Though I’m a little late, I’m a forgiving sort, so I won’t be mad at myself for forgetting my blogiversary. June 4 marked five years of the SkeptVet Blog! The project has grown in so many ways. In the early days, I was excited to get fifty hits in a day, and in the last year it has been routine to get 800-1000 per day. Still small potatoes by Internet standards, but gratifying nonetheless. My goal has always been to provide a useful informational resource to pet owners and veterinarians, and to provide an alternative perspective on many therapies for which the only information on the internet is biased and unjustified marketing hype. The more people who know the blog is here, the more useful it is likely to be.
I have also expanded to discuss a much wider range of topics, even leaving the domain of alternative medicine more and more often. And in writing articles every week for five years, hopefully I have become a more effective communicator. I cringe when I look at the style and tone of some of my early posts, but I choose to view that as a good sign since it must mean I have grown and changed.
Writing this blog has provided me with opportunities to talk about evidence-based medicine more widely, to veterinarians and students and the general public, through my own lectures and presentations, writing opportunities, and interviews in the media. Hopefully, these activities will add an under-represented perspective, that of science and skepticism, to conversations within these communities about the best way to protect and restore health in our animal companions. I’ve never claimed to have all the answers, but I think I have some important and useful questions.
And writing this blog has certainly stimulated discussion and feedback. I have reviewed the negative comments before because I believe they are instructive in understanding the beliefs, values, and emotions that support pseudoscience and impede the effective use of science to improve veterinary medicine and animal health. But as an anniversary present to myself and those who find this project useful, I thought I’d review some of the positive feedback I’ve received. As well as being fun, this will help maintain the energy needed to keep going, which I fully intend to do. (All comments have been anonymized).
As a side note, another way to maintain this energy is going on vacation, which I will be doing starting this weekend. So activity, including responses to comments and emails, will be pretty light here for a few weeks. Never fear, I will keep up as best I can while I’m travelling, and I will dive back in with responses to your questions and comments and new articles with renewed vigor when I get back.
Finally, I offer a heartfelt “Thank you!” to all who have taken the time to provide supportive comments, questions or suggestions for topics to discuss, and thoughtful, substantive criticism. Your feedback does a great deal to neutralize the vacuous and angry responses a blog such as this inevitably draws and to maintain my faith in the possibility of civil, rational, fact-based discourse.
Happy 5th Blogiversary to Me!