05-24-2003, 01:50 AM
Archon_Wing,May 23 2003, 07:33 PM Wrote:Polls are flawed and they leave out people's opinions.Your argument doesn't work, I'm afraid -- if the poll option was a poll with NO choice to add a longer reply, I'd agree with you. Particularly since you're correct in that internet polls are very poor at giving good, hard data. However, the poll is but a part of these threads.
And, more to the point, the english language (any language, for that matter) is flawed. I never get my exact point across, and I'm not a bad writter. Ask anyone at the lounge, or any writter anywhere - no matter how talented; no matter how experienced, writting is flawed.
Sometimes people might want to see how many lurkers select a given option in a poll. Will it give them as much information as a detailed thread? Of course not. But sometimes some numerical data is interesting to consider.
I guess my point is that just because poll's aren't perfect, they shouldn't be nixed just like that.
I personally wouldn't miss the polls if they were gone. I think, however, that the best bet is for us to deal with stupid polls the same way we deal with stupid threads. Flame and/or ignore ridiculous polls as the situation demmands, just as we flame and/or ignore ridiculous posts. This kind of thing works for the regular threads; it can work for the polls.
gekko
"Life is sacred and you are not its steward. You have stewardship over it but you don't own it. You're making a choice to go through this, it's not just happening to you. You're inviting it, and in some ways delighting in it. It's not accidental or coincidental. You're choosing it. You have to realize you've made choices."
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"