Sunday, July 27, 2008

Everybody Votes Channel - Results

Intro! Wait, that’s where a piece of super-exciting intro text is supposed to go. Oh, here it is. This week on geeKeWL’s EVC roundup we learn about crooked teeth, naïve voters, and greedy eBay profiteers! Don’t believe us? Well… the proof is literally in the pudding – that is, if the pudding is the next few paragraphs and the proof is in our imagination. Read on would’ya?

1.
Have you ever had braces on your teeth?
Yes (33.2%) or No (66.8%)
So this isn’t the first time that we get a non opinion-based question on the EVC; probably not the last time either. Here at gK we usually held the opinion that these types of questions don’t really belong on the EVC. Why? Well, when you can determine the answer to a question by going to Google (such as with the “Can an elephant purr like a cat?” question) then it sort of defeats the purpose of asking the question on EVC – or does it? The thing is this: even if there’s a “right” answer that doesn’t mean we can’t find out what people think is the right answer, or what people have experienced, etc.
So the majority of people have not had braces; that’s kind of interesting! To us It felt like everyone got braces as a kid, perhaps it’s a northeastern phenomenon?
Lesson Learned: EVC users have naturally straight (crooked?) teeth.
2.
How well do you know the candidates running for president?
Not very well (53.3%) or Know their positions (46.7%)
How well do we have to know to know well? This one split pretty evenly, but why? Are people unable to tell the difference between McCain and Obama? You know… one is old, one is dark skinned, oh wait those aren’t positions they’re dispositions. Woops! What about positions then? One is pro-war, one is anti-war. One is for universal healthcare, one is against it.  Is it really so hard to guess which is which?
Maybe the problem isn’t finding a distinction between the candidates but rather determining what their positions actually are at any given moment. Both candidates, heck all politicians in general, are guilty of being very hard to pinpoint when it comes to specific positions on specific issues. When you look at it that way the results start to make sense, in fact they seem to be too generously green if anything!
Lesson learned: Idaho, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Georgia are soooooooo cute.
3.
Have you ever convinced another person to buy a Wii console?
Yes (49.5%) or No (50.5%)
Whoa, this was close! These results are truly fascinating, if for no other reason than their complete randomness. Green states here, pink states there, a pale colored state-an-everywhere! But, actually, only a handful of states went far enough into the “yes” category to go pink on the map. Must be higher a larger population of the EVC residing in pink states such as CA, CO, NY and FL to offset all those dirty Wii-greedy green states. “We dun wanna tell our friends about the Wii cuz we want more for ourselves so we can sell dem on der eBay!”  Not quite, but we think we know where the “hip” states are, a-yup.
Lesson learned: Convincing isn’t as effective without monetary influence.
Blam! Multicolored EVC maps FTW! This week was full of ‘em! (Well two outta three aint bad, eh?)  Still, we had a nice variety of questions that pretty much confirmed that none of us know, or are sure of, anything (except the lack of metal to ever be glued to our teeth).

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