The new management wants to get to know you

[Tracey Capen]

SURVEYS By Susan Bradley As most of you should know by now, Woody Leonhard has retired from AskWoody operations, and I’ve taken over the reins. Transi
[See the full post at: The new management wants to get to know you]

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MrChaz, SueW, abbodi86, rontpxz81, Fred

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[OscarCP]

In the request for comments on the newsletter it said: “This information can go a long way toward creating a newsletter — and website — that’s useful to all AskWoody subscribers.”

But I did not find in the survey, or perhaps missed it, a place to comment on how to improve the website, so I have not offered any comments on how to make AskWoody better.

Also where one is asked to grade various aspects of the Newsletter, for some reason the grades got stuck in some low numbers (e.g. 1, 2) for some things I would have graded much higher.

Otherwise, the survey is a good one, I think.

Immediately after I ended this survey I was taken to another one, also by SurveyMonkey, with questions on my political opinions, my phenotype (white), whom I voted for, etc. I filled out some of that, left other things blank, for example how much I earn per year, out an abundance of prudence, as the legalistic common place goes. Was this second survey intended to complement the first one on the Newsletter?

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Kirsty]

OscarCP wrote:

perhaps missed it

Q. 21: Any other feedback you wish to provide?

There’s no follow-on survey, and when tested, the finished survey goes to the usual SurveyMonkey “sign up for you own surveys” page. I wonder if your ad settings might differ from mine (I’m running Privacy Badger, for instance)?

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[OscarCP]

It looks like I must have taken question 21 to have the narrower meaning of “Any other feedback … on what has been asked here so far?”

As to my browsers and ads: I have AdBlock Plus in all of them.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[rc primak]

I took the survey in Google Chrome Beta 88 (which BTW does not have any Flash Plugin support) on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Gnome-Wayland), — the parent Linux to Mint — and I run Ghostery and Privacy Badger, as well as Abine’s Blur. I did not get taken to a follow-up survey, and I had no difficulty with anything being “stuck”. I do wonder how your browser setup may differ from mine?

-- rc primak

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 5 days ago by rc primak.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 5 days ago by rc primak.

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[The Surfing Pensioner]

Whoops! I didn’t even notice the option to “grade” aspects of the Newsletter – I just ticked my preferences. I can’t be bothered with surveys that want everything on a scale of 1-10; life isn’t on a scale of 1-10.

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[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

I was taken to another one, also by SurveyMonkey, with questions on my political opinions, my phenotype (white), whom I voted for, etc.

I think you are tripped into a survey you didn’t want. Usually these questionaires are to fill-in the meta-data one leaves at the internet, to serve datacompanies.
Isn’t there any GDPR-like protection for the common user?
Cambridge Analytica will love it.

~ ~ ~

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[Paul T]

No personal data is provided so no GDPR requirement.

cheers, Paul

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[OscarCP]

As I have already mentioned, a lot of personal data was asked of me and some of it I provided, because was not sure of what was going on, but I have so far trusted that SurveyMonkey is generally not put up to something evil. As I already mentioned, a number of political, financial, etc. queries made in that second survey I left unanswered. But certainly some of my PI ended up there. Call me naïve, but sometimes being taken by surprise leads to unwise action, as understood too late, when contemplated in retrospect.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[rc primak]

Some personal data was requested as part of the survey, if I recall correctly.

-- rc primak

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[FortneyJT]

The Survey link in my copy of the Newsletter produces a 404.

Firefox 84.0

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[Paul T]

This may be a temporary internet issue. Try again later, or open the survey from the newsletter link in the top post.

cheers, Paul

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[Seff]

The survey didn’t explain how the grading worked. I took it as meaning “1” was my best option, “2” the second-best option etc.  It sounds like @OscarCP took the opposite approach, so I’m unclear how reliable the answers will be. I’ve previously come across such differences in approach in other surveys and it may be that the US and UK traditionally approach these things differently, hence the need to add “Where 1 is the best and 10 the worst” type instruction.

I had to hit the submit button twice for it to work at the end.

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[dgc-art]

I can confirm that here in the UK we would assume that a ranking score of 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest. Like OscarCP, on question no. 12 my lower rankings got stuck and I was unable to proceed further with my higher rankings. I am afraid to say at that point I gave up completing the survey.

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[NaNoNyMouse]

dgc-art wrote:

I can confirm that here in the UK we would assume that a ranking score of 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest. Like OscarCP, on question no. 12 my lower rankings got stuck and I was unable to proceed further with my higher rankings. I am afraid to say at that point I gave up completing the survey.

