Do You Know Your Name?

I have this batBack program I am developing to give people a free server-less blog toolkit. It does all kinds of things -- allows people to vote on your articles, allows you to recommend articles to friends, allows you to run custom javascript on people's blogs, allows you to change the skin of the toolbox. All for free.

So I have a sign-up page that asks a few questions. Who are you. What's your email. Where do you live. Where's your blog.

I had eight people drop by yesterday to sign-up. (Thanks guys!) But half of those could not be completed. Why? Because they couldn't fill out the form.

Why? Did I ask people to prove the theorem of the limit? Is the form in Swahilli? Is there special code to figure out? Does the form require supernatural intelligence? Is there a flaming obstacle of doom that the entrants have to jump in order to complete the form?

A couple of the emails were bad. Several of the blog sites were not valid (If I am giving you a blog toolkit, I have to know where your blog is at, right?) Needless to say the location, sex, and ages were frequently bad as well. Even the names were bad, with one guy having a first and last name of "M S".

Now I am not a telemarketer. I do not sell email addresses. I make that clear in the terms of service, which I copied from Google. Quite frankly, I do not care what your email address is. I have to know your email address, however, in order to communicate with you. Things like service upgrades, problems, questions I might have. Like when the rest of your data is bad, I might want to ask you about it.

I also do not care where you live. I decided to keep demographic information for a couple of reasons: 1) so I could tell people they could place ads by the location of the recipient, and 2) as a way to verify who you are in case you lose your login information. I am not coming to your house. I am not keeping secret files to give to the FBI.

As far as your name, I assume you have one. If you are happy with it, then I would keep it if I were you. It makes for a nice thing for people to call you. One of the features of batBack is that the sidebar can show the last people that voted anywhere in the system, and provide a link back to their blog. This means that the more you vote the more links you get on other blogs, plus the more ratings other people get for their articles. Do you want your name appearing as "Bob"? Or as "M"? If I were you, I would prefer an actual name. But, as many of you seem to be on the run from Interpol, I've decided to add a nickname feature. So you can be "The Black Hornet", "The Dark Knight", or whatever other secret name you have this week. When I email you, this newfangled name thing might be useful when I address you. In the south, sometimes we call everyone "bub" or "boy". If you don't want to get an email that begins "Dear Bub", then a name might be handy. I should warn you that we are also known to make up nicknames. Being called "SkeeterHead" on a lot of blogs might not be something you want. Maybe it is. Your call, not mine.

Which leads me to blog addresses. Four people yesterday -- that's half -- did not know their own blog address. Ok, so you're signing up for a blog toolkit. Where do you want it? Why would you want a blog tookit without a blog? Why would you have a blog that you don't want to tell anyone about? Keep your name, your email, your location secret -- sure. We've all been members of secret world organizations and know how tough it is to keep your cover. But trying to get something without somewhere to put it? It's like buying a piano for your rowboat.

So I'm at a loss. I'm giving something for free in return for actually knowing who you are and where you want to run it. Is something about this a bad trade?

I can understand privacy concerns, but people are acting like they hiding out from Hans Blix. Good Grief, folks! You get enough junk email from just posting your name on one of these discussion boards, do you really think I want to sell you hair growth pills? And your postal code? Do you think we're arming door-to-door salesmen with secret address information to drop by your house?

I'm not sure how to tell people about these requirements. I made sure that people had to enter data in each box, but now they just put in garbage data. If you guys have any ideas on how to handle these folks, I'd like to hear them. Meanwhile, I'll be putting on my secret disguise so I can go to work today.