What do you want to see?

I need peoples’ considered opinion on how to make this blog maximally worthwhile.

As most of us are aware, there’s an enormous and growing body of things to read on the internet. Because time is always at a premium, you really have to be careful in choosing what to read. [This point is magnified when it comes to deciding what to write, because writing takes longer than reading does.] Aside from the desire to be entertained, I think it’s fair to say that most of us want to read things that inform us about some topic we are interested in, which are short and clear, which are trustworthy, and preferably on which we also have something to contribute to the conversation, however small, even if only questions.

What I need feedback on is the question of what kind of article/information is most helpful to you, or conversely, the kind of thing that is not, for whatever reason. This can include things like the topics covered, the way they’re covered (depth vs breadth, quantitative vs verbal, etc), sites you already favor/disfavor for whatever reason, the types of things that typically confuse or throw you–anything at all really. My personal view on this is that posts that help people to understand scientific concepts/practices/methods for themselves are the most useful, because people trust conclusions only when they first understand how they were reached, and there is often a tremendous amount of murk and confusion in scientific discourse that prevents this. Lecturing on things as some kind of authority is unlikely to be helpful in promoting real understanding–what we need is helpful contributions/perspectives from as many people as possible.

Please fire away; write as much as you want. This is quite important and I’m going to be reading the responses carefully.