GUM Member States Positivity Survey

Logo of the GUM and statistical company Statistic-Dime respectively

The GUM Member States Positivity Survey (GUM-MSPS or MSPS) was a survey conducted by Zedekiah Smith from Statistic-Dime asking participants to rank full member states of the Grand Unified Micronational based on how positively said participant viewed them. It was held from 7–10 July 2020 in two instalments, the first from 7–8 July 2020 with 20 respondents, and the second from 9–10 July with a further 20 respondents, giving a total final of 40. The survey was Smith's eight survey (induing joint-ones). The ranking system was a scale of 1 to 5, similar to that of a Likert scale; 1 being not positive, and 5 being very positive. The top three highest scores were jointly New Eiffel, Posaf and Essexia (all with 4.2), while the lowest were Jupiter (2.7), Nemkhav Federation (2.9) and Hak'hanna and Hrafnarfjall (both 3.0). On the first survey, the results were New Eiffel (4.5), Posaf (4.4) and Essexia (4.3), while the lowest were Hrafnarfjall, Jupiter (both 2.8) and Juclandia (2.9).

Smith claimed that the survey was a large success "due to the fact that instead of asking participants to rank [micronations] by popularity, or development (which is always complete speculation of the participants), it was simply asking them to rank by their own opinion of how positively or well they viewed said nation, and thus the survey could not be inaccurate or incorrect."

The survey was eventually brought back in 2021 under a new format by the Statistics Secretary of the GUM, Daniel Hamilton, showing only the top fifteen highest scoring nations, top three being Essexia (with 123), Adammia and the Uber-Essian Union (both with 116).

Style and method

File:Zed in August 2020, upscaledCroped.jpg

Zabëlle Skye, creator of the survey

Smith was inspired after finding out about a similar poll done in 2013 by the BBC, which asked participants to rank a select number of sixteen European countries based on how positively or negatively they viewed each one. Smith wanted to differentiate it from the 19th MicroWiki Influence Survey, which faced multiple criticisms on bias. In order to do this, Smith decided to select only GUM member states for the survey and require each participant to rank all forty-two member states. Smith hosted the survey on Google Forms as he typically does, and enabled IP address duplication checking. Two further questions were also on the survey, asking for the participant's name and nation. Smith set a goal of twenty respondents, finding it to be a large enough number for him. Smith's goal was reached within four hours, and thus the first survey concluded. After mild criticism for its short response time and small number of respondents, the survey was reopened between 9–10 July, with a further 20 respondents, giving a total of 40. The survey became Smith's third most partaken in. Smith claimed that the survey was a large success "due to the fact that instead of asking participants to rank [micronations] by popularity, or development (which is always complete speculation of the participants), it was simply asking them to rank by their own opinion of how positively or well they viewed said nation, and thus the survey could not be inaccurate or incorrect." The second survey was restricted to full delegates of GUM member states only, and while using the same method, it added up the total score of each nations. Only the top fifteen highest scoring nations were released.

Results

July 2020 I

The full list includes all 42 member states:

Rank	Nation	Score
1	New Eiffel	4.5
2	Posaf	4.4
3	Essexia	4.3
T4	Austenasia	4.1
T4	Lytera	4.1
T4	New Virginia	4.1
T7	Millania	4.0
T7	Misberia	4.0
T9	Abeldane Empire	3.9
T9	Gymnasium State	3.9
T9	Uber-Essian Union	3.9
12	Adammia	3.8
T13	Aenopia	3.7
T13	Serene Beaconite Republic	3.7
T13	Wyvern	3.7
T16	Atovia	3.6
T16	Empire of Iustus	3.6
T16	Orientia	3.6
T16	Zenrax	3.6
T20	Paravia	3.5
T20	Theodia	3.5
T20	Uskor	3.5
T20	Despotate of Vlasynia	3.5
T24	Mercia	3.4
T24	Poplar Nerva	3.4
T24	Wegmat	3.4
T27	Ashukovo	3.3
T27	Caddia	3.3
T27	Jusin Republic	3.3
T27	Ledilia	3.3
T27	Nemkhav Federation	3.3
T27	New Rizalia	3.3
T27	Nolland	3.3
T27	Nova-Occitania	3.3
T27	Sonderan	3.3
T36	Hak'hanna	3.2
T36	Plushunia	3.2
T36	Swivia	3.2
39	Ikonia	3.1
40	Juclandia	2.9
T41	Hrafnarfjall	2.8
T41	Jupiter	2.8

July 2020 II

The second full list includes all 42 member states, this time with 40 ratings on each one:

