#the second largest audience is my discord friends

[zooophagous]

More detail shots of Hamster Mortis. I'm pleased to announce we have finished 9 out of 13 illustrations. The written portion of the book was finished last year, so once the art is done all that will need doing is the actual pagination and printing.

I've started work on Hamster Mortis no fewer than 3 separate times and it's fizzled out each time. To see it this close to completion is a very big deal for me. Even if only 2 people ever read it, I'm very happy to be this close to the finish.

[lightns881]

DreamNotFound Shipper Demographics and the Question on Whether Encouraging the Shippers is Unhealthy

So a couple of days ago I ran a poll on DreamNotFound shippers to capture demographics because a Reddit post (I will link it below) discussing the potential harm of Dream’s fanservice tactics (I’ve talked about it on a previous post) made me very curious as to the kind of audience he was attracting. 

Here are the results.

The survey consisted of four simple questions asking for gender, age, sexuality, and what kind of behavior they engage in when it comes to DreamNotFound.

Out of the 174 DreamNotFound shippers who responded, here are the overarching demographics for them.

Statistics 

Overall (174 Responses)

- 85.6% of total respondents identified as non-heterosexual

- All heterosexual respondents were female

- There were 8 times more female respondents than male respondents

- 37.9% of respondents were under the age of 16

Male (14 Responses)

- 50% of male respondents were under the age of 16, 1 respondent was 12 or under

- All male respondents identified as non-heterosexual with 42.9% identifying as homosexual, 42.9% identifying as bisexual/pansexual, 7.1% identifying as Asexual, and 7.1% identifying as Other

Female (116 Responses)

- 36.1% of female respondents were under the age of 16, 21% were over the age of 18

- 21% of female respondents identified as heterosexual, the majority (47.1%) identified as Bisexual/Pansexual

Non-Binary/Other (41 Responses)

- Non-Binary/Other respondents had the largest under 16 population at 39% and lowest 18 and over population at 19.5%

- 73.2% of non-binary respondents identified as bisexual/pansexual, 7.3% as homosexual, 14.6% as asexual, and 4.9% as other

(I will post a link to download the google spreadsheet in the comments below if anyone would like to take a look at the data for themselves.)

Fanfiction/Fanart/Reader Statistics

- DreamNotFound creators (fanfiction and/or fanart) were most likely to be bisexual/pansexual females between the ages of 16-17

- 35.3% of DreamNotFound creators were 15 or under, 41.2% were 16-17, and 23.5% were 18 or over

- 65.2% of DreamNotFound fanfiction readers were over the age of 16 (34.9% were 15 and below, 42.8% were 16-17, and 22.4% were 18 and over)

Possible Shortcomings in the Data

Though this survey was conducted for DreamNotFound shippers, not everyone marked the option of Shipping DnF in the last question. Though it might seem as some stray non-DreamNotFound shippers could have potentially taken the survey as well, this is likely not true considering the individuals who chose not to mark the Shipping DnF option all marked either one or both of the other two options. A likely hypothesis could be that some people thought Shipping DnF meant shipping them seriously/for real.*

*A way I’ve heard the difference between shipping them seriously and not seriously be described is shipping Dream and GeorgeNotFound (not serious) vs shipping Clay and George (serious). While all DnF shippers engage in the first, not everyone engages in the second because it is more of an invasion of privacy. It’s sort of like the way some people might ship two characters in a show but not ship the actors that play them. In this case, Dream and GeorgeNotFound function as sort of personas, while Clay and George are the actual individuals behind them.

Discussion on Potential Harm of DreamNotFound

So onto the million-dollar question: Is Dream’s fanservice and encouragement for the DreamNotFound shippers harmful solely because of the fact so many of them are minors? Is it harmful for minors to sexualize creators by writing, reading, and creating fanfiction/fanart (that might or might not be NSFW)?

*Chuckles*

Look, since the age of the internet, fandoms, and fangirls/fanboys, minors have been sexualizing their favorite characters, ships, personas, actors, singers and creators. “Teenage girls,” specifically, have been obsessing over them for a lifetime now. Just take a look at the One Direction and K-Pop fandoms. Is it harmful? I’m sure dozens of people, articles, and researchers have tackled this question in the past.

