Hatchling Cockatrice Slawbug Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 The Grand Spiderweb Poll Results PART ONE: DEMOGRAPHICS RESULTS Thanks to everyone who took part in the poll! There were sixty responses submitted. The responses included many long-time members, some newer members and some posters who just happened to drop in. I expect this group is typical of the sort of people who are here over any half-week period. Results and analysis begin here, but will be continued in a number of other threads. This thread presents only the base results, with no correlations made to unrelated questions, and only for the demographics half of the poll. Three things you should keep in mind: 1) CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION. This thread only contains a few correlated questions, but please keep in mind that the results are solely correlative. 2) SAMPLE SIZE IS SMALL. It's probably not a good idea to generalize these results too much, especially beyond the forum community. 3) LUMPING! In order to protect the privacy of everyone who responded, I am not reporting any data that could be personally identifiable. As a result, for some questions where there were one or more responses which had only a tiny number of answers, I have "lumped" responses together. This is most obvious on the gender and sexuality questions, but I applied it elsewhere as well. I have been looser on this rule for questions that are less personal, such as the political questions; however, I will never report correlations for those tiny sample groups, only for larger ones. Finally, if the graphs are too small, right-click and open the image in its own tab. It should be larger and easier to read there. OK, let's begin! I probably should have included separate options at least for 11 and 12 years here, but Google made that difficult. Oh well. After accounting for that, the major pattern continues to be that few people have stuck around in the last 3 years. Indeed, the average respondent has been here for more than 6 years! Crazy. Additionally, 8/60 submissions were from mods or admins. This graph shows the distribution of age among respondents, as well as (approximately) how old each respondent was when they first came here. The average respondent is 26, and the average age of joining was 20. Each vertical segment here represents one member. The blue part shows how old they were when they joined, and the red part on top how long they have been around for; the top of it is their current age. Note that the stegosaurus-like pattern is mainly due to how I sorted the data and is not significant. We are extremely heavy on men, and fairly heavy on straight people -- but compared to the numbers in the general population, our excess of men stands out far more. Interestingly, our non-male members are unusually likely not to identify as straight -- a pattern that I think might hold going further back in the community's history. There were a wide variety of individual responses to the sexual orientation question in particular, spanning the spectra. Nothing new here: we are mostly single. Also: most of the married folks have children, and nobody else does. This one surprised me quite a bit. Given how heavy we are on members in their 20's, I was expecting far more members to have roommates they are unrelated to. However, that may have been a poor assumption based on my own cultural biases. Popular US states included Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Popular provinces elsewhere included Ontario and Victoria. Popular metro areas included Dry Ridge, Melbourne, Phoenix, Seattle, and Toronto. I'm betting this one is going to lead to a lot of interesting observations when I start looking for further correlations. For now, we can see some interesting differences here. I have no idea if they are representative, or merely coincidental. The only popular denomination, among those who listed them, was Catholicism. There were a few conversions to religion, or to a different religion. But for the most part, people's shifts were exactly what you'd expect based on these bars. The boards appear to be about 1/3 atheist, 1/6 agnostic, and 1/2 theistic. We have a fair number of people in each category. Popular specific disciplines included Computer Science, Engineering, Math, and English/Literature. This chart exclude members who stated they had no job in this question. Few people listed a specific job; those who did listed mostly jobs in business and software engineering. These questions were a bit subjective: class names mean slightly different things in different countries. At for Americans, though, the average Spiderweb member is quite well off... ...and comes from an equally wealthy family. As you can see, there doesn't seem to be a ton of economic mobility among our members. This one may offer some interesting correlations too! Dantius is probably right that a Liberal or Moderate economic option would have been popular. In general, we seem to be very middle-of-the-road on both axes. I was expecting a bit more support for the libertarian view on social issues, myself. Someone who pays more attention to our Political Compass scores may have more relevant commentary, though. Remarkable homogeneity here -- and I couldn't find any correlations with real-world political views at all. I also expect fruitful correlations here. Here? Who knows. I will quote Arancaytar, though. "Spoiler alert: the Vahnatai win." Part 2 will be out tomorrow or Thursday. Thanks for reading, folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall The Ratt Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Neato. Thanks for putting in the effort Slarty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall A less presumptuous name. Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Very interesting to see, both where I am common and uncommon. I look forward to seeing further analyses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Triumph Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Fascinating! Thanks for compiling all this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 What does "Other Non-Religious" entail? I realize that some questions were not answered by everyone, so the percentages don't necessarily add up, but I'm wondering what percentage of people were female? I don't remember if that was a required question or not. The community is less theist than I thought it was. It seems as though more conservative members are far less likely to participate in political discussions, which is in no way surprising. Are American members more religious than non-American members? (I would assume so, but heck. I am also assuming that this would be answered in the next topic.) It would be interesting to see how religious beliefs correspond to political beliefs, but given the sample size and the fact that the majority of people (with a few outliers) are centered around one point, it would be impractical to do so (and out of the interest of not identifying people). I guess a more generalized correlation could be made, but it wouldn't be all that meaningful. This is a fascinating poll. Thanks for putting this together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I probably should be commenting on the results, but I gotta congratulate Slarty on the post count instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Rowen Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Originally Posted By: Dintiradan I probably should be commenting on the results, but I gotta congratulate Slarty on the post count instead. 