Rank	Chg	Nation	Score (40)	Score (20)
T1		New Eiffel	▼ 4.2	4.5
T1	▲ 1	Posaf	▼ 4.2	4.4
T1	▲ 2	Essexia	▼ 4.2	4.3
4		Austenasia	▼ 4.0	4.1
T5	▲ 7	Adammia	▲ 3.9	3.8
T5	▲ 2	Millania	▼ 3.9	4.0
T7	▼ 3	Lytera	▼ 3.8	4.1
T7	▼ 3	New Virginia	▼ 3.8	4.1
T7		Misberia	▼ 3.8	4.0
T10	▲ 6	Empire of Iustus	▲ 3.7	3.6
T10	▼ 1	Uber-Essian Union	▼ 3.7	3.9
T12	▼ 1	Wyvern	▼ 3.6	3.7
T12	▼ 3	Abeldane Empire	▼ 3.6	3.9
T12	▼ 3	Gymnasium State	▼ 3.6	3.9
T15	▼ 2	Aenopia	▼ 3.5	3.7
T15	▼ 2	Serene Beaconite Republic	▼ 3.5	3.7
T15	▲ 12	New Rizalia	▲ 3.5	3.3
T15	▲ 1	Zenrax	▼ 3.5	3.6
T15	▲ 5	Paravia	3.5	3.5
T15	▲ 5	Theodia	3.5	3.5
T15	▲ 9	Poplar Nerva	▲ 3.5	3.4
T22	▼ 6	Atovia	▼ 3.4	3.6
T22	▼ 2	Uskor	▼ 3.4	3.5
T22	▲ 2	Mercia	3.4	3.4
T25	▲ 2	Ashukovo	3.3	3.3
T25	▲ 14	Ikonia	▲ 3.3	3.1
T25	▲ 11	Plushunia	▲ 3.3	3.2
T28	▼ 12	Orientia	▼ 3.2	3.6
T28	▼ 8	Despotate of Vlasynia	▼ 3.2	3.5
T28	▼ 1	Jusin Republic	▼ 3.2	3.3
T28	▼ 1	Ledilia	▼ 3.2	3.3
T28	▲ 8	Swivia	3.2	3.2
T28	▼ 1	Nova-Occitania	▼ 3.2	3.3
T28	▼ 1	Sonderan	▼ 3.2	3.3
T35	▼ 11	Wegmat	▼ 3.1	3.4
T35	▼ 14	Caddia	▼ 3.1	3.3
T35	▼ 14	Nolland	▼ 3.1	3.3
T35	▲ 5	Juclandia	▲ 3.1	2.9
T39	▲ 2	Hrafnarfjall	▲ 3.0	2.8
T39	▼ 3	Hak'hanna	▼ 3.0	3.2
41	▼ 14	Nemkhav Federation	▼ 2.9	3.3
42	▼ 1	Jupiter	▼ 2.7	2.8

January 2021

The third survey named only the top 15 nations as per agreement. The grading for the following survey was altered.

Rank	Chg	Nation	Points
1		Essexia	123
T2	▲ 3	Adammia	116
T2	▲ 8	Uber-Essian Union	116
T4	▲ 8	Gymnasium State	114
T4	▲ 4	Misberia	114
6	▲ 1	New Virginia	113
7	▲ 18	Ikonia	112
8	▼ 7	Posaf	110
T9	▼ 5	Austenasia	109
T9		Australis	109
T11	▼ 3	Lytera	108
T11	▲ 11	Mercia	108
T11	▲ 1	Wyvern	108
T14	▼ 3	Iustus	106
T14		Naveria	106
T14	▲ 1	Poplar Nerva	106
T14	▲ 14	Sonderan	106

History

The Statistics Secretary of the GUM hosted an exclusively GUM-based survey in January 2021

Smith was inspired after finding out about a similar poll done in 2013 by the BBC, asking participants to rank a select number of sixteen European countries based on how positively or negatively they viewed each one. Smith had a set goal of twenty respondents. The survey was advertised in multiple Discord servers, mainly in the GUM server and MicroWiki@Discord. The survey began on 7 July at 20:24 (BST; UTC+1), and ended at 00:56 on 8 July the next day with the twentieth and final respondent. Smith hand counted and calculated the results and added it to a Google Doc, finally publishing it at 02:23. After mild criticism for its short response time and small number of respondents, the survey was reopened between 9–10 July, with a further 20 respondents, giving a total of 40.

The survey became Smith's third most partaken in, and was very positively received, though criticised for its short running time on the first survey. After the second survey, it was received very positively. The survey was cited as an influence for two equivalent surveys looking at the Cupertino Alliance by Simon Reeve in October and December 2020.

In December 2020, Daniel Hamilton succeeded Zed as the CEO of Statistic-Dime, and thus gained ownership of the survey. He brought it back in January 2021, in his capacity as Statistics Secretary of the GUM, under a new format, and conducted internally as opposed to being outsourced to Statistic-Dime, also limiting responses to delegates of full GUM member states only.

Grading

Smith worked out the following grades and colour schemes for each one in the first survey:

• 4.0 — Most positive (8 nations): Green
• 3.5 — Positive (15 nations): Black (default)
• 3.0 — Not positive (16 nations): Orange
• 2.5 — Most not positive (3 nations): Red

The top three were bronze, silver and gold respectively.

The further surveys did not use this.

Findings and analysis

The survey found that positivity could be linked to said nation's delegation, as the top three nations, New Eiffel, (Zedekiah Smith), Posaf (Nicholas Randouler) and Essexia (Lord Matthew, Emperor Terry) all had frequent political turmoil, (ex. Crisis in New Eiffel, death of Nicholas Randouler leading to Posafian instability, and Essexian external controversies.) however despite this they were all seen highly positively. It also found that, as expected, the more active nations scored higher than less active ones in the MicroWiki Sector, such as nations like Jupiter, Juclandia and the Nemkhav Federation scoring Incredibly low. People also reported rating nations they had an "average" opinion on or did not know a 3.

Differences between the first two surveys

According to Smith, the reason for the lowering of the majority of results was due to the calculation method: "If a nation received six 4s, and than received a 5, the score would be 4.1429; however, if it than received a 1, the score go down to 3.75. Another 5 would only bring the average up to a 3.8889 - lower ratings massively outweigh higher ratings, and as more people took the second survey, naturally the ratings went down." Another observation from Smith found that more members of the "old guard" took the second survey than the first, likely being (although by no means being the actual reason) because they are not as active on MicroWiki@Discord and more old guard members who took the survey are from the United Kingdom and the first survey was held during 20:24 to 00:56 BST. Smith said this could be linked to older nations (although not necessarily "old guard") like Juclandia, Hrafnarfjall and Adammia gaining ratings as opposed to losing them.

See also

• Statistic-Dime
• Cupertino Member Positivity Survey

External links

• Results, 20 respondents on Google Docs
• Results, 40 respondents text archive