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Comment by Vinnl | Hacker News Reader

So one question: who is your target audience? Is it the layman/citizen researcher who might want to read academic publications? Or is it more meant to apply peer review to preprints?

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One thing that I strongly dislike is the name, upvote.pub. Science is not a popularity contest where the candidate with the most upvotes wins. To me the name suggests that this site is trying too hard to force science into the categories of social media and that it may not be a place for serious discussion. I write this not because I want to be negative but because I know that many of my colleagues will immediately be put off by the name. ResearchGate is also trying to conceptualize academic exchange in terms of the categories of social media and most of my colleagues dislike it. The platform certainly looks like it could be useful but, yes, it's sending mixed signals about the audience and purpose.

Edit: Downvotes? Please explain how I violated the etiquette?

I have the same exact feelings. A standard non-expiring, ordered by recentness, threaded, forum would just work better.

Thanks for the feedback.

The site is very much an experiment and can definitely be improved. Its not designed to be a popularity contest. I am hoping old and new research is submitted and that the commenting function of the site can counterbalance articles that are overhyped.

As I said, I think the page itself could be useful. It's mainly a marketing issue. Although, a point could be made that such a page should not have voting at all. Some simple one-click user feedback can be useful but perhaps don't call it "vote" which implies that the community is trying to reach a verdict on someone's research. Researchers are very sensitive about their work and may not like it.

> Science is not a popularity contest where the candidate with the most upvotes wins.

Correct, it's the most citations.

It's easy to be cynical about this, but even citation count is a more useful signal than upvotes.

The target audience is anyone interested in discussing academic preprints/publications. Currently, it is restricted to only academic emails but I am hoping to open it up to anyone. Clearly, that will likely draw in scientists but I'd like anyone that wants to participate to be able to.

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