4 ms·

Hm so they just asked people that go to libraries if they like libraries? Seems silly to waste your time with such questions

readthenotes1 2y ago
At least it's probably replicable
NotYourLawyer 2y ago
[flagged]
teleforce 2y ago
You have a very strange idea of wasting time. If I want to survey the effectiveness of Post Office in the era of Internet (email, messenger, etc), I'd definitely interview mainly the visitors to the Post office to check their their purposes, experiences and activities there. For example, you'll probably find someone posting a postcard inside the post office since that someone is probably a visiting tourist.
- liontwist 2y ago
  Post office visits are compelled by other business, like taxation.
- rahimnathwani 2y ago
  Why wouldn't you sample a random set of potential post office users? If you wanted to know what parents think of public schools, would you survey only the parents who currently send their kids there, or would it also be informative to know the opinions of the parents whose children educated elsewhere?
  - itishappy 2y ago
    It would depend on what type of data you're collecting. If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are worthless, you need to talk to people who've spent actual time with it. If you're looking to get impressions of a service, then sure, ask anyone and everyone.
    - rahimnathwani 2y ago
      Just because someone doesn't currently use X, it doesn't mean they've never used X. And even if someone has never used X, it doesn't mean they haven't done extensive research about X, before concluding X doesn't meet their quality bar. Before deciding whether to send my son to an SFUSD school, I had a call with the principal of the school and asked questions specific to my son's situation. Do you think my conclusions are worthless for understanding the quality of the service?
      - itishappy 2y ago
        Not useless by any means, but if given the choice between somebody who interviewed the principal and a somebody else who's son actually attends, I'd prefer the latter every time. Wouldn't you? Also, while I get your point, you're in the very unique position of informed non-users. That's a valuable category if you can access it, but it's the most difficult. (How can you determine which library non-attendants have done their research?)
        rahimnathwani 2y ago
        Not useless by any means OK, so we agree that your previous statement was overstated, right? "If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are worthless" given the choice between somebody who interviewed the principal and a somebody else who's son actually attends, I'd prefer the latter every time. Wouldn't you? Not every time, no. You seem to be suggesting that no single informed non-user could be more useful than the least useful user.
        itishappy 2y ago
        Sure, allow me to amend: "If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are essentially worthless." I'm suggesting that, in absence of some out-of-band signaling mechanism, the expectation value for usefulness of individual feedback is orders of magnitude greater for users than non-users. Put differently, if I happened to be interested in this SFUSD school as well, is there some list of people like you I should interview?
itishappy 2y ago
There's probably still a signal there. Or do you think asking people if they like the internet would produce the same results?

readthenotes1 2y ago

At least it's probably replicable

NotYourLawyer 2y ago

[flagged]

teleforce 2y ago

You have a very strange idea of wasting time. If I want to survey the effectiveness of Post Office in the era of Internet (email, messenger, etc), I'd definitely interview mainly the visitors to the Post office to check their their purposes, experiences and activities there. For example, you'll probably find someone posting a postcard inside the post office since that someone is probably a visiting tourist.

liontwist 2y ago
Post office visits are compelled by other business, like taxation.
rahimnathwani 2y ago
Why wouldn't you sample a random set of potential post office users? If you wanted to know what parents think of public schools, would you survey only the parents who currently send their kids there, or would it also be informative to know the opinions of the parents whose children educated elsewhere?
- itishappy 2y ago
  It would depend on what type of data you're collecting. If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are worthless, you need to talk to people who've spent actual time with it. If you're looking to get impressions of a service, then sure, ask anyone and everyone.
  - rahimnathwani 2y ago
    Just because someone doesn't currently use X, it doesn't mean they've never used X. And even if someone has never used X, it doesn't mean they haven't done extensive research about X, before concluding X doesn't meet their quality bar. Before deciding whether to send my son to an SFUSD school, I had a call with the principal of the school and asked questions specific to my son's situation. Do you think my conclusions are worthless for understanding the quality of the service?
    - itishappy 2y ago
      Not useless by any means, but if given the choice between somebody who interviewed the principal and a somebody else who's son actually attends, I'd prefer the latter every time. Wouldn't you? Also, while I get your point, you're in the very unique position of informed non-users. That's a valuable category if you can access it, but it's the most difficult. (How can you determine which library non-attendants have done their research?)
      - rahimnathwani 2y ago
        Not useless by any means OK, so we agree that your previous statement was overstated, right? "If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are worthless" given the choice between somebody who interviewed the principal and a somebody else who's son actually attends, I'd prefer the latter every time. Wouldn't you? Not every time, no. You seem to be suggesting that no single informed non-user could be more useful than the least useful user.
        itishappy 2y ago
        Sure, allow me to amend: "If you're looking to understand the quality of a service, non-users are essentially worthless." I'm suggesting that, in absence of some out-of-band signaling mechanism, the expectation value for usefulness of individual feedback is orders of magnitude greater for users than non-users. Put differently, if I happened to be interested in this SFUSD school as well, is there some list of people like you I should interview?

itishappy 2y ago

There's probably still a signal there. Or do you think asking people if they like the internet would produce the same results?