ARRL Web Survey Amusements – Where’s the Real Content? 27 - July - 2010
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW, K9ZW Just Rambled.Tags: ARRL, ARRL Quickstats, K9ZW, K9ZW Just Rambled
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Fun & amusing, the vast majority of website based surveys are openly acknowledged as unscientific and biased to the point of uselessness.
They can be a lot of fun, and can have a great use in prompting the website visitor to think about topics and perhaps interactively reflect on subjects of mutual interest.
The ARRL has joined the ranks, but at a new low for mundane meaningless questions – from the ARRL website:
QuickStats to Debut on Web and QST
TAGS: arrl web
07/20/2010Member polls have returned to the ARRL Web, but with a twist. Rather than a single weekly poll, the new QuickStats page at http://www.arrl.org/quickstats offers several polls at once with new questions every 30 days. The results will be published in QST beginning with the October issue.
Start by visiting the QuickStats page now. Be sure to bookmark it in your browser! Watch for poll results in the special QST QuickStats page in the rear advertising section of the magazine. Along with monthly poll results, QST QuickStats offers colorful charts and graphs that highlight interesting Amateur Radio statistics.
http://www.arrl.org/quickstats
The Link: http://www.arrl.org/quickstats and the current web polls:
Make Yourself Heard!
Vote in all or even just one of the QST QuickStat polls below. We’ll publish the results in an upcoming issue of QST (look for the QuickStats page in the Table of Contents).
Poll #1What is your favorite HF band?
160 Meters
80 Meters
60 Meters
40 Meters
30 Meters
20 Meters
17 Meters
15 Meters
12 Meters
10 Meters
Poll #2What is your favorite VHF/UHF band?
6 Meters (50 – 54 MHz)
2 Meters (144 – 148 MHz)
1.25 Meters (222 – 225 MHz)
70 cm (420 – 450 MHz)
33 cm (902 – 928 MHz)
Poll #3When are you on the air most often?
Weekend mornings
Weekend afternoons
Weekend evenings
Weekday mornings
Weekday afternoons
Weekday eveningsPlease Note: QuickStat polls are informal and for entertainment purposes only. They are not scientifically valid; they reflect the opinions of only those ARRL Members who have chosen to participate. The ARRL does not promote or endorse the use of this information for any factual purposes and can not be deemed responsible for any inaccuracies in the results.
What is your favorite band? When are you on the air the most?
Not bad questions, but the offered answers are sorely lacking!
How could the favorite band miss answers like “Max MUF limited open DX band” or when most often on miss “On the most during Contest Weekends?”
The alternative imaginative answers are legion, and while the effort to add amusements to the gray & boring ARRL website welcome, there will need to be some imagination & inspiration added to make ever looking at “Quick Stats” worth the time to click on the link.
Oh did you catch that not only will bandwidth be wasted on the lame polls, but you can expect part of your QST to feature this rubbish starting in October?
Hopefully this QuickStats nonsense is just a placeholder for real content.
73
Steve
K9ZW
I’m trying to figure out the “quick” part of “Quick Stats”. I don’t get to see (partial) results immediately? I have to wait three months?
At least with the old website you got to see the answers to the questions (which were updated each Friday) as soon as you’d answered. I fail to see what’s so “quick” about quickstats if I have to wait for the answers to appear in dead tree rather than electronic form.
Wow. As a member, going to the ARRL site now is just totally heartbreaking its so freaking terrible a website.
Non-scientific polling = waste of network bandwidth.
I don’t agree about the non-scientific polling being a waste of network bandwidth. The old polls on the ARRL site were fun and a way to draw me back to the site each week to see the poll. As I’ve noted in comments and in my own blog, unfortunately the new site is far less inviting and has lost one of the key reasons for having a website, which is to generate return traffic.
Thanking each of you, N0RZT, K2DBK, WS4E and K0NR for taking the time to type in your comments. Thank you!
David K2DBK brings up a really good point – that the new ARRL.org webpage simply isn’t worth a click to look at.
Formerly I had it in my “Daily First” Bookmarks group – a selected batch of webpages I look at when I first fire up my browser in the morning and last look at right before I would shut down most days.
The new ARRL.org webpage doesn’t even come close to earning a place in that group anymore, and unless the ARRL.org RSS Feed pops up something interesting I seldom look at the website.
Given the RSS-limitation unawareness by the ARRL editors that seems to lead to lame article naming and content deficit leading paragraphs (the only part that appears in an RSS summary) even the RSS tool seldom leads me to click on the ARRL.org webpage.
I may be too critical on the web amusements, as usually they are light hearted add-ons to competent worthy core content presented in an inviting & enticing web format.
Because the basic core website is lacking (one of my sons put it into simple words “ARRL.org website sucks” – I don’t have any patience for flittering frivolities in web amusements.
These web amusements are to the ARRL.org website like a chef’s fancy garnishes on a decidedly inedible meal. Pure folly.
Of course YMMV
73
Steve
K9ZW