Comments 1 to 4:

1. actually thoughtful at 10:36 AM on 23 January, 2012
   From your perspective, how well does SkS communicate what peer reviewed science has to say about global warming? /Does one have to be a climate science wonk in order to comprehend the majority of articles posted on SkS? Very well/No Does the three-tiered rebuttal system serve a useful purpose? Hmm. I like it in that usually all I need is the basic and the intermediate usually meets my wonkish needs. I have occasionally used the advanced when someone pulls the science card on me. But at that moment I am probably in trouble when they respond "yeah, but". This is probably my limitation, and not the format. How could SkS better communicate information to the average person who has only a rudimentary understanding of climate science? I think the recent focus on the multiple lines of evidence is very helpful. A few more powerful analogies between things we don't know everything about and climate change (which we also don't know everything about) - ie against the myth that we don't know everything so we can't do anything. It seems the basis for much of the resistance amongst skeptics is the idea that we will "trash the economy over poorly understood, convenient lies from the left". So an expansion of the "It is (much) cheaper to avoid this problem than to somehow solve it after the fact" line of articles is probably a very useful avenue to pursue. I look forward to the results from BC and California, but surely there are things to say before we get all the data from that. Also, the term mitigation is always one that I think could be used before or AFTER an event, so not using that term might make the material more approachable (and it might be my mental block on the word mitigation).
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2. Doug Hutcheson at 17:56 PM on 27 January, 2012

   From your perspective, how well does SkS communicate what peer reviewed science has to say about global warming?

   SkS is my major resource for AGW info. The recent addition of the weekly summary of papers gives me the impression that I am getting access to a broad cross-section of the available literature, so from my perspective you are doing an excellent job.

   Does one have to be a climate science wonk in order to comprehend the majority of articles posted on SkS?

   Majority? No. Some are beyond my non-scientific education at times, but the comments generally clarify points that have gone over my head.

   Does the three-tiered rebuttal system serve a useful purpose?

   Definitely valuable to me. In fact, reading them in order from simplest to most technical often helps me to understand the technical ones better.

   How could SkS better communicate information to the average person who has only a rudimentary understanding of climate science?

   I came here as a person in that category and have found almost everything accessible and comprehensible, but that may partly be due to my being interested enough in the topic to google for further explanations of things I don't understand first time. Often, I find the original papers under discussion a bit incomprehensible, for example because I lack the math to follow the equations, but the SkS articles themselves are generally lucid and paced at my speed (unlike one of your commenters to a thread late last year, who linked to his own blog and I challenge anyone to figure out what he is saying: perhaps I lack the comprehension skills needed [grin]).
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3. adelady at 20:17 PM on 27 January, 2012
   "Does one have to be a climate science wonk in order to comprehend the majority of articles posted on SkS?" No. If you're a non-science person, SkS is probably the best way to become such a 'wonk'. And the 3 tier system is fantastic.
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4. SeaHuck5891 at 04:02 AM on 30 January, 2012
   I am new to the site and this is my first post. My question is this: Is it possible to include a feature that allows me to see when new comments have been added to each post since I last viewed it? For example, it could read "55 comments, 4 new." I like to read all the comments, and it is difficult to know when new comments have been added since I last viewed the post. Just wondering if this is an option. Thanks for the consideration and for making this site what it is.
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   Moderator Response: Part of what you're asking for is accessible by clicking the Comments link in the blue horizontal bar at the top of the page.

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