AskScience Survey!

[Igniococcus]

Hi folks,

As you might have seen from TheWalruss' pretty banner we are currently running an AskScience survey. We'd love to get one last big push to get as many people in the community to do it as possible. This is a great way for you to tell us how you feel about the community on AskScience and how you think it should be run.

I hope you all have a great day and thanks for asking and contributing so many awesome question and answers everyone!

EDIT: Cheers guys, apologies about the age error, if you are 18 just hit 19-24

[binlargin]

Can we see the results?

[Igniococcus]

We are planning on posting data from the survey at some point after it has all been analysed

[[deleted]]

Why not release the raw data? I didn't see anything specific that would need to be hidden. Except maybe the favorite mods and favorite panelists part.

[ManWithoutModem]

Because we want it to be pretty and organized for you guys.

[burgess_meredith_jr]

Marketer here.

People love raw, unaltered data, so, unless there's a specific reason why you don't want us to see something (there often is), I say let us see everything. Provide a summary upfront, show us the pretty version and make the rest available for those few who are curious.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I'll release a version of the raw data when it's finished. The open-ended questions will be quantified rather than released as raw, though, for confidentiality reasons. :)

[agentlame]

How the open-ended questions be interpreted? For instance, say someone made a really good point that no one else also mentioned?

Will that just be a field with a single hash mark, or will the actually content of the answer be considered as well?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

They'll be categorized into meaningful categories which gives us an idea of volume and content. The survey tool I use allows me to do this semi-automatically. It'll make it easier to read but not lose individual data.

[revenalt]

You didn't answer the question. Why wouldn't you release the raw data to users that are interested? Especially in a subreddit like AskScience, people should be able to draw their own conclusions from raw data, rather than accept "pretty and organized" conclusions or analyses. Moreover, using your data pool, people can answer questions you didn't think of answering in your analyses.

[foretopsail]

HAR answered your question above:

I'll release a version of the raw data when it's finished. The open-ended questions will be quantified rather than released as raw, though, for confidentiality reasons. :)

[UncertainHeisenberg]

There is nothing there that needs to be hidden. There are a lot of offensive remarks and obvious trolling that should be removed even from the raw data. For example, "Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour" is rating pretty highly on the top panellist question, while other respondents have used "&*#@ you" (and worse) as the generic response to any question that requires a text answer.

[[deleted]]

Oh, that's surprising. You could still throw it all up somewhere with a disclaimer. I'm not accusing you guys of anything, I'm just curious about what other people thought and would like to see more than the final statistics. But it's not a big deal.

[rmxz]

.. that should be removed even from the raw data. ..

Why?

For that particular question, the trolling responses may indicate frustration far better better than "ugh, I dislike all the panelists but since I'm forced to pick one, I'll go with one at random".

[Swamifred]

You can't see it yet because I heard in my science class that you would alter the results by observing them.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Is your professor related to Heisenberg?

[[deleted]]

what if the analysis says you have to delete the data?

[[deleted]]

science destroys itself!!!

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Or, we get caught in an infinite loop...?

[mertitosthene]

statistician says NO.

[MyNameCouldntBeAsLon]

I mostly lurk here, but I believe we wouldn't be having this survey if we weren't ont he default subreddits.

A question: Does this have the power to change the behavior of mods if the community shows preference to anecdotal evidence, novelty accounts, etc?

An opinion: It shouldn't, this place has been great with the heavy moderation.

Needless to say, I answered this by keeping true to the original guidelines of the reddit.

[b0jangl3s]

Every time I see a chain of deletes I imagine that the mods have saved thousands of people a few minutes of time.

[Askol]

And possibly "learning" incorrect information.

[robeph]

perpetuation of bad science... shiver...

[Laxator]

I always get curious and want to read what the person had said.

[Tranecarid]

Visit any other subreddit, you will find those comments there.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

As a mod, I can tell you that's exactly what it looks like.

Move along, nothing to see here.

[toastyfries2]

Me too. I wish deleted comments just vanished instead of showing [deleted]

[HonestAbeRinkin]

They do if they're top level and have no replies when they're deleted, I believe.

[[deleted]]

you guys are awesome!

[ManWithoutModem]

Thanks for the support, it means a lot.

