Polls: Are they out of hand?

**DarquePervert** · 04-16-2006, 07:46 AM

When the subject of allowing members to post threads with polls was brought up, I stated my thoughts on the matter. At the time I could see newbs posting polls about what component to purchase or whatever. I also expressed concern that people are going to post useless bull**** polls (like Llama's Yes/No poll in O/T) just to be silly.

There have been very few polls that are actually worth lookinig at, and all those have been by the moderators and the long-time members of the forums.

I think it's time to re-evaluate the decision to allow polls by forum members. I believe that the useless poll problem is only going to get worse with time and increased membership.

**Freelander** · 04-16-2006, 08:42 AM

agreed. but you're setting yourself up. someone is going to post a poll with this question just to be an a$$

**DarquePervert** · 04-16-2006, 10:16 AM

I think you can only create a poll in a new thread.

**SnyperBob** · 04-16-2006, 10:44 AM

Do you have more examples of bad polls, other than one in the OT section? I don't see anything bad going on here in terms of polls. People wanted polls to make life easier.

Most polls are thrown up because someone wants a quick answer to something. It saves time, and people don't have to read through the entire thread to get an idea as to what is going on.

**Freelander** · 04-16-2006, 04:48 PM

Some examples of polls:
LCD/Display - So.. How fast will this get stolen??
Show off your project - Genesis Factor's Infiniti G20 Worklog
Off Topic - Are most forum Polls pointless?
Off Topic - non-DOA. What does it mean?
Off Topic - WTF is up with ebay sellers ? or am I naive ?
Off Topic - Do you have a car poll

**kiltjim** · 04-16-2006, 04:48 PM

As far as the polls in OT, so what? Off-Topic is there so people can talk about useless garbage anyway.

I haven't seen many in the regular forums, at least have have annoyed me. Of course, I only frequent a few different forums, and they haven't been taken over by newbies yet.

**TheLlama** · 04-16-2006, 05:14 PM

I really don't see how my Yes/No poll is any worse then alot of the posts that have no bearing. Heck, it is even in O.T. You even contributed to it, Darque. My question is not nonsense. I enjoy seeing what sort of reactions it gets and I was curious to see if the response would be split. Why not complain about the questions people ask day after day in the Non-O.T forums? What about Scouse's "My Thread"? Graphic Avatars? Or how about this rant?

**Enforcer** · 04-16-2006, 05:57 PM

free post as this is not in OT

Oh and shouldn't this be a poll?

**DJiK** · 04-17-2006, 02:49 AM

I didn't even know I could make polls when starting a new thread... Thanks for the tip.

I too, don't think that having out-of-context and completely silly polls in OT really be a problem. If you don't like it, don't vote.

Another problem that I do see with polls, however, is the fact that there aren't enough "correct answers" to satisfy what I'm agreeing with, like in the Heatware Poll.

It's a good thing that people are able to express themselves and gather the opinions of others in this forum in more ways than one.

**DarquePervert** · 04-17-2006, 06:41 AM

I don't vote in any polls, unless they are relevant to the forum.

Expressing yourself is one thing. But having people vote a recommendation for a specific component is just stupid. For one, it lowers you to mob mentality. But it also makes it easy for someone to register a bunch of B.S. names and convince someone to buy a product they don't need.
Now, I don't know that this would happen, but the potential is there.

Newbies are just implementing polls to get their jollies and they're not being used for naything worthwhile in most cases. I guess that I look at it as a wasted feature if it's not improving the forums or the information therein.