Take the 2011 ATS User Survey

ATS 2011 User Survey

We're launching our new survey and polling system, Opinion @ AboveTopSecret.com, with a long-overdue survey of our visitors and members. After a long search, with lots of testing and trials, we've finally settled on a robust survey system hosted on the ATS servers. Our priority has been a core web application that preserves respondent privacy while offering a robust and user-friendly list of question and answer options.

This first survey/poll, the ATS 2011 User Survey, will help us better understand who visits ATS, what our visitors do online, and what everyone would like to see from ATS in the future. The last time we ran a survey like this, it was 2007, so a great deal has changed since then.


Why Are We Asking Demographic Questions?

The first page of questions seeks to understand some core attributes of the people who come to ATS. As we continue to grow and face the challenges of funding future initiatives, we're also looking to both improve the quality of ads that appear on ATS, while also reducing the overall quantity. Armed with some basic demographic information, it will be much easier for us to accomplish those goals. If you're uncomfortable answering, don't respond.


What About Privacy?

We opted to purchase a system we can host (and it wasn't cheap) so that we can perform surveys and polls of a quality and ease-of-use that is compatible with the current "best in class" running on the Internet now. This way, our survey/polling system is running on our domain, and no data is ever accessible by a third party. In fact, we're not even running analytics on the survey pages.

Answers to the survey and poll questions are never associated with individuals, and instead, are tallied as aggregate totals. Any data stored that might be specific to an individual users is limited to the surveys or polls used, and nothing else.

No "private" or "behind the scenes" data will ever be shared with any third party. Results will be posted online for all to see, and that is the only means by which anyone (including potential advertisers) may view results.



So help us understand our users by taking the ATS 2011 User Survey, and take a peak at our new system. In the near future, we'll be running polls and other surveys that are specific to hot topics and important ideas that emerge here on the ATS discussion forums.

Thanks!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I tried to do the survey and it said you had already received a response from this computer... Checked with husband. He didn't fill it out either.

Funny, according to the survey questions I'm here 24/7 yet nothing much interests me and I dont want anything more to be available.

That survey might have been better served with fill-in-the-blanks...guess it would take more time to figure things out.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I hate to be a donkey about this, but my play station has already been hacked and my information has already been stolen, so the trust is way down low at the moment, once they lock ‘Anonymous’ up and its treasonous members then I will do it, didn’t you receive all that information when we signed up ?

Took it...

Work for the government

I clicked link to survey and the phone rang so I logged off to answer it before entering any data.

When I came back on and clicked, I got same as BH. It stated I had already taken it.

Regarding the answers - whilst it is in best interests to have them filled out as much as possible there are not enough options on page 1 to facilitate everyone (I've not seen the other pages past it).

Whilst it would be very humorous of me to note that perhaps some of our extraterrestrial members may not fall into the gender capacity there are valid third gender people throughout the world as well as those who don't confine themselves to a gender.

Whilst this is a small critic of the form others such as marital status don't quite cut the mustard either. Job status is a little open ended as is education level. Financial status is sometimes viewed as private.

I am in favour of this survey and am happy to see the results once it's finished. It's just that as is, I can't complete the form as these are required answers as oppose to optional and thus I, and possibly others, can't take part

Good to see some demographics though Bill and I'm looking forward to the results - any idea on when they will be published? (I'd like to start on predictions for it you see).

-m0r

It worked just fine for me.

So this is the kind of information you swear on your grandma's grave you would NEVER sell to another party, right?

I'm proud to say i did my part and contributed.

Side Note: Apple can learn a thing or too about privacy and disclaimers from ATS imho. LOL.

This survey system is owned and operated by The Above Network, LLC and AboveTopSecret.com. At no time does any "third party" have access to your activity on this page (not even analytics), nor are individual answers shared with any third party.
PRIVACY: Your responses to all questions presented via the Opinion @ AboveTopSecret.com survey system are anonymous and not associated with any cookie, email address, IP address, or any other personally identifiable information while answering the questions. We track how many "guests" and "members" respond to questions, but we never associate responses to specific user categories, nor do we store any information about respondents that might identify them as a "guest" or "member" of AboveTopSecret.com. No data is stored specific to respondents other than the survey in which they participated, answers or other responses are never associated with individual users.

DATA SHARING: The results of all surveys will be shared online for all visitors to review. At no time will anything other than aggregate responses be displayed: for example, "X" number or respondents are "Y" years old. No additional data other than what is publicly displayed will ever be shared with any third party.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


If the aggregate results are freely available, there's nothing to sell.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Sorry to criticize but I am guessing that’s part of what this survey is all about.

First of all its only really for Americans with units in dollars and education level measured by American standards. The questions are not about giving feedback on the running of the site and staff performance (something I think is a must), I don’t really understand why ATS needs to know how much i earn or what age bracket i fall into. Also the stuff about paying for premium content i think everyone will agree to should always be a big no no. I was expecting allot more from this survey was this just a test run?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


When will be able to view results?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I have submitted my secret confidential private extrememly sensitive person data, hope it helps out.

my attempt to reply to the questions on the first page gave me an "error" notice. I left a couple of
spaces unanswered as they did not pertain to me and I felt that even if it did, I didn't wish to share it.
So...sorry....no info here.

reply to post by kevinunknown


Long surveys/polls are never fully completed. In the very-near future, there will be additional surveys on a variety of topics, including extending some of the questions from this one.

I attempted to take the survey.
But two of the questions on the first page couldn't be answered by me, unless I lied. So I left them blank.

Well, that was the end of the survey, it wouldn't let me leave the first page because I couldn't answer those two questions. So much for the survey.

I'm not married and I do not have children.

I am not unemployed, I am retired.

It is a good idea...


of note I like a few of the suggestions...

An investigative reporter would be an excellent idea

cost is a factor here though


I would love a magazine as long as it also had things separate from the threads...

it could have threads listed but

interviews that go in the magazine first...
ect....

I took the survey and was real excited when I got to the end, and all the bells and whistles went off and I found out I had won a free trip to Hawaii!



Then I got real bummed since I am on the no-fly list!



It's a cruel world, but a great easy to take survey, took me less than two minutes, and I hope it helps out the site.