2014 Herd Census open

[schnee]

The 2014 Herd Census is open!

A new year is upon us, which means it’s time for all good bronies to stand up and be counted. The 2014 Brony Herd Census is now underway, and this year it’s for SCIENCE! The Herd Census has teamed up with Salem State University, so the results of this year’s census will be available to researchers for peer-reviewed

Comments

[ungulata]

For science! For Twilight! For Equestria!

For later! (Gotta get ready for work.) 8^D

[schnee]

For later! (Gotta get ready for work.) 8^D

Foir enough!

[ungulata]

Done! Took a while. Some of those questions... it's like, "are you a sexist Old Boy wishing woomans would just know their place and fix me supper?". 9_9 Having to sort through 12 different charismatic ponies and rate them according to how much they resemble you was no picnic either... You had to label each one in your head, cross reference to how strong that personality trait was in your self description, rinse and repeat for all twelve, in order. Am I more like goth geeky Luna or motherly warm Celestia? Where does hardworking honest helpful Applejack go in the list? Ouch. Good thing I like organizing stuff. People who don't might be tempted to just rate their favorites and drop in the rest at random. How to describe the CMC? Scootaloo wants to be Rainbow Dash, so: groupie. Applebloom just wants. And Sweetie Belle?? I mean, fill in the blank: 'I am like Sweetie Belle because we share ______ as a personality trait'.

[schnee]

Yeah, those questions regarding gender roles and stereotypes were almost a bit disheartening, insofar as that they apparently still have to be asked even today. OTOH, if you want to measure something, you have to ask about it, even or perhaps especially if you already expect the result to very strongly swing in one direction.

And I definitely agree regarding the personality trait question. I just answered it based on my gut feeling, but I'm not a fan of these ranking questions in general. "Most" and "least" neither imply nor are implied by "a lot" and "a little": I still love my least favorite pony. Even when the ends do indeed correspond to the common intuition, the ranking does not have to possess any linearity (i.e., if I really love my most favorite X, and don't like my least favorite X all that much, this doesn't say anything about, say, my second-least-favorite X: I might love it, I might not, you just don't know). All this also makes it pretty much impossible to meaningfully compare different participants' rankings, I think.

[kittymink]

Did it!

[schnee]

Yay! That earns you ten Twilight points! /)

[kittymink]

yay! What can I redeem them for?

Maybe a pair of wings!

[schnee]

Indeed! For wings, you'll want to speak to M. A. Larson - or alternatively, you can have what's in the mystery box!