Forum Research Request

[PsciStudent]

Dear moderators,

My name is George and I'm doing research for my undergraduate political science thesis at Vanderbilt University on the effect of the internet on democracy. Part of my thesis involves research into political discussion forums to get an idea of the average political position of your members. Since Revleft.com is one of the more active political discussion forums on the internet, I believe that it would be a good forum to sample.

The research involves a survey of questions that are designed to gauge the general political stance of the people taking the survey. This survey is conducted off-site via SurveyMonkey.com, is relatively painless, and should only take only about 5-10 minutes per person.

I'm only interested in the results of the survey, so I won't ask for names or any other personal information because those are not pertinent to my research. I will make no money from this research and the proper acknowledgments will be given in my paper.

So my request to you is firstly, that I be allowed to conduct these surveys through your forum.

Secondly, to ensure that enough people decide to actually take the survey, I was wondering if you could "sticky" the thread that announces this survey so that it does not get buried. I would like to get the thread stuck on the politics section of this site so that everyone can get a chance to see it.

I haven't posted anything yet, but I figured that I should get your OK to conduct this research ahead of time. I'd rather get this going sooner rather than later as my thesis is due at the end of this semester.

Edit: I am posting the link here for now:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

[jake williams]

Well I'm in. Where do I go?

[apathy maybe]

Could you be nice enough to post your thesis topic? (I mean the question, rather then the generalities.)

Otherwise, this is being discussed in our democratically run CC, so we'll get back to you, possibly never ;).

[PsciStudent]

I'm not going to collect data until I get the survey approved by my professors (which should be later today), so please hold on for a little bit.

The basic purpose of the paper is to address the question of whether political deliberation on the internet models deliberation offline. I know this seems a little vague, but if I reveal too much about the purpose of the survey, it is possible that the survey will not work as well with people trying to move the results one way or the other.

As a matter of courtesey, I will make at least the introduction of my paper (which is going to be at least 60 pages) available to whomever wants to read it - but only AFTER the results get in. If there is any other question or concern, please post away!

[Black Dagger]

Could you please post the survey questions?

[PsciStudent]

I'll do you one better and post the link to the survey here after I get it authorized.

[Invader Zim]

I'm not going to collect data until I get the survey approved by my professors (which should be later today), so please hold on for a little bit.

The basic purpose of the paper is to address the question of whether political deliberation on the internet models deliberation offline. I know this seems a little vague, but if I reveal too much about the purpose of the survey, it is possible that the survey will not work as well with people trying to move the results one way or the other.

As a matter of courtesey, I will make at least the introduction of my paper (which is going to be at least 60 pages) available to whomever wants to read it - but only AFTER the results get in. If there is any other question or concern, please post away!

60 page intro? My undergrad dis was only 35 (or so) pages in total, and that was in excess of 12,000 words. The MA diss I am currently researching for doesn't look like it will exceed 50 pages.

[PsciStudent]

I'm sorry Zim, what I meant was the my entire thesis is going to be a minimum 60 pages. The intro will likely be 10-15.

[PsciStudent]

This will have to wait until I get 25 posts, sorry everyone.

[PsciStudent]

Sorry for posting three times in a row on the same thread, but if any moderators would like to PM me for the link, it would save me the trouble of thinking up ways to post 25 thoughtful contributions :D

[Marsella]

Sorry for posting three times in a row on the same thread, but if any moderators would like to PM me for the link, it would save me the trouble of thinking up ways to post 25 thoughtful contributions :D

You can link it, just don't put www. or leave out a part or spell it out... or leave spaces:

e.g. www. g o o g l e.com or google.com...


:)

[PsciStudent]

Hey everyone:

I've finally gotten approval from my professors so I'm posting the link to my survey:

h t t p : / / w w w . s u r v e y m o n k e y . c o m /s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

Spaced appropriately of course.

Moderators, if you think that this survey is to your liking, please consider my request to have it stuck to the politics section of your forum. Given the amount of traffic this site sees, I doubt it will be that long until I reach my maximum respondent limit of about 100 people. By that time you can take down the link if you wish. Also, please make sure the link works

Please voice your concerns on this thread and I'll try my best to address them.

