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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dedekind" data-source="post: 5537514" data-attributes="member: 63968">I disagree with both of the following points:Contention 1) OP says we are the opinion leaders.Contention 2) Umbran and Morrus say we don't represent the entire population. Contention 1 is wrong because we don't actually have a wide area of influence. A few people might, and there might be a network effect, but most of us influence a few people at most. So, we might be opinionated, but we are not opinion leaders. This quote is particularly wrong "we’re the free conduit of feedback...but I’d say it’s a lot more informative than a survey card or a poll." I would say the exact opposite--there is no calibration, no sense of how valuable the feedback is, and no tie between opinion and sales. To paraphrase good research design methods, "A collection of anecdotes is not data."*Contention 2 is wrong because we do observe dispersion of opinion, indicating disagreement on two sides of an issue. We do not have a vocal minority and a silent majority. Instead, we have two vocal minorities and a silent group. I think we can assume that the discussions on Enworld represent the views of both vocal groups entirely adequately. I agree that these views (as expressed on Enworld) are mostly useless for make real decisions.  But they may be indicative of what direction to go for more market research. * Yeah, yeah, case studies are a valid form of research, but only in the sense that they guide theory and subsequent empirical research.</blockquote>

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