YouGov

[UBT - Mikee]

It's taken over 2 years but I've finally reached £50s worth of surveys!

The cheques in the post guv!

http://www.yougov.com/

[UBT - Timbo]

It's taken over 2 years but I've finally reached £50s worth of surveys!

The cheques in the post guv!

http://www.yougov.com/

Do you mean to say that my taxes have been used to give money to people for sitting on their backsides and filling in online questionaires...?

No wonder the country is going to the dogs, if these online surveys are to be believed.....

I wonder who validates the stuff that gets entered?

Jeez, think I'll give up work and just mess around on the internet for hours per day, just entering some made up bollocks that the survey people think represent my views....that'll teach 'em....

regards,

Friedrich Nietzsche (Mrs)

[UBT - Timbo]

It's taken over 2 years but I've finally reached £50s worth of surveys!

The cheques in the post guv!

http://www.yougov.com/

PS

I've just taken a look at the questions you need to answer in order to just register for yougov.com.....jeez, talk about the Spanish Inquisition....think the only question they didn't ask was "inside leg measurement"....

No wonder all these surveys we keep hearing about are based on quite ridiculous assumptions.....i.e. that people fill in these initial questions honestly.....!

(see here: http://www.yougov.com/users/registration.asp

Best question: "Do you watch Newsnight on BBC2?" - so maybe that's why Paxman thinks it might get killed off - "the results of a YouGov survey says: 0.00000001% of those surveyed don't watch Newsnight - therefore it's a waste of licence payers money....let's get shot of it!"

regards

Reginald Bosanquet Albatross (Mrs)

[UBT - Mikee]

Dear 'Disgusted' of Tring (I know it's you - I recognise the writing!)

Online surveys are an essential way of companies finding out what people, like your good self, really like.

I mean how would we find out that everyone's favourite air freshener is the  "Oust Portable Fan"

or that everyone's best loved snack is 'Aero Bubbles'

or

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is your TOP technology thing

or

when Polish pharmacists were asked 'What's your favourite product for memory and concentration improvement? Who'd have thought 'Krka's Bilobil' would be the winner?

or

You want to buy a bulb? Surely you want the best? What better than 'ConstantColor® CMH® 20W MR16 Lamp'? I'll have two - whatever it is! Don't forget the 'Smart Glow Fuses'

or

if visiting America surely you want to know what 'At Least we all Hate the Yankees' site thinks is the 'beerbelly of the year'?



This is actually real! A plastic bag that you wear and just suck. Saves carrying all the nasty beer cans around!

or

You want to buy an oscilloscope? T&MW's readers have spoken: Agilent's 80000B oscilloscope is the 2007 Test Product of the Year.

So there you go Mrs. Disgruntled!


Surveys are an important way of gauging your views and what you want!


Where would we be if we didn't know that the best 'Model of the year' was....



and not 'Siobhan Hustler'!



These are things we should be told!

And I tell 'em!

So there!

and I got 50 quid for the privilege!

so there again!

 :D

[UBT - Mikee]

I've just taken a look at the questions you need to answer in order to just register for yougov.com.....

Reginald Bosanquet Albatross (Mrs)

Dear Mrs. Albatross (It's you again isn't it Mrs. Disgruntled?)

The initial questions are there so that the surveys are sent to the right people. It's no use sending out a questionnaire to a single guy about feminine hygiene products, or asking an elderly person about what they think about the state of British teenage fashions. Companies or institutions usually ask YouGov to send the questions to a specific demographic for that reason.

'Do you watch Newsnight on BBC2?' is quite clever. The chances are that your average 'doledodger' from a council estate doesn't. So that simple question would rule out questions being sent about 'financial products' for instance, but they might still get questions about political voting or their favourite brand of cigarette.

[UBT - Timbo]

I've just taken a look at the questions you need to answer in order to just register for yougov.com.....

Reginald Bosanquet Albatross (Mrs)

Dear Mrs. Albatross (It's you again isn't it Mrs. Disgruntled?)

The initial questions are there so that the surveys are sent to the right people. It's no use sending out a questionnaire to a single guy about feminine hygiene products, or asking an elderly person about what they think about the state of British teenage fashions. Companies or institutions usually ask YouGov to send the questions to a specific demographic for that reason.

'Do you watch Newsnight on BBC2?' is quite clever. The chances are that your average 'doledodger' from a council estate doesn't. So that simple question would rule out questions being sent about 'financial products' for instance, but they might still get questions about political voting or their favourite brand of cigarette.

