Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

If you have a twitter account, you've probably seen the occasional tweet flow past mentioning the Shorty Awards in the last few days. The Shorties are an independent award for the best short-form content in a number of categories, awarded annually in March.

As you might expect from our friend the internet, alt-med woo-woo, anti-vaccination nutbaggery and pseudoscience are rife, and alt-med quacks are polling high in the #health category. This is not a good thing

Luckily, skeptics to the rescue.

Doctor Rachael Dunlop, heart disease researcher, blogger, podcaster and science-based medicine campaigner, is now the subject of a campaign to take back the #health category for science-based medicine.

So. Here's what you do.

  • Hit this link.
  • Enter your vote in the box as per the instructions, for @DrRachie in #health.
  • Remember to place your own reason after the "because" - votes without a reason are discounted later
  • Hit "Tweet your vote"
  • You'll be asked for your twitter credentials. Fill them in and you'll be redirected back to the shorty site
  • Make sure your vote was accepted
  • Get your followers to do the same
This last one is important. The current leading quack has nearly three times as many followers as Dr Rachie does at the moment, and is actively campaigning.

It's a small thing, but an important thing.

And don't forget, you can also nominate your own favourite skeptic or health campaigner - more than one nomination in a  category seems to be OK, check the rules if in doubt.

Finally, If you have a blog, please blog this and get the word out even further. We're on the way to #1 but we need a margin.

Help us take back the #health category for rational medicine.

[Update 23 Jan 2010: HealthRanger has been disqualified from the awards for vote fraud - a huge number of freshly-minted accounts began voting for Mike Adams soon after Dr Rachie took the lead. Shorty administrators canned his nominations in all categories not that long after. Health Ranger was, however, solidly in the lead in the #sockpuppetry category before his demise. Lulz. Mike's Butthurt reaction and sidewiki commentary can be found here]

posted @ Wednesday, January 20, 2010 2:22 PM

 
 
 

Comments on this entry:

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by Geek at 1/25/2010 1:42 PM
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So your the one that got him kicked off the shortys. Hope your proud of yourself now for voting in someone who has no credentials like Rachel instead of someone who merely has an alternate view like Mike Adams. We all know that anyone who voted for Rachel would NEVER create new twitter accounts just to put her in the lead right? RIGHT? Its ok, you can feel completely guilty for what you did.

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by Jason at 1/25/2010 1:49 PM
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LOL.

I LOL, hard.

Baaaw more. Your tears are like liquid gold.

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by Sean the Blogonaut at 1/25/2010 2:02 PM
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Jason, you made the baby Jesus cry.

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by Jason at 1/25/2010 2:16 PM
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Sean, I *live* to see the baby jesus cry.

;-)

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by T at 1/25/2010 2:42 PM
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Links seem to have javascript breakies.

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by Jason at 1/25/2010 3:12 PM
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Links fixed. Firefox and SubText don't play nice together, it appears. Chrome is worse though.

# re: Help fight pseudo-scientific medical quackery on twitter

Left by weez at 1/25/2010 4:05 PM
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Geek did spew:

So your the one that got him kicked off the shortys.


No- it was the people who cast invalid votes who got the Health Danger kicked out of the competition. Jason & I merely alerted the Shortys to the improprieties.

Hope your proud of yourself now for voting in someone who has no credentials like Rachel


Dr Rachael Dunlop has a PhD from Sydney University Medical School and works full time in heart disease research. Her credentials thus trounce any so far produced by Mike Adams, which to date amount to none.


instead of someone who merely has an alternate view like Mike Adams.


'Alternate' is not a synonym for 'wrong.' Adams spreads utter falsehoods and half-baked conspiracy theories. Mind you, most of what Adams publishes is not even wrong.

We all know that anyone who voted for Rachel would NEVER create new twitter accounts just to put her in the lead right? RIGHT?


The voting in the Shortys is completely open. You may audit the votes cast for @DrRachie if you like, just as we audited those cast for Adams.


Its ok, you can feel completely guilty for what you did.


Guilty for exposing vote rigging? You apparently think fraud is good, but I suppose that's intrinsic in any fan of Adams' tripe.
Comments have been closed on this topic.
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