Welcome to the El Reg bumper demographic survey

Long-term Reg aficionados will be aware that roughly once a year we nag you, our beloved readership, into completing a demographic survey the better to understand just who's popping on down to the site, their likes and dislikes, and how we can improve The Register. So, if you want to chip in your two bits' worth and give us …

[Steve Browne]

IT angle

No IT angle again, though Paris received an honourable mention

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop the Americanised nonsense...

Dear El-Reg,

I visit The Register because I got used to coming here years ago when this was the best place to get a British perspective on IT and Technology related issues.

In the past couple of years, you have been going down the route of all other sites. You have become heavily Americanised, and as a result, I don't trust what you say nearly as much as I used to, and I don't enjoy reading The Register nearly as much as I used to.

The best thing you can do is return to your British roots. Either make all your American correspondents use British spelling (-ise not -ize, colour not color etc etc) and British currency (use the £ as the first currency you quote - convert that to Dollars and Euros if you must), or sack the lot of them.

Americanisation of The Register is a BAD THING.

Sort it out...

[John Lettice]

Re: Stop the Americanised nonsense...

Er, no.

It has always been Reg house style for our US staff to be permitted to write in US English, and for our UK staff to write in UK English. We realise that the logic of this tends to fall apart when staff switch continents but don't switch spelling, or when they return totally confused after a longish stint on the other side. But we regard this as one of our defining eccentricities, and we're rather proud of it.

[Chris Harden]

Paris Hilton Angle

Apparently, she is a DBA now?

http://www.illegalexception.com/~byte/hilton.gif

1.4 Million Records a day? Wow, that explains why she is a bit slow sometimes, working through that much data must really work on her sanity - poor lass.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re[2]: Stop the Americanised nonsense...

OK John, In that case, drop "theregister.co.uk", make yourselves a ".com", start writing entirely in American English and go the whole way towards proving that there is absolutely no regard for British English and British Currency in your articles.

The use of American English is not "eccentric", it's annoying. The use of the US Dollar as the primary currency you report in is more than annoying, it's infuriating.

Being "proud" of these "eccentricities" is like being proud of your pet dog for shitting in your lap!

[Tawakalna]

any chance..

..of getting our beloved Paris on the staff?

[Matt]

.com vs .co.uk etc etc

@AC

Have you tried running the "American" pages through babelfish or google translation to get them into "English"?

As for the currency units surely we can come up with a Register standard unit for this that we'd all understand. Eg 1RFR (Register Friday Round consisting of 2 bitters, a Guinness, 2 scumpys and a packet of pork scratchings)

Matt

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Re[2]: Stop the Americanised nonsense...

I have not used this in a while... let me find it..... Ah there it is! On my shelf of old retired IRC macros....

"STFU! Get over yourself. Can't you see that you are the only one that is hung up on this? FFS!"

Glad I kept that around.

++

Posted Annon to Annon. I'll take my mask off if you will.... but I am sure that offer will not be taken up.

++

[Anonymous Coward]

Survey

Next time please note in the intro that if you don't know what the other 10k people and dozens of IT departments in your organization plan for the next year you won't be able to answer half of the questions...

[Brutus]

@AC

My, my, aren't we in a tizz!

I suggest you go and have a nice calming G&T or two. Or get a life (and a name!).

Cheers,

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC RE: .com vs .co.uk

HAVE YOU GONE MAD?

Most people in this country are civilised and understand that the Americans cannot speak English and there is no such thing as US English. However the idea of telling El Reg to go .com just because some of their reporters are in America is insane.

El Reg - can you please find more things for your British correspondents to talk about. At the same time tell your American people to post a warning at the top of the page.

Thank you

[Fred]

AC

Sorry folks but Anonymous Coward has a very valid point... Lets keep these fair .co.uk pages british and maintain that good british attitude and humoUr.

Its just so much better done correctly than the way they do it over the pond.

Question tho: is yankee humour better than british humour?

[Guy]

Carry On

The only thing I'd change is a more consistant style applied to the various sister sites (Hardware I'm looking at you)

Really the re-design was a bit poor in my opinion, oh and add some links on each site so you can navigate to the other sites, if I get to a hardware story via RSS I might want to spend more time on your site, and a handy link would be much appreciated.

