Is This Genuine?

[+dino-irl]

We don't have post codes in Ireland...

I was in Dublin1 just the other month. But I know what you mean

Ah but those are postal "districts"....subtle distinction and probably very Irish

 

Apparantly we will be getting postal codes in the next few years though. Very good idea IMO

[+qichina]

It looked fairly innocuous to me. The questions about other recreational pursuits and activities ("Watching TV"!) were aimed at targeting the advertising content on gc.com I'm sure.

 

The final question "Is there anything else we can do to improve services..." is a great opportunity to complain about the regular server downtime, and appallingly slow response rate at weekends. Whether they do anything about it is another thing.

[+Kili or bust]

As you probably know we have postcodes in Dublin ok but not throughout the rest of Ireland as you guys do in the UK.

I simply answered "none" to the survey question and it was accepted.

 

Must say I share some of the concerns about this whole business.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Only really personal question is earnings, and you can opt out of it.

 

Worth filling in for the " any comments" question - Get a better server for Sundays!

 

Do I like micro caches?

Depends on where/what it is, it's the old "Wow!" factor.

[+Woody's Wanderers]

Lets see how many people who didn't fill it in, complain about the service they get in the next few months!

[+Ashaaria]

Mine dropped into my inbox yesterday, seems it didn't only go out to premium members if i got one

 

I didn't answer the income question because i don't currently have one

 

BTW I'm with SP and said yes to micros - they come in handy when you need numbers and can grab a handful in Oxford etc

[+doctor scotland]

filled my form in - seemed ok to me - maybe we'll all get a special prize for doing it!!

or maybe not!

will we see the results of the questionaire? i wonder - be interesting to see some of the stats and viewpoints i reckon.

[Andys101 & Redfrock]

we finally got it late last night & i have filled it in, and like many have already mentioned, opted to leave the income question blank, agreed to micros as don't want them being syphoned off like 'Waymarking' and took the opportunity to state about the server issues.

 

At least this last question has given us an opportunity to really have our say (and yes maybe they may, and maybe they may not take note) but I have done my bit!!!

 

(wish I had known about the first bit only of the post code part earlier thought! )

[+G Force]

I feel left out as I haven't got it.

[+QuirkySmog]

I got the email,and put it in the mail bin.

 

You are invited to participate in this brief 5 – 7 minute survey regarding your use and satisfaction with geocaching.com. All responses will remain confidential and used in accordance with Groundspeak’s privacy policy. View Privacy Policy

 

This survey link will be active until April 14th. We value your feedback and look forward to learning how we can better serve the entire geocaching community.

 

Thank you,

The Groundspeak Team

 

I Didnt reconized the sending addy..

[+Haggis Hunter]

I feel left out as I haven't got it.

 

Here is the link to the survey for those that don't have it - http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=U24JQ42K9EZ9

 

The fact that you don't have it may be because you have selected not to receive additonal mail from Groundspeak.

 

I got the email,and put it in the mail bin.

 

</snip>

 

Thank you,

The Groundspeak Team

 

I Didnt reconized the sending addy..

 

Not hard to mistake really 'survey@geocaching.com' all of your email from Groundspeak has '@geocaching.com' at the end of it.

[+Geo-Kate]

I feel left out as I haven't got it.

 

Here is the link to the survey for those that don't have it - http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=U24JQ42K9EZ9

 

The fact that you don't have it may be because you have selected not to receive additonal mail from Groundspeak.

 

I got the email,and put it in the mail bin.

 

</snip>

 

Thank you,

The Groundspeak Team

 

I Didnt reconized the sending addy..

 

Not hard to mistake really 'survey@geocaching.com' all of your email from Groundspeak has '@geocaching.com' at the end of it.

 

And not to mention, Jeremy (founder of Geocaching) has posted a couple of times on this thread to assure us all that it is genuine and nothing to worry about. At the end of the day, these surveys are made to help them find out what we want and our opinions on the game and website. Nothing on there is overly personal, as many have said, you can opt out of the income question. They are not asking for you name/telephone no/bank details!

 

And if you do have any comments to make, they'll be better off in the 'comments' section of the survey than here.

Edited March 30, 2006 by Geo-Kate

[+Alice Band]

As Jeremy himself confirmed it was genuine I tackled it when it arrived, but it needs tweeking as it doesnt allow people to either skip a question or provide a 'no opinion' option. Consequently I had to abandon it.

 

I recon Jeremy would get more responses if there was a prize draw for all the people who took the time to talk about liking micros!

[+Firth of Forth]

Was never sent the survey; clicked on HH's link to it and it told me that "our records show that you have already taken this survery"! Something wrong with their database, as I certainly have not!

