Latest survey
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I'm surprised SJ hasn't started a thread on it. If he did, I so totally missed it.
I received it via e-mail? Here's the link, please delete this if it shouldn't be posted.
E-cig Survey
E-cig Survey
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Got the email this am, and took it.
Agreed, better than most, agreed, some questions could have had a few more options, maybe broader ranges on some.
But overall well done.
Agreed, better than most, agreed, some questions could have had a few more options, maybe broader ranges on some.
But overall well done.
Ditto ditto. Got the email, took the survey, got stumped on a few because
a) I DIY my liquid
b) if you can't buy flavored liquid...there wasn't really a choice even close to "stock up a little more on nic" lol.
c) What do I spend, including atomizers every month? Hmmm...some months, $0, but then there's the month I get a Chalice and a year's worth of nicotine... I kinda sorta averaged it out.
a) I DIY my liquid
b) if you can't buy flavored liquid...there wasn't really a choice even close to "stock up a little more on nic" lol.
c) What do I spend, including atomizers every month? Hmmm...some months, $0, but then there's the month I get a Chalice and a year's worth of nicotine... I kinda sorta averaged it out.
Jup.......kept looking for the "I'm making sure I can build/mix my own so you can't stop me from vaping or make me vape the crap you want me to vape" option. Perhaps a write in for next year!
Jup.......kept looking for the "I'm making sure I can build/mix my own so you can't stop me from vaping or make me vape the crap you want me to vape" option. Perhaps a write in for next year!
I think that was covered - with a pinch less verbosity - by selecting the 'go to black market' options.
I took the survey and was a little disappointed in how DIY was treated, but managed to answer as close as possible.
What was more annoying for me was the inability to answer some questions fully or truly accurately. I use a wide variety of flavors (DIY) and some store bought, along with a mix of box and tube mods (both bought and home made) and a very wide selection of toppers. The answers wanted a pick of one or another, no variety allowed.
I shoehorned my answers into the narrow categories the survey allowed, but feel it's not a very accurate description. And the questions regarding costs for me can be only described as WAGs.
What was more annoying for me was the inability to answer some questions fully or truly accurately. I use a wide variety of flavors (DIY) and some store bought, along with a mix of box and tube mods (both bought and home made) and a very wide selection of toppers. The answers wanted a pick of one or another, no variety allowed.
I shoehorned my answers into the narrow categories the survey allowed, but feel it's not a very accurate description. And the questions regarding costs for me can be only described as WAGs.
I had 2 noticeable issues with the survey.
Before I note those, I would say as far as surveys go (in general), I would give this one a solid B. In terms of vaping surveys and politics, I would give this a C minus.
The bias against smoking was too palpable for my tastes, and thus not really accomplishing what I think it is intended to (based on the questions asked).
The 2 questions I had noticeable issues with were (sorry I don't remember numbers)
- how many cigarettes do you smoke a day (with a text field)
> I responded with: Less than 1, more than 0 (about 1 a week)
That response was not allowed. Why provide a text field if only numbers are the answer you'll accept? Having to respond with 1 will greatly skew what is factual for myself and I imagine others going forward (who vape more than a year and choose to dual use). Perhaps update this in future surveys or stick to a survey that will show dual users as using 1 a day, even if that is grossly inaccurate.
2nd one was within last 10 questions of survey.
- I don't recall what question was exactly, but it had 3 responses, and all were about how you use vaping to quit smoking.
> I had already noted that I didn't quit earlier in the survey, so I assumed I could just skip this question. Nope. I had to select an answer that suggests I quit smoking via some ill-conceived response that doesn't match my experience.
I think there were 2 other instances where something questionable popped up, but none that were so pronounced that I couldn't proceed to take the survey unless I matched inherent bias of the responses deemed acceptable.
The anti-smoking bias of this survey is why I give it a C minus type grade. If anyone (survey provider) disputes this bias, I'd be glad to review entire survey and go over questions individually and as a whole to help establish my point. I don't think the bias is over the top, for if it were, my C minus grade would be lower. But given the idea that cigarette reduction is very plausible with vaping, I don't see this survey as all that interested in capturing that. A little interested, sure. But not highly interested. Which in 2011, might've been understandable, In 2015, it shows up like a novice did this survey.
Before I note those, I would say as far as surveys go (in general), I would give this one a solid B. In terms of vaping surveys and politics, I would give this a C minus.
The bias against smoking was too palpable for my tastes, and thus not really accomplishing what I think it is intended to (based on the questions asked).
The 2 questions I had noticeable issues with were (sorry I don't remember numbers)
- how many cigarettes do you smoke a day (with a text field)
> I responded with: Less than 1, more than 0 (about 1 a week)
That response was not allowed. Why provide a text field if only numbers are the answer you'll accept? Having to respond with 1 will greatly skew what is factual for myself and I imagine others going forward (who vape more than a year and choose to dual use). Perhaps update this in future surveys or stick to a survey that will show dual users as using 1 a day, even if that is grossly inaccurate.
2nd one was within last 10 questions of survey.
- I don't recall what question was exactly, but it had 3 responses, and all were about how you use vaping to quit smoking.
> I had already noted that I didn't quit earlier in the survey, so I assumed I could just skip this question. Nope. I had to select an answer that suggests I quit smoking via some ill-conceived response that doesn't match my experience.
I think there were 2 other instances where something questionable popped up, but none that were so pronounced that I couldn't proceed to take the survey unless I matched inherent bias of the responses deemed acceptable.
