@Mill_lab @florianjug In the end, I am happy to see that it's the people that make the scientific network interesting, not the site per se. At least we have that with us.

@albertcardona @florianjug I am amazed Albert at your energy on this platform 😮 - have you completely transitioned from ? Do you feel the rest of your community has come with you? This is where I feel 'my community' is falling down- why we straddle- because of old skool stolwarts who stand by until it sinks, rare disease groups that lack 'hours/time/people/money' for step change, and policy makers stuck in status quo. I am so envious of where you are at....

@Mill_lab @florianjug While I left the other site behind, I still keep a foot there to drag out stragglers.

On the energy, it's deliberate. This is a time of great opportunity to shape the public discourse channels of the scientific community for years to come. So I got to work to assist as best I know.

I've been in online communities since 1995, when my parents bought an intel 386 "clone" (as we called them back then) with (the horror) MS Windows 95 and dial-up internet. Living in online communities comes natural. Been a moderator of IRC chats, poetry forums, software forums, and more, for decades.

One aspect I see as key is a variation of the founder effect: nobody moves unless there's something to move into, and there won't be something to move into unless most move. To push over this bistable system into its other state, energy must be applied. Here, "something" is both interesting commentary, links, news, photos, and more, as well as people with similar interests.

Putting in energy (time and effort, really) at the beginning can make a dramatic difference to the outcome. My approach was then, indeed, deliberate: post here what I used to post on the other site, reach out to those who have moved and engage with them, lure those on the other side with links to here and never the other way, promote here relevant news (job posts, conferences, papers) and showcase examples of community-triggered switching (publishers and journals), stimulate commentary, seed insight.

Eventually I'll wind down, but at the moment, this fire needs kindling. So far, so good.

@Mill_lab @florianjug In other words, following from @jdrugowitsch et al. work [1], "Decision making often involves the accumulation of information over time, but acquiring information typically comes at a cost."

The decision here is whether to stay when one switches; switching in itself is merely part of exploratory behavior. Gathering evidence that a permanent switch is worth it has a cost. One has to act (to reduce that cost) before the step increase of costs (of unassisted gathering) beyond what's acceptable.

[1] "The cost of accumulating evidence in perceptual decision making" Drugowitsch et al. 2012 https://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/11/3612.short

#neuroscience

@albertcardona @florianjug I really applaud the energy Albert (and the explanation)- I sure the growing #ScienceMastodon community does too. I will try to consciously do this more too- channel my inner Albert! #FounderEffect #CreateYourSpace #TwitterMigration