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Proposed amendment to the survey posting amendment.Follow

#1 Mar 17 2011 at 4:38 PM Rating: Excellent
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The following is a proposed amendment to amendment 1 - survey posting. Changes are in Red. Please fill out the poll at the bottoim of the thread, and provide any feedback in this thread. This ammendment is draft and is not yet in force.

Draft Draft Draft - Amendment 1 Survey poting proposed changes
Green - additional changes based on feedback

Survey posting by outside parties is allowed only for educational purposes. Commercial surveys, or surveys without an academic background are expressly prohibited and will be immediately removed. Our primary focus is the safety and security of our existing user base, and as such we will deny any surveys with questions that could lead to security breaches.

Prior to posting any survey, you are required to contact one of the following Forum Administrators:

Kaolian@allakhazam.com

darqflame@allakhazam.com

And to provide verified contact information and academic credentials, including a university associated e-mail address from which the request originates. A full, unaltered copy of the survey questions must also be provided.


A survey may only be posted by someone with premium membership or at least 500 posts and or 3 months active posting in the forums. Exceptions may be made for anyone willing to donate to charity instead of purchaseing premium, however proof of donation would be required. This will allow us an additional level of security in ensuring the survey data you post will not be used against our site users, along with ensuring that you are contributing something to the maintenance and upkeep of our site, thus giving back to the users whose data you wish to collect.
Any survey found to contain questions or data collection fields that could present a security risk to the accounts of our users will be automatically denied.

Any survey worded to support a preconceived position on topics related to “Gaming addiction” or other areas intended to paint all gamers in a stereotypical negative light
are strongly discouraged. There are hundreds of such surveys already in existence, go use one of those.

A maximum of 1 survey per 7 day period will be allowed. Any more frequent, and our site users get annoyed. This survey will be on a first come, first serve basis of surveys that meet the posting criteria.


All other survey posts will be removed and the originating account banned.

In-forum poll system exemption: This amendment specifically does not cover in forum polls generated by forum users. The intent is to prevent unnecessary spam by outside entities with no real investment in the forum system.

Regarding the proposed survey rule changes:
The origional rules were strong enough :15 (10.6%)
The origional rules were too strong and should be relaxed :5 (3.5%)
I prefer the new rules :104 (73.2%)
I would prefer something stronger than the proposed new rules :18 (12.7%)
Total:142


Edited, Mar 17th 2011 10:29pm by Kaolian
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#2 Mar 17 2011 at 4:52 PM Rating: Good
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My view is very few people are excited to answer these surveys. Making people who want to administer them at least pay for premium is a very good idea IMO. Since they don't really contribute to the community of the boards - they should at least contribute to the upkeep.

I also really like the part about pre-conceived notions about gaming addiction etc. - I highly support rule changes which will make it harder for people to glean data that will be twisted in a way that just demonizes gamers.

Edited, Mar 17th 2011 3:54pm by Olorinus
#3 Mar 17 2011 at 5:03 PM Rating: Good
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Olorinus the Vile wrote:

I also really like the part about pre-conceived notions about gaming addiction etc. - I highly support rule changes which will make it harder for people to glean data that will be twisted in a way that just demonizes gamers.

Edited, Mar 17th 2011 3:54pm by Olorinus


That. Also, I don't think 1 per 7 days is good enough. Make it 15. I try to answer the ones I think are interesting, but one every week is too much.
#4 Mar 17 2011 at 5:10 PM Rating: Good
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Thank god for the "game addiction" thing. Tired of filling out surveys asking me if games have ruined my life and then there's no "No" answer.
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#5 Mar 17 2011 at 5:15 PM Rating: Good
Mazra wrote:
Thank god for the "game addiction" thing. Tired of filling out surveys asking me if games have ruined my life and then there's no "No" answer.
It is there, your subconsciousness just blocks it out.
#6 Mar 17 2011 at 5:22 PM Rating: Decent
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Or, set up a new sub-forum 'Surveys'. Stick a warning at the top about possible security breaches. Make a premium subscription a prerequisite of posting a survey, if you like. Nobody gets annoyed by a survey unless they choose to, and mods are saved a considerable amount of work checking them out.
#7 Mar 17 2011 at 5:52 PM Rating: Good
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The premium thing seems excessive, but I'm on board with the other two.

But maybe we can add in a clause for surveys that involve charity donations? For instance, there was that one in the WoW forums recently where he'd donate to child's play for each person who did the survey, up to $100. That seems like it shouldn't demand premium or be included in the 7 day thing.

