Interview threads?

[Dason]

We have this lovely "New Member Introduction" subforum where people can introduce themselves. I love having this here and hopefully it provides a nice welcoming area to the community. However, sometimes I feel like there is a lot I don't know about the more active members of the community and I would like to just ask some questions.

I was thinking it might be interesting to have an interview thread. My idea would be that for one week there would be one member that would be interviewed by the community. Now they could be asked anything - where did you go to school? What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? If you had to be any distribution which one would you be? Anything. Now clearly we want to keep the questions appropriate.

My question is how many people would 1) Be willing to be interviewed and 2) Participate in asking questions?

For the TS Contributors in the audience - would you be willing to have this in the general public or would you be more willing to participate if it was in the TS Lounge?

I personally would be willing to be interviewed and would definitely ask questions but I'm just trying to gauge how much interest there would be in this idea and figure out the best way to run it if we decide to go through with it. So if you're an active member of the community (or even if you're not) please respond with whether or not you would participate and any suggestions you have for how to best run something like this.

[trinker]

I like the idea but I think people would feel safer in the contributor lounge, unfortunately, that would exclude people. It's a trade off. We have a very diverse group of regulars here from very different backgrounds. It would be interesting and helpful to know where people's strengths lie.

[vinux]

I agree with trinker. May be quark can make another sub-forum for the chat members.

[quark]

I think it's a great idea. This is like a veteran member introduction. We can first run it among the contributors and see how it goes. I am not sure how many newer members would want to be interviewed, but we can always go out and interview other professors in statistics, like the bloggers from StatsBlogs.

[victorxstc]

+1 to the idea

[Dason]

So is the general consensus that this would work best if done in the Contributor's Lounge? (victorxstc - sorry this would exclude you for a little bit... but keep posting and you'll have access soon enough). If non-TS_Contributors want to be interviewed we can always hold those threads outside the Lounge - and I guess whoever is being interviewed can have the choice of location for their interview thread.

Does anybody want to volunteer to be interviewed first?

[trinker]

The hot seat, who's up?

[vinux]

I would like to go after GretaGarbo. . What would be the scope/boundary of the interview? Format? May be we all can give some biodata first(towards the interest, personal should be optional)
Since Dason is the celebrity, we could start with him.

[CowboyBear]

This sounds like a great idea. +1 for Dason as first celebrity/victim.

[bryangoodrich]

I approve of this idea

+1e+0

[bugman]

Great idea. But going back to the first few posts, why dont we gauge how it goes in the lounge and then move it to the general arena, if all goes well after a trial period!?

[Eugenie]

As a new member, I would also be very interested to hear a bit about those helpful people who
have been responding to my questions! Also as a new member, I have no idea what "the lounge"
is or how it works. It seems that some aspects of it are restricted--is only posting restricted, or is
viewing restricted, as well?

[trinker]

Thanks for your input Eugenie.

The lounge is a place for community members who have around 300 posts and are contributing members (not comments like yeah george was right on with that answer). These members (contributors) are asked for input from moderators and the site administrator or need to discuss logisitcs of the site and the lounge is a less public place to discuss matters that are not necessarily open for public discussion (consider it like a boardroom).

A second display that is currently hidden from you is the talkstats chatbox. This is a pretty cool interactive part of talkstats that people discuss what ever in real time. To avoid people going there and asking questions rather than posing them in searchable threads (where they belong) the chatbox is restricted until you have achieved 120 posts. At that time it is assumed one would have a greater understanding of the talkstats community and philosophy and would not abuse the chatbox privilege.

We're testing out this interviewing concept and deciding whether to make it more or less public. Thank you for your interest and input as you're the first newer member to respond to this thread.

If any other TS (talkstats) community member think I've misrepresented or missed something please jump in.

[Dason]

That about covers it trinker. I think if I am the first to be interviewed I would end up doing the interview not in the lounge. That way we could gauge how much interest there is from members that haven't reached TS Contributor status. I'm perfectly fine having my interview out in the open. If it turns out that there isn't too much interest from non TS Contributors then we could consider moving it to the Contributor Lounge for those contributors that aren't as comfortable with the interview being public.

If there aren't any other people that want to volunteer to be interviewed I think I'll start my interview thread on Sunday.

[Dason]

Any input on the best place to hold the interview threads when they aren't in the Contributors Lounge? The three options I see are "New Members Introductions", "General Discussion", or "Random Chat".

I think Random Chat probably is the best fit.