As I put all that in my submitted survey there goes my anonymity, but as the great and wise Kryten once said "It's such an important point I thought it was worth mentioning twice"

Oh and spell things however you want, so long as the story is valid I've no problem with how it's spelt.

[Stu]

"Americanised"? *sigh*

I admit that I read El Reg for its British slant more than anything else.

After all, only the British are true masters of farce.

[Chris Harden]

Americanized?

@AC (the idiot up top complaining about all the news from...the country that dominates the IT industry....which BTW some of us are very grateful for - seeing how it helps give a better understanding of how the industry is going)

You seem to have a malfunction in your thinking centres - I suggest you have a quick fsck of yourself - considering all the good informative articles that come from El Reg the spelling of a few words is hardly worth loosing any sleep over is it?

Lets be honest - how many British web developers out there can actually spell (align=) "center" and "color" (:#000000) in the Queens proper English, without really thinking about it?

[lglethal]

british spelling

Actually something, i forgot to put it into my survey can you please for the love of all that is holy (i.e. The pub!) put a UK spell check on your .co.uk website!! Stop with these americanised spellings now!!

[Steven Hewittt]

Agree with AC

The british angle is key to El Reg - otherwise it's the same as a crap load of other sites. The witty, zany banter with various ironic comments is why I love El Reg.

Not quite as hung up about it as AC, but I agree that keeping in line with the whole British culture around the site (with anyone welcome of course) we should have a single lanugage and dialect to read - British/UK English. It's a British site, based in London with the majority (i'm guessing) of content written by Brits. Keep all the writters, but just set the spell checker to UK English only.

And sort out those fecking adverts. Stop running them OVER the content. I come here to read the content, not to have some irritating Javascript advert 'float' across the page till I click it.

Finally, you have lots of links to the sister sites (or shouldn't that be daughter sites?) from El Reg.co.uk, but it doesn't appear to be as easy to go back to El Reg once your on it. Could be mistaken, but if you go direct to Reg Hardware or Developer there's no easily found hyperlink to theregister.co.uk

Otherwise keep it up, you open source bias bastards! :-D

[GrahamT]

Americanisation

Re: "..the spelling of a few words is hardly worth *loosing" any sleep over.." No, but it helps if they are spelled correctly in whichever variation of English you use.

If there was a filter against US usage (USage?) would it be an anti-septic?

Mine's the anorak, with the titfer.

[breakfast]

Not before time

To return to the original topic of the article, I for one am glad to hear that you are finally doing a much needed bumper demographic survey.

Let's just hope that the next set of Reg bumper stickers fit your reader's cars a little better.

[Matt]

@GrahamT

Sir,

"anti-septic", the anorak with the "titfer".

Genius!

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in the good old days...

...surveys used to have incentives for filling them in, like maybe a prize draw with, i dunno, a frickin' iPod or something?

In the last couple of weeks I've been asked to fill in surveys about my satisfaction with my employer, my employer's outsourced IT support people, and numerous software vendors I've dealt with over the last year, plus my comments have been sought on various colleagues for their end-of-year appraisals. Any bounty on offer for complying? Nope. Not a sausage.

C'mon Reg, <vulture>show us the money!</vulture>

[Luke]

@Fred

Question tho: is yankee humour better than british humour?

No

[Colin Jackson]

No

My time is precious. At least give me an unlikely chance at winning a shabby prize, and let me engage in some cognative dissonance. I appreciate the 'chummy with our readers' atitude as much as anybody else, but even my bezzy mate has to occasionally offer me stuff to get me to socialise.

Anti-social, I know, but hello-o? IT industry?

[Adam Potts]

@GrahamT

USage

In the words of Partridge... God that's good.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Fred

Coming from a Yank here... British humour ftw.

[Charlie]

Forgetting something?

Just completed the survey, although I guess my answers aren't as informative as many.

You might not realise this, but it's not only working people who read El Reg!

There needs to be an "I'm a student waster, and have nothing relevant to say on the second half of the survey" option.

[James Condron]

@Chris Harden

You seem to have the Americans and the Chinese (or possibly Japanese) mixed up.

I've always read el reg for the British slant, too- it was good to have everything summed up in a manner and format recognisable as being as my own- Else I'd read an American 'site.

[Dave Morris]

Hmm

Doesn't it make you feel a bit lacking, intellectually, if you stumble over a missing (or extra) u or a reversed r and e?

