Another duff survey

[ForPearlViper]

I used to devise surveys so can't resist looking at them and commenting when they are stupid.

This question:
In which of the following areas, if any, have Mumsnet posts been useful or helpful to you? Please select all that apply

Note it say 'if any' but doesn't provide the option 'none' only 'not sure' and 'other' You get an error message if you don't tick a box.

I ask yet again, does anyone check these surveys? Although I imagine frome previous surveys, even if there was a 'none' option, it would go on to ask the same questions as if you had picked an 'area' as usual.

Hi there @ForPearlViper. Thanks for flagging this up. We've edited that survey now so there should be a 'none' option available.

So @HebeMumsnet now go question 2 assuming you answered "none/not sure" on the first question. If your answer was none, where would you go?

Once you have sorted question 2, I would strongly suggest you check the rest of the survey and maybe the person who devises these surveys takes this learning forward to future surveys otherwise your surveys are meaningless.

And "none" and "not sure" are two different things.

I see you have now corrected the rest of the survey. But what about the responses made whilst the survey was skewed? Surely you will have to discard those responses? I hope I don't see publicity saying 'x per cent of Mumsnet users say' based on a duff survey.

I'm pretty sure a lot of users will have started the survey, found there wasn't an answer to that related to their experience and abandoned it. You won't therefore have a true reflection of users' views. I've done this with other surveys on the site.

Thanks for posting @ForPearlViper - we are trying to get at which bits of Mumsnet people find useful, helpful or interesting, rather than whether the site has ever been useful at all. For that reason there isn’t a “none” option as we’re looking for relative feedback rather than an overall verdict on the entire experience. We know some people do abandon surveys if a question doesn’t feel applicable, which is one of the reasons we don’t rely on a single question or single survey in isolation

We of course appreciate the point about how the questions land, and if something doesn’t feel applicable you can skip it. We do read threads like this and they’re part of how we sense-check surveys once they’re out in the wild so thank you.

Apologies for being pedantic but if this is the case don't put 'if any' in the question. And if you do offer a 'none' option in a survey, sense check the rest of the survey from the perspective of someone who ticked that box OR take the person to a screen thanking them for their interest and explain why it is not relevant for them to continue the survey.

The sport survey also has issues. If you choose the no children option you still have to say if your child is male or female. Does anyone check these surveys?

And with being asked the sex and sporting interests of my nonexistent children, I rest my case. If you're going to do surveys get someone with a bit of expertise to write them or you're wasting everyone's time. Your members could be such a wonderful resource but with this sloppiness you waste their time.