What do you commonly use the Internet for?

[chiawaikian]

Hi everybody, the results of thsi poll will be added to my nephew's Mathematics assignment. He is studying Statistics by the way.

[zlim]

I didn't vote because my choice isn't there - reading and posting in forums!

[Grasshopper]

This poll should be a "choose all that apply" instead of just one.

[Jeber]

Like zlim, my foremost activity is forum reading/posting. Even my second most common activity, blogging and website maintenance, isn't listed. Maybe there should also be an "other" category?

[Corrine]

Chalk me up as #3 in the Forum Category.

[henderrob]

I generally do email and web cruising resulting for the email. I do blog and monitor Stupidvideo.com.

[littlebone]

Of the choices, I voted e-mail. But primarily, I read news and news analysis. I have done research, but I read news and send e-mails daily, whereas a day or so could go by before I have to research something. Let's see, what are the lyrics to "The Macarena"?chiawaikian: as your nephew is studying statistics, perhaps his instructor will note that the results of a poll can be affected by which questions are asked and how they are worded. By missing some categories, the poll results might say "the majority of Scot's newsletter readers use the internet mostly for e-mail", when the actual result might have been: "the majority...read forums". But that question was never asked. Also: we denizens of the forum are hardly a cross section of the web as a whole, so the results should never read: "The majority of web users..."

Edited May 31, 2005 by littlebone

[epp_b]

I sure hope not!

[Guest LilBambi]

There is no 'all of the above' or 'none of the above'You have to have those options or the rest are not valid.I do many, many things online. No one thing stands out as a single ... yes, this is what I use it for...and unfortunately, you have to choose only one. One just won't do it.Sorry...couldn't be of help here either.

[patio]

I was gonna check "answering polls"...patio.

[FuzzButt]

I'd also say forums and other adult related stuff, not x-rated stuff just material that would interest a 32 year old adult male.Forums, news, multimedia (mp3's video, etc...). Generally trying my best to get my $45 out of the Cable ISP I use. Using "commonly" is the wrong word. "Mostly" would have been a better choice. Multiple choices would be good also.Have him a look at Harris Polls and check out their wording and structure. After taking dozens of their surveys you start to get the idea. Might even be a good place for quick stats.

[Cluttermagnet]

Mark Twain commented about three degrees of severity in misinformation: "lies, ****** lies, and statistics". This survey is too flawed to be of any serious use- other than as a learning experience about why polls are utter nonsense, and why you can design polls to prove almost anything you want to.BTW where are the categories for those who spend all their time hacking, cracking, and spamming? Heh! How about anti-spyware writing and testing? Other software writing? Corporate IT guys. Newsgroups? Forums? The list goes on. It needs to be a checkbox sort of thing, where you offer almost all possible answers (dozens of responses), including the ubiquitous "none" and "others" responses. Most folks check more than one box. Then you tabulate all the answers and prepare a nice bar graph with your results. Then you have a team of collegiate post-docs research the implications for several years until the grant money runs out. :lol:Writing a 'good' poll is all about research, and research costs money- so have your nephew start buttering up his congressman right now by plying him or her with campaign contributions. It will eventually pay him back more handsomely than any college sheepskin ever will. And maybe together your nephew and the congressman can figure out how to tax the internet. (All kidding aside, I hope your nephew is very successful in school)

Edited June 10, 2005 by Cluttermagnet

[greengeek]

Couldn't find the option for hacking so I selected research.

[greengeek]

Real hacking (I like to find out how programmes work).

[littlebone]

hacking, hacking or cracking, hacking? laugh.gif

He's backing hacking:hacking. Sending cracking:hacking packing. I mean, he's flacking hacking over cracking. Whacking cracking. Finding it lacking. Jacking into hacking (tracking code) while sacking cracking, you see. I'll stop yakking because I can't figure out where blacking, clacking, racking, stacking, and tacking would fit.

[b2cm]

Read news and feature articles.

[FuzzDuckie]

The project is probably long finished...You should have set it as a check poll for people to choose more than one.I generally use it for email, chatting, playing games...and the biggest...Job hunting (which was not listed). I'm actually beginning to hate job hunting (its getting more and more frustrating to even GET anything...I FIND lotsa jobs...but nobody will hire me!) Whoops sorry for the mini rant, I'm off to hunt some more.