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The 2022 Refuge Census

Started by Luca, December 21, 2022, 06:32:05 PM

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Luca

The 2022 Refuge Census


The Refuge Census is an annual project first created in 2009, where members may give feedback on our services, whether some of them need additions, modifications, or just need to go. We also study demographic changes due to new members joining the community and existing members getting older. Census data is generated through responses filled out by Refuge members during the week in which the survey runs. All results are anonymous, and there are no questions for which respondents are required to provide an answer.

The Census is also one of the most valuable programs we run and, from an administrative point, one that I would look forward to the most, were it not for how much effort it takes to put everything together. If I were a non-staff member, it would be what I would look forward to the most, too, because there has never been a Census that we have not directly acted on. Census results over the years have brought about changes in staffing, returned us to SMF, launched new RPs and Minecraft servers, and were the foundations for some of the biggest changes in our CalRef II, CalRef III, CalRef IV, CalRef V, and CalRef VI large-scale development pushes. This year's results will be treated no differently.

One of the biggest take-aways from these results is that we're just not doing enough to get people integrated and involved with the wider community. It has been another year of record-breaking turnout, and that explosive growth means that the majority of respondents, about two thirds of total, are new to the community as of this year.

Results indicating a respondent didn't know about one or more services has been a phenomenon since I started tracking quality and usage metrics in 2013. Back then, there were three services that everyone knew: The chat, the forum, and the active Minecraft server. After that, about 10-30% of respondents that didn't know what a service was*. Now however, no service is universally known (including the Discord server), and most services are unknown to 30-50% of the population. Since we know that 2/3rds of respondents this year registered in 2022, this is clearly an integration issue in need of intervention, instead of an indifference issue from older members.

If a service was known to a respondent, it was almost always rated positively.

There was one area of complaint as it relates to moderation, to which we all contribute to some extent. Three surveys returned that the community staff were overly strict and unforgiving of mistakes. This is an issue which I accept the largest share of the blame. For the first several years after taking over, the good bulk of new members who arrived were younger and rowdier than I was comfortable with, and my priorities were set on preserving the old culture and not letting things become a frat house. The practice of coming down hard on members who had no intention of being responsive to intervention was something I became overly accustomed to, and which is no longer reflective of where we're at today.

These days, our moderation team is much more robust, new arrivals have better intentions, and the community is well-equipped to deescalate and self-regulate, independently. I would like to reassure the respondents who posted these answers that I've written extensively upstairs about what we all, including myself, can do better in terms of interactions and giving new people a chance, doing due diligence with explaining things, and having better communication. This will be an ongoing improvement process.

Regarding NationStates, respondents requested more things to do in Refugia and more ways that they could interact. Similarly, the Refugi government has been looking for more people to get involved with the region and help out with things. So it's pretty clear that more efforts are needed to bridge the gameside-only divide, and should be supplemented with more interactive events and programs that people can actively work on over a short to medium term, beyond just answering issues. The recent Factbook Writing Competition was made to this end, and plans are in the works for an interactive "versus" event in the future. Two respondents asked for better welcome messages, which hopefully have been adequately implemented since those requests were made.

Demographic Observations:
  • Members are an average of a year younger than they were last year; about a third are 14-16, a third are 17-20, and a third are everywhere else.
  • Non-binary members have risen, as a share of total, for the third year in a row, becoming the second most populous gender.
  • Close to half of all members are bisexual
  • The majority of new members in the last year are European.
  • Members who have participated in a CalRef RP were the slimmest minority ever (10%), though this may increase with the recent launch of The Trees of Timberwood.
  • The Refuge is more educated than ever before, with the first time a master's degree has been seen since 2017 and the first time a Doctorate was seen ever.

Please enjoy this fine arrangement of graphical data which elaborates on these results further, and thanks once again to everyone who participated in the 2022 Refuge Census!