Linguistic survey on ubuntuforums.org

[aguafuertes]

Hi everybody,

I'm currently writing my thesis in linguistics, on the perception of language use in online communities. Being a long-time Ubuntu user myself, I decided to base my empirical research on the huge and active community that ubuntuforums.org represents.

To do this successfully, I need your help: I developed an online survey and need as many participants from ubuntuforums.org as possible - all of you would be perfect

Link to the survey: http://attitude.openinformation.org/survey/start/
Screencast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-T64MT5Gp8

Spread the word!

More on the survey

My online survey takes 4 Threads from ubuntuforums.org, and I simply want to know what you think about them. For this, all you have to do is to rate the single posts in these threads on a scale, going from "really polite" to "really rude". Additionally you can/should provide a short comment on why you chose a certain point on the scale - and markup the text parts that "triggered" your decision (if possible).

I uploaded a short screencast (~ 3 min) on how to take the survey to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-T64MT5Gp8

Furthermore, the survey:

• is completely anonymous
• requires Javascript and Cookies to be enabled
• takes 15-20 minutes
• the best thing: you can win an Ubuntu book

One important thing: if you take the survey, please complete it, otherwise I cannot use your results. So hang in there - at the end you can provide your E-mail adress and participate in an Ubuntu book raffle!

Once again, the link to the survey: http://attitude.openinformation.org/survey/start/

More background

My name is Gregor, I'm from Germany, where I study English Linguistics at Bonn University (http://www.linguistics.uni-bonn.de/). You can find my - currently inactive - blog here: http://blog.openinformation.org/index-en.html

I've presented this project to the ubuntuforums.org council to make sure that it is in accordance with the Code of Conduct and in general acceptable for the ubuntuforums.org community. Guys, thanks for your feedback and support!

If you have any questions, just write a post in this thread and ask - I'll be happy to respond.

Thanks a lot for your interest and participation!
Gregor

[aeiah]

i find ubuntuforums.org unusually polite. i think this is partly due to it being full of a lot of new linux users sharing a newly found enthusiasm for the opensource movement as well as stringent moderators. i dont think it's particularly indicative of social forums as a whole, but is probably indicative of many tech support forums. are you also doing a similar thing with, say, 4chan's /b/?

[aguafuertes]

i find ubuntuforums.org unusually polite.

I agree, due to the COC ubuntuforums.org has a very polite atmosphere, especially for a forum of this size.

But that makes it more interesting, too: while there exists a clear Code of Conduct, it will be exciting to see how native and non-native speakers of English interpret/enact the COC in their communication - and how they perceive single posts.

[aeiah]

ahh yes, i get ya. i suppose its a decent one to use in that case. anyway, i did your survey. be sure to post the results some time, heh

[Elfy]

I'd be really interested in knowing why you want to know how long I've lived in the US but not in any other countries of the world.

[aguafuertes]

I'd be really interested in knowing why you want to know how long I've lived in the US but not in any other countries of the world.

The varieties of English (US, GB, AUS etc...) differ significantly in nearly all linguistic features, be it different words, grammatical structures, semantics or pragmatics. I want to be able to set the focus on one variety, if necessary, in comparison to the others

Unfortunately I don't have the time to do this for each variety (that would be huuuge), so I had to single out one - the US American variety.

[bruno9779]

I'd be really interested in knowing why you want to know how long I've lived in the US but not in any other countries of the world.

Many, if not most Europeans think that US citizens are much more rude than any other english speakers.

The local slangs also contribute to a different perception of rudeness and coolness.

PS: I don't want to insult anyone, this is a clear and quite common perception we get by this side of the atlantic ocean.

[aguafuertes]

Thanks!

be sure to post the results some time, heh

definitely, but it will take a while

[dragos240]

Done

[moxfyre]

Hi everybody,

I'm currently writing my thesis in linguistics, on the perception of language use in online communities. Being a long-time Ubuntu user myself, I decided to base my empirical research on the huge and active community that ubuntuforums.org represents.

...

More background

My name is Gregor, I'm from Germany, where I study English Linguistics at Bonn University (http://www.linguistics.uni-bonn.de/). You can find my - currently inactive - blog here: http://blog.openinformation.org/index-en.html

I've presented this project to the ubuntuforums.org council to make sure that it is in accordance with the Code of Conduct and in general acceptable for the ubuntuforums.org community. Guys, thanks for your feedback and support!

If you have any questions, just write a post in this thread and ask - I'll be happy to respond.

Thanks a lot for your interest and participation!
Gregor

Very cool! I have a Bachelor's Degree in linguistics as well, and have always been interested in this kind of sociolinguistic research.

Good luck, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results.