I you currently have a blog — or a “weblog” — you might be curious about this:

This is a general social survey of the greater weblog community being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our goal is to help understand the way that weblogs are affecting the way we communicate with each other. Specifically we are interested in issues of demographics, communication behaviors, experience with weblogs and other technology, and the meaning of various types of social links within the blogosphere.


I took the survey and ended up with this bug: 
The study is curious
in that the survey sample seems haphazard and fate-based instead of
statistically rigid. I would like to know much more about the sample
size and from what pool these random sites were chosen:

In addition to those webloggers that choose to help us
voluntarily, we have also randomly selected 5000 weblogs to act as a
representative sample of the greater weblog community. If you received
an email which said you were selected, you are part of this group, and
your responses are ever so important to us. If you received an email in
error, we apologize. We realize the amount of spam that exists in the
world, and if these emails were an inconvenience in any way, we can’t
be sorry enough.

I also find it curious
not all of the drop-down options are explained in the survey and that
that the following consent form was not more formally introduced and
signed before the survey was administered. If this human subjects
consent form was administered I do not remember signing it and if I
signed it a copy was not returned to me via email:
http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/consent

The results at the end of this curious
survey have not been available for a day now so I cannot share any of
my responses with you in comparison with the rest of the blog world.

8 Comments

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Hi Anne —
    Thanks for stoppy by to leave a comment!
    Your website looks really great.

  3. also, don’t forget: CLOCKS.
    Who gives a shite what time it is in your zone/country/territory.

  4. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Hi Lx —
    Excellent!
    Clocks that, when you mouse over them, pop up an advertisement! Gah!

  5. YES!!!! Finally someone said it!!! (Besides me, that is.)
    Especially the part about the audio.
    You left out the blogs that are really thinly veiled advertisements.

  6. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Thanks, Dani!
    I’m so glad you stopped by to share your terrific insights!

  8. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Hi Jeanette —
    It’s a pleasure to meet you and thank you for taking the time to drop us a line here!

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