Poll Results

Background to Muddled Times

I first started Muddled Times because I saw a niche in the MUD2 website market. I wanted to start a website that brought together the community and one where the community fundamentally ran the website. Because I enjoyed reading both Admiral Bombow's Chronicles and Witch? so much I used this format to create my new website: A magazine (or webzine or e-zine as some people prefer). Suzy, a fellow witch, had already tried something similar but on a smaller scale - she had produced three newsletters called "Muddled Times" which unfortunately stopped the year before.

With her permission I used the Muddled Times title for my new magazine and sold it to the players as a website where they could contribute anything they liked to as long as it was MUD2 related. Serious articles, gossip, artwork, fiction - anything they liked! I encouraged people to take this opportunity to write regular columns. This was especially useful for people who wanted to run their own websites but didn't have the time or know-how.

I enlisted sub-editors who were mortals. The idea being that they could eventually take over responsibility for one section and develop it as they saw fit. One of those sub-editors would have potentially ended up running Muddled Times.

This was my dream, and it came true ... up to a point.

Background to the Poll

In the last edition of Muddled Times I placed a poll to gauge the readership's opinion of Muddled Times. I did this for several reasons and I needed the readers' help to decide where to take the website.

My main reasons for conducting this poll were:

• The number of articles coming in to me has slowly been dwindling over the last few issues.
• I no longer have the help of the three sub-editors that used to help out and I have been having trouble recruiting further sub-editors.
• There are outside factors that mean I will be unable to spend as much time with Muddled Times and MUDII.
• This issue marks the third anniversary of (the new look) Muddled Times so it seemed like a good time to step back and take stock.

When I first started Muddled Times I had more time to devote to the website and there were more people with more enthusiasm to help me do that job. These two facts probably account for my first reason for conducting this poll. These days I have less time to encourage and personally talk to people about Muddled Times and combined with there simply being less people around this has resulted in fewer articles.

From my third reason you may well think that I should hand over Muddled Times to someone else. This has been in the back of my mind for at least a couple of years now. When I started this site I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep it going forever so I have been on look out for a potential new editor. There was someone who fitted the bill a while ago but it didn't work out - they drifted away from Muddled Times and eventually the game. Currently, any suitable editors have their own websites so there just isn't anyone to take over my role at this moment in time.

There's the background to both Muddled Times and last issue's poll. Lets take a look at some actual figures.

Results

Muddled Times Statistics

• Fact 1: In June 2000 (the first issue of the "new look" Muddled Times) there were 400 initial visits on any Muddled Times page, excluding referrals from search engines.
• Fact 2: In May 2003 there were 2235 initial visits on any Muddled Times page, excluding referrals from search engines.

These two facts are shown in the following chart:

Month		Visits
Jun 2000		400
Jul 2000		307
Aug 2000		684
Sep 2000		412
Oct 2000		952
Nov 2000		476
Dec 2000		787
Jan 2001		453
Feb 2001		1068
Mar 2001		357
Apr 2001		858
May 2001		516
Jun 2001		654
Jul 2001		1338
Aug 2001		1428
Sep 2001		1061
Oct 2001		1918
Nov 2001		1173
Dec 2001		1973
Jan 2002		1544
Feb 2002		1827
Mar 2002		1662
Apr 2002		1907
May 2002		1611
Jun 2002		1970
Jul 2002		2793
Aug 2002		2507
Sep 2002		2110
Oct 2002		2412
Nov 2002		1943
Dec 2002		2155
Jan 2003		2138
Feb 2003		1879
Mar 2003		2126
Apr 2003		2393
May 2003		2235

• Fact 3: Every month there are between 1000-1500 views on article pages (not index pages). This excludes referrals from search engines.

Poll Results

• Fact 4: The number of unique views on April's editorial was 104.
• Fact 5: The number of unique views on the Poll was 54.
• Fact 6: The number of responses to the Poll was 29 (excluding obviously duplicated responses).

The actual results of the poll are represented in the following chart:

How often would you like to see Muddled Times published?
Monthly		13
Bi-Monthly (Every two months)		9
Quarterly (Every three months)		1
Bi-Annually (Twice a year)		0
Not bothered		1
Would you like to see more of one type of article?
More serious articles		12
More fun and light-hearted articles		11
Not bothered		6
Do you think Muddled Times should continue?
Stay as it is		28
Close the site		0
Not bothered		1

What does it all mean?

Interpreting these results is a tricky thing to do. Here are my interpretations, assumptions and some questions that I believe the results pose.

From the Muddled Times stats it can be seen that there are a lot of people reading Muddled Times. And the vast majority of those views are genuine readers as the stats exclude people who have stumbled across the site from a search engine.

But what do the poll results tell us? Taking the editorial readership of 104 it can be assumed that the majority of those people knew about the poll and understood the reasons behind the poll (especially combined with the monthly newsletter and the forum and BB postings). Only about half of those people then chose to go and look at the poll. Then roughly half of those again chose to actually fill in the poll. What does this tell us? That only a quarter of the Muddled Times readership actually cares whether Muddled Times carries on? Is it worth carrying on for those 29 people? Of course it's probably fair to say that some of the people who read the editorial meant to fill in the poll but never quite got round to it. It's also probably fair to say that there are some readers out there who for one reason or other haven't yet read April's issue (and missed the newsletter, forum etc).

