Thread: Spading Snatch

Originally Posted by MasterE

This thread wasn't intended to open debate, either. The OP outlined the intended test parameters and explained what contributions could be accepted. You can't discuss objective procedure with anecdotal + bandwagon fallacy, appeals to authority/popularity, appeals to emotion. I'm pretty sure whatever debate you claim has gone on was settled by argumentum ad nauseum rather than supporting fact.

These are the components to professionally judging a research proposal:
Significance: How the findings contribute to the overall body of knowledge and benefit the public. The importance of the question being asked.
Investigator(s): The credentials, experience, and accomplishments of the people proposing the investigation. This predicts likelihood of success.
Innovation: Whether the proposal investigates an unexplored problem, uses and develops novel methods, or attacks the problem from an unexplored angle. The novelty of the proposal.
Approach: Whether the proposal is methodologically sound and doable.
Environment: Whether the investigators have access to the tools, expertise, and/or mentorship they need to carry out their proposal.

A methodologically-sound approach is only one of the criteria for a good research proposal, and it's actually weighed pretty low. Your proposal is methodologically-sound, but lacks significance and innovation. No one cares about how Snatch affects the drop rate of common items from quests. They care about how it affects certain event drops. Snatch might affect both similarly--or it might not. Who knows! Furthermore, there already exists a general consensus that Snatch doesn't make much of a difference. Your contribution would be pinning down exactly what that percentage difference is. You're going to need a lot of power / data for that, which means the study is unlikely to reach a satisfying conclusion. Furthermore, as an investigator you've shown a tendency to ignore constructive criticism, and you haven't displayed any experience or background in statistics, and thus your findings would likely not be accepted by your peers.

For all of these reasons, I rate your proposal as mediocre: unlikely to contribute substantially to the body of knowledge, and likely far more effort than it's worth.