The First, Last and Only MeFi Survey (to date)

April 9, 2004 7:12 PM

As promised here, we bring you the first and last semi-bi-annual MeFi survey. Matt, I hope you don't mind my stealing your CSS.
posted by fvw to MetaFilter-Related at 7:12 PM (107 comments total)

I tried! (Phwew!!). I couldn't get it to work.

:(
posted by Quartermass at 7:23 PM on April 9, 2004

Okay. I did it. Now what? Where's my prize?
posted by ColdChef at 7:26 PM on April 9, 2004

Could you be a bit more specific than "it didn't work"?
posted by fvw at 7:26 PM on April 9, 2004

at GPS coordinates 5.1235W16.1485823S exactly. Hurry though, someone might get at it before you.
posted by fvw at 7:27 PM on April 9, 2004

Also, I blame whoever used the term "GPS coordinates" in the previous survey-related thread for my own unfortunate cooption of this horrid term. They were used long before anyone even thought of putting GPS satellites up damnit.
posted by fvw at 7:28 PM on April 9, 2004

I did it, but when i hit submit it goes back to the top of the page...no message saying "thanks" or acknowledgement at all?

thanks fvw : >
posted by amberglow at 7:30 PM on April 9, 2004

Thanks, fvw! That registration process sure was interesting.

Just one thing, though: for the languages and countries field, can you increase the number of rows by at least double? I had a bit of a tough time doing multiple selects.
posted by brownpau at 7:33 PM on April 9, 2004

Oh yes, I knew there was something I still had to do. Hold on... there, better?
posted by fvw at 7:34 PM on April 9, 2004

brownpau: You know that you can just scroll through it and control-click, right?
posted by fvw at 7:35 PM on April 9, 2004

Ungh. If everyone who already filled in the form (all fifteen of you) could submit again, that'd be great. I was throwing away whether you said I could or couldn't name you (the last question). The other results should have been saved (and don't require filling out again).
posted by fvw at 7:42 PM on April 9, 2004

I'm getting:

Couldn't find the text on your userpage, please try again.

even though I put it there.
posted by timeistight at 7:43 PM on April 9, 2004

timeistight: You need to put the entire text in quotes on your userpage. This is to prevent people from tricking you into putting it on your userpage. (Yes, a bit too thourough, I know. I like to be thourough in these things (though apparantly not in actually saving all the results, see my previous post)).
posted by fvw at 7:44 PM on April 9, 2004

ok..now i got a "thank you" : >
posted by amberglow at 7:46 PM on April 9, 2004

If feigning gratefulness is all it takes, I'm happy to oblige. :-P

Anyway, I'm off for a bit, if it breaks you get to keep both pieces.
posted by fvw at 7:48 PM on April 9, 2004

fvw, when you do decide to update again, I would add a link (such as this one) where people can look up their latitude and longitude data.

I'd also change the anonymity sentence to read "You [may/may NOT] link this information to my username." I had to read the "[do object/do not object]" terminology about four times before I was sure I got it right.
posted by rafter at 7:59 PM on April 9, 2004

I'm in, but I may yet think better of some of my survey repsonses. (I know we definately need some young'ns to balance off my survey-skewing advanced agedness)
posted by wendell at 8:02 PM on April 9, 2004

...my survey-skewing advanced agedness
Hey Grandpa! look! Matlock's on! ; >
posted by amberglow at 8:06 PM on April 9, 2004

Added cookie text, not recognised by your verification screen :(
posted by dash_slot- at 8:10 PM on April 9, 2004

There are, it seems, over 100 languages listed. Yet the 18th most spoken language in the world, with over 68 million speakers isn't included. Marathi.
posted by Gyan at 8:14 PM on April 9, 2004

Added cookie text, not recognised by your verification screen

Me too.
posted by gleuschk at 8:14 PM on April 9, 2004

I am a practicing atheist

* ponders *

I am a non-practicing atheist

* ponders *

* brain explodes *
posted by PrinceValium at 8:14 PM on April 9, 2004

boom !
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:16 PM on April 9, 2004

OK, mozilla doesn't like copy/paste on wide screens, but i'm in.

I just need to find my lat/long position.
posted by dash_slot- at 8:16 PM on April 9, 2004

Oh, and you might want to set a maximum limit on some of the age fields.