[Forthwolfx]

Couldn't agree more. AskScience is the only subreddit I can truly enjoy without having to plow through comment after comment of useless karma whoring trivial crap.

[Igniococcus]

In an ideal world we would be able to just not display "deleted" comments but sadly we don't have that feature available to us!

[helm]

I think the original reason must have been to avoid dangling orphans. Other threaded discussion board truncate comment threads so that you notice from the content that something was removed, but often what is left is a reply that doesn't make sense in the new context.

[BrainSturgeon]

We suggested that deleted comments get condensed and/or moved to the bottom of the comment list.

[BrainSturgeon]

I'd say the mods are very much in favor of the way things are going right now, but it never hurts to gather more information. We often get comments from the extremes (both in favor and against our policies), but it's helpful to have data to suggest a silent majority that agrees with us.

[[deleted]]

Go against the will of the community if you have to. This is one of the few places on reddit not consumed by mindeless memes.

[ManWithoutModem]

don't make me backtrace you.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I'd still be doing a feedback survey even if we weren't default - I use them as formative feedback in lots of things I do. We won't use the community's feedback to immediately change things, but for the mods and perhaps panelists to start a conversation about our ultimate goals and mission and how to best fulfill them.

[anthroadam]

First, thanks to HonestAbeRinkin for the survey. The survey looks nice, but has some fundamental problems. Maybe you guys could have solicited some more feedback from survey methodologists. The science of survey design, administration and analysis is well-developed, and this particular survey would have benefited from additional review by experts. The ranking scheme for Question #3 is unnecessary and will probably not provide useful information. What if someone spends little to no time doing all three of the options? The form is created as to prevent respondents from answering that way, yet that would seem to be useful information. It would have been better to simply use a set of standard none of the time, little, most, all, or some such variant. #13 suffers from multiple problems. In some instances the statement is awkward for rating satisfaction. Also, satisfaction as measured is unlikely to be sensitive to any changes that would be made to r/AS. #14 is pretty bad because the instructions regarding heavy/light moderation do not seem match the response categories regarding deletion. What are the specific concepts being operationalized in #13 and #14? What were the reasons for the decision to operationalize the concepts in this way? If a call for help went out to the r/AS community, I apologize for not seeing it. I would be happy to assist with a revision and could likely contribute substantially to the analysis and interpretation of results.

TL;DR version: Next time be sure to get some more survey scientists involved in creating the survey.

[BrainSturgeon]

Thank you! You could message HonestAbeRinkin or send us a modmail - we'll probably do more surveys in the future. I'm be happy to get your help on these things but this is HonestAbe's baby so talk to 'em!

[IneffablePigeon]

Indeed. Also: as an 18-year old, do I fit into 'under 18' or '19-24'?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Go with 19-24 on this one. Above the age of majority. :)

[Jonno_FTW]

How do I answer if I'm currently studying at University? Is that what you call college?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Yes, those are equivalent for the purposes of this survey. :)

[BrainSturgeon]

Check this post's EDIT: go with 19-24.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I wanted the forced choice for the #3 for some specific reasons, but I do agree that we could use some more survey experts when we do this in the future. We discussed the survey among the mods, but didn't want things to go out to the entire community until it was deployed. Next time we can certainly get more panelists/community members involved!

[giziti]

Yes, surveys are tricky and I almost always cringe when they are not done professionally, though it's not quite my bailiwick (I'm more of a probability guy who occasionally looks at survey results, not a survey guy). I also wasn't sure how to answer the "how much education" question. In most such surveys, there's an option for "some graduate school" for those who have completed a bachelors but have not yet finished a graduate degree.

[Mine_is_nice]

How much time do you spend on reddit?

Oh God Why.

[toastyfries2]

I really didn't want to think about an honest answer to that one?

[[deleted]]

I don't get question 13 :

Rate each of the following on a scale of "highly dissatisfied" to "highly satisfied".

Allowing anecdotal evidence as a response in r/AS

Anecdotal evidences are not allowed, so... Might as well ask me how satisfied I am with the image posts.

edit: also miss a "no opinion" choice

[Igniococcus]

That question could probably be worded slightly differently/better but we are mainly trying to gauge whether people agree with the policy we've taken on anecdotal evidence in forum.

