Threaded Conversation Survey

Hello, and thank you for coming by. We are testing an interface called a "threadmap" for reading conversations as part of a university research project.

The following questions concern the Scribus mailing list.

  1. About how long have you been reading this group?

     less than 1 month
     1 month to 6 months
     6 months to a year
     1 to 5 years
     5 to 10 years
     more than 10 years

  2. About how long have you used online discussion groups of any kind?

     less than 1 month
     1 month to 6 months
     6 months to a year
     1 to 5 years
     5 to 10 years
     more than 10 years

  3. What program or service do you usually use to read incoming new messages in this group? (For example, your e-mail program, newsreader, or website where you read these messages.)

  4. What program or service do you usually use to review past messages in this group? (This could be the same answer or a different answer from the previous question.)

  5. How often do you read new messages in this group?

     less than once a month, or never
     once every few weeks or month
     about once a week
     a few times a week
     about once a day
     a few times a day

  6. How often do you go back to look at past messages?

     less than once a month, or never
     once every few weeks or month
     about once a week
     a few times a week
     about once a day
     a few times a day

  7. How would you describe your participation in this group? (Check all that apply.)

     mostly reading but not posting
     socializing
     humour or entertainment
     asking questions
     finding answers or information
     offering answers or advice
     debating or arguing with others
     solving problems as a group
     making decisions as a group

Next, you will see a "threadmap" arrangement of the messages in the recent conversation about Scribus on Solaris 10. The responses to each message are arranged in blocks of text from left to right below the message, forming a tree. Blocks by the same author have the same colour. When the blocks become too small to contain text, their content is not shown. Clicking on a block zooms in to a view where that block is shown at the top and its replies are shown in more detail. When the mouse pointer passes over a reply that quoted its parent, the quoted part is highlighted in the parent block.

Click here to see the threadmap in a new window. Please explore the threadmap and compare how you would read a conversation this way to your usual way. Then rate your level of agreement with each of the following statements.

Statement Strongly
Disagree		 Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Agree
The threadmap helps me understand the conversation.
The threadmap is easy to navigate.
The emphasis on the first sentence in each block helps me understand the conversation.
The highlighting of sentences in the parent block helps me understand the conversation.
After spending some time to become familiar with the threadmap, I would be comfortable using it to browse conversations.
For reading a currently ongoing conversation, I would prefer to use the threadmap over my current method.
For reviewing a past conversation, I would prefer to use the threadmap over my current method.
I would use the threadmap in addition to my current method.
Using the threadmap is faster than my current method for figuring out what is happening in a conversation.
If the threadmap were always available, I would probably look at past conversations more often.

Please use the space below to describe the reasons for the preferences you just indicated. What did you like or dislike about the threadmap, and how would it affect the way you participate in this group? Feel free to write as much as you like.

Any questions about this survey? Contact the survey administrator at <pingzesty.ca>.