Study

[sex_history]

Hi, I saw that there was a post about not placing personal ads on this forum, and I am about to post something regarding research study. If this is inappropriate, please let me know and I will take it down immediately. Well anyways, they often say 'research is me-search,' and that is very much the case for me, as I have developed my own interest in kink over the past year. So much so that it has become a professional and personal interest. If you are willing to take the study there is some information and a link below, if not thats cool too. If you'd like to know the outcome of my study, please send me an email at sexualhistoryanderoticlit@gmail.com and I can put you on my email list and send you a copy of the manuscript when its all done!


I am looking for individuals 18 and over to complete a study called “Sexual History and Erotic Literature.” Specifically, we are looking for individuals that identify as members of the BDSM community, and/or have participated in online or in person BDSM scenes. The present study examines how your sexual history relates to your opinions of erotic literature samples. The study will require that you answer some questions, read two erotic stories, and share your opinions of said stories. Please note that these materials feature graphic content, hence you should only access the survey in private. It will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete the survey. To access the survey, email sexualhistoryanderoticlit@gmail.com, or click on the following link: https://und.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eyUYSb1ZHbSbY9v

 

[NiceNastyMann]

Oh boy...

An esteemed member of the education elite wants opinions...

Okay. This should be fun.

 

[KoPilot]

An esteemed member of the education elite wants opinions...

Okay. This should be fun.

Eh, it's a qualtrics survey. I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt.

ETA: Dang the gender options are complete shit on this thing though. Male, Female, MtF, FtM, and that's it. Not even an "other" option, cripes.

So yeah, OP, one of your """female""" answers is a complete lie, jsyk.

 

[Bramblethorn]

You say "we" and "professional interest" - is this study sponsored by an organisation, or is it just a personal project?

As a general rule, I only do sexuality surveys which have been approved by an institutional review board or similar. Partly because survey design is HARD and most amateur-designed surveys end up being seriously flawed in one way or another, so it's not worth the aggravation. (This is a general comment - I haven't read yours.)

Also because I'm protective of my personal information; I want to know that the person I'm giving it to is legit, and I want to know what they're doing to protect my privacy.

 

[DVS]

Hi, I saw that there was a post about not placing personal ads on this forum, and I am about to post something regarding research study. If this is inappropriate, please let me know and I will take it down immediately. Well anyways, they often say 'research is me-search,' and that is very much the case for me, as I have developed my own interest in kink over the past year. So much so that it has become a professional and personal interest. If you are willing to take the study there is some information and a link below, if not thats cool too. If you'd like to know the outcome of my study, please send me an email at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I can put you on my email list and send you a copy of the manuscript when its all done!


I am looking for individuals 18 and over to complete a study called “Sexual History and Erotic Literature.” Specifically, we are looking for individuals that identify as members of the BDSM community, and/or have participated in online or in person BDSM scenes. The present study examines how your sexual history relates to your opinions of erotic literature samples. The study will require that you answer some questions, read two erotic stories, and share your opinions of said stories. Please note that these materials feature graphic content, hence you should only access the survey in private. It will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete the survey. To access the survey, email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or click on the following link: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well, first things first. You can't put emails and links like you have in your posts. It's against site rules. Here are the forum rules, but there are also site rules. So, you should find another way to do it. Maybe putting these links in your public profile would be OK. I'm not sure on that. You can access that by selecting "User CP" at the top of the page, then selecting "edit profile". Maybe a mod can help you with the rules. I just know putting them in a post is not OK.

Now, you should know that when someone uses the word research in this forum, we tend to wonder just what the research is for. You say the study "examines how your sexual history relates to your opinions of erotic literature samples". You haven't said who you are affiliated with or if this is just a school project or if it's just something you kids are doing for the fun of it.

I should tell you that we don't like being Ginnie pigs, especially if any of our sexual desires are going to be put under some microscope and examined by people who don't know enough about BDSM to even understand us. That's happened far too many times, already.

So, expect some wrath in this thread. We'll all try (well, most of us will try) to be nice about it, but like I said, that word "research" isn't a word we like. Now, if you can explain things to our satisfaction, you might get some takers for this thing, but have you ever been grilled before?

EDITED TO ADD:
OK, looking at the site link, that "might" be OK to leave. I'm not the judge of that, though. I do know that the email address is a no-no. Again, check with one of our mods. They are the rule keepers for this forum.

This is a free speech web site, so maybe your survey will survive after all. But, you must follow the rules, just like everybody else.

 

[seela]

I recommend editing your first post and mentioning where you're conducting the research and who's supervising it to give your request a bit of credibility. We get a fair share of "researchers" asking questions and trying to pry into our lives, when in reality they are just nosey people with no academic credentials.