You see, because I have had sex 65535 times with 65535 people, I am fortunate enough to have sired 65535 children. But others are not as fortunate, and might get offended.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:16 PM on April 9, 2004

age text fields
posted by PrinceValium at 8:17 PM on April 9, 2004

amberglow, you punk kid, I don't do Matlock, but me and Opie from The Andy Griffith Show grew up together (symbolically). Fortunately, I've kept more of my hair (which is the only way I can compare myself to Ron Howard favorably).

And I've lived through Southern California's last TWO major earthquakes, was working at a radio station the day Elvis died AND remember that President Eisenhower had a heart attack.

You want a piece of me, whippersnapper???
posted by wendell at 8:18 PM on April 9, 2004

You want a piece of me, whippersnapper???
You gonna hit me with your walker or something? or gum me to death? ; >
i'm right behind you wendell--i'll be middle-aged in Dec.
posted by amberglow at 8:21 PM on April 9, 2004

Done. Thanks for taking the time to code that sucker up.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:23 PM on April 9, 2004

Maporama can help with the latitude/longitude bit.
posted by arco at 8:23 PM on April 9, 2004

ah, looks like you need to make sure to include the space " " after the hashy-type string.
posted by gleuschk at 8:27 PM on April 9, 2004

Hey, just curious, but when I register, you're not going to secretly capture my mefi logon & pw and use it to post as though you were me, will you?
posted by jonson at 8:28 PM on April 9, 2004

Excellent fvw, thanks for your effort!
posted by loquax at 8:30 PM on April 9, 2004

this is a fucking nightmare to try and log into.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:31 PM on April 9, 2004

jonson, that's one thing that's not clear: you need to register on that site as a MeFi member, with your MeFi login but a different password. This login/password will be converted to a super-secret string that you can put on your user page to verify that you really are who you say you are.

As for those of us who didn't realize that at first and typed in our MeFi pw, well, we'll just have to trust fvw isn't going to get drunk and pose as us.
posted by gleuschk at 8:34 PM on April 9, 2004

Done, but I have no idea what my lats are like. I've been concentrating more on the abs.
posted by yhbc at 8:37 PM on April 9, 2004

and so fvw's data-mining company is born ; >
posted by amberglow at 8:37 PM on April 9, 2004

Now that I've gone through the whole process, I totally get it, sorry for the dumb question!
posted by jonson at 8:37 PM on April 9, 2004

thanks fvw, that was neat. one suggestion - you should have let people make more than one choice in the blog question. since a lot of us have both a personal as well as a community blog. and a life too. really. seriously.
posted by t r a c y at 8:41 PM on April 9, 2004

As a semi-serious question, are you noting the specific address* of the computer submitting the surveys anywhere? Otherwise, there's nothing I see stopping me from answering once as myself, and again as each of my twenty-four MeFi-lurking multiple personalities.

*No, I can't remember the technical term at the moment. Yes, I answered the level-of-expertise question as "I can turn my computer on without help."
posted by yhbc at 8:46 PM on April 9, 2004

Great job! I look forward to seeing the results -- you'll have a powerpoint summary and crosstabs for us to slice and dice the data with right?

To me it seems some of the fields need an n/a category (practicing/non-practicing atheist and the significant other reads/doesn't read mefi -- if you're a loser like me taking surveys on friday night you may not have a s.o.)

Also under occupation there's no "unemployed" response (was there?) So I was going to fall back on my background "advertising/marketing weenie" but that wasn't listed. I did about 6 years doing marketing research so I always am overly critical of survey design.

Finally, I hope you are not going to sell the data to the US gov't to be part of the terrorist tracking program.
posted by birdherder at 8:46 PM on April 9, 2004

Speaking of MeFi passwords, how do we change them?
posted by Gyan at 8:47 PM on April 9, 2004

http://www.jibble.org/ukpostcodes/ will d/l a .zip file of all uk postcodes converted to lat/long coordinates.

No messy registration, quick & simple.
posted by dash_slot- at 8:47 PM on April 9, 2004

Okay, I got through the nightmare of registering (you have to include the line about the magic cookie - all the text of that sentence) but now I'm stuck. I don't have a significant other. How can I answer the question of whether he who does not exist reads or doesn't read mefi? I'm assuming the ideal one does - should I say yes?

(On preview, I may have to start stalking birdherder)
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:48 PM on April 9, 2004

Duh, you can leave it blank. NEVER MIND.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:50 PM on April 9, 2004

Speaking of MeFi passwords, how do we change them?

Email mathowie. It's the only way.
posted by gleuschk at 8:53 PM on April 9, 2004

What the &$#%! is a decimal float?
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:54 PM on April 9, 2004

Root Beer, seltzer and an old fashioned adding machine.

