Re: Polling declared worthless

["Denis Robitaille" <denis_robitaille@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can not resist puting in my 2c.

What makes the poll not representative is not the quantity of response (with a 
sample of 1000, you can get a good picture of a population in the millions), 
but the fact that the population polled is not random. Only the subsciber to 
the mailing list are polled. also, in a regular pole, your answer questions 
over the phone, very easy. In an Email survey, you must write down your 
opinion, more difficult. So the result are biased toward the part of the 
population that have strong opinion (because they are more likely to put in the 
effort). Also, most of the RPG population do not participate in this, or any, 
mailing list. And from that fact we can assume that most of them are more 
conservative because they do not follow as closely the evolution of RPG.

Denis Robitaille
Directeur services technique TI
819 363 5187

SUPPORT
Jour (EST) Daytime : 819-363-5087
En-dehors des heures (EST) After hour : 819-363-5095
Network Status : 819-363-5096

>>> joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 08/06/03 03:03pm >>>
> From: DeLong, Eric
> 
> I'm saying that the poll is worthless as an argument because it is in
no
> way a representative sampling of the audience.

Okay.  That's your opinion.  By your reasoning all polls are worthless,
because to be statistically significant requires a greater percentage of
programmers than follows any of the iSeries mailing lists or forums.
 
Joe

_______________________________________________
This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx 
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l 
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx 
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.