Please take this survey meant for all people who watch and/or create fanvideos!

[violetemerald]

If you're here in the vidding community, I figure maybe you'd be interested in this survey of mine! I just created it, it'll stay open through March 8th (so for about 2 months), and it'll take about 15 minutes of your time to completely answer all of my questions. I hope as many people as possible end up taking the survey - I want an accurate representation of vidders & vid viewers from every corner of our section of fandom. So after you take the survey, please try to spread the word to other fanvideo viewers or creators! Thanks so much.

More details here: http://luvtheheaven.dreamwidth.org/785.html

Or just skip straight to the survey: https://survey.insightify.com/1f5-137-4b5-3d0

Comments

[starlady]

What are you going to use this information for? What is your plan for safeguarding sensitive and/or identifying information that you gather? Do you have any particular qualifications to be doing this research? If you are affiliated with a U.S. institution of higher education, have you received IRB approval for these survey questions? If not, why?

[violetemerald]

I'm just doing this for fun. I'm not affiliated with anything professional. I don't claim to have qualifications to be doing the research. I mean, I've never really done anything like this before and I openly admit I'm still figuring out the basics.

I'm the only person with access to the results, which should not actually have any personally identifying information in them - I don't know people's emails, IP addresses, names, or any actually identifying information - the way the survey site I chose is designed, it keeps everything quite anonymous. I did not ask, in any of the questions, for any of that info. I allowed people to share their email addresses with me if they wish to be put on a mailing list, but it is optional.

I'm planning on translating all of the results into simple statistics, listing off trends of answers, etc... and "publishing" those results via just posting on tumblr, maybe somewhere like dreamwidth here, but nowhere "official".

The results of this little survey of mine are just supposed to be kind of interesting for all of the people in the vidding community who are curious. That's it. Oh, and I guess the information I gather and problems I encounter this time around should maybe be able to help me or any other future person to build better surveys of the vidding community in the future.

There have been wonderful censuses out there for fanfiction stuff for many years, such as this: http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/63208278796/ao3-census-masterpost but I've yet to see a good vidding survey, so I figured it was time I stop waiting around and instead create one of my own. If you are nervous, you certainly don't have to take the survey, but I just want to reassure you that I don't ask for anyone's identifying information.

I hope this is a satisfactory answer??

[starlady]

I am not nervous. As a professional researcher, I am appalled at the glibness with which you are treating potential respondents' sensitive and/or identifying information, and by the casual biases displayed throughout your survey questions. Even if you had any idea about protecting sensitive information, a glance through your survey shows that you will not get any useful or statistically trustworthy data from it because of the way the questions are structured. See metatxt's comments below for more specific examples of problems with data security.

[violetemerald]

Well it's a casual survey... casual biases are probably inevitable but I tried my best and allowed for anonymous feedback at the end... I feel bad that you're so appalled by this, and I guess it makes sense since you're a professional researcher, but isn't this a very different context than the professional world?? I am not going to be really "publishing" the results at all, I'll be posting my simple analysis of the results under my "luvtheheaven" username on a site like tumblr... definitely not people's birthdates, and that was THE one question I felt particularly weird about including in the first place and I knew I probably shouldn't... I can probably go back in and edit the question now, even though the survey is already in play... I'll change the question.

[starlady]

I certainly don't believe that academics have a monopoly on good research, but this is the opposite of good research. Even if it's a "casual" survey, I don't understand what the goal of a survey is that has such shoddy questions. For instance, the only two possible answers under sexual orientation are "mostly heterosexual" and "mostly homosexual"--leaving aside the question of what on earth those two designations mean, the question assumes either a) that there are no such thing as bisexual or ace people, for example, or that for whatever reason bisexual and asexual people don't make and watch vids. Now, if the latter is your assumption and you're looking to prove or disprove it, that's another (highly questionable) thing, but as it stands, the data you get is not going to show you anything useful about what your respondents actually think. It's only going to confirm your own stereotypes (which, as even a casual glance at tumblr would show, are by no means accurate to the world as vidding fans perceive it and themselves), and the other questions are riddled with similar problems.

