How much education do the users on AA! have?

[dlw66]

Feel free to keep your vote private!

[thew40]

I have some college.

I've been in and out of college, just not sure what I've wanted to do. I was a Journalism Major, then Interactive Media Technologies, then English, and now I think I've finally found my niche: Technical Writing. Wheee!

I am pretty darn close to finishing this on-line certificate program and then will be returning to college proper in the Fall (if I can arrange this meeting with my advisor, that is).


(but I'd rather be a published fiction writer)

~W~

[dlw66]

I had a friend in college who majored in English/biology and is now a technical writer. I am forever in his debt because when Dark Knight #1 came out, he let me read it, and then after calling his shop back in Little Rock and securing a second copy for himself, sold me his copy!!

[Doctor Bong]

Some college... Journalism.

[Shiryu]

I have a Bachelor and a Master, not sure if the couple is in the options.
Graduated a couple of years ago as chiropractor, and putting money aside for next master (which is at least 3 years long and 12.000 $ expensive ) and perhaps PhD one day.

[jkemble]

word.
many years free study at different colleges, art, design, English and psychology.
No degrees. hmm...

[dlw66]

Focus, J, focus...

[daned]

BA- in English and Comparative Literature
Graduate Diploma in Secondary education

One day a masters, then a PhD for that free upgrade on a plane.

[dlw66]

I guess I didn't comment on my own status --

BA History w/ secondary education; minor in Economics and Business
MS in Jewish Studies with an emphasis in Holocaust Education

[balok]

I hold Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering degrees.

[dlw66]

So 9 of 14 respondents have at least a bachelor's degree and 17 of 19 respondents are 31 or over in age. Any thoughts or conclusions on this?

Are we typical comics fans these days? Are we typical comics message board users?

[Van Plexico]

Are we typical comics fans these days? Are we typical comics message board users?

I think so, actually. But Marvel does not. They think we represent a small (but vocal) minority and don't much care what we think, really. I have heard this over and over from the pros, over the years.

FWIW, I have a BA and MA in Political Science (IR and National Security) and three years of PhD work in History.

What plane upgrade do PhDs get, Daned? I've never heard that before!

[Shiryu]

dlw66 said:

So 9 of 14 respondents have at least a bachelor's degree and 17 of 19 respondents are 31 or over in age. Any thoughts or conclusions on this?

I don't think we can use this pool to draw conclusion about the typical comic books fans these days, for one thing because a total of 19 is, well, quite low. I actually think it says more about the people that follow the AA website, which makes sense because there are a lof of BTS notes and details that usually appeal older web surfers more than younger ones.

From my experience in the web, I've noticed that every website and forum eventually brings a certain type of users/visitors/posters, who can be the majority there but not necessary elsewhere. Of course, that are always a few exceptions, but usually most of a forum is fairly lined up. The reason behind is that people tend to post in forums where they like most of the other posts/topic.

Here we are rather negative on most recent things, and this probably keeps away a fair number of younger users, who actually enjoy that stuff. W and Doom are brave enough to come over and put up a nice fight to defend what they like, but most people will just think "I don't like it here" and go somewhere else where everyone enjoyed CW or Bendis' Avengers (we can like it or not, but there are forums where they are considered the best thing ever since Marvel was born )

[dlw66]

shiryu said:

dlw66 said:

So 9 of 14 respondents have at least a bachelor's degree and 17 of 19 respondents are 31 or over in age. Any thoughts or conclusions on this?

I don't think we can use this pool to draw conclusion about the typical comic books fans these days, for one thing because a total of 19 is, well, quite low.

Sure, it's obviously a very small sample. However, as I (and others have shared similar experiences) have stated, there just aren't any teens at the two comics shops I mainly frequent. The one in my town is located near four public schools and a college. The one just a little north of me is across the street from a 4,000-student high school. Where are the young people?

[Black Knight]

BA in Computer Information, and several Certs. in the varity of Microsoft including servers.

[balok]

admin said:

I think so, actually. But Marvel does not. They think we represent a small (but vocal) minority and don't much care what we think, really. I have heard this over and over from the pros, over the years.

If this is true, then I'm sorry - but we can make ourselves heard by refusing to pay for what they're doing. It got Liefeld canned, and it can get Bendis and Quesada canned.

[Black Knight]

shiryu said:

dlw66 said:

So 9 of 14 respondents have at least a bachelor's degree and 17 of 19 respondents are 31 or over in age. Any thoughts or conclusions on this?

I don't think we can use this pool to draw conclusion about the typical comic books fans these days, for one thing because a total of 19 is, well, quite low. I actually think it says more about the people that follow the AA website, which makes sense because there are a lof of BTS notes and details that usually appeal older web surfers more than younger ones.

From my experience in the web, I've noticed that every website and forum eventually brings a certain type of users/visitors/posters, who can be the majority there but not necessary elsewhere. Of course, that are always a few exceptions, but usually most of a forum is fairly lined up. The reason behind is that people tend to post in forums where they like most of the other posts/topic.

Here we are rather negative on most recent things, and this probably keeps away a fair number of younger users, who actually enjoy that stuff. W and Doom are brave enough to come over and put up a nice fight to defend what they like, but most people will just think "I don't like it here" and go somewhere else where everyone enjoyed CW or Bendis' Avengers (we can like it or not, but there are forums where they are considered the best thing ever since Marvel was born )

To true, heck there are forums where you are banned for speaking bad about Bendis's NA comic. I know, I was.

