Ask for Permission Before Using an Online Community for Research
Once in a while, someone will pop into my community and ask members to fill out some survey. If the first time I hear of you and your survey is from reading a public post that you made in the community, that is not a good look for you.
I’m fairly protective of the community when it comes to people taking advantage of them. While our members are a great resource, the community doesn’t exist to fill out surveys for people. If you wish to utilize the community in this way, you really should ask the manager first and receive permission for doing so.
It’s a courteous, respectful thing to do. You don’t want to assume that your request is acceptable and if you post it and it is not, it’ll be removed. If your request is appropriate, having the stamp of approval from the manager can help you to get more responses as members know that it is alright.
I tend to reject commercial requests, but if it is a student working or a professor doing research on a paper, I’m usually happy to help them out, as long as they disclose their efforts properly. Though I do like to know where the data is going, whether or not the community will be cited as a source and whether or not the paper will be available to members to look at, once published.
All in all, the important thing to remember is that online communities weren’t built for you to conduct research. You are just another member in a community of people and you should always check to make sure it is OK before subjecting your fellow members to an off-site survey or for data collection that will be appropriated into a paper or report.
I always think well of people who ask first, even if I have to tell them no, while I don’t think so highly of those who simply take the liberty.
First of all, those are some old-school monitors in those pictures. I almost miss the days of using my right quad and left arm to hold a CRT up against a wall while I pulled a door open.
Second, I’m not sure if I agree or disagree with you this one, Patrick. I think a lot of it depends on the circumstances and a lot of the questions asked in the survey provide opportunities for learning. For example, I’m a moderator on a web design forum. Several students have posted surveys over the years because their professors made gathering survey data from web professionals a course requirement. So they sign up on Survey Monkey, create a survey of 10, 15, maybe 20 questions, and then they post on the forum asking members nicely to fill out the survey for a class project.
This is where the educational opportunity comes into play. In many cases, the students come up with questions along the lines of “rate the likelihood of finding work in web design on a scale of 1-10.” Well, that question really can’t be answered easily because it depends on the skills of the designer, the designer’s ability to sell him/herself, the size and location of the target market, and other factors. So that gives me the opportunity to comment and explain that to the student, which not only helps the student but helps others in the field understand why “finding work” is a somewhat archaic form of thinking. So it’s a positive for the community in some ways.
Again, though, this is probably a forum-specific thing.
Thank you for the comment, Adam.
Your comment primarily speaks to whether or not it is a good idea to use online communities to do research or whether or not it can be positive for the community. In this article, I don’t take a position on those issues. I believe that both of those things can be true, which is why I allow people to post surveys in my communities, in appropriate circumstances.
The position I take here is that if you wish to conduct research on an online community, you should always do so with permission. Each community manager can make their own decisions and what is or is not appropriate, but what I am saying is that the person doing the research should always ask for permission before attempting to use the community in this way.
Thanks,
Patrick
Okay, I can see where you’re coming from. Respek, dude.