Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on May 21, 2008 at 15:45:45

In Reply to: RE: You are way off base posted by racerguy on May 21, 2008 at 07:51:55

"This was an online survey, not a list read over the telephone."

So, do you think everyone reads the survey document from start to finish first, then goes back to the beginning to start answering questions? Most read the first question, answer it, read the second, answer it, and go on from question to question that way. Pretty much the same as answering questions read over the phone.

"Obviously you don't know what you're talking about, because I've done this type of stuff more times than I can count. In fact I've done polls and surveys professionally, not just as a student exercise for a grade."

Did you simply administer the polls and surveys, or did you design the questionnaires. They're very different things. As for my study, it ended up being published in a professional peer-reviewed journal so it was of an acceptable quality to meet professional standards.


"Harris has been in business since 1975, and has a stellar reputation. They know what they are doing."

I'm in Australia so I don't know Harris, and I'm not questioning their reputation, but no-one consistently delivers work of exactly the same standard in everything they do. Some things are always better than others and that's true for the best of firms as for the worst. I'm saying the wording of one question may lead to some people to report ownership of the same device twice, overinflating the result and giving a better result for BD than may actually be the case for the survey sample. I also said that they asked about players and not about whether the respondents with PS3s used their PS3 to watch BD movies. Some gamers may not watch BD movies and simply counting PS3s may give an overinflated result when it comes to considering them as BD movie players.


"It's been pretty clear why you don't like the poll results, and I can understand that - you are financially and emotionally invested. However, due to your bias you are offering an argument based on assumptions that lack foundation."

If I'm so invested as to want to discredit the results for that reason, why am I doing so in a way that would reduce the number of machines being used as BD players by respondents and actually make the situation look worse for people like me who have financially invested in BD? If I didn't like the results and wanted to argue against them because of my investment, I'd be arguing that they under-reported rather than over-reported the number of BD players owned by respondents. Your argument here doesn't make sense.




David Aiken