Developing a CofS Exit Survey The question has been raised in other threads here on wwp and elsewhere, regarding how many exscilons rebound into the freezone and is it more often or not a temporary transition. Seemed like a good question to me that was possibly worthy of exploring further. So I'm thinking a well constructed cult exit survey posted on a secure & reputable survey taking site might yield some interesting stats that could be quoted and referenced in many ways. so I did a cheesy demo survey mockup in googledocs just to gather my thoughts and feedback from others on this tentative idea: Church of Scientology Exit Survey Note: this is just a draft of a concept, yes its exploitable - the real deal (if i pursue this) would ideally be more secure (require an email addy that would be kept private to somewhat limit repetitive submissions, etc) Specific Questions on this concept for discussion: 1. Can any exes tell me if i got any wording up in there that's technically wrong? 2. Good Idea Y/N ? 3. Any Other Questions that should be added? 4. Any Questions i haz up in there that i should stick in my pooper? 5. Any recommendations for a good survey hosting site (yeah i know the better ones cost money, nbd if the price is reasonable for unlimited number of responses & timeframe)
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Wording is decent. A few quips: "membership" doesn't make sense - no Scilon thinks of themselves as a "member". Just say "left because...." Yes, good idea! More information about what's "normal" is a GOOD THING. However, it's a tough row to how, because people are leery of surveys, especially Scilons, who take surveying to an extreme. Invite the Scilon to tell his/her story. Lots of exes NEED to tell their story to somebody! It helps them process the information, think it through, and separate the wheat from the chaff. Seems simple, straightforward. I'd get rid of of the "completed" block, and just put two columns next to each one - one for "I dun some" and one for "Finish!" to make it seem shorter. It's a bit long and intimidating. There are a number of FREE sites that would do well, even some with DB abilities: free web hosting with free MySQL database
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey thanks for the feedback voiceless! i probably should of put this thread in think tank but after wading thru all the crap freebie survey hosting sites for almost 2hours and finding nothing worth using, i was abit numb in the head. yeah that was actually my first thought, idea being that showing the difference between starting something but not completing it would be eye opening to public scilons to see how common it is to start over again & again. But googledoc forms are bigtime lame, & didnt have the customization ability to show it that way in my prototype version & i noticed similar limitations while surfing around demo surveys on the freebie sites (but the paid-for versions did support more sophisticated/customized questions where i could easily combine those 2 sections on my cheesy example into one comprehensive question)
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey 1) N/A 2) I think it is a great idea 3) Maybe ask them what year they left. and a polite multiple choice of reasons why. 4)I don't necessarily think the question should go but not sure if them going off lines and returning needs to be there. 5)I think the most important thing would be for the person filling out the survey to feel certain the information can't be linked back to them. 6) is this on the honor system for people filling out the survey ? Do you have a way to prevent the same people from filling out the form two or more times while still allowing two members of the same family(using the same computer) to take the survey?
