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- Much of the reason for the secondary contact information is to ensure that if you are a match they have multiple ways to find you. - You may be a match for s

- Much of the reason for the secondary contact information is to ensure that if you are a match they have multiple ways to find you. - You may be a match for someone ten years down the line. Odds are that you won't be in exactly the same place with the exact same contact information. - It costs about $100 to do the analysis on each test. Therefore, if you provide additional information that may in some ways be redundant, it will aid in screening for likely matches.

mekoka 15y ago
I would strongly suggest that they have the courtesy of stating their intention when asking for all that information. It's not difficult. People are showing up to help and are then subjected to what seems like an interrogation. Even the most helpful soul would raise her eyebrows a few times. I'm not saying that the information is irrelevant, but each question is there for a reason, why not just state what it is? You were able to do it in a couple of lines, why can't they do the same in the form. "Disclaimer: Some of the secondary questions in this form might seem intrusive, but we need to make sure that if you're a match we have multiple ways of finding you. Also, the analysis is lengthy and costly, we use the additional information to filter out samples that are more likely to match our current needs, which helps to speed up this process. We are aware of the sensitivity of the information you're providing to us and we take your privacy and your confidence to heart. For the same reasons the password you're setting to access your file should be more stringent"
- AJ007 15y ago
  At risk of sounding like an asshole, donating your bone marrow is a pretty damn big deal. What use is a bone marrow "lead" if the person runs the other direction when asked for their SSN.
  - marknutter 15y ago
    And yet, here we are.
  - mekoka 15y ago
    People generally go in, not really believing that they will match. They think it only happens to others. Their attitude usually changes when this abstract possibility becomes a tangible reality. Before taking the test: "Ah! I probably won't even be a match. Why bother?" After being matched: "Shit! Is this for real? A life now depends on ME?" There's a similar phenomenon when a competitor starts winning and the possibility of him actually becoming champion materializes. Believers come out of the woodwork. That's why the goal isn't to convince them to give bone marrow, but rather to just see if they match first.
- zasz 15y ago
  For some reason, nobody complains when they have to fill out the paper equivalent of these web forms. I did, and happily indicated my race too, in a whole room full of people at my company, and nobody was complaining. I think that we're used to filling out much shorter forms on the web, so seeing a long form with a lot of fields there is disconcerting, but the quantity of information they're asking for is on par with most other paper forms I've filled out. Also, we don't live in a world where DNA sequencing is free. Seems like common sense to fill out your race.
cbr 15y ago
> Much of the reason for the secondary contact information is to ensure that if you are a match they have multiple ways to find you. None of which helps if you would have been a match but instead dropped out of their signup process.
- zasz 15y ago
  And if you were too much of a lazy douche to fill out a couple extra fields, they're supposed to believe you'd go through the actual effort of becoming a donor because...?
  - gte910h 15y ago
    I'm sorry, you're under the impression people who think of helping this man are under obligation to do so. Anything that makes more successful donations less likely is bad. Asking for invasive personal information without justifying it in such a way that people are comfortable giving it is BAD. The fact the guy you're responding to points out something on a site with enough gravitas that is an impediment to the process isn't douchey, it's being helpful. He may be literally saving lives by getting people to improve the process to get more matches. I'm sure getting everyone to walk to a hospital and pay their own way to take a sample would be a much more convenient way for the marrow matching service to work, however, I be far fewer people would do it. Same principle with forms that ask for scary data. Not doing so, and doing things in user friendly ways may get one or two more people the marrow they desperately need.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]

mekoka 15y ago

I would strongly suggest that they have the courtesy of stating their intention when asking for all that information. It's not difficult. People are showing up to help and are then subjected to what seems like an interrogation. Even the most helpful soul would raise her eyebrows a few times. I'm not saying that the information is irrelevant, but each question is there for a reason, why not just state what it is? You were able to do it in a couple of lines, why can't they do the same in the form. "Disclaimer: Some of the secondary questions in this form might seem intrusive, but we need to make sure that if you're a match we have multiple ways of finding you. Also, the analysis is lengthy and costly, we use the additional information to filter out samples that are more likely to match our current needs, which helps to speed up this process. We are aware of the sensitivity of the information you're providing to us and we take your privacy and your confidence to heart. For the same reasons the password you're setting to access your file should be more stringent"

AJ007 15y ago
At risk of sounding like an asshole, donating your bone marrow is a pretty damn big deal. What use is a bone marrow "lead" if the person runs the other direction when asked for their SSN.
- marknutter 15y ago
  And yet, here we are.
- mekoka 15y ago
  People generally go in, not really believing that they will match. They think it only happens to others. Their attitude usually changes when this abstract possibility becomes a tangible reality. Before taking the test: "Ah! I probably won't even be a match. Why bother?" After being matched: "Shit! Is this for real? A life now depends on ME?" There's a similar phenomenon when a competitor starts winning and the possibility of him actually becoming champion materializes. Believers come out of the woodwork. That's why the goal isn't to convince them to give bone marrow, but rather to just see if they match first.
zasz 15y ago
For some reason, nobody complains when they have to fill out the paper equivalent of these web forms. I did, and happily indicated my race too, in a whole room full of people at my company, and nobody was complaining. I think that we're used to filling out much shorter forms on the web, so seeing a long form with a lot of fields there is disconcerting, but the quantity of information they're asking for is on par with most other paper forms I've filled out. Also, we don't live in a world where DNA sequencing is free. Seems like common sense to fill out your race.

cbr 15y ago

> Much of the reason for the secondary contact information is to ensure that if you are a match they have multiple ways to find you. None of which helps if you would have been a match but instead dropped out of their signup process.

zasz 15y ago
And if you were too much of a lazy douche to fill out a couple extra fields, they're supposed to believe you'd go through the actual effort of becoming a donor because...?
- gte910h 15y ago
  I'm sorry, you're under the impression people who think of helping this man are under obligation to do so. Anything that makes more successful donations less likely is bad. Asking for invasive personal information without justifying it in such a way that people are comfortable giving it is BAD. The fact the guy you're responding to points out something on a site with enough gravitas that is an impediment to the process isn't douchey, it's being helpful. He may be literally saving lives by getting people to improve the process to get more matches. I'm sure getting everyone to walk to a hospital and pay their own way to take a sample would be a much more convenient way for the marrow matching service to work, however, I be far fewer people would do it. Same principle with forms that ask for scary data. Not doing so, and doing things in user friendly ways may get one or two more people the marrow they desperately need.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]