As for currency, it seems to me that, usually, the stories give prices in the appropriate currency for wherever they are reporting about (for instance, the recent article about the German ruling that T-Mobile does not need to sell the unlocked iPhones gave the prices in Euros, plus conversions into USD and GBP) - surely this is the most appropriate standard to follow, since conversion rates are inherently fluid, whereas local prices generally remain fixed for relative long durations. If a piece of kit is made by an American company with a m.s.r.p. of $1000, then shouldn't its price be listed as $1000 (£486, €678)? That is its price, after all. If it is manufactured in India instead, and the manufacturer provides the m.s.r.p. in Rupees, then the price should be listed thus, with any conversions (probably to $, £, and €) there purely for the convenience of the reader.

As for spell check.. install wordnet on your computer.. then you can spell check with US English, UK English, CA English, AU English, or even (if you make your own dictionary) Engrish, to your heart's content.

[Magilla]

Re: Back in the good old days... (AC)

IMO, a nice IBM model M keyboard would do the trick.

Re: the advertising section of the survey - where's the checkbox for "I use Adblock Plus, so I never see the ads"?

[Jeff]

It's AmericaniZed

Getting my coat... :)

[Anonymous Coward]

for what it's worth

I'm an American who enjoys reading the Reg more so than any of the other trade rags (on-line or hard copy) simply because of the writers and the reader comments. Personally, I don't care where the website is based out of or whom its run by, I enjoy the product that is provided. Granted, the UK is one of the few European countries I blindly respect, it wouldn't matter to me if the Reg was based out of Norway, Finland, Holland, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg or Japan. I'd still enjoy it.

You don't like me, simply because I'm an American, fine... Chances are I'm not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over it, but what the hell, everybody is entitled to be an idiot, simply because of their own personal bias.

[Anonymous Coward]

Reporting on currency

"Either make all your American correspondents use British spelling (-ise not -ize, colour not color etc etc) and British currency (use the £ as the first currency you quote - convert that to Dollars and Euros if you must), or sack the lot of them."

I thought it was tradition in press that when you report on an amount of money for another country (such as USD $1,000) you report initially on that amount then convert it to your local equivalent. It seems silly to me that if someone was fined $1,000 in the states, you report that first then convert it... otherwise you'd be saying something along the lines of "Bob was fined 492 pounds ($1,000 USD)", which is inaccurate reporting due to exchange rate changes etc.

[The Aussie Paradox]

What about

What about Australianisms?

Why can't we use more Aussie speak too?

For example:

G'Day mate.

Put a another croc in your budgie smugglers (Never could get that one right)

Etc

That way we can all live together in harmony (assuming Harmony wants us to live in her?)

hehe, How long till Friday?

I have chosen Paris Hilton because she is a beloved representative of the American people.

[Bruce]

@ The Aussie Paradox

Australianisms won't work on an overseas site as

Take the following extract from the 'Aussie Citizenship Test' that was emailed around.

"Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye and having a slash?"

I suspect quite a few overseas ppl will be confused, where as an Aussie will smile and remember their youth...

Anyway, we get to Friday before they do, which is kinda cool...

[Fred]

And....

... this is why i like El Reg so much....

aah... breath of fresh air!!!!!

ps... i now have to double check my spelling on here so i dont look like a retard.

[Anonymous Coward]

That was one of the more fun surveys to fill in...

Mind you, all the "job stuff" is fun when you're unemployed. Job title? "Scuzzbucket". Purchasing decisions I'm involved in? Well, I choose what to have for lunch...

Fred, you might wish to check your punctuation as well. Word to the wise...

[Anonymous Coward]

Print my comments!

..more often. I want the right to speak freely for free at your cost and my privilege. That is, to sound off how I like and when I like!

And tidy up your front page - it's impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff, meaning segregate your story titles by colour or something so we can tell their category straight off without having to read them all in detail firstly. Plus, make the date more prominent - old news shouldn't be as prominent as today's news. Put a dateline separating the day's stories maybe.

And where's the financial incentive to complete your ten minute questionnaire? Eh? I want to see prizes and plenty of them!

Otherwise you're doing a pretty good job in the main. I have lots of ideas. But they will cost you dearly*.

*if you were wreckless or stupid enough to implement them that is

[Anonymous Coward]

Enjoyment?

Where is the information about reading el reg for pure amusement?