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey #5 is specifically why i didnt do #3 note my previous mention that the one i'm currently showing is just a demo using lame googledocs for visualizing what i had stewing in my head, so yeah its exploitable in this format but if/when i'd redo this on a proper survey hosting service like the ones Voiceless linked to, it would require a unique email addy for each submission.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey This might be a really stupid question to raise, but for the second-to-last question that asks how long they've been involved in the FZ/indepedent Scn, why is there no "None" answer choice? Is this survey only being sent to those who are/were already in the FZ or something? Because I read that part of the point of the survey was to figure out how "how many exscilons rebound into the freezone," and I was wondering if it would be interesting to see what ratio went FZ and which just dropped everything. Of course, such a poll wouldn't be scientific (self-selective responders), but it might still be entertaining.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey /facepalm - cuz i am a kawks sucking idgit who has spent entirely too much time lurking on Marty & Geir blogs lately trying to decide whether i fully loathe whats happening there or can bite my tongue whilest playing along with the "enemy of my enemy..." mentality. fixing that shi- nao - thks!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey I'm an ex, just did the survey. Had to type in lots of miscellaneous staff hatting courses in the "Other" section. Good that you provided that "Other" option. Hope the info is useful to you.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey thks for the info! like i mentioned the current survey is just a cheesy demo to get feedback so that when i make formal one on a proper survey hosting site, i got all the proper duckies in a row. and i'll be sure an incorporate your "other" responses on the demo version to make the final version much better!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Not an ex, nothing helpful to add to this, but interested in the results if you run with it.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Here's where you run into facepalms, left, right, and center. I think you are interested in "major" Scilon activities. But there are an almost infinite number of minor ones. So-called "hatting courses" which teach you how to be a good staff member, how to be a good Finance Director, how to be a good Director or Processing, how to be a good [fill in the blanks]. There are tons of these. And then there are the EPF courses (such as "Welcome to the Sea Org" and "The Sear Org Hygeine course" or similar) and such. Along with the "other" category, you might want to include: -) "Misc staff hatting courses" -) Misc remedial actions.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey irrelevant/redundant question if also asking: which BTW should be a drop-down list (or radio button) allowing only one answer. list should match The Bridge and not contain the "off side of bridge" steps such as "Introspection Rundown" or "False Purpose Rundown". You could include those other bits as a checkbox question with query like "what other steps have you completed or participated in?" a newly exiting scio will not likely understand "front group" should rather be: Scientology FSM (Field staff member)
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey good feedback in this thread & coming via PM, thks much & keep it coming - sems to be enough interest that i do believe i will run with this idea and setup a better one on a pro survey hosting site later this month. just to repeat what seems to be the most common point - the 2 nearly similar questions for participation vs. completion I'm hoping to handle as one question (with two checkboxes on each option) once i use something more robust than googledocs example. other good question suggestions from PM'd responses:
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey ahoy mateys, i haz finally found a totally free survey hosting service that doesnt have any limitations on number of questions, number of responses, nor timeframe the survey is available: SurveyPirate.com - The free survey tool! anybody got any negative experience with SurveyPirate.com worth sharing? I'm gonna rework the demo survey i put together to incorporate all the good feedback IIT later this week and try to get a finalized version up this weekend. moar feedback still welcome in the meantime.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Great idea! Very thorough. I'm interested in the results, too. One small change I'd make is to remove the "required" asterisks since it looks like all the questions are required. You might want to include a place at the end for any other information they'd like to give.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey good points psychoutcults - i'll add that into my reworking of the final version. perhaps you could help me draft another question i pondered adding, but i didnt know proper wording and such so i left it go... something along the lines of a multichoice question about did the exscilon do any therapy / deprogramming / formal counseling type options. can u help me word something like that properly? TIA!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Just remember that the people taking the survey might have. I've been involved in a few surveys at work, and like much in life the probability that a person will do the survey is to some extent inversely proportional to the length/complexity of it.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey also very good point random guy - i'll definitely stick to just the key "exit cult profile" stuff