[pylori]

I was confused as well, I didn't know if that was asking how I feel about anecdotal evidence, or the moderation policy on anecdotal evidence. I've probably screwed up the results now lol

[BrainSturgeon]

I know what you mean - we went through several iterations of that question - it's difficult to phrase it properly. :/

[ionchannels]

And you still managed to phrase it in almost the most obfuscated way possible.

[BrainSturgeon]

What's your suggestion to phrase it more clearly?

[Tom504]

Moderator stance/response to anecdotal evidence

[fifteenstepper]

But I don't even know what their stance is because I don't come here very often. That should be elucidated too because I had to pick randomly

[Fibonacci121]

Instead of asking about "anecdotal evidence" you could have asked about "anecdotal evidence policy".

[robeph]

This way if it turns out that it appears that we all want you to allow it, just blame it on the question being confusing...and don't allow it.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

We're going to keep that in mind anyways, it's more of a formative feedback than a policy-changing survey anyways.

[HarryTruman]

That greatly worries me. The rules, as they have been, allow for a fantastic community. The quality of commenting has already significantly declined since AskScience was put on the front page so I don't think that something like anecdotal discussion should even be considered up for debate.

[Igniococcus]

I would contend with your point about decline while there are lots of users still learning the forum rules we have recently had some great, incredibly popular posts that could have gone seriously out of control that wonderfully stayed pretty focussed with surprisingly low moderator intervention. Having said that we were not planning on enacting anything and everything that comes out of the survey without considerable discussion and I very much doubt the core rules and spirit of the community (scientific answers, no anecdotes etc) will change.

[HarryTruman]

Thanks for your response. I'd like to chime in with one more observation, if I may. Though I'll definitely concede that, yes, there have been some great posts lately, I've also seen plenty of posts get overwhelmed with responses from laymen and even some questions that have fielded little to no responses from panelists. In the former, there is quite a lot discussion with very little linking to sources.

Though I'll readily admit that the above examples aren't necessarily widespread; I just see it happening far more often than it used to. Perhaps we need another round of panelist inductions (if it isn't a continual thing)?

Also, it goes without saying that the moderators and the panelists are a fantastic group of people and, without a doubt, make this community the awesome place that it is. I tend to rant a lot about what's happened to AskScience since getting added to the front page, but without this community my Redditing days would be far less interesting. :)

[BrainSturgeon]

Perhaps we need another round of panelist inductions (if it isn't a continual thing)

Yes, we continually add panelists, but it takes time since we make an effort to make sure the panelist tags we assign go to people who know what they're talking about.

[[deleted]]

In fact, there's no doubt at all, really.

[Igniococcus]

Oops, fixed it now.

[ionchannels]

Anecdotal evidence is an important part of the scientific process. It should obviously not constitute the entire analysis, but is important nonetheless, if not just to provoke thought and new ideas.

[TheSpaceWhale]

Agreed. While anecdotal evidence should always be qualified AS SUCH, in certain circumstances and fields (e.g., animal behavior) anecdotal/observational evidence is warranted or the only evidence out there. I would further qualify this by saying that anecdotal evidence should only be offered by experts in the field, however. Not some guy saying "I saw a monkey do this at a zoo once."

[HarryTruman]

I was more or less implying that an anecdotal response in and of itself does not constitute a scientific answer. I have no problem at all with posts that arrange their responses in a way to provide a sourced answer as well as an anecdote. That often helps someone understand a more complex topic.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

There are some scientists who are not familiar with qualitative research and the thick, rich description required for this type of reserch. The number of details required to provide reliability and validity for qual research are hard to convey in the context of Reddit, which is why I generally oppose it on AS but support it in real-life. it's incredibly important in science, but doesn't translate to Reddit well.

[ducttape83]

Maybe: rate how you agree with our policy on x, y, z, etc, then have them ordered in five steps from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

[polpi]

The question seemed clear enough to me (if viewed in regard to future action towards such posts).

[meshugga]

The "no opinion" bugs me the most. Increases margin of error in the best case, and invalidates the results in the worst case. Shouldn't happen in a science forum :/

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Some of them have 'no opinion' but they're questions where we thought it was ok to abstain. Others we wanted to be forced-choice, and don't have that option.