I checked the link you gave and I can see that that information is provided there (as it should be), but your survey might generate more interest, if people could see it's legitimate from you post here already.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Duplicate post deleted...

After reading Seela's reply I checked the link and it looks like it is a legit properly-run survey, so I'll give it a go later on. Unfortunately we've had enough half-arsed amateur efforts here that without mention of sponsoring institution etc, I just took it for another of those. Gotta be careful with those first impressions!

 

[seela]

I tried to complete the survey. Didn't quite succeed.

I don't know if I'm an idiot or what, but the questions don't really seem to make any sense to me. After reading the story, am I supposed to answer the questions as if I were the "I" in the story or am I just myself? Or are they simply questions/statements like "based on the story, do you believe that 'I' is..." but the actual question part is simply omitted?

If I am to answer as myself, a lot of the questions are not applicable. And in many questions the little story doesn't provide nearly enough information for my analytical mind to answer one way or another.

I just don't get it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I tried to complete the survey. Didn't quite succeed.

I don't know if I'm an idiot or what, but the questions don't really seem to make any sense to me. After reading the story, am I supposed to answer the questions as if I were the "I" in the story or am I just myself? Or are they simply questions/statements like "based on the story, do you believe that 'I' is..." but the actual question part is simply omitted?

If I am to answer as myself, a lot of the questions are not applicable. And in many questions the little story doesn't provide nearly enough information for my analytical mind to answer one way or another.

I just don't get it.

Yeah, I was very confused by those questions too. Especially when a story has "me" acting completely contrary to my actual personality and inclinations, I have no idea how I'm supposed to answer.

I thought the bit on gender identity was problematic:

I identify as.....

Male
FTM transgender
Female
MTF transgender

It misses the fact that trans men identiy as male and trans women as female - that's kinda the point! - and it ignores non-binary identities altogether.

Do you identify with the BDSM community?

Yes.
No, I have some interest or wonder whether I am interested in BDSM but I have never practiced.
No, I have never practiced BDSM and have never been interested in it.

None of the above. I practice BDSM quite often, but it's not a community identity for me. Would have been better worded as "Do you/have you practiced BDSM?"

 

[DVS]

Yeah, I was very confused by those questions too. Especially when a story has "me" acting completely contrary to my actual personality and inclinations, I have no idea how I'm supposed to answer.

I thought the bit on gender identity was problematic:



It misses the fact that trans men identiy as male and trans women as female - that's kinda the point! - and it ignores non-binary identities altogether.



None of the above. I practice BDSM quite often, but it's not a community identity for me. Would have been better worded as "Do you/have you practiced BDSM?"

This is what I hate about surveys. I've taken several personality surveys for jobs and this crap of "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree" with several clicks in-between is one thing. But the way they word the question, they make it very difficult to answer. In many cases, there is no "one" answer. I'd rather have it be an essay type of question, so you can say exactly how you feel. Of course, it's impossible to use that format in a survey, because all they can use is data compiled from those click buttons.

But, when someone on the outside tries to word these questions, you can tell they know nothing about BDSM. And that makes total sense. If they know about BDSM, they don't need any survey to understand it. Those who don't understand us are curious. Unfortunately, the questions can often be pedestrian or just plain confusing.

And in their defense, it's the same with many things. Trying to explain why you like a certain kind of music isn't easy. Or, why you like a certain type of body over another. Men, try to explain women with one of these surveys, or women, explain men. When you are limited to the set answers of these surveys, the answers just don't fit. And when the answers don't fit, the survey is skewed.

 

[Bramblethorn]

But, when someone on the outside tries to word these questions, you can tell they know nothing about BDSM. And that makes total sense. If they know about BDSM, they don't need any survey to understand it. Those who don't understand us are curious. Unfortunately, the questions can often be pedestrian or just plain confusing.

TBH, I didn't get a "don't understand BDSM" vibe from this one, more of a "designing good survey questions is hard even when you do know the subject matter".

One of the important techniques in survey design is cognitive testing: before you release your survey to the world you get a few live people to work through your questions and discuss how they're interpreting them, whether they're having difficulty answering them, etc etc. I think cog testing would likely have picked up some of these problematic questions and identified the need to reword/clarify.

I do think there's room for quantitative techniques like surveys in understanding BDSM; without them it's hard to know whether one's own experience is universal. But I suspect the OP is going to get a frustratingly large number of "neither agree nor disagree"s and that's a pity for everybody.

 

[DVS]

I don't know...maybe I'm just different. I don't care if my kinks are in the main stream or out in left field. I just have my fun. And I'm sure a few of my kinks aren't in the main stream anyway.

And this is also just my opinion, but I don't think this survey is from within BDSM.