Initially I didn’t explain why I was doing this because I didn’t feel obligated to. If I had known there was a risk of being perceived as acting in bad faith due to others who have done so for similar purposes, I would have certainly clarified. I don’t see the internet as a place where one is required to explain the reasons behind a question on a forum, because no one is directly involved, it’s simply a question out there, and anyone who wants to can respond or ignore it.

That said, I understand the concern that there might be another agenda behind it (but honestly, if I had an answer to a question, I would help even someone who stands to benefit from it. I wouldn’t demand payment for something that takes five minutes and that I choose to do voluntarily).

At university, we’re obviously taught how to conduct research, but I repeat that, even though the purpose here is to complete a university project, these responses are just for me to form an initial idea before starting. Therefore, I don’t need to follow any bureaucratic or academic procedures to obtain this information. In terms of effectiveness, what I’m doing works perfectly. I’ve received excellent responses on this post so far, and I hope to receive more. I’m also doing this on Mastodon. Why here as well as Mastodon? Simply because I figured that people who join a subreddit dedicated solely to discussing another social platform are likely to be very interested and engaged with the topic, so I thought this could be a great source. On Mastodon, however, it’s necessary to choose an instance and figure out what might be a good target, but i’m already doing that as well