# Australians: it's census night tonight. Who's doing the online option? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 9, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042 "2011-08-09T06:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/1 "2011-08-09T06:21:09Z")
…and who’s filling out the paper form? I just filled it in online. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/2 "2011-08-09T06:45:57Z")
Thanks for the reminder. The life online continues. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/3 "2011-08-09T09:45:40Z")
I’ll fill in the paper version later on. If I can stay awake. Otherwise I’ll do it tomorrow and hope that my house isn’t one of the first that the Census man returns to. ---
**Author:** ![alenaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7feea3/32.png) [@alenaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alenaroo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/4 "2011-08-09T10:02:14Z")
Oops thanks for the reminder, I’m going to fill in mine online now! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/5 "2011-08-09T10:09:28Z")
I just did it online. Really easy, though they do ask very specific questions that are hard to describe. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/6 "2011-08-09T10:13:36Z")
I did it nearly a week ago. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/7 "2011-08-09T10:45:48Z")
I did the online version, which strangely kicked me out halfway through - had to log back in to finish off. Still, a whole lot more convenient than the paper version. Cool registering my daughter for the first time (clearly I’ve seen too many episodes of Who Do You Think You Are…) ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/8 "2011-08-09T11:12:56Z")
I’m one of those fucks who gave them a great big helping of “That’s none of your fucking business” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/9 "2011-08-09T11:13:55Z")
Did it online a couple of hours ago. Only took a few minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/10 "2011-08-09T13:34:36Z")
I also did it online a few days ago… turned out all my responses came to pass. A winner is me. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/11 "2011-08-10T00:11:29Z")
We did ours online last week. 10 minutes and done. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/12 "2011-08-10T19:49:13Z")
Canada had our census last year, with the option of filling it in online available for the first time, so of course I availed myself of it! ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/13 "2011-08-11T06:00:41Z")
Yep, did it online last night, all worked perfectly fine. > [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > I’m one of those fucks who gave them a great big helping of “That’s none of your fucking business” Taking the census is none of the business of the Census Bureau? What is their business, would you say? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/14 "2011-08-11T06:46:52Z")
I didn’t have any great problem with the questions, though I was wondering why they needed the address of where I worked. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/15 "2011-08-11T06:49:34Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I didn’t have any great problem with the questions, though I was wondering why they needed the address of where I worked. Ostensibly, it’s so they can improve public transport. (Stop laughing.) ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/16 "2011-08-11T06:53:55Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Ostensibly, it’s so they can improve public transport. (Stop laughing.) It’s hard not to. Someone made that same suggestion at work today and everyone else in the room immediately burst out laughing. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/17 "2011-08-11T06:59:38Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Canada had our census last year, with the option of filling it in online available for the first time, so of course I availed myself of it! This was the second time you could do it online in Australia. The option was first made available at the previous census, in 2006. According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_in_Australia#2006) 8.4% of estimated dwellings lodged their census online in 2006. It will be very interesting to see how much higher the percentage is this time round. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/18 "2011-08-11T11:46:53Z")
Also did the eCensus. ABS were targetting 30% respondents on-line. I was out of the house when the collecter came around to drop off the forms the previous week. They hadn’t called back so I didn’t have the census forms. Called their 1300 number, got an SMS back with the ECN and CFN numbers to login. Worked well. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/19 "2011-08-11T12:33:28Z")
The Herald Sun reckons over 670,000 people filled it out online and forgot to press submit. jabiru: I laughed. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042/20 "2011-08-12T01:11:21Z")
> [@Weedy](#): > > The Herald Sun reckons over 670,000 people filled it out online and forgot to press submit. Nearly [600,000 people responded to a plea from officials overnight and hit the “submit” button on their online eCensus forms](http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/after-that-census-glitch-thousands-hit-submit-20110811-1io06.html). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australians-its-census-night-tonight-whos-doing-the-online-option/592042.md?page=2)