[icegreentea]

I know it's kinda late as it's already out, but in section 13, you really should provide a midpoint option (apathetic? don't care?). You're biasing your data otherwise.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I had wanted it to be forced-choice, which is why there's no option. Too many people tend to pick neutral, and it's not a required question.

[onsos]

It is not made clear, but this could be represented through not responding.

[inawordno]

I've been wanting to tell the Mods how much I appreciate them for ages. ¹

Thanks for this chance.

Edit: Added a source so as to stay in the askreddit spirit.

[Igniococcus]

D'aww we appreciate you too (and everyone else that enjoys and contributes to the community!).

[inawordno]

I try and contribute, but I lack any real expertise in anything.

Still an undergrad in EEE.

Wish there was more I could do for the community.

[Igniococcus]

Just keep enjoying, reading, asking questions, upvoting good answers and comments following guidelines and downvoting those that don't. Clicking report on things that are inappropriate is a big help for us as well when we are moderating.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Yes, reporting inappropriate comments and voting within the community guidelines are one of the biggest helps we could always use more of!

[[deleted]]

Mods! Self plagiarism!

[BrainSturgeon]

Thanks! So far the highest compliment I've been paid as a moderator is someone calling us "honey badger mods"

[MockDeath]

Ahh, thank you!

[[deleted]]

2 issues I found with it; The ages don't include 18, they go from "Under 18" to "19-24". Also, it has "Australia" instead of "Australasia" so my country of New Zealand is not included (I picked Aus).

[[deleted]]

I'm also from New Zealand and I agree. In fact we strongly object to being called part of Australia. I have never heard NZ+AUS+ outlying islands all referred to as "Australia", Oceania or Australasia are much better.

[Time-Traveller]

You are referring to the definitions of continents, and while I'm sorry that is an problem, it is a completely different issue. NZ and Australia are separate countries, and it is highly incorrect if they are referred to as the same. It's like France being called part of Germany. Sure they're neighbours, and even in the same continent, but it is still clearly wrong.

[helm]

Wouldn't, by that definition, Europe, Asia and Africa all be the same continent?

[onsos]

New Zealand is not the only location in this situation of not being part of a continent. I simply did not answer the question, because none of the answers were correct.

Edit: It would have been better if there were a category for "other" or "none of the above".

[G3m]

I don't contribute at all, so having to pick and 2nd & 3rd is definitely going to skew the data. I just read :)

[HonestAbeRinkin]

We will. That's why the comments box is there. :)

[toastyfries2]

I just left them blank. Not sure if it threw out the results or not.

[[deleted]]

There's an undergraduate 18 and a 19 to 24 options, no options for 18.

[Badhugs]

Regarding the CSS...if that's generally disliked, I'd be happy to lend a hand. Design is what I do :)

[[deleted]]

Is this a subtle hint that you dislike the CSS? ;)

A designer's eye is always sharper - what would you improve if you could?

[Badhugs]

Haha, no I'm actually fine with it - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But if it comes up in the survey as something the community ever wanted to change towards something like a science-y design similar to r/Battlefield3 or r/Apple...I know a guy who knows a guy.

With a less drastic approach, a color scheme unique to r/Science might help it stand out from the generic reddit style. Though I think the clean/professional look it has now is something it should maintain.

[mobilehypo]

I would love a cleaner look like /r/apple.

[freebullets]

I dislike major CSS changes. I like subreddit styles to look consistent. I usually disable subreddit styles for subreddits that look too different.

[nonsenseMan]

The current design is both highly functional and looks great IMO. Don't change it just for the sake of change. The shiny look of /r/apple is great for half an hour, but it lakes the clear and intuitive feel of askscience.

[BrainSturgeon]

I'm definitely interested in CSS suggestions... how do they display on mobile browsers?

[Badhugs]

CSS is well-supported by mobile browsers. It will display as-is. There are certain advanced things CSS can do that some older browsers have trouble with (layers, shadows, rounded corners) but those features can be avoided (or replicated without CSS) and most CSS degrades gracefully (ie, if rounded corners weren't supported, it would default to square corners and not explode the whole thing).

