c4countdown

Dear all,

I am currently undertaking research on online communities as part of my master’s degree at Aberystwyth University under the supervision of Jan Breitsohl. It would be really appreciated if you could spare 5 minutes of your time to complete this survey as it will determine whether I get future funding for my academic career.

http://abergeography.eu.qualtrics.com/S ... 4hClRs5wXj

All your responses will be anonymous and there will be no identifiable information associated with your responses.

Thank you for your help!

P.s. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.

At this point, I think it's fair to say fuck off, right?

Matt Morrison wrote:At this point, I think it's fair to say fuck off, right?

No Matt, no! Your impatience has caused you to miss an absolute belter.

Here we have a young person, well I assume young, and assume person, eager to undertake some important research and you simply advise them to fuck off. Oh please. This is not a run-of-the-mill first degree student. This is MASTERS level.

So had you delved a little further you would have discovered that Question One asks you in which community you discovered this survey.

Question Two then asks how often you visit said community.

The first option is NEVER.





(Oliver, I'm sure you're a great guy really but before you go job hunting please learn to think things through....)

Keith Bennett wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:At this point, I think it's fair to say fuck off, right?

No Matt, no! Your impatience has caused you to miss an absolute belter.

Here we have a young person, well I assume young, and assume person, eager to undertake some important research and you simply advise them to fuck off. Oh please. This is not a run-of-the-mill first degree student. This is MASTERS level.

So had you delved a little further you would have discovered that Question One asks you in which community you discovered this survey.

Question Two then asks how often you visit said community.

The first option is NEVER.





(Oliver, I'm sure you're a great guy really but before you go job hunting please learn to think things through....)

Bit harsh Keith, survey design is fraught - I've been doing it for years and still miss idiocy like that

It goes without saying my opinions had nothing to do with the survey design and everything to do with the spam.

I don't see it as spam, more as trying to find the right audience for the research. If he's doing research into online communities, then he's going to have to approach some of them. And he was polite about it.
However, the survey design and question wording did leave something to be desired. Oliver, it's always a good idea to do a pilot survey, particularly for quantitative research, before you launch the final survey. Take it from someone who makes a living doing these things! It's NEVER right first time!

This and then this six days later.
Either he has been joining and spamming so many forums that he clearly can't even remember which he has already spammed.
Or far more likely he wasn't happy with the first response and so copied-and-pasted it and posted it again. Absolutely literally spam.

I'm sure there forums exist that are full of people signed up for nothing but volunteering for research.
If he'd just bothered to write even a single sentence regarding why he was posting this as a first post on a Countdown forum without even bothering to introduce himself or feign any relevancy then he might have got a better response.
Of course, he doesn't care. He's copied-and-pasted this everywhere on the web I assume.

In fact, let's Google "I am currently undertaking research on online communities as part of my master’s degree at Aberystwyth University".

55 results.

Digital Photography Review - thread deleted
CricketWeb ... "haven't you asked this before?"
MensTennisForums.com ... "go away you stupid bot" ... "why a duplicate thread?"
PeugeotForums.com ... "1st post looks like its going to be your last unless you can convince me otherwise"
bodybuilding.com - thread deleted
UkuleleUnderground - thread deleted
UltiTalk Ultimate Frisbee
Yachting & Boating World

And that's just the surface. Sigh.

Maybe the point of the survey is to see how intolerant communities are, and the actual linked survey is a red herring.

If it isn't, then it could be now. I've just saved your Master's, Oliver.

Jon Corby wrote:Maybe the point of the survey is to see how intolerant communities are, and the actual linked survey is a red herring.

If it isn't, then it could be now. I've just saved your Master's, Oliver.

I was thinking along these lines. Would be funny if it actually was.