Althouse: Survey.

November 30, 2006

Survey.

Please take this survey about blogs. I did, and it's a research project that I think is worthy.

17 comments:

JohnF said...: Just took the survey. One question was difficult--it asked about "political" blogs I visit, but I don't know what that means, except in extreme cases like, e.g., Kos or LGF.

I hope you will post the results.; 11/30/06, 12:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Sounds like a thorough questionnaire for a social science research paper. Should be interesting.; 11/30/06, 1:05 PM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: I apologize that I listed your blog as one of the five "political blogs" I read. They didn't offer a category for Diva Blogresses.; 11/30/06, 1:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Well constructed survey. I really liked them using a big Likert scale. Should be interesting results, I hope you will post them!

Trey; 11/30/06, 1:19 PM
bill said...: For "list political blogs you visit" I wrote "depends what you mean by political" in the first and skipped the rest. Many of the blogs I read discuss politics but I wouldn't call them political. The survey listed Instapundit as political, I wouldn't. Like here, it's general interest news and entertainment with occasional heavy focus on politics. Although Althouse and Reynolds might get most of their attention due to the political posts, I don't think their overall blogs would change if they boycotted politics.; 11/30/06, 1:48 PM
Eli Blake said...: Done. You may want to warn people though next to the link that it is a fairly long survey, they should figure on taking about 15-20 minutes to get through it.

There was one question that really bugged me, and it was at the end where you are supposed to rate from 0-100 your feelings towards various groups. I have no problem rating groups like 'Labor Unions,' 'Evangelical Organizations,' 'Civil Rights groups,' etc. But it put 'Hispanics.' (NOT "Hispanic groups") I mean, how do you 'rate' an ethnic identity? I'm not a bigot, so am I supposed to therefore put '100?' I've known some very wonderful people who happened to be Hispanic, and I've also known some real jerks who were. And there are tens of millions of Hispanics in the U.S., so how am I supposed to 'rate' the whole group? I tend to the left on the whole immigration debate, but that is only one issue. In the end I left that question blank (the survey let me do that) because I couldn't meaningfully answer it.; 11/30/06, 1:51 PM
Josef Novak said...: that was a rather long survey.; 11/30/06, 2:09 PM
JohnF said...: I agree with eli on that Hispanic thing. What the hell is a Hispanic? Anyone with a Spanish-y name? Anyway, I just put a 50 in--neither hot nor cold. What else are you supposed to do?; 11/30/06, 3:25 PM
AllenS said...: Long survey? I'm going to file a claim for carpal click finger.

WV: idlqkr

OK, I'll click 5, just to appear even handed.; 11/30/06, 3:37 PM
The Drill SGT said...: I would have thought that for normalizing that he would have wanted questions on these GROUPS

Muslims
Jews
Asians
Blacks
Caucasians
Hindus; 11/30/06, 4:08 PM
Eli Blake said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 11/30/06, 5:09 PM
Eli Blake said...: Drill Sgt:

Maybe so. I think you really nailed it-- the whole question was just by its very asking, borderline racist.

I guess the scale goes like this:

score 0: You need to look around for your Klan robes.

score 20: You've convinced yourself that you aren't a bigot because you love eating at Taco Bell.

score 50: You've taken Spanish classes so you can do a better job of communicating with your employees.

score 80: You have front row tickets for Jay Perez. Your cell phone has J-Lo ringtones on it.

score 100: Ese, get real. Don't touch that Mexican flag on your front lawn while you are away at the courthouse changing your surname to Garcia.; 11/30/06, 5:11 PM
Gordon Freece said...: I figured the Hispanic thing was supposed to be about illegal immigrants or something.

I like surveys that let me specify that I really really hate everything and everybody, not just some namby-pamby trinary like/dislike/don't-give-a-crap scale.

I gave 'em a damn good list of political blogs, though. I hope they appreciate it.; 11/30/06, 8:05 PM
LoafingOaf said...: There was one question that really bugged me, and it was at the end where you are supposed to rate from 0-100 your feelings towards various groups. I have no problem rating groups like 'Labor Unions,' 'Evangelical Organizations,' 'Civil Rights groups,' etc. But it put 'Hispanics.' (NOT "Hispanic groups") I mean, how do you 'rate' an ethnic identity? I'm not a bigot, so am I supposed to therefore put '100?' I've known some very wonderful people who happened to be Hispanic, and I've also known some real jerks who were. And there are tens of millions of Hispanics in the U.S., so how am I supposed to 'rate' the whole group? I tend to the left on the whole immigration debate, but that is only one issue. In the end I left that question blank (the survey let me do that) because I couldn't meaningfully answer it.

Yeah! I paused for a bit on that one, too. "Hispanic" is sort of a phoney label to begin with. Heck, the Mexican-American Elvis, El Vez, even has a song called "Never Been to Spain" where he declares: "Well I've never been to Spain/So don't call me a Hispanic." And how much does a Cuban-American have in common with a Mexican-American?

The label is not meaningful except for political purposes. I decided on "51" for my rating. The extra 1 to get on the favorable side because I'm not hostile towards an ethnicity and I'm not against immigrants. I just don't like that label.; 11/30/06, 8:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, the Hispanic question was weird. As a native of San Antonio, that's about all I know. Should I have automatically given it a 100?

Word verification: drsoeul -- the Dr. No of Korea.; 11/30/06, 11:05 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I did the 50 for Hispanic and wished I had read this thread first, and I would have added one to that too.

Now that I have finished it, I realized that I went through the section checking to see how much we know about politics so quickly that I think I might have listed Nancy Pelosi as the outgoing Secretary of Defense.; 12/1/06, 12:54 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Whoops - there was a question asking me to rank ethnic groups? Could I have missed that one? I recall one asking me for my race. Oh well maybe they asked different questions to different people.

Reminds me of when I was in college and was riding the el home from Temple University. A classmate spotted me to discuss the final exam we just took. I said it was OK and asked him what did he think of that long essay question on the last page? He gasped and responded "what essay on the last page? " Then he got off the el and I assume he raced back to the school. I did not even have a chance to tell him I was joking. And never saw him again.; 12/1/06, 3:43 PM