Take This Survey For The Naked Man Comment Count

Brian

Hey. Remember last April Fool's Day when the banner on this site mysteriously changed to this guy?

tobias-hopp

Toby Hopp is the guy who sent that banner in. So you owe him. He's a grad student at SDSU studying user-generated content and he's got a survey for you. You should take it, because it will help him out.

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My name is Toby Hopp and I’m a longtime college sports blogger/blog reader. I’m also a graduate communications student at San Diego State University who is interested in studying how and why Internet users generate content online. What precisely, you may be asking, is “user-generated content?” Well, “user-generated content” includes comment sections at the end of news/blog articles, messageboards, diaries, polls, and the like.

To me, one of the great parts of the blogosphere is the interaction it enables between readers. As a community, we’re able to provide feedback and discuss issues in real time. However, the concept of “user-generated content” and its subsequent social applications has not, at this point, been thoroughly studied by communications researchers and is, in my estimation, completely misunderstood by the mass media.

So, if you have 10-15 minutes to spare and support empirical media research (and the social sciences in general), please click the survey link below. Even if you NEVER create/read content on blog or newspaper websites, PLEASE consider taking the survey as your answers are as important to me as the answers supplied by individuals who DO regularly create content. Rest assured that all answers and provided information will be strictly anonymous and kept totally confidential.

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

For those of you interested in statistics, all collected information will be scientifically analyzed and utilized to create an inherently unique structural equation model. To that end, I’ll send a report out to each participating blog which details general trends and reader utilization issues of note.

Again, please consider taking this survey (Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2) whether or not you ever create or read “user –generated content” on blogs or newspaper sites. The survey itself will take 10 – 15 minutes and, I promise, will be quite painless. As stated above, research on the topic of “user-generated content” is incredibly sparse and your participation will go a long way in understanding the environmental factors that encourage meaningful intra-community participation. And, of course, you’ll be doing me a great and immeasurable favor.

The survey will be active from Monday, December 14 through Friday, December 18. Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions relating to the survey or my over-arching methodology/conceptual framework (obviously, there’s a lot more to the study that can be reasonably described here).

Thank you for your time and please know that your participation really does mean a great deal to me on both a professional and personal level.

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

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Survey!

Comments

NHWolverine

December 15th, 2009 at 11:46 AM ^

I’ll send a report out to each participating blog which details general trends and reader utilization issues of note.

Cool. I'm definitely looking forward to reading this research. Good luck Toby if you're reading MGo.

toby_h

December 15th, 2009 at 12:46 PM ^

I read Mgoblog every day and have for several years. I actually have another username that I post content under, but I'm using this "alter-ego" (ironically, my real identity) in order to preserve as much internal validity as possible.

Part of the genesis for this research project was Brian's transition to Drupal, which fascinated me on a number of levels.

Again, thank you so much for participating. I'm getting pretty good response rates. If we can keep this up for the rest of the week, I'll have an UNHEARD of sample size. The more, the merrier, so to speak. Internet surveys are difficult to distribute, but I've had a ton of help from Brian and other CFB bloggers (e.g. Burnt Orange Nation, Troy Nunes, Barking Carnival and a number of other really wonderful blogs) disseminating this survey.

I think the culled data will end up being richly descriptive. I'm quite interested to see the results and I think many of you will be as well.

Thanks. If you haven't taken the survey, please consider doing so. If you'd like to talk more about the project, feel free to e-mail at [email protected]

And, haha, no, I'm not the naked man. A part of, maybe the biggest part of me, wishes I was.

His Dudeness

December 15th, 2009 at 1:45 PM ^

To answer your survey question; I come here for the neg-bangs and the remarkable usage of nude pics of older mustachioed men in allured positions. Furthermore I enjoy a good LOL-sparty from time to time.