Biographical Profile--Pros and Cons?

The BBQ Pit
1

It would be helpful to me in reading posts from various UserNames to know if they are:

  1. Male or female
  2. Age
  3. Occupation
  4. City and or State

I can understand not inserting the city in some cases or even occupations. But if everyone is responding " as they think it is", what does he or she fear?

I bring this up because a college kid is generally likely to be more"liberal" that an older person out in the world earning a living full time to feed his/her family. (Please don’t bring up that a lot of college kids work to feed families. I think you know what I mean).

An older individual on Medicare might care much more about having to pay out of his own pocket for drugs than a much younger person.

Why are so many members, regular and otherwise omit what city they live in; what their occupations are; age and whether they are male or female. I remember with Tergiversater, people including me didn’t even know whether Tergie was male or female to the pt. where someone called him an "it.

Please respond with your comments.

2

It’s the net, pal (or gal, I can’t tell)! Do you need to know if I’m male or female to evaluate what I have to say?

3

I dont mind people knowing that information about me, however I did remove my email and icq number due to some scummy mail I received and at the same time just removed everything.

Female
37
Admin in a School
Edmonton,Alberta, Canada

We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another

4

Well, even though I revealed a lot on my user profile, I’d rather not give y’all my home phone number.

If you’re a good enough detective, you can probably find out who I am with much less information than I’ve chosen to display now.

OH GOD DAMN!!!
THEY [PLAYED THAT HAMSTER DANCE COMMMMMERCIAL AGAIN!!!
tHEY DO IT AGAIN, i’LL HAVE TO shoOT my teleVISION!!!

Now, what was I saying???

Also it removes those “you’re just a know-nothing” kid arguments.

5

I can’t tell if this is a flame or not. Take this question to GQ…

The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera

6

It’s obvious that correspondence over the Internet lacks the face-to-face intimacy of Real World contact, where gender, age, and often times other personality traits that can be inferred from personal appearance are immediately obvious. However, it is still pretty easy to make fairly good guesses at these things a text-based forum such as this.

My gender is easy enough to guess from mu username. Many others have similar dead giveaways built into theirs. Some, like Falcon and TVeblen, revel in the ambiguity that theirs provide, but by reading their postings, more often than not, they give it away. The same goes for age, and the rest. That’s the beauty of this message board. In addition to serious fora such as GQ and Answers to Mailbag Questions, there are fora such as the MPSIMS, where you can go to socialize, and learn a thing or two about the posters. Unlike real life, however, you only learn the things the posters want you to know.

This is the other beauty of this message board. For example, if you looked in my profile, you would see that I live in New Mexico, but don’t tell you where. I have deliberately done this because I am paranoid, and don’t want some cyber-stalker chainsawing himself on my front lawn. Others might not list this data because they don’t believe that it’s important. And is it, really? If you read my profile, all you would learn is that I am a college student from New Mexico. Putting this information into the Generalize-O-Matic would tell you that I’m probably a liberal and that I probably like spicy food. What it would not tell you is that I’m a very tall lesbian with socialist leanings who thinks Tabasco sauce is a bit on the bland side. But you would know this from reading my postings in the MPSIMS. In addition to this, there is the other Teeming Millions site run by OpalCat. If you went there, you could find out what I look like, my exact age, and some other random stuff.

In conclusion, there is no shortage of the information you seek, you just have to know where to look for it. Man does not live by bio sheets alone. After all, can you imagine how boring everyone would seem if they had to compile bio sheets to pass around when they met new people? If the information is something your fellow Dopers want you to know, it is out there somewhere. If it isn’t, then it’s probably not important anyway.

Happy hunting.

An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille.

7

Actually, relying on what people tell you is a rather poor way to figure out where they are going or coming from. A couple of the most rabidly right-wing posters, here, are college kids and several old farts are either ex-60’s hippies, or even older folks with warm, fuzzy feeling for the New Deal. Similarly, the men and women who post here do not easily fall into “male” and “female” stereotypes too easily.

Most of us let enough personality “bleed” into our posts so that if you read regularly you will get an idea of the “positions” of most posters.

If it bothers you, scroll back through MPSIMS for several months. Every few weeks someone starts a “who are you/we?” thread and you can find info there. There is also some sort of thread in the About This Message Board where people are logging their presences. I’m not sure how much personal info they are supplying.

