The differences between Anonymous, Anonymised and Manual Headcount survey responses
- Matt Kepple
You can collect survey responses in a variety of ways on Makerble.
This article describes key differences between the three ways to collect survey responses when you want people to have anonymity.
Identifiable Mode is shown in the table so you can contrast it with Anonymised Mode as both of these involve sending unique survey links to your contacts.
| Anonymous | Anonymised | Manual Headcount | Identifiable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
How you do it | ||||
Does this mode of sending a survey provide anonymity? | Yes
(Unless you have intentionally added the optional Name field to the survey) | Yes
(Unless the respondent chooses to use any open text questions in the survey to reveal their identity) | Yes | No |
What type of link is used to complete the survey? | Generic - i.e. the same linked can be used by multiple people | Unique - each link can only be used once (unless you turn off Expiry) | None - an external link is not used | Unique - each link can only be used once (unless you turn off Expiry) |
Do people need to be signed in to complete the survey? | No | No | Yes | No |
Who can enter the response into Makerble? | Anyone with the survey link | The specific contact who the unique survey link is sent to or generated for | A Project Reporter or Project Manager who is signed in to Makerble | The specific contact who the unique survey link is sent to or generated for |
Is the person whom the answers are about automatically identified? | No | No | No | Yes |
Can the person whom the answers are about choose to be identified if they want to be? | Yes
(If you have added the optional Name field to the survey) | No
(Unless the respondent chooses to use any open text questions in the survey to reveal their identity) | No | They are automatically identified |
Can Distance Travelled be inferred by analysing how answers have changed over time across all survey responses
| Yes (using Distribution over Time)  | Yes (using Distribution over Time) | Yes (using the Date Happened filter in the Survey Analytics App) | Yes |
Can Distance Travelled journeys be calculated by analysing answers collected from the same people over time? | No | Yes
(But you cannot see the specific contacts who have had each Distance Travelled journey) | No | Yes
(And you can see the specific contacts who have had each Distance Travelled journey) |
Can results be analysed using Series Analysis? | Not unless you merge together the automatically-generated contact profiles of the respondent | No | No | Yes |