It’s that time of the year again: Time for you guys to give me data so I can drool over correlations and make pretty graphs! Yes, it’s time for the Blag Hag 2011 census!
The survey is only 13 questions, so it shouldn’t take very long. And if you fill it out, I’ll be able to better understand what my readership looks like, what they enjoy about my blog, and how that changes over time. I’m really curious to see if we find any interesting correlations, or how things have changed since last year’s census.
Fill out the Blag Hag 2011 census here!
Last year 467 people took the survey, so hopefully we can crush that number. I’ll leave it up for a couple of days so enough people have the chance to take it. Though knowing last year, I’ll get antsy and want to crunch some numbers, so take it sooner rather than later!
And as a disclaimer, I promise I’m not selling this information to anyone or using it to stalk you. At most, you’ll be part of a pretty graph or some interesting comments will be posted here anonymously.
Now, go take it!
I haven’t exactly “Written articles, blog posts, or books about atheist/skeptical issues” (though I’m sure if I look hard enough I find blog posts where I’ve talked about atheist/skepticism, or at least a few poems I put on my blog) but I have given TALKS/PRESENTATIONS about atheist/skeptical issues. Where would I categorize, say, my one man show? It’s written, I guess… but it’s not an article, blog post, or book.I categorized it all in that section. Let me know if I did it wrong.
I updated the form to include that option, as I think it’s a good one I left out and not many people took the survey yet. Hmmm…if you *really* want your data to be accurate, you can always email me some of your other answers so I can figure out which one was yours, but then your answers wouldn’t be anonymous. Or you can just live with knowing one of my points will be slightly off, haha
It’s so rare to see a survey include transgender without it being a third, exclusive option, and I love you for it. We’re not others.
I have to thank a blog reader for emailing me and suggesting I do it this way. I never knew what the best way to include it was, though I knew I wanted to include it – glad this way works well :)
I think you broke your survey table on things we like about your blog when you posted the updated final question option…. also thanks for adding the ‘none of the above’
I’m assuming the ‘untitled question’ is for things that we like reading about on your blog. Answering ‘strongly like’ for religion still made me feel kind of dirty, though.
Yeah, something got messed up – it’s fixed now, thanks
You’re correct. Something got messed up in the survey – it’s fixed now
Aside from anything else, that’s a really neat use of Google docs; I had no idea it could do that.
I was wondering if you were interested in country of origin – ie the place we grew up in that may have influenced our lives as opposed to where we live now. Because you can get your ‘where we live now and visit you from’ from your Google Analytics. But it doesn’t say necessarily that that is the same country we grew up in. Or maybe I’m just being picky because I’m an expat.
Well, I wanted to get current location so I could see if it correlated with any of the types of answers…but I guess country of origin would have been a better judge of that. Oh well, good enough for now – I can be more specific next year.
It’s totally and completely awesome. I started using Forms when the convention art show I ran switched from mail-in signups to online. Saved me tons and tons of time, and it’s all easy to sort and rearrange and share and add data and…Okay, I’ll stop now.
Your choices for what terms we call ourselves made me giggle. ^_^
Interestingly, todayis my birthday, and it put me into a higher age bracket on your survey!Also interestingly, I put myself as a lurker because I’ve never commented – and yet, here I am commenting!
Sheesh, ruining all of my analyses! ;)
Personally, I just describe myself as “badass.”*puts that down*
I am beyond amped. I was absolutely gutted when our census got cancelled this year and now my existance has officially been noted in statistical formated
I had a hard time picking my sexual orientation. I’m heterosexual, never been incidentally homosexual, but “exclusively” was too much of a commitment. (Even though I’m happily married lol).
For the “What religion(s) did you previously consider yourself?” I had to pause for for seconds. Do I write Anglican in the Other box, or tick on Episcopalian? They are essentially the same, Episcopalians being part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, but being Australian rather than American (or any other nationality that would would call it Episcopalian) I would be technically be called Anglican.I know it’s considered verboten to alter survey questions once the survey is being conducted, but since you’ve already slightly modified it elsewhere, perhaps you could redefine that choice as Episcopalian/Anglican. Not everyone will know they are (effectively) same thing.
I had to say “incidentally homosexual” because you didn’t have an option for “Heterosexual, but would make exception for John Barrowman”. Also at the end it was very tempting to add “None of the above” after I’d checked the appropriate boxes.
I had the same issue, being Canadian Anglican instead of American Anglican. I just went with Episcopalian.
