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Merge pull request #675 from cmu-delphi/docs/survey-bugs
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Document two sampling issues
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capnrefsmmat authored Aug 6, 2021
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1. TOC
{:toc}

## Incorrect Wave Sampling (June-August, 2021)

A sampling error caused a portion of our respondents to be accidentally sent the
Wave 10 survey instrument instead of the newer Wave 11 survey instrument. The
error was fixed on August 2, 2021, but as a result of this error:

* A random 1% of the sample was accidentally sent the W10 instrument between
June 15 and July 4, 2021.
* A random 3% of the sample was accidentally sent the W10 instrument between
July 5 and July 11, 2021.
* A random 10% of the sample was accidentally sent the W10 instrument between
July 12 and July 21, 2021.
* A random 50% of the sample was accidentally sent the W10 instrument between
July 22 and July 30, 2021.
* A random 91-98% of the sample was accidentally sent the W10 instrument between
July 31 and August 1, 2021.

Despite differences between the two instruments, we have not detected trend
discontinuities as a result of the error. We will continue to investigate.

## Response Volume Drop (July 20-22, 2021)

On July 20, 2021, a technical problem in the process that samples Facebook users
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invited over the following several days. This caused sample sizes to temporarily
increase, compensating for the initial drop.

## Android Sampling Problem (June 17-24, 2021)

There was a bug in the in-app web browser in the Android version of the Facebook
app released on June 17. It affected all links within the Android version of the
Facebook app, not just the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and University of
Maryland (UMD) COVID-19 Trends and Impact Surveys, which are conducted in
partnership with Facebook. It did not affect links within other versions of
Facebook, including iOS. The issue has been fixed in the version of the Facebook
app released on June 24.

The issue caused a decrease in total response volume across the CMU and Maryland
surveys, since Android users who were invited could not take the surveys. As of
June 26, 2021, 89.5% of the initial decrease in total response volume has been
recovered. The response volume continued to recover as Android users updated to
the fixed version of the Facebook app.

## Incorrect Coding in Documentation

We found a Qualtrics bug that affects the exported text of the survey (but not
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