Batir Wardam Blog: Results of the Jordan Watch Survey

Hey folks I want to thank each and everyone of you who has responded to the survey I designed to shed some light on the future of this blog. I appreciate very much the time and effort you have done and it is a fantastic feeling to know the interest from you.

The survey started on August 1st and ended on the last hour of August 10th. A total of 31 responses was received from a total of 114 visitors who read the post of the survey.

Now let me provide a summary of the results. I have not included some of the textual answers that include direct praise so that my dear critics will not say that I have been promoting this blog or myself. On the other hand I have included all the negative answers.

1- How did you learn about Jordan Watch Blog?

Through a blog aggregate 80%

Through online searching 17%

from a friend 3%

Not much to say other than the strong power of aggregates in documenting blogs.

2- How do you monitor the updates in Jordan Watch?

Adding it to my favourites 43%

Checking blog aggregates 41%

By RSS feed 13%

Do not intend to follow up 3%

3- What do you think of the blogger? (total more than 100% due to multiple choices)

Respectful 76%

Insightful 46%

Arrogant 10%

Wasting his time and mine 0%

Others 26% (Maximizing his efforts & yielding minimuzing results, authentic. well-intentioned. trustworthy. eloquent, a civilized platform for freedom of expression).

Thanks guys for the trust

4- Is there an added value to Jordan Watch among Jordanian blogs, and what is it?

Sample answers

a- Yes, i consider one of the best jordanian blogs. Also , this is the perfect mediam to communicate with Jordanians with social democratic inclination since most of them are educated and are net users. This blog is not a luxury , it is needed.

b- Yes there is, it gives them an alternate view about domestic issues

c- I need you and Khalaf and Nas to help me make sense of what goes on, and how to interpret what the newspapers say.

d- love that it is Arabic/English - it motivates me to practice my Arabic, and having similar pieces side-by-side from the same author seems to help me alot. I would sometimes use one of your Arabic posts when we had to do translations for classes in college.

e- Yes. Even though I totally disagree with your political views, I like the fact that this idea is avaiable and I realize that alot of people in Jordan today think along the same lines as you do, so this line of thought must be heard.

f- I would say so, thou I do not necessarily always agree with the conclusions drawn, I always appreciate that an attempt at rational thinking is taking place in most posts, sadly this is lacking in many other blogs

g-A needed blog to voice a liberal political view

h- Learn about attitudes in parts of the world far away from myself

5- What would you like to see more on Jordan Watch?

Soial Issues 67%

Politics 61%

Culture 58%

Economy 51%

Personal reflections 41%

Fun and jokes 22%

Sports 3%

Others 7% (gender, you are too pro-men (this is a tease), Personal stories, your life in Amman, some accidents you go through)

Oh lord. No one wants sports. I was hoping for more interest in sports! However, more social and cultural issues are on the way.

6- What would you like to see less on Jordan Watch?

Fun and jokes 39% (not so much fun currently, though!)

Sports 33%

Politics 22%

Personal reflections 16%

Economy 11%

If this Jordan Watch stops tomorrow, will that make you

Annoyed 77%

indifferent 23%

Happy 0%

Thank you for making me fel the demand

In general, did reading Jordan watch provide you with

Open up controversial issues to be discussed online 67%

New information about Jordanian issues 62%

False information and analysis 6%

Nothing at all 4%

How do you think I treat people commenting on my blog

Respectful 90%

Must reply more often 17%

Biased 14%

Hypocrite 4%

What is your special message to me to improve the blog, or even close it?

Samples of answers

1- Publish photos/images related to the issues you are talking about.

2- To be a little more tolerant about those dissenting views that are different from yours

3-blogging is about individuality and a personal voice, so I wouldn't be "annoyed" at anyone or anything if you decided to stop - nor would I be happy that your voice isn't active here any longer

4- The best thing is that everyone can comment and this is great. I sometimes find it annoying that there is not anything new on teh blog. I also feel sad when important articles are not commented on

5-please don't allow any bad language to be used no matter what, other than that this blog is doing great.

6-Your blog is good(technically),sometimes you bring up some valid arguments, it serves a purpose, and I feel that you should continue with jordan watch.

7-maybe a little less self censorship

8-Be less provocative

9-You need to control your tempers while replying to people who diagree with you. You sometime seem to be irrational in analyzing topics. However I think it's great to have a blog like yours, it's helpful. Keep the effort. Some more pictures or a few videos on the blog and a better design can really help.

10-To be more objective when you discuss governmental related issues

11- Add some photos to your Blog, for example, at the moment, I can't see any photo in the main page of your Blog except one of an extremely content gentleman!!!

Is there anything else you would like to say to me?

1- Yes. You are a Jordanian writer and researcher, but where do you work? Who employs you? ( I work as an assisstant manager of a UN supported environmental project in Jordan)

2- I would like to see more indepth critical thinking beyond the simple anecdotes.

3-your coverage of stories that might only be dealt with in Arabic language papers helped me understand and evaluate current events. I've relied since I was just preparing to go to Jordan last summer on you and Khalaf and a few others to highlight the news, provide insight, and above all set out some constructive criticisms to get me thinking and interested in new topics/issues.

4- Yes, I feel that you are too polite on many occasions

5- God Bless Jordan.

6-If it is feeling like to much of an effort and impacting on other things you would like to do, my advice is ditch it or just update it when you feel like it

7-your blog is important for me, I live in the USA and reading your blog keeps me up to date with what is happening in Jordan.

8-Congratulations. Great job. Thanks.

Again I would like to thank you all. I have to say I was happy with the positive responses as I have been bombarded with negative comments lately but this survey showed to me that the majority of the readers do appreciate the blog and are different from the negative commentors who I think did not even participate in this survey. Thank you all and I hope I will have better and more focused posts in the future. I will also work to improve the design of the blog.