(Reposted from my blog, and the socializing thread on the AppleDash forum. If you read this either of those places, you've already read it.)

Based on the recent Love/Hate Ship thread, I'm in the planning stages of putting together a survey about shipping. I need some help from you guys. I'm mostly curious as to how strong the like or dislike is for each ship, so that's what it's going to focus around (using actual activity towards seeking out/creating/promoting fanworks of the ship as a measure.) I'm also considering a section about how influential various factors are in ship preferences.

If anyone feels like it, you guys could help me at this stage in a few ways. If anyone wants to look over my notes so far, I might need help with the following:
Making sure I have all the major ships listed. Basically, I'd like to include anything that has a handful of fics/pics/tumblrs/videos/whatever about that ship. I have every combo of the mane six, but I'm not sure if I'm missing things in the rest of the sections (especially things involving background ponies.)
Letting me know major shipping authors I should add to the influences question. Here I'm looking for the big guys, folks who have written multiple ship fics, and have been around for a while, or wrote one fic that everyone who ships it has read. Especially in ships other than AppleDash. (Or if you don't feel like looking at the doc, you can just reel off some big shipping authors here.)
Making sure all the questions make sense.
Letting me know any other questions you'd like me to ask all the shippers I can find.

Feel free to comment on the doc, or talk to me here or through PM.

When the survey is ready to go, I'll be shouting it to all corners of the internet, so you won't miss it. And I'll be happy to share the results with anyone who's interested!

Wow, this is really interesting. I'm eager to see the results of this to get an idea on what the communities mentality on this is. I can't really think of any questions in particular. Maybe ask them what their favorite or most moving scene they've read is and where it came from? What makes certain ships work for them and what makes the others fail or at least not come as close?

Probably add soundslikeponies in the influences section. I'm not really too steeped into shipping so I can't really add that much more unfortunately. Seems like most bases are covered.

632141
Aw, wish I fell under that category of major shipping authors! I mean, I plan to be a pretty heavy shipper author when I finally get around to focusing on writing more than I don't, but haven't yet finished/wrote a single MLP story, as it is.

And the document is INTENSE and long, you've really done your homework pretty much! Not sure I can help much, even if done a lot of reading and skimming over months since I started reading MLP: FIM fanfiction, almost exclusively.

I do have one suggestion of something you might want to ask: attitude on shipping elements being included in stories that aren't primarily shipping fics. Like if someone writes an adventure story, but in the story two characters happen to be shipped together in a way that doesn't have a major influence on the plot. Would this affect your overall enjoyment of the story? Or something along those lines. I've heard lots of different takes on whether romance works better as the core of a story, or as an element to flavor a story centered on something else.

Also, I second Breath's suggestion of a question about how ships are handled and how people find various means of utilizing the subject matter work. Mainly because in my story I took a rather unorthodox approach and I'm curious about how other approaches compare to it.

Also, I'm kinda surprised that I made the "major shipping authors" list. I mean, I only have the one shipfic. Although granted it's mildly popular, but it's nowhere near as well known as a lot of other ones. But hey, I'll take all the press I can get.

632141 This looks pretty good boss, and I would love to help however I can. PM me if interested amigo

632199
I'm trying to include authors who are big within their ships, even if they're not kits and TAW level big over all. You and Vargras are two of the biggest TwiJack authors! You chose a nice pond.

And that's an interesting question, but I'm not sure how to word it. And I'm not sure how useful the results might be, considering that this is primarily for people who already admit to an interest in shipping. I would think they would skew the results towards a preference for ship fics, but I might throw it in anyway.

632240 It's easy to be a big fish when the pond is so tiny.

And yeah, that one question basically came about due to a conversation I had with somebody who basically said (paraphrasing) "Romance is like butter; it's great when you put it on something else, but I wouldn't want to eat a stick of it", whereas I generally feel the opposite; that one of the most common shortfalls of romance is that it's just thrown into something else without getting the development or focus that it needs.

Granted, I don't know if it really fits into the scope of this survey, but I thought it would be interesting.

Oh i cant wait for it to be done i know what my answers will be.

I see NintendoGal55 as the most sensible voice of reason behind every ship. I honestly would trust her word above anyone else in the fandom concerning the topic. I have to hand it to her; she writes some amazing stories.

On a completely unrelated side note, Flutterdash FTW!

632520
I hope you take it as a sign of my attempt at impartiality that I included her. I'm notorious for my dislike of FlutterDash.

But FlutterDash can be tolerated. . . for SCIENCE!

632141 "Basically, I'd like to include anything that has a handful of fics/pics/tumblrs/videos/whatever about that ship. I have every combo of the mane six, but I'm not sure if I'm missing things in the rest of the sections (especially things involving background ponies.)" - I'm not sure if it's noteworthy enough to be involved, and my apologies for advertising my own fic, but I've got a Twilight x Derpy ship in progress that might be helpful. I'm working hard to finish it, and it's my only fic out there, but it's gotten pretty good reception and there aren't a whole lot of Twi x Derpy ships out there. If it's something that can help feel free to use it for your poll.

632183>>632248
With regards to the "What people like about ship fics" type question. . .

Asking about scenes they like would be difficult. I'd be likely to get a different answer from every person, and I don't have the time to format data like that. Even asking for a favorite fic might be difficult, but I might do that anyway (and probably ask for volunteers afterwards to help organize it.)

In addition to that, I'm considering a question that asks about particular aspects of a fic/fanwork, and asking people to rate how important they are to their enjoyment of it. This is what I have so far, but any other suggestions would be appreciated:

Good technical skills
Good characterization
Like the primary ship
Like any secondary ships included
The fic has additional Tags (Romance/Adventure, Romance/Comedy, etc.)
The fic is rated everybody or teen
The fic is rated mature or tagged for sex
Focus on positive aspects of the relationship
Focus on negative aspects of the relationship

632590
I appreciate it. Right now what I'm doing is listing ships, and I do have Twilight x Derpy on there, so I've got you covered!

I abhor spike x twilight

632949
I guess you know how you'll answer that one, then!

632594
I'm going to suggest you add 'feel of realism' or something to that degree. I pretty much can't read any ship that I don't feel could happen, and when I read, if things move too fast or are too easy I toss it to the side. For me it has to feel believable.

632141 I don't know about anyone else's opinion on this, but I'd like to recommend Peroth E. as an influential author. I for one an still enamored with his story Growing Pains, and it is the TwiDash that I tend to compare everything else to. Mind, it's also one hell of a sprawling adventure, but the romance is a pretty large portion of the story.

Also, in my opinion, it's one of the more fluid romances I've read.

Hmm... I'd also like to nominate (do we call it that?) Cynewulf and RazedRainbow for their contributions to RariDash -- more so the former, though.

Moving on: Daetrin for TwiLuna (Apotheosis)
And: Denim_Blue for Spike x Dash (April Showers)

Sorry for the dump of authors and stories. I just think these guys should be considered for listing.

Edit:

Coming back around: Fresh Blood for OctaScratch (Changes)

Now, I fully realize that not everyone can go on the list, so sorry again ^^;

All done with the planning now! Thank you all for your help!

You can take the survey at mlpshipping.blogspot.com.

632583 Sorry but science doesn't really solve much sometimes