Metafilter User Survey Results

April 25, 2004 2:16 PM

It turns out we really are a boring bunch. (results for the survey posted here.)
posted by fvw to MetaFilter-Related at 2:16 PM (64 comments total)

Oh God. I wonder how many people have got the same password as me.
posted by mokey at 2:18 PM on April 25, 2004

thanks fvw...and who are the Alaskans?
posted by amberglow at 2:30 PM on April 25, 2004

OK, who's got the negative hamster?

And never mind the Alaskans -- who's that in Mongolia??

Great job, fvw; thanks!
posted by languagehat at 2:35 PM on April 25, 2004

Pudding won't fill the emptiness inside me... But it'll help.

It's nice to see that I made my mark on the survey. Thanks for the interesting data, fvw.
posted by UKnowForKids at 2:37 PM on April 25, 2004

Woohoo! Prince Rupert, represent! We're on the map!

Who are the guys in the middle of the Atlantic? Or did they just get their lat/long wrong? They look too far west to be in the Acores.
posted by MiG at 2:38 PM on April 25, 2004

There was no one from Africa or South America, that surprises me somehow, perhaps they are just survey-phobic.

Although there does seem to be one lucky poster on a net-capable raft in the middle of the Atlantic.
(and it looks too high for Ascension, right?)
posted by milovoo at 2:39 PM on April 25, 2004

And we have one shipwrecked member in the middle of the Atlantic, apparently--someone go rescue him!
posted by amberglow at 2:39 PM on April 25, 2004

great job, thanks. I'm not surprised you wouldn't do it again
posted by matteo at 2:39 PM on April 25, 2004

aw, milovoo beat me to it : <
posted by amberglow at 2:40 PM on April 25, 2004

and MiG
posted by amberglow at 2:41 PM on April 25, 2004

that's OK, MiG beat us both.
posted by milovoo at 2:41 PM on April 25, 2004

There two people in Turkey? and one in Taiwan?

Fascinating, I would really love to see that world map with more data.
posted by milovoo at 2:49 PM on April 25, 2004

mccreath and rhapsodie.
posted by fvw at 3:07 PM on April 25, 2004

"The model metafilter member is a straight white male.:
We.... win again??
posted by Keyser Soze at 3:40 PM on April 25, 2004

The model metafilter member is a straight white male

or just passing as one.
posted by quonsar at 4:10 PM on April 25, 2004

The average MeFite is 31 years old

33

The modal MeFite is a straight single male.

check, check, and check.

The average MeFite has had about 10 sexual partners

off by one.

Wow, I am an average joe after all. even here at MeFi. Although I will cop to being one of the 2% who's admitted to often posting drunk. That would account for roughly half of my posts up until last October.
posted by jonmc at 4:15 PM on April 25, 2004

Can I get MiG to beat me too?

I'm greatly disappointed that more MeFis don't make vodka their drink of choice.

Thanks for the info fvw.
posted by sciurus at 4:28 PM on April 25, 2004

Wow, I am an average joe after all. even here at MeFi.

i may have said this before, but the fact that we are hear means we have a lot more in common than we would care to admit sometimes. Peers or something like that.

bet a survey of which MF people know other MF people, or have met them would turn up some interesting seven-degrees-of-jonmc or some sort of results.
posted by th3ph17 at 4:34 PM on April 25, 2004

I'm wondering if any of the 1% of MeFiers making a six-fig income are in need of a mail order bride.

Also, if someone could direct me to that article about the fellow who sent himself by FedEx, that'd be lovely.
posted by precocious at 4:59 PM on April 25, 2004

Who the heck is 54 years old? I thought I was the eldest.
posted by timeistight at 5:18 PM on April 25, 2004

Where does it say 54? It clearly says 53. Get glasses gramps.


Yes, I mis-copied the oldest/youngest data, fixed it now. I am a very very silly person.
posted by fvw at 5:25 PM on April 25, 2004

i thought postroad was old?
posted by amberglow at 5:35 PM on April 25, 2004

Well, posty can't submit his age till the results of the carbon-dating test are in.
posted by jonmc at 5:36 PM on April 25, 2004

Can't we just count the rings? ; >
posted by amberglow at 5:58 PM on April 25, 2004

As for Africa and S. America, I know there have been a few South Africans on MeFi before (of course, South Africa is pretty westernized and much different than the rest of the continent), and I know there are several active members of MeFi that everyone reads daily that hail from various South American countries (a few in Brasil, one or two in Chile, at least one in Argentina, a Venezualean or two as well).

survey respondents != all mefi members (but it's better than nothing and not a bad approximation)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:02 PM on April 25, 2004

Get glasses gramps.

