posting on behalf of the Strategic Planning Committee

[aethel]

Greetings from the Strategic Planning Committee!

For those of you who are not aware, we are a committee with the Organization of Transformative Works (OTW), the parent organization of Fanlore. For more information about who we are and what we're doing, please see our update posts at the OTW website.

As part of our information-gathering process, we have put together an anonymous survey for Fanlore editors. We'd appreciate it if you could take some time over the next two weeks to fill it out and help us gain more insight into Fanlore -- both to the team as a whole and to the
individuals within it.

We understand that for many people time is at a premium, which is why we have structured this survey to take only as much time as you have -- as many of the questions as possible are multiple choice or use scales, and there are options on most to add long-form answers if you have time. Though, of course, we would obviously prefer that each of you answer all the questions (at length!), we have constructed the survey so that you have the option to skip any of the questions.

There is also a place at the end of the survey to indicate your interest in talking more to the Strategic Planning Committee via e-mail or in chat.

Please note: we will keep all information you give us strictly confidential. We want everyone to feel comfortable being as honest as possible with us, and understand that anonymity is part of that comfort for most. We will be sharing aggregate data; if we find we need to quote any long-form answers or anything said in chat or e-mail, the quote(s) will be thoroughly anonymized beforehand.

We know that as hard as we've tried to make these surveys clear and comprehensive, we're still making mistakes. We would appreciate your patience if there's anything that pings particularly wrong -- and there's a long-form box at the end where you can tell us what you liked and/or did not like about this survey. That information will help us as we move forward with other Organization for Transformative Works committees and workgroups.

Any questions or comments about the survey should be addressed to strategic-plan@transformativeworks.org (not to the Fanlore staff). Additionally, if you would like to read the text of the survey before you fill it out, you are welcome to request a copy of the survey as an RTF or TXT document for your personal review.

Thanks so much,
Strategic Planning Committee

Link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CKB6MPK
DEADLINE: Please complete by December 1, 2012

[Please note that there is a separate survey for Fanlore gardeners. If you are a gardener and did not receive an email, let me know. -- aethel]

Comments

[ratcreature]

So is this only for current or also for ex-editors who left fanlore?

[lalejandra]

Although it was not written with retired editors in mind, ex-editors are indeed welcome to take the editor survey. Thanks for checking!

(If the survey is found insufficient for the ex-editor's needs, they should get in touch with the Strategic Planning Committee at strategic-plan@transformativeworks.org -- and they are welcome to use any kind of pseud they want. No one should feel restricted to the name they use(d) when working with the OTW/Fanlore.)

[espresso_addict]

I assume gardeners should only answer the gardeners' survey?

Should we advertise this outside Fanlore? I feel input from those who would like to edit Fanlore but haven't been able to (for whatever reason) would be valuable, as would input from those who formerly edited but have left.

[lalejandra]

Correct, gardeners should only answer the gardener survey.

Ex-editors are welcome, although the survey was not written with retired editors in mind; however, this survey is definitely not geared toward people who have never edited Fanlore. Those people would not be able to answer the majority of the questions.

However, if people who have not edited Fanlore would like to discuss their Fanlore and OTW opinions with the Strategic Planning Committee, they are welcome to get in touch with us at strategic-plan@transformativeworks.org.

[kylara]

I'm a gardener and did not receive an e-mail about the gardener's survey.

[aethel]

I just sent you an email through Fanlore. I hope it arrives!

[kylara]

Thank you!

[extempore]

I did some changes and edits, but I don't consider myself an "editor" - I'm far to seldom on fanlore for that. Should I take the survey nevertheless? Also, I couldn't find information on when my user account was created or how many edits I did. Where do I need to look for that?

[espresso_addict]

I can't answer for the survey committee, but as a gardener, it seems to me that feedback by anyone who has edited would be valuable -- in particular, anyone who's experienced problems that put them off editing as much as they would have liked.

When you are logged in, your edit count is given under 'My preferences' (top right menu). Your edits are listed under 'My contributions' (same menu); for the earliest edit, click 'Earliest' and the first one will be at the bottom of the list. Hope this helps!