Congress Opinion Poll Results, here be Pie Charts
Mr Woldy
Hello all!
A few days ago I released an article on my opinions on a few Congressional debates which are currently ongoing. I have been told by the Speaker, Rob the Bruce, that these discussions will be published ingame for debates to take place in comments, so if you haven’t checked them out yet keep an eye open for Congress publications.
My article included a poll asking people about their opinions on Congress and forum usage. I have spent two days advertising the poll, and by the time of publishing this article I have received just short of 100 responses. The poll asked different questions depending on whether you were a member of the public (in which case ambiguity was allowed) or whether or not you were a Congressmen (who were asked simpler yes/no questions based on the fact that they will be expected to make a firm decision on it shortly). The following pie charts show the results of the opinion poll.
I shall begin with some statistics and answers from the general public.
This may come as no surprise to some, it is a well established fact of eRepublik worldwide that most users don’t use external forums to follow or discuss goings on in the eworld. This isn’t representative of our entire population, but as I say a sample size of almost 100 (approx 60 non-Congressmen) is a good amount, and a quarter of our voting public according to our most recent election results. I therefore believe it is a decent enough size to indicate some general opinion on the issue.
I found this to be one of the most interesting result, as it shows that in addition to almost a fifth of people who said they followed the forums, just over another third said they ‘sort of’ followed the forums. Meaning that in essence, just over half of people who took part in the poll pay some kind of attention to the forums. However, I made an error in asking a somewhat ambiguous question, and on hindsight I should have asked participants whether they follow Congress discussion on the forums, as people may not check the entirety of the forums. Nevertheless, an interesting result. It is also important to note that just shy of half the people polled do not check the forums at all.
Just under 1 third of people who participated in the poll felt discussion should take place on the forums, and over half felt it should take place ingame. 18% said they were unsure. It was pointed out to me that I didn’t provide a choice for people to say ‘both’ or other alternatives, though I expect most of them would have selected unsure or offered their preference if they feel both should be used. (As far as the comments section as the poll goes, 2 people felt that a mixture should be used).
The public were also asked if they felt 'adequately represented'. Only 13 people who answered that question said yes, with most others (50+ people) saying no... or at least a more verbose and flowery equivalent to no.
Congress
The next three pie charts show the results that citizens who are also Congressmen entered. The poll much to my joy was completed by 33 of the 39 current Congressmen.
All but one of the Congressmen who took part in the poll are registered on the forums, but as this poll shows the majority of members do not use the forums as their day to day discussion point. Personally I think it is difficult to extrapolate the reason for this from the available data; if people were reluctant to use forums would they have signed up? Or is it the case that they signed up to tick a box and then didn’t see fit to use them? Alternatively, does it represent a disillusionment with the forums or an active opposition to using them? Is the data simply representative of a Congress that doesn’t have anything to do? (I am sceptical of that seeing as people have posted in the message threads daily and at least three debates are ongoing on the forums) I may conduct a series of interviews to try and answer that question, but the raw data ultimately speaks for itself.
Almost two thirds of Congressmen are in favour of discussing issues ingame, with just over one third saying they wish for it to take place in the forums. This sheds some light on the issue I touched upon after the previous statistic, suggesting that perhaps Congressmen are resisting forum usage. Nevertheless 21 Congressmen voted for it to take place ingame, with 12 voting for the Forums. I don’t know whether the Speaker will hold a formal vote on this (it is a ‘proposal’ and so I would expect it to happen) but if this poll is anything to go by it seems as though a majority of Congressmen are still in favour of exploring how debates can be held ingame publicly.
Parties
The final pie charts were not ones I planned on releasing, however I drew one up for PCP and it was suggested to me that I put one together for all parties so people could compare directly.
Rather than displaying the data as percentages, these pie charts show the data as values, showing how many people in each party voted for ingame or forums. It is important to note several things; firstly this is a collation of both the members and Congressmen (with exception of the ‘other’ group who have no Congressmen) and so the results may be slightly skewed as Congressmen did not have an ‘unsure’ option. Secondly, it is important to note that for all parties except possibly PCP, this is not representative of a parties entire membership, as most parties only had very few people take part in the poll (UKPP, UKRP and WRP only had 9 participants). However, it does offer an idea of where the parties Congressmen stand on the issues as for most parties they were the most influential demographic in the party study. The breakdown of members-Congressmen for each party is underneath the charts.
Red = Ingame, Yellow = Forum, Green = Unsure
PCP had 6 Congressmen and 29 members take part.
TUP had 8 Congressmen and 6 members take part.
UKPP had 6 Congressmen and 3 members take part.
UKRP had 6 Congressmen and 3 members take part.
WRP had 7 Congressmen and 2 members take part.