I do now require glasses, and I am a gramps.
posted by timeistight at 6:15 PM on April 25, 2004

Can't we just count the rings? ; >

How young are you?
How old am I?
Just count the rings
Around my eyes....
posted by jonmc at 6:20 PM on April 25, 2004

Average 10 partners.
Kids today ...
posted by johnny7 at 6:49 PM on April 25, 2004

Surprisingly little European membership, aside from the obvious anglos, that is. A few in Germany and the low countries, none (apparently) in France, Italy or Spain. A scattering across the Urals. Ukraine and Khazakstan, right?

Also, I think it's neat that we've got posters from Atlantis.
posted by bonehead at 6:57 PM on April 25, 2004

Metafilter: we've got posters from Atlantis
posted by amberglow at 6:58 PM on April 25, 2004

Hey, this dude's got a lot to say.
posted by jonmc at 7:04 PM on April 25, 2004

As usual, my particulars were sucked up by the dominant beer-drinking, Windows-using, Anglo-American lefty college kids. After all I've done for Portugal and the Portuguese ethos, raising the Portagee-level-of-awareness here to levels unthought of outside Portugal - not to mention my services to the booze industry everywhere - I find not one bloody dot for Lisbon on the map and my countrymen (we are four on MetaFilter, after all) reduced to "other countries".

Well, I'm not amused; not amused at all. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:09 PM on April 25, 2004

shut up or we'll liberate you too.
posted by quonsar at 7:37 PM on April 25, 2004

*puts down wood*
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:45 PM on April 25, 2004

Operation Fado Freedom?
Operation Bombs Over Belem?
posted by amberglow at 7:56 PM on April 25, 2004

Nah, you can't liberate a country that discovered your sorry ass.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:08 PM on April 25, 2004

Hah! like Bush even knows that.

we're in trouble--come liberate us
posted by amberglow at 8:11 PM on April 25, 2004

Y'know, if I hadn't been in the middle of a life change, I would have skewed these stats all to hell.

Your loss.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:41 PM on April 25, 2004

The average MeFite has had about 10 sexual partners, with 0, 5, 8, 13 and 20 being especially popular numbers.

Anybody else weirded out that this sequence is almost the fibonacci numbers?
posted by weston at 8:49 PM on April 25, 2004

And we have one shipwrecked member in the middle of the Atlantic, apparently--someone go rescue him!

Especially since he's obviously a dedicated MeFite -- none of this hijacking the front page for his stupid "rescue agenda", unlike some people I could mention.
posted by namespan at 8:52 PM on April 25, 2004

Oh, quit your whining Miguel. You made your 2%.
posted by Khalad at 9:12 PM on April 25, 2004

Finally, I'm on the map!

I'm wondering about the string of people spread out across those grotty former soviet republics...
posted by Jimbob at 9:44 PM on April 25, 2004

Who you callin' a liar?

;)

I think of q as in his seventies. I have no idea why. I also saw the 1% for Stalin and thought, "ah, q." Which is totally unjustified, certainly.

Also, one of the Turkey dots looks like it might be in northern Iraq.
posted by mwhybark at 9:44 PM on April 25, 2004

Somebody else (besides hama7 ~wink~) wanna move to Korea? My dot's lonely.

Also, there're heaps of us in Japan, relatively speaking. Mefasians, stand up and be counted!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:29 PM on April 25, 2004

(Also, my dot should be down around the middle of the south coast. Just sayin')
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:31 PM on April 25, 2004

Male Female
Straight 63% 24%
Bisexual 2% 7%
Gay 3% 2%

68% + 33% = 101%

??
posted by dgaicun at 11:39 PM on April 25, 2004

I was in Mongolia for a couple of weeks last year, and in between eating mutton and drinking vodka I think I did check Metafilter a couple of time. I was also in the Russia, etc.
posted by johnny novak at 1:05 AM on April 26, 2004

stavrosthewonderchicken: there're heaps of us in Japan, relatively speaking. Mefasians, stand up and be counted!

I stood up and was counted!
--[Living in Meguro, Tokyo]--
posted by Meridian at 3:31 AM on April 26, 2004

I'll cop to being the Stalinist. But I'm not a Stalinist, unless you believe the political compass.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:18 AM on April 26, 2004

[stands up and, in being counted, negates Meridian]
posted by scarabic at 8:40 AM on April 26, 2004

Was the survey actually ever linked to on the blue? i only remember seeing it on MetaTalk (I might be wrong) which would make it more a survey of that. Not that i wish to detract from the effort put in, even though I'm found to be distinctly average.
posted by devon at 10:59 AM on April 26, 2004

68% + 33% = 101%

??

dgaicun, are you being purposely thick, or have you really never encountered rounding in statistics prior to this point in your life?
posted by quonsar at 11:27 AM on April 26, 2004

timeistight: well thank you very much for spoiling that then.

