Reader Survey

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

As promised, here’s a link to the Reader Survey.

Please note, we are focusing on what people most like/disliked about the original ME and MEW.

Your responses will help us understand what readers valued most and guide how ME&W evolves over the coming months. Changes won’t be instant, for obvious reasons, but the aim is for every reader to find plenty to enjoy in each issue.

Finally, Question 2 is meant to be multiple choice, but isn’t working properly – we don’t know why and can’t change it, so please just check the forum you use most.

Please feel free to share the link with readers who don’t use the forum.

Many thanks

Neil

 

[BazParticipant @baz89810]

The survey is a bigger load of rubbish than the magazine it is surveying. 

[Trevor GaleParticipant @trevorgale]

I thought this would be a link to the results of the survey – since I received an e-mail some time ago inviting me to fill in the survey questions, which I did.

When I revisit that mail and link, ‘Survey Monkey’ tells me that I have already completed the survey.

When I visit the link in this latest post, I receive this reader survey again, but it does not tell me that I have already completed it.

Is there any difference between this survey and the one which I already completed on 10th March???

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Should be the same one but posted here so that those who may have let their subscription lapse or only buy occasionally have a chance to give their opinion. emails would only have gone to current subscribers and only those buying the mag where the link was given would have seen that.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

The obvious omission to me, regarding the use of forums question, is the omission of Facebook &/or .io groups.
e.g. Facebook “Myford Lathes” group is valuable, interesting and often very helpful.
Similarly, there are also dedicated groups for Warco, or Dore Westbury etc.

Bill

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

That is why there is a box at the bottom, I typed “all of the above plus Traction talk and selected FB groups”

I did point out to Neil that you should have been able to tick more than one forum as well as a couple of other shortcomings

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

TThe systems broke, Ifilled thesurvey in the email and have done it again on the forum!!!, c**p in c**p out!!!

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

It is the same one but posted here so that those who may have let their subscription lapse or only buy occasionally have a chance to give their opinion. emails would only have gone to current subscribers and only those buying the mag where the link was given would have seen that.

I’m not currently a subscriber but did get the email and filled in the survey (which I found confusing).

Ian P

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

When did the email go out – I seem to have missed it?
I think the article rating question should have had an option for “this was an utter waste of paper and my time”.

[baz]

On baz Said:

The survey is a bigger load of rubbish than the magazine it is surveying. 

Perhaps you could elucidate?

Neil

Be delighted if Baz explains because justified criticism is always valuable, especially if it suggests positive alternatives.  Unfortunately, I fear he can’t, because his negativity is emotional, not rational.

I’ve tried hard a few times this year to get members posting terse critiques to elucidate and never got a decent answer.  Sadly, in the absence of reasons, I have to conclude that problem isn’t the magazine, or the forum, it’s the correspondent!  Grumpy reactionary individuals, their enthusiasm exhausted, maybe they are depressed.   They’re lashing out, not helping themselves or anyone else, not realising unjustified criticism is low value crap.  Ignore it.

Having been ill for over a year, I sympathise with the grumps!  Health issues and other stresses make everything grim, even the good bits.  Reading 4763 this morning made me nauseous.   Can’t blame ME&W, the problem is I’m unwell.  Will try again when I feel better!

Dave

 

 

 

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I did not get the email either, then again I did not get my paper mag like I should have.

Can anyone who got the email compare the url in that with the one in the mag or in the link in Neils opening post?

Other points about the survey I mentioned to Neil as soon as I tried to fill it in.

1. Should be MEW not ME&W when it asks about how often you buy or did you once subscribe as the new title has not been going long enough for those to apply.

2. As noted above should have been multi choice

7. Length of articles again should really be multi choice, I’d read a 2 pager as well as a 10 parter if the content were of interest.

These suggest that the survey did not go out to anyone to test and answer before going live.

 

Would have been nice to have used the 1-5 type answers asking people what subjects they would like to see 1 being less coverage, 3 Ok as it is and 5 a lot more coverage. As it is if you did not buy the last mag or two you can’t fill in what you thought of the contents except “did not see it” And the box is quite small to type in for other comments.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

To be fair surveys are always difficult to set up. At work we had a department that sent out a survey to thousands of customers every month it seemed and I never saw one that I couldn’t ‘improve’. We also never got really useful results even after repeated revisions, Survey Monkey doesn’t allow all the options you would like.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I started to fill it in on my mobile but lost the will to live so abandoned it.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Being more specific:

While a member at one of my clubs said he didn’t like club visit articles I like them even if it does make me wish I had houses in all sorts of parts of the country. This was not in your survey.
The ghost story has no place in an engineering magazine (apologies to Mike whom I’ve known for years at St Albans club).

A lot of problems are poor selection and editing of photos, and a hard thought as to whether the photo or text is adding value. How often do pictures of a complex item include most of the lathe if not the whole workbench leaving the needed detail impossibly small.
MEW 348 – Rolling box. Perhaps aimed at 10yr olds in a DIY mag but hardly engineering. All that was needed was picture 3 “I repurposed a pair of skates to provide wheels to make a box that would slide into a corner easily.” Then picture 4 “Alternatively you can see how easy it would be to turn some wheels and bend a bracket to hold them.” Save 1.5 pages.
ME 4760 Drilling and Boring. Photo 15 of the Slocomb drills is not big enough to clearly show a newbie what the shape is. A diagram is really needed. Phot 14 just showing a facing operation is pointless. Most of the rest of the photos are just showing a drill going into a bit of metal – pointless. Photo 19 does not show the actual shape of the countersink hole. Photo 21 uses 1/3 of a page to show….. a bit of metal with a hole in it. What might have been of value to a newbie would be a picture of a drilling failure showing a triangular hole or one pulled off centre by a badly ground drill. (but not needing half a page). The text of this article probably good for a beginner.

I don’t see much value in 50% of ‘Club News’. While it is nice to see one’s club mentioned if it just says that Outer Mongolian Steamers Club magazine gave a detailed design for a time machine this is sod all use unless the article is actually available to ME readers. The pictures Geoff includes are mostly interesting but perhaps need a little cropping and more relevant information – ME 4760 Satellite phone.

ME4761 is looking good though I haven’t read it yet. I will leave the reader to mark each photo out of 10 for relevance, cropping, and clarity.

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

While we are at it: here is an example of the things which make me grind my teeth and pull my sparse hair.

Issue 4762 has on page 36 two pictures of some drills, together covering almost half a page.
The purpose of these pictures should be to illustrate the difference between Morse 1 taper and Morse 2 taper, but the captions are wrong!

Surely, to show the difference a picture with only two drills would have been sufficient, maybe augmented with some dimensions.

Grumpy mode off…
Hans

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