Should I be insulted?

 

About a month ago I received an email from Ancestry.com inviting me to take part in a survey about Physical Features. I saved the email as a sort of mental “To Do Later” activity. I was curious to see about what all they were asking. They offered a preview of the types of questions asked in the survey.  The samples included questions on the shape of eyes and natural eyebrows, the directions of hair whorls, and fullness of eyebrows – in that order.  I wondered if they offered drawings or pictures you could look at to compare to your own characteristics or just word descriptors. I figured I would need a mirror as I really have no idea about my eyebrows, their fullness, or any hair whorls I might have (does that mean cowlicks?) – let alone the shape of my eyes.  I do not even know what shape my face is. I was curious, but delayed until a month later to open the survey.  It was early in the morning and I had “Less than 7 minutes” to spare. I was all excited about answering 30 questions about my physical features… maybe. I sensed some hesitation. Thought I would at least take a look. I mean – what is Ancestry.com going for here?  Like I said… I was curious.

Anyway... after struggling to see all the cowlicks on the back of my head – you know, to determine the direction of the hair whorls that I have been dealing with for my entire life -- and -- after taking a good long look at my eyebrows and eyes, I clicked on the Take the Survey button to find this:

        Sorry, you don’t qualify to take surveys at this time.

If you have questions about your eligibility, please contact our Member Services.

There was, of course the usual small box below that said Contact Us.

I opted not to do so and merely deleted the original email. After all -- I had other things to do with that 7 minutes that I had set aside for them. Then again ... why am I not qualified to take the survey at this time?  Would tomorrow be better?  How do they know that I am not qualified?  Why did they send me the email to take the survey in the first place if I am not qualified? Am I sorry that I once did the whole DNA thing with them? Perhaps. As I move along in "the journey", I find that I trust less and less... and wonder about stuff more and more.  I don't necessarily like that, but some lessons are hard learned, and I for one, have learned more than a few the hard way.

Should I feel insulted or relieved?  Really….  I only wanted to see what else they asked. I was curious to see what they are investigating.  I was hoping that I could figure out how my answers could help them "develop new traits and other DNA products". They said that was their goal. Hmm... Now I am even more curious.