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Survey Email


Stuey

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Survey Email, Genuine?

 

I doubt it.

 

I get bombarded with geocaching questions from everyone.

 

Just last week I got stopped in a Walmart parking lot they kept asking me questions about geocaching.

 

I said I don't talk to no coppers without my mouthpiece.

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I'm kinda wondering how you don't know your demographics and why it matters in the long run....

 

its not like its that hard.

 

mostly male

and have ecotourism $ to spend

and we like gadgets

 

'nuff said

 

beyond that...how can anything more specific help the website???

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I expect there will be another survey in the future as they learn what they left out and what they need to learn more about.

 

If they are talking about the site and how people use the site and expect the site to work for them, I can think of a lot of questions which could be useful which weren't asked. Seems like there were a lot of questions about caching, many of which were meaningless because they don't accommodate the variety of responses properly - like the terrain difficulty one.

 

There is a great book on survey design by Don Dillman (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471323543/103-4299495-8091056?v=glance&n=283155)

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We're getting plenty of results so many people don't really mind taking the survey nor are they especially concerned about phishing.

 

Honestly, if you're still posting in this topic asking if it is fake after I already posted that it isn't, there isn't a whole lot I can do to convince you otherwise. :lol:

 

To answer the question about Geocaching.com specific questions, the intent was to create a very straightforward and broad survey to figure out who are actually playing the activity. I'm sure those books explain that you should have specific goals about the survey and to keep it short (under 5 minutes). This survey accomplished both goals.

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To answer the question about Geocaching.com specific questions, the intent was to create a very straightforward and broad survey to figure out who are actually playing the activity.

 

Definitely, it's just that the leadin text of the email says:

 

"You are invited to participate in this brief 5 – 7 minute survey regarding your use and satisfaction with geocaching.com"

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To receive the survey (and I am assuming future one's as well) you have to opt-in by

making sure the box in your "Edit My Profile",

labeled "Inform me of new features and changes to the web" is checked.

 

You are correct. That's the checkbox we used to send invites. Only validated accounts received them too.

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I for one got part way through the survey then stopped. This might be a British attitude but there were too many manddatory personal questions I am just not prepared to answer. I am happy to be a premium member and pay my way for a service but this gives you no acces to my personal info'! I therefore think the survey is useless as too many will opt out to make the findings of any use.

 

Further, not enogh thought has been given to some Q's. EG Do you enjoy micro caches? I have no preference either way so tried skipping this one but it wouldn't let me.

 

Sorry Grundspeak, you had a chance to get valuable feedback but blew it in my opinion.

 

It's funny these types of comments keep cropping up. At the end of the survey, you also have an oppotunity to put in comments not otherwise covered by the survey questions... thus the "satisfaction" part tends to get fulfilled here.

 

As for the personl nature of the starting questions, they were quite generic and are typical of any and all other surveys I have taken. This is to gain a perspective on the demographics of the user. There is nothing in those questions that can be used against you e.g. identity theft.

 

Some folks need to loosen their collars a little bit to get more blood flowing. :lol:

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The questions didn't concern me.

 

...but after all, I am a teacher in a public high school. My salary is "public record" and some years, it has even been published in the local newspapers.

 

The state keeps a searchable webpage that lists:

my full name

my place of employment

the number of students I teach

the number of classes I teach

where I received my teaching degrees

what teaching degrees I hold

what certifications I have active currently

any certifications that I have allowed to lapse

my license number and when it expires

the number of days I am employed per year

 

It has a link to the school where I teach, which has a link to the webpage I keep for my classes. The electronic world is very small these days.

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I was extremely disappointed with the 'survey'. It asked no questions about the website. It was purely and simply a greedy, self-serving marketing survey.

 

Perhaps you Americans are so used to surveys like this, that you don't find them as offensive as I did.

 

I kept waiting for the 'real' questions, but they never came.

 

A survey could have been used to generate useful information about the level of satisfaction with the website, desirable improvements to the website, problems with the website, and the level of frustration with various facets of the operation, which I suspect would have been very telling.

 

To a cynic like me, it looks like the survey has been carefully crafted to show off the potential market to someone like a potential advertiser or purchaser, without giving said investor any idea of the level of frustration, and volatility of the paying members.

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I was extremely disappointed with the 'survey'. It asked no questions about the website. It was purely and simply a greedy, self-serving marketing survey.

 

Perhaps you Americans are so used to surveys like this, that you don't find them as offensive as I did.

 

...

