Surveys

Is it just me that gets annoyed by posters joining the forum just to gather research for ....whatever? I've seen more that a few threads like that lately, and yes I realized I have the option to not participate.

Doesn't bother me.

Sometimes, sometimes not. If it is a competitor to Susan, heck yes. She isn't doing this just for fun alone.

doesn't bother me. It's probably what I would do if I wanted to collect information (on any subject), unless forum rules expressly said not to.

Not a problem for me, especially if it's a student doing it for a project.

Agreed that it isn't a problem if it is a student. I've had problems where it appeared to be a competitor to TE. I had problems where it was a vendor who collected data, but said, "come to my site with lots of hoops you must jump through to see the results". I just felt that case was rude not their request for information.

But, I'm a statistics freak, so I love the odd collection of surveys that come through now and then.

And, I don't miss the irony that the sort-of survey posted by Running Mommy is probably for a Giant rep (????) and I've only seen one response for Giant as the bike brand. Only goes to show that TE is an independent crowd and will always participate on TE rules, not someone else's.

Heck, a common thread on TE is that women cyclists are an unheard from, unlistened to group. We can't say that and then say, you can't use this wonderfully gathered group of women cyclists as a sounding board even if you play by the rules, can we?

Hrm. I guess my irritation from surveys stems from being around back in the usenet days where rule #1 was "don't spam" and rule #2 was "don't use us for your homework, find your own answers".

I understand, Irulan. Unless I know the poster, I don't even open the survey threads.

Instances like this is where the old 'ignore thread' option came in handy. I miss it.