Hello, I am a PhD student thinking about joining ResearchGate and have some questions. Perhaps anyone here is a member and can answer them?
1) How active is it - low long do you typically have to wait for responses to questions or comments under an article?
2) Is it useful for getting in touch with paper authors and overall discussing published works? Some research papers have good discussions regarding them, but some are not even publicly accessible (why)?
3) Is it good for asking questions - are good answers frequent, and how long is the average wait for a decent answer? I've seen some truly good answers there but most are kind of "MEH".
4) As far as I understand only academics can join. What about after graduation if I decide to no longer stay in academia - can I keep my account, or are there some annual "checks" that determine if you are still a member of academia?
Maybe someone who is on there can also give me your general impressions with ResearchGate?