Hello everyone,

my name is Jens Arndt, and I am writing a Master's Thesis about
drivers of behavior in newsgroups. That's why I need your help. The
rec.travel.europe newsgroup is one of the few that fulfill the
predefined requirements. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you could
take 10 – 15 minutes to fill out my survey. You'll find it under the
following link:

http://wi1.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/phpes...ectraveleurope

The pages have been tested to be compatible with all recent browsers
I'm aware of. In case that you experience any problems please don't
hesitate to contact me (via [email protected] or by
replying to this post).

To a large extend the survey asks for your personal opinions, so don't
think too much about it, be spontaneous. Also, as you'll see the
survey does not ask for any identification such as your e-mail
address. Consequently, all collected data is treated absolutely
anonymous and confidential.

Furthermore, once the survey has been successfully completed, you'll
find the results as a working paper under the following link:

http://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/wifo1...php3?lst=wifo1

Thanks in advance for helping me with your participation.

Jens Arndt

Just filled it in, but please note that "grammar school" has differenet
meanings in American and British English. In Britain it is a selective
secondary school, roughly equivalent to the German "Gymnasium", while I
believe that in the USA it is a primary/elementary sschool.

Alan Harrison

"Alan Harrison" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Just filled it in, but please note that "grammar school" has differenet
    >meanings in American and British English. In Britain it is a selective
    >secondary school, roughly equivalent to the German "Gymnasium", while I
    >believe that in the USA it is a primary/elementary sschool.

Yes, that's the usual interpretation in the USA.

Some of the survey questions are bizarre.


--
"... a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the
facts is not a person you want as your Commander in Chief".
George W. Bush Oct 26, 2004

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:49:22 +0000 (UTC), "Alan Harrison"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Just filled it in, but please note that "grammar school" has differenet
    >meanings in American and British English. In Britain it is a selective
    >secondary school, roughly equivalent to the German "Gymnasium", while I
    >believe that in the USA it is a primary/elementary sschool.

Another thing that is strange about this survey is that in the
beginning part, every question has a suggested answer. This was
intended as an illustration, but survey science has shown that any
illustration that suggests an answer will elicit an inordinate number
of responses that duplicate the illustration.

Also, many of the questions are intended to measure the use of the
internet for commercial gain, but I can almost guarantee that most of
the people who use the newsgroup for comercial gain won't waste their
time answering the survey. They mostly don't even read the newsgroup.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

1. I was referring to the American system. But since it's not a survey
on different school types, I decided to put out this one, hoping that
it's not too bizarre ->

2. Sorry about the bizarre questions, but it's not as easy as it looks
to create such a survey. And it's actually my firts time, so much for
an excuse.

Jens

[email protected] (Charles Hawtrey) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > "Alan Harrison" <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    > >Just filled it in, but please note that "grammar school" has differenet
    > >meanings in American and British English. In Britain it is a selective
    > >secondary school, roughly equivalent to the German "Gymnasium", while I
    > >believe that in the USA it is a primary/elementary sschool.
    >
    > Yes, that's the usual interpretation in the USA.
    >
    > Some of the survey questions are bizarre.

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 10:09:46 +0200, B Vaughan<[email protected]> wrote:

    >On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:49:22 +0000 (UTC), "Alan Harrison"
    ><[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>

    > I can almost guarantee that most of
    >the people who use the newsgroup for comercial gain won't waste their
    >time answering the survey. They mostly don't even read the newsgroup.

and most Usenet users don't fill out online questionaires for
strangers.
--
Martin

First of all I want to thank everyone who filled out the survey so
far. I guess I had to expect that not everyone is happy about this
thing, but I nevertheless appreciate everyone who participated.

For those who did not yet particiapte, I hope that you'll find the
time to fillout the survey. I would really be thankful about it.

For those who decided not to participate, I'm sorry that I could not
convince you to help me with this thing, and I hope that I didn't
steal too much of your time.

Thank you.

