What makes you answer questions here on MrExcel? [a survey on knowledge sharing]

[Joe4]

Why people help, what they like, what they don't like, what they think of the Moderation, etc.
It may help us see what we are doing right, and what we might need to work on.

We kind of lucked out that Henri chose to do this for his project. It works out to be a nice, symbiotic relationship. We let him post it here, and in exchange, he is sharing the results with us.

 

[snowblizz]

Why people help, what they like, what they don't like, what they think of the Moderation, etc.
It may help us see what we are doing right, and what we might need to work on.

We kind of lucked out that Henri chose to do this for his project. It works out to be a nice, symbiotic relationship. We let him post it here, and in exchange, he is sharing the results with us.

Yeah it's almost like someone planned this when they joined a few years ago. Interestingly I've included a few questions I thought would be interesting for the board administration, but they are all things that I would have asked anyway. It is pretty cool when goals can align like this.

There actually was a certain degree of random chance involved believe it or not. Around 3 years ago I registered for 2(out of 3) Excel forums that I got recommended by a paper reviewer, the third was not quite applicable as such. Due to my normal email not liking the registration process of one forum making me stuck in some kind of limbo there. I can post in some sections, but not others. Particularly the "off topic" section which I didn't get posting access to. Eventually this led me to spend most of my time following MrExcel and putting the survey here. In the future of course I'd like to investigate other forums as well, because quite naturally the conclusions drawn only from a subset of people in one place has issues with generalisation.

It's interesting how you say diddi, you didn't follow the Lounge, as that was in both cases for me the almost first places I actually read and responded on two different forums and my inability to post in one led me quite firmly to the other.

 

[diddi]

@Joe4
just a thought... if there was a simple way to mark a thread solved or unresolved, a mini survey could be popped up to gather the sort of info you are seeking. Not sure whether vBulletin supports such things tho

another thought is to perform 1 question surveys, the responses to which are attached to the users account. thus over time data is accumulated to be able to do correllations etc. could work better than having the HUGE survey in 1 go scenario.

 

[Joe4]

just a thought... if there was a simple way to mark a thread solved or unresolved, a mini survey could be popped up to gather the sort of info you are seeking. Not sure whether vBulletin supports such things tho

This has been discussed a number of times over the years, and we actually like not being able to mark threads solved or not, as many times after a question is supposedly "solved", an even better solution is posted. I have learned some very cool methods this way. So we really don't want to do anything to discourage that behavior.

I am active on some other forums that have this functionality, and another problem there is to get people to use it. I would have only about half the people actually mark it as solved (even when it is solved).

another thought is to perform 1 question surveys, the responses to which are attached to the users account. thus over time data is accumulated to be able to do correllations etc. could work better than having the HUGE survey in 1 go scenario.

I don't think the Admins had any current plans to do their own surveys at this time (time/resources), which is why this project works out so nicely for us. It is like a free survey fell into our lap, someone willing to do all this work for us, and give us the results.

 

[Joe4]

The survey will be closing down soon, so if there is anyone else who would like to take it, please do so before the end of the month.
Thanks to all those who participated!

 

[arkusM]

Is there only two pages? I thought I would complete the survey but when I hit "save" on page two it said it saved but did not indicate if I was done. So I hope what I did fill out is useful.
Cheers,

Mark

 

[snowblizz]

Is there only two pages? I thought I would complete the survey but when I hit "save" on page two it said it saved but did not indicate if I was done. So I hope what I did fill out is useful.
Cheers,

Mark

It seems to have worked fine. Thank you very much.
And I apologize for the unwieldy system. Had I known how useless the survey system was I would not have used it. It was only when just too late I realized it was more geared for student surveys and other less intensive internal data-gathering.

 

[arkusM]

It seems to have worked fine. Thank you very much.
And I apologize for the unwieldy system. Had I known how useless the survey system was I would not have used it. It was only when just too late I realized it was more geared for student surveys and other less intensive internal data-gathering.

No worries, I am completly sympatheic to being bound by certain systems in a top down world. I am glad that I was able to contribute and help you out. I hope you get enough responses to make it worth your effort. I know you plan to share with the Admins but will you be posting the highlevel results here?

Cheers,

Mark

 

[snowblizz]

No worries, I am completly sympatheic to being bound by certain systems in a top down world. I am glad that I was able to contribute and help you out. I hope you get enough responses to make it worth your effort. I know you plan to share with the Admins but will you be posting the highlevel results here?

Cheers,

Mark

The number of replies has pushed over the 40 mark (though I know a couple are not usable, there's like 3 tests from me when I thought the whole thing wouldn't work in Chrome/IE9) so I might even meet the bare minimum of for statistical validity. Pending method used, naturally.

If there is interest, and the admins don't mind it, and I am able to do so I had certainly thought about posting some summary here. I'd have to check what rules might pertain to releasing research results though with my supervisor. While I'm doing this for my own benefit, and only that, I am going to write up a research paper for a conference out of this. At the least when it is published from a conference I will mention it here. Also as it will be included in my thesis, which will become part of public record, whatever I manage to conjure up will certainly be available there as well.
Due Q2 next year (knocking wood).
Part of my thesis will be somekind of guidelines (I hope), best practice of asking questions from experts. Which of course would be entirely appropriate as something for new posters to read.

 

[arkusM]

The number of replies has pushed over the 40 mark (though I know a couple are not usable, there's like 3 tests from me when I thought the whole thing wouldn't work in Chrome/IE9) so I might even meet the bare minimum of for statistical validity. Pending method used, naturally.

If there is interest, and the admins don't mind it, and I am able to do so I had certainly thought about posting some summary here. I'd have to check what rules might pertain to releasing research results though with my supervisor. While I'm doing this for my own benefit, and only that, I am going to write up a research paper for a conference out of this. At the least when it is published from a conference I will mention it here. Also as it will be included in my thesis, which will become part of public record, whatever I manage to conjure up will certainly be available there as well.
Due Q2 next year (knocking wood).
Part of my thesis will be somekind of guidelines (I hope), best practice of asking questions from experts. Which of course would be entirely appropriate as something for new posters to read.

Well, good luck with your conference and thesis. Cheers!

Mark