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Updated DRAFT/DEMO Survey that incorporates all the good feedback I received ITT is now available for final review/input: Church of Scientology Exit Survey Change summary: I reworded the weak spots; numbered the question for ease of commenting on ITT; split-up & majorly reworked #'s 2 and 3; added #'s 10 & 11 Any more feedback/corrections/suggestions on this NEARLY final draft before I post an official version on SurveyPirate.com tmo evening (Nov15)?? TIA!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey bump... major updating nao done w/ additional input gathered from offsite exscn to make the demo version of my exit survey concept better: Church of Scientology Exit Survey Demo HALP Wanted: exes & grammar nazis to proofread me one mo time so i can finalize a public version that i want to get posted asap on SurveyPirate.com and setup a new WWP wiki page to list ongoing results in fancy bar charts & pie graphs. URGENT Factors: cult apologist James R Lewis has recently posted a tl;da Ex-COS Questionaire thats been dissed on the scifag isene forums. Anon's more concise & fair handed 'poonage version needs to blow it away. Also - other reasons, 'nuff said.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey No problem... Try this: Yes I received Scientology auditing, training, or related services. Your list of courses seems fairly complete, but still feels a bit "random". If you could align it to the Scientology Bridge it would be much easier to read. Proxy Condom needed, link here. Also, I'd phrase the question like "What is the highest level of Auditing received?" and "What is the highest level of Training received?" Try this: "What is your highest level of involvement in Scientology?" Or, if you are allowing multiple answers, try "What types of involvment... (check all that apply)" This time around, this list seems like it really should be several questions. I've split it to something more like would be used in discussion between Scilons: QUESTION: Why did you leave Scientology? Ex-Public Scientologist: I completed my most recent course work or auditing, wrote a 'success story' and never returned. I graduated from a front group or subsidiary organization and had no further contact with the CofS teachings. I ceased participation due to oppressive Ethics Handling, such as being told to disconnect from friends or family, being ordered to sec checks, or similar activity. I ceased participation due to the global protests or public controversies revealed in major media outlets. My involvement was terminated with a Suppressive Person Declare. Ex-Staff Scientologist: I left staff due to unfair/oppressive Ethics handling I had a disagreement with other actions by staff. I had a disagreement with Scientology technology. Scientology just wasn't working for me. I left staff due to the actions of global protestors or enlightenment via other public awareness campaigns. I was told to leave. I left staff for other reasons. Question: What were the terms of your leaving Scientology? I routed out or left on good terms, and just never returned. I blew (left, walked out or escaped) course, session, or staff, and left on bad terms. I was off-loaded or beached from staff or the Sea Org against my will. I was declared suppressive. NONE SHOULDN'T BE IN ALL CAPS. Also add an option: "I use Scientology technology for my own benefit even though I'm not taking courses or getting auditing from the Scientology organization." Question #9 is redundant - it's already answered in question #8. Change the question to read: 10) After severing your ties with the Church of Scientology organization, did you participate in any other forms of non-Scientology counseling or recovery? Also, NO DOESN'T NEED TO BE IN ALL CAPS. I like the idea of a funny option, but you have to be extremely careful. Ex-Scilons are frequently extremely fragile. They've been through hell and back, and often don't see the world in a positive light. They've been counselled that they are degraded, and that life will be miserable for them. In short: they're damaged goods, and acronyms like GTFO just might set them off, or make them not want to finish the survey. But if the idea is to lighten things up a bit and let them leave the survey on a positive note, try asking a sort of positive "do you still beat your wife" kind of question, perhaps something like: Other Ex-Scientologists have said that life "outside" isn't nearly as bad as is often painted by people in Scientology. How confident are you that this is true? * Very confident * Somewhat confident * Indifferent * Doubtful * Strongly doubtful PS: U R Awesome. Many Internetz to you!