Welcome to the new Blog Free Springfield. Thanks to Russ for providing BFS with a new look and a new home, and Shoo for getting us up on Spfldbloggers. I’m sure we’ll be happy here.

BFS User Survey Results

The initial report from the team that analyzed the BFS user survey incorrectly surmised that you wanted recipes, preferably those using Hamburger Helper as the base ingredient. A more thorough examination of results countered this initial reading. What you really wanted was for BFS to move to a different blogging platform. And you wanted a graphic theme based on imagery of a revolutionary Marxist nature. Well, we got that too.

Here’s a report on the rest of the survey results. The Clinton and Romney campaigns are both dying to get their hands on the raw data, but I told them I intended to share it with you first.

Twenty people took the survey. If I recall correctly from my marketing research class, only 10 percent of active customers will bother to take a survey such as this, which means that I have around 2,000 readers* who visit BFS on a regular basis. That’s impressive. Give yourself a big round of applause.

I’m not connecting with the young people, as no one under the age of 18 took the survey. There are two ways I could interpret this. Either I’m not hip to the interests of the hugely influential teenage demographic, and might even be seen by them as a "square", or they lack the critical thinking skills and vocabulary to follow along here at BFS. I’ll chalk it up to the latter.

About half of you dine out each week to the tune of $21 to $40. The rest spend more, except for those who spend less. This speaks volumes.

Sixty-five percent of you spend $20 or less on entertainment at local venues. I assume this is because a library card is free and thus the results reflect the intellectual leanings of the average BFS reader.

No one admitted to having committed a felony, but we know that can’t be true. Right, Anonymous?

Newspapers are king in Springfield as all by one respondent listed them as a source of local news and information. Blogs came in second place at 70 percent, which means that six of you never learn anything new here. Television is the least popular medium, although it still holds a 60 percent share. And one lucky reader is having coffee with Tom Shafer once a week.

The survey says that BFS should keep its local bent, even if it means alienating a potentially huge international readership. Politics, entertainment, and social issues also scored high as topics of interest. Half of you enjoy the “paranoid ramblings from the addled mind of a blogger.” Sorry, can’t help you there.

I was pleased to see that almost half of the BFS readership is of the female variety. I never wanted to have a “guys” blog and I don’t identify at all with that Taco Bell Chili Cheese Nachos Bel Grande ad with the guy doing the bad Jack Black impersonation. But I absolutely adore shoes and Desperate Housewives. And football, I really like football. Designer footwear and violent sports, that’s what we’re all about.

You’ve all been educated formally, at least to some degree, and it shows. Good for you!

 
With a whopping 80 percent of the vote, Ricardo Montalban beat Fernando Lamas in the battle for most machismo. I couldn’t have predicted that, but rest assured, it will have a big impact on how I approach blogging from here on out. Eighty percent? Wow!

Most of the comments were at least somewhat complimentary of BFS, which is how I know that people really took the survey seriously. I dismissed any negative or critical comments as having been made in jest. You guys

Anyway, that’s it for now. I hope you like our new direction.

*Give or take. Math isn’t my bag.