From the actual questions in the poll 28 of the poll responses are what I would call a positive response (in that they support Muddled Times) and 1 poll response was negative (they were "not bothered" as to what happened to Muddled Times).

The answers to the questions are very interesting:

The first question was "How often would you like to see Muddled Times published?"
The preferences of "monthly" (13) and "bimonthly" (9) were very close. Interestingly 1 person suggested "quarterly" and this was in fact one option I was seriously considering when I composed this poll.

The second question was "Would you like to see more of one type of article?"
The preferences of "more serious" (12) and "fun" (11) were incredibly close. In fact a number of people commented that they would have liked to been able to tick both boxes! I guess that means they want more articles of all types.

The third question was "Do you think Muddled Times should continue?"
The preference "stay as it is" (28) was chosen by everyone except one. No one ticked the "close the site" option but then it could be suggested that the people who chose not to fill in the poll would have ticked that had they returned the poll.

In summary, of those who returned the poll, you would like to see a monthly Muddled Times with more serious articles.

What Happens Now?

An interesting question! Some people have commented both on the forums and in the tearoom how the whole issue of Muddled Times has shifted from "Not enough articles = less issues of Muddled Times" to "Not enough articles = NO Muddled Times". When I wrote last issue's editorial, wrote the poll and wrote all of my forum messages I always left closing down the site as an option, perhaps I didn't make that clear enough from the start. However, when the deadline came and went last week and I had only 3 articles I really was seriously contemplating making this the last issue.

That changed though. I canvassed aggressively for more articles. Hawumph joined the cause and did like-wise. We both posted on the forums stating in no uncertain terms how fragile the future of Muddled Times was. People then sent me articles. I used to be much more forward about asking for articles before and lately I've been more reticent for many reasons. Maybe that's all it needed - me to be more forward again. And Hawumph joining in has certainly helped!

The issue of help has been all but resolved too. Crowley has volunteered himself as a sub-editor and Hawumph has volunteered himself as PR person. They both write articles for Muddled Times, Hawumph now has two columns. This all helps enormously with the time issue.

What is the way forward? Players have been very supportive with this issue (all be it a little last minute!) and there are clearly a lot of varied articles to read. But is this because I threatened to close down the site? Obviously I can't do that every time there's an issue due!

I'm a little stuck as to what to do now. As a result of this poll I've had a lot of support and there have been some very constructive and informative messages included in a lot of the poll results. At the same time I can't ignore the actual figures. Only a quarter of the readership was bothered enough to fill in the poll. Can I correctly assume that only a quarter of the readership care about Muddled Times? A good analogy to this is to look at the time this game moved from Wireplay to the Phoenix server. On Wireplay hundreds of people said that they loved the game but when we moved to Phoenix only a few were willing to put some money towards the game. Is it all worth it? With MUDII - yes, but with Muddled Times - ... ?

The way I see it I have four options:

1. Turn Muddled Times into a quarterly magazine. This was my preferred option originally. My main worry about this is that we'll lose momentum and end up getting even less articles than before. Also, this is not a popular option with the readers.
2. Turn Muddled Times into a monthly magazine. This is the preferred option of the readers who returned the poll. Although there has been a lot of support recently and I've roped in more people to help me I think it's a little too soon to see if that's enough to sustain a monthly magazine.
3. Keep Muddled Times bimonthly. This will only work if I can get more articles and help. I refuse to see this site go steadily down hill. I would rather stop the magazine when it's still on a high.
4. Close Muddled Times down. Although the figures imply that this is the popular choice I have no concrete facts to support this. I don't want to close the site down, but like I said above I don't want to see Muddled Times die a slow and painful death.

Conclusion

I have been delighted and touched at all of the support the poll has resulted in. I've received some invaluable advice and some great ideas. I've gained more help in the form of Crowley and Hawumph, and of course Foddy is still onboard helping out in many different ways. Despite the disappointing number of returns from the poll I won't be closing down the site just yet. However, I'm undecided whether to take the magazine quarterly, monthly or keep it bimonthly. I think only time can answer this one now. Can you all sustain your enthusiasm for the site? We'll see with the next issue that will be out in August with possibly a make-over too! Yes, Muddled Times will carry on bimonthly (for now) but ONLY if the articles keep arriving in my mailbox!

I think it's very important for me to say that I most definitely do not expect all of the Muddled Times readers to contribute. This is a voluntary site comprising of articles contributed by people who want to. I believe that there are plenty of people out there to provide enough articles for each issue but it's reticence, lack of self-confidence, apathy, writers block and a multitude of other reasons that people don't. Please, please don't get the impression that I expect everyone to contribute and that I have no time for people who don't. This is simply not the case.

I would like to thank everyone who returned a poll result, everyone who gave me advice on the problem, everyone who continues to support Muddled Times and especially Crowley, Hawumph and Foddy for making Muddled Times what it is.

OK, that's it! Sorry this article has been so long!