Pepsi spill causes sticky mess in science blogging ecosystem
It didn’t last. ScienceBlogs decided to host blogs run by the press offices of some major research institutions, like Brookhaven National Labs. Although the material from Brookhaven and the others is generally excellent, the decision suggested that Seed had a somewhat loose attitude towards the separation of promotional and news material in comparison with many traditional media outlets. Things got looser still when ScienceBlogs started a food and nutrition blog run by Pepsi, but failed to provide any indication of the commercial interests behind it.
Most of the traditional journalists, sensing the obvious attempt by Seed to cash in on their credibility, quickly quit (David Dobbs provided an excellent explanation as to why). Over the next few days, some of the scientists also left, some of them voicing more general discontent about neglected IT and other management issues. A number of the remainders went on strike. People on competing sites questioned the value of platforms, and a few of them left, too. For a brief moment, platforms and their collective credibility and impact looked to have been a passing phase.