You Got Surveyed!

It's been about a month since I asked all of you wonderful people to fill out a survey so that I could learn more about you. That means it's time to read all of the responses and write about what I've learned.

Reading survey results always makes me a bit anxious. It's that pivotal moment where perception meets reality, where you might learn something that either makes or breaks your day.

Yet here we are.

Honestly, it's amazing that anyone would take the time to read the words that vomit unceremoniously from the barren plains of my mind. Really, the only appropriate response to that is a deep and heartfelt thank you.

And with that sentiment out of the way, let's dig into the actual responses.

You Decide Who The Baddest Blog Is Today

6 of you glorious people filled out the survey this time and I appreciate every single one of you.

Unfortunately, because I think I have ~55 regular readers, that represents a response rate of ~11%.

Certainly not a representative sample size. Or maybe it is representative, and I actually only have 6 readers? I should probably reflect on that at some point.

Compared to the last survey the response rate has more than halved, dropping from 25% to 11%. I don't really know what to make of that.

I'd be disappointed if I wasn't so happy that 6 of you actually took the time out of your day to fill out the survey. I know how busy most people are and how many surveys and whatnot everyone is constantly bombarded by, so I really appreciate the attention.

Drop It Like It's Hot

The first two questions in the survey were focused on understanding more about you, the reader, without really considering your interactions or relationship with me and this blog.

I wanted to know how things were going for you recently and what sort of things interest you.

It turns out things are generally going okay, which is fantastic! I'm really happy for everyone who took the time to respond. I doubt I personally have anything to do with this result, but it's nice to know all the same.

In terms of interests the responses were highly varied, so I couldn't really draw any meaningful conclusions from the data. It was a very mixed bag.

One common interest was D&D, which is good, because I sometimes write about that sort of thing. Also, let's be honest, if you took the time to respond to this survey, I'm probably to blame for you being interested in D&D in the first place.

Small sample size notwithstanding, I still feel like I learned something from this data.

That seems like a victory to me.

This Blog Don't Roll Like That

The next two questions in the survey revolved around your relationship with this blog, specifically with regards to reading it and any favourite posts.

I was interested in how many of my blog posts you read and if you had a favourite one.

Unsurprisingly again, it turns out that the people who took the time to respond to the survey tend to read most of the posts that I write. Moving away from the data itself, I also notice that the legend on that chart is not ordered correctly, so that's going to annoy me for the rest of my existence.

When it came to favourite posts, the most common theme was the D&D stories. This is actually pretty cool, because those are the ones I'm always most nervous about. I enjoy writing them, but it seems like I'm pandering to my own ego instead of actually writing something useful.

So, thanks for the reassurance :)

The second most common theme was general people management stuff, like team building and other similar activities, so I'm not just going to go and write nothing but D&D posts from now on.

What the responses to these questions tell me is that I'm striking a good balance between the various things that I like to write about, which means you can expect more of the same.

I Done Seen Y'All Whoop Many A Ass

The last three questions in the survey don't easily lend themselves to charts or aggregation.

I asked what you have learned from reading my posts, what you have changed from reading my posts and the classic catch-all is there anything else I should know.

There was a subtle theme of general improvements to organisation and effectiveness being the most commonly learned subject or thing changed. I keep harping on about this sort of stuff over and over again, so it's great to see that all of that effort is not going to waste.

There are a lot of other great things in here that I'm not going to go into detail about, but suffice to say, if you bothered to write anything here and share something about yourself and your experiences, I read every single word.

The responses to these last questions really just reinforce to me that you are actually taking things away from my ramblings, and that feels pretty good.

Y'All Just Mad Because You Got Surveyed

Just in case you missed it at the start, I'll end with the same sentiment:

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to share something about yourself and your relationship with this blog.

When I asked you to fill out a survey, one of the main reasons was to generate a feeling of connection with the mostly faceless people that read my words.

Mission definitely accomplished.

I know more about you than I did before. More about how you perceive the words that I write and more about any value you might get out of them.

The second and less obvious reason was to boost my motivation to keep going. As I've alluded to a few times, while I really enjoy the act of writing, it can be hard to push through the inertia inherent in my soul and actually do it.

I rapaciously consumed every single kind word and thought in the survey responses, and I can assure you that they will fuel me for months to come.

Turns out I'm not as much of a loner as I thought and screaming into the void isn't nearly as good unless the void screams back every now and then.