Kevin Gerry -- Online Surveys

I have found online surveys to generally be boring to fill out, and their results fall into two categories: results that are so vague that they would be correct about almost anyone, or results that are incorrect. Occaisonally there may be a survey that asks you if you have a certain personality trait, and if you say that you have it then it will helpfully tell you that you have it.

Nearly all the online surveys I've found fall into the category of "What kind of ______ are you?"Giving results telling you something about your personality in relation to some fictional character or household object or something. There are also a few that are "How much do you know about _____?" which I suppose would actually be more useful if one wished to know how much they knew about a subject, compared to how much they thought they knew.

Sarah -- Blog entry about surveys

My main experience with online surveys are either the fun internet quizzes (such as "What Harry Potter character are you?"), or the occasional customer survey I consent to do. I even sometimes seek out the latter type if I've had a particularly good or particularly bad experience with a company, just to let my voice be heard in some way, although truth to tell, I never think it'll make much of a difference. It makes me feel better, though.

One of the things that most irritates me about surveys (excepting the ones for pure entertainment) is that the questions are either so exhaustive in an attempt to be as inclusive as possible or they don't have an answer I would like to use.

An example of the former problem is that of gender: I've actually seen questionnaires that list about ten different possibilities for identifying one's gender; male, female, transgendered (male-to-female), transgendered (female-to-male), transgendered (male-to-neutral), transgendered (female-to-neutral), intersexed (identifying male), intersexed (identifying female), intersexed (identifying neither or both), or "prefer not to answer." Surveys that attempt to incorporate every single possible answer are exhausting to read through.

On the other hand, surveys that don't offer enough choice are maddening in and of themselves. One survey I took frustrated me so much I simply quit taking it, and it was only asking for my marital status. Was I a) single, b) married, c) divorced, or d) on a second marriage? Considering I am not single, not married, not divorced, NOR am I on a second marriage, I had no idea how to answer, and thus quit the survey in a fit of pique.

There's a real balancing act to making a survey that is both complete (and thus useful to the data-gatherers) and easy to take without either boring or irritating your subjects. For those quizzes that are for entertainment purposes only, the "rules" can be fudged a bit. I don't mind being asked a question about something I would ordinarily consider inapplicable if I'm taking the "What Disney villain are you" quiz. If I'm taking a customer survey, however, I don't want to be too tightly pigeon-holed.

Survey Questions

1. How do you like your PEI potatoes?

• baked
• fried
• boiled
• scalloped
• mashed
• curried
• fried green potato
• raw
• intravenously

2. How many servings of PEI potatoes do you have a day?

• 1
• 2
• 3-5
• 6-10
• My life is a constant parade of potatoes

3. What do you like on your PEI potatoes?

• butter
• sour cream
• bacon bits
• cheese
• garlic
• more potatoes
• steak
• chocolate chips
• hot fudge
• turkey
• all of the above

4. Have you named your children after any PEI potatoes? (e.g. Russet, Yukon Gold, Shepody, Norchip)

• Yes
• Not yet

5. How would you describe your latest potato experience?

• fantastic
• awesome
• transcendent
• orgasmic
• I did not have PEI potatoes

Don't forget to visit the Prince Edward Island Potato Museum!