But, of course, we are talking about Dream’s deliberate encouragement of this ship (because it sure does get him a heck of a ton of fan content, does it not?) Obsession to the point where it affects a part of your life is obviously harmful, but is Dream encouraging this sort of behavior? Besides the passing jokes and fanservice, there is not indication that he’s deliberately encouraging obsessive shipping. Wouldn’t he try a little harder if he were?

And sure, Dream should not take pleasure from a bunch of thirteen year old girls calling him sexy and/or writing smut about him, but even if they were to stop the fanservice now, I HIGHLY doubt these behaviors would stop. It never did stop with One Direction, did it? Or K-Pop Groups. And I bet you right now someone is out there currently reading Septiplier fanfiction and/or engaging in the fandom that’s left for them even after they’ve explicitly told the fans they’re uncomfortable with it.

I don’t think Dream telling fangirls to stop shipping DnF will prevent this obsessive fangirl behavior from those who have it. This issue is much bigger than just Dream and George and the Minecraft community. The only thing it would do is stop the respectful and more mature DreamNotFound shippers, and that isn’t really going to make a difference, is it?

Now, in terms of accusations of grooming, I think this is a vastly different scenario that shouldn’t be brought into the discussion of DreamNotFound shippers. As long as the Dream Team doesn’t actively engage on a personal level with minors, there shouldn’t be a fear of sexual allegations. And again, even if he were to come forth and tell the fans to stop shipping DreamNotFound, it does not make this kind of situation any more unlikely to happen.

Concluding Thoughts

Now, I’m not saying I don’t entirely agree with the whole of the post. I think it brings forth some valid concerns that should be addressed, but I also think not everything mentioned is under Dream’s control. And specifically dealing with encouraging DreamNotFound shippers, in my opinion, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference in the toxicity and obsessive behaviors behind some of their stans. Most toxic and/or obsessive stans/shippers will continue to be toxic and/or obsessive, and the others who aren’t are just going to be discouraged from engaging in a ship and fandom they might really enjoy.

A Note on the Second Survey Conducted on the writing/reading of NSFW content from DreamNotFound shippers

I know some of you know I also conducted a second survey that was a little more personal and contained questions pertaining to the engagement of shippers in NSFW DreamNotFound content.

The reason I didn’t include the results for that survey here are because there have only been 20 responses to the survey as of now, and I don’t believe it’s enough to offer a valid data analysis for it.

However, if you guys would like to participate in it, I will link the form in the comments as well. I apologize for all the links down there, I do not want Tumblr to delete my post from tag pages.

Thank you everyone who participated on the survey! I would also like to thank the dream team writers discord server who helped in spreading the survey and evaluating the second unreleased survey. I hope, at the very least, this data evokes some discussion about this topic.

Check out my Tumblr page for DreamNotFound Fanfiction reviews, my twitch link (I stream MC every Sunday 7PM CT with my best friend), and other crack content! Toodles! :)

[southeastasianists]

I have seen it before.

On Sep 16, 2008, an upbeat Anwar Ibrahim announced he had commanded the support of the majority of Malaysian Members of Parliament (MPs), six months after he led the opposition to historically smash the two-thirds parliamentary supermajority of the then ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

It was Malaysia Day. Anwar appeared to be ready to take over the Malaysian government.

That afternoon, I was moderating a political forum in Kota Kinabalu, attended by a few major opposition politicians. I also witnessed a BN component party in action at the seminar, boldly withdrawing from the ruling coalition in support of Anwar’s move.

The atmosphere was extremely charged, with boisterous exhortations aplenty for a new dawn in Malaysian politics.

By nightfall, however, it became obvious this supposed switch of allegiance by many BN MPs did not materialise. A somber mood descended upon the gradually less crowded event.

Malaysians would have to make do with more of the same political setup - with a longstanding, though bruised, government sitting across an enlarged but frustrated opposition.

ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE THERE

Alas, this and many other similarly somewhat elusive and quixotic quests of “almost, but not quite there” have dotted Anwar’s long political career.

Anwar had been Mahathir Mohamad’s protégé during the latter’s first term as Malaysia’s Prime Minister. Anwar was even promoted to be Deputy Prime Minister in an accelerated trajectory to take over the premiership.

But that did not happen, as the relationship between the two soured with Mahathir increasingly alarmed by Anwar’s brimming ambition.

As allegations of improprieties surfaced against Anwar in September 1998, he was unceremoniously fired from the Cabinet and expelled from the party. He was subsequently jailed for charges of corruption and sodomy.

