Brett C
Frontier
General / Off-Topic Are internet polls indicative of anything?
- Thread starter Garbarrage
- Start date
Biased poll, I am not going to vote. 
Care to shed some light on what poll that was? Just to satisfy my childish curiosity?
If you dont want it public you can just PB.
Anyways: Internet + democracy = Anarchy.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
This poll itself is proof why lots of internet polls fail: Often the options are either very biased or force you to choose between extremes. I would like to vote for "internet polls are rarelyrepresentative, but a well-constructed poll can provide an rough overview of the general distribution of various opinions