The anti-smoking bias of this survey is why I give it a C minus type grade. If anyone (survey provider) disputes this bias, I'd be glad to review entire survey and go over questions individually and as a whole to help establish my point. I don't think the bias is over the top, for if it were, my C minus grade would be lower. But given the idea that cigarette reduction is very plausible with vaping, I don't see this survey as all that interested in capturing that. A little interested, sure. But not highly interested. Which in 2011, might've been understandable, In 2015, it shows up like a novice did this survey.
Come on folks. If this survey were to take every single possible answer into consideration, you'd spend 2 weeks filling the bloody thing out. Obviously, every single question isn't going to apply to every single person. Fill it out with the answer that best describes your situation and use the "other block" to clarify if allowed.
I had some serious issues with the survey which I posted here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ossible-if-you-never-smoked.html#post15541105
It is just not possible for many of the questions to give an appropriate answer. To respond to:
Yeah, that sounds great, but there are way too many questions which don't have an N/A or Other option, which I highlighted above.
I should think it would be really useful to understand how many vapers never smoked before, and to not have those people skew your results for those who had or do smoke.
That's simply not true. That just shows you that a pie chart is a poor choice for mapping this data. Data science is not something everyone can do, but claiming that you need to simplify the options in order to simplify the results is bad science.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ossible-if-you-never-smoked.html#post15541105
It is just not possible for many of the questions to give an appropriate answer. To respond to:
Yeah, that sounds great, but there are way too many questions which don't have an N/A or Other option, which I highlighted above.
I should think it would be really useful to understand how many vapers never smoked before, and to not have those people skew your results for those who had or do smoke.
That's simply not true. That just shows you that a pie chart is a poor choice for mapping this data. Data science is not something everyone can do, but claiming that you need to simplify the options in order to simplify the results is bad science.
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Retired,
I do appreciate your position, it's obvious that a lot of time and effort went into creating the survey, and I think just about everyone (including those posting complaints here) appreciates this.
But, surveys are tricky things to create, particularly if they're going to provide scientifically-useable data. And given the huge amount of crap "science" on e-cigarettes, people (well, me at least!) are thirsty for real, accurate statistics about e-cigs and their users. And a survey which has a demonstrable bias in any direction is much more easily discredited. (And my high-school English teachers are rolling over in their graves because I've started multiple sentences with either "and" or "but" - even the ones who are still living!)
The number of people who vape but never smoked might be an uncomfortable figure, but I don't think anyone can argue that it's not a relevant one, and the survey really boxed out that category of respondents. I also had trouble finding the "right" answer to some of the questions. Perhaps next year ECF would consider pre-posting the survey and asking for comments? (You do have access to a lot of very intelligent people here!)
I was going to include a story about my college statistics class, in which an assignment generated a tremendous furor when one group decided to do a survey on housing options at the school, but it's probably not enough to the point. Suffice it to say that there really is a science in developing sound, statistically valid questionnaires, and a survey can make people feel marginalized if they don't fit the mental model of the creator of the survey!
I do hope that ECF will view the comments in this thread as constructive, and not just whining!
Which biases the statistics.
ETA: And alienates those who feel that the survey doesn't represent them.
In the extreme case, it starts to become a "push poll", but people will feel that even minor issues matter to them. After all, they took the time to respond to the poll, and the vast majority REALLY want to answer truthfully. If there is no acceptable answer, you are either asking them to lie, or to bail (meaning that their input doesn't count).
Sorry if I'm beating the hell out of a dead horse, but people care about this survey.
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I just took this survey and only issue I had was this.
Asked me how many vendor brands I was loyal to. I answered two. Those brands are: Mountain Oak Vapours and Nitelite Vapors.
Few questions later was a vendor list to choose from. I was only allowed to choose ONE and in that list there was Mountain Oak Vapes? Well that is not correct. So I did not select that since that is incorrect and instead typed in Mountain Oak Vapors in the box provided. However, don't asked me what brands I am loyal to if I cannot actually list ALL of them. According to the info provided it seems like I only vape MOV which I do not. I vape many many vendor brands but I am only loyal to two and only re-order monthly from them and was not able to express that fact correctly.
So in a nutshell one vendor was spelled incorrectly.
I choose two vendors but can only pick one, I hated having to do that.
Look forward to the results and thank you for the time and effort into this.
Asked me how many vendor brands I was loyal to. I answered two. Those brands are: Mountain Oak Vapours and Nitelite Vapors.
Few questions later was a vendor list to choose from. I was only allowed to choose ONE and in that list there was Mountain Oak Vapes? Well that is not correct. So I did not select that since that is incorrect and instead typed in Mountain Oak Vapors in the box provided. However, don't asked me what brands I am loyal to if I cannot actually list ALL of them. According to the info provided it seems like I only vape MOV which I do not. I vape many many vendor brands but I am only loyal to two and only re-order monthly from them and was not able to express that fact correctly.
So in a nutshell one vendor was spelled incorrectly.
I choose two vendors but can only pick one, I hated having to do that.
Look forward to the results and thank you for the time and effort into this.
Hey everyone - survey creator here!
thank you all for your input. It's massively helpful, really - I'm taking all suggestions on board - there's no such thing as bad criticism, so please keep piling it on.
We are all, obviously, slightly constrained by our own biases - I'm trying to get the balance right between a survey that captures most peoples' experience, and one that people actually complete, whilst also dealing with my own preconceived notions. Not an easy job!
Every comment is really appreciated....
Oliver
thank you all for your input. It's massively helpful, really - I'm taking all suggestions on board - there's no such thing as bad criticism, so please keep piling it on.
We are all, obviously, slightly constrained by our own biases - I'm trying to get the balance right between a survey that captures most peoples' experience, and one that people actually complete, whilst also dealing with my own preconceived notions. Not an easy job!
Every comment is really appreciated....
Oliver
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