Comments on: Net neutrality and survey design

By: Shalom Beck

Shalom Beck — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:04:28 +0000

Somebody has been taking drafting lessons from the PQ!

By: bi

bi — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:19:43 +0000

All right… I’m going to call my home page the something something something Bill of Rights.

By: Jacob Christensen

Jacob Christensen — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 11:59:00 +0000

We now know the answer to the eternal question: “Do they think we’re that stupid?”.

Yes, they think we’re that stupid. U.S. politics really are scaring these days.

And just to state the obvious: Never, ever accept the results of an opinion poll, any opinion poll, until you know exactly which questions were asked and how the “don’t knows” and “did not answers” were treated.

By: cm

cm — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:02:21 +0000

Amazing.

By: cm

cm — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:01:06 +0000

Well, again, “for a fee”.

By: cm

cm — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:00:24 +0000

Heck, what do you favor, “heads we win”, or “tails you lose”?

By: cm

cm — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:58:20 +0000

Oops, I forgot the “for a fee” part. Not sure where.

By: cm

cm — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:57:09 +0000

Well, what do you favor, lifetime free beer, food, and porn, or the right to elect representatives to represent you in the house of representatives?

By: bi

bi — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 05:53:04 +0000

To go off on a tangent: if I see anything that bills itself the “___ Bill of Rights”, I’ll be inclined to think that it’s a piece of spin, or at best a work of crankiosity.

By: William Goodwin

William Goodwin — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:09:06 +0000

I don’t get this part of the press release:

“The survey found broad support for a “Consumer Internet Bill of Rights,” like that contained in the Senate’s communications bill. The provision contained in the Senate bill prevents Internet service providers from blocking access to competitors or degrading a consumer’s broadband service.”

I haven’t read the “Consumer Internet Bill of Rights,” and I’m sure it contains all sorts of sops to the telecom industry. But isn’t making it illegal to block access to competitors or degrade service exactly what most of us mean by net neutrality? (Maybe they will allow companies to degrade service to other Web sites, but not to consumers? But how could you do the former and not the latter?)

I’m not saying that the poll isn’t egregious, just that this part of the survey doesn’t seem to demonstrate what Verizon wanted it to.