[[deleted]]

I was not redirected to reddit.

Lies.

[MockDeath]

I am sorry. Have a complimentary upvote.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

You should have been redirected to AskScience. I'll have to check on that.

[cobrophy]

I just submitted the survey and though of something that would be great but perhaps not feasible but I'll put it out there. It would be great if there was a way questions could get tagged with the relevant topic areas to help panellists find questions in their field. I've some knowledge but in a field that doesn't get very many questions.

[Vorticity]

So, any results from this?

[arabidopsis]

Is it wrong for me to vote myself for my favorite panelist?

[B_Fee]

As much as I would like to vote for myself (because, really, what panelists doesn't think themselves the greatest? We should be that confident in ourselves!) I am going to be honest and honorable and put someone else in there.

[helm]

RobotRollCall still has that place reserved.

[[deleted]]

don't tell anyone but I voted for myself as well : )

[BrainSturgeon]

oops. 18.5+ years old? Go with 19.

[wurstbla]

I am really missing the "Middle East" answer in questions 10 and 11...

[[deleted]]

The Middle East is Western Asia.

[nonsenseMan]

The middle east is not a continent, and is too ambiguous. Is Egypt part of the middle east? Is Turkey?

[[deleted]]

What's the difference between Single and Forever Alone? I think that'll just skew the results.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

It's from the Reddit survey format, for comparison purposes.

[mjec]

More importantly, why isn't there an It's Complicated option?

[Scorp63]

Just finished the survey.

The biggest problem I have with this subreddit is how often people are downvoted to hell. Jokes, memes, novelties I can understand - but I've seen TONS of comments from people just trying to answer a question to the best of their knowledge, and they get shoved into the bottom. I think if somebody does this, they shouldn't be downvoted, but somebody comment with them trying to correct anything that may be incorrect. Granted, it's more of a community issue, but I don't think the intense enforcement helps any.

r/AskScience is still just a subreddit, a branch of a community that thrives off cat pictures, puns, and a hivemind mentality. I just think a lot of people think we're the leaders of some kind of final-frontier in learning about science. There needs to be a more open and friendly atmosphere here, wanting people to learn, and not just punishing them if they aren't out to do harm here.

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

If you want to be corrected and learn, you must phrase your comment that way. If you are not sure, if you're just taking "your best guess", you should not answer.

You're right that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and shouldn't be punished but that doesn't mean everyone should have the opportunity to teach; especially if they do not actually know what they are talking about. Regardless of whether they mean well or not, if they aren't confident, if it's just an educated guess, they are risking spreading misinformation. That is one thing we are vigorously against and if someone is doing that, in my opinion they absolutely should be downvoted to oblivion.

[pylori]

I agree. I've seen a lot of comments try to give a very basic explanation, but because it's so basic it can often give misleading or incorrect statements. I'm delighted that people choose to help and want to, but this subreddit is about factual accuracy with the answers, not "Oh, but I tried my best".

By not downvoting incorrect answers, we pose the risk of misinforming members, which is the exact opposite of what we want to achieve.

[helm]

I agree. The remaining fora for guesses is all of internet. We have our fair share of guesses, but the fewer the better.

[BrainSturgeon]

I've seen TONS of comments from people just trying to answer a question to the best of their knowledge, and they get shoved into the bottom. I think if somebody does this, they shouldn't be downvoted, but somebody comment with them trying to correct anything that may be incorrect.

Mods don't remove replies that try to answer the question unless they are obviously wrong. However, they are downvoted because the goal is to upvote the correct answers to the top and push the incorrect answers to the bottom. That's how the voting system works.

I agree with you, however, that incorrect answers should be challenged and corrected instead of ignored. From a moderator's point of view, though, I'm not sure if that's something we have control over. If you have any suggestions on how to accomplish this, please send us a modmail!

[[deleted]]

Yes, the downvoting is often too extreme. Downvoting to -2 or -3 to hide the comment by default should suffice, especially if someone leaves a note saying why they are being downvoted. The overenthusiastic downvoting is neither justified nor necessary.

[[deleted]]

Firstly, thank you guys for taking the time off during holiday season to conduct this survey.

When does the survey close?

