Saturday 27 October 2012

The ACoN Society's First Online Survey

by Quercus

Alright, maybe curiosity is a weakness of mine. Or I just really like making surveys and polls - probably a bit of both!


A population of acorns. What does a population of ACoNs look like?

ACoNs like you and me tend to be a private bunch (and for very, very good reasons!), and so I am going to guess that not everyone would like to fill out an anonymous survey no matter what privacy measures are taken. But please do consider doing so - it will give us all a valuable glimpse into what we as a community represent! Think "Census of the ACoN World" - wouldn't you like to know what the 'norm' is or which aspects are highly variable?

There was only room for 10 free questions on Survey Monkey, so I put in some general questions about you, your FOO and your experiences. At least one of the questions could be upsetting or 'triggering', and I labelled it as such (it's "check all that apply - forms of abuse you have received").

This survey was structured so that no questions are mandatory (you can skip those you don't wish to answer), that your IP address won't be linked to your responses (and I can't see your IP address at all - which interestingly isn't the default setting!), and that you can go back and change your answers anytime (which probably means Survey Monkey will store a 'cookie' on your computer (?), but I'm no expert on that. If you're worried, just delete all cookies after you're done - you won't be able to change your answers after the fact, however.).

I also selected "don't show results" at the end of the survey because I was worried that somehow that might identify someone (probably overkill, but the simpler, the better). I'll share all the combined anonymous results in a subsequent post on The ACoN Society anyway.


Click on link to start survey: 




The survey is set to run until December 31st, 2012 at midnight (PST), mostly because I figure that stats and a 'census' is a nice way to ring in the New Year! Not that I'm sure there won't be plenty to talk about during the holidays - those narcs can't help but ruin every Christmas, can they?!

If enough responses are received, I can run statistics on them (putting my education to use!) which will tell us how 'legitimate' the results are. For example, if only four people answer, then "90% of respondents were the youngest child in their FOO" is a relatively useless statement. If 40 people take the quiz, this might be 'statistically significant', and we can actually say that there is a real correlation between ACoNs and birth order. (Statistics are important but so often misused by the media!).

So please consider taking this quiz. It's only 10 questions, all multiple choice, and its designed to be completely anonymous. Stand up and be counted - let's find out what we ACoNs collectively represent.

Have a burning question that was left out of the survey? Let me know, another survey can be generated.

Please direct any questions or concerns either below (via comment form) or by email to: acon(DOT)anon(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

4 comments:

  1. Okay, technical question. Can DH take the quiz from the same computer I took it from?

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    Replies
    1. I don't actually know - I would suspect not, but you could try deleting your internet cache and cookies? Though if Survey Monkey collects IP addresses (I opted for not seeing that data, but the default is to provide it), maybe not. :-(

      Might have to do it from elsewhere? I don't know if the IP address applies to your router or your actual computer. If it's a computer, could try using a laptop/device on your home network? Or try with your phone (assuming you have a free data plan)? I'm not sure.

      Just goes to show my ignorance on the tech front. :-)

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    2. I think I'm even more ignorant about it than you! I...don't even...how do I delete cookies?

      hahaha. He can just do it on a different computer. We'll try that. Problem solved!

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  2. Cool idea, QG! I am into this kind of thing. Go Go Gadget Data Collection!

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