Tom~

8

Virtually none. Mostly one-liners.

Go to MPSIMS and set the viewfinder to about 30 days.

9

Beatle: Under interests: you put “yup”. I guess some of these posters are correct: You CAN learn a lot about some people just from the content of their response.

But my question still holds? Why are so many members unwilling to fill out their profiles truthfully. A lot of members relate a lot about themselves and others are just the opposite. Someone said: What difference does it make whether you know I’m male of female. Answer: It helps a great deal. So many vainglorious members may be 18 yrs or even younger. It helps to have a little more information to help evaluate an opinion. If you disagree say so.

I put this question in this forum not to flame anyone but to allow the responders to say anything they feel necessary.

10

Tom: I am always appreciative of your comments. They are mature and a pleasure to read.

I love the SDMB because I learn a great deal. I learned about “Baby Pigeons” tonight for example. But when it comes to offering an opinion about religion, or the wealthy or pro or anti bigotry, why do so many members “hide”? I’m not going to look up a posters previous posts to figure out who they are. It really isn’t that important. To me this MB is thought provoking and educational. But if some schmuck gives an obviously stupid response, it would be nice to know if its an immature teenager or an immature adult, male or female.

I don’t HAVE to know more about anyone. Just why so many people hide while they are nailing another member to the wall.

11

Actually, my point is that as your read the various posts, you develop your own opinions of the people. Regardless of what they choose to put in their profile, what they put in their posts is going to have more effect on your opinions. I’m not claiming you have no right to ask, only that you can’t depend on that stuff anyway (as you have noticed).

A lot of people are going to put nothing but smart-ass remarks in their profile. A few people will try to puff up their profile. Some people will put someting into their profile that is true–then they will stick around for a year and the profile will no longer be true. (I had to click on mine just now to see what I had said–not much.)

It does take time to find out where everyone is coming from–and some folks will always be something of a mystery either deliberately or not. I put my “Tom~” (reasonably good indicator of gender) at the end so that folks generally don’t ascribe my blatherings to Deb (and so folks can tell when my long posts end), but the rest you’ll just have to pick up as we go along. I’m not trying to hide anything, but there are so many things that go into my posts–the types of education I’ve gotten, my multiple (mundane) careers, my religion, my marriage, my family, etc. I have no idea what I’d put on a profile to tell you really what to look for.

What is it about some middle-aged white guy with some conservative leanings that makes him want to grab a baseball bat when he encounters racial hatred? I dunno. I doubt I could put it into a profile, anyway. And as I noted, we have liberal-goofy kids and liberal-goofy old folks and mean-spirited-conservatives of all ages, as well. We also have hostile liberals and gentle conservatives, so you can’t even make a decision based on general philosophy.

Let me give you a real life example of a “profile” that was way more than misleading. In my life in retail, I was sent to a manager trainee conference. On the first morning of the conference, none of us had met, but we had ID cards at the table with our names and store locations. One of the first topics was Affirmative Action and the very blonde young lady who spoke with very soft final "r"s and whose ID card said Baton Rouge immediately objected that she didn’t see the need for Affirmative Action. I saw several trainees rolling their eyes as soon as she spoke.

In the course of the next three days, it developed that her soft "r"s came from her Rhode Island childhood and that her husband was black. One of her issues had been that she did not want people thinking that her husband (for example) could only get promoted if quotas were in place. At least a couple of people came up to her later in the seminar and apologized for their initial reactions. They had been looking for their clues in her “profile.”
(The story had a happy ending for her, too: the company did not believe in racial quotas.)

I understand your desire to know who people are, but I still say you’ll get more from their posts.

Tom~

12

I’m getting snail mail with this unique user name as well as email for this email address that I use for absolutely nothing else…

This is enough information to put on a public user board.

13

Not sure I follow. Of what moment is the information? The schmuck has defined himself by the post. Does a schmucky post gain cerdibility if the poster if 50, or lose even more value if the poster is 11?

Assume I’m sixteen years old as you read this. :slight_smile:

  • Rick
14

I think the danger with posting a great deal of information about oneself is that you descend into arguments like, “Well, you would say that because you’re a college student / welfare recipient / lawyer / convicted felon / circus acrobat / etc”.

There’s nothing to stop people from giving out info on an ad hoc basis as it becomes relevant.