If you were an old geezer like me, you'd know.
posted by wendell at 8:59 PM on April 9, 2004

are you noting the specific address*

if he codes it to only accept one form from one IP then it'll be a hassle for those of us with partners and children who are also members and or lurkers. i don't want to disconnect and reconnect twice so zoran and zarah can do the survey.
posted by t r a c y at 8:59 PM on April 9, 2004

I just put in my coords with dec. points & it was accepted, CunningL.
posted by dash_slot- at 9:00 PM on April 9, 2004

wendell : >

I took that to mean 73.59.55 instead of 73 59 55
posted by amberglow at 9:00 PM on April 9, 2004

Ehm, sorry about the decimal float thingy, that was meant to be a placeholder. I was being lazy, what I meant is: The coordinate as a floating point number (which is computer speak for a number with optionally stuff after the .). That means no minutes and degrees, but a single number. For amberglow that'd be 73+59/60+55/3600=73.9986111. But it doesn't matter, as long as it's in a recognisable form I'll fix it up later.

Marathi and Unemployment have been added.

rafter: Unless there's a single page that will get you coordinates for anywhere, people might as well search this thread for the info.

PrinceValium: The fields can be left blank for a reason (yes, to attract pixies. Good guess.) And no, I'm not going to prevent people from lying by limiting the ranges, it's a pretty pointless exercise.

gleuschk: Sorry to disappoint, but I just rechecked my code and a trailing space isn't necessary. But if it works for you, who am I to object…

Everyone complaining about the login procedure: Yes, I know. But unless you have a suggestion for another way to achieve the same thing…

t r a c y: Just put which one is most important; I'll keep it in mind for the next time I do a survey (which will be a cold day in hell).

yhbc: Yeah, your IP address does get logged. But unless I'm seeing anything too outragous I'm just going to snigger to myself about it and nothing else. I'll probably make separate stats for MeFi members and everybody combined anyway.
posted by fvw at 9:11 PM on April 9, 2004

I filled it out. Hope I helped you in your quest for truth.
posted by jonmc at 9:13 PM on April 9, 2004

Sorry, survey verification process hassle exceeded interest/patience. Session timed out. Happy trails.
posted by mojohand at 9:20 PM on April 9, 2004

Done. Definitely didn't disclose everything though.
posted by anathema at 9:21 PM on April 9, 2004

And in response to the comments that came with the survey:

Adamgreenfield: Are you sure? You probably need to control or shiftclick for multi-select fields to work. I have know idea why this weird piece of UI design has remained in browsers to this very day.

Everyone complaining about the lack of choices: I know you'd like to write a 28-page essay on your poolitical views, but this is a survey. Condensing data is the point of the exercise.

Those complaining about the lack of questions: In most cases, yes that's a good suggestion (and in one or two cases: No, don't be silly). You should have suggested it in the thread when people were suggesting questions.

Most of the lurkers are commenting they want registration reopened permanently, some seem downright sulky about it. No surprises there.

Furthermore: "No it isn't, it's kind of nice actually", "I might sing, but that's about it", "No you're not, you're just deluded. There's a difference", "Well then eat some pudding already", "I'm sure quonsar wouldn't lie about something like that.", "Yes, euros. Deal with it".

Oh, and somebody hates me though I didn't even know they cared. Which is always nice, glad apathy isn't taking over.
posted by fvw at 9:21 PM on April 9, 2004

Wow, thanks for the work!
posted by gd779 at 9:34 PM on April 9, 2004

I don't really, that's just my standard 'i hae no comment' response. Sorry if you lost any sleep over that one :)

*hugs*
posted by Space Coyote at 9:36 PM on April 9, 2004

somebody hates me

geez. it never fails, someone always has to be a tool.

i witlessly mismatched 2 of my answers, because i had my browser set at 800x600 and it squished the drop down menus together... can i just change it and resubmit, or am i forever going to be politically mislabelled...? :-] sorry. you've got to a lot of trouble fvw, and i appreciate it.
posted by t r a c y at 9:39 PM on April 9, 2004

Thanks alot fvw, it worked perfectly for me and wasn't the least bit hassly. Youse a good mug.
posted by sciurus at 9:41 PM on April 9, 2004

fvw, you'll have to make a separate list of all the comments (anonymized)--seems like good reading
posted by amberglow at 9:45 PM on April 9, 2004

Worked perfectly for me first time through. Neat.
posted by dobbs at 9:45 PM on April 9, 2004

I'm still getting the runaround trying to register and log into the thing, perhaps I'll say screw it.
posted by scottymac at 9:45 PM on April 9, 2004

OK, it finally worked.
posted by scottymac at 10:02 PM on April 9, 2004

Thanks fvw for the survey!

Oh, and one more thing:

"I'm sure quonsar wouldn't lie about something like that."

Yes he totally would.
posted by contessa at 10:31 PM on April 9, 2004

Cool, thanks for this. If it wasn't that the sexual partners question would shatter the myth of my amazing sexual experience and legendary performance, I would have been happy to have the data linked to my username and wonder how many other people found that one the sticking point, or whether the income question was the one, or something else?
posted by dg at 10:50 PM on April 9, 2004

Y'know, this becomes much more fun if you stop thinking of it as data-mining and start thinking of it as mad libs.
posted by arto at 10:51 PM on April 9, 2004

t r a c y: can i just change it and resubmit, or am i forever going to be politically mislabelled...?

I assume that since you are ogged in, the only submission counted would be the latest one. At least, I'm relying on that being true.
posted by Gyan at 10:57 PM on April 9, 2004

err, logged in.
posted by Gyan at 10:57 PM on April 9, 2004

My drink of choice is Cran-Grape.
I consider myself economically melancholy and socially tangential.
I work in Taxidermy.
posted by PrinceValium at 11:00 PM on April 9, 2004

Childeren?

I had no trouble logging in at all, thanks for this fvw.
posted by TheCuriousOrange at 11:13 PM on April 9, 2004

Oops, I forgot to make a heartfelt comment - so I'll say I had no problem ogging in (*winks at Gyan*), and that you're a star, fvw - thanks for all the work.
posted by taz at 12:25 AM on April 10, 2004

Worked smoothly for me. Can I enter the matrix now? Can I? Can I? Is there a spoon now? Huh?

Thanks, fvw. This required a certain amount of effort, and it shows. Hope it's useful. Hope you're not as evil as quonsar claims.
posted by chicobangs at 12:25 AM on April 10, 2004

I would like to make the additional heartfelt comments:

FREE QUONSAR!
posted by Ryvar at 1:36 AM on April 10, 2004

Yeah, F... Quonsar
posted by johnny7 at 2:37 AM on April 10, 2004

still cant log in , im at the chewing of the mousemat stage now ........

*waves to curious oranj from atop giant hamburger*
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:22 AM on April 10, 2004

broke.

using safari on os x.

pasted the string within a line, pasted the string on a new line, pasted the string with what i presumed to be an nbsp.

all i can assume now is that you hate me.

(tommorow i'll try IE on the pc.)
posted by fishfucker at 6:25 AM on April 10, 2004

still cant log in , im at the chewing of the mousemat stage now ........

Logged on, read survey questions, logged off.
Life is too short, sgt, to waste any more of your time on this.
posted by y2karl at 6:29 AM on April 10, 2004

I think the good sgt is having the same problem I have, the username.mefi links to our userpages are broken.

Both sarge and I have periods in our usernames, maybe that's a clue.
posted by mr.marx at 7:08 AM on April 10, 2004

I never realized how unbelievably boring I am until I filled out this poll.
posted by iconomy at 8:10 AM on April 10, 2004

Done, and surprisingly simple. Perhaps Matt could be convinced to add this to the sidebar so more members will know about it?
posted by languagehat at 8:23 AM on April 10, 2004

when can we see the results?
posted by macadamiaranch at 9:51 AM on April 10, 2004

iconomy, I doubt you're more boring than I am.

and, yeah, lesse the results, man.
posted by jonmc at 10:04 AM on April 10, 2004

Very true karl.
The mats tasty though.
posted by sgt.serenity at 11:13 AM on April 10, 2004

Most xlnt work, fvw. I await the results with gleeful anticipation... (tee hee...rubs hands together)
posted by Lynsey at 12:53 PM on April 10, 2004

t r a c y: Just go back to the survey and you'll get your filled out survey form back which you can change. You need to relogin if you've closed your browser since the last time you changed it though.

fishfucker: No nbsp, but copy the entire string between quotes; Just copy and paste.

mr.marx: Well spotted. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt!

Results will be published after the survey closes on the 24^th. Which, coincidentally, is also after the deadline for my simulation and modelling coursework.

