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Polls can be a fun feature of the forum.
Creating a good poll is harder than it looks.
Basically once set, you cannot change the poll selections - there's an obvious reason for this - you don't want to be able to change selections once people have voted for it. THe integrity of the entire poll is questionable if you can change selections after it starts. So even slight edits are out.
Therefore, rule no. one is that you must carefully sit down before starting a poll and list out all the options to make sure they are all inclusive. nothing is more offputting to a poll taker than to not find his situation covered, even if its just "other".
Second rule of polling is to limit the time. I see polls open for a whole year that keep changing. An unfortunate side effect of a long open poll in VBulletin is that someone voting on an old poll pops the thread to the top of the new posts but the poster is listed not as the voter but the last person who posted a reply. The default is apparently a year. I suggest a poll should be kept open no more than 2 weeks. Most regulars check in within that time and once closed, your data results stay the same, you don't get stale votes that change the values. The poll and all the comments will still be available, even more replies can be added, just the poll itself will be closed.
Other helpful things are the options for allowing multiple choices and identifying the voters and their choices. Multiple choices are appropriate for the right kind of data but some polls obviously should only allow one vote per person. e.g which brands of power tools do you own should be multiple choices allowed. What is you favorite brand of power tool should just be single choice.
Identifying voters and their choices usually should be off - I think poll takers should be anonymous.
Polls can be fun! Use them wisely, my son.
Creating a good poll is harder than it looks.
Basically once set, you cannot change the poll selections - there's an obvious reason for this - you don't want to be able to change selections once people have voted for it. THe integrity of the entire poll is questionable if you can change selections after it starts. So even slight edits are out.
Therefore, rule no. one is that you must carefully sit down before starting a poll and list out all the options to make sure they are all inclusive. nothing is more offputting to a poll taker than to not find his situation covered, even if its just "other".
Second rule of polling is to limit the time. I see polls open for a whole year that keep changing. An unfortunate side effect of a long open poll in VBulletin is that someone voting on an old poll pops the thread to the top of the new posts but the poster is listed not as the voter but the last person who posted a reply. The default is apparently a year. I suggest a poll should be kept open no more than 2 weeks. Most regulars check in within that time and once closed, your data results stay the same, you don't get stale votes that change the values. The poll and all the comments will still be available, even more replies can be added, just the poll itself will be closed.
Other helpful things are the options for allowing multiple choices and identifying the voters and their choices. Multiple choices are appropriate for the right kind of data but some polls obviously should only allow one vote per person. e.g which brands of power tools do you own should be multiple choices allowed. What is you favorite brand of power tool should just be single choice.
Identifying voters and their choices usually should be off - I think poll takers should be anonymous.
Polls can be fun! Use them wisely, my son.
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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