After the verdict was overturned in 2004 and Anwar was released before the end of his nine-year sentence, he went on to propel the opposition coalition to consecutively deny BN the much vaunted two-thirds parliamentary majority in the 2008 and 2013 general elections, but still fell short of clinching the majority to become Prime Minister.

As he was jailed again in 2015 on another charge of sodomy, he could not lead the opposition in the 2018 general election.

He made up for his absence by reconciling with his erstwhile political rival Mahathir, who by then had also fallen out with BN and helmed the recomposed Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition coalition.

After PH surprisingly defeated BN in the 2018 elections and formed the government, Anwar was pardoned. He quickly won himself a parliamentary seat in a by-election, putting himself in good stead once again be a successor to Mahathir, by then Malaysian Prime Minister for a second time.

At least that was Anwar’s understanding, citing a pre-election agreement among the PH parties to that effect.

THE LATEST DISRUPTION IN 2020

In hindsight, Mahathir did not intend to pass the baton of premiership to Anwar.  He often avoided the topic when asked in public or offered delayed timelines.

When Mahathir’s hand was forced in late February, both saw their political fortunes overturned in a matter of days.

A series of moves by Azmin Ali and Muhyiddin Yassin, respectively Anwar’s and Mahathir’s party deputies, effected the change of political allegiance of a number of PH MPs.

After a tense week of brewing suspicions, Muhyiddin was sworn in as Prime Minister.

After being relegated to the opposition again, Mahathir did not let up on his dislike of Anwar.  He initially criticised Anwar more vehemently than he did Muhyiddin, whom he felt had betrayed him.

Even as Mahathir tried to no avail to bring parliamentary motions of no confidence against Muhyiddin, Mahathir did not seem keen for Muhyiddin to be replaced by Anwar.

Mahathir had put forth Shafie Apdal, the former Sabah chief minister, as the opposition’s potential prime ministerial candidate in an attempt to sideline Anwar.

A BOMBSHELL

Late last month, Anwar dropped yet another political bombshell mere days before the Sabah state elections which saw his PKR party teaming up with Shafie, by again announcing his supposed support by more MPs and command of the parliamentary majority.

By now, the popular expectation of Anwar realising his “takeover” claim has largely dissipated.  But that did not dissuade Anwar, as he pressed on with his majority bid, banking to a large extent on the mounting discord between Muhyiddin’s Bersatu party and UMNO - the largest component party in the ruling coalition.

Yet, even at this juncture, where the political aspirations of both Anwar and Mahathir to bring down the Muhyiddin government found common ground, Mahathir still refused to support Anwar.

Instead, he appeared to have endorsed Tengku Razaleigh, an UMNO veteran and an even earlier rival, to assume the Prime Minister position.

NEVER GIVING UP

Anwar has amply demonstrated his political tenacity throughout the years, moving on from one failure, albeit almost an earshot away from ultimate success, to another with renewed vitality.

He also exhibited other leadership traits, which should be viewed positively in a modern, healthy democracy.

For one, Anwar practises inclusive politics. His PH coalition, for example, consists of his own Malay-based but multiracial PKR, the Chinese-based but equally multiracial DAP, and also the moderately religious Amanah party, which splintered from the avowedly Islamist PAS party.

Even PAS, during its previously more moderate phase, was a component party of PH’s predecessor coalition.

Anwar recognises the primacy of Malays in Malaysian politics, but is open to working toward a more needs-based social economic distribution model that would usher in greater communal harmony.

Anwar has also espoused a progressive streak over his long years in politics. For example, the background of his momentous clash with Mahathir was the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, which saw the Malaysian economy go into a tailspin.

Anwar, who then chaired the development committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was leaning toward accepting the IMF loan package, which would have called for drastic structural reforms with deep budget cuts and strict measures against corruption and cronyism, all in an effort to make the Malaysian economy more market-friendly.

Mahathir thought otherwise, rejecting the IMF package but prioritising corporate bailouts and currency controls.

A MAN FOR ALL VOTERS

If Anwar is to ever assume the leadership role, he cannot bank on his opposition credentials but must show himself to be someone who can represent all voters.

This will not come easy. These are not ordinary times in Malaysia. The country is sharply divided between a conservative, racially and religiously centric majority on the one hand, and a more liberal, progressive minority on the other.

