this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023

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Beehaw's Demographics survey of June 2023! (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Lionir@beehaw.org to c/support@beehaw.org

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Compiling this data was not as hard as I expected, let's go through the data and the shiny graphs!

Age of Beeple

Most are above 24! Seems we got an older average age compared to a lot of social media. It would be interesting to see how many came here with experiences from independent forums before Reddit.

Where Beeple reside

This one's a big graph. Though we can notice most people are from the US. Would be nice to see more countries represented though a big part of it likely has to do with language. (You will need to open the big graph in another tab, it's too big to show properly.)

Gender identity of Beeple

So, as expected, mostly men. However, less than expected which is nice to see. There should be outreach to at least equalize this.

Sexual orientation of Beeple

This is kinda surprising. It seems we managed to get a lot more LGBTQ+ people than expected considering most of you all come from Reddit - so this is nice to see. This is most likely because of our focus on a safe space.

Whiteness of Beeple

As expected, mostly white which is unfortunate. I think there's outreach to be done in that regard as well.

Neurodivergence of Beeple

We seem to have a really surprising amount of neurodivergent people! Definitely nice to see.

Beeple with disabilities

I.. have no idea how to interpret this data so I'll just say, shiny graph.

Beeple's awareness of the Fediverse

Most knew about the fediverse but still a good 20% had not heard about it so glad to see you all managed to find your way here!

How Beeple have been dealing with Beehaw

It seems most people feel relatively confident in their ability to use Beehaw and most people seem to enjoy it. That makes me really happy to see. Feels rewarding, feels good.

Conclusion

I wanna thank everyone for the feedback about the survey and its questions - we'll do better next time! I'm glad we did this survey because it shows the areas to work on in terms of outreach! Thank you all for your participation!

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[–] Parsnip8904@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

I understand the arguments given by many of us regarding why knowing the demographics is important. Maybe I shouldn't feel this way, but I bear the burden of having to deal with the crap that comes with being at the intersection of many of the categories that are discriminated against in real life, and reddit/lemmy was/is a place where I could engage with others while not having to shoulder most of that. So it bothers me a little that it is being brought up here too, albeit indirectly. On the other hand I can imagine how this would be different if there was actual discriminatory behaviour in beehaw itself.

[–] UngodlyAudrey@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Nice! Thanks for compiling all that!

Regarding the gender split... IIRC, most Reddit users are male. This actually does have a bit of an effect on Reddit's share of trans people. Worldwide, I believe it's about an even split between transmasculine and transfeminine people. But Reddit has more transfems than transmascs, and I'm pretty sure it's because people don't leave their preferred website when coming out as trans. In that same vein, I hear that tumblr leans more transmasc.

[–] Lionir@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, Reddit and a lot of forum websites are very heavily biased towards men so I'm not surprised we ended up inheriting that bias. I'd be nice to reach out to correct that bias.

One other thing to note is that this doesn't give us any information on trans people which might affect how we assess that bias. It's something that would be interesting to see in a future survey.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 2 points 2 years ago

I frequently link posts from Lemmy communities to friends, family, and some co-workers in part to encourage wider acceptance and participation.

If people keep up with the good content and keep engaging then more will come in time.

[–] nlm@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Looks good!

Beeple has got to be the official term for us going forward!

Nice to see a pretty diverse crowd in here! A bit US health perhaps but that's too be expected. Doing my bit to represent the tiny percentages of other places :D

[–] renard_roux@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing this, very interesting!

Also, shout-out to my 7 Danish homies! We almost made the graph! 😅🇩🇰

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Always love me some data porn. Thanks for this!

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I absolutely spent time on forums both before and after Reddit's rise. Including there was a forum that was effectively a role playing game world in webforum format. It was pretty dope. I also was doing telnet to muds long after it was cool.

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[–] karce@wizanons.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Very interesting! Thanks for running the survey and sharing the results.

[–] liminalDeluge@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Can we get a transcript/archived copy of the survey questions? Not the answers people provided, but just what questions were and the answers available to select from. Also an image transcription of the graphs would be helpful; the text in the images is difficult to read on Jerboa.

I'm curious where the decision to separate nonbinary and genderfluid into different categories came from. In the various queer communities I'm in, genderfluidity is considered to fall under the nonbinary umbrella, so breaking it out as a separate option while not breaking out other nonbinary identities looks a little odd to me.

I would be interested in knowing the trans/cis demographics as well; if, for all we know, Beehaw has equals numbers of trans men to cis men, this survey wouldn't reveal that or any other notable proportions.

I also want to include myself as another person who found the white/non-white question a bit uncomfortable. If it had asked me about being a person of color or some other phrasing, I wouldn't have blinked, but there is something unpleasant about being asked where I stand in a racial dichotomy as a biracial person. I don't know a better way to phrase the question that still captures the intent, though.

[–] Lionir@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The questions were :

How old are you?
What is your gender identity?
What is your sexual orientation?
What country do you live in?
Do you consider yourself to be white or non-white?
Do you consider yourself to be neurodivergent?
Do you consider yourself to have a disability? We are intentionally not defining what is or is not a disability; please do not feel like your disability needs to be of a certain severity or scope to answer this one.
Have you ever heard of the Fediverse before Beehaw?
How confident are you in your ability to use Beehaw?
How have you been enjoying your time so far on Beehaw?

I think I'll try making a table with the data on docs.beehaw.org to see evolution over time and I wanted to have tables with the data but Lemmy doesn't have markdown tables it seems.

I did separate genderfluid and non-binary. In my mind they were separate though I agree it falls under the non-binary umbrella. It's just I've heard genderfluid much more than any other nonbinary identity so it's the one I thought of adding. Maybe I shouldn't though.

Yes, cis/trans is definitely a question we want to add! It'd likely be a separate question because I don't think I want trans people to have to say "trans woman" when "woman" is there, it kind of implies that one isn't the other.

I do wonder if asking the opposite question "Do you consider yourself to be a person of colour?" would really be better.. I think I want an excerpt that we are going from a "white as purity" type of thing to make sure that people who are mixed understand. Do you think that would help?

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[–] alottachairs@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Cool Demographics! How should outreach be done?

[–] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If you happen to find yourself in diverse spaces you could tell people about the space. But otherwise, we're open to suggestions!

One thought that's already occurred is more dedicated efforts to grow communities that are useful to minority individuals or may attract them to use this site.

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[–] kalanggam@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Thank you for the awesome shiny charts, Lion 🥹❤️

Also thanks to everyone who filled out the survey, it's great to know who's around and to see that most Beeple seem to be having a good time!

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[–] wildeaboutoskar@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Thanks for pulling this together, looks like it's generated some interesting discussion off the back of it (which, as a data analyst, is definitely considered a win).

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