31 is the post count number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slawbug Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 Originally Posted By: Excalibur What does "Other Non-Religious" entail? Not religious, but not atheist or agnostic either. Quote: I'm wondering what percentage of people were female? I don't remember if that was a required question or not. Did you read the info at the top of the post? That should answer your question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Cairo Jim Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I'm borderlining between Islam and Christianity, but as of yet I haven't defected from Christianity so I just went with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast VCH Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 What does formal mean for the field of study question? I'd be interested in seeing if there is a significant correlation between being in the upper-middle class and having a Mac. Also, the correlation between job status and childhood economic status would be interesting too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Aran Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 "Male / Other"? I can follow the reasoning that leads to this, but it still looks weird. (To everyone wondering about the actual percentage of female members: That the "Female / Other" categories are joined into one category for privacy means that one of the two categories is really small. There are quite a few (though not many) binary-identified women here, so it's not "Female".) That there are more non-straight males than non-males is a demographic phenomenon I've seen in several forums that held a census, notably on NationStates. I like "religiosity". Not familiar with "Formal" fields of study. Does that include stuff like Philosophy (which I'd expect in Humanities), or Computer Science / Math (which I'm used to classing as sort of a Natural science)? (Oh, and as an addendum: I missed the census myself, sadly.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall A less presumptuous name. Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Formal dealt with math/computer science. Is the poll no longer available for people who wish to look at it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slawbug Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 The academic split is the same that's been used here in previous polls. What you're missing is "sciences" appended to all of the category names except Humanities. Originally Posted By: Wikipedia The formal sciences are the branches of knowledge that are concerned with formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, theoretical computer science, information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, statistics, and some aspects of linguistics. A few words of caution about interpreting the sexuality question results: "Non-Straight" really does mean non-straight; it doesn't mean, say, queer. This was not a case of lumping one or two odd answers with 14 gay people. In fact there were not too many people who used the other preset options ("bisexual" and "gay") and some of the other answers were things like "mostly heterosexual", "bicurious" and "straight-ish" (some of those are paraphrases, again for privacy). I felt it would be inaccurate to pretend I could interpret exactly what was meant by each one, so I just kept them all together in Other. I'd say we have a very tolerant community and a lot of people who are open-minded about who they might be attacted to, but still an overwhelmingly heterosexual community. A better question might ask if you are (absolutely / primarily / not) attracted to only one gender, and if so, which gender (using our now-established list of gender options). I can't tell you how many questions I've thought of since the survey began. If only I'd asked about introvertedness, athleticism, drinking, gaming hours per week, other gamer genres, driving habits, participation in activities like aimhack, satelite fora, general happiness. I should have asked for suggestions for questions, too. Oh well -- next year! Unless I'm not here. Slarty looks at his watch nervously. It is ticking like a geiger counter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Artila Galactic Maiden Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Thanks for taking the time to record all this- it really is fascinating (Also, I see I'm mostly in the minority for a lot of categories.... Interesting...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 One thing that doesn't surprise me at all is strong correlation between socioeconomics of birth and current circumstances. These forums are a rather young place. Most members' socioeconomic circumstances probably still are their parents'. Superimpose relatively low mobility, at least in the USA, and you get, well, what we got. —Alorael, who doesn't think these polls need a Slarty to conduct them. They can become a regular thing, like political compasses and more informal census threads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall A less presumptuous name. Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Originally Posted By: Alorael —Alorael, who doesn't think these polls need a Slarty to conduct them. They can become a regular thing, like political compasses and more informal census threads. While that is technically true, people are asked to reveal personal information in these polls. I think that having just one (or two) people dealing with the results will reduce people's hesitation to provide complete results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Originally Posted By: Master1 While that is technically true, people are asked to reveal personal information in these polls. I think that having just one (or two) people dealing with the results will reduce people's hesitation to provide complete results. While the forum's poll maker sucks in many ways, it is adequate for hiding individual answers if the "hide results until poll is stopped" is checked. Originally Posted By: Slarty "Non-Straight" really does mean non-straight; it doesn't mean, say, queer. This was not a case of lumping one or two odd answers with 14 gay people. Um. Typically "not straight" is exactly what "queer" means (sometimes with uncommon gender variants included as well). It no longer just means "gay." Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Rowen Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Quote: Popular US states included [...] Idaho I think this shocked me the most from the poll. As an Idahoan, I must say I'm a Russet and proud of it. Glad to see Idaho supports Jeff's games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Quote: I'm wondering what percentage of people were female? I don't remember if that was a required question or not. Did you read the info at the top of the post? That should answer your question. I'm not going to assume that everyone who does not identify as male identifies as female. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 True, Diki, but I'd rather use a Google poll where it's possible to data mine for correlation between different questions. —Alorael, who might not. He's not convinced there's deep demographic data worth mining. Spiderweb's very superficial like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Originally Posted By: Excalibur Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Quote: I'm wondering what percentage of people were female? I don't remember if that was a required question or not. Did you read the info at the top of the post? That should answer your question. I'm not going to assume that everyone who does not identify as male identifies as female. [Edit: Removed] Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Edit: Oh! It says not. Sorry, Excalibur. I misread your post. Dikiyoba apologizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 hey, excalibur: revealing both the number of people who identified as male and the number of people who identified as female would immediately reveal the number who identified as neither male nor female. the results are presented in such a way as to deliberately avoid having people speculate about things like "oh, who's the second person who doesn't identify as male or female?" so i don't think that data is going to be released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 hey, excalibur: revealing both the number of people who identified as male and the number of people who identified as female would immediately reveal the number who identified as neither male nor female. the results are presented in such a way as to deliberately avoid having people speculate about things like "oh, who's the second person who doesn't identify as male or female?" so i don't think that data is going to be released. Thank you for explaining! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dantius Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Originally Posted By: Lilith hey, excalibur: revealing both the number of people who identified as male and the number of people who identified as female would immediately reveal the number who identified as neither male nor female. the results are presented in such a way as to deliberately avoid having people speculate about things like "oh, who's the second person who doesn't identify as male or female?" so i don't think that data is going to be released. i'm sure simone de beauvoir for one would totally approve of the only two categories under "gender" being male and other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Necris Omega Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Very interesting. ... Slithzerkai edged out Nephil though? Hrm... Must be a lot of "dog" people around here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Locmaar Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Thanks for all your efforts poured into this, Slarty. I appreciate it a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Death Knight Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 One of the things i didnt understand was what i should put under politics. I dont follow either party, never really cared about politics as it seemed to not make sense, and any effort i tried to make to understand it, resolved with failure. To make matters worse half of my family is democrat, the other is arch-conservative tea party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan Lauren CW Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Honestly I am not entirely certain why it is important that all this data be kept secret. It seems to me most people would willingly volunteer their answers anyways, as we the forum are pretty good about discussion and not judgement or derision. Maybe I'm just optimistic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 There may be a couple of people who don't want their life publcized, but still let the truth out in a poll as they feel uncomfortable selecting an option which isn't true. Having picked a couple of less-chosen options myself, I'm glad that some minority options have been clubbed together into the 'other' bar. Post 300 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast The Mystic Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Popular US states included ... Michigan That's news to me, and I was born and raised here. Every time I talk to anyone about Spiderweb's games, the normal reaction is to look at me like I just double-parked and climbed out of a UFO. Originally Posted By: Necris Omega Very interesting. ... Slithzerkai edged out Nephil though? Hrm... Must be a lot of "dog" people around here. If it's any comfort to you, I think I voted Nephil, IIRC. Regardless of how I actually voted, though, I prefer cats to dogs anyway, despite my allergy to the former. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Sullust Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Originally Posted By: BMA Having picked a couple of less-chosen options myself, I'm glad that some minority options have been clubbed together into the 'other' bar. I for one proudly wave my Nephilim banner. Originally Posted By: The Mystic Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Popular US states included ... Michigan That's news to me, and I was born and raised here... Given the sample size of the poll, I wouldn't say it's a significant number of people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast The Mystic Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 True, but I was hoping at least one other person living near me would've at least heard of Spiderweb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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