It’s been over a year since our last reader survey. Time for another! This year’s is more focused on demographics, and it’s probably patently clear from the questions that I’m pondering trying more seriously to support the site with advertisements. Please answer honestly and only once (you shouldn’t be able to answer more than once but with VPNs and multiple IPs you probably could).
You’ll note that we’ve got this lovely built-in survey now, rather than the horrible SurveyMonkey thing everyone had to put up with last year. It somewhat limits the kind of questions we can ask and it’s not going to make any pretty graphs, but it should be a much smoother experience for you. You won’t be able to see the results after you vote but I will publish them after we’ve collected enough surveys. Please take a minute to fill it out.
By the way, all this is ANONYMOUS, obviously. I will get a tally of the results, but not any information about who answered what. So rest easy and be honest!
[wp_surveys]
One final question: What else would you like to share with us? What do you like/dislike about the website? Any suggestions? This is your open ended question; please answer it (if you want) in the comments. (You can choose to use your regular username, or post anonymously by entering a fake email if you want, it doesn’t matter to us). Thanks!
chinageeksarchive 
I get information primarily through your twitter feed, which I find to be excellent
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RSS feed for me, likewise excellent.
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You guys are the most trustworthy resource on China- walking the path between the propaganda of the Chinese government, and the massive bias against China in the Western Media.
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I first heard about you on the Sinica podcast, and I’ll basically say the same thing I said to Kaiser: expecting a bunch of guys married to Chinese women to genuinely criticize China is effectively asking them to criticize themselves and the lives they’ve chosen. You obviously love China or you wouldn’t be here, which is great, but I would appreciate, now and then, holding China to a higher standard (eg. the 1st world one)… it’s the only way this country will ever develop.
That said, the concept of translating Chinese news is awesome because we get to see (if we can’t read Chinese) how the local press is spinning the story to brainwash the locals. Which is very telling.
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I am breaching protocol…..
my answer to the question, “how often do you read ChinaGeeks?”
DAILY!!!
50c
wansui
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I will not respond to all of the questions listed, otherwise I would participate in this survey.
That said, there is a problem with these two questions:
Are you aware the ChinaGeeks team is currently working on a documentary film?
Are you aware the ChinaGeeks team is also available for freelance writing, translation, reporting, and news video-related jobs?
These should be re-worded:
Were you aware prior to this survey that the ChinaGeeks team….?
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Your Twitter feed is a very good source of information and links.
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Good job making a readable and interesting blog, thanks. Keep it up.
I also (usually) enjoy reading the blathering exchanges of the select few … eh … ‘commenters’ … that you seem to attract:)
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“but I would appreciate, now and then, holding China to a higher standard (eg. the 1st world one)… it’s the only way this country will ever develop.”
Not from me. Less moralistic preaching and more of trying to understand why things are the way they are in China.
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For the stuff about why I read the website, an “all of the above” or the ability to check more than one option would be nice.
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@ Josh: Yeah, sadly that’s a limitation of the system we’re using. It’s free, and conveniently in-site, but it doesn’t support choosing more than one option, so I figured I’d just make people pick one and see what happened (otherwise I think most people would have just chosen the some/all of the above option).
@ Michael A. Robson: You don’t read this blog much, do you? Because it’s like 95% critical of China. What kind of standard were you talking about?
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“Critical of China” is a weird phrase. In reality, only a few blogs are really critical of China (that is, the country) and these are so demented as to be not worth reading. China is a country made up of people who live in a way decided by their history and upbringing, there is no reason to subject these people and their way of life to whole-sale criticism. Those things in the life of modern-day China that are worthy of criticism are already critised with great vigour by people living in China or who were born there and now live outside the country.
What is important is that these criticisms, and the facts on the ground that spark them, should be disseminated far and wide, and that, happily, is what this blog does.
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Looking at the results, I can’t say I am surprised with the popularity of Chinasmack. Though, if you can read Chinese you can simply get on mop and tianya directly to get a much better feel of the Chinese internet. A better question next time would be to ask how many of this blog’s readers can actually read Chinese. I suspect around 20% (these are the people who don’t read Chinasmack).
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I think it’s about 5% (“can read chinese” is actually a VERY difficult task, not to mention internet speak. if you think your chinese is good, just read this: 软妹哦，劳资脚得傲娇娘炮神马的皂素浮云, and that’s like entry-level). And that 5% are in fact native chinese speakers. so no.
most of the times chinasmack makes stormfront look like a forum for hippies. the racist filth there would make hitler blush.
some commenters here have that effect, too.
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“most of the times chinasmack makes stormfront look like a forum for hippies. the racist filth there would make hitler blush. some commenters here have that effect, too.”
I have never been to white racist sites before so I can’t compare, but I actually don’t mind the racism on chinasmack because I think most people are prejudiced. The reason why there are so many racists on that site is because it is gossipy and not moderated. In some ways I think the comments on sites like Chinasmack and shanghaiist are good reflections of how many expats and non-Chinese really feel about China. Still, I prefer to read the racists on Chinasmack who regular use term like Chinks as long as what they write are truthful, than bigots elsewhere who are no less prejudiced but are too PC to write how they actually feel. At least the former is honest.
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I found your site through Twitter and visit the site via your Twitter posts.
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I’d just like to see more, but understand given the Geeks’ other responsibilities. I also read ChinaSmack, Shanghaist as well as more highbrow fare such as Roland Soong’s ESWN and find something in all of them to satisfy my interests. Geeks has its own unique quality, however, and I’d rank it up there with ESWN and Danwei in its prime.
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