> No, the alternative is to go through a long rigmarole which may or may not approve the experiment and enforce conditions which may or may not themselves const

> No, the alternative is to go through a long rigmarole which may or may not approve the experiment and enforce conditions which may or may not themselves constitute severe biases of their own (knowing one is in an experiment, even if the subjects have been deceived as to the content, is itself a problem). Having gone through some IRBs, there is a good reason and enough historic precedent to warrant this "long rigamarole". The point is that you can't simply say "but everyone on the Internet does it" and expect people who support traditional research ethics not to say "wait a minute, that shouldn't make it OK".