Posted by bob on April 15, 2000, at 23:27:21
In reply to Re: TO DR BOB, posted by Charles Nemeroff on April 15, 2000, at 22:16:21
You know, at the very least, you'll always be able to get their "two cents" out of people now and then.
I imagine that people who don't find anything of value here won't stick around.
Who knows? They may even get offensive. But it, er, "pays" to know your audience ... and I imagine most Babblelanders are much better than the general public at being intrapersionally offensive and at shrugging off the interpersonal offensiveness of others.
Quite frankly, I know no one who can be more injurious to me than myself, and nearly all attempts by others at trying to hurt my feelings get laughed off rather heartily! By the time I stop laughing at the attempts of amateurs, I usually give them some advice on what to say if they *really* wanted to do some damage ... but it never does seem the same to hear the vitriol I fling at myself coming out of the mouths of others -- they just can't get it right. (sigh ... surrounded by rank amateurs ....)
Then again when it comes to payback, Dr. Bob, I'd say that the number of people who have been paid something of value by their participation in this board is inestimable, and the sum of all that wealth incalculable. The currency earned here has nothing to do with the US Mint and, I think most Babblelanders will agree, has some true value to it.
As for **your** compensation -- hey! Whatever happened to altruism?! ;^)
I do think a MacArthur Grant would be appropriate, but until that comes along, maybe you could give us the names and addresses of those who have any decision-making power over your hours, salary, tenure-review, etc. Maybe we could all write to those folks and convince them just how much good running this board (and the rest of your site) does.
One thing I think you should do is to create a Babbleland Bookstore. We've all read all sorts of books on the disorders we deal with ... quite frankly, if I was going to buy Kay Jamison's latest book and I had a choice of where some of the money I spend of the book would go, I would *love* to have some of it redirected into your pocket. I'd even be happy to write a review and let you post it at your discretion, rather than giving my prose to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com or Borders.com or whoever else.com.
Now, as for my two cents on registration...I agree with those who say registration is more hassle than ignoring the occasional village idiot. Well, that was a bit unkind of me ... seeing as such posters are probably far more troubled than the average Babblelander and, in spite of their spite, deserve compassion more than anger. Anyway, using registration to deter them ain't worth it.
If it's demographics you want, then there is a better way as well -- one that preserves true anonymity. Create a form to gather demographic information. Do not include a field that would capture someone's handle or their email address. **Do**, however, have the script that processes the form data write a cookie that simply acknowledges that the poster has filled out the form. The Excite-Harris poll does something similar to make sure people don't post multiple responses (from one machine, that is) to a poll question. Then, you could put a link for it on your home page, on Babble's home page, or any other part of your site that you want. You could point out that no identifying information will be gathered and that the sole purpose for writing the cookie is to note that someone has posted data -- not anything that would tie the data to an individual.
This way, you could even ask us to fill out the form ever 3 months or so, to get an idea of how the demographics change rather than simply adding new folks onto the data heap.
Well, anyway, by now I think I owe you a quarter ... 13 cents of which should be returned to me, 10 cents distributed amongst my fellow Babblelanders, and two cents you can keep for yourself.
cheers,
bob
poster:bob
thread:30069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30181.html