Edited April 5, 2006 by Firth of Forth

[NickPick]

I think the links are unique to each person it's sent to (to stop people from filling it in multiple times). Jeremy did say something about this earlier, and I think he said that the data is anomynised before it's sent back to Groundspeak.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I am one of those that never received an email so cannot complete the survey. If I didn't come here I would not even know there had been a survey, and it appears I can't complete it or even view it.

[+Alibags]

Get back in your wheel LG, they dont care what you think!!!

 

btw, has anybody else received any unsolicited emails from a USA survey site recently, since completing the survey? I got one shortly afterwards and got a bit paranoid. Have deleted it now, so cannot check up the details, but was just wondering. Probably just a co-incidence I guess. Only the one, so no reason to panic yet.

[+Geo-Kate]

Get back in your wheel LG, they dont care what you think!!!

 

btw, has anybody else received any unsolicited emails from a USA survey site recently, since completing the survey? I got one shortly afterwards and got a bit paranoid. Have deleted it now, so cannot check up the details, but was just wondering. Probably just a co-incidence I guess. Only the one, so no reason to panic yet.

 

Nothing like that has come my way, YET. Maybe it go kicked out by my spam filter...

[+Cave Troll and Eeyore]

Got the reminder as we didn't take the survey and binned it.

[+The Forester]

If anyone wants one of the surveys, together with an unused keysequence, email me and I'll send you my unused one.

 

No reputable opinion pollster would ask a leading question or include a description of what answers they want or don't want in a question. Question 1 falls flat on its face in that way.

 

I didn't get beyond Question 6. None of the 8 proffered answers is valid for me and I didn't want to knowingly give an invalid or untruthful answer, so I could not move on to the third page. They should have offered a ninth option: "other".

 

I showed the first two pages to a friend who spent two years as a post-graduate intern at Gallup. She laughed at the questions and the way they're put together. She said some unflattering things about the apparent professionalism of the survey and questioned whether any competent marketing department of a potential advertising client would pay any attention to the results if they have sight of the questionaire. She also pointed out some absurdities, such as ignoring the views of 17 or 86 year old geocachers and sending only one form to teams of geocachers. There are plenty of family teams and several unrelated pairs of cachers. It is completely invalid to presume that both or all of the members of a team would give the same answers, so there is a serious doubt over the validity of the survey results from a substantial proportion of the targeted sample. Even something simple like age is seriously distorted when you consider the age differences of some married couples. For example, most of the regulars on this forum and all the old hands in Scotland can immediately think of a "Team" couple who had an age difference of 40 years. Most team members would agree that not every member would give the same answers as every other member of the same team, but the design of the survey appears to overlook that distortion of the results. She also giggled at the "compulsory" and "non-compulsory" classification of the questions.

 

Nevertheless, although I cannot conscionably complete the questionaire because I do not want to submit a spoiled ballot with one or more invalid or untrue answers, I'm perfectly happy to let someone else use my questionaire.

 

GC.com has a poor record of properly consulting the wider geocaching community (the abolition of Locationlesses and Virtuals are just two examples of that) and the question at the end which solicits opinions and ideas is well worth answering for anyone who can get to the end and wants to do so.

 

My offer is, of course, first come first served. My only request is that if you decide not to file your answers after all, that you make it available to someone else who does want to participate in the survey. My reasons for non-participation are entirely altruistic, as is my offer to hand over my questionaire to anyone who'd like to participate. I don't think this would skew the results as the receivers of the poll forms appear to have been selected quite randomly.

[+Simply Paul]

Ali, I've had no dubious survey/marketing emails, and I filled the GC.com one in. I hope/expect it was just a coincidence.

[+Alibags]

Ali, I've had no dubious survey/marketing emails, and I filled the GC.com one in. I hope/expect it was just a coincidence.

 

yeah, I expect so... just wondering.

[+Learned Gerbil]

Ali, I know they are not interested in my opinions, but that has never stopped me expressing myself in the past!

[+freespirit1402]

thought i didnt get one til i checked my spam folder...

 

oh well

[NickPick]

btw, has anybody else received any unsolicited emails from a USA survey site recently, since completing the survey? I got one shortly afterwards and got a bit paranoid. Have deleted it now, so cannot check up the details, but was just wondering. Probably just a co-incidence I guess. Only the one, so no reason to panic yet.

 

I expect it was coincidence. The organisation hosting the survey, Zoomerang, is a reputable one. My company use them for all sorts of staff surveys, and I've never received any spam from them.

[+psi-lo]

I replied to this as it was all fairly general stuff even the question about income as the bands were broad enough.

The advantage of completing the survey was being able to leave comments about the lack of the virtual cache option (I had a really good idea for one too) and the poor server speeds on an evening and weekends.

If we don't voice our opinions to Groundspeak, we can't complain about the service we receive. JMO