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Here you go. These are all in order of occurrence within the document, so browse the document and this set of items together and take them in order. - Bad grammar in bolded part; add "the" to make it correct, or reword it otherwise. - Final period is inside your square brackets and thus is not properly terminating the sentence outside the square brackets. I would just add a period before the square brackets. Also, "Trolling" doesn't need to be capitalized, does it? - "Ex-Scientologists" probably shouldn't be capitalized, although it's probably allowable as a stylistic choice. - "Independent Scientologist" needs pluralizing. - "on regular" needs the word "a". - "url" s/b "URL". (Yes, Virginia, acronyms are rendered in all caps, despite your years of training on text messages.) - Capitalization s/b standardized. Pick something and stick with it throughout. - Don't use the word "fags". Some of these folks will presumably have no idea. - The word "a" is missing in these answers. Also, it's missing a comma after the "Yes"/"No" in each answer. - "orgainization" s/b "organization" - Bolded letters should have matching capitalization unless "Course" is part of a title and "training" isn't. (I don't know if that's so or not.) - Other similar capitalization issues sprinkled throughout this section of answers; I'll leave it to you to straighten them out as I don't have the titles handy so I'd just be guessing which s/b capitalized and which not. - No other answer in this section has "The" in it; should this one? - Duh. - "Misc." would be OK, but not "Misc" with no period. "Misc" isn't a word. - Don't capitalize random words. - s/b "were", not "where" (facepalm) - As a symbol, ">" is a reasonable shorthand for "more than", but "Greater than" sounds (looks) funny verbally. Use "More than" instead. - I'd omit "the" here. - Shouldn't this be at the end of the list of answers? - s/b "blew". - 1 more "s". ;-) - By now you already know what to do here. ;-p - s/b "offloaded" (1 word), I think. - As already mentioned, "NONE" shouldn't be in all caps. - The answers s/b checked for rigorous capitalization standardization, both internally (within this set of answers and their question) as well as externally (with the rest of the questionnaire). Better yet, I'd just omit the verbal descriptions of the lengths of time. They serve no purpose and only make for extra reading and thus possible confusion/discouragement. - As already mentioned, #9 is redundant. - As already mentioned, "NO" shouldn't be in all caps. - No reason to capitalize "influences" here. - s/b "Religious". Also, standardize the capitalization in answers for #10. - s/b "misled" - s/b "malicious" And finally, I would probably skip the Rickrolling. OTOH, maybe a little goof-off question would break the tension a bit. I'll defer to the hive mind on that one.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Can I suggest throwing this onto the Wiki - that way anyone can easily check the latest version, make minor edits - and unwanted or unhelpful edits can be easily undone.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Actually, "greater than" would probably be received better, believe it or not. (I won't go into the "case" implications of the word "more") Also--consider that many have already encountered SeaOrg recruitment surveys which might seem similar and earn you the brush off.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Awesome feedback guise - thanks! I will incorporate all of Voiceless & Johnny suggestions into the final version that I've already started to tentatively port over to survey pirate just to see how that service works. For the wiki - i will setup pages once the final version goes public on survey pirate to track results & provide project overview. My thought is it would be redundant & waste of time to put the questionaire portion up there since its the actual survey we'll want to promote once everything is in place. What I will likely do tho is dump an edited version of the questions/answers to pastebin to make it easier to finalize the last of the corrections since the googledocs demo version is a hueg ginormous pita to edit in that lame interface. NOTE: One problem I've hit with surveypirate matrix questions is that the one monster question i got listing all the courses & auditing levels is too big to enter as a single matrix question, and i need to break it down into several questions. this is where making it match the bridge outline will probably be crucial - but i dont think my understanding of scilon shi- is up to par on making that part of it perfect, so stay tuned for revised version coming later tonight to pastebin. regarding concern that exes are likely to blow off a survey due to all the ones forced on them while still "in" - yeah i know... thats why I'm trying to keep it as short as possible. and now that i have to break the one big question down into multiple shorter questions, i'll likely drop the Rick Astley just4grins question at the end to compensate.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey another suggestion: 10) After severing your ties with the Church of Scientology organization, did you participate in any forms of counselling or recovery (ie not Scientology )? Scientology is not counselling or recovery , I feel this needs to be made very clear
