Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:How do you take vacations?

It's difficult. We have to plan vacations that allow for good Internet connectivity. So, no trips to the middle of nowhere. When we are on vacation I'll just keep tabs on the site and only deal with things that can't wait. I may have to take an hour or so break from whatever we are doing to deal with issues on the site. Vacations have normally gone pretty smoothly. But almost invariably, problems that need to be address immediately have happened when we've had date nights. It's gotten to the point that we almost expect our nights out to be interrupted. That's a pain.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Can you tell how many people visit DCUM a day (not how many posts, or how many times a person comes back during the day, but just the number of people as measured by different computers?) I always wonder how many people are on here.

We use Google Analytics which provides data about "unique users". I don't know exactly how they determine who is a unique user. The way that Google uses big data they may well be able to identify the same user using different devices.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:This is really personal, so don’t feel obligated to answer: how much are you making from this? With the ad revenue I have to imagine it’s a lot.

I sort of addressed this earlier in the thread. Short answer is that since mid-March and the economic shutdown, we aren't making much.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:What criteria do you use for deleting threads or replies vs locking them? Assuming the OP has not asked you to.

It's sort of a coin toss and often simply based on my mood. If I am really thinking about it -- and often I am not -- it is a matter of whether I think the content will still be useful in the future.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I flag things that are just mean and unhelpful. Is that annoying for you or an acceptable use of flagging?

No, it is fine. If you notice that whatever you reported got deleted, it means that I agreed with you. If it doesn't get deleted, then I must not have agreed. I think I agree in the vast majority of cases.

[Anonymous]

Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you take vacations?

It's difficult. We have to plan vacations that allow for good Internet connectivity. So, no trips to the middle of nowhere. When we are on vacation I'll just keep tabs on the site and only deal with things that can't wait. I may have to take an hour or so break from whatever we are doing to deal with issues on the site. Vacations have normally gone pretty smoothly. But almost invariably, problems that need to be address immediately have happened when we've had date nights. It's gotten to the point that we almost expect our nights out to be interrupted. That's a pain.

What kind of issues need to be dealt with immediately? Technical issues I would understand, but are those that common? Can’t most moderation issues wait?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you take vacations?

It's difficult. We have to plan vacations that allow for good Internet connectivity. So, no trips to the middle of nowhere. When we are on vacation I'll just keep tabs on the site and only deal with things that can't wait. I may have to take an hour or so break from whatever we are doing to deal with issues on the site. Vacations have normally gone pretty smoothly. But almost invariably, problems that need to be address immediately have happened when we've had date nights. It's gotten to the point that we almost expect our nights out to be interrupted. That's a pain.

What kind of issues need to be dealt with immediately? Technical issues I would understand, but are those that common? Can’t most moderation issues wait?

The big one is spammers. If someone creates 50 threads offering erectile disfunction drugs or "authentic passports" I don't want to leave them very long.

Sometimes a single post or thread can generate a lot of reports. When I check my email and have a bunch of reports, it is not immediately clear that it is only one problem. It looks like a lot of problems until I start checking.

[Anonymous]

Aside from politics, what forums are your favorites?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Aside from politics, what forums are your favorites?

These days I don't read many forums just for the sake of reading. I scan Recent Topics frequently and sometimes something catches my attention. But mostly I am reading posts because they were reported or I see something that needs attention. For a while I was reading Diet and Exercise a lot. I'm obviously reading the Health and Medicine forum quite a bit these days.

[Anonymous]

If your DCUM earnings did not recover from this (unlikely), what sort of jobs would you and your wife look for?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:If your DCUM earnings did not recover from this (unlikely), what sort of jobs would you and your wife look for?

I have no idea. I don't think it will come to that.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

Now I see why you deleted my post that mentioned the Georgetown hotmess IG. Interestingly I used to work for UofI (albeit UIC), and now work for Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)

Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

Thanks, Jeff! My theory was that you have a liberal arts background. You don’t write like an engineer. 😉

Another pet theory and prove me wrong; you were/are a voracious reader?

Trying not to fan girl out here.

What do you read?