Your points are all valid. I chose the white board markers because I wanted something that people would remember. Students especially are subjected to so much

Your points are all valid. I chose the white board markers because I wanted something that people would remember. Students especially are subjected to so much spam every day in their classes, dorms, lunchrooms, everywhere. The whiteboard idea was chosen because of its efficiency: maybe $5 for the markers plus a few hours of work, in exchange for people remembering what they've read? Worth it. Someone even got pissed off. Any press is good press, when we're talking about a site like this. A student was really pissed (rightfully so, most likely) that we spammed his dorm. I'd probably be pissed too. But he remembered it, and everybody he told instantly went to the website to see what all the fuss was about. I realize I'm just answering this one instance of the more general problem: we need resources for why people choose these things, not merely what they chose to do. I think this is a really hard problem. Hunches are really difficult to pinpoint.