Thanks,
George.

[Mujer Libre]

Hi, I just had a look at the survey, and I have no qualms about the questions as such. I did think that question 9 won't get you very many useful answers on a board where most people are communists/anarchists and oppose the existence of "business" as such.

Also, I couldn't look at pages after page one, because it requires you to submit answers before you go on.

[PsciStudent]

Mujer Libre,

There are two more pages after that. The second page has questions on demographic info: age, gender, region of the US in which you reside (with an option to say that you dont live in the US), and political group that you most identify with. I hope nobody takes offense that I listed "socialist" as the only far left group on the list, but there are so many different splinters from the tree that Marx planted that it would be unfeasible to have a choice for all of them.

The third page has questions on how people see themselves with regards to other socialists (and for the purposes of the forum population here, other leftist groups), how one's political leanings have been influenced by participating in online discussions and blogs in general, how people perceive their ideological opponents, and how many hours does the respondent devote to participating in political events offline.

Also, keep in mind that this same survey has to go to test other samples of people, so people that are against business altogether should either select "no opinion" or the one about profit not being the driving force of a business.

By all means take the survey. There shouldn't be anything too difficult in there that should trouble anyone.

And finally, if everyone is ok with the neutrality of the survey, would a moderator be so gracious as to sticky the link onto the politics section of this forum.

[Marsella]

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

[PsciStudent]

Thank you Martov. You are a scholar and a gentleman.

[Mujer Libre]

Also, keep in mind that this same survey has to go to test other samples of people, so people that are against business altogether should either select "no opinion" or the one about profit not being the driving force of a business.
I only realised that after posting. Fair enough.

It's probably best to wait for a few other posters to express their opinions before stickying it, but I have no problems with it.

Plus I empathise, having just recently had to jump through hoops with an ethics committee about a survey that should have been public domain information anyway. Yuck.

[PsciStudent]

That sounds like hell Mujer Libre. This thesis also has to go to a committee, and it will decide what grade I get on 12 credit hours of Political science.

[Faux Real]

I responded. The one on 'extremity' confused me, so I abstained. Will you be posting your results here at a later date?

[chimx]

Once your thesis gets printed, will you please come tell us how to reference it in your library?

[PsciStudent]

Algeria, the question about how extreme your views are with respect to other socialists is supposed to mean whether you are more left than other leftists.

chimx, this thesis isn't going to be published in a journal or anything because I'm only an undergrad. So its probably going to be impossible to find unless you come down to Vanderbilt and go to the room where they keep these on file.

And to answer both your questions on whether I will print my results, I think I posted a disclaimer saying that I wouldnt share your info with third parties. There are probably a lot of other people that read this forum who didn't participate in the survey and posting the results would possibly violate my agreement with you guys on privacy. I suppose I will if the moderators and everyone else here are ok with it....

Again, here is the link to the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

[RebelDog]

Dear moderators,

My name is George and I'm doing research for my undergraduate political science thesis at Vanderbilt University on the effect of the internet on democracy. Part of my thesis involves research into political discussion forums to get an idea of the average political position of your members. Since Revleft.com is one of the more active political discussion forums on the internet, I believe that it would be a good forum to sample.

The research involves a survey of questions that are designed to gauge the general political stance of the people taking the survey. This survey is conducted off-site via SurveyMonkey.com, is relatively painless, and should only take only about 5-10 minutes per person.

I'm only interested in the results of the survey, so I won't ask for names or any other personal information because those are not pertinent to my research. I will make no money from this research and the proper acknowledgments will be given in my paper.

So my request to you is firstly, that I be allowed to conduct these surveys through your forum.

Secondly, to ensure that enough people decide to actually take the survey, I was wondering if you could "sticky" the thread that announces this survey so that it does not get buried. I would like to get the thread stuck on the politics section of this site so that everyone can get a chance to see it.

I haven't posted anything yet, but I figured that I should get your OK to conduct this research ahead of time. I'd rather get this going sooner rather than later as my thesis is due at the end of this semester.

Who cares about the effect of the internet on bourgeois democracy? Go to your nearest factory and ask the workers your questions about democracy and the internet and witness for yourself the people who produce the wealth that enables people like yourself to laze about for 4 years doing fuck all.

