TAIRA Survey (May 2003): Results and analysis

Aim of the survey

This survey was proposed to decide if technical improvements were needed to the current TAIRA. The main technical improvement suggested was the addition of a "digest" (daily or weekly) feature. To these technical questions, other questions were added to help the committee decide which policy improvement could be done and to better know the TAIRANs (at least those who answered).
82 TAIRANs (15%) have replied to this survey, this shows the level of interest of the community. The average subscription time of the respondent is 2 years. Only one respondent had been subscribed for more than 10 years.
As some respondents did not reply to all questions, percentage are relative to the number of respondent to the question. Error bars are given to evaluate how significant is the answer.

Timing of the replies

The spread of the replies as a function of the time (figure below) shows that almost all replies were collected within 24 hours after each of the 2 announcements (initial announcement and TAIRA owner announcement) made on the list.
It is interesting to note that 7 replies were collected within the 5 first minutes and 16 within the first hours.

Replies per day

50	5	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	23	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
(number of day after announcement)

Subscription duration

20	22	16	7	4	5	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
(number of years of subscription)

About the message delivery

The way of subscribing TAIRAns would like to see implemented first is all messages sent in a row once daily (47 +/- 8 % of the respondent) followed by a daily digest (37 +/- 7 % of the respondent) and 13 +/- 4% do not think that any new means of delivery would be necessary. The number of replies to the "second and third prefered mode of delivery" drops below 50%, showing that there is little insterest for a weekly delivery.

Prefered delivery mode

In case of a daily delivery, 43 +/- 8 % of the respondent would like it to take place before 10h. Alternatively, 22 +/- 6 % of the respondent would like the message to be delivered in the evening. All other options gathered less than 15% of the votes.

Prefered delivery time

The weekly delivery (which has gathered only very few votes) would be prefered on monday by 41 +/- 9 % of the respondent and on friday by 25 +/- 7%.

Prefered delivery day

Most of the 10 comments left in that section favor keeping the delivery as it is now.

About the content of the messages

Sales-free messages Respondants are not as strongly in favor of a sales-free TAIRA as one could think following the comments posted on the list. Only 25 +/- 6% really want a sales-free TAIRA whereas 37 +/- 7% are against this option. The dominant answer to that question was that people would like to receive the sales only when they want to buy or sell something (38 +/- 7%).

If it was possible to receive only the informative content without the Sayonara sales, would you subscribe to that option?

Sales-only messages Some respondents are mostly interested in the sales content of TAIRA as 28 +/- 6% would subscribe to a "sales-only" list. 27 +/- 6% of the respondents would join them only when they want to sell or buy something but 45 +/- 8% would not be interested in such a list.

If it was possible to receive ONLY the Sayonara sales, would you subscribe to that option?

About the committee interventions

Most of the respondent find that the committee's interventions have been appropriate both about Sayonara sales (73+/-10%) and the discussions (70+/- 10%). Among the others, more people think that the interventions should be more frequent (20+/-5% and 23+/- 6%) than less frequent (7+/-3% and 8+/-3%).

Interventions about Sayonara sales

Interventions about discussions

About the posts to be accepted on TAIRA

Within the list proposed, party announcements and scientific discussions are the posts that would be the most encouraged by the respondents (79+/- 10% and 69+/- 10% respectively).

Parties

Scientific discussions

Philosophical discussions, ads for Tsukuba businesses and Sayonara sales updates would also be mainly welcomed (either encouraged by 45+/-8%, 30+/-6% and 26+/- 6% or tolerated by 32+/-6%, 31+/-7% and 44+/- 7%).

Philosophical discussions

Adds

Sales update

The pattern is not so clear for jokes where "tolerate" and "discourage" have the highest votes (31+/-6% and 32+/7%) or political discussions where all 4 propositions are consistent (within the error bars) with 25%: Encourage has 28+/-6%, Tolerate 21+/-6%, Discourage 20+/-5% and Ban 24+/-5%.

Jokes

Political discussions

Comments by the respondents Many comments left by the respondents show that they would like to know more about the events in Tsukuba. They also would like to get more information about Tsukuba and about jobs in Tsukuba.

About Sayonara sales complementary announcements

Sayonara sales update would be accepted by the respondents mainly (71+/-10%) if there is a significant change on the sale list (price changes for example). 14+/-4% would prefer no sayonara sales updates. The end of the sale should be announced when there are many requests (44+/-8%). 13+/-4% of the respondents would like to see it announced always but 28+/-6% would prefer the end of the sales not to be announced.

If Sayonara sales updates were allowed, how frequently should the updates be allowed?

Once a Sayonara seller has sold all items. Shall he send a message to the list?

Note: the answers to that section would have been more relevant if multiple answers were allowed!

Free comments left with the survey

Many respondents stress that they like being on TAIRA as it provides a feeling of community to the foreigners here. Some insist that "world wide English" should be tolerated on the list. Some people regret that when a request of information is made to the list, answers gathered are not sent back to the list. Many respondents dislike pointless discussions but some note that they have been less frequent recently.

The respondents and the foreigners community

Only 83 +/- 10% of the respondents said they were subscribed to TAIRA!
26+/-6% are subscribed to Livetalk, 21+/-5% to TIF. 18+/-5% are member of TWMC, 6+/-3% of Hash House Harriers and 2+/-2% are members of RVC soccer.

Analysis and comments

The results above were taken directly out of the survey. Here are a few comments about these results.

Most of the committee interventions on the list are not sent to the list, but only to the TAIRAn who did not conform to the posting rules. Thus many TAIRAns only see a small part of the committee job.
There have been a few initiatives toward a "sales specific" mailing list in Tsukuba like Massimo's newsgroups and Nitaya's TEM list. Both have a very low traffic at the moment, so one can wonder if this would be the appropriate answer to the need of the community.
The Alien times has been publishing a list of events for the foreigners in Tsukuba in its last 2 issues. The latest update of this list is available online at http://tsukuba.free.fr/events/ and it is possible to receive the events list every week by email.
Everybody is responsible for posting informations on TAIRA. The committee welcomes every information posted on the list (as long as it complies with the posting guidelines) but is not responsible for the information posted.
Massimo had made a page with jobs offers a few years ago. This page is no longer maintained due to lack of interest. Job offer posting are welcome on the list.
The TAIRAns should understand that most of the subscribers are not native english speakers. Thus "World wide English" should be accepted by all.
Recently, the committee wrote privately to all the people who had asked for information on the list during the preceeding several weeks, but none responded ... ... ... If you want others to send back information, wouldn't you start by doing it yourself?!

Last modified: Wed May 21 18:28:36 JST 2003