I am just an office assistant, whose only IT assisting role is to help out ones who don't understand that is Alt+F4 is the quick way to close a PC.

[Vaughan Trevor Jones]

Good old South African here

Personally I really love El Reg, and of cause the humor thats added to everything. My really only complaint is when people still to this day ask "where's the Paris Hilton angle"

I swear I will scream!

[Pablo Barboza]

@Enjoyment?

I am completely with you in that one!

Although I am in the IT industry, I read El Reg mostly because it is amusing... comments are the most important part of the articles (btw why some articles don't allow comments? that's just unfair)

Besides, here in the tropic is difficult to tell the difference between British and US English (at least written, you got to love English accent)...

[James Moran]

Lose The Bias

As an American of British descent based on Mars, I must admit your Earth-based reporting is a real turn-off. Show some love for the Red Planet. We do IT better!

[Slaine]

at last - the explanation

T'was vexing me perplexingly

My lovely posts would vanish

I slandered off the USA

A land we must not tarnish.

((not that they need any help from me))

[Geoff]

This is great, but...

... where are the results of the salary survey?

[Anonymous Coward]

enough with the naysayers

Despite all the flaming above, keep up the good work being the best source of UK/OZ/USA tech news! If any of the readers are unable to understand the subtle differences in the language or currencies, well are you sure that you should be working in IT? I think sales needs a new drone or two....

[Dan Collett]

Peronally.....

Couldnt give a rats arse what people think about the US spelling!

Letz b onst ere we av spwnd sum kinda chav spk here innit!

I would rather read yank (err no offence guys i am a big fan of the US and actually might get the oppurtunity to visit on a holiday (or vacation as you know it ;-) ) next year if i am lucky!) than that kind of dribble! For now i will raise a beer to the reg another year and another good excuse to be surfing the net from work. This is one of the few sites i can sit on all day having it open and not get whinged at! My boss even emailed round a link or after i forwarded them on!

I would like to oppurtunity to win more from you guys and dont tell me you have nothing, the freebies you guys must recieve even if they are crap...pens, notepads etc must be worth chucking out on a survey win!

[Redd]

I'll fill in your survey.....

... but only if you promise not to put the info an a CD and post it to your mates over at cash'n'carrion.

it ok I already have my coat......... :)

[chris]

When did the British speak English?

It ain't nuffin but a bag o'lies I tells you.

The Yanks may have bastardised our language, but on the whole I can understand all of them very clearly.

Howver passing through Prestion, I thought the chappie in the peteroleaum station was Scandanvian; couldn't understand a bloody word.

Don't even mention Glaswegains, Geordies and Scousers...

No, don't.

Seriously

[Anonymous Coward]

beer

I still think beer from Oz is better than the UK's... Sufficed to say, the brew made here in the US isn't worthy enough to be used to even clean bathrooms with...

[Power Pentode]

Survey Response

At the risk of coming off as one of millions of fawning Reg sycophants, I happily took the time out from juggling scads of real and virtual servers to complete the survey. I have gotten a heads-up here on many issues relating to my industry, and the droll humourous writing is entertaining in its own right.

Please don't change nuthin'. I'd wager a pint of good stout that the percentage of readers responding to the survey was significantly higher than that of most tech news sites.

[Shakje]

Re: bws

Beer in the UK is very different to anywhere else in the world (proper beer.), get a good pint of bitter or stout in you and you'll change your mind. Anyone could make better than Carling.

Also, not many will hate you for being American, hating your spelling is not the same as hating your country, for exactly the same reason that thinking Bush is a maniacal tyrant is not the same as hating America, God and listing Guy Fawkes as a personal hero.

Also, in response to the Aussie question posed above, I can understand it, although I have no idea who the band is, could I retort with a question from the French citizenship questionnaire (WARNING: THIS MAY PROVE OFFENSIVE TO PEOPLE LIVING IN FRANCE).

If Jean-Pierre, Louis and Elise are eating pastries when a foreign power comes through the door and demands to stay (even though said power's boots are dirty), how long does it take for each of them to surrender? Show your working.

It is, of course, a trick question as Louis doesn't surrender but joins the Resistance, and hides.

Disclaimer: I fully appreciate the service the French Resistance gave us in the War, and this is a humorous jibe aimed purely at the French politicians who rolled over like dead sheep.