My hope is that each party will run polls asking such a question to get a better idea of their members thoughts on the subject to help inform the ongoing discussion.
The last chart is one which collates all data (again, remember that Congressmen had no unsure option in their poll) on the question of forums or ingame discussion.
Various comments were made throughout the poll on the state of Congress, I cannot publish them all (too long, and er… FP’s) but here’s a selection:
‘Not a forum person. forum don’t send me notification about new info posted.’
‘[Forums give] Discussion in one place, rather than two Congress groups.’
‘Without meaning to sound too much like a lazy sh*t, I don't really want to make and maintain another account on another website. I already think what we have does the job and it just seems like a whole lot of unnecessary effort.’
‘Forums allow for better discussion and we can retain information.’
‘Personally would like to see both being used, Though tbph I only check the forums daily it's rare for me to post there these days.’
‘I didn’t use forums but now im in congress I will visit daily.’
‘I like using the in game resources more. Also it will prevent a freakout by some people about the "closeted and hidden" government crap. Also it is easier.’
Feel free to debate in the comments, I would like to clarify that all interpretations and opinions are my own, please use and interpret all the data here as you see fit!
One thing is clear, the public seem to prefer ingame communiques, and only 13 participants feel represented by Congress - so something needs changing!
Thanks for Reading.
Mr Woldy.
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Comments
Pertamaxxx
forums suck, point proved. (actually, I'd love forums to work, for advertising reasons)
great job! Post it to all the congress members and PP...
Its a shame that people are lazy and can't open a second tab. I mean, how hard is it to click a few more times on the mouse, oh noes...you might sprain your finger...
Its a game, people shouldn't be forced to participate in something that they don't want to.
>implying that easiest is always best.
It's probably that one party has all it's members there, so when others join they get shouted down as traitors, theives and liars by them?
This isn't all about you, but yes, you're sorta hitting on a rather big issue.
Yeah, because the reason people on the forums call you a traitor, thief and liar is purely down to the fact you are not in their party...
Indeed. Do the same things in another party and you are a hero.
Also when is the last time something was discussed on the forum and the conclusions or plan had an impact on what happens ingame?
Also Woldy, what happened to my quotes? I think I hit the nail on the head rather well.
same here, why wasn't mine quoted?
To save space, I will interview you two and others for a follow up article, so don't worry
your both too poncy to be added
Do i get an interview?
How about we use all the means of communication open to us? Forums, IRC, In-game articles, PMs (two main ones as well as smaller focus groups for each area of govt) wiki for permanent in game record etc etc etc. All it needs is an active Speaker/MoLA who will draw all of the threads together into a coherent discussion for congress, and write articles to communicate what is going on to the public.
It's really not that hard :/
Every congressman can choose to use whatever means of talking they want to, there's no need to shoehorn everyone into one method
I don't think any advocates shoehorning into one thing anymore, tbqh.
What about the monthly proposals to move discussion exclusively to the forums?
No-one expects it to be exclusive, everyone pretty much accepts that messages exist and will still use the. People want to forums to be used more, but the key difference is that we are still willing to work in messages despite their crappy quality comparatively.
No-one, in reality, expects us to move back as fully as history tells us we were once. Like no-one really wants lotsa legislation again.
I've been allowing people to use both but as soon as somebody saw people were using the forums a proposal came up to move there permanently/exclusively and the "great debate" is back :/
Excellent analysis, and interesting results. For me, the existence of forums (and IRC) are indications of shortfalls in the eReublik game. Anything - and I mean anything - relating to the conduct of any game should be handled "in game". It should be so in eRepublk too, in my view. Personally, I already have enough forums to follow for non game-related topics (mainly work-related) and the last thing I need when playing a game is to have to wade through yet another forum. It's a complete turnoff!
So if one third of Congressman use In-game, one third discuss on the forums and one third discuss on irc how is anything going to be decided? Whatever method is used and whichever method is best, surely all Congressmen should be partaking in the same place and we should all be able to follow what is going on. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to go somewhere and actually see what was discussed and agreed month by month? I would like to be able to see what was agreed 6 months ago - is there such a record at present?
What should congress be discussing?
Most parties should know where they stand on taxation, Impeachment, donation, CS and MPP.
Sure there is still the NE but thats really CP driven as he/she is the one who controls when we fight and also appoints the MoD.
Perhaps I'm expecting a game to be too similar to real life. In real life when you discover your local Council is lying to you (as has happened to me) I have been able to provide documentary evidence proving I'm right, though sadly proving you are right and actually getting anything done about it is a different matter. In fact if this game followed the process of real life BigAnt should be elected CP again in a few months time!
