Do We REALLY Really Need All these Polls.

spongebob

Really! Whats wrong with a good ole natter instead

M

Sleipnir

Polls just give you an idea of people's opinion on a subject at a glance.
People can also post their own comments!

sceptre

Thanks Muck. Firmly agree. Polls, ffs. A few relevant ones are fine but the place is littered with the things all of a sudden.

spongebob

Bump!

I see the Mods firm suggestion in the sticky on top had no effect whatsoever on the usual suspect

M

SantaHoe

You should have posted this as a poll... I'd have gotten a chuckle out of it
I've had my fun, and that's all that matters.

Zombrex

I blame Sky feck'n News with all the stupid "The Declaration of Independence. Good thing or bad thing?" polls (from "the simpsons" btw)

Honestly who cares what Sky News views think ... if they were well informed on topics they wouldn't be watching Sky News in the first place

arcadegame2004

Polls enable democratic expression.

sliabh

Online polls are about as representative and accurate as an ouiji board. Anyone with a background in (or even a basic knowledge of) statistics can tell you how they bang their head against a wall in frustration with these
things because the sampled populations are never representative, and so the final result isn't either.

They are made worse around here by the fact that the choice options are usually dreadful. Often the person putting up the poll has provided choices that are biased, e.g. The Government's performance has been:
a) Poor
b) Dreadful
Guess what! 100% in an online poll rated the government's performance as poor or dreadful!

Online polls are purely an ego thing - "I made my voice heard". It's like the disclaimer on the Slashdot polls says "This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."

therecklessone

arcadegame2004 wrote:

Polls enable democratic expression.

You were singing a different tune in the Citizenship Referendum aftermath thread:

arcadegame2004 wrote:

This poll was very unrepresentative of the referendum result last time. It is a poll of internet-users, not registered voters.

Does democratic expression only apply when that expression suits your agenda?

fletch

The polls are for all those sado agraphobic people who don't socialise with other people & jus sit in their attics on the net all day. They don't speak to other people cause they've got no friends and so find the opinions of others by reading poll threads.

gandalf

Well the warning is there. If I spot another stupid one I will get Medieval on that persons ass ! and I have my targets in sight

arcadegame2004

Does democratic expression only apply when that expression suits your agenda?

No those who disagree with me are entitled to express their views in polls too. I'm just glad that the online-polls do not always coincide with the election or referendum results.

bonkey

arcadegame2004 wrote:

No those who disagree with me are entitled to express their views in polls too. I'm just glad that the online-polls do not always coincide with the election or referendum results.

So make up your mind...

polls in the Poltics forum are good and useful, or are non-representative and misleading?

Which is it to be?

Go for the Beamish* post...you know you can do it.

jc

* Consistency in a world gone mad

simu

No, we don't need them at all really. I ignore the results.

gandalf

I am considering asking the admins to disable polls in politics.

Imposter

gandalf wrote:

I am considering asking the admins to disable polls in politics.

I think Pudding had a better suggestion but the thread seems to have disappeared.

Sand

Polls are the work of the devil tbh. I can see how they might be entertaining or revealing about what a random sample of Boards.ie thinks when used sparingly but its a bit ridiculous these days.

Maybe set some sort of limit - you can start 1 poll thread every two weeks, anymore than that and youre banned for a week and the offending poll deleted or whatever. A bit more work for mods maybe, and maybe a bit harsh on newcomers who dont know the rules and spend their first 5 posts starting polls on "Which party has the best party colours? Labour or FF?" but it might calm down the pointless poll starters.

Actually on another slightly related point can something similar be done about new posts? Id love a limit of say 2 new posts a week to prevent "clutter posts". Wouldnt stop anyone discussing anything particularly vital but would stop people treating the forum as their personal diary or blog. I dunno - just throwing it out there to be shot down.

spongebob

Sand wrote:

Polls are the work of the devil tbh. I can see how they might be entertaining or revealing about what a random sample of Boards.ie thinks when used sparingly but its a bit ridiculous these days.

Maybe allow them after N months Boards membership and also N number of posts in general discussions in the Politics Board ? . N and N to be set by the Mods and entered into the sticky above .

M

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

therecklessone

Could we not have a system where a new thread with a poll had to be submitted to a moderator for approval, like anonymous posts on Personal Issues? Or is that too Big Brother?

They're handy enough when the options are unbiased (what party would you vote, how will you vote on referenda tec.)