Mike Cooper, who used to be the point man for the TF.N Books section, is asking for the fans' help with a little Star Wars project. Here's what he has to say:
I'm conducting a little statistical experiment concerning the Star Wars EU and fans' feelings about it. What I require is a large sampling of people's opinions on various stories and elements of the EU, on a simple 1-to-10 scale. A more thorough explanation can be found on the survey page, but it's important to the results that the full purpose of the questions remain unknown for now, so you'll just have to humor me. Thanks for reading!
UPDATE: Mike has finished the poll, and posted his findings on his blog.
There's also a discussion thread about the project on TF.N's own message-boards....
UPDATE: with Mike's permission, Zee Zee from the UK-based fansite Star Wars Books has put together an editorial analysing the findings of the poll.
In it, Zee Zee considers what the information suggests about the best direction for the franchise; it's also, in the light of the new information, a rejection of the argument from an earlier editorial on that site, in which a future without the Skywalkers was considered.