Me personally? I don't know, actually. I'm passing this along as a favor. Apparently a lot of people are irked by the new format of the user info page and are claiming this is intended to cater to the younger crowd and are concerned that this is going to become a trend, i.e., that non-optional features geared toward younger users will continue to multiply.
I'm more interested from an epistemological perspective. There's an interesting conundrum in that older users are less likely to state their birthyears, which means that the statistics will skew younger than they are. (There may also be a factor in *very* young users making themselves look older, but a bunch of 16-year-olds posing as 18 will affect the numbers far less than a bunch of 40-year-olds giving no age at all.) I'd like LJ to have accurate information just because truth is a good thing. (I know, that's philosophically debatable, but I'm a medievalist, so truth is convertible with goodness and even existence. They're transcendentally related and all that.)
How has the user info page changed? Or is it an upcoming change that hasn't been released yet?
I definitely would be curious to see what the statistics would look like if everyone gave their age, and did so honestly. The perspective that everyone who uses any sort of blogging service must be terribly young annoys me, definitely. I don't feel, though, that LJ has in any way pandered toward a younger age group. LJ seems to be pretty good about making most features optional, hopefully that will continue.
And now I'm going to be pondering the question of truth all afternoon ... ;D
How has the user info page changed? Or is it an upcoming change that hasn't been released yet?
I think it's a beta that's going to become the norm; from what I've read, if LJ decides to go with it, you'd have to opt-out not to get it, rather than have the choice to opt-in if you like it.
Apparently people think it looks too much like the MySpace design; there are some comments here (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_design/5538.html).
And now I'm going to be pondering the question of truth all afternoon ... ;D
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 04:32 pm (UTC)I'm more interested from an epistemological perspective. There's an interesting conundrum in that older users are less likely to state their birthyears, which means that the statistics will skew younger than they are. (There may also be a factor in *very* young users making themselves look older, but a bunch of 16-year-olds posing as 18 will affect the numbers far less than a bunch of 40-year-olds giving no age at all.) I'd like LJ to have accurate information just because truth is a good thing. (I know, that's philosophically debatable, but I'm a medievalist, so truth is convertible with goodness and even existence. They're transcendentally related and all that.)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 04:47 pm (UTC)I definitely would be curious to see what the statistics would look like if everyone gave their age, and did so honestly. The perspective that everyone who uses any sort of blogging service must be terribly young annoys me, definitely. I don't feel, though, that LJ has in any way pandered toward a younger age group. LJ seems to be pretty good about making most features optional, hopefully that will continue.
And now I'm going to be pondering the question of truth all afternoon ... ;D
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 05:33 pm (UTC)I think it's a beta that's going to become the norm; from what I've read, if LJ decides to go with it, you'd have to opt-out not to get it, rather than have the choice to opt-in if you like it.
Apparently people think it looks too much like the MySpace design; there are some comments here (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_design/5538.html).
And now I'm going to be pondering the question of truth all afternoon ... ;D
Heh, heh. My work here is done. :-D