Seriousness takes over from relevance
What I describe is anodyne. Like many, if I read anything on the web, especially if the post or writing is good, I skim through any comments others have made. Sometimes the comments are more meaningful (to me) than the article. Seemingly, most of the time I must compartmentalise my behaviour, because most ‘serious’ journals don’t follow these norms, and I must sense what the culture norms are as I read. This is just one reason amongst many, why ‘serious’ journals matter less and less in the spread of ideas. So, there I was reading an article in the Annals of Internal medicine, only to forget ‘where’ I was. A frantic 30 seconds of trying to navigate to the comments section, only not to be able to find it. Then the penny dropped: this is old and ‘serious’ media. As Sam Shuster said, paraphrasing De Selby, ‘Serious science takes over from relevance’.