Have you done your census?

[ricktas]

Well the ABS have released the first census data from last night.

The population of Australia according to the most recent census data is 72.

[Mark L]

^ will go up to 74. Posting our paper copy tomorrow.

[ameerat42]

Yes, at last. We were away. The hosts at "away" had no idea either. We missed the "census person" who
had been doing the rounds and raced back to meet her the following eveing before 7 PM. - At 5:30PM.
Nope! She didn't come that day. Finally, we decided to get on with our holiday, and
lo and behold, she came and delivered a heap of forms. So, somehow we managed, and this morning we
heard "all about it". Before we left I tried calling every number I could to contact the ABS - no hope.
All "call back later". Sent an on-line enquiry and got a sort of reply some days later.

If that story seems disjointed, blame the ABS

[piczzilla]

Surprise surprise - census website is back online

[Grant S]

Been reading some interesting tech blogs from people who might have a clue as to what happened. IBM is going to have some 'splaining to do. Apparently they were offered DoS ( Denial of service) , protection which they refused, then when the poo hit the air conditioning some of their log traffic was thought to be data being stolen from the ABS. The whole thing will have some heads rolling I think.

[Hunter50]

We just got the paper form, dropped off by an ABS person. We didn't get any details for the online login. So, it was kept pretty simple at our place.

[bobt]

I thought it was all a bit of a yawn really. No probing questions about anything significant. Bit of a waste of time really.

You'd think it would be easy enough to add a couple of questions such as "Do you believe in marriage equality", and "Would you support voluntary Assisted Dying with appropriate safeguards". Why spend humongous amounts on a plebiscite politicians won't even commit to when we're all answering questions anyway!!

Bloody stupid politicians (sorry for the tautology)

[tduell]

The server was supposed to up again on Thu evening, but nowhere to be found Fri morning
Looks like the debacle is still in progress!

Cheers,
Terry

[Mark L]

You'd think it would be easy enough to add a couple of questions such as "Do you believe in marriage equality", and "Would you support voluntary Assisted Dying with appropriate safeguards". Why spend humongous amounts on a plebiscite politicians won't even commit to when we're all answering questions anyway!!

Bloody stupid politicians (sorry for the tautology)

Excellent Bob.
Then a treaty question?

[bobt]

Excellent Bob.
Then a treaty question?

The list is endless. You could ask so many questions about so many things, and really get a clear idea about what the people want (as distinct from what the vested interests want).

Basically the government doesn't want to know what we want, it gets in the way of what they want.

[ameerat42]

Ah, Bob
I just pointed out to the state government (feedback form) the folly of charging a merchant's fee
when renewing rego online. The joque is that if it cost them little to implement that dis-"service",
it will now cost them much more when I actually go and pay it at the office

[mudman]

My thoughts precisely...

I was really surprised when I read some people on this thread did it early

in the past the instructions read to do it in the evening.
the letter with our logon code said to do it on Tuesday. so i did ours in the morning, suspecting that government departments being what they are had probably not tested for a couple of million people trying to log on in the evening. I worked as a programmer and operator in 3 Federal departments, that gave me insights most don't have
why so many left it til the evening to do it i don'tn know. some/ a lot could have done it on their phones or lap tops in their lunch break during the day.

[bobt]

Ah, Bob
I just pointed out to the state government (feedback form) the folly of charging a merchant's fee
when renewing rego online. The joque is that if it cost them little to implement that dis-"service",
it will now cost them much more when I actually go and pay it at the office

I just lodged an online complaint to Telstra who apparently no longer support non computer users. My sister-in-law wanted to set up a direct debit so I went on-line to do it for her, but her email address (which she doesn't have) was mandatory. I then rang and asked them to send her a form, but they don't have paper forms any more. No-one I spoke to was a native English speaker, so i guess those have gone as well. Finally, when i pressed "send" to make my views known, their system told me there was a problem with their software and the message couldn't be sent. I guess that's one way to limit the number of complaints! 8*)

[piczzilla]

in the past the instructions read to do it in the evening.
the letter with our logon code said to do it on Tuesday. so i did ours in the morning, suspecting that government departments being what they are had probably not tested for a couple of million people trying to log on in the evening. I worked as a programmer and operator in 3 Federal departments, that gave me insights most don't have
why so many left it til the evening to do it i don'tn know. some/ a lot could have done it on their phones or lap tops in their lunch break during the day.

I can relate with you. With the budget cut all across the nation, I'm not too surprised if the system didn't get properly tested, or if the testers found problems but got pressures from the big fish to just sign off the system.

[mongo]

this year's "censless" (as Mongo chooses to call it) is a joke of monumental stupidity and ineptitude. What greater praise for any governing body.

Forget potentially compromised security of online. The idea of sending back this information through clearly identifiable envelopes using (of all things) Australia Post, is just stupidity upon stupidity. More things go missing in the post (even registered items) than one can count - let alone targeted items like completed censless forms.

On top of all this, the cost has probably blown out to over one and a half times the original expense had they stuck to the old drop off - pick up system. Mongo would think that most will now not do this online but ask for paper copies anyway.......HOPELESS !!

[I @ M]

Basically the government doesn't want to know what we want, it gets in the way of what they want.

Amen, never a truer word written methinks.

[JimmyCat]

Like millions of others I got the "Call back later" message so submitted an online query (six days before the Census) which was finally acknowledged at 11.00 am last Friday (12/8) telling me that Field Officers were in the area and to approach them and explain my circumstances (3 days after the big day).

As it happened we actually got a paper form with login details dropped in the driveway on the Monday so I managed to get an on-line entry into this chook raffle at 5.46pm on Census night, obviously before the big crash and got a receipt to confirm the form was submitted.

Then late Friday afternoon I get another gobbledegook message assuring me that although my data was safe, I might like to fill out the paper form and submit it just to satisfy myself that I was included - no danger of duplication as the system could detect duplicate submissions - why I don't know if my data is safe.

Not much chance of that happening as the paper form went through the shredder on Wednesday after and is now in nesting boxes for sugar gliders!

You hit the nail on the head Mongo!

[yummymummy]

i only got my log in details yesterday, got online and did it today. pretty simple really.

[ameerat42]

I'm waiting for a "why-didn't-you-do-your-census? message from them.

It stands to reason that if you did it, you should get such a message

[agb]

I've done mine as soon as they came back on line. Seeks like there are a few people not completing the form yet. Just over half of population have done theirs.