Home Safety Survey

[Survey]

Hi! I represent a team of researchers from the University of Michigan. We are currently conducting a survey that gathers people's opinions on various home safety devices. The survey should only take 8-10 minutes to complete and is anonymous and completely confidential. We are not trying to sell anything, we are just gathering opinions. I realize this is not directly related to home repair, but I think it is close and that you all would have an opinion on it.

If you would like to help, here is the link to the survey:

Thank you for your time!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Last time I took a "survey" I got bombarded with email trying to sell me similar products. How do we know you are legit? Ed

[?" someone]

There is something seriously wrong with this link, it asked me to download something the minute I clicked on it. I suppose it's another trick to send viruses. No thanks, I cancelled the download.

[Old Fangled]

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:FHhrb.18983$ [e-mail]:

They are almost certainly fake. The post was done anonymously through google, and the web site is hosted by Verio. Not exactly what you would expect from any "real" study.

[Jeff Cochran]

You'd think a University Survey would be conducted on a University Web Site, no...?

Jeff

[Survey]

No, this survey is definitely not fake and we will not be using email addresses to contact anyone. It is anonymous and confidential. The only reason I did not use my own email address is that I did not want to have my own email box filled with spam. If you would like to contact me, you can send email to my hotmail account at [e-mail].

[Old Fangled]

Safety [e-mail] (Survey) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That much I can believe, since nobody in their right mind would fill in a valid email address.

However, I just went and looked at your survey multiple times (using different IP addresses each time). I notice that every single time I get "randomly selected to provide more information on 911 Window Beacons". Either your survey form is badly broken, or it's a very badly done marketing study for that particular device.

If this isn't fake, then you had better start over -- you are going to get a poor grade.

[David Efflandt]

The server is running IIS/5.0, but other than setting ASPSESSIONIDQSTSTRDQ cookie it did not ask Linux Mozilla to download anything.

The "Save & Continue" button before the survey even started could leave users questioning its intentions (should just be "Continue"). But that really just passes hidden variables for maintaining state to the first real form.

E-mail address is optional at the end, and I used a unique username for a domain that forwards everything to me (easily filtered if necessary).

[Survey]

I agree, but HRgems.com offers us the use of their system for free. We don't have to spend money on building a survey infrastructure when one is available at no cost and gives us the functionality we need.

[Jay Dreyer]

No, it's not a trojan horse for sending viruses. Thanks for trying, anyway. I'm not sure why it asked you to download anything. We haven't come across that in our testing.

[Jay Dreyer]

[Generic Male Homosapien]

Yes, I thought I was saving a file, and was concerned about it being a virus. I left the survey, changed some of my IE settings so that nothing could be downloaded, and returned to the survey. That button should ONLY say "Continue".

[Generic Male Homosapien]

I too was "randomly selected" for that device. I caught on quickly that the survey is for that device, but I completed it anyway. If I would have been required to use an email address, I would not have completed it.

[Old Fangled]

Generic Male Homosapien wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I didn't -- surveys should never attempt to lie to the subject. If it really is a marketing study about this "beacon", then it should have also been asking questions about competing and similar products.

[Jay Dreyer]

I'll pass that on to HRGems.com. I think when they say "Save and Continue" they mean it will be saved in their system, not on your personal PC. But, I'll let them know that when we give them our feedback. A couple other people mentioned the same thing.

Thanks for your time.

ASPSESSIONIDQSTSTRDQ

[Jay Dreyer]

Sorry, Old Fangled.