5th day on Google Groups

This is my last day observing the Google Group that I have chosen. Today I wanted to see if I could find personal profiles on the people who subscribe to these Groups, or something that would indicate who these people where, so I could determine the source of the information that is being posted on these group bulletin boards. If I know where the information is coming from, then I can decide whether or not it is a dependable source. As far as I can see, one way to find out this type of information is to click on a link that says “view profile”. The problem with this is that not many people, from what I have seen, have created a profile; also if they did create one, they could easily lie. I am not a member so I may be limited to what resources are available to me, but from an outside prospective there are only a few ways to find out who is posting information on a personal level. There is a link that you can click on to find all of the postings a particular person has posted up to date. This is a good idea, because it provides a chance to look at someone’s history and examine their character. Another way to figure out the legitimacy of information would be to actually engage in conversation with the author. Of course they could still lie, but conversation could help a little.

I just wanted to mention a couple other features about this specific group that may play a part in cutting down on the clutter of information. The first feature is that if you are not a member of the group you cannot post comments. The next feature is that there is a link you can click on that allows you to report any message you feel is inappropriate, and Google sates that they will conduct an investigation on the issue. This could deter people from posting inappropriate comments, and could help remove them if they do get posted.