Of course, it isn't like we can actually KNOW if they did it or not.
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#8 Mar 17 2011 at 5:53 PM Rating: Decent
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So you want only students posting surveys. Everyone who posts surveys must be a premium member. This seems like quite a contradiction to me because every student I know wouldn't have extra money to spend on a premium membership.

The new rules certainly help protect the users, but the end effect is real close to just saying that there will be no more surveys allowed. Of course, you wouldn't hear much complaint from the users if you just did that.

I do like the new wording about screening for biased surveys.
#9 Mar 17 2011 at 5:57 PM Rating: Good
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I'd like to see support for academic surveys limited to those surveys which are reasonably connected to the student's field of study. There are degrees for game design, I could even understand something like statistics or a vaguely worded paper for high school, but things like a WOW study for fabric design?

Quote:
I'm to become an artisan in textile and clothing design and production and all is left is the degree work. I'm weaving a tapestry that has a video game motive on it and therefor games are also the subject for my written degree work. Especially the social aspect of online games, being a player myself, I've thought about it quite a lot.


There is a level of "scholarship" that I'm willing to support, but this falls below it.

Edit: I strongly support the other provisions of the proposed draft, explicitly including the requirement that they be premium members. As a note on the one week waiting period -- it may be too short because it is too easy for them to keep spamming "am I in yet?" for 2-3 weeks after the initial rejection.

Edited, Mar 17th 2011 8:05pm by Rhodekylle
#10 Mar 17 2011 at 6:04 PM Rating: Good
I don't have an issue with them not being premium members if they follow the other rules. I was a lurker for years. Maybe they could apply for consideration if they are poor students, or would that be an admin's nightmare?
#11 Mar 17 2011 at 6:14 PM Rating: Good
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Quote:
Maybe they could apply for consideration if they are poor students


There are other sites. They don't have to post their survey here and it is something of an imposition for them to do so.

If everyone really wants to support surveys, one alternative would be to create a database for the common, unbiased questions. Many of the surveys rehash the same thing over and over. Do one survey of the user base, maybe dangle a minor reward, and then let the survey monkeys comb through that.
#12 Mar 17 2011 at 6:59 PM Rating: Good
I actually don't mind surveys myself, so long as they get admin approval. The 1 post wonder "come fill out my survey!" people can get annoying though.

I'm also in favor of the "No, we're not addicted to video games. Go away." part.
#13 Mar 17 2011 at 7:08 PM Rating: Excellent
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I approve of the proposed new terms. I think that the premium membership requirement is especially nice, since most of the unapproved drive-by surveys will be instantly identifiable as such.

I would approve even more if the answer to survey permission requests was always "no". Smiley: wink
#14 Mar 17 2011 at 7:20 PM Rating: Decent
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Maybe add that the surveys need to be composed in a somewhat grammatically proper fashion?

No questions like " wat kinda l337 gearz do you gots?"

#15 Mar 17 2011 at 7:21 PM Rating: Good
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Is the 1 survey every 7 days, per ZAM or per game?
#16 Mar 17 2011 at 7:29 PM Rating: Good
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idiggory wrote:
Of course, it isn't like we can actually KNOW if they did it or not.
I'm willing to bet that's why they settled on the premium thing.
Niakohr wrote:
So you want only students posting surveys. Everyone who posts surveys must be a premium member. This seems like quite a contradiction to me because every student I know wouldn't have extra money to spend on a premium membership.
They'd only have to buy a short term premium, right? 3 months is what, something like $10-15 if you're only getting that shorter term membership? If they can't find a way to pony up that kind of money for their survey, then they can find another site, IMO.

Hey, Kao, any way to flag a poster as "This week's approved survey" so they're instantly recognizable?

Edited, Mar 17th 2011 7:30pm by Poldaran
#17 Mar 17 2011 at 8:47 PM Rating: Good
I'd also say make an exception on premium for existing forum members with over 6 months and/or 1000 posts. If someone is already an active member of the community and just happens to be doing a project for class, they should be given the opportunity to post their stuff, assuming they meet all the other requirements.
#18 Mar 17 2011 at 8:52 PM Rating: Good
Yeah on the one hand I think having to pay for premium to post a survey is a bit excessive. On the other hand, they can always choose to pay for the $10/3 month premium, which isn't that much. So I'd say I'm leaning more towards being okay with the premium thing.

I'm definitely supportive of the automatic denial of gamer addiction surveys. Surveys are annoying enough as it is, I don't need to be patronized too.
#19 Mar 17 2011 at 9:03 PM Rating: Good
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Can we rewrite the whole thing to just say ********** off with your surveys"?
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#20 Mar 17 2011 at 10:28 PM Rating: Decent
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Requiring premium membership is absurd; limiting gaming addiction as a topic is roughly equally absurd.

