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Survey on home page is for ...

angelwatt

angelwatt

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Aug 16, 2005
7,852
9
USA
I saw the survey linked at the top of the home page today and it says it's for Mac Rumors, but when I clicked on it it started asking about printers, and asking a lot about them. How is this for Mac Rumors? Or is this some sponsor link thing? I didn't end up finishing the survey because I got fed up with seemingly irrelevant questions for Mac Rumors. If something like that popped up in a forum I would have reported it as spam.

If it is something relevant it should reflect what it's really for because currently it just seems like some sponsor survey.
 
Relax. The survey is from MR. How do you think the link got there? I'd surmise that they may have some kind of advertising deal lined up with a printer manufacturer and needed some additional info to make it happen.
 
But to the defense of others, the title of the link and the survey itself do not seem to correlate. If someone wants me to take a survey about MR I'd think it would have less to do with printing. It looked sketchy to me as well and considering the recent issues we've had (think back to MacWorld) I too was a bit skeptical.
 
Just so it's clear, I do believe Mac Rumors put it there. My issue is the misleading text of the link. It currently reads:
Visitors: Please fill out this short survey for MacRumors. Thank You.
Click to expand...
But perhaps something this would be more appropriate.
Visitors: Please fill out this short survey for our sponsor. Thank You.
Click to expand...
And maybe even include the sponsor name is it's OK.
 
Had they said sponsor or named them, it would introduce even more bias into the poll.

Does the site provide you with a benefit? Then help them out and take the survey.
 
Of course, but again ... my skepticism came from other incidents and such. That's all. I'm just sayin' ... not really trying to piss you off. ;)
 
There are several problems with this survey.

First, the text preceding the link says "Visitors". This makes it unclear to me (and I'm sure at least some others) whether or not it's meant only for people coming for the first time (as opposed to "regulars", for example). So if they're worried about bias like you suggested rdowns, right there I'm sure they've already got some people confused about whether or not they should be taking the survey.

Second, as others in the thread here have said, it says "survey for MacRumors". This is misleading, and I would guess intentionally so. I thought it was about my user experience on MacRumors, or something similar related to the site. If it said "survey from/by one of our sponsors" or "survey to help support MacRumors", people would know or at least suspect that the poll itself has nothing to do with MacRumors. Some people would be less likely to do it, which is probably why it isn't explained.

Third, there is no mention of who the survey is by, or who it is for, and what their privacy policies may be. What information if any will Survey Monkey collect or provide to MacRumors or the sponsor? The sponsor need not be named if it would bias the data, but there should be some indication that the data aren't being collected just for MacRumors' use.

There is an issue of trust here. The first question had me kind of suspicious, so I looked back on the MacRumors front page and this thread was listed on there. So I didn't continue the survey.

I thought since it was a survey on MacRumors, a site that I trust(ed), that I would be fine taking the poll. But now that I see that the purpose of the poll is hidden, and it makes me feel like that trust was broken.

MacRumors certainly has the right to get revenue, I just think they should make it clear when that's what they're doing, just like is done when threads are posted about sales from MacRumors' partners. It's a little annoying to have such threads, but I have absolutely no problem with it because I realize they have to make money, and they are very clear about it as they should be. I do have a problem with a link that appears to be intentionally vague, with no warning that you're giving up information for use by another entity.
 
I closed the window immediately after I saw the second question. :eek: Glad to know that I wasn't alone.

I saw that these weren't questions that Arn would ask about the site, so I closed it.


rdowns said:
Does the site provide you with a benefit? Then help them out and take the survey.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, but if that's the reason people should do it, why did I renew my renew my demi-ship? I'd just click on a few links, fill out a few surveys, and that is that?
 
Hopefully a deity will appear from on high (or down below) and all will be revealed, and we can then make smoothies out of the fruit of our sinful ignorance.
 
huh second question... i clicked on it and my question was how many employers are there at your work or something like that... 5-200, 200+, or none of the above... since i'm not employed i choose none of the above. :mad:
clicked next and said thank your for taking the survey...:confused:
 
puckhead193 said:
huh second question... i clicked on it and my question was how many employers are there at your work or something like that... 5-200, 200+, or none of the above... since i'm not employed i choose none of the above. :mad:
clicked next and said thank your for taking the survey...:confused:
Click to expand...

Same thing here.

I just tried it again and it won't let me take the survey.So I'm guessing it's IP based.
 
it was a weird survey.....
asking for my company's printer preference and how my company buys printers? how would i know

and then it just really got too in depth about printers. I'm guessing it was an ad put there by macrumors...

all i am saying is it wasnt a good survey. i just clicked it off it was too boring
 
sorry for the confusion. it's a sponsor requested survey. I added the word "sponsor" in front of it. It's like 5-6 questions. I'm guessing it will determine future ad spending based on target audience.

arn
 
This thread is further proof of my theory that Mac users are the biggest whiners on the Internet. :p

Can we go back to complaining about non-removable batteries, slanted keys, hinges that are too tight/loose, dust behind the glass and other fun topics? :D
 
rdowns said:
This thread is further proof of my theory that Mac users are the biggest whiners on the Internet. :p
Click to expand...

That's only because we know how great things can be in comparison to Windows users. So are expectations are higher.
 
puckhead193 said:
huh second question... i clicked on it and my question was how many employers are there at your work or something like that... 5-200, 200+, or none of the above... since i'm not employed i choose none of the above. :mad:
clicked next and said thank your for taking the survey...:confused:
Click to expand...

Same here, was the shortest most bizarre survey ever!! :D
 
Funny, I was going to start a thread about this earlier. It was a misleading title. Good to see it's fixed now.
 
Survey is fine. I get lot's of use from this site and I am glad that they are attracting new sponsors. I was happy to fill it out. Thanks Arn.
 
Thanks for the eddification, Arn. I just bought some more printers for the company I work at, so I filled out the form to support MR.

Yup, only 5 or 6 questions.

Oddly, when it asked me what brand of printers we'd just bought, Samsung wasn't on the list. I really like Samsung's cheap mono laser printers - we have a ML-1610, an ML-1810, and just bought an end-of line duplexing ML-2850.

All are probably not made any more, so this isn't really an advert, just to say I like Samsung's cheap mono lasers (no idea what their other printers are like), so it was odd not to be able to choose it on the list of printers on the survey.
 
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