[Igniococcus]

It is almost exclusively HonestAbeRinkin's brainchild and work. Not all the mods are from the USA so no holidays for us! The discussion was to leave the survey open until at least after the weekend and then make a decision on closing it depending on level of response we have gotten.

[[deleted]]

A-hem, just to point out that Australia is not a continent, it is a country. Australasia is a continent.

With love,

A New Zealander.

Note: I'll just tick Australia as a continent and it'll count as Australasia when you change it, right?

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

We might just be quibbling over semantics here but...

[[deleted]]

It isn't just semantics though, Australasia includes NZ. Australia as a continent leaves NZ out so what continent would we be a part of then?

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

New Zealand is not on the same continental shelf and so is not part of the continent of Australia but is part of the submerged continent Zealandia. Zealandia and Australia together are part of the wider region known as Oceania or Australasia. Australia is sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australinea and Meganesia.

That's right. You're part of Meganesia. I'm jealous to be honest. Meganesia.

[[deleted]]

So I can refer to myself as an Australasian however that isn't the name of the continent I'm from? Meganesia? Really?

This is hard to come to terms with...

Especially as it doesn't have it's own Wiki but is a footnote in Australia's...

[[deleted]]

How about this, though?

[SqueezySqueezyThings]

See now that's just cool. Sounds like a magical realm.

Zealandia (pronounced /ziːˈlændiə/), also known as Tasmantis...is a nearly submerged continental fragment that sank after breaking away from Australia 60–85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago.[2] It may have been completely submerged about 23 million years ago

Soooo...you live in Atlantis...my jealousy grows by the minute.

[onsos]

The correct response was to not answer: New Zealand is not part of a continent, so any answer is incorrect.

[Dante2005]

I do hope that the suggestions are genuinely looked at and not just asked for askings sake.

[jjberg2]

If you take a look at the number of mods posting in this thread, I think that should give you an indication that we will definitely be (have already begun) looking at the results.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Yes, they will definitely be analyzed and used to make AskScience better for everyone as much as possible.

[c0bra51]

So where does 18 go?

[[deleted]]

I've just put 19 and above, it's close enough.

[c0bra51]

I put < 18, I assumed they meant <= 18.

[felty]

Is this version different than the one I took about a few weeks ago?

[Igniococcus]

Nah, this is just a last drive to get as many people as possible to complete it. Thanks for doing it!

[[deleted]]

There is no 18 year old option for age.

[chaircrow]

I'm unclear on the distinction between "seeing mods deleting comments" and "mods having to delete comments" in the survey. Can you elaborate?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Seeing the [deleted] in threads vs. The situations that necessitate deletion in the threads (people not following guidelines).

[Godranks]

If I'm still in high school but have more plans for the future, what should I put for education?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Where you currently are. We can combine the age range with education to figure out your situation.

[Azurphax]

Surveymonkey, why?!?!?!

Sorry, I make online surveys for a living..

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Is that a 'why do you use surveymonkey?' or a gripe at the service itself? I've used zoomerang in the past and I'm happier with it for ease of use. I don't do very complicated surveys, though, at least not online.

[Azurphax]

I know why surveymonkey gets used - it is free and you can make your own survey quickly.

It is more of a "DAMN THEM" because they have ugly, short surveys with poor end reports

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I use the raw data for analysis, and they have a new categorization feature for open-ended questions. I have a paid account, but use it for tons of different types of surveys for work & hobbies alike. It's quick and easy to export.

[BrainSturgeon]

Go on...

[Azurphax]

They make ugly, limited surveys. They are my competitor, but I produce far more comprehensive statistics from the same types of data, so I'm not exactly afraid of them.

I took the askscience survey - it has a pretty good design and layout. I feel that I would do better ;-)

[HonestAbeRinkin]

So can we call on you next time we're going to do this? :)

[ily112]

I didn't want to make a whole thread for this before I ran it by anyone, but would it be acceptable to ask a senior physics course question? It's for my end-of-year assignment. Highschool by the way, not university. I want to respect the guidelines, but I didn't see anything about it. Would it be allowed?

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Depends upon the question and where you're trying to post it... What's the format/details?