SHOW US YOUR WITS! :D…err, continue to, I mean. :)
There was no way to indicate “atheist religious Jew”, but I know a fair number of people (besides me) who fit that category. Judaism is all about practice, not creed. Or as a rabbi of my acquaintance put it, “The most I can say is, IF you believe in a god, you can’t believe in more than one.”
I love the variety of options for education. I’m tired of the standard High School/Some College/Degree/Post-Grad Degree; yay for specificity!
It’s hard to be specific enough for me in that category. High school dropout / GED several years later / a few quarters of community college here and there when I can afford it does not lend itself to checkboxes. :P
I’ll help Stevarious ruin them! My birthday was 9 days ago, bumping me up a bracket too.. and my first comment! Ok, back to the shadows now.. keep up the great blog thou, Jen.
Not true. Most of the people I know are hindu’s & there are 330,illion gods in hinduism so….
Was not sure what to answer for “What religion(s) did you previously consider yourself?” I was about 7 or 8 when I started turning atheist & considering that at age you pretty much don’t question the religious beliefs you were born into, didn’t know whether to check Hinduism or Was never religious. In the end I checked Hinduism as technically it was correct
Done, although it hardly seems worth it what with the not stalking and such… :P
I had the same problem. Raised Catholic but started on the path to atheism at about 7 years old(soon after learning about Santa!). Checked catholic but it was a long time ago.
Great census, but I do feel the last question has a bit of a “caliphate bias” in that it assumes that doing atheist-y stuff deviates from the norm. In my country (Netherlands) it actually is the norm, making things like “outing” or “attending atheist meetings” not apply due to never having been “in”, nor there being a need for atheist communities.This might lead to some contamination of your data (or just sort by country when making nifty graphs). PS. I ticked “out” nevertheless due to the fact that I am the only atheist in my family-in-law, and it seriously ticks ’em off ;-)PPS. Also, what SuperHappyJen said.
As a fellow dutchperson I tend to agree with Menno. I am quite open about my atheism. But that never was a brave or difficult thing to do. Not (seriously) believing in god is the default position for many people here.There are quite a few deeply religious christians here. But they keep themselves locked up in national parks…O, and hurry up with the graphs!
On the question at the end about atheist activities… I’ve never written a letter to an editor, but I have written Congress (state and national) on issues of church/state separation. As it’s in the same vein (and I’m greedy for credit, nebulous as it may be, for even this arguably futile effort), you could perhaps consider including that as an option…
I noticed a odd thing about myself during the survey. I have been to a national event but never a local event. I keep meaning to try out the local ones but the times are convenient with my family and all.
I’m curious how many older people read your blog. I want to see the oldest range chosen. [I’m 56.]
Define “older”, I am 44, does that count? Man, part of me wants to say no, but the other part, wants me to say yes.
63
I just realized that I accidentally skipped the age question, making it say I’m fifteen or younger. I even thought it was odd that it didn’t ask my age…. Anyway, I’m really 27. Also, this is my first comment.I was unsure what to put for some of the questions. For instance, I’m out to some family, but not all of them. Also, my family is Methodist, but I never really considered myself religious, so I just put “was never religious”.Anyway, love the site. Keep up the good work.
” I promise I’m not […] using it to stalk you.”:pouts:
Well, if you have your GED, then that is your high school diploma. And if you’ve taken a few quarters of community college, then you can say you are “in” college even if you aren’t doing it all the time.
Your census got cancelled? What country are you from? Don’t they worry that the population shifts will cause some areas to have an unfair advantage by letting fewer people have more representation than other areas of the country? In the US it is constitutionally required every ten years, which is good because it gave me a job.
I think Michael means that “IF you believe in God and you are a Jew, you can’t believe in more than one God.” Though I suppose that’s debatable too.
After re-reading I think Michael meant that you can believe in just 1 faith and that the different belief systems mutually exclusive.
There’s a simple test.Do teenagers scare the living shit out of you yet?If so, you’re old.
That is a reasonable interpretation.
I indicated Jewish and atheist and other and explained. There are tons of atheist religious Jews out there. I wonder why. I’m sure someone’s written something on it.
My birthday from a couple of weeks ago put me in the next age bracket too. Bah.
I had a similar problem. But my memories from that long ago are fuzzy enough I just went with my parents’ religion. I expect I at least took their word for it as a kid and somewhat participated in church. Even if even fairly young I had doubts of some kind and didn’t like it. Eh, close enough.
