The far right on CB

[Indy Coug]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Some people are naturally unlucky.

Are just some examples of the bad questions in that survey.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Are just some examples of the bad questions in that survey.

Agreed, those questions are used for fun, but they are nonsequitur in true political discussion.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by creekster

Not true. They are not trying to establish truth, necessarily, and certainly not in an objective way. They are trying to determine which way you lean on a spectrum and just how deeply you feel those leanings. SO you may feel it is a "false dichotomy" but it is crafted so as to force you to place yourself somewhere on the axis. It is doing just what they want. This is social science, emphaisis on social, not hard science (dangling meat before SU).

I don't get it. So they aren't trying to establish truth, but they are trying to tell me where I fit on a spectrum and how deeply I feel about it? Am I the only one who sees the contradiction there? It tells me very little if I don't know what I'm answering. Tomorrow I will likely give a totally different answer based on what I had for lunch or who knows what else. That's a false result, IMO. It doesn't tell me where I fit. For a much better test try this one:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Are just some examples of the bad questions in that survey.

WHy? Do you know what they are trying to achieve by asking these? WHy do you think they are bad? I don't thik they are all bad. THey represent concepts and world views and may correlate with certain ideological positions. Why don't these serve the purpose they describe in the faq?

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by BlueK

I don't get it. So they aren't trying to establish truth, but they are trying to tell me where I fit on a spectrum and how deeply I feel about it? Am I the only one who sees the contradiction there? It tells me very little if I don't know what I'm answering. Tomorrow I will likely give a totally different answer based on what I had for lunch or who knows what else. That's a false result, IMO. It doesn't tell me where I fit. For a much better test try this one:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

I'm still a Centrist.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

Well, we have your extensive and detailed posting history, or two numbers from a survey that you took. Which shall we believe? Hmmmm......

Originally Posted by creekster

Second, the perception here, at CG, is that you are quite extreme. You can take all the surveys you want and they can't deny the Forrest Gump inspired conlcusion that extreme is as extreme does. So the fact that you aren't actually extreme (taking you at your word here) but that every one thinks you are extreme (taking almost everyone else at their word here) means that you are either a very, very bad communicator, or that you are playing games. Are there other options?

Being called extreme on Cougarguard isn't really that much of an indictment, I'm afraid.

I don't put much weight in a simple online survey (it's just for fun), but I do think the results are very interesting. It's not my fault CGers dot the periphery of the graph.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by BlueK

I don't get it. So they aren't trying to establish truth, but they are trying to tell me where I fit on a spectrum and how deeply I feel about it? Am I the only one who sees the contradiction there? It tells me very little if I don't know what I'm answering. Tomorrow I will likely give a totally different answer based on what I had for lunch or who knows what else. That's a false result, IMO. It doesn't tell me where I fit. For a much better test try this one:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

LOL! I swear I did not do this on purpose.

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 50%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 50%.

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz-score/draw.php?p=5&e=5

[creekster]

Originally Posted by BlueK

I don't get it. So they aren't trying to establish truth, but they are trying to tell me where I fit on a spectrum and how deeply I feel about it? Am I the only one who sees the contradiction there? It tells me very little if I don't know what I'm answering. Tomorrow I will likely give a totally different answer based on what I had for lunch or who knows what else. That's a false result, IMO. It doesn't tell me where I fit. For a much better test try this one:

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

That quiz isn't better. In fact, it is policy based. It would show how the subject feels based upon thoise policies presented, but that is a different question tahn what is being asked here. THese are very different ways to gather a data set that may allow conclusions to be drawn. I don't find that either is necessarily better or worse than the other.

My comment about truth was poorly phrased. I mean they are not trying to establish an absolute truth, just to show where you appear to be based upon your answers. You are certainly clever enough to see how the various questions are likely to affect the result (and this is, in my mind, the biggest flaw to this approach), so your choices shouldn't be too bothersome to you.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by creekster

WHy? Do you know what they are trying to achieve by asking these? WHy do you think they are bad? I don't thik they are all bad. THey represent concepts and world views and may correlate with certain ideological positions. Why don't these serve the purpose they describe in the faq?

Because they mean something different to every person who sees them. A purpose of a test is to place you on a scale and tell you where you fit, isn't it? If the scale is different for each person than the result means nothing. I can't compare my score to yours (or Ghandi's or Hitler's or anyone's) because the questions are essentially different to you than they are to me because of how ambiguous they are. In effect, every two people are taking a different survey because no one sees the question the same. That may seem groovy to an artsy-type social scientist, but it's not going to produce a result that is comparable from person to person. Take the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth question, for example. What if I'm Hitler and recognize that it comes from the freaking Old Testament, so by definition I must vehemently disagree with it because I hate Jews, when it fact the philosophy of the concept shouldn't necessarily be THAT disagreeable to a fascist. Does that make sense?

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Tex

Being called extreme on Cougarguard isn't really that much of an indictment, I'm afraid.

I don't put much weight in a simple online survey (it's just for fun), but I do think the results are very interesting. It's not my fault CGers dot the periphery of the graph.

Tacit agreement that there are no other options?