Please help me with my academic essay

[racingboo]

It would probably help if we got some confirmation from Alex that he is on board with this, first of all. Just an idea.

Also, I'd like to know specifically what you're going to do with said information and if you're going to post it anywhere online either here or elsewhere while mentioning this site. Well, it's not so much about what I want, as it is about what people might want to know in order to help you with your survey. Also, I'm specifically asking about this because the first question on the survey might easily give away members who've shared that information publicly. Not that I think these questions are very intrusive, not at all, but just wondering if you factored this in because it seems to me like you'd want to, that's all.

I know you didn't ask for these suggestions, but I'm only trying to help. I hope you don't mind. That being said, good luck with it.

The paper is for my course in a third level institution in Ireland. I'd tell you which one but I also need my anonymity. It will be submitted electronically via Moodle, which can only be accessed by myself and my lecturer. Copyright of the paper belongs to the institution when it is submitted. It is extremely rare for an Honours year academic paper to be read by anyone other than the lecturer, and maybe a moderator or two. Responses to this questionnaire will be included in the appendix, but will contain no identifying information, using the method described I will not even know your username. If you feel uncomfortable with any of the questions but still would like to help, you can simply leave that specific question unanswered. The first question is really just to determine the geographical, age and other distribution of membership, I'm looking for country, perhaps state if you're in the USA but even just "USA" will do.

I explained the process of going through Alex K because I asked permission from the administrators before proceeding, and this was the admins' plan to participate in the research but do so in a way that will ensure members' continued privacy. I think it's a great idea, as I fully understand that anonimity can be extremely important especially to atheists in some parts of the world. Unfortunately the thread discussing permission is in "Questions for staff" so can't be shown to provide evidence of permission. As I said, I tried to post this yesterday already with a link to Alex K's profile, but the spam protectors ate the thread.

Hope that reassures anyone who has doubts.