Dear Emrobu,
Thank you for your criticism, although, constructive rather than destructive would have been more well received. You clearly have a burning passion for questionnaires. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll leave other more judgemental members to decide…
To revert on a few points you have made:
‘_the answers are nothing like bog standard’ - Firstly, you’ll note by going to my original post that it is the questions I have said are bog standard; not the answers. They are a set of multiple choice questions; a couple of which there is an option to write a comment. You’ll notice from the questions that I have not asked you for the mathematics regarding a space shuttle’s orbit around the moon. In fact far from it. Simple questions. Simple answers.
'I don’t reckon a survey taker should be aware of the writers opinion’- My opinion is irrelevant. It is based on research conducted by industry experts which show there will be job losses. Its blatantly obvious. Now as the impact of unmanned vessels on the shipping industry is going to be huge and spanning pretty much every department you can think of, I ask you how am I supposed to put that into a short introduction without putting people off from completing the survey?__
‘’__Many of the questions presume that the survey-taker agrees with your thesis. If you’re interested in other people’s opinions for honest reasons, you should write fair questions’ - No they don’t. That’s the reason there are answers to the questions. Having said that, the whole point is to grasp the opinion of people from different sectors of the industry, whether on board or not, whether they would go for unmanned vessels. To this end, its a simple opinion poll which pits the idea of ‘If you had a choice between choosing between a manned ship which could operate at reduced operating costs elsewhere to keep it manned, or an unmanned ship at reducing crew operating costs, what would you do?’
‘If you’re trying to make an argument and you need “data” to support your point, this is a slimey method. Its double-irksome that someone who seems to want to use mariners opinions to back up an argument in support of unmanned ships, doesn’t seem to know who is manning ships now and why that matters. I will give you a hint: they aren’t all “crew.”’- To call this a slimey method is in my view, quite funny. This is a simple opinion poll on unmanned ships and a possible solution to keeping ships manned. That’s it. Nothing more nothing less. It’s just an idea. This is not a government funded opinion poll regarding a controversial policy on abortion for example. This is why I find it funny. You’ve taken this a bit too seriously. Furthermore, suggesting that I don’t know who is manning ships now is a bit, well…irksome. Perhaps if I changed the wording to ‘shipboard personnel’ this may sit well with you; or even better, perhaps if I gave extra sections for each individual rank or position on board then this would make you feel even more fantastic. Unfortunately though, this is a free survey which comes with limitations as to the format of the questionnaire so I was unable to do this. To be able to add extra options I would have had to pay for them. In addition, coming from someone who has worked behind the scenes of a shipping company/classification society, I’ve got some bad news for you…anyone sailing on a ship is generally referred to as ‘crew’, regardless of whatever rank or position they may hold. Now I know very well that when you are working on a ship you have officers and you have crew; there’s no need for you to define the difference.
To end things, I suggest you grab a beer, put your feet up, watch t.v. and relax.