[Doctor Bong]

dlw66 said:

shiryu said:

I don't think we can use this pool to draw conclusion about the typical comic books fans these days, for one thing because a total of 19 is, well, quite low.

Sure, it's obviously a very small sample. However, as I (and others have shared similar experiences) have stated, there just aren't any teens at the two comics shops I mainly frequent. The one in my town is located near four public schools and a college. The one just a little north of me is across the street from a 4,000-student high school. Where are the young people?

Perhaps they mail order through the internet...?

[Shiryu]

dlw66 said:

The one in my town is located near four public schools and a college. The one just a little north of me is across the street from a 4,000-student high school. Where are the young people?

Actually, that's one comic shop I would have hated to buy from when I was an high school student. At the time I wasn't that much into comics, but I remember always hiding them within the newspaper just in case I would meet classmates and get their jokes (not to mention the risk of embarassment with girls ).

High school is an age when people tend to be touchy and want to look cool, if I remember correct even a few people here dropped comics around that time because they were not cool anymore. As such, having the comic shop across the street from my school... brrr, I'd have gone there 6 AM or 10 PM !!

Of course, unless every comic shop is in front of a school, this doesn't explain the lack of younger readers.

[dlw66]

shiryu said:

High school is an age when people tend to be touchy and want to look cool, if I remember correct even a few people here dropped comics around that time because they were not cool anymore. As such, having the comic shop across the street from my school... brrr, I'd have gone there 6 AM or 10 PM !!

Of course, unless every comic shop is in front of a school, this doesn't explain the lack of younger readers.

You're right -- time clouds the memory. I am one who gave it up because I didn't think girls would see it as cool. Saying that, I did display my Megos on a shelf in my bedroom the whole time I was in high school, though ... what the heck was I thinking??

[dlw66]

So what do you think the buying public looks like? Is the 31-40 age bracket indicative of Marvel's and DC's market? When I go to the big holiday sale up north (the one where you have to wait 20-30 minutes to pay -- that's how crowded it gets), I would definitely say that of the 50+ people in the store at a given moment, there aren't any teens. Maybe 25-28 would be about the youngest customers (and this is in a highly populated suburban environment).

[Black Knight]

I think the 15-25 is the majority age bracket for marvel currently. The comics are more geared towards them for the most parts.

DC is more geared to 31-40 bracket as it is has a more old school feel, will still modernizing the charaters.

[henrypym]

I have an MFA in Studio Art (Mostly Fooling Around)

[Yellowjacket]

dlw66 said:

Are we typical comics fans these days? Are we typical comics message board users?

I don´t know where to place myself in the poll, because I´m not familiar enough with the US education system. I could have (but did not) attended German university with my degree, though.

For the quoted question: Again I don´t know about other US message boards as AA! is the only one I´m participating.
But I know, of course, about German message boards. Comparing these, AA! isn´t a typical message board. It´s much better than the average board.
I have no problem with the tendency here being critical to Marvel (a position I´m only partly sharing), because it is expressed (mostly) polite and particularly with a very profound background knowledge.

The other point: The knowlegde of the average message board user in Germany in point of orthography and punctuation (which is imho much easier than in English, because we have very strict (and quite easy) rules for that) is simply scaring.
There are much to much people who cannot even tolerably write correct (not to mention to express themselves understandably) in the majority of German message boards. And worse, they don´t care for it a d**n.
So these are people who confirm all the prejudices against reading comics (which still haven´t got an esteem in Germany like they do have in the US (I think) or France (I know) for example).

I can say it is way better in German boards with more elderly users, but that are, of course, little message boards. Just alike AA!, which is simply a bless for the mentioned reasons.
So I think, it is a generation thing as well, at least in Germany.

[Shiryu]

We also have to think that nowadays there are two "alternative" ways of getting hold of comics:
- buying them from the internet
- downloading them from the internet

And they are both fairly convenient. I would have bought all my TPB from marvel.com or dc.com if the shipping price wasn't so high, and getting hold of all comics for free on Emule, BitTorrent etc is very tempting. I always buy the ones I like because I prefer to read on paper (and, you know, not damage Marvel or DC too much), but I can't garantee for everyone else, and some files have hundreds of seeders (for those not familia, a seeder is someone who makes a file available for download).

[The Night Phantom]

dlw66 said:

So 9 of 14 respondents have at least a bachelor's degree and 17 of 19 respondents are 31 or over in age. Any thoughts or conclusions on this?

Underachievers?

[Nutcase65]

yeah,... we spent too much time reading comics and not enough duing our homework

[dlw66]

I thought I'd get this back to the front, as we've had several new users who've been pretty active. There are some interesting comments in here, that we've also addressed very recently elsewhere (specifically in regard to buyers at our local comics shops).

[spiderwasp]

Hmm, I guess it's not just the newbies that havent' responded to many of these things. I have a BA in Speech-Communication. Upon discovery that I have no idea what one does with a BA in Speech-Communication, I went back and added my teaching certification in Theatre Arts which has proved to be useful.

[humanbelly]

BFA in Acting/Directing; MFA in Acting (which leads me to doing tech theater as my primary livlihood??). I think I may have been a trophy-husband.

HB