Comments on: Lackluster veteran: Bias, much?

By: walt

walt — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:58:13 +0000

K.C.: I rescued this comment from Spam Karma. Thanks. I’m planning an essay on this issue for a future Cites & Insights; the title will be “Pew Do You Trust?” and the first sentence, “Pew Internet & American Life owes me an apology.”

May get me in trouble (but with who?), but I think the clear move of Pew from observer to advocate is noteworthy and troublesome.

By: K.C. Sacra

K.C. Sacra — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:36:55 +0000

Walt,

I admit the term “Lackluster Veteran” is a back-handed compliment, however, it makes me feel better about not being able to compete with the Omnivores I work with. I don’t go home and spend another 2 or 3 hours programming in the latest MS beta visual studio. It’s just nice knowing that I’m not alone in my lack of “Passion”. Sorry I didn’t respond earlier, but I don’t spend that much time on blogs either.

By: Kevin S. Clarke

Kevin S. Clarke — Fri, 11 May 2007 22:08:39 +0000

Sign me up for the Lackluster Veterans club too and thank you for saying what you did! I was really put off by the label. I like technology but don’t think it necessarily makes my life any easier (probably the opposite). I also don’t want to be reachable at the end of a cell phone at any moment… I leave mine off except for conference travel.

By: Ruth Ellen

Ruth Ellen — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:07:23 +0000

Sign me up as an LV as well.
Wish I could be a high priestess tarot card. Apparently I’m a Tower, which seems to be a disaster waiting to happen. Of course, that quiz was even more poorly designed – didn’t just compare apples and oranges – compared apples and astronomy. Very weird.

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:24:41 +0000

The survey was an uneven blend of practice and behavor. I read the whole report right after I took the quiz, and was a bit puzzled. For one thing, an omnivore doesn’t necessarily *produce* anything, and yet the questions that drove one to omnivore status were very obviously production-related. I also felt the question about producing web pages was seriously dated, because it’s my hunch most omnivores use blogs for their online presence… blogs are the new website, etc. As others apparently did, I went back and changed some answers to make them more emphatic about my belief that technology does not necessarily make life easier or better, and my score didn’t change.

On the other hand, I wish most library surveys were that easy to take. Imagine if Libqual folks redid that survey…

By: mdoneil

mdoneil — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:27:14 +0000

I too am a lackluster veteran, and me just now into my forties. It is not that I don’t embrace technology – a luddite I am not. However I just don’t want to be too connected. Sometimes I’d rather just take a walk with no phone or blackberry or any other tether.

By: Daniel Cornwall

Daniel Cornwall — Tue, 08 May 2007 19:10:34 +0000

Sign me up for the Lackluster Veterans Club! I realize it’s just a quiz, but I find it puzzling they didn’t have a question on MP3 players and podcast listening.

By: Jenica

Jenica — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:39:28 +0000

I would hope that anyone who noticed that the terms are a bit wonky would study the whole PDF at least a bit before using the data in any way… but I’m an eternal optimist.

By: walt

walt — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:37:21 +0000

Jenica,

And you’re not wrong. The web quiz itself is mostly just nonsense.

But those strange terms, including Lackluster Veteran, are the ones they use in the Big Survey Report as well. Now the question is: How many true Omnivores will actually sit down and read through a 65-page PDF to see whether the terms make sense, as opposed to glancing at the press release?

By: Jenica

Jenica — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:17:46 +0000

Neff, maybe you could tackle the burning issue of why all the superhero quizzes only feature male answers. I want to be Batgirl, dammit.

Walt, I’ll acquiesce to the idea that we should hold Pew to a higher standard, as data collection is their job. But I’m still standing firmly on the size of “web quiz, people, web quiz.”