Then again, there’s nothing to stop people giving false info, either in their profile or in posts, or both. Remember MikeylikesIT, the college professor / engineer / archaeologist / anthropologist / lawyer / boy scout?

I think that the facility to argue anonymously, and to be judged on your arguments and only on your arguments, is one of the great strengths of this board.

If some schmuck gives an obviously stupid response, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an immature teenager or an immature adult, male or female. If the response is obviously stupid, that’s all you need to know.

15

If I were to give out more information in my profile, you can be assured that it would be a lie.

No one needs to know where I live to judge the validity of any post I make. It also should not matter that my parents were carnie people, or that I am a management trainee at WalMart. If I post false information, I trust to the vicious back-stabbing bastards of this board to point it out gleefully while dancing on my head.

I love the self-correcting mechanisms of a Message Board.

16

Ha! DrF says he works as a trainee at WalMart while I have conclusive evidence (that would stand up in a court of law) that he was recently promoted to Associate Mgr and he actually works at KMart.

(Of course, now he has to kill me.)

Tom~

17

What the hell’s wrong with you people?

Skelton4947 made a reasonable request and all you tarts do is jump all over him? What a bunch of whiny, paranoid hyperskeptics.

  1. Transgendered Female
  2. 504 Earth months old
  3. Director of Marsupial Shaving, Melbourne U.
  4. Melbourne, Australia

Hell is Other People.

18

If someone was answering an intelligent question about electrical engineering that seems to be a decent explanation and IS an electrical engineer vs an asst file clerk at K Mart, I generally would place more stock in the answer given by the real electrical engineer.

I didn’t ask for telephone numbers or how many children anyone has…simply their age, occupation and at least the area they leave in. If it is meaningless to you all, why did Cecil et al put the biography in? Someone other than I must have thought it was a good idea.

Do you believe that if a Dr. was to make his best evaluation of a pt’s history that he could do just as well NOT knowing the sex of a pt. or as little as possible about him…just what he or she says on the web?

There are a few people that are straight forward most of the time on this board whether they initiate a post or respond to one. There are so many of you out there that rather than respond to the OP look for an exception to fight about. Dr. F above stated that it is what someone says, not whether the individual is a he or a she and not whether the individual is a hard working person, an attorney, a responsible individual or some kid or adult for that matter stirring up a lot of shit.

I’ve been guilty of attacking some wise ass if I really think the person is an ass.

I still haven’t read why so many people are so secretive about themselves. Awaiting replies…

19

Well, either you haven’t read the answers given here, or you just don’t like them. The biographical information is optional. This is a public BB that isn’t just read by the SD’ers; it’s available to anyone who chooses to wander in and take a look around.

You may not agree with this answer, but it is my answer nonetheless. I chose anonymity, by gender, age, occupation, etc. because I didn’t (and don’t) believe that the information was either pertient or prudent.

In instances where my professional expertise applied, I noted my credentials. Though that is hardly proof of anything; anyone can claim to be anything they want online.

Once I participated here for a while it was comfortable enough to “come out” as a female. But part of my reticence is also professional. I express myself pretty freely here, and some of my opinions aren’t popular. As a rather visible public employee, I have to maintain a certain degree of discretion IRL. This place is where I can just be myself, without undue worrying about some offended soul taking out their pique on me personally or by extension, on the agency I run.

Before you dismiss that as wimpy paranoia, consider some of the heat and near hatred some of the topics here have generated. Of course I’m a private individual, with First Amendment rights. But those private rights wouldn’t mean diddly in objective terms if some dingaling decided to drop a dime to the local “rant and rave” radio talk show.

I greatly resent your assumption that you have a right to any sort of information about me. Those people I’ve met here and trust know who I am, my real name, and where I live. They accepted my postings here and judged on those. Someone’s age, occupation, race, sex, marital status, etc. is absolutely none of my business–and I don’t prejudge on those factors.

People have different comfort levels with how much they reveal about themselves. This isn’t a right/wrong issue. People should be free to offer precisely what they choose. You have no right to expect more than the mods of this board require.

Veb

20

In my case, safety and security. While I realize that I’m vulnerable to anyone who really wants to get to me, I try to avoid making myself a target for the wierdos. Just a general life-long aversion to maniacs - and I’ve encountered one or two over the years. I did make an exception by listing my web site in my profile. I just not prefer to make it any easier for the spammers than it already is.