Monday, March 14, 2011

Impressions of You

 DAY ONE

Who is the average RA fan?
I get the feeling sometimes that in this RA fandom we seem to have quite a bit in common with each other besides just the mutual admiration for Richard Armitage.  I hope you won't mind if I ask you to participate in a poll that I imagine will discover whether we do have a lot in common or if we are a more varied group than I suspect.

Don't worry. The poll is completely anonymous. I am not interested in selling anything to anyone.  I will publish the results at the end of the FanstRAvaganza.


RA as John Mulligan in Drowning Not Waving
Even though we are all interested in the same actor, we may be interested in him for different reasons.  Some of us like certain characters better than others.  There have been many polls like this.  We may also prefer him in different types of genres.

But so far I don't think there have been too many polls to find out about RA fans themselves.  What kind of people are we?  Are we really all middle-aged Radio 4 types? Nat at RAfanblog did a poll recently to discover our average age:
 http://armitagefanblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/22nd-poll-results-whats-my-age-again.html
The result? 30 and 40 year olds tied for first place. That also fits the demographic of those who watch my fan videos.  But we are certainly about more than our age!  If you answer all the poll questions carefully, maybe we will find out a few more things we have in common.
Phylly's video demographics

Poll Questions:
1. How long have you been an RA fan?
**UPDATE**
The polls I am refering to were in the sidebar and the results have been removed for final analysis to my FanstRAvanganza 2 Wrap Up post.  To see the results click here.

17 comments:

Musa said...

What a great idea. Curious to find out more, and maybe to be surprised.

Charlotte H. said...

Great Poll! I'm always happy to tell others about my love for RA. In fact, I've recruited a few. Just like to share the love. :D

Avalon said...

Voted:)
Great poll idea.

Anonymous said...

Voted!

OML :)

Nat at RA FanBlog said...

Aloha, Phylly! :)
Nice poll questions.

Anonymous said...

Hi there! Interesting polls. Will you poll us on our ages, cuz I want to be 39 again. ;)

bccmee said...

Great polls! I really like data and information, and even though of course it's not scientific, it's really interesting!

tyme_4_t said...

So glad this is RA-ganza week...needing the escape. Votes made and looking forward to the week ahead in RA world! :)

Anonymous said...

I think this is a great idea. I'd also be interested in knowing educational level and marital status :)

Summer said...

This is a very original poll! Eager to see the results!

Anonymous said...

Would be interested in educational level, too. Only because everyone contributing to these blogs seems so intelligent.Which doesn't necessarily relate to formal ed.

Had to enter single-other on the poll, as widowed wasn't included.

fitzg

mulubinba said...

Good poll, Phylly. I think the results will be interesting. Were there 5 questions? My browser seems to have put most of them in your sidebar!

Fitzg, the question of education has raised some heated discussion over on the forums at times. Some people recently stated that they felt intimidated by the level of intellectualism there was within the fanbase and they felt that their own comments were not valued. I guess this is the beauty of blogging as people are free to post in their own individual way. It is an interesting point - I have a health/science base which means that I find it difficult to engage in discussions that are arts/history/literature based. The great characteristic of this fandom is that no matter what our age/demographic/educational background is, we all have a common interest in RA's work.

Phylly3 said...

Thanks for voting everyone, and for your comments! I meant to have more questions, one of which was educational level, btw! Thanks for asking, Servetus!
@mulubinba-- I intended to imbed all the poll questions in the post but this was rather tricky and very time consuming (which I had little time for).
@fitz -- I was reluctant about using the "w" word for some reason, but also worried I was missing some group, so that's why I used "single other".
I hope to add a few more poll questions to the sidebar as time allows over the week. So I hope everyone will keep checking back and voting.

Fanny/iz4blue said...

Voted! I'd be also interested to hear from the poll how many came from other fandoms and/or are new to online activity. Particularly since so many of us are *whisper* older ..

Jonia's cut said...

Since Oct 2008 :)

pi said...

I am not sure educational level means much. I would love a poll on maturity level! LOL!!!!

I have to say, I have encountered the work of creative people way more than some intellectual perspective. Perhaps that would make a novel and interesting poll.

I like that you're open to suggestions for polls!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'd never have described Armitageworld as intimidatingly intellectual, but perhaps my perspective is skewed. Just lots of smart people who want to communicate their informed and interesting opinions. That's the best part of it to me.

I just think educational level is an interesting thing to know in combination with other data. For instance, a high percentage of highly educated single women could mean more disposable income to buy DVDs of Armitage's work. Or greater technical facility in watching it illegally. Every educator wishes for a way of assessing maturity level. :)

Of course educational level doesn't always correspond to intellect, and some very uneducated people in the formal sense are very intellectual (my entire family, e.g.). I am sincerely sorry that anyone feels that the "intellectualism" of the RA blogosphere prevents her from participating in discussions -- not least because I think that on the whole the Armitage blogosphere is incredibly friendly to all kinds of people. The people who comment on my blog, at least, are tremendously nice to newcomers of all types and work to make them feel included, for which I am extremely grateful. Comments like squee! and LOL! are just as welcome there as anything else.