Testing Polls

[swirly]

I'm debating if polls can be used for some guild stuff in the Terenas forums. So I'm posting this to test how they work in order to better present it as an option to consider. My assumption is that Bolty would be willing to enable them on the Terenas Guild forums if we did decide they would be needed.

[swirly]

Some initial thoughts

1. A new thread will need made for each poll due to votes not being reset when the poll is edited. So can't simply change the person and let people re-vote.
   
2. A multiple select poll is possible. So can make the question "Select who to allow. Post reasons for those not to be.".
   

Time for me to eat and play with this later. : )

[Treesh]

Where's my "Absolutely completely yes!" option?

[--Pete]

Hi,

I'm debating if polls can be used for some guild stuff in the Terenas forums. So I'm posting this to test how they work in order to better present it as an option to consider. My assumption is that Bolty would be willing to enable them on the Terenas Guild forums if we did decide they would be needed.

Polls have their place and I've seen them used well in some places. They also tend to generate a lot of trash threads, where voting and trash talk replace thinking and discussing. I'm in favor of trying it and seeing what happens, with the understanding that poll generation may have to be limited to certain fora or to certain posters or even both.

--Pete

[LochnarITB]

No a swirly is not annoying. Well, it can be a little annoying if they hadn't flushed first, but, if the water is clean, I kinda like the rushing sound as the water goes around. Reminds me of waterfalls and rushing rapids. Hmm, I think it's time to self-swirly.

[swirly]

Polls have their place and I've seen them used well in some places. They also tend to generate a lot of trash threads, where voting and trash talk replace thinking and discussing. I'm in favor of trying it and seeing what happens, with the understanding that poll generation may have to be limited to certain fora or to certain posters or even both.

--Pete

We are doing some changes in our raiding on Terenas and need a way for people to vote on if a character is ready for certain content. My thinking is we can have Bolty enable them on only the specific Terenas forum where that polling takes place. Since he has them enabled in this testing forum, but not the others it would seem that is possible. So thus we can keep the more discussion oriented areas free from polls while using them where we have a specific need for such a device. : )

[--Pete]

Hi,

We are doing some changes in our raiding on Terenas and need a way for people to vote on if a character is ready for certain content. My thinking is we can have Bolty enable them on only the specific Terenas forum where that polling takes place. Since he has them enabled in this testing forum, but not the others it would seem that is possible. So thus we can keep the more discussion oriented areas free from polls while using them where we have a specific need for such a device. : )

Bad phrasing on my part. What I meant was to try permitting polls on all fora at first. If they gets misused, then the restrictions can be put on it.

--Pete

EDIT: Just voted. I had a choice of one 'yes' and five 'no'. I went for greedy.

[swirly]

Edited the poll to more accurately reflect what we would be doing. It also shows why edits won't work. I still register as having voted even though the poll was changed. So thus new polls for each person will be necessary. Still..it shows that it should work.

Also it should be noted that the person who made the poll can see who voted how. So there is a slight degree of non-anonymity. I don't think that is a problem. we just Conc make the polls and as Guild Leader it is alright for him to see such info if he chooses. It is anonymous for everyone else though I believe. (hard for me to check being the creator myself)

Also I'm slightly worried about the initial approvals. At the beginning we will have a lot of people to go through which could mean a lot of threads. Once we get past that it will be just one periodically. So for the very first one we might want a more general form like:

Who should we allow (post reasons for those you don't select):

name1
name2
name3
name4

Just to prevent the need for 50 million threads right at the start.

[Klaus]

With the way it's set up right now, I think the creator needs to see how people voted, if just to error-check that someone didn't click "yes" and one or more flavors of "no" at the same time.

Also, I think the original seeding of the group can be done through more informal means (like, having people PM Conc their list of who they would vote in to start). Additions would be handled through a vote more like this one.

[WimpySmurf]

Hehe, when I just voted now, it's 10% + on all the no's and 0% on Yes, how very ....

-WimpySmurf

[--Pete]

Hi,

With the way it's set up right now, I think the creator needs to see how people voted, if just to error-check that someone didn't click "yes" and one or more flavors of "no" at the same time.

The poll can be set up to either allow one choice or to allow multiple choice (and, I think combinations of those). So that's not a consideration.

--Pete

[Bolty]

The next version of the forum software will allow users to change their votes.

I haven't upgraded because it's a "dot zero" version - waiting for 1.6.1 to come out first. You can see more here - look for the "Updated" bits. Also, yes, I'd have no issue turning on polls in certain forums.