I can't believe that any competent linguistics program would not have included discussion of these sorts of methodological problems, even at the undergraduate level. And SurveyFail certainly shows the harm that even a "casual" survey can do.

[violetemerald]

What??

"For instance, the only two possible answers under sexual orientation are 'mostly heterosexual' and 'mostly homosexual'" ??

There are a ton of other answer choices, and I'm confused that you're only seeing those two. Those were the last two choices AFTER I wrote hetero, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, gray-asexual or demisexual, androsexual, gynesexual, and "questioning/unsure". Some people who have already taken the survey have answered Asexual, bisexual, pansexual, etc already so I'm confused as to how/why they're not showing up as choices for you?? I tried to ask a very thorough sexual orientation question since this is one of the most interesting pieces of information I was looking to gain out of this survey, and the "mostly heterosexual" options are for people who feel like nothing else fits. I know in other surveys people have chosen that option when given the choice, that's why I included it.

And as you should know, if you've figured out I was in a Linguistics program, that um... I am (quite publicly) asexual and certainly am not trying to disprove asexuality in any shape or form, nor any of the other orientations. I think you've really misjudged me.

[starlady]

Mm, you're right, some of the questions weren't displaying correctly on mobile. That was definitely my mistake. Still, with these questions, you're going to get results that won't tell you anything useful--the question about considering homosexuality as a sin, for example, ignores the fact that not all religions have the concept of sin, so you're not going to be able to relate the answers to that question to the answers about respondents' religious beliefs usefully. If your goal is to inform the vidding community about itself, this is not an effective way to do it, because the methodology is so flawed. And while I don't know anything about you other than what you've said here and on your DW profile, I can definitely judge the methodological problems with the survey based on what's in it.

[violetemerald]

I really do appreciate everything you're saying here. I'm paying attention to your words. I'm not trying to ignore you. And thanks for the link. I just read that SurveyFail fanlore page. And... well I really don't think my survey is something that can reasonably be compared to that. I understand... surveys can be problematic... I mean that was really extreme... and I mean I tried to be careful, I specifically said after the sin question "(or immoral, or wrong)" to clarify that even if sin wasn't the correct word choice for the individual answerer, that was my intent, and I'm not sure why you're ignoring that and acting like I presuppose everyone believes in sin - I tried really hard, is all I'm saying, I tried to give options, to acknowledge that sin may not be the correct term, etc. That was in my question from the start, before I even put it live.

I'm trying to pay attention to any and all feedback I get on this survey and even to share it publically. Right now I've shared this conversation we're having, a link to this dreamwidth conversation, on tumblr and twitter - I'm trying to seriously warn people that this POV about my survey exists and maybe you're right and I'm wrong, in case it is enlightening to them, in case it affects their decision of whether or not to participate. I'm really trying here to be as fair as possible.

Anyway... I will post tons of caveats and disclaimers when I post my results in March. I'll try to point out the inherent problems with my survey that I've figured out by then and point out what other people have said, too.

I'm really not sure what else to say. I am going forward with this survey and I know it's flawed but it's certainly no worse than some other surveys I've taken, including the only survey I've ever seen about vidding, which assumed only approximately 10 fandoms total existed and therefore was really frustrating for that reason, on top of others.

I think the information gathered from this survey will be interesting and useful and I respect and understand that you completely and utterly disagree.

[violetemerald]

Here, I've now added a disclaimer to the main "Welcome" page and changed the date of birth question.
https://survey.insightify.com/1f5-137-4b5-3d0

My disclaimer reads:
DISCLAIMER: This is just being conducted for fun by one vidder who has no official training or qualifications, no background in research... and this survey is not meant to be used in any official professional context. I will try, however, to the best of my ability to protect any sensitive information you provide in the process of answering the survey. Feel free to avoid giving away personal information if you fear it may somehow be misused. Take this survey at your own risk.

