Can't you see the difference?
The casual reader may doubt that I have ever had this particular question asked. Except for those few who have actually e-mailed me versions of this question and are probably still grumbling beneath their voices about it. And then there are those readers who may never have read an academic exchange to see how biting and ugly they can be.
If you feel that I have maligned your work in any way, please write and let me know. If you are not a regular reader, you may not know that I have given people the opportunity to have their opinion posted with equal prominence to my own if they disagree.
I do try to give an honest impression of the importance (or lack of importance) of current research. If I didn't express an honest opinion, I doubt that I'd have many readers. But I do make mistakes, and I hope to be corrected whenever appropriate.
You keep talking about these "readers" as if someone actually reads this site. Exactly how many readers do you have?
As of August, 2005, on any given day I have around 1000 visitors, who view 1700 pages. This is a bit more than one page per minute every day, or one file from the server every 15 seconds. During the month of July, I was visited from over 8000 sites in 80 different countries.
These numbers indicate that many of my readers are very loyal and check back often. I appreciate this very much, and I know who many of you are. Thank you.
I also appreciate the many links I have received from other sites. Keep it up!
Why isn't my site on your blogroll?
My blogroll evolution is very slow. I tend to add things that I read myself regularly. The most likely reason you're not there is that I haven't seen your blog. Send me an e-mail to remind me to look, and I'll stop by. If I read it, I'll link.
There are a few sites that I don't link because they contain a lot of political content, although things that I read regularly tend to overcome this proscription. Still, the only advocacy here is scientific, and I try to keep links on the site strictly nonpartisan.
Everyone knows that a non-peer-reviewed site can't be a real forum for scientific communication! I choose to ignore your non-peer-reviewed reality and create my own!
Hmmm...this question seems to be inescapably oxymoronic. If someone intended to ignore what I wrote, why would they e-mail me about it?
Hey, you're getting a little biting and ugly there!
Sorry, I forgot this wasn't peer-reviewed.
John Hawks Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Copyright © 2007 John Hawks