I kinda got to cheat. We had a national event here in town, so I took credit for that without actually doing the trekking across country and all that hassle.
Another here who answered “lurker”…*delurks*…Hi.
Done and done
I don’t understand what atheist religious Jew means… I don’t think this is it:http://www.smbc-comics.com/ind…
and be sure to let us fill out more than one country. I will cry if you make me try to figure out where I’m from. I had a freakout trying to decide where was my “hometown” for my diploma. I put California only because if I put elsewhere I’ll get treated as foreignor. Which I am not. I think. i dont know. noooo dont make me think of where i’m from!!!
My 16th birthday is tomorrow, but I ticked “fifteen or younger” since most of the time I’ve been following your blog, I’ve been fifteen, and it felt more accurate.
He could be from Canada.Stephen Harper, our current Prime Minister, cancelled the 2011 Long Form Census this year, even though we were due for one, in lieu of using a voluntary Census. Lots of people in various public service groups are really upset about it too as they use the Census numbers to decide how to provide services. They are rightly concerned that with the Long Form being voluntary only certain groups will bother to respond and it will skew the numbers resulting in a disproportionate allocation of public funds to some areas at the expense of those who *really* need it.Even regular run of the mill citizens, like me, are upset that they won’t be doing the Long Census.The Short Form that everyone has to fill out is all basic information the government is likely to have anyway, see http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/… for the list of Short Form questions, but when looking at the Short Form you’ll notice there is nothing on there about a person’s Religion.With Harper being a Conservative from Alberta, who’s been known to cozy up to the Evangelicals from time to time. From an Atheistic perspective I have to wonder if he’s preventing the Long Form because some of his backers really don’t want to just how many non-Christians live in Canada, that way current funding regimes stay just as they are, and are even hopeful that abject apathy and general laziness will keep everyone holding an “undesirable” religious viewpoint from filling out the form thereby skewing the religious affiliation numbers.Ummm, does anyone else think that sounds conspiracy theoryish? :-) It probably just has something to with Harper wanting to siphon the funds spent collecting the census to one of his pet projects or something.
I would like to elaborate on on the question: “Please select all of the activities that you have done”I ticked both the boxes “Are an “out” non-theist to family” and “Are an “out” non-theist to non-family”, but I think some clarification is in order. Firstly, it is not a big deal bo be out atheist to family, since most of my family are atheists. Secondly, it is not a big deal to be out atheist to the public here. Czech Republic is either first or second most atheistic country in the world – depends on which poll/survey you find.So I felt a little as if I was ticking a box with “Has two legs/has two hands”, since being atheists is pretty much the standard around here. Nevertheless religious folks and accomodationalist atheists exist here too and therefore I could honestly tick “Written articles, blog posts, or books about atheist/skeptical issues” albeit it is only one teensy weensy blog post I wrote.
Yes, that’s what I meant.
Data! Lovely, amazing, beautiful data! Of course I participated. Though, while I did tick the ‘out’ boxes for both family and non-family, my family really don’t care (my close family are all outright nonreligious or ‘faitheists’ who get married and have funerals in church) and my friends are all (as far as I know) atheists.Furthermore, I live up here in amazingly sunny (for now) Vancouver, where religious diversity is so high that looking down on someone for their religious belief — any religious belief — appears to be moreso the exception than the rule, though we do have a Mormon temple and I’ve seen the Jehovah’s Witnesses (and on occasion the Mormons) out at transit exchanges. There’s one old guy who’s really dedicated; if you’re around Surrey Central Station you’ll probably see him sitting in his scooter under cover by the elevator holding up a copy of The Watchtower (with more on his lap). Sadly, I’m usually too busy to engage them — every time I’m down there I’m usually less than ten minutes from catching a bus.That being said, if anyone does happen to ask, I am an atheist and will say so, and I generally have a couple of pieces of godless literature in my backpack which is with me wherever I go.
I didn’t even know they were the same thing, so picked Other (although – I wasn’t sure why all the Christian denominations were up there, whereas the other religions were ‘Muslim’ etc.)
As I’ve said above – really confused why the survey is so specific about what Christian denomination you were, but isn’t about the other religions. I’d have been happy to tick Christian rather than try and figure out what all the funny words meant (I hadn’t heard of more than half of them)
Took the survey the day you posted it.I don’t think my answers have changed at all given the new options.Do I need to take the survey again? Did you lose any data?