Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at people like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two minutes and fill out our survey?

This is simply for a university project and has no profit involved, just aiming to get a decent grade!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DF5MC8G

Many thanks.

On Saturday 16 February 2013 15:53 wrote in
alt.home.repair:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at
people like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two
minutes and fill out our survey?

This is simply for a university project and has no profit involved, just
aiming to get a decent grade!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DF5MC8G

Many thanks.

Hi,

You *may* want to post this to uk.d-i-y as you are from England (unless
there's a University of Huddersfield somewhere else).

alt.home.repair has a high proportion of american readers.


But before you do[1]:

Question 5 should probably be a radio selection.

Question 7 is so short of choices that it should be expanded - or just left
as a free form field.

I was going to comment further, but I relaised that Question 9 is the last
question!

I would have expected questions on:

a) Geographic demographics

b) Income

c) Level of experience of previous DIY work (eg change a tap washer, fit a
shelf, build a wall...)

d) Education level (O-levels/GCSEs, A-Levels, HND-etc, Degree, Postgrad
degree).

and probably a whole lot more.

You've not asked what people expect to see in such a magazine - eg is it all
fluffy cushions and colours, or hard core real DIY such as building a new
shower room, taking electrical power to a shed etc.


[1] Because if you send this there as stands, you will get a lot harsher
"feedback" than this. I work at a british university - if you were my
students, I'd fail you for being lazy because what you've presented as an
attempt to conduct "research" is weak.

Before you say "we're not statisticians or scientists" - that's no excuse.
Jornalism in this country has reached a pathetic all time low because, apart
from a few publications like Private Eye, all the mainline journos are
either too lazy to go beyond regurgiating press releases or are too ill
informed to digest the deeper information in a story and present it to their
readers. I see it all the time, whenever anything is reported that I have
some specialist knowledge about.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://squiddy.blog.dionic.net/

http://www.sensorly.com/ Crowd mapping of 2G/3G/4G mobile signal coverage

Tim Watts wrote:

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed
at people like yourself and we was wondering whether you could
spare two minutes and fill out our survey?

alt.home.repair has a high proportion of american readers.

I would have expected questions on:

a) Geographic demographics

This DIY magazine is an academic excercise - so they're going to take
any responses here as being representative of some hypothetical market -
one that coincidentally pays for magazines with English currency.

b) Income

Probably not relavent. You could argue that people with low incomes
have less disposable / discretionary money to spend on DIY projects, or
you could argue that people with low incomes are more motivated to "do
it yourself" because they have less money. You could argue that people
with high incomes have more money to spend on magazines, or conversely
that they have less interest in "DIY" magazines because they don't do
anything for themselves - they hire other people to do it for them.

c) Level of experience of previous DIY work (eg change a tap
washer, fit a shelf, build a wall...)

Self-assessment of abilities like that are never accurate. And they are
not predictive of whether or not it would help determine if there is a
market for a DIY magazine.

d) Education level (O-levels/GCSEs, A-Levels, HND-etc, Degree,
Postgrad degree).

Like income, you can argue that people with high-level education are
typically more (or less) able to turn a wrench, or drive a nail.

and probably a whole lot more.

These kids should be looking more at trying to duplicate the many
technical and industry magazines that I get at $Dayjob. All come to us
as free, some we can't stop them them from being delivered. All paid
for 100% by advertizing.

The new model is free. And for civillians - it's e-delivery (not
print).

You start by going to manufacturers and distributors and ask what
products, tools or materials they are having a problem selling. Then
you create some DIY content articles centered around those products,
include advertizing paid for by the makers / sellers of those products,
and you include them as part of the general delivery flyers distributed
to pre-selected residential markets. You've pre-selected the cities and
neighborhoods getting your "magazine" based on information you purchased
from demographers based on criteria that you selected.

I'm posting this response to alt.home.repair as well as e-mailing it to
revampmagcrew @ gmail.com because it's highly likely that their post was
a "hit-and-run" post to this newsgroup - and they will probably not make
an effort to come back here and read any comments that result, or carry
on a dialog with those that respond only to this thread.