You Americans??? Don't you even assume that you can speak for all of us Americans. I'm proud to be one. And BTW, I find you offensive and thanks for the insult :unsure:

Edited by BVCY Swim
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Funny how people complain about stuff they don't have to do. You can always turn off the TV, computer, or radio if you don't like what's playing. In this case, you can close the web browser. No one's holding a gun to your head requiring you do this survey. If you feel strongly enough about something, it's not that difficult to get in touch with Groundspeak. This survey isn't the only way for you to get your opinion to Groundspeak.

Edited by geognerd
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I don't understand why you have t be over 18 to participate in the survey, that kinda made me feel left out as a 13-year-old cacher I mean if it was the job and income question that made it be the age limit them you could make it whats the word ahhhhh like if you wanted to enter it or could enter it or not. I was half temted to make everything fake and fill out everything wrong but I didn't. Then I got the same exact thing 2 more times like they were mocking me!

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I was extremely disappointed with the 'survey'. It asked no questions about the website. It was purely and simply a greedy, self-serving marketing survey.

 

Perhaps you Americans are so used to surveys like this, that you don't find them as offensive as I did.

 

...

You Americans??? Don't you even assume that you can speak for all of us Americans. I'm proud to be one. And BTW, I find you offensive and thanks for the insult :D

 

Yea and not be racist or anything but if you dont like us americans, Stay away from us.

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/deleted not so cynic stuff/

Don't you even assume that you can speak for all of us Americans.

OT: If you assumed that someone calling himself a "Kiwi" and coming from "Christchurch, NZ" tries to speak "for Americans" you could have just supported some evil prejudices about geographic knowledge.

:D:D:D:):D

 

SCNR,

BS/2

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I was extremely disappointed with the 'survey'. It asked no questions about the website. It was purely and simply a greedy, self-serving marketing survey.

 

Perhaps you Americans are so used to surveys like this, that you don't find them as offensive as I did.

 

I kept waiting for the 'real' questions, but they never came.

 

A survey could have been used to generate useful information about the level of satisfaction with the website, desirable improvements to the website, problems with the website, and the level of frustration with various facets of the operation, which I suspect would have been very telling.

 

To a cynic like me, it looks like the survey has been carefully crafted to show off the potential market to someone like a potential advertiser or purchaser, without giving said investor any idea of the level of frustration, and volatility of the paying members.

 

Think of it this way. MAYBE that was the intent (to gain demographic information to sell ad space to advertisers). More $$ into the site = more features, fixes and bandwith (which are the majority of the complaints, right?)

 

The other option would be to raise Premium Membership fees or make the site Premium Members only to collect more money to fund these things. You think that won't get people up in arms?

 

Bottome line: It's all speculation and not a big deal to share this GENERAL information that remains anonymous anyway.

 

If you don't want to help - don't complain.

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it's not that difficult to get in touch with Groundspeak. This survey isn't the only way for you to get your opinion to Groundspeak.

Actually it is difficult. That is one of the things I would have made comment on.

 

I've sent 4-5 emails to them over the time I have been a member. Only 2 have even been answered at all, (apart from the autoreply )

 

One of them was to report a bug that cropped up after a website upgrade. The reply told me (basically) not to bother them, and to post a question in the forums.

 

The other reply was about a bug in the PQ generator. It means that a lot of PQ's don't work at all in my country. I sent about 3 emails to Groundspeak, emails to reviewers, ... The one and only reply said - yeah, we'll look into it... That was almost a year ago. The bug is still there...

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Glad I spotted this thread, found the survey in the spam folder. Next time it might be worth having [GEO] in the survey subject line as I filter that into my inbox!

 

I too experienced the first three questions repeating themselves over and over and over despite disabling the referrer blocker and having enabled cookies for the session.

 

Turns out it oddly needed cookies to be fully allowed to work.

 

I forgot about "contact@geocaching" being a black hole though...it's been years since I considered it!

 

G'luck,

 

Randy

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I sent about 3 emails to Groundspeak, emails to reviewers, ... The one and only reply said - yeah, we'll look into it... That was almost a year ago. The bug is still there...

Thats because they spend all their time developing evil marketing schemes that will fulfill the Groundspeak mission statement for complete World (including New Zealand) domination.

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I forgot about "contact@geocaching" being a black hole though...it's been years since I considered it!

 

 

Kerry takes great pride in being responsive to the contact emails. Perhaps years ago when I was running around doing everything the emails slipped by, but since then it has been pretty snappy.

 

Technical issues are usually forwarded to me. If it is a continuing PQ issue you should send another email and ask them to refer it to a technical person. I'll let her know it is coming.

 

Shauna has been responding to the contact emails about the Survey. Much of the response has been pretty insightful. We're at 10% response rate which is pretty average for most surveys and should give us a nice sampling of the overall community.

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