“You’d be amazed Jon…”

Not really —

http://www.quantcast.com/p2pnet.net

Or even http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.p2pnet.net (according to this, p2pnet is worth a measly $33,594.6 (how’d they get the six cents? heh)

But I prefer Awstats, which gets its data from logs – nothing on users.

Cheers!

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.p2pnet.net%2Fstory%2F21116#demographics

Aklthough of course – it doesnt tell you where they are – but I know the answer to that one – right by their PC’s, Phones and other internet enabled devices.

Understood – but it is REALLY a waste of everyones time and money to get unusable data that only serves to “support” whatever preconceived notion they already have. The “none of the above” needn’t be followed by an input field, but seems like it should really exist just to indicate if they are even on the right track.

Then again, I forget that I am often the exception to the rule, as I only recently came to understand how spoiled I was to be raised in an environment that nurtured actual thought. The problem is that this type of advertising DOES actually work on a majority of the folk it is aimed at, which explains how President Goofus actually got a SECOND term… I suppose I am doing surveys more for my own benefit on the off chance I might win a sweepstakes – it’s probably a more likely result than my opinion actually making a difference, at least in THAT venue. It can get a bit frustrating to think that here we are actually talking about a few things that matter with a few other folks, but the people that we really need to engage in the discussion are not likely a part of this audience. The problem is that water seeks its own level…

I would think most of these would be designed that way because their goal is to have “standarized and tabled data” to sort, allowing automated scripts to take care of the results, both for the end of the data gathering process and in the “targetting” process. (Computers can’t sort and classify data based on endless “custom” headers.)

But, make no mistake, this wouldn’t mean I approve of such processes.
If anything, the fact that many are doing this just reinforces the statement that we are viewed simply as “statistical data” and not as human beings.

AHA!! YES YES YES YES YES!!!

I am also a member of several paid survey sites, which continue to have me offer opinion on something that I haven’t had the opportunity to use or try. What amazes me to no end is the fact that these surveys are almost always asking the wrong questioons with a limited set of answers and they all seem to use the same tactics of trying to figure out how the proposed idea/packaging/advertisement makes me FEEL without having the sense to offer me a text box to tell them I FEEL like telling them to F***off for using such transparent manipulation techniques instead of asking me if I would even want such a thing in the first place! Many of them still don’t even have an option to select a mixed ethnic background when they try to box me into their demographic modeling scheme in the first 3 questions! I usually can take that as an indicator of what types of questions will follow and I am generally not disappointed. Would you believe they ask me things like: “If store X were a person, how would you describe the kind of person they would be” and then give me choices like “hip,” “trendy,” or “go-getter”? Or something equally as asinine such as “which emotion best describes how you felt after watching the commercial: a) confident b) sad c) guilty d) angry?”

What I find even more fascinating about the experience is that the knuckleheads behind this the creation of this tool for gathering useless and incorrect information don’t have the sense to offer at least a “none of the above” choice or a simple text box to let them know what I might really think, while the surveys that actually ask more sensible questions to begin with ALWAYS give a space at the end for comments on the experience. Usually for those I have nothing to add, but the ones I really want to give a piece of mind to don’t give me the chance. What a waste of time and money for everyone! It’s really absurd, and this kind of thinking is exactly why the RIAA thinks it has some right to extort money from “consumers” instead of offering something of value to a “customer.”

I think this is why I am always battling with customer service reps if I have to call them for help or (God forbid!) correct an error that they made. What happened to the old adage of “the customer is always right”? I had one issue that I had already resolved with a previous rep but the solution hadn’t been implemented properly, and when I called to follow up I actually spent 4 hours on the phone wrestling with a supervisor who simply kept trying to rehash the original problem to justify the lack of action. I managed to keep my patience only because I found it interesting that I couldn’t get him to understand that the issue was no longer in debate, but that the MATH was wrong and when I finally managed to convince him to add it up himself: “…and 20 plus 10 is thir- oh…” He actually sounded disappointed that I was correct.

When did we stop being real people to each other and become instead this categorically stupid mass to serve the corporations? I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the paradigm shift and the economic decline went hand in hand. Maybe even partner that with the emergence of the internet contributing to our awareness of being treated this way and we have a society on the brink of enlightenment, but one which is resisting the change. I propose these are all indicators of a possible evolution to the next level – resistance to which may bring about the exact opposite effect.

I saw a great article the other day that defined piracy as an industry problem, not a consumer problem. The MAFIAA continue to be idiots, and have left a massive vacuum that file sharing filled over a century ago. File sharing is still the #1 place to get those TV shows the asshats refuse to release in ‘y’ country.

Continue the boycott, let the MAFIAA and the likes die a painful death, while we, the consumer, regain our control on how/what/when/where we consume ‘product’.

stw