Oh, and to reiterate one last time:

• For the mult-select boxes you have to CONTROL-click to select more than one entry. Don't blame me, it's your browser's fault..
• I am not the one in charge of reopening registration
• You can "opt out" of a question by just not answering it.

posted by fvw at 1:13 PM on April 10, 2004

thanks fvw...!
posted by t r a c y at 1:37 PM on April 10, 2004

I know I'm not the only person who will be affected by this--in the first section, where you ask about relationship status? You only have married/in a relationship/single -- which leaves out people who have multiple partners (but who do not consider themselves single).

Otherwise, this is great. :) I'm sure the results will be pretty interesting.
posted by eilatan at 2:08 PM on April 10, 2004

Er... people with multiple partners can choose 'married,' for a polygamous marriage (or a spouse and a lover); or choose 'in a relationship,' if just generally sleeping around. Either one is "not single," which seems to me to describe a multiple-partner situation.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:38 PM on April 10, 2004

Yeah.

And bringing it up is just bragging.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:35 PM on April 10, 2004

Now, now – I think we need to hear the precise details of eilatan's situation before we rush to judgement.

Start at the beginning, take your time and be sure not to leave anything out.
posted by timeistight at 4:06 PM on April 10, 2004

*sits up*
posted by dmt at 5:24 PM on April 10, 2004

If this gets into the wrong hands, we're all doomed. Doomed, I tell you!

That was a lot of work and a damn prying set of questions but I answered honestly.

Of course, back in my day this sort of thing used to be done by hand, one question at a time, and every time we'd I'd get thoroughly spanked for asking.

Honestly, kids nowadays!

Aren't they great? ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:41 PM on April 10, 2004

fvw should market his surveying sotware as "MiguelBot"...
posted by wendell at 5:56 PM on April 10, 2004

I've decided I'm going to start living my life by the Miguelleon way: a deep and fundamental belief in good foods, good wine, and good women. It's my new religion.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:28 PM on April 10, 2004

* For the mult-select boxes you have to CONTROL-click to select more than one entry. Don't blame me, it's your browser's fault..

For those of us on a Mac, of course, it's COMMAND (Apple Key)-click. CONTROL won't work. Just in case there's that one Mac user out there who doesn't already know that.

iconomy, I doubt you're more boring than I am.

iconomy is boring like jonmc is a teetotaler.
posted by soyjoy at 8:47 PM on April 10, 2004

um, soyjoy....jonmc is. : >
posted by amberglow at 9:10 PM on April 10, 2004

Really.

Christ.

Aren't you a follower of Days of our Mefites?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:24 PM on April 10, 2004

A Dodger's game and a MeFi survey in the same evening...I know which was the more exciting ;-)
posted by i_cola at 11:03 PM on April 10, 2004

...altho' I did see a kid get a ball in the head off the foul ball post thing...
posted by i_cola at 11:04 PM on April 10, 2004

timeistight: Start at the beginning, take your time and be sure not to leave anything out.

It's not that exciting, it's merely how I live my life. It is imprecise for me to answer married or in a relationship, because neither of those options truly takes multiple relationships into account.

At any rate, it was just a suggestion and not a shrill demand that the survey be changed immediately or anything. I'd noticed that other changes had been made, that's all, and thought I'd suggest one of my own.
posted by eilatan at 7:45 AM on April 11, 2004

phew , i nearly posted a comment there.
posted by sgt.serenity at 11:33 AM on April 11, 2004

um, soyjoy....jonmc is.

Damn, I was this close to saying "like jonmc hates music," but thought, no, there are some forms that he truly hates, so I'll go with the safer bet. Now look what I've done - I just called iconomy boring! My apologies to both of ya. I'll do better research next time I try to make a personality-based quip.

See, this is why we need this damn thing, isn't it?
posted by soyjoy at 7:31 AM on April 12, 2004

Jeezus, people. Take it to MeFi.

I just always wanted to say that.
posted by chicobangs at 3:47 PM on April 12, 2004

Soyjoy, I thought you were just teasing us. I can't speak for jon, but I was not offended ;)
posted by iconomy at 5:30 PM on April 12, 2004

Don't sweat it soyjoy. I raise my Ovaltine in your general direction.
posted by jonmc at 7:12 PM on April 12, 2004

Could not do stupid fucking survey, could not login ...................
Suspect that someone maybe doing a survey as to how many times your average metafilter user will bang their head against a wall!!!
posted by kenaman at 5:18 AM on April 13, 2004

I sort of recall having mentioned this a zillion times before, but: YOU HAVE TO PASTE THE ENTIRE STRING BETWEEN QUOTES TO YOUR USER PAGE.
posted by fvw at 1:11 PM on April 13, 2004