As some of you know, I have the singular honor of moderating the discussion on blog carnivals at the upcoming ScienceOnline’09 sciblogging conference. In the interest of being as thorough as possible, I want to know which blog carnivals YOU favor, especially from the perspective of someone interested in nature and science. Which do you read and which do you participate in. While you’re at it, do you have any particular questions about any aspect of blog carnivals? If so, lay them on me!
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
I started my blog about 8 months ago, and have participated in IATB several times. I contributed to Festival of the Trees for the first time just recently. I have been reading IATB for most of the past 6 months, and I just started reading FOTT. I enjoy the different thoughts and points of view from other bloggers. I especially like hearing and seeing posts from bloggers around the world, in places I may never visit. It is like virtual travel. Very fun!
That’s a great honor. Congrats! I participate in IATB when I remember, FOTT once, some food carnival that you did once, and COTS once or twice. They do seem to generate a bit of extra traffic which is nice. My trouble is keeping track of which ones run when and just remembering to do it. I really like that you send out an email to all of the former participants. I don’t think all of the carnivals do that. I have a question: Why are they called “carnivals”?
IATB is the only one that I participate in consistently, since it is what I write about most consistently. Circus of the Spineless, Oekologie, and Linnaeus’ Legacy are also really good carnivals, with really good submissions. I learned a lot when I hosted the latter two. It’s too bad that COTS has fallen on hard times recently.
I get all of my blog carnival thrills from IATB, Linnaeus’ Legacy, and Tangled Bank. If there are other science/biology/systematics/herps/birds carnivals out there, do please share! 🙂