Thread: Member Survey?

I'd be interested to get your opinions on whether you think a member survey is a good, bad or indifferent idea. Maybe it's been suggested before?

The type of thing I was thinking about was a voluntary, confidential (and anonymous, through aggregation of the data) survey. It could be tailored to find out things like:

- basic member demographics (country, age group, years using str8 etc.)
- How and why people got into straights
- equipment used (brushes, soaps, mugs etc)

and whatever else may be of interest to members in general.

Not only could it provide useful, archiveable info for future generations, but if it were repeated, say, once every year or two, we could get a picture of how our community is changing and, hopefully, growing.

What do you think?

James.

I ran a crew for the census here, but I'm still not sure about this. The only format I'd agree on is that only compiled data got saved and any identifying data got deleted unless someone specifically requests for it to be kept for future use.

As a survey poster I say YES

Yes - It could be interesting.



Terry

I like the Idea Because there was a specific reason for me to become a straight razor user..

I think this could be useful. Get all the questions together omitting names, PM it out to everyone and wait for the replies. I'm sure we've got a good rouogh idea of the overall demographic, but it would be much better to have the hard data.

X

I am not sure really. Gathering data is one thing but ordering them in a useful way for reference IMHO is another thing.

There'd be no identifying information on the survey - wouldn't ask for names or anything like that. I had in mind an overall picture of where the world of straights is at, how that is changing over time, and what role our forum plays in that change.

Quantitative data would be aggregated, and summarised as either simple measures (e.g. 30% of respondants are aged between 30-35, 60% of first razors are 5/8) or more complicated, relational measures (e.g. people with less than 3 months experience are more likely to post in newbies corner than restoration) etc. Or whatever members think would be interesting. There'd most likely be a qualitative aspect as well, which could be coded into themes and presented as such.

Firestart, you mentioned a census crew - has this been done before?

There seems to be some support. If so, there's 2 ways to go: (1) I'm happy to draft up an initial questionnaire and post it up for consultation and suggestions; or (2) members could think of questions they'd like the answers to, and we could build up a survey based on them.

James.

sure, why not. have a go at it and lets see what questions you come up with.

Sounds like an interesting idea. Go for it. I'd answer the survey, unless it looked something like a mix between the LSAT and a tax return.

By the way, by my count we now have exactly 100 Senior Members, with 100+ posts. So, 10% of the forum membership. Though maybe that should go in the blabbermouth section. Or maybe we have to increase the Honemeister threshhold. :P