Jens

[email protected] (Jens Arndt) wrote in message news:<[email protected] om>...
    > Hello everyone,
    >
    > my name is Jens Arndt, and I am writing a Master's Thesis about
    > drivers of behavior in newsgroups. That's why I need your help. The
    > rec.travel.europe newsgroup is one of the few that fulfill the
    > predefined requirements. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you could
    > take 10 ? 15 minutes to fill out my survey. You'll find it under the
    > following link:
    >
    > http://wi1.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/phpes...ectraveleurope
    >
    > The pages have been tested to be compatible with all recent browsers
    > I'm aware of. In case that you experience any problems please don't
    > hesitate to contact me (via [email protected] or by
    > replying to this post).
    >
    > To a large extend the survey asks for your personal opinions, so don't
    > think too much about it, be spontaneous. Also, as you'll see the
    > survey does not ask for any identification such as your e-mail
    > address. Consequently, all collected data is treated absolutely
    > anonymous and confidential.
    >
    > Furthermore, once the survey has been successfully completed, you'll
    > find the results as a working paper under the following link:
    >
    > http://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/wifo1...php3?lst=wifo1
    >
    > Thanks in advance for helping me with your participation.
    >
    > Jens Arndt

Following up to [email protected]

    >and most Usenet users don't fill out online questionaires for
    >strangers.

I thought it quite an interesting project. Only prob was I
couldnt work out what my education background was on his list.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Thames path-London-photos "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

"The Reids" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Following up to [email protected]
    > >and most Usenet users don't fill out online questionaires for
    > >strangers.
    > I thought it quite an interesting project. Only prob was I
    > couldnt work out what my education background was on his list.
    > --
    > Mike Reid

I didn't like the use of leading examples. When someone asks, "How many
_______" and the example answer is "6" then the responses will cluster
around 6.

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:16:05 +0000, The Reids wrote:

    > I thought it quite an interesting project. Only prob was I
    > couldnt work out what my education background was on his list.

You mean you didn't have an Anglo-Saxon education ??? ;)

--
Tim C.

On 2 Nov 2004 02:05:52 -0800, [email protected] (Jens
Arndt) wrote:

    >First of all I want to thank everyone who filled out the survey so
    >far. I guess I had to expect that not everyone is happy about this
    >thing, but I nevertheless appreciate everyone who participated.
    >For those who did not yet particiapte, I hope that you'll find the
    >time to fillout the survey. I would really be thankful about it.
    >For those who decided not to participate, I'm sorry that I could not
    >convince you to help me with this thing, and I hope that I didn't
    >steal too much of your time.

In this place people have way too much time.

I did your survey, and found it to be reasonably professional, but
like all surveys of this type, I found myself clicking on an answer
and thinking "yes, but I only chose this for this reason...". As such,
I would not extrapolate the result too far if I were you. It's isn't
badly flawed, but it is just a survey.
---
DFM.

Following up to Tim Challenger

    >> I thought it quite an interesting project. Only prob was I
    >> couldnt work out what my education background was on his list.
    >You mean you didn't have an Anglo-Saxon education ??? ;)

no, a British one :-)
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Thames path-London-photos "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

Following up to Tom Bellhouse

    >I didn't like the use of leading examples. When someone asks, "How many
    >_______" and the example answer is "6" then the responses will cluster
    >around 6.

that was only at the start, wasn't it.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Thames path-London-photos "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

I agree that questions are probably understood differently by
different people. However, this is an inherent weakness of survey
research. There's not really anything you could do about it, if you
really want to do survey research. I thought that there are enough
explorative studies (most of theme use interviews), but confirmative
studies are missing. So I decided for a questionnaire, with
understanding of the weaknesses of this concept.

Thanks for filling out the survey.

Jens

Deep Frayed Morgues <deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>. ..
    >
    > In this place people have way too much time.
    >
    > I did your survey, and found it to be reasonably professional, but
    > like all surveys of this type, I found myself clicking on an answer
    > and thinking "yes, but I only chose this for this reason...". As such,
    > I would not extrapolate the result too far if I were you. It's isn't
    > badly flawed, but it is just a survey.
    > ---
    > DFM.

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 09:28:19 +0000, The Reids
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Following up to Tom Bellhouse
    >>I didn't like the use of leading examples. When someone asks, "How many
    >>_______" and the example answer is "6" then the responses will cluster
    >>around 6.
    >that was only at the start, wasn't it.

It was the whole first section, which was the only section to have
open-ended numerical responses.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup