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Letter from the author, 8/15/02
This story has been up for a couple of weeks now, so I thought I'd bring visitors up to date with the feedback I have, and have not, been getting.
We're close to 17,000 hits. That's a lot. Myself, I live in a town of less than a thousand, so I'm pretty floored. The story has been linked to by several web news pages, and dozens of discussion boards. I've received, as you can imagine, tons of email.
Email breaks down into roughly three groups. There's quite a bit of "atta boy" mail, telling me to keep the faith and the truth will come out. There are also many "my story" emails, with folks letting me know where they were, what they heard, and so on. I really enjoy those, keep them coming. And there are handfuls of people asking informed questions about the story itself, telling me where I've been less than clear. This is also much appreciated.
What amazes me, out of these 17,000 people, is that there are two types of mail notably absent from my inbox. I have yet to receive mail from anyone in the geosciences, saying "I've looked at your data analysis, and here's where you goofed." I've seen the IP log, and I know some of you are out there. No feedback? And I have yet to receive substantial mail from the major press outlets. With a couple of notable exceptions, none of them have sent me a note. Why? Again, from the IP log, I know at least some of them are reading the piece. I know it's a leap to take a freebie, home-grown website at its word, but someone's got to muster the courage to take this on.
To that end, I'd encourage anyone with an interest in this piece to contact their local press folks, let them know this information is being offered. As I mentioned in the ever-growing FAQ, this is something of an experiment in web journalism. I'd like to think there's a conclusion to all this, either someone telling me I'm way off, which I'd of course share with all of you, or someone picking up the baton, so to speak.
Either way, I'm looking forward to it.