I hope this is at least slightly better. Also, no one else will be asked to share their date of birth with me.

[violetemerald]

I can't believe my disclaimer got messed up the first time I tried to post it here. I edited the post and fixed it but still. Apparently I can't get anything right. I'm sorry. Anyway, it should be pretty much what I wanted to say now.

[metatxt]

So... I appreciate your desire to apparently study vidding communities to satisfy your own curiousity or as some form of service to the greater vidding community??? I'm guessing? To be honest, the purpose and goal of this survey is unclear. I was more troubled when I actually clicked the link and saw the structure of the survey.

To highlight the most egregious example, why do you need people to provide their actual birthdate? as opposed to listing their age in years or selecting one of a few predetermined agegroups? Birthdates are highly sensitive information that could be used for identity theft or to link wallet-name identities to fandom identities. What guarantees are in place as to how such information would be used? or even kept secure? When you say you're going to share the results of this survey, does this mean you would be publishing all of these birthdates as well?

As starlady mentions above, people go through extensive training and oversight to ensure that research does not harm its subjects. As a member of vidding communities, I am sure you do not want to intentionally harm your friends and acquaintances here, but nothing in your survey gives any indication that you have the knowledge needed to safeguard against abuse of this information.

[violetemerald]

Feel free to not take the survey if you are uncomfortable with it. I understand.

And um... Well, I debated with how to phrase the question about people's ages. I decided on asking for birth date for 2 reasons - potentially so I could see likely accidental duplicates in responses, because two people with the same exact birthdate in a row could be a sign of that happening... although I wasn't sure when I designed the question what I would or wouldn't be able to see in the results... But mainly because people might be taking this survey over the course of a long period of time, and while 2 months isn't that long, it's still more accurate for me to calculate everyone's age on the same day by extrapolating from their birth dates. Like I could explain how old each respondent will be on the exact date March 1st, 2015. So, for example, in the end I'd be able to say there were 25 people who were 21 years old on that date. I was not planning on using the birthdates for any other reason. I considered just asking "what will be your age on March 10th, 2015?" but I thought the question might be too complicated for some users, and end up with weird answers, so I figured I'd go with the birth date one. I ended up including much more complicated questions, in the long run, but when I wrote the question, that is what I had in mind. Also no one will ever see the birth dates besides me.

I'm sorry you think that what I'm doing is dangerous...?? But... pointing out to me that "people go through extensive training and oversight to ensure that research does not harm its subjects" when it comes to an anonymous vidding survey like this seems a bit over-the-top to me. It's not like this is a rigorous psychological test that truly tests people's limits... it's not like I'm planning to share people's sensitive personal information with the world, like "luvtheheaven is asexual" or whatever... I'm simply going to say 5% of the people who responded are bisexual or whatever the results end up being.

It's got all the flaws of a newbie's poorly worded questions and it's just a simple survey. I'm aware that there are complicated ethics regarding research, but I'd never heard of something as simple as a survey like this in a fandom community harming subjects, and I'm sorry if you think I'm being too cavalier about all of this. I definitely care about the vidding community and don't want to hurt anyone. I feel bad that you were troubled. So feel free to not take the survey. Feel free to explain more to me what you think I should do now, now that the survey's out there. I can put warnings/disclaimers on my posts or do something else, if you think it's necessary. But I'm still going forward with it and am curious to find out the results. I think a lot of other people are curious too, like the people who took the survey as soon as I posted it. :P And I still feel like I'm providing a (very small) service to the community and I feel confident that no one will ultimately be hurt, in any way, by this particular survey. So that's why I'm going forward with it.

Oh and I've already taken a sneak peak at the results, over 10 people have replied by now, I'm not sure exactly how many... and someone has already written only the year of their birth and not their birth date lol, so I mean that's another option... just ignore my request and don't give the full personal information, give whatever info you feel like giving. That works too.