[chimx]

chimx, this thesis isn't going to be published in a journal or anything because I'm only an undergrad. So its probably going to be impossible to find unless you come down to Vanderbilt and go to the room where they keep these on file.

But it will be stored in the library, which means it is available for reading and people could cite it, right? Could you give us citation information when this is printed?

[PsciStudent]

RebelDog, thanks for the vote of confidence. You win the internet debate.

chimx, no it is probably not coming out in a library unless some publisher decides to pick it up, and that will not happen unless some very unlikely things happen. So it will probably not show up in a library somewhere.

[chimx]

I think you misunderstand. Most undergraduate programs that have their students write a large thesis save them in their schools library and are available for reading from within your schools library. Is this the case with you? I'll shoot you a PM about it.

[PsciStudent]

My thanks go out to every that has already taken the survey. I really tried my best to represent all views of the spectrum fairly, but there probably are still answer choices that need to be thought through. The challenge, I hope, has made everyone better able to pin down their own position so that it will be as much a learning process for you all as it will be for me.

So far I have gotten responses back from 18 people. The ideal sample size for this sort of study is probably 50 people minimum, so anybody that has not already taken this survey please go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

[Mujer Libre]

Moved and stickied.

[RedAnarchist]

My thanks go out to every that has already taken the survey. I really tried my best to represent all views of the spectrum fairly, but there probably are still answer choices that need to be thought through. The challenge, I hope, has made everyone better able to pin down their own position so that it will be as much a learning process for you all as it will be for me.

So far I have gotten responses back from 18 people. The ideal sample size for this sort of study is probably 50 people minimum, so anybody that has not already taken this survey please go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

I'll go and do it now.:)

[PsciStudent]

Hey guys,

So far I've gotten 24 responses, but none in the last 12 hours. I need about 26 more.

For those of you catching up, I am conducting a political survey on the political attitudes of online forum discussants.

To my knowledge, this study has never been done before so this is one of the first opportunities where you, the actual online forum participator, can provide input about the online political culture! It only takes 10 minutes and your information is kept private. There is no reason that everyone who is reading this cannot take it as well. Here is the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

Thanks to those of you who have entered responses, every response is important to me and I really appreciate your participation.

[PsciStudent]

Hey everyone,

Looks like this thread has gone inactive as no one has submitted responses in a few days. I'm at 26 responses right now, but at this point I think that 35 would be a much more realistic goal.

Anyone that has not taken this survey should do so, it only takes 10 minutes and it will really help me draw more accurate conclusions. Plus, leftists are not a well-sampled group so this is one of the few times that you all can contribute input for a study.

Here is the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ogIq7XMSibt8uNyujiwjsQ_3d_3d

Also, I won't be able to respond to messages or anything this next week since I am going to spend my time providing humanitarian assistance on the Texas-Mexico border. Please continue to take the survey and I'll try to get back to you guys ASAP.

Thanks,
George.

[RedAnarchist]

Have you posted a link to it in the Chit chat section? Maybe that will help you get more responses.

[PsciStudent]

That might be a good idea. I'll do that next week if I don't hit my target.

[Black Cross]

The survey doesn't even take 10 minutes. Just help the guy out you lazy commies!!!

[jake williams]

I can't answer any of these questions.

[PsciStudent]

I can't answer any of these questions.

umm... Care to be more specific?

[PsciStudent]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for participating in my survey. With your help I was able to get a fairly good sample of leftists for my thesis. In a few weeks, after I finish my first draft of my thesis, I'll post the general results of the survey unless there is any objection.

Thanks again,
George.

[Black Dagger]

Of course not, please post the results (that was actually something that was required for this thread to be approved).

[PsciStudent]

Sorry for the huge delay, but here are the survey results for Revleft. Thanks a lot for your help guys, I've just submitted my thesis and all that is left is to defend it. No rest for the weary...

http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~george.jiang/revleft.html

[RedAnarchist]

Thanks and good luck:D

[Bright Banana Beard]

They are mostly irrational. < lol I gotta love that

[zelda]

The survey is closed.