The conservatives, amply represented in the present ruling coalition, see Anwar’s inclusiveness and progressive streak as affronts to their monolithic political outlook for the country, and are reluctant to support him.

The liberals, who vouch for a more open and tolerant society, shudder at Anwar’s staunchly religious past. So their support for him, though sizable, is reluctant and even contingent upon their inability to find an equally charismatic leader for their progressive cause.

Both conservatives and liberals worry he might embrace their respective side for short-term political expediency, only to boot them out when the dust has settled.

Anwar can win both camps over. He is a charismatic, national icon.  I attended his talk in February just a few days before the Sheraton move, which catapulted Muhyiddin into power.

As with the numerous previous occasions where I got to listen to him in person, Anwar is indeed a persuasive, even mesmerising speaker, able to articulate his progressive ideas and quote abundantly from important  liberal thinkers of our time.

I could not help but remark to my friend next to me that with such progressive ideals, Anwar would make a fine prime minister.

My friend retorted:

This is a liberal audience. Of course he would say such liberal things.  Have you heard him speak to a conservative audience?

Indeed, Anwar would have to perform an intricate balancing act as he again treads the fine line toward a much coveted premiership.

Oh Ei Sun is a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

[inotes4you]

Although I use the internet from the very first day of public availability in Germany (early 90s) I never joined and engaged in any social network until April 2013. I made some faults followed by an intense discussion with Andrew Harasewych (owner of the community ‘Social Media Strategy’) on Google+. Our discussion (near to a fight thankfully with words) and a more conscious perception of what’s going on in communities convinced me (not in all points) to accept the rules.

Here is the article which brought Andrew into the arena when posting it to the community ‘Social Media Strategy’.

About communities

I was a bit confused about the fact that Google basically just gives feature descriptions of it’s network (see related links below) but if it comes to the more subtle facts you have to move off and walk on a rocky road.

Note It’s a shame that all the big companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) ignore the technique of mind mapping for help systems although it would shorten the process of learning drastically. To the present I didn’t find any rationale why mind mapping is not publicly used to explain things in a simple visualized summarization with an added link list for going deeper into the details if there is a need. There are many stats proving that mind mapping is the right and most effective way of presenting information but it’s still not used.

Today many people see friendly invitations to social networks and within a blink they can get their membership but the majority is not willing to read all the information published. Seamless usage without reading any documentation is what they learned when using a smartphone or a tablet. This experience is than transferred to engagement in social networks and in many cases it’s the reason for misconduct.

Some general information …

According to analysts we can divide people with an account on a social network into three groups:

What we see is the so-called 90-9-1 rule valid for communities with slight differences for the big networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Wikipedia The “90–9–1” version of this rule states that 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing. The actual percentage is likely to vary depending upon the subject matter. For example, if a forum requires content submissions as a condition of entry, the percentage of people who participate will probably be significantly higher than one percent, but the content creators are still the minority of all members. This is validated in a study conducted by Michael Wu, who uses economics techniques to analyze the participation inequality across hundreds of communities segmented by industry, audience type, and community focus. This can be compared with similar rules known to information science, such as the 80/20 rule known as the Pareto principle, that 20 percent of a group will produce 80 percent of the activity, however the activity may be defined. The 1% rule is often misunderstood to apply to the Internet in general, but it applies more specifically to any given Internet community.

The main faults …

As a moderator of the largest Apple related community on G+ my experiences with faulty behavior of members can be summarized as follows:

1 Off topic A post is off topic if there is no or a non-organic relation to what the community owner intended.

2 Multiplicity Sharing a post multiple times within the same community in a narrow timeframe is senseless. It points to the fact that the poster is not really an active member. Otherwise he would have recognized that his post is redundant.

3 Link/Post littering Capture a link and post it without any further comments. Members of a community should know why this information was posted and why it’s relevant. Link litterers don’t take care of this basic rule valid for all communities. In many cases they even didn’t read what they have posted. Entering a search term in Google search, posting the links of the first 5 results would transform every community into a giant trash.

4 Useless content If people post just screenshots of their smartphone screen or photos taken with the camera in a community dedicated to Apple and their is no suitable category, active moderators will remove these posts. It’s because their is no perceptible content. There are other networks like Pinterest, Flickr, other communities or the public stream in the poster’s profile where this ‘content’ can be posted. Usually these posters are not what we would call a rainmaker.

