Hello everyone.

I'm a student at DePaul University, and I'm part of a research group that is studying GO KGS. I need to conduct a few interviews on the subject of respect on the website, and I was told that there may be some members from this forum willing to help out with this interview process. I would need a brief Skype interview, but I wouldn't ask for very much time at all. Also, it would be completely anonymous, so you wouldn't need to give me any information about yourself. If you have about 20 minutes of free time, and you'd like to help me out, please email me at gokgsinterview@yahoo.com. Thank you all.

Would be nice if you gave some more info about yourself.
Anonymous account with anonymous email - both created apparently for the purpose of this one thing - it does not inspire much trust, you know.

Who are you, why you conduct the research, what will you wo with the results, and stuff like that... would be helpful.
Personally, I am not going to touch you with a 10 foot stick unless I know more.
All your promisses notwithstanding.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Bantari, I'm also a member of this research group with Pepsi921. Although we've been using this forum for literally hours, we've been playing on Go KGS for a couple years now. We understand that it's tough to gain trust from brand new users like us, but the suggestion to use this forum to acquire possible interviews was a lead given to us by a different regular user who said that other users would be friendly enough to help us out.

Pepsi921 and I both have our IRB certification to conduct these interviews, and the identity of anyone we interview or research remains completely anonymous. if you so request to see our certificates of certification, I will be glad to show you. If you'd like more information on IRB certification, you can read more here: http://extranet.fhcrc.org/EN/sections/iro/irb/310.html

The point of our research is part of a class known as "Virtual Worlds/ Online Communities" at DePaul University. Our research is to answer the question of whether Go KGS does or does not bring in social capita, and the biggest portion of our research is interviewing individuals who are users on Go KGS that we don't know personally. The information/ insight we've acquired from the individuals we've interviewed will be used in a research paper which the members of our group are currently working on. By law, any audio we retrieve during this interview after the appropriate notes have been recorded will be destroyed. Again, more information in the IRB certification link.

We understand if you don't want to deal with us, because you don't know about us. I would be willing to give you any information you'd require of us to "trust" us as users, and not see us as bots, trolls, etc. (I'd give you my phone number or Facebook URL if you so needed it for proof.)

Trust on websites is usually something that takes time to achieve, but unfortunately, time is against us. Using this forum for possible interviews is more of a last resort for us and a blind lead given to me by a friend who wanted to help us out. I've also attached a form which gives more information about our research and anyone you would want to contact to "prove" that we are in fact conducting a legitimate research.

If there's anything else you'd require of us, please let us know.

- Filip

Hi Pepsi and Filip,

Whether you've been playing on KGS for a few years or a few hours, you should be aware that regular players call it "KGS". That will probably help your social capital a bit.

I believe there is a Go club that meets at an Intelligensia just a few blocks east of DePaul. They all play on KGS. It will probably be pretty easy to do fieldwork there.

Hello Oza,

I'll be sure to take that as a note. I've just been used to calling it "Go KGS" for a while now.

My lead also mentioned something about Intelligensia in Lakeview. The problem is that I've heard this Go club meets on Tuesdays, and our interview deadline is this coming Monday (March 11th.) I could be wrong though.

Cool, thank you. That was the kind of response I was counting on, more or less.
I hope you get plenty of people who will participate in your research.

Also, it might help to ask on KGS directly.
And maybe post some of the topics you wish to discuss here as well, so people know what to expect.

PS>
I have to admit that I probably should have kept my mouth shut and not post what I initially posted, but my impulsive nature took the best of me. Personally, I think my views are too weird and often too controversial to be a valid research subject, so for this reason I should have stayed away from this thread altogether. Did not mean to start any trouble here, nor make your search more difficult.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

Today was Tuesday, but fair enough. Luckily for you, the Evanston Go club meets tomorrow night. So you can try them instead.

By the way, "Oza" is really a nickname for my friends - I'm not much of a stickler for formalities, but until we're properly acquainted "Oza-sensei" will do.

I'll definitely create a post in the KGS section directly. That would make more sense anyways, right?


Honestly, your response was expected. We were warned prior to beginning our research that we'd have to gain some kind of trust through KGS, which we hopefully have established. The trick, of course, is not establishing trust on this forum. It's only natural of you to question your suspicion of our motive and goals on this forum. If anything, someone else would have questioned our motives in a similar manner.

Thank you for your help and I'm glad we could put this behind us.

Oza-Sensai,

I apologize for my poor formality.

I live closer to Evanston anyways, so I might give that a shot after work. What time do they usually meet?

Evanstongoclub.org

Then the next night you can check out Schaumburggoclub.org

And if you are still hungry for more test subjects there may be a go club at UChicago on Friday evenings, but you know how those UChicago kids are... Pretty flaky.

Haha I understand what you're saying. I think I'll check out the Schaumburg Go Club this Thursday to play some games and see if anyone would like to help me out. Thank you for your help!

Hi Pepsi921 and krashguitar, I'm happy to help.

Perhaps I am a little naïve, but what nefarious schemes are people reading into this? It seems pretty harmless to me.

There is no emoticon for jealousy, but...

Edit: Quote truncated for clarity.

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Occupy Babel!

hey i'd be happy to help also.

i live in chicago if you'd rather meet and play, etc.

regards,


elliot

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

I for one would be interested in the outcome of your research. Please come back when you have put it together (or before if you like). I will look forward to seeing how you make sense of the social capital aspects of a community where 99% of the activity consists of playing a 2-person game. Are you aware of the term hand talk as a name for Go?

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21