Google Analytics from October 1 - October 30, 2011
Unique Visitors: 10,369
Total Visitors (includes repeat visits): 36,724
Number of Page Views: 78,962
Number of people who submitted the blog survey:
377 (roughly 3.6% of the month's unique visitors, which is 2.6% more than we expected to actually do the survey)
A lot of the feedback given to the survey was not in a form that we could figure percentages from. We wanted to leave most of the questions open ended so that people could give us their reasons for certain things, not just check a box. Of the questions that WERE in a form that we could use to figure percentages, they break down as follows:
1) Average SL age of respondents: 4.8 years (we had respondents who have been in SL since the start all the way to folks who haven't had their first rezday yet answer this survey)
Average length of time involved in hunts: 4.3 years
2) Main sources of hunt information: (the survey allowed for choosing more than one source)
Blogs: 316 (55.1%)
Hunt signs: 123 (21.5%)
Groups (hunt groups, subscribos, store notices): 75 (13.2%)
Word of mouth: 42 (7.4%)
Left blank: 16 (2.8%)
3) Preferred hunt grouping: The vast majority of people hunt alone. We weren't expecting this, since it's easier to hunt with a friend and most people view hunts as a social activity.
Alone: 240 people (64%)
With a significant other: 24 (6%)
With a few select friends: 67 (18%)
With a big group of friends: 1 (0%)
Other: 45 (12%) Of these 43 people, most wrote that they hunt in a combination of the above or meet people along the way
4) Preferred types of hunts (since this was a fill in the blank, we just counted/categorized as best we could from the varied answers):
Themed: 175 (top 3 specifically named themes were horror/dark/goth, holiday and steam/victorian/period)
Clothing (generic): 108
Accessories (hair, skin, shoes, poses, etc): 56
Any hunt: 55
Home & Garden (including build items): 45
Specifically all male: 32
Specifically all female: 23
Other (blank or didn't fit a category above): 32
5) Pay hunts: This was a write in section of the survey. You guys gave some really good pros and cons to the whole pay hunt situation. Obviously, there is no way to show everyone's preferences, so we just did a simple count of how many comments were for them, how many against them, and how many were neutral.
For pay hunts: 201 (53%)
Against pay hunts: 154 (41%)
Neutral (left it blank, don't care, etc): 22 (6%)
Pro pay hunt comments specifically stating they cherry-pick pay hunts for only stores they know/like and do not do whole hunts: 97
Most often mentioned caveats for pay hunts:
A) willing to pay 1-10L but not more than that
B) unwilling to buy items they can't see beforehand
C) unwilling to do a hunt where they have to pay for each gift rather than have a list of stores and LMs to pick where they will hunt or skip (in other words, no pay hunts that can't be cherry picked for favorite stores only)
D) expect higher quality for pay items (even if its just a linden) than a typical hunt gift
6) This was a write-in as well, so here are the top 3 most common answer in each category:
Favorite aspect of hunting?
1. Getting great stuff
2. Finding new stores that you like
3. Exploring new places
Least Favorite?
1. Items hidden so hard you spend too much time in a store (>20 minutes seemed to be the average time limit, when a limit was mentioned)
2. Huge stores with oblique hints, excessive decoy use in a "normal" hunt
3. Bad hunt conditions ( missing stores, out of date hints and LMs, unfriendly help groups, etc)
What makes you quit a hunt?
1. Rudeness from group help, vendors or coordinators
2. Inability to easily navigate the hunt path (missing stores, bad LMs, objects that need to be unpacked to get the next LM, lack of information to be able to skip a place if you are stuck)
3. When the hunt stops being fun because of irritations along the way
7) Preferred method of getting hunt hints?
Blog page outside of SL: 214 (56.7%)
Notecards on the hunt signs: 59 (15.6%)
Notecard obtainable only by joining a hunt group: 11 (2.9%)
Store hintgiver: 61 (16.1%)
Other: 30 (7.9%; many of these were people who prefer a combination of the other ways listed, or who checked other without an explanation)
No hints: 2 (0.5%)
8) Preferred method of receiving gifts?
Folders: 286 (76%)
Objects: 39 (10%)
Other: 52 (14%) People who picked other generally wrote their preference and why, or clarified that it doesn't matter which as long as its consistent throughout the hunt.
9) Reaction to being added involuntarily to mailing lists/subscribos just because you visited a store on a hunt:
Hate it: 318
Like it/Don't mind: 27
Left blank: 32
10) This one stumped a lot of people. We threw together a random list of themes, blank vs. blank, to see what people liked, whether tastes ran to the more macabre, the more fanciful, the more realistic, etc. There were no right or wrong picks, but seeing preferences does tend to show what types of hunts might be more fun than others (and might influence the theme of the SL Freebie Hunters sponsored hunt, should we prove nuts enough to sponsor one). Top 5 choices:
Other (write-in own categories): 90 (24%)
Werewolves vs. Vampires: 37 (10%)
Cookies vs. Cupcakes: 32 (9%)
Ninjas vs. Pirates: 27 (tied for 7%)
Vampires vs. Zombies: 26 (tied for 7%)
Oz vs. Middle Earth: 25 (tied for 7%)
Additional comments: We left space for people to leave their thoughts on things we didn't ask about in the survey. Click HERE to see some of the most insightful comments that were left for us (all identifying information has been removed).