5 Wrong categorization Google implemented categories to let members select what they are interested in. Many people do not take their time to choose the right category and always use the default value. So there are many posts categorized as ‘Discussion’ although there is nothing to discuss. You will find the Spam category in many well-organized communities on G+ to force members not to just litter posts but take their time to add value to a specific sector.

6 Trolling In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. Neither Google nor any community needs trolls.

7 Spam Electronic Spamming is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages. Google automatically flags posts as SPAM if somebody posts the same content on multiple communities (cross-posting) within a narrow timeframe.

The reason for these faults are always the same. The poster hopes to raise awareness for what reason soever. All this might be allowed in other social networks but is not welcome on G+ and often punished by post removal or even a ban from the community if it’s done repeatedly.

I think I must not talk about the more general etiquettes accepted by the majority of people in all countries of the world. Breaching etiquettes is the worst scenario and usually followed by a ban and, in severe cases, Google suspends an account. We all can understand that people are in a dither from time to time. So stay cool before you write a comment, read it again, think about the possible consequences, and not until then tap on’ Share’.

The moderators behavior …

It depends upon the moderator (who is a leisure administrator!) how breaking of rules is treated. The usual case is that faulty behavior is followed by the removal of a post. A more elaborated (and recommended) way is to notify the member and tell him what he did wrong.

Here is a text template which can be put into the comment section of removed posts to let the member think about his posting behavior:

You are here in this Community as a guest. So you have to accept some rules. These are general rules set by Google as well as community specific rules set by the owner of the community.

Not welcome in the Apple Community are posts with useless content which neither provoke fruitful discussions nor give members useful information. If your post is just funny, expresses just a feeling, or contains just an image not related to Apple, or a screenshot of an Apple device and is not intended to start a useful discussion or explains an issue, it is removed because we have no category ‘Fun’ or ‘Photography’, ‘Feelings and Wishes’, or ‘Screenshots’.

It’s not allowed to post off topic but establish an artificial relation to the communities main topic by writing just an intro which pretends a relation to Apple. The communities topic is solely Apple and body content of text posts or of links must have a clear relation to Apple.

Keep it relevant.

Please read this G+ Member Guide by Andrew Harasewych as well as the clearly defined community rules to avoid

removal of your posts

getting banned from a community

being a link litterer

being a member just trying to get attention

There are many other communities available here on G+ where your post can be placed according to community rules (if there are rules!). As an alternative, just post in your public stream or use your Twitter or Facebook account to notify your close friends.

Looking on hundreds of profiles I recognized that members get many +1 when posting eye catchers but they usually have only a few followers. The reason is obvious: the internet is overloaded with images and people look at them for a few seconds and move to the next image often not even recognizing who posted the image. This is a behavior I will never understand.

We all know that big communities often are misused to get attention. This is not the right way to become a great member and to be seen as a rainmaker. You should take your time when creating a post and show members of this community that your posts are rich in content.

All this and many other useful suggestions can be found here:

Andrew Harasewych Google+ Member Guide

Sad to say that in many cases there is no further discussion with a member whose post was removed although he was notified. He simply ignores what the moderator wrote down. This is always a strong indicator for people just trying to get attention. Usually they are no active members in a community. They just ‘post and leave’ but are not engaged in any discussion. It looks like trying to build a further profile stream within a community. The ban hammer follows immediately after posting again. Members should be aware of the fact that they are not customers but guests. So, to get rid of people who consecutively violate the rules is a painless action.

The moderators view …

If you want to learn more about communities seen from the moderator’s view I strongly recommend to read the

Andrew Harasewych Google+ Community Owner Guide

The guide …

If you are a contributor or even a content creator you should follow these rules whether you accept them or not. Nobody should forget that he is a guest on G+ and probably use many other free services of the company. So it’s self-evident that there are just two ways to go: accept the rules or leave the community. Communities on G+ are created by individuals and everybody who joins a community has to accept the rules set by the owner. This is not only valid for social networks based on electronic information exchange but also for any other topic-related groups of individuals. I’m sure it’s the anonymity on the internet which let people think that communities in a social network are different from communities where interaction is based on personal communication.

So here is a mind map valid for members of Google+. It’s based on a couple of articles I found in the internet. Authorships are mentioned in the links below and it’s strongly recommended that you take your time to read them all if you want to obtain all the benefits offered by a social network like G+.

The mind map was created with the app iThoughts HD for the iPad by Craig Scott, UK.