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey You're doing a good job, the survey looks very manageable. Hopefully it will yield the answers you are looking for!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Status Update: Ongoing revisions to exit survey questions can nao be seen here on a brand new new document, the old demo form bounced around earlier was left behind cuz its too tedious to edit heavy in that format: [SIZE="3"]Church of Scientology Exit Survey (Nearly Final Draft)[/SIZE] I still got a lot to do yet to incorporate latest feedback on ^^THIS, work in progress is still ongoing and noted with red line break-point in the list of questions. so far i just concentrated on reworking questions #2 and #3 to address problems with surveypirate limitations on the max number of answers a matrix question can have, plus the oh so wise tidbits below for MAJOR changes voiceless gave me: Here's an FYI preview screensnap showing how the "matrix" questions will look like on the final version when published using surveypirate.com: another wise tidbit that I really wanted to do on first read, but ends up that I cant easily handle it gracefully with other surveypirate limatations was this suggestion: ^^I'd have to replace this one question with two, and everyone would have to click thru both. so since I'm trying to keep it short/quick on total number of questions & already had to add several more to handle the need for multiple matrix questions to properly breakdown of training/processing options... I'm gonna opt to pass on this suggestion and keep the different answers for public vs. staff reasoning all on one single question. moar revisions for other feedback points coming soonly to link at top of this post (hang in thar Johnny, I'll get to your grammar nazi nits as soon as I'm done with tech-savvy stuff from voiceless)
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Status Update: all previously noted revisions/suggestions now done except one point quoted below that i want moar feedback on for hivemind consensus. Church of Scientology Exit Survey (Nearly Final Draft) Followup notes for Johnny's grammar nazi maestro comments: random capitalization worked over hard, exceptions that remain are mirroring exactly what bridge gradation & awareness chart says Since ESMB crowd will be a large part of the audience, i deferred to their capitalization of Ex-Scientologists and tried to stick with that a couple of your questions where i didnt know 100% fer sure answer, i reworded it to simplify and eliminate prob noted i h8 yer guts when you nit pick my posts, but i <3 ya and wish to have yer internet babies when you work your razor eyes over my projects! thks dude Pending issue that STILL NEEDS MOAR FEEDBACK: Edits applied to Q1 and Q5 that halp reduce redundancy imo. But I'm looking to cut something out to offset the additional questions added from Q2 & Q3 getting split up for surveypirate limitations on matrix questions, and Q5 is the one I'm thinking makes best candidate for trimming the fluff. We have a total 18 questions in current list, anyone else think its worth chopping out Q5 to either limit overall size as best we can OR cuz it seems redundant? Alternately - other candidate questions for possible chopping block list?
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Please don't forget: Getting the survey perfect before posting isn't as important as POSTING THE SURVEY. So don't think because there are suggestions to improve it that you can't post the survey until nobody has any more suggestions - because we are armchair typsetters, we can come up with suggestions until the moon's orbit finally decays enough to crash into the earth, not too long before the heat death of the universe. And in case I wasn't clear: Getting the survey perfect isn't as important as POSTING THE SURVEY. Post the survey!
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey i hear ya voiceless, except it looks like once i publish the final version on survey pirate - editing aint an option unless i copy old one to start a new improved one on different URL (and results wont carry over).
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey Status Update: i gathered moar exscn input from fresh sets of eyes on ESMB chat, couple minor typos now fix'd. Church of Scientology Exit Survey (Nearly Final Draft) couple of bigger edits from ESMB suggestions to be done later today before the final draft gets published & goes live on surveypirate.com this evening. Split up #6 into two multichoice questions, one for "Why" you left and the other for "How" you left. plus add option for "medical reasons" Drop "FZ" word usage and just stick with Indie field wording for consistency since those phrases mean exact same thing add an option to #10 for polite way of saying "institutionalized" add a new question for 10b that addresses serious medical probs a staffer is often faced with after leaving anybody else got comments plox speakup nao before its published
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey If you're pulling ex rank on me, I fold. ............................................... it could work. You'd have to agree to convert to Grammar Nazi though; we don't do mixed. Confuses the kids too much.
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey I think 6a) What reasons prompted you to leave or stop actively participating with the CofS organization? is missing an option, the closest one I can see is: I ceased public/staff participation due to the global protests or public controversies revealed in major media outlets. so you might want to merge that with or add this new one: I [ur=http://wiki.whyweprotest.net/List_of_Scientology_books#Third_party read entheta material.] Perhaps the list of print media could even be a separate form for them to tick which material they read?
Re: Developing a CofS Exit Survey 6a good pt - edits nao done. but not good on the separate form bit, after wise input from ESMBr's were at max number of questions (20) and still keep on target with initial goal to keep it short/quick & to the pt