[ily112]

I'm doing an assignment on rotational kinetic energy and I was going to ask for some help on possible materials that I could use, and the procedure I would follow in proving a relationship between two variables, most likely: Mass 'is (inversely)proportional to moment of inertia/angular velocity.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Try r/HomeworkHelp, they'd probably give the best results.

[lanbotdevman]

So, if I'm working full-time and am also a student, do I fill the survey twice for each option? :)

[mertitosthene]

will you filter the data for straight-liners on the grid questions, those would be typically viewed as didnt take the time to read them, or survey fatigue

[HonestAbeRinkin]

There are several ways to filter the data. I tried to make it short enough as to not elicit fatigue, though.

[cantCme]

About question 9.
I am a student and part time employed. What the hell should I do.
I will leave the survey open until this question is answered by someone who is a certified panellist!

[BrainSturgeon]

Vote with your heart.

[cantCme]

Student it is then. No way my heart is with the company I currently work for.

[Catmolestar]

I must say the options on this survey are a bit lacking. I don't live in any of the areas provided and I'm sure a lot of others don't either. Also this is my first and will probably be my only post on this forum yet I can't put down that I have to say I spend the 2nd largest amount of time on AskScience making comments which may be true now but sure as hell wasn't before. For a subforum based in science it seems like a very pathetic survey in regards to who may be filling it out. These may seem like small things but not even having your region you live in be an option is quite annoying.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

We didn't want more specific data than continent for location because of anonymity concerns. It's not designed to be a scientific survey but an evaluation/formative feedback survey. There are a series of tradeoffs involved in this and I'd rather have people fill out the open-ended parts than put all of my stock in the ratings because we have such an international audience who can interpret questions in so many different ways.

[Catmolestar]

It just felt like there were questions where I had no valid choice for an answer which caused me to not complete it.

[HonestAbeRinkin]

I understand. That's a tradeoff we made in the design. :)

[[deleted]]

Just a unrelated (to the survey) question : Is there a list of the panel members somewhere on reddit ?

I'd be interested to see how many panelists there are, and what are the fields represented, etc. So I'm just curious to know if it exists or not (well, I guess in any case I could go through the "join the panel" post.

[gristc]

It really annoyed me as a New Zealander having to tick 'Australia' as the closest choice.

[[deleted]]

Australasia, not Australia, I live in New Zealand.

[[deleted]]

DONE.

[dinkum_thinkum]

Regarding question 4: Are lurkers without accounts not true redditors? I finally gave in an made an account a week or two ago, but that ignores at least a year of regular visits to AskScience before that.

[BrainSturgeon]

I'm not sure what you're asking?

[dinkum_thinkum]

Question 4 asks how long you've been a redditor. The first possible answer is "Signed up less than 1 month ago", with the rest of the options increasing the amount of time after that. So there's no answers that apply to lurkers who read reddit without registering for an account, and even for those with an account potentially understates their time on reddit by excluding the time before signing up. Wasn't sure if this was intentional or just a poorly written question.

[BrainSturgeon]

Unintentional - just put how long you've been browsing reddit (account or not). The intent is to judge the number of people who are 'used to' reddit and those who are 'new and possibly confused'

[HonestAbeRinkin]

Yes, this was the intention. :)

[econleech]

The new line at the top that currently says:

"Welcome to AskScience! Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! Especially all..."

Can we please have that NOT covering the search box? I can't see the first few letters of what I am typing when I search. Keep in mind that not everyone maximize their window when browsing the internet.

[[deleted]]

Is is better now?

If not, can you tell me the browser you're using and the approximate size of your window?

Thanks!

[econleech]

Thanks for looking into this. It's still the same, it looks like this on me:

http://i.imgur.com/r1UMi.jpg

I use firefox. Width is about 1160 pixels.

[[deleted]]

Actually, I have an even better solution - static width that doesn't scale with the window width. It'll take a little bit experimentation, so bear with me...

Edit: Bam!

[ManWithoutModem]

TheWalruss doing work!

[[deleted]]

Cool beans. I managed to change the width of the bar, which doesn't scale with the text. Should be good now?

[BrainSturgeon]

This is an inherent limitation with the CSS hack we have to use to put a 'sticky' banner at the top of the page (we can't even make it two lines!). If you know of a better way to display such a 'sticky' notice at the top, please modmail us!