Tap on these images to see relevant parts of the map.

A reply from an ignoramus …

I notified a member because he was completely off topic. The reply was

I live in a free country and I can post what I want.

He can do it if it’s legal and he publishes in his profile stream.

Think of it like this:

If you hate ties and suits would you go into a restaurant where this is obligatory? You can try it but the owner will not accept it. But there are many other restaurants where you can get delicious food without wearing suit and tie.

If you join a soccer club would you ask the goalkeeper to play tennis with you?

More needs to be said?

Summary …

Engagement in a G+ community can be followed by exciting experiences and you can get friends in all parts of the world. Exchanging opinions, getting useful tips, improving knowledge and personality might be the chance but only if some rules are accepted. Again, G+ is completely different from other networks like Facebook or Twitter. It’s a great offer from Google and it’s up to all members to build up a great network by choosing the right communities and contributing useful content. That at least was my painful experience.

Everyone is entitled to express his opinion on the internet. But like in real life rules have to be accepted to avoid utter chaos.

It’s that simple.

Related links …

Andrew Harasewych Google+ Member Guide Andrew Harasewych Google+ Community Owner Guide The Social Media Hat How not to use Google+ Paul Maplesden How you can be a great G+ member Google Google+ Information  Google Google+ Etiquette

Thanks for dropping by.

Google+ Activity Guide Although I use the internet from the very first day of public availability in Germany (early 90s) I never joined and engaged in any social network until April 2013.

[braskasfinalginger-blog]

Survey Results [Research]

Over the Easter Holidays, I created a survey about my plans for this upcoming project to get a better idea as to how I should continue and whether there is anything I should prioritise when creating my Interactive Graphic Novel. As of writing this blog, I have received 22 responses and I shall be reviewing the answers that were given to me.

Question 1: “What age range do you fit into?”

For this question, I put in seven different age groups:  5 - 8  /  9 - 12  /  13 - 16  /  17 - 20  /  21 - 30  / 31 - 45  / 46+

This was so that, wherever I shared my survey, I could make sure that I had all bases covered. I shared my survey with my college friends on a Discord server that we share and I also posted it on Facebook so that more of my friends could see it. My sister was kind enough to share my post with her friends which meant that I had received a lot more responses than I was expecting. Because of this, the largest age range answering my survey was 21 - 30, followed by 13 -16 and 17 - 20, and then the two oldest age groups. I received no responses from the two youngest age groups. Knowing that I was having my survey answered by an older group of people meant that I would be receiving more responsible and reasonable answers.

Question 2: “What first comes to your mind when you think of Pirates?”

I left this as an open question so that people could write their own opinions rather than giving them options that I believe they would think, giving me biased views as to the way I want it to go.

Common themes in these responses were to do with features of a typical pirate, for example “Eye patches”, “Ships”, “Rum” and “Black sails” which is good as it confirms the ideas I had planned for my character designs and allows me to continue them with confidence. Another common theme in the answers was “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Johnny Depp” which was part of my planned research (to watch Pirates of the Caribbean). Another answer that cropped up was “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” which is a children’s T.V. show. I’m not entirely sure on what goes on in this show but I will make sure to research into it to help me get a better understanding of what children like and what they associate with pirates. 

There was one answer that came up that I wasn’t sure what it was: “pirates of penzance”. After a quick Google search, I found out that The Pirates of Penzance is a comic opera from the late 19th Century. The story follows a man named Frederic who has been released from an apprenticeship and has joined a band of tender-hearted pirates. While there he meets a woman named Mabel and the two instantly fall in love. However, because he was born on the 29th of February, logic would dictate that he could only have a birthday every leap year and he was only allowed to leave his apprenticeship at the age of 21. This meant that he must serve for another 63 years before being allowed to leave his apprenticeship, with his only solace being that Mabel said she would wait faithfully for him. This is an interesting take on pirates that I have not seen before, where the focus is on love and not the violence and pilfering that is usually associated with them. Once again, this has given me more material to research to help with the story of my own interactive graphic novel.

Question 3: “In your opinion, which age range (target audience) do you believe is most suitable for a story about pirates?” (In general, no specific plot)

This question featured the same age groups that were given in Question 1. This time around, 50% of the answers said that 8 - 12 was the most suitable age range for a pirate story. This surprised me slightly as I had typically seen pirates as suited around an older audience, due to the nature of how they acted. However, the second most given answer was 13 - 16, followed by 17 - 20 and 4 - 7, with the least voted answer being the 21+ age range. This gives me a good idea as to what age I should be targeting for this graphic novel and what sort of humour I should be having my characters use.