Hi Mike,

What gets me is all this "data-mining" that's going on....and what will happen to all this information....

OK, so we know that for instance:

- All election votes can be traced - so the Govt already know who has voted for it (coz every election ballot paper is numbered and hence can be quantified against your name).

- If you have a loyalty card or credit card, then all your purchases can be logged and thereby checked.

- All your tax, insurance and banking data is logged

- They are talking about introducing more cameras so as to track people.

- Every mobile phone (if switched on) can be tracked and they want to introduce this "system" to cars to allow for road charging.

So, while if you have nothing to hide, there is no problem (in theory) .....but what happens when some of that data gets passed/sold on.....I've just renewed my mobile phone contract and my service provided SOLD my data to 3rd parties without my consent, such that at the end of July, I was plagued by phone calls asking me if I wanted to switch to another phone/another service provider....!

In my experience, a lot of "assumptions" are actually based on half-truths given by people in surveys....because, the survey asks "simplified" questions and then make incorrect assumptions based on that....

e.g. The question about which newspapers you read...what does that say about you? People "assume" that Sun readers are the "lowest common denominator"...but is that really true nowadays....?

And I think this is the problem with any Govt survey - that it is ill-informed and is not based on an overall consensus, but is slanted towards those who fill in surveys....and then the info retrieved is assumed to represent the whole.....

I don't doubt the merits of targetted surveys......but I very much doubt that earning money from providing detailed personal information is actually the right way about doing things.

It'll soon be "earn 20p by telling us about your neighbours dog/teenage son/make of car"...

And then it's a short step towards the BB scenario.....and that truly scares the sh*t out of me....

regards

Arthus P Walrustitty (Maj)

[UBT-mark3346]

It's taken over 2 years but I've finally reached £50s worth of surveys!

The cheques in the post guv!

http://www.yougov.com/

Beat me to it, still need another 50p to get there, it's a long haul compared to some of the others who pay out at £10 or £20. Mystery shopping usually pays £10 a visit.

As far as I know "YouGov" is nothing to do with the government, it is just one of many survey companys.


https://www.grassrootsmysteryshopping.c ... About.aspx

[melter65]

Earn your £50, tell me where I can purchase the 'Beer Belly'?  :occasion5:  :occasion5:  :occasion5:

[Jeffers]

(see here: http://www.yougov.com/users/registration.asp

Best question: "Do you watch Newsnight on BBC2?" - so maybe that's why Paxman thinks it might get killed off - "the results of a YouGov survey says: 0.00000001% of those surveyed don't watch Newsnight - therefore it's a waste of licence payers money....let's get shot of it!"

regards

Reginald Bosanquet Albatross (Mrs)

Aha! got you on this one. You should be more careful trying to play about with statistics.....

You say that 0.00000001% don't watch Newsnight.

Doesn't that mean that 99.99999999 of people do watch it, making it the most popular programme in the history of the known universe, and guaranteeing that it will run forever??


Yours sincerely,

Mr Harold Pedantic.


[/u]

[melter65]

45% of the general public don't believe in statistics!  :lol:  :lol:

(I'm still waiting for a link to the 'BeerBelly'!)

[UBT - Timbo]

Aha! got you on this one. You should be more careful trying to play about with statistics.....

You say that 0.00000001% don't watch Newsnight.

Doesn't that mean that 99.99999999 of people do watch it, making it the most popular programme in the history of the known universe, and guaranteeing that it will run forever??

Yours sincerely,

Mr Harold Pedantic.

Well, Mr Pedantic.

I must say it proves you really DO read the postings properly....!

And sadly, you are quite right....I think I must have had a few too many tequila slammers just before I dictated that tome to Mrs Albatross (who was sitting on my lap at the time)...

Still, serves me right for employing people who's brains aren't connected to their fingers...

I s'pose I need to send you some Hobnobs as compensation for being such a smart-ar*e??

regards

Tim

[melter65]

Thankyou Mikee, I owe you a packet of dark chocolate Hobnobs for that!  :lol:  :lol:

[Jeffers]

I s'pose I need to send you some Hobnobs as compensation for being such a smart-ar*e??

regards

Tim

Oh, yes please!

I like hobnobs, especially the dark chocolate ones.

Now then, must study a few more threads and see if we can't find a way of getting more biccies!! LOL.

[UBT - PiezPiedPy]

I'll give you half a pack of Rich Tea if you wash my car  :lol: