Mastodawn

Dr. Casey Fiesler

We ( @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley ) are researchers at University of Colorado Boulder conducting a survey about social media platform migration. If you are at least 18 and have used Twitter and/or Mastodon you are eligible to share your experiences with leaving (or choosing not to leave) Twitter and/or joining (or choosing not to join) Mastodon. You can optionally provide your email address to enter a drawing for a $75 gift card. Please boost! Survey link: https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3BLXjcmBmKpyR2S

Qualtrics Survey | Social Media Platform Migration Survey

The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that lead to and challenges of leaving and joining social media platforms, including federated social media. This research will help us to understand how socio-technical infrastructures are regenerated and remain resilient from influxes of newcomers, in order to inform better designs and processes.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 25, 2023

Also a note on the above survey: We designed and piloted this before before Bluesky launched. We added a few questions about Bluesky, but it is focused on Twitter and Mastodon.

Also for those of you who are still on Twitter, an RT over there would be really helpful too. We are hoping to also hear from a lot of folks who haven't left! https://twitter.com/cfiesler/status/1661807702266499072

Dr. Casey Fiesler on Twitter

“We're conducting a survey about social media platform migration! If you're at least 18 & have used Twitter and/or Mastodon and/or Bluesky you're eligible to participate. You can optionally provide an email to enter a drawing for $75 gift cards. Please RT! https://t.co/ofPPIudlDh”

Twitter

Stephen Coles May 25, 2023

@cfiesler So glad you are doing this! But please consider another prize than Amazon gift cards. Many of us prefer not to support companies like Amazon.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 25, 2023

@stewf I’m sorry that we didn’t offer an incentive you were interested in! If you filled it out anyway it’s much appreciated.

Stephen Coles May 25, 2023

@cfiesler Most definitely will! This is important research! ❤️

Que May 25, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley took a few extra minutes to go check my stats on both sides. Submitted and open to followup if needed!

Deborah Pickett May 26, 2023

LB there are questions in the survey 👆🏻 about how you feel about researchers scraping your posts for research purposes, so if you feel strongly about that, go have your say.

LB: the survey also assumes mastodon IS the fediverse and that you came across in the big Nov migration wave so bite down on a pencil or something to get through it.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@ratsprite We are definitely not assuming either of those things! We just scoped the survey to be specifically about Mastodon. And e.g. the multiple choice answers are based on an open answer pilot survey of about 100 people that we conducted a few months ago.

leading cackle influencer May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley i am super excited to see what y'all do with this! <3

Daniel Lo Nigro 🇦🇺May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Completed! It's a pretty well-written survey IMO.

muckraking madness May 26, 2023

The survey was well done. Good Luck! I look forward to getting data on the survey.

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley

Hector Rodriguez May 26, 2023

@cfiesler In typical "me" fashion I thought about a question I wish was asked AFTER I submitted the survey.

I didn't see a question specifically about spam. There is LOTS of spam on Twitter and has greatly increased since bought by Elon Musk.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@rocketcheddar oh that's a great point! interestingly that didn't come up in our pilot survey. but of course we'll be analyzing all the open answer responses so perhaps others will answer it as well.

weirdly, I personally get a similar amount of DM spam on mastodon and twitter

Thomas H Jones II May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Isn't a self-selecting survey likely to yield unreliable results?

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.May 26, 2023

@ferricoxide @cfiesler @MattNicholson @blakeley We’re only trying to draw inferences about our respondents.

Randomized online survey sampling for externally valid inferences is really hard. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/methodology/collecting-survey-data/internet-surveys/

Doing it in a federated architecture will be even harder—but we have to start somewhere!

Internet Surveys

The number of surveys being conducted over the internet has increased dramatically in the last 10 years, driven by a dramatic rise in internet penetration and the relatively low cost of conducting web surveys in comparison with other methods. Web surveys have a number of advantages over other modes of interview. They are convenient for […]

Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@bkeegan @ferricoxide @MattNicholson @blakeley Also literally any research conducted with consent has selection bias. :)

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley

Good survey. Just completed. Maybe let people know up front how long the survey will take to fill out. That might turn people away though.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@dennisfaucher @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley The consent form says 15-20 minutes! But we certainly could have reiterated that. (Though I'm hearing much quicker times also; I think it's quite different depending on how you respond.)

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley
Not surprised that I didn't pay attention to the instructions🤦‍♂️

Ruud Baars May 26, 2023

@cfiesler Since I moved away from the bird, the question on followers is misleading: the correct answer can only be zero, or use past tense.

Crystal Huff (they/them)May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley @max_in_somer arrrgh, I was almost done filling it out and then I accidentally closed the window! 🤦🏼🤦🏼🤦🏼

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@crystalvisits @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley @max_in_somer if you open it up in the same browser it may have saved your place!

Crystal Huff (they/them)May 29, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley @max_in_somer you were right! Even going back a couple of days later, it saved my place! So I was able to open and close it a couple of times when I wanted to look up follow counts, etc. 😅 Thanks!

Snail May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Is this US only? Can a gift card be provided in other currencies?

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@snail @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley It is definitely not U.S. only, but unfortunately we do not have a mechanism for providing gift cards in another currency. For whoever wins the drawing, we will ask them for the email address to send it to, which of course may not be their own.

Snail May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Then of course, from the goodness of my heart, and for science

Oliver Kohll May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley An additional question I didn't think to add in the questionnaire when asked - about engagement. On Mastodon people reply, even though I've only 2 followers (!), on Twitter radio silence to exactly the same posts. Or maybe the Q was there and I missed it.

Stone Bear May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley

If you want to entice people to take your survey, _actually pay them for their time_. Or, just make it interesting and people will take it for free, to have a say.

DON'T DO THE DRAWING THING. This tells me "I want you to work for free but I don't want you to THINK you're working for free" which is prima facie dishonest with your survey audience.

I never take surveys like that, and I encourage others likewise.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@stonebear @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley This is a very understandable stance, and though of course as you say we hope that many people are interested in the topic and just want to have a say, we completely understand if folks do not want to take our survey for this reason.

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley At the end of the survey, you don't let us get notified of results *and* not give out our email address. I'd prefer to be notified on here, not by email.
-F

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@Hearth @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Oh we will definitely post the findings on Mastodon, for sure!

Nico -telmich- Schottelius May 26, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Where/how are you going to publish the results of the study?

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 26, 2023

@nico @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Eventually as a scientific paper (where? lots of options!) but probably as a blog post first. In both cases we'll share back here.

Nico -telmich- Schottelius May 27, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Thanks a lot for the clarification. I was wondering, because it might be rather interesting for many #mastodon users to read it, but depending on where you publish, the results might be stuck behind a paywall.

Dr. Casey Fiesler May 27, 2023

@nico @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley For the most part I don't publish behind paywalls!

MacChoiligh May 27, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley Left Twitter because it was out of control with lies and disinformation.

noivad May 27, 2023

@cfiesler thanks Dr. Casey

Shamika La Shawn Jun 2, 2023

@cfiesler @bkeegan @MattNicholson @blakeley I'm hoping the boosts are helpful. I think @robin may also be able to help boost!