Hey folk -

You know, I try not to get sucked into these discussions - but as a visitor studies person, I feel somewhat compelled to put in my two cents.  I don't really understand all the angst about giving demographic information to the NYT, when they explicitly state that they won't sell individual info to anyone else.

OF COURSE they want demographic information on who's using their FREE service.  I've got news for you - most museums take demographic info on their visitors too, any time the visitors are willing to give it, so we can tell who is coming to our (museum, website, program - pick one).  It's not for nefarious purposes - it's so that we can tell whether or not we are reaching a wide audience (in terms of socio-economics, ethnicity, gender, and education), or if we still need to be working on that.  We also want to know the geographic distribution of our visitors, and how they found us. 

As to the spam - there's no way to get away from it, so set your filters high, keep up on deleting it, and don't spend angst on things you can't control.  No need for an ulcer... 

Okay - I'll get off my soapbox - I was just so startled at the level of cynicism about something that's really pretty innocuous.  Plus - it's really cool to read the NYT headlines every day and be able to read the articles without paying the bucks for the paper.  :-)

-Mary Kidwell