I don’t live in the UK any more, so perhaps things have changed there recently in the numbering department, but if you ever watched TOTP, then I’m sure you’d think that the record at number 1 was higher up the charts than the record at number 10…

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[dgc-art]

In the UK a survey ranking of 10 is regarded as the highest ranking or sometimes it is 5 depending on the structure of the survey (as in 1 to 5). Hence the expression “10 out of 10” as being the top mark. In the world of entertainment being number 1 is regarded as being at the top and you are right, being number 1 in the charts is still the highest you can be.

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[Susan Bradley]

I edited the survey to showcase that “1” is the top. Hope that helps.  We’ll adjust the scores for the early votes.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[SkipH]

Some of us “early” respondents might have rated a “1” as the best, not a 10.

Also some of us early responders didn’t rate all the choices…most not worth rating other than a couple of them, IMHO

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[Ascaris]

Ranking and score are not the same thing. One is relative, one is absolute.

Ranking has #1 as the top spot (unless it is being done by a computer guy who is trying to be cute and start at #0, because that’s how computers do it). There can only ever be one #1, by definition, unless there’s a tie. The only thing that makes any difference is the relative position of each item within the group. The #2 item in the group could be far worse than #1, but still better than all the other items in the group, or it could be nearly identical to all the other items. The total number of rankings is equal to the total number of things in the group. In the top-40 songs for a given week, there’s only one number one, one number 20, and all the way on down, where there’s only one number 40.

A score based on a scale is quite different. It’s an absolute score, so it’s quite possible to have many items in the group assigned the same score, much as it is possible (and nearly a certainty) to have multiple students in a given class who get the same grade. Absolute scales like this are everywhere, and the scales themselves come in various sizes that are unrelated to the number of things that are being rated. The “stars” rating usually corresponds with a scale of 0 to 5, while the scores given by judges in figure skating are 0 to 6. Then, of course, there’s the familiar “scale of one to ten,” and the percentage (a scale of 0 to 100).

I’ve sometimes asked people to rate things on odd scales in jest before, like a scale from -9.4 to 137, or 14 to 17. Yeah, that kind of thing is funny to me, like when the cashier used to ask if I wanted my milk in a bag, and I would say “no, the jug it is in already is more than sufficient.”

Group "L" (KDE Neon Linux 5.20.5 User Edition)

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[anonymous]

Yes, I remember TOTP well and you are right, being number 1 was the highest position. However in survey rankings 10 is the highest.

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[Simon_Weel]

Getting a bit personal

Ok, so at home, my first pc was a C64, bought at the end of 1984. My first acquaintance with a pc was in 1986, on a HP 150 with DOS 2.11. WordStar for ‘word-processing’ as it was called in those days and the inevitable Lotus 1-2-3. The HP 150 was kind of revolutionary with it’s touchscreen and it’s crisp-clear screen. And only a couple of days ago, I learned MS DOS 2.0 was a brand-new OS with elements of XEDOS, leaning towards Unix (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo8NG8T4rWs&ab_channel=VWestlife).

And in the years after that, more HP 150’s rolled in, although they were of a new generation without touchscreen. Over the years, those were replaced with HP Vectra’s. The architectural firm I worked for at that time designed HP’s new Dutch headquarters and a couple of years later the new northern Europe headquarters, so they where more or less obliged to use HP hardware.

Anyway, CAD was my main thing. AutoCAD to be precise. And these days, its Revit for everyday work. Oh, and I’m a part-time system manager.

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[geekdom]

No survey.

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[Susan Bradley]

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Askwoodysurvey  That link works for me?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[geekdom]

I see the survey; I prefer not to take the survey.

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[Susan Bradley]

Fair enough but keep in mind that it means I don’t hear your view into what you want.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[Fred]

Susan Bradley wrote:

Fair enough but keep in mind that it means I don’t hear your view into what you want.

Susan:
as said some place before….
1. It will be nice to see the email announcements from the new items.
2. There is so much valuable information to find, and a search-engine for the site can be a good addition

grtz

~ ~ ~

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[DriftyDonN]

I think I’ll wait for survey 2.o

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[Susan Bradley]

May I ask why you want to wait?  I fixed the asking about the 1 to 10.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[OscarCP]

Here, in the Eastern USA, all the surveys I have ever been asked to fill in after some help or service was provided to me (by my bank, the building’s maintenance people, various delivery services, and so on) items have always been ranked from 1 to 10, with 10 being “excellent” and 1 “awful.” As to buyer’s reviews in places such as Amazon, or movies and TV shows ratings in IMDB, for example, these are always graded from 1 to 5, with 5 being “excellent.”

