Idea: Weekly Reader Surveys

[The Adventurer]

So for the last 10 months I've been sort of cheating on 2000AD with another weekly anthology on the side. Weekly Shonen Jump. The digital only English edition bringing us Japan's finest weekly. Its pretty sweet. (And in this American's opinion makes for a nice complement to 2000AD in my international reading diet)

What's interesting about WSJ, at least to me, is at the end of every issue there is a link that takes you to an online reader survey. Where you can rank your favorite strips of the week, answer some survey questions from the publisher, and leave feedback. Also, every week the publisher gives out a prize to a randomly drawn survey participant.

While I know 2000AD and Jump are a bit different from each other in a lot of respects, it strikes me that 2000AD could benefit from the same kind of weekly metrics a new survey every week could provide. Judging strip popularity, getting direct feedback on current matters, etc... Maybe host it on the website here, or integrate it into the App. Include survey questions about the Meg the week it comes out too.

I don't know, but for some reason I really love filling out the Jump survey every week, like its part of the whole reading experience.

Just an idea.

[Professor Bear]

Oh God, no - offering opinions puts us on Thin Ice.  We're a right shower of arseholes and no-one should seek our opinion on anything at all, otherwise we'd end up with more Mercy Heights.  Gordon Rennie also makes the helpful point point in a Meg interview that everyone likes the idea of Rogue Trooper, but few want to work on or read it - on the other hand, I didn't think I'd like to see a series based on the opening title sequence of Game Of Thrones, but here we are.

Also, WSJ's publishers really need to keep on top of the preferences of their audience as they don't originate content, they merely licence it for reproduction, and manga is a badly-contracting market - I know it's a pretty bold claim that people might be put off by having to start reading manga at volume 12 of a series they've never heard of that doesn't have a recap page and has to be read backwards because that's how some nerds on the internet prefer it, but I'll chance my arm and throw that out there.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

We're a right shower of arseholes and no-one should seek our opinion on anything at all

This. But Tharg can bring back the cut out ratings box for old time's sake, if he likes.

[AlexF]

We, the few who offer opinions on this site might indeed be a shower of arseholes but surely the thousands of readers who don't may have something to contribute, even if it's simply choosing a number of stars at the end of each prog (for each story, of course) a la Comixology?

Although I suppose the difference between 2000 AD now and 2000 AD then is that Tharg won't just keep a character/story/series going for the sake of it (I'm guessing this is what happened with long-running strips such as Meltdown Man, original VCs, Ace Garp and so on), he'll have to commission and like a pitch from the relevant team, who may or may not want to do it, no matter how much readers say they liked a story.

Mostly, I just like filling in forms. It's a weakness.

[Proudhuff]

Star rating is over rated, I give it *