[Sigia-l] Re: Sigia-l Digest, Vol 20, Issue 7

[Catharine Robertson]

[...]
I tried to think of other sites that do similar
labeling and the only
thing I could think of is ecommerce, where you need to
choose whether
you are a man, woman, or child.  Even there, the real
question is, what
type of clothing do I want, not what type of person am
I.
[...]

Membership & trade associations do this all the time:
require users to self-select whether they are
"members," "the public," and often one other choice
(like "media") before continuing. (The realtors got
past this hurdle by marketing two discrete sites
according to audience--realtor.org for realtors and
realtor.com for home shoppers.)

We used to do this at the membership association where
I work, but our third option was "students." We've
largely moved away from audience labels, mostly
because we find that users in the "public" category
often come to us wanting the very content that's in
the "member" area. And the members want to know what
info we're giving the public, who comprise their
clients and prospective clients.

However, the one self-selecting audience label
category that remains heavily used on our site is
"students." We're trying to figure out what to do with
that label for the long term.

I too am interested in the answers to your questions.

Catharine Robertson
American Psychological Association