One thing I’ve noticed over the years is the complete lack of research regarding the Blender community.
We’ve all heard statements like,
“Most Blender users haven’t even used commercial 3d software before…” or “Most users are teenagers…”
But are they based on fact? No.
To my knowledge there have been no formal surveys or research of any kind regarding the Blender community. This is shame, because how else are we to hear the opinions of a large group of people at once?
That’s why I’ve introduced…
>>The Great Blender Survey<<
This survey will help us understanding the the average age, level of experience, field of expertise and above all the views and opinions of the community at large.
The data from this survey will be reveald on the 1st of November.
I will present this data at this years Blender Conference in Amsterdam, as well as right here on BlenderGuru.com.
The survey will take you less than 4 minutes to complete, and in doing so you will benefit the community as a whole.
Here’s a short video from yours truly 
Great initiative, might actually be useful to be done regularly by the blender institute themselves as well, but I would have discussed the survey with someone with professional experience first, as a lot of the questions are not mutually exclusive but can only select one answer, or don’t allow for personal comments (I know personal comments are very hard to quantify, but if you want easy to quantify data the questions should be adjusted for that)
also for example the question “will you see yourself switching to another application”, I think a huge amount of the people using blender will also start using other software next to it, for example I use solidworks next to blender, does this count as switching? I believe in using the right tool for the right task, and this means being used to a huge amount of different apps for different situations, so the question is impossible for me to answer correctly.
then again, it takes days to make a good survey, so this is quite a good survey in itself, just some feedback
Thanks for writing this Andrew. I’d like to know how many other young blender users there are. I never really am taken seriously by my friends even know I’m pretty advanced in blender.
Thanks Again!
Micuik
Great job
Please digg this article and spread the news (connect with facebook if you don’t have a digg account)
http://digg.com/software/Take_part_in_The_Great_Blender_Survey
Cheers!
It’s too bad that the “Why did you start using Blender?” question doesn’t have “Because XSI ModTool sucks hard.” as an option.
Wow, good idea! Awesome, dude!
Just took the survey, nice job. I’m glad to know that someone is taking an initiative to figure out who blender users are.
A couple of point in terms of survey design. First, your survey is pretty short. You could have had twice that many questions without abusing our attention span. There must have been other aspects of blender use you were curious about. Maybe next survey you do can go more in depth. (And I hope you do more – I think your website has a broad reach into the community).
Second, as Jesper said, some of the questions have answers that are not mutually exclusive (#5, #8). #9 is something of a double-barreled question (I think people would like to note that blender use is not exclusive of other 3D programs).
Third, if I were you, (and I’m not, though I’d love to have your blender expertise!) I wouldn’t personally claim these results as statistically representative of the blender user base (your email gives that impression). The main reason is that your sample is not a random sample of all blender users – your sample will be blender users who find your website (however they do) and take the initiative to do the survey.
However! Having said all that, I won’t say that your results won’t be an accurate representation of blender users. I’m looking forward to seeing the results. Just that I personally wouldn’t say that your sample is actually representative of the larger blender population. But I bet there are blenderheads (maybe yourself) out there with better knowledge of statistics and online survey design than I, who might disagree with me.
And while I’m here, thanks for all the great tutorials! Love ‘em, keep ‘em coming!
I got stuck in the question about what should get a improve on Blender, because I’m a begginer and I barelly know the limits of the different departments mentioned
Made the survey too. I agree the questions are a bit ‘weird’ but al least they answer something of value: How people use Blender and why they use it.
Thanks Andrew for your great ideea!
Nice idea, i just took the survey.
“id you know that there has been no formal research or surveys conducted on the Blender community ever?”
That really took me by surprise.
Great Initiative!
This is a wonderful idea.
We had many of those threads on the forum already.
Kickass idea Price. Awesome Job.
Andrew, you have a typo in your survey. The age question has “> 13″ as an option. You mean “< 13."
Like John said, at the moment this survey is only reaching BG visitors. Maybe you can have Bart publish this? That should extend the reach quite a bit I think. =)
Other than that, great initiative! Looking forward to the results!! =D
your hair !!!!!! nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
And now we wait for 3 or 4 months. I’m very excited to see the results.
I am letting people know through my builds at graphicall.org
I just did the survey (great idea by the way), but forgot to add that i actually was interested in CAD for designing models that can then be cut by computer controlled machine (CNC router), then making fibreglass moulds and parts from these.
I found CAD to be the most horrible , expensive,torturous, tedious, slow way of working , and the interface was just insane to me,it was unbelievable, and nearly impossible to learn. If anyone says blender is hard to learn, try CAD, you may change your idea! and being free is just rediculous! go blender!
the point i am making is that i have barely ever heard (maybe twice?) that anyone used blender as modelling tool to then export to cnc so as to make a solid object, but it can be by .stl file format into cad/cam software. it is just a different field than animation, games, art rendering.
Thanks blender guru.
@Chuck Norris Oest
haha. That’s what my girlfriend said. I Guess I should do some styling next time
@Suro
Thanks for heads up, I’ve correct the option to read 13-17 instead.
WOW! so many haters when AP is at least making an effort. I find it funny that while so many complain that the results will not be accurate because it is only reflects this sites users another complains ‘we had this on our forum already.’
And if this is only a reflection of new users, as some charge, that information is even more vital to helping the blender community grow.
@jerms:
You’re confused between hating and constructive criticism. I’ve presented results of my own survey at conferences, too, so I thought my 2 cents might be of help.
Just because your sample is not necessarily representative of your population, doesn’t mean that your findings aren’t useful. My sample wasn’t random (like this one), and I still got interesting finds, and my M.S. No insult was intended to Andrew, and I’ll stop clogging this thread now.
Nice job Andrew.
My 2 cents -
I felt some questions like -
why did you choose blender and what lacks in blender should have check-box instead of radio buttons,
We’ll meet @ blender conference…I show with our Short Froggy is back!
i want a Photo with best tutorialer doc! 
Great idea! can’t beleive you’re the first on to have the idea of collecting data on the community! Made the survey, exelent questions asked.
Andrew, I see you stole my font, HARABURA (or how ever you spell it).
I like your tutorials. Keep it up. Can’t wait for the LuxRender one though! You have really inspired me and helped me want to learn more about Blender!
I am about to undergo a stupid experiment, to see if i can create a feature film before I turn 18-19-20!!!! (I am 14 at the moment).
Thanks for everything,
JaydenB
Hey Andrew!
I took part of your survey! I hope you are getting a great response!
Keep your great tutorials up because they are really usefull for me and of cause for all the people out there which want to use or are lerning to work with Blender.
Greetings
Fl3xXx.^
This is a very smart idea, Keep up the intuitive ideas and your awesome tutorials rock!
Love this idea! Already took the survey
Comb. Iron. They help.
Taken the survey. Seems so short though. I could have answer a couple more.
What I most love to improve in Blender is to make the GUI compact and important stuff easy and quick to access, because I have a hard time seeing everything and I find myself keeping dragging the panels every time (annoying!).
you should stop with those videos talking into the camera….. you should do video promotions instead….. but these videos aren’t very professional!!!
point is clear to the Blender Institute i think
btw I fully agree with Jesper (1st comment). I use Vue8 next to Blender. Also, every program has it’s bests so you can’t really choose between them.
Good initiative though
I like your hair.. =D
Hi, just wondering how the results turned out for the Great Blender Survey – any news yet?
@Frodo
I think the Great Blender Survey is still going on, I don’t know when it will end. I think it would indeed be cool if he put the current results in here.
Andrew just said in the Blender Conference that he’ll put the results up here or something. ;D
No, actually, I don’t know.