In general, do you go to shiurim?

Does it make a difference who gives it?

Do you make sure you have a bit of background on person giving the shiur you plan to attend?

Does the background information make any difference in your decision to attend or not attend?

I'll answer how you answer most threads:

no, yes, no, yes

Not really. Sounds boring. I can't stand listening to the speech the rabbi gives on shabbos so I don't know why I would voluntarily put myself in that position any other time.

Knowing who the speaker is wouldn't make a difference since I don't know who anyone is anyway.

What if it was a famous sex Rabbi?

Why is a shiur a waste of time?

I don't go unless I know the speaker is good and the topic is something of interest. I have been to way too many mediocre shiurim.

I'm always game to learn something.

What would that have to do with anything? It would still be boring. I can't imagine he would mention anything I haven't heard of before (I've read Cosmo).

i don't like fake inspiration, so i don't go to those lectures. but i do enjoy a halachic shiur every so often like a presentation on bug checking and techniques to clean off the fruits/veggies. i particularly liked that session because their answer wasn't, "don't eat them," it was, "here's how to clean them so you may enjoy them."

Can you imagine reading a Cosmo article with halachic terms?

I never go to shiurim unless it's an interesting topic being delivered by a good speaker, or if I'm forced/requested to go.

Do you care about integrity of speaker?

Do you assume that by the fact he is speaking in public, he is accepted as a person of integrity?

If I had the time I'd go to 20 shiurim a week. Seriously. I love shiurim.

Hmm. I guess that would be pretty funny. Still, too boring. Rather stay at home and watch TV.

A bad shiur is a waste of time. A very bad shiur will also be a waste of money. But a good shiur is not.

Ditto.

Except that I landed up in a class that's basically a shiur. IDK if it counts.
Good shiurim are good. The problem is that it's often hard to know which ones are good.

Not really.
Yes.
Yes.
Absolutely. I also like to hear about previous shiurim the person has given.

Yes.
No.

I rarely go to shiurim, and if I do it's usually more about who I'm going with or who I'm meeting up with than about the shiur itself, so it usually doesn't make that much of a difference.
If I was going to go to a shiur on a regular basis for academic as opposed to social reasons, it would make a big difference who gave it, what the topic was, what the academic level was, etc. I would certainly want a lot of background about the person in that situation, both academic and ideologic.