(Note: This article was first published on our old site on 6-9-2019 and discusses the 2019 Force Community Survey. The results of the 2020 survey will be published around the same time this year.)
First off, thanks to the 58 people who took the time to respond to the second annual Force Community survey. The responses, which are largely made public, are intended to help improve the community by understanding what the members look for and want. It is worth noting that complaints and criticisms, where inputted, are not shared in an identifying way; I will try to work those into the analysis in a way to preserve the anonymity of the survey.
What Brings People to Force Sites
The response here is not surprising, though in last year's survey there were a few people who said they visited sites for Star Wars fandom; this year no one responded with that motive.
Aspect Affiliation
Asking people what flavor of Force user they affiliate with continued this year to result in a sizable chunk of users who don't identify with the traditional Light/Dark dichotomy. While the Light Jedi (blue) still hold half of the overall responses, with Shadow (red, it automatically assigns colors) and Dark (yellow) being about what they were last year, the other quarter of respondents break out into a variety. Five replied with a specific school, seven said they followed all of them or did not want to specify an aspect, and the rest said they didn't identify with any of them (which could mean they don't affiliate with the options listed and did not supply their own interpretation).
This also tracks with last year, though the responses of the Quarter of Variety were not the same. I think this is a healthy thing; not everyone is into the polarization. I would be interested in teasing a bit out of the Light Jedi as to what makes them affiliate solidly there, but this particular survey is more about site offerings than why people study the Force. I think it might be useful to sites who support the Light Aspect to have their own surveys as they wish, to understand what brings those members to that affiliation.
As for the Quarter of Variety, it's important for sites to understand that not everyone tosses in with the traditional breakdown. There is room for interpretations and people clearly think that way.
Features and Tools
The breakdown for what people like and use on sites is:
- Reading Content: 70.7% (was 79.5% last year)
- Real-time Chat: 67.2% (was 67% last year)
- Discussion Forums: 63.8% (was 78.4% last year)
- Journaling: 56.9% (was 65.9% last year)
- Guided Real-time Discussion around a Topic: 51.7% (was 39.8% last year)
- Podcasts and Pre-recorded Video: 41.4% (was 45.5% last year)
- Live Voice Chat: 39.7% (was 23.9% last year)
- Traditional teaching environment: 39.7% (was 36.4% last year)
2019 seemed to bring in a lot more of the discussion around a topic and live voice chat. I wonder if that isn't the influence of Discord, so let's pull in some of the related data here.
Voice/Video System Used
voice and video use in 2019
Voice and Video use in 2018
Use of Discord jumped from 42% of 88 responses in 2018 to 74.1% of 58 responses this year. Skype dropped pretty significantly. I would theorize that the flexibility of Discord in having both text and voice (and video) may have knocked Skype out of the running and put two of the most popular means of communicating (real-time chat and voice) all in one app. Interestingly, "real-time chat" didn't budge much, but voice jumped, so I think that while people were using Discord last year, they're using it for voice more this year and Skype less.
However, there is another data point about this.
How Important Is Live Voice or Video
(I changed scales this year from three choices to a 10 scale and regret it. I'll try to normalize but will probably go to the simpler method next year.)
1 is Not Important and 10 is Very Important
Normalizing this against last year's data by grouping the ten into three groups (1-3 being Not so important, 4-7 being Somewhat important, and 8-10 being Very important), 27.6% felt it was Not So Important (63.6% felt it was Not So Important last year!), 43.1% felt it was Somewhat Important (up from 29.5% last year), and 29.3% felt it was Very Important (up from 6.8% last year).
Members of the sites are definitely using and liking the interactive voice chats. I think it's worth bringing in a question or two about interactive video for next year, as Twitch and YouTube streaming has made that easier in the past few years. For those of us pondering how much time and expense to throw into these options, it would be useful to know if they're even wanted. However, I think Discord probably made it easier and people liked it once they tried it.
It's worth remembering, with this, that discussions guided around a topic scored very high also. While I don't have another data point around that, I think it's worth considering running such things on your live chat and live voice options and seeing if it works for you. It's a little extra work to organize and keep going, but it looks like people are interested.
I'll add the other multimedia result here, regarding pre-recorded voice and video, which would be your static YouTube and podcast content:
2019 on Podcasts and Static - 1 Not So Important and 10 Very Important
Normalized and compared: 22.4% Not So Important (down from 31.8% last year), 48.2% Somewhat Important (up from 43.2% last year), and 29.3% Very Important (up from 25% last year). Some increased interest in things like podcasts and YouTube videos here, but not huge.
Reading Content
The top use of sites, reading original text content, continues to rank very high at 70% this year, despite a drop from last year.
2019 - 1 is Not Important and 10 is Very Important
Normalized against last year, 8.6% said it was Not Important (up from 1.1% last year), 18.9% said Somewhat Important (up from 15.9% last year), and 72.4% said it was Very Important (down from 83% last year). Nothing too major, but it does mean that writing content continues to be very important to members.
Discussion Forums Still Strong
I was particularly interested in the results of this one, as it seems that live chat is becoming more popular than the traditional forums. So let's see.
Discussion forums - 2019 - 1 Not Important - 10 Very Important
Normalized against last year: 10.3% Not Important (up from 5.9% last year), 29.2% Somewhat Important (up a bit from 25.9% last year), 60.4% Very Important (down a bit from 68.2% last year).
2018 Results on Discussion Forum Popularity
One thing the 10 scale does this year is show a sort of less enthusiastic Very Important in the form of that 8 ranking. I don't really have any other data points to tease out if that's a trend. But for now, forums are still popular.
Journaling and Member Content
Members want content to read and they also seem game for writing their own in the form of journals and other texts. Overall, 56.9% said they liked and used journaling at sites, and I also asked if they wrote their own material:
2019 Question on Writing Own Content
2018 Question on Writing Own Content
Hooray for not having to normalize this one. Sheesh.
Weirdly, more people said they do not write their own material this year over a sliver who responded that way last year. A few threw in the option of doing it, but it's a slight increase in not writing. Still, 67.2% is a good chunk of the community who writes things themselves, so providing the means at sites is a solid option.
Traditional Teaching Environments
This question covers the mentor/teacher/student with lesson plans model.
2019 Result - 1 Not Important and 10 Very Important
Normalizing: 13.7% Not Important (down from 26.1% last year), 51.7% Somewhat Important (up from 43.2% last year), 34.5% Very Important (up from 30.7% last year). This seems to be a slight growth in interest. Given the FA's recent launch of the Academy, I'm more curious to see where this stands in next year's survey, as the Academy launched after most of the responses were in this year.
Obviously, this is a heavy lift for the Force community, and only shows a slight increase in interest in the responses. In my opinion, if it's something a site is thinking about doing, work now may pay off later as interest increases.
How Members Access the Sites
How do people access sites in 2019
How did they access in 2018
More smartphones this year than last. There were similar comments this year as last about wanting modern websites and features, so if you're looking at redesigning your site soon, make sure it looks good in a smartphone.
How Often People Check Sites
Visitation Habits in 2019
Visitation Habits Last Year
About the same, though more people said they visited once a day over last year.
Conclusion
Again, thanks to everyone who responded to the survey this year. I hope the results help the Force community understand what its members are looking for and adjust their offerings accordingly. Be sure to look out for the 2020 Force Community Survey!