Question 4: “In your opinion, what is most important in an Interactive Graphic Novel?”

In this question, I wanted to find out what other people thought was most important when it came to reading an interactive graphic novel. Instead of leaving this one as an open question, I instead listed off features that I found from my other research and allowed the people answering to tick multiple boxes. The options I gave are as follows: 

Art Style / Positioning of panels / Various panel sizes / How the story is told / Animated panels / Interactivity / Other (please specify)

The two most ticked answers were “How the story is told” and “Interactivity”. I was expecting interactivity to be ticked as that is what is at the core of an interactive graphic novel, however I was not expecting the way the story is told to be as high up on the list as it was. I am aware that story is highly important but now I also know that I need to be careful about how I am conveying my story to my audience so as not to allow for any confusions. As my story idea is simple, I don’t believe this will be too much of an issue to look out for but I will still do it as a precaution just in case. The next most popular answer was “Art Style” which shows me that the imagery used needs to be of a good/legible quality that it is enjoyable to look at while going along with the story. What was surprising to me was that the two least popular answers were “Positioning of panels” and “Animated panels”. While I understand that panel positioning doesn’t come across as important when the story is fantastic, I still believe it can be used to emphasise how important some scenes are compared to others. Initially, the lack of importance in animated panels was surprising to me because I initially believed that animation was in all interactive graphic novels, however, thinking back to examples that I have seen, there has been little to no animation in them, with the only exception being NAWLZ. Although this isn’t considered an important feature by others, I still believe it will be fun and interesting to include in my own one as it will make it somewhat unique and stand out from others that are out there.

I also received responses that ticked the “Other” box. Two examples of ideas given were “User friendly” and “Exciting Content”. “Exciting content” would likely fall into the category of “How the story is told” as it is how the story comes across that can either keep people reading or make them stop. “User friendly” was an interesting response as it could fall under “Interactivity”, although I will admit it was something I hadn’t put into consideration. It will need to be made clear before my graphic novel begins that there is a way to navigate/activate the panels as the story progresses in order to prevent any confusion as to how it works.

Question 5: In this question I gave a brief synopsis of my story idea, followed by the question “On this scale, how do you rate my idea?”

The scale that I gave for this answer ranged from 0 to 100, with 0 meaning terrible and 100 meaning great. While I cannot view each individual response to this question, there was an average score of 79 meaning that my idea was generally well received by everyone that responded to my survey. This was good to see as it meant that I could still work with what I had and that, if I did follow through with it, then the end product would also be (hopefully) well received by the people that read it.

Question 6: “Having now heard the plot for the story, does your option for the age range of the target audience remain the same, or has it changed?”

+ Question 7: “What is your reasoning for your answer to the previous question?”

For the first half of the question, I gave three options for the respondents to choose:  Yes, my initial age range stays the same No, my initial age range has now changed to an older audience No, my initial age range has now changed to a younger audience

The majority of the responses to this were that the age range they chose had stayed the same, while the rest of the responses were exactly split as to whether their initial age range was now younger or older, so there was quite a mixed bag of responses, however based on the responses given in the second half of the question it seems that the majority of people changed to say their target audience is between 8 and 16 with the occasional people stating that the story should be for an older audience as they might not fully understand the plight of the pirates.

Question 8: “If you could make any changes/adaptations to this idea, what would they be? Why?”

For the most part, people did not have anything to say in response to this question. However, there were a few responses that did give some ideas as to how my story could be improved. For example, one of the responses was that the pirates interact with the the technology that they find that they thought was “useless” and try to figure out how it works. If it was something like a T.V. screen, do they they smash out the screen it’s self and make a finger puppet show behind it, or will they come back for more stuff?

Another idea was that they see “Windows” written on something and mistakenly believe it for actually being some kind of window so they try to climb through it, or smash and then try to fit through it, only to fail, just adding some more varied humour to the ending of the story.

Overall, this survey proved to be very useful to me as it let me know what I was doing right, where I needed to improve and most importantly whether or not I was targeting the right audience, and whether or not other people believe I am heading in the right track with the target audience. I can now confidently move forward with the rest of my research and the actual production of my project.