He probably stands a chance as you can almost be certain the ATO unity will disintegrate and fracture.
A top 5 party puts up a troll CP candidate, a divisive PP who turns off otherwise free voters or a congress list full of dodgy characters or haters?
It'll happen!
They should be discussing the performance of the government, always
Aside from UKPP, none of the parties have any clear policy- so there's always room for debate. And as Woldy said, discussing the performance of the government
I think it boils down to two factors:
1. Ingame methods are sub-standard but very convenient and self-contained.
2. Forums are much better for having and recording discussions, but are out-of-game, require a separate account and tab and can't provide in-game notification.
Based on that, take your pick - there is no right answer.
My feeling is that if the move to forums was made (or even insisted on when it comes to Congress), more people would join and read. If that happened, it'd be interesting to see whether people regretted it or thought it was the right choice. I suspect (based on no evidence whatsoever) that if using the forums was more common and people got used to doing it, complaints would drop.
But I also agree wholeheartedly with JRCS - everything should be handled in-game. It's only the fact that the in-game methods are below standard that this is even being debated.
Elect Keers, Dan, SHA, Sambo, Alfa, Malkaiser and other such curs into congress together and there will be regret!
I agree with you, but I disagree that there is no right answer 😛 Congress have a role as open representatives, and in my eyes the more visible and accessible answer is the best one.
So we'll continue to have in game PM's where the new congress has no clue what took place last time and we waste 1/4th of the term figuring things out, much easier than opening a second tab and taking a couple of clicks.
Or we actually record and publish what congress do in those PMs, keep a record on the wiki and get the best of both worlds...
Good idea, hopefully we can execute it 🙂
But the wiki is another external site. It seems there is no way to get around that and make effective use of these updates. You can't even have a proper debate with the whole Congress with the size-limited mass PMs, and in my experience, these become so weighted down with spamming and flaming that people stop reading them.
You got about 43 different eUKers actually making a post on something eRep related on the forums and of that you can pretty much list those who actually do more then the occasional post or two and are heavy users.
Dan Moir (TUP)
Rob The Bruce (UKRP)
Woldy (PCP/tup)
Bohemond (TUP)
Malkaiser (UKPP/new era)
Sexegenarian (NONE)
Talon Karrde (TUP)
LionBeard (UKRP)
Acroc (PCP)
Wayne (WRP/none)
and tbh most threads end up as some Polish player and his mates Vs Malkaiser.
Just wondering, How long does Woldy have to be a member of PCP for before he's considered an a full PCP member?
Because we kinda assumed that he was a long time ago.
About 2 years for parity another year on top for PCP edge.
A CP election win or two from PCP might shorten that time period.
I'm not going to run for office to combat your prejudice... Also, I hardly use the forums, I wouldn't describe myself as a top poster.
prejuice is when fruit gets over stimulated
WRP?
I'm (UKPP/None)
matters not where the account is, it's where the heart is!
woldy ain't tup...
he will always be TUP
That may be the case now, but if Congress committed to using the forum for their business, that would change drastically (in the Congress area at least). For instance, the TUP area of the forum has a lot more active users than you list there. Still not enough, but more than use the general forum.
Perhaps part of the problem is that we're judging the forum on the number of people who post A LOT. I don't particularly want to see loads of people treating the forum like Twitter and posting every thought they have as and when they have it.
PS you're not on that list. Is that because you don't post to the forum very often, or has your ban not ended yet? 😉
You won't get congress to commit to the forum as at least one if not more parties believe in not having its elected members taking part in any exclusive conclave.
TUP forum may be active but the rest of us only see whats in general and it's OP, Answer, insult, response and insult, insult, barb, dig, Goku Vs Keers.
As for me;
When doing the stats on posters, content and party - I realised almost 90% of my eRep posts were responding to digs at me, UKPP or members of the UKPP!
I've therefore deleted my 2 month old account as the forum is not a world I want to waste my time.
Interesting article. Thanks.
eAus used to be forum based, laws and legislation left right and centre. We got wiped and i removed the Government from them and ran everything in-game. Things have never been more quicker or easier. Decisions are streamlined and less quoting of - law 13721 section 3a subsection 2b that not dotting an 'i' in an impeachment vote requires all congressmen to vote No.
You have the con's of needing two separate PM's for bigger congress but you don't have external mods/admins either and it is more flowing for freedom of speech. I also can't see why in-game articles for senate to discuss and debate can't be created either for greater transparency and for people to see what is going on with non-sensitive issues.
Them graphs are so perrty.
And yes that shallow comment is all I'm going to say :3
"The poll was completed by 33 of the 39 current Congressmen"
I'm very disappointed in this, there was plenty of time to fill the survey in and I question whether these 6 should even be in congress.