On 02/16/2013 09:23 AM, Survey Guy wrote:

Probably not relavent. You could argue that people with low incomes
have less disposable / discretionary money to spend on DIY projects, or
you could argue that people with low incomes are more motivated to "do
it yourself" because they have less money. You could argue that people
with high incomes have more money to spend on magazines, or conversely
that they have less interest in "DIY" magazines because they don't do
anything for themselves - they hire other people to do it for them.

I think a lot of people with disposable income do "DIY" because it is
the trendy thing to do. With the proliferation of home shows and the
like, there is satisfaction to be gained in going through the process of
doing it themselves, as well as the bragging rights you get when someone
compliments you one the work and you can say, "Thanks, I did it myself!".

Then you have people like me, who grew up in a house before there was
"DIY", but we did all of our own work, as much as we were able to,
because there was no disposable income (extra money went into the bank
to be saved). In that situation, it wasn't done for the enjoyment, it
was just a necessary way of life. We would never think of hiring a
painter, and a broken lamp cord was replaced by purchasing a new one and
installing it.

Things like a water heater, however, were generally beyond the scope of
at least my family, and required a plumber. Nowadays this isn't so much
the case, with units sitting on the shelf ready to go at every home
store, with all of the necessary paraphernalia nearby, along with
suggestions of help should you need it.

Jon

In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at people
like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two minutes and
fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"



This is simply for a university project and has no profit involved, just
aiming to get a decent grade!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DF5MC8G

Many thanks.

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:29:17 -0800, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds"
wrote in
Re
University D.I.Y Project:

In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at people
like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two minutes and
fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"

About 40 years ago that was certainly true, but now? Have you noticed
the quality of college/university graduates lately? How about the
quality of the "journalism" on TV and in the newspapers?

On Saturday 16 February 2013 21:05 CRNG wrote in alt.home.repair:

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:29:17 -0800, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds"
wrote in
Re
University D.I.Y Project:

In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at
people like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two
minutes and fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"

About 40 years ago that was certainly true, but now? Have you noticed
the quality of college/university graduates lately? How about the
quality of the "journalism" on TV and in the newspapers?

There is very little "journalism" these days. Just repeating press releases
and wires.

Or fancy-tickling masquerading as "news" - whether it be The Sun with tits
on page 3, or the Daily Mail firing up the Outrage Bus over
immigration/doley-skivers/education(ironic)/etc

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://squiddy.blog.dionic.net/

http://www.sensorly.com/ Crowd mapping of 2G/3G/4G mobile signal coverage

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:11:13 +0000, Tim Watts
wrote in Re University
D.I.Y Project:

On Saturday 16 February 2013 21:05 CRNG wrote in alt.home.repair:

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:29:17 -0800, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds"
wrote in
Re
University D.I.Y Project:

In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at
people like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two
minutes and fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"

About 40 years ago that was certainly true, but now? Have you noticed
the quality of college/university graduates lately? How about the
quality of the "journalism" on TV and in the newspapers?

There is very little "journalism" these days. Just repeating press releases
and wires.

Exactly so. Now the big question: what killed "journalism"? (assuming
that it ever really existed, which I seriously doubt).

On 2/16/13 10:23 AM, Tim Watts wrote:

You've not asked what people expect to see in such a magazine - eg is it all
fluffy cushions and colours, or hard core real DIY such as building a new
shower room, taking electrical power to a shed etc.


That should've been question 1 on their list. What can we put in
our magazine that would encourage do it yourselfers to trade their cash
for it?
Another question would be about form. Online only? Ebook? and
probably some others I'm too ignorant to ask.

CRNG wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:29:17 -0800, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds"
wrote in
Re
University D.I.Y Project:

In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at people
like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two minutes and
fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"

About 40 years ago that was certainly true, but now? Have you noticed
the quality of college/university graduates lately? How about the
quality of the "journalism" on TV and in the newspapers?

....and POOF! There goes the original purpose if this thread.

The insults will begin flying in 5...4...3...2...1

"Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds" wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

Good Afternoon everyone.

We're a group of second year Journalism students at the University of
Huddersfield and we could really do with your help.

For our project, we have decided to design a D.I.Y magazine aimed at people
like yourself and we was wondering whether you could spare two minutes and
fill out our survey?

As journalism students, you should have known not to use "was" but "were"

As an English speaking person the OP should have known not to use "was" but
"were".




This is simply for a university project and has no profit involved, just
aiming to get a decent grade!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/DF5MC8G

Many thanks.