Edit — UPDATES!

Some answers to some of the common replies I’ve had:

Where do I sign up?

You don’t, yet. It will probably be after Thanksgiving (November 26) when I am ready. Expect to hear from me the week of November 30. I will give a day of notice and will then post a link to both KiA and Twitter. Follow that link and provide your email and Twitter or Reddit or Voat account and that’s it.

Should I email you or private message you now with my information?

No. All the respondents I collect will be through the website.

What if someone links their email to my Reddit/Twitter/Voat account?

There will be a verification process. I will send out a number of private messages to people to confirm that their email address matches their account. Based on the number of people that confirm there may be some changes.

Do I need more than one account/email address?

No. So long as you have at least one account on either Twitter or Reddit or Voat then I am able to verify that account supports GamerGate.

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If I’m going to write a book about GamerGate, my background as a researcher will come into play. The world doesn’t need another columnist spouting off their speculation or supposed expertise about the people of GamerGate. It’s time for some data. That means surveying 500 GamerGate supporters. Here is my plan and my reasoning.

There are many difficulties involved in surveying a mass of largely anonymous people. The first problem is how do I know if the person taking my survey is actually a GamerGate supporter?

I will create two surveys.

The first survey is intended to collect 500 respondents for the real GamerGate survey. The problem here is that GamerGate supporters might not like it. It will ask for the person’s email address and for the person’s Twitter name or Reddit/Voat username that was used to support GamerGate. Then for each person I will look through their posts to determine if he or she is actually a GamerGate supporter. Or I might ask for a URL to a post or tweet which proves that the user does support GamerGate.

Why are emails needed? Because that is the best way to ensure that the survey is taken by GG supporters and no one else. I will use SurveyMonkey and will use the email invite system for the second survey. It sends an email to each person the list with their own personal link to the survey. Once they finish the survey, that email address cannot take it again.

I understand that GG’ers may not wish to link an email with their posts. Unfortunately, this is the best way to do it. I will warn GG’ers at least a week ahead of time and they can create a new, anonymous email just for the survey if they wish. The email only matters for sending invitations to the second survey.

What about people who have not supported GamerGate on Twitter or Reddit or Voat, such as solely on 4/8chan? Sorry, there is no way to affirm that you actually support GamerGate and you will not be counted. I believe the number of GamerGate supporters who only use 4/8chan is probably pretty small overall, so while it is certainly a “ding” on the data, I think it’s going to be statistically insignificant.

The second survey will be the “real” survey, and it will ask a bunch of questions — probably 20 minutes worth. It will be completely anonymous. Emails will not be tied to the data. I will not be able to link any answers back to any people. IP’s will also be anonymous.

Why am I targeting 500 GamerGate supporters? Because SurveyMonkey costs money if I’m going to survey more than 100 people. At the bottom tier it allows me to collect 1,000 responses. That is 500 for the two surveys.

So, the task ahead is clear. I will be talking to GamerGate on KiA and Twitter about this soon and try to allay any concerns. If we don’t get enthusiastic support, it won’t happen. This is a shot at getting real, scientific data on GamerGate, and I hope to get your support on this.

If any academics are interested in getting in on this, let me know. You can find my email on my twitter @brad_glasgow .