Politically Incorrect

The arXiv is one of the great developments in the history of scientific publication. It's very unfortunate then, that it, or at least part of it, was captured by anti-scientific cranks with no tolerance for criticism. Some time ago, some string theorists thought it would be a good idea to allow trackbacks from the papers to blogs referencing them. This was OK until some Stalinist string theorists noticed that some blogs referencing the papers actually criticized not only the papers, but the whole string theory program. The problem, it seems, was Peter Woit.

Peter has an amusing update of the situation today. It seems that an anonymous new blog (started by Peter) with the proper attitude of deference (called "String Theory Fan") does meet the rigorous scientific standards needed to qualify for trackbacks, even if Peter's blog doesn't.

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