Introducing myself out of silent lurk
 

In the absence of an "Introducing myself" sticky, here's my howdy.
I'm a research neurologist with psych interests.
I've lurked in these ABC forums for nearly 3 years now, collecting observations of online group behaviour.
Have always felt a little uneasy not being able to be seen observing you lot, so I'm grateful for the online visibility function...which I will try to remember to use by logging on to do the perving.
And to forestall the objections about being watched: you want to display else you wouldn't be posting online, would you?
Good luck with the project of saving your community; the effort being put in implies that you value it as much as any offline one.

Peace and light.

Knew someone had to be watching. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.png

You do know that all our stuff is copyright and unusable without first paying the price of a hug. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png

Good to see you throw off the cloak of invisibility to make a post http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png

No worries my end, nothing to hide here http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png

And welcome BTW, I'm sure there's plenty of "research subjects" here to keep you amused.

Hi HD and welcome.

Feel free to continue to lurk. There's nothing wrong with that. I think we're all well aware what we post is open for the public (anywhere in the world!) to view at any time.

I can only imagine the reams of material you've gathered from over there

By being observed observing, you can drastically affect the behaviour of the individuals you're trying to observe. That's why we build hides for bird watching. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png

Yep. spot on Teleost

By posting and informing us that you are "observing" us implies a desire to participate. This can, of course, contaminate any behavior you are observing. In reality, there is no need to watch in real time as there are time and datestamped records of all public activities within this (and the previous) forum that can be downloaded and analysed at your leisure.

Good luck with your amateur psychology. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.png

By revealing the observer you have changed the experiment. Now antisocial types will be encouraged to troll knowing they are going to skew serious research. Meanwhile the gentle folk here will perhaps think twice before hitting the send button.

The cat is dead.

I don't think most of us have a care.. However there are always the oddballs, distinguishable by their actions.

SSSF has gone Quantum?!

ahhhh a professional observer, someone with perhaps an unbiased honest opinion, based on years of intellectual exercises, countless hours of mentoring by masters of the sciences, night after long night pouring over text books, cramming for tests, so let my ask, do these jeans make my arse look fat http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...endly_wink.png

Without any quals whatsoever I can answer that....




























but I'm not gonna.

Excellent!

... until he checks with his lawyer, that is.
(look, no smiley)

I am starving hungry. I just raided Bill's fridge. Fortunately there was chocolate. I will commence gnawing on his Dad's arm and his arm if food is not supplied shortly. Did I mention I am starving. So it is safe when people are fed. When they are not - keep a safe distance. (That is the OH&S out of the way!)

You bit peckish Ms Spock? Here, have one of these http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/cupcake.png

I won't tell you about the five course banquet I'm having for lunch...
































































'coz it simply isn't true.

Thanks for the responses.
@ Dark Orange: It's not as straightforward as that; I only drop in to the rolling chat area of any public forum, and only on a schedule - it's a bit like a series plot as done by ecology 101 students, if that makes it any clearer for you. Most of the other fora I observe (50 for this study, across UK, US, Netherlands, Australia and Sweden) are on relay chat servers which do indeed maintain records, but a large percentage of them don't have the resources to do this *reliably* and I find that I annoy maintainers for archives too much for their comfort and so I have changed the model to *whatever shows in a window as dictated by the schedule*.
More importantly, for the ABC Forums case, records were "moderated" out of existence. This I think you do understand, and I have no doubt that there will be parts of this new-style rolling chat that will also be moderated out of the record.
For my experiment, I thus "drop in" to observe the chat thread for a set time, on a rolling calendar schedule and note interactions on an ethologist's scale (one developed by Robert Sapolsky whose work with baboons should be familiar to some in here). I capture the session in real time and thus avoid moderation blanks. It's the moderation that's the interaction just as much, if not more, as it is the greetings and goodbyes and sharing.

@ all other responders, Although I am interested in science discussion, of course!, I don't enjoy doing it in public like this, but thanks very much for the invitation to participate.

As I first said, it has always been a worry that you may not be aware of being observed for *my particular purpose*.
The observed observer is a bit of a fun idea to play with but as I have said, the observation by others is already a given if you participate in online chat. Indeed, the mention of others lurking is a component of chat always.
So with those 2 thoughts, I'll be happy to withdraw my registration as a non-contributing member, or to flag whenever I'm capturing a session.
It's your forum and your decision.

I won't post again, but shall comply with whatever you decide.

Good luck!

I don't care if you are lurking or not. It's not like there aren't loads of other lurkers who are all entertaining themselves in various ways.

You can participate though - we could use someone with your skills at times to comment on various threads.

Hilarious - I always thought someone was watching, observing, caterogorising comments.

No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that this forum was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this forum about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.

Mind boggles but I return to thinking the best of anyone in regards to lurking entertainment. But no, they have stated they aren't, otherwise they would be dragged into Hotel Californialand ne'er to return.