>We also prohibit research on or in the forums. You will never be a living guinea pig for professionals while here.

It puzzles me how you can deliver on this promise. You can say 'research is prohibited' as much as you like, but you can't actually prevent researchers making fair use of posts.

To call research subjects 'living guinea pigs' works to promote the idea of researchers being rather cold and heartless individuals who enjoy playing with and exploiting research subjects.

I am involved in research and it concerns me when people who aren't try to promote what I do as somehow exploitative.

The point of research is to advance knowledge. Most researchers (though unfortunately not all) attempt to be sensitive and fair to their participants and abide by strict ethical guidelines regarding the well being of their research subjects.

Not trying to argue or anything, but I do think that it is fairer to be straight-up about what one is able and unable to do.

It is better to be realistically aware of the public nature of publicly viewable internet forums rather than attempting to placate posters with a false sense of security.

I like to be invisible because the amount of time I have on the boards varies. I don't want people to think that I should be able to respond NOW solely because I am online. I respond when I can get to it and I think people are more likely to get that if they don't see when I am online.