Miguel: That's what you get for not filling in your lat/lon. I warned you there'd be consequences. (well, no I didn't. But I could have if I'd wanted to.)

weston: given it's only five numbers, the chances of it being "pretty close" to some famous sequence aren't all that amazing. Even less amazing considering they were not that much more popular than the other surrounding numbers.

dgaicun: That's a consequence of rounding. Say it was a table with six total possibilities, each scoring exactly the same (that'd be 16 2/3). We're rounding to the integers. So you're forced to either make exactly equal results look unequal, or have them add up to something other than 100. The latter just makes more sense.

There were actually two stalinists btw, though I'm sure my way of questioning entirely skewed your actual political views and my apologies for that. It's just one of those things that can't be helped after all.

scarabic: What, you've got negative hamsters too?

devon: Nope, it wasn't. Actually, I'm sort of glad it wasn't, the navelgazing is ok in MeTa but once you do it on the blue too it becomes a bit too scary.
posted by fvw at 11:44 AM on April 26, 2004

fvw: don't spoil the fun. Who's to say that with a larger sample, the most popular numbers might not in fact *be* the fibonacci sequence?
posted by weston at 11:56 AM on April 26, 2004

Since the list ofmost popular numbers can never contain 1 twice. So there.
posted by fvw at 12:59 PM on April 26, 2004

The 371 people answering this question together spend 679 hours a day at MeFi.

Imagine if we could put that to good use.
posted by dg at 4:24 PM on April 26, 2004

timeistight: well thank you very much for spoiling that then.

Umm, what? I forgot what we were talking about.

I also forgot that Postroad is even older than me, but he never comes to MetaTalk so he doesn't really count.
posted by timeistight at 5:19 PM on April 26, 2004

MetaFilter: 1% for Stalin!

(It's sort of in poor taste to be amused by this, I guess.)

Hey! Maybe it's less Stalin and more Kim Chong-il!

I guess we're kinda screwed next year, when they haul us in to ask us if we have ever been members of an organization that we knew to contain Stalinists.

*packs emergency bag*
posted by mwhybark at 5:22 PM on April 26, 2004

I'm wondering if any of the 1% of MeFiers making a six-fig income ...

Yeah ... hey ... there's at least a few folks making several hundred K here ... who are you? We should have a private meetup. Start a little cabal.

MeFi could use a bit more good 'ol fashioned exclusionary elitism mixed into its culture.
posted by MidasMulligan at 8:05 PM on April 27, 2004

Yeah ... hey ... there's at least a few folks making several hundred K here ... who are you? We should have a private meetup. Start a little cabal.

I was actually jokingly insinuating that I am poor and willing to ship myself mail order to a wealthy MeFier. Har har har.

Did you deliberately misinterpret so you could announce your income and point out that you're non-elitist all at once? If so, v. clever.
posted by precocious at 11:00 PM on April 27, 2004

precocious, I don't think he was referring to you at all -- he was using the snippet of your quote to discuss the six-figgers (to coin a word). At ease. (And everybody knows Midas is Richie Rich; he doesn't need to take this occasion to inform people. He's just indulging in a little cabal humor.)

Also, I still want to know who's got the negative hamster.
posted by languagehat at 1:03 PM on April 28, 2004

would it work if the number of partners was something you inherited (think aids risk)? - so if you sleep with someone with 8 partners and someone with 5 partners then you have 13. only it would 15 really, i guess, unless they'd slept with each other, of course...
posted by andrew cooke at 3:52 PM on April 28, 2004

He's just indulging in a little cabal humor.

Damn. MeFi is a scary place - people on opposite ends of the political spectrum actually understand each other well enough to explain even the nuances of one another's comments. You nailed it exactly. Didn't occur to me that I was bragging about being rich (though if I thought there was something wrong with doing so, I wouldn't be signing in as "MidasMulligan").

Was just havin' a little fun. (Plus, I didn't fill out the survey - which means at least one or two others are making above US$ 500K or so a year - and I've got to admit I am genuinely curious as to who they are).
posted by MidasMulligan at 3:53 PM on April 28, 2004

man. somebody lives pretty friggin near me, in florida. there are only two of us, apparently, and i can't tell if i'm the southern dot, and the northern dot is tampa, or if i'm the northern dot, and the southern dot is ft. myers.

quelle interessant! and yes, we ARE boring!
posted by taumeson at 9:41 PM on April 28, 2004