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Spacewarp, v. 5, issue 4, whole no. 28, July 1949
Page 17
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GALLUPING THE GALAXY by r-tRAPP Since you guys were nuts enuf to answer the poll printed in the MAYWARP, guess I gotta letcha in on the tabulations. Firstly, the questions were not primarily designed for sampling the literary tastes of fandom. No, indeed. My interest was in determining how many replies I'd get to a casual request inserted in the editorial column. since over 20% of the WARP readers responded, I think it proves something or other. Of 200 ballots sent out by Don Wilson for the last Dreamland Opinionator poll, 27 came back to him. So you WARP readers make nice docile guina pigs for my psychological investigations. Now leave us proceed to the questions. (Incidently, if you ever take a poll, provide answer-sheets. That way you'll get the answers in a form that can be treated statistically. There were so many qualifications, amendments, and side comments to these answers that all I can do is present some general views and trends)..... (1) Ranking the prozines in order of preference. As was brought to my attention by several people, I forget Planet in listing the zines. Purely unintentional, I assure you. # One isolationist also included a vote for Different, which might be considered a stf prozine. # One of my purposes in asking this question was to see if Don Wilson was justified in leaving it off his poll last year on the grounds that aSF would win in a walk, anyway. Well, he was right. Of the ten fans answering this question, nine gave aSF top place. The tenth rated it second, with the Standard pubs top. # TWS and SS were second on most of the lists -- and in all ten listings, they were never separated, which I think proves that they could just as well be one monthly zine, rather than two bi-monthlies. The same could be said in lesser degree of FFM and FN, although it does not show up decisively on this poll since several fen voted on only one of the pair. As for last-placers, WT was named five times, Planet twice, FFM and AMZ once each. # SSS and AFR consistently hugged the middle of the list, apparently rousing neither enthusiasm nor revulsion in the fannish breast. (2) Liked and disliked authors, and outstanding story. "A couple" was very liberally interpreted by most answerers. Three named two favorite authors; from there the lists ranged all the way up to nine. Rather than rig up a complicated point system, I'll merely list the authors appearing more than once: Bradbury and Kuttner were on 5 lists; van Vogt and Hamilton on 4; EESmith on 3; and GOSmith. # In general, voters tended to pick their lists from a single mag: for example, those which concentrated on aSF voted for such writers as del Rey and Clement, rather than switch allegiance to the big names of Z-D or Standard. This suggests the interesting theory that fen would rather read an average writer in their favorite mag than a talented one in some other mag. On dislikes, there was less tendency to turn the twosome into a crowd. In fact, some only voted for one, saying they couldn't think of any other writer they disliked. This seems to disprove the popular theory that fen are bloodthirsty vampires. (17)
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GALLUPING THE GALAXY by r-tRAPP Since you guys were nuts enuf to answer the poll printed in the MAYWARP, guess I gotta letcha in on the tabulations. Firstly, the questions were not primarily designed for sampling the literary tastes of fandom. No, indeed. My interest was in determining how many replies I'd get to a casual request inserted in the editorial column. since over 20% of the WARP readers responded, I think it proves something or other. Of 200 ballots sent out by Don Wilson for the last Dreamland Opinionator poll, 27 came back to him. So you WARP readers make nice docile guina pigs for my psychological investigations. Now leave us proceed to the questions. (Incidently, if you ever take a poll, provide answer-sheets. That way you'll get the answers in a form that can be treated statistically. There were so many qualifications, amendments, and side comments to these answers that all I can do is present some general views and trends)..... (1) Ranking the prozines in order of preference. As was brought to my attention by several people, I forget Planet in listing the zines. Purely unintentional, I assure you. # One isolationist also included a vote for Different, which might be considered a stf prozine. # One of my purposes in asking this question was to see if Don Wilson was justified in leaving it off his poll last year on the grounds that aSF would win in a walk, anyway. Well, he was right. Of the ten fans answering this question, nine gave aSF top place. The tenth rated it second, with the Standard pubs top. # TWS and SS were second on most of the lists -- and in all ten listings, they were never separated, which I think proves that they could just as well be one monthly zine, rather than two bi-monthlies. The same could be said in lesser degree of FFM and FN, although it does not show up decisively on this poll since several fen voted on only one of the pair. As for last-placers, WT was named five times, Planet twice, FFM and AMZ once each. # SSS and AFR consistently hugged the middle of the list, apparently rousing neither enthusiasm nor revulsion in the fannish breast. (2) Liked and disliked authors, and outstanding story. "A couple" was very liberally interpreted by most answerers. Three named two favorite authors; from there the lists ranged all the way up to nine. Rather than rig up a complicated point system, I'll merely list the authors appearing more than once: Bradbury and Kuttner were on 5 lists; van Vogt and Hamilton on 4; EESmith on 3; and GOSmith. # In general, voters tended to pick their lists from a single mag: for example, those which concentrated on aSF voted for such writers as del Rey and Clement, rather than switch allegiance to the big names of Z-D or Standard. This suggests the interesting theory that fen would rather read an average writer in their favorite mag than a talented one in some other mag. On dislikes, there was less tendency to turn the twosome into a crowd. In fact, some only voted for one, saying they couldn't think of any other writer they disliked. This seems to disprove the popular theory that fen are bloodthirsty vampires. (17)
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