Is ScubaBoard representative of the diving population at large?

[spectrum]

Be good if that were in fact true. That every diver as a minimum remembered what they were instructed. I think not however fpr a significant percentage..

I was being an optimist.

 

[dmoore19]

One thing is for sure. Divers on Scubaboard sure do like to complain about divers.

 

[SeaHorse81]

Done. I'm very interested to hear how this compares to the DEMA information. Thanks for your efforts, Ray.

 

[drrich2]

Do NetDoc & his crew have ready access to forum membership self-reported statistics? Gender, age, # of dives, etc…?

Richard.

 

[Omisson]

Do NetDoc & his crew have ready access to forum membership self-reported statistics? Gender, age, # of dives, etc…?

Richard.

Problem with social science statistics is usually the social scientist handling the statistics....

[emoji1]

 

[cutty]

Done.... Looking forward to the results

 

[RJP]

I was being an optimist.

 

[KeithG]

I am skeptical.

I did the survey - but as always, many of the questions seemed stupid to me, so I did what every normal person (well MY normal) would do: I got offended and then lied. A Lot!

For example: "I often crave adventure" is a meaningless question. One of my coworkers thinks this means ordering the "spicy" tacos at Taco Bell every other thursday for lunch (but not too much adventure!). Another person I know perceives this as sledging their way on foot to the north pole with a group of disabled veterans in order to raise money for a charity. Same question. Very different responses.

I have personally participated in all of the activities listed more than once. Twice for some of them. Tens of times for others. Hundreds of times for others. Thousands of times for some physical activities not listed...(the survey missed Hockey, Baseball & Football! AND the other football: soccer) Seems to indicate that this question is just random data collection.

The age brackets seems to lump all "young" people together and all "old" people together... Makes assumptions that only middle aged people are targets. Let's ignore the young and the old?

The "race" question seems totally random (or at the very least extremely narrow minded mid stream bland American centric...). A quick survey of the 20 people I work closest with gives 1 white, 19 "none of the above" (unless "Other or multiple races" is the catch all for my "none of the above").

</rant>

But it was fun. A bit.

Cheers...


P.S. IMHO, Scubaboarders are NOT representative of divers. Scubaboarders are the core fanatics (with a healthy sprinkling of the lunatic fringe included). I suggest 9 out of 10 divers have never heard of Scubaboard. As proof I see way too many split fins, snorkels & Spare Airs and ZERO BP's, SMB's or doubles on my dive trips.



ymmv...

 

[RJP]

I am skeptical.


</rant>

But it was fun. A bit.

It's OK... everyone is entitled to not understand market research. It's preferable, in fact, from my perspective.

:d

The demographic questions (age, etc) were plucked from an existing study of divers; I did not alter them so that I could compare between that study and SB. As mentioned above, as a typical American I didn't think anything of the race/ethnicity question so when I plucked the demographic questions I simply included it without thinking about it. The age grouping that they used is not my favorite (frankly, I'd never use it) but it's statistically valid for most things surveys of adults. I'm not sure why you think it lumps "middle-aged people" together, unless your definition of middle-aged is "18-60"

The full breakout I prefer - including kids groupings - is:

00 to 2
03 to 5
06 to 10
11 to 15
16 to 17
18 to 24
25 to 29
30 to 34
35 to 39
40 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65 to 74
75 or older

The version above tends to cluster more around a "psychological" age, if you will.

As to the psychographic questions... they are from an incredibly well-studied methodology. That methodology includes a total of 41 questions... which I knew no-one here would stand for that. The methodology - based on cluster analysis of the full results are very good at getting under the hood of how people think and behave - what drives them, what motivates them. They actually make it easier for people to describe themselves accurately. I selected the ones I included based on wanting to focus on a few key domains. Sure, they don't work for a handful of people, but with a large enough sample size the signal-to-noise ratio is quite good since outliers such as yourself fall outside of the normal distribution.

Thanks for playing along!

 

[uncfnp]

Well I've obviously been tested and psychologically examed too many times over the years. I didn't find anything offensive or unusual about the survey.