Thursday, June 22, 2006

Blog Approval Rating Sky High

Jeff Massie recently sent out a brief survey to all the Animation Guild members on our email list (over 1,100 people) to see what people thought of the blog... Knowing a long survey would both inhibit responses and take a lot of time to sort out, Jeff kept it to a simple five questions, (Do you read it at least weekly?; If yes, rate the blog from 0-5; do you find the blog invasive?; have you read things on the blog you thought were inappropriate, and if yes, please elaborate?; do you use a special blog-reader program?) The responses (about 40) were overwhelmingly positive, and the average rating was 4.45 (5 being best). None of the respondents thought the blog had been invasive. A couple of people wished Steve would give even more information from his studio walk-throughs. One member wrote that he hadn't read anything inappropriate on the blog, but that "sometimes I wish they would say less about what they see here at work." On the other hand, another wrote "What some others who are more sensitive consider 'invasive' is specifically one of the reasons I like the blog's content: e.g., reports about conditions or attitudes at certain studios without specific names mentioned..." I should note here that Steve always has far more insider info than he actually posts. It can be a balancing act between giving useful information and revealing inappropriate material. So far I think we've struck a good balance, and those who responded to this survey seem to agree. Almost no one is using a blog-reader (one wag wrote: "You mean like hiring an intern to do my web surfing for me??" No, we meant something like NetNewsWire or Thunderbird or Bloglines, which were the only readers mentioned, by one person each. Those of you who didn't respond to the email, feel free to leave a comment.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I were running a studio, I would probably be pretty upset hearing some of the stuff that is said in here about walk throughs. However, since I'm not running a studio and I'm an artist- I'd like to hear as much dirt/info as possible!

Anonymous said...

Interesting.

If I ran a studio I wouldn't care what was said because hopefully, it would be a great studio and I would be proud to spread the word.

I wrote an article some time ago about how open studios were in past decades. I'm not sure how or why cartoon making became such a "secret business."

Anonymous said...

with all the similar themes running rampant.. i can see a huge reason why you want to be "secret". I dont blame studios and I would be the same way.

Studios in past decades may of been open because there were not too many people making animated features at the time. Now, everyone is doing it and it is wise to keep things as quiet as possible. even though we all know what everyone is working on anyway.

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