Now, this is true here, in the Eastern USA; elsewhere it might be different.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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rc primak

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[Kirsty]

When asked to rate several things in order of preference, it seems a natural order to list them with your #1 being your top choice. I see it regularly, like here.

That does differ from those surveys where they ask for one thing to be rated on a sliding scale of dissatisfied to very satisfied, which as you say, invariably gives 10 as the best result, before asking for another thing to be so rated.

1 user thanked author for this post.

rc primak

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[rc primak]

I think this is a difference between ordering and rating. Ratings have higher numbers meaning better, while ordering (ranked preference) does go with 1 as the top choice.

-- rc primak

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[Rick Corbett]

IMO some of the questions are doomed to poor answers based on pre-conceived assumptions and/or lack of alternatives.

For example:

Q5. Aside from your phone, what device do you most often use for work or business purposes?
I’m retired so the question is not applicable… but there’s no option to select ‘Not applicable’.

Q22 – What is your current employment status?
I’m retired… but I wouldn’t choose ‘I’m happily retired’ because it’s not accurate for several reasons. Why on earth mix an absolute figure (age) with an arbitrary emotion (feeling)?

Q24. How would you rate your level of knowledge and expertise with computer and systems technology?
IMO the question is very poorly phrased and the response options are too broad. For example, I know a fair bit about Windows but nothing about ChromeOS and very little about Android. Does that make me expert, comfortable or muddler?

Sorry but, IMO, writing a good survey (that ends up providing useful results) is an art in itself… and this one could have done better.

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[AmbularD]

IMO some of the questions are doomed to poor answers based on pre-conceived assumptions and/or lack of alternatives.

For example:

Q5. Aside from your phone, what device do you most often use for work or business purposes?
I’m retired so the question is not applicable… but there’s no option to select ‘Not applicable’.

Yep.  It’s also not a given that everyone uses their phone often for work (at least, not if ‘your phone’ means ‘your personal smartphone,’ which also could have been clearer, now that I think of it.)

i7-4790k - Z97X-Gaming 3 - DDR3 2133 x 32GB - GTX 1070 FTW - Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 ESU

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 6 days ago by AmbularD.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 6 days ago by AmbularD.

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[OscarCP]

Because the questionnaire had fields where one wrote the answers to questions that require some information before “yes” or “no”, I wrote in that question about cellphone use at work, words to the effect that that I work from home and use a regular landline telephone, for example.

My only gripe is the use of a 1 – 10 scale to rate items from top to bottom in value, something that was not made clear and, besides, I think that more appropriate would have been grading, instead, from 1 – 10 the various items independently of each other, with “10” meaning “excellent”, as one’s personal assessment of their usefulness, for example, these items being quite different things from each other. So I still don’t understand why it was intended, instead, to be a sort of judgement being passed at a popularity contest between apples and oranges, bananas, raspberries, etc. But one should not be hard on the Patch Lady, who is learning as she goes, same as the rest of us.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[rc primak]

Ranked Choice is common in surveys. The idea is to force a selection from a long list of features or topics, and sort them from most useful or most popular to least useful or least popular. Nothing unusual about a survey being constructed that way. Instructions could make clear that rankings are 1 as most preferred to 10 as least preferred.

-- rc primak

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[OscarCP]

Quite true, but not my point.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Fred]

OscarCP wrote:

to be a sort of judgement being passed at a popularity contest between apples and oranges, bananas, raspberries, etc.

I don’t think you need a SPSS Methodological framework to express what people like to read and hear. Keep it simple is the motto. I like to use a $ 1.65 blue mouse (just kidding, but true)

~ ~ ~

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OscarCP

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[Paul T]

Fred wrote:

a search-engine for the site can be a good addition

There already is one on the right, just below your login information.
Alternatively, add this to your favourite search engine:

site:www.askwoody.com/forums Search_Terms

cheers, Paul

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OscarCP, SueW, zat_so

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[IreneLinda]

Susan, apologies for being so late catching up with my Windows Newsletter reading. I just got to your survey tonight only to find I was too late. Can you post a link to it here so I can fill it in? I’ve been with Woody for years so am more than happy to have the new management (that’s you!) get to know me better.

Hopefully,

Linda

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[Author]

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