What do you think of the recent Survey Central write-up in the New York Times?

Wow, are there really 250 registered users on SC? I haven't seen a survey with more than about 30 respondents.

***daver: A factual error? Do tell...

What a cute birdie! I love birds but my cat won't let me get one.

Good article, but my first reaction is WAAAAAHHHHHHH now we're going to have to weed through 80-quadrillion polls a day. It's part of why I was bothered by FIR's ton of polls - I'd rather see 4-5 a day that we can really discuss, instead of 20 a day that get quick glances.

***EB: Cute bird! Mine's at Nazo's Page.

There goes the neighborhood... Well, it actually could be a good thing. Kinda like increasing the gene pool. It'll be weird listening to a bunch of new people whom I don't know as well as "you's guys". Not bad, but different.

SC was nice while it lasted... bill: the only consolation I can see in this is that maybe your efforts as a web-programmer might get some well deserved attention. elijah: nice picture. Can't wait to see you struggle to nitpick at the zillions of surveys that will be flooding in. Your list? You should make a survey about it. How I choose to spell my handle is my own business. The fact that it makes you feel better only confirms my point. Why is it when you make a point its a "joke" but when someone else makes one its a "snit"? daver: constant rainy weather brings out the curmudgeon in me...I hope you are right.

Go Steve! I'm rather curious how the reporter found us, and how she chose people to interview...

This is the end of Survey Central as we know it. It's been . . . well I can't exactly say it's been nice, but it's Been.

Elijah: It was rather neat to finally see you. My pic (in the interest of complimentarity) is on my webpagE (throughout it actually, I'm vain) http://www.apocalypse.org/~h/

WARNING: Frivolity to follow: List? is that a threat Elijah! "He's making a list, Scully" (from an X-files Christmas parody, treating Santa as an X-File serial killer).

Elijah: great! let's meet and have a baby now (line from a B52s song before anyone gets any ideas)

I think it's almost always interesting, being part of a community or social group, seeing what the group seems to look like to people outside it. Every second is the end of now anyway. Don't sweat it. I'm, uh, always looking for an excuse to upgrade the system. Yeah.

elijahblue - Some of the things you say come off very reasonably; some come off condescending and judgemental ("your ignorance is your own business") in a way that I think pushes some people's buttons. Gives me the willies sometimes. I think that's the cause of the persistent irritation we've been observing.

I guess it's good if you want to get more users. I'm surprised, considering how flaky that reporter was, that the article ever got out. *** bill: you'll have to continue your plot. That's about the worst picture I've ever seen of me. No, really. If you're ever in the DC area (or later, NYC) look me up. My bird came out great though. I was surprised she got a good picture of him, because he was scared of the photography equipment and kept flying away. By the way, he's a lovebird, and his name's baby. *** Pomeranian: ok, you're back on my list. What list, you ask? Ah, but you really don't want to know... Since you're going to criticize me for nitpicking anyway: you didn't even spell your handle right! I have always wanted to say that, there, that feels so much better. *** Atzilut: you're very cute. You have a right to be vain. *** Pomeranian: yes, your ignorance is your own business. It was meant to be a joke. I don't know what prompted your snitty little comment in the first place. *** Pomeranian: I'm just tired of being doged it for nitpicking on surveys, when other people do so as well and I do so far less than I used to. *** romkey: as I said, I'm tired of being singled out, there are plenty of people who make what could be construed as "arrogant or condescending" comments. Here I think it's interesting that P. made the initial comment, yet I'm getting taken to task for it.

I like this concept, but the times circuits section over all sucks and the story is only decent

The article had a factual error, but overall was decent.
**ron2112: It was minor. She mentioned that SC does not censor surveys. Bill does not do this anymore, but the warning that he may is still up on the survey creation page.
**Atzilut, Pomeranian, et al.: Hopefully this won't be as bad as you fear. I suspect we'll get a flood of people looking at the site, some people creating accounts and a quite a few new surveys. We will no doubt welcome creators of inane surveys as usual and things will go back to normal (albeit with a somewhat enlarged user base) in a couple of weeks.
**bill: Could you maybe put a couple of "How to write a good survey" tips on the survey creation page?
Maybe we should have a survey on what would be good tips for newcomers?
**bill: She did get in touch with me. She had a particular axe to grind with her article, but at least she made that known up front. I didn't tell her anything to help in her axe-grinding and she didn't use any of my comments. I'm not very surprised. (For the curious, her hypothesis was that "public opinion polls have attained too much influence" I don't particularly agree with this. If you take such polls as absolute truth, you are deluding yourself and deserve whatever conclusions you draw...)

I didn't like it, mostly because I don't like registering for something that is likely to spam me email wise. other than that, whatever. it is a newsarticle. we will probably get the '10-fold' increase briefly, then a smaller group of thoise that pop in to 'survey' the place will stay and the rest will get on with their lives.

I disagree with their thesis. I don't find this empowering, exactly, nor do I feel like it makes me a pollster. I really enjoy this site and think Bill does a good job with it, but curiousity and empowerment are different drives. And, as steve pointed out, this is a highly selected group. It will be interesting to see if we get lots of newbies and how that affects the site. And elijahblue...love the bird!

I did not join Survey Central because I felt under-represented in public surveys.

*** Reality: Yahoo now offers, like many other sites, a free email address. I find it very useful for any occassion where someone or some site wants me to list an email address. The work address is good for that too.

Oh. Just what I need. More registering..... joy.

If you ever don't want to register for something, use "cyberpunk" as your username, and "cyberpunk" as the password. Often it will already be registered. If not, sign it up.

...eh. I think it was Yet Another "geepers, this web thing is nifty!" article that totally overlooked the fact that this isn't exactly new or different.

I thought it was nifty, but then, I'm easily impressed. (OK, Bill, 'fess up - how many copies did you send to relatives?)

I think it's cool, it's exciting, it's a little scary. It was all part of an elaborate plot to find out what EB looks like. I thought the article was pretty good. I was pleased that Survey Central got a lot of coverage and attention in the article.

I do worry that the site will get out of control, but I'm also curious to see what will happen... Still, if all of you got annoyed with it and left, that would suck a lot and I'd probably join you.

Phi, Pam (the author of the article) contacted me a month ago. She asked me some questions, I wrote back etc... Then she asked me for some people who use Survey Central. I asked elijahblue, steve, and daver if they were interested (I picked them because I thought they were all well-spoken users) - they all said yes, so I forwarded their email addresses to Pam. I don't know if daver was never contacted or if Pam just didn't used his comments. Pam had asked if she could photograph me, and I said yes - but it never happened (pout)

EB, when you're a rock star in NYC, I'll swing by some time and we can do lunch. I just bought the New York Times (hardcopy), and there was the article (way in the back). A national publication and there was a picture of you! ...and quotes from Steve, you and I. We're all famous! I thought your picture looked pretty good, by the way... I liked that they used the bird and the monitor in the background, you looked interesting (not your typical geek). Your cheeks were puffed out though, which probably made you look funny.

Daver, yes - we should do that survey. I could come up with some tips on my own, but I'm sure you all have some good suggestions too.
** Gilly, actually I didn't tell any relative about it. Unlike Ron, I'm not psyched to have my parents find out about this part of my life.