So me and my comrade are working on our masters thesis, and part of that is a survey that will go out to some 41.000 people. The Survey program has been sending for some 2 hours now and is some 24% complete...
Here are some of my experiences so far:
- Despite using an email database with email for this exact purpose, you still get some replies suggesting that you are a spammer.
- Even if only a fraction of the recipients answer, it still makes for a mountain of correspondence. And this does not include filling out the automatic survey.
- You better make sure your survey is 100% flawless, and yet people will still find a way to screw it up.
- No amount of instructions will ever be enough for everybody.
- You will get insulting replies.
- Because the email address that you use at school is forwarded to your personal email, you will receive a s*** load of "out of office" mails.
Looks like I'm in for a long night.