I realize most people are ok with this because they can't appreciate the academic repercussions and to them it's merely a nuisance, but as long as surveys are clearly labeled they don't have to click them.

Requiring permission and deleting offenders should be more than sufficient.
#21 Mar 17 2011 at 11:25 PM Rating: Excellent
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The One and Only Poldaran wrote:

Hey, Kao, any way to flag a poster as "This week's approved survey" so they're instantly recognizable?

Likely not easily.

catwho wrote:
I'd also say make an exception on premium for existing forum members with over 6 months and/or 1000 posts. If someone is already an active member of the community and just happens to be doing a project for class, they should be given the opportunity to post their stuff, assuming they meet all the other requirements.


Good idea. The intent of the wording change is to make it more difficult for those 1 post wonders to drop by and post a survey. Especially the same old "do you game because you are depressed friendless sociopathic monster, or a REALLY depressed friendless sociopathic monster" surveys, which get old. I think very few people here would have a problem with filling out a survey for a forum member who has contributed too the forum.

The premium requirement is more of a way to garuntee they are at least contributing something towards the forum. I know most college students are broke. I don't really care. I figure that if its important enough to them to get the data, if people know that they had to contribute to the forum, they would be more likely to actually fill out the survey, not less.

I agree that the academic repercussions are not entirely fair, however the surveys dealing with "gaming addiction" are being done to death. I swear we have had an identical survey submitted here at least 3 times. Thats not good scholarship, thats just lazyness.
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#22 Mar 17 2011 at 11:31 PM Rating: Excellent
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Additional changes posted above.

Regarding a seperate survey forum, I just don't think it would get any traffic at all. Which would essentially be the same thing as telling all survey posters to go away.
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#23 Mar 17 2011 at 11:53 PM Rating: Good
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Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
The One and Only Poldaran wrote:

Hey, Kao, any way to flag a poster as "This week's approved survey" so they're instantly recognizable?

Likely not easily.
How about keeping a sticky somewhere with a listing of approved surveys by date that we could easily reference? You could instruct the survey poster to link to that sticky to verify to us quickly and easily that they've been approved.
#24 Mar 17 2011 at 11:55 PM Rating: Decent
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I honestly can't see why this is a necessary thing to begin with. Sure, survey posters get annoying, but it's not like they're completely overrunning us. Just report the ones that haven't been approved and let an admin take care of it, which is bound to be less of a pain in the *** than this new, complicated system. Besides, we're hardly knocking important threads off of the front page with survey threads, even in the busiest forums around here.
#25 Mar 18 2011 at 12:08 AM Rating: Good
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eiran wrote:
Maybe they could apply for consideration if they are poor students
If the survey is for school, like most of them say it is, then the price of admission is a small price to pay. Most research projects tend to pay their volunteers, and this is (supposed) to be about research. Although, I thought the money should be used for charity instead of site maintenance, but whatever.

Edited, Mar 18th 2011 2:10am by lolgaxe
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#26 Mar 18 2011 at 12:11 AM Rating: Good
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I honestly think the original rules, for the most part, covered it pretty well.
I do like the note about content, and I like the limiting of one survey/time, but other than that, it really seems like there were enough hoops to jump through for people conducting them.

They still have to get admin approval for content, and users always have the option of participating or not. There's nothing stopping admins from turning down the ridiculous ones, or people choosing not to take part because of something they don't agree with, or whatever.
It also seems a bit silly to need to belong to a group already in order to get the information you need, in my opinion. Many surveys are going to require a lot of participants, and it seems a little excessive to require the person conducting the survey to be a member for a long period of time, or have a certain number of posts under their belt.

More strict rules about narrowing down content or filtering out junk BEFORE submitting it to an admin would be fine. The stuff after seems a bit far, though, in my opinion.

I am only thinking of how frustrating it would be to be on that end of this. Go to a site full of people who have all the information you need - a gathering place - and find all these roadblocks in place between you and the what you're looking for. Even after getting everything squared away with the survey and seeking approval for it, you need to pay and/or hang around for 3 months before you start? Personally, I'd hit the road and find my sources elsewhere. It has to be difficult enough to put these things together already (at least for the valid ones, which I would hope would be the only ones making it through the screening to start with).
But, as someone said, if you're going for "no surveys" here, or just discouraging their use, this is a good route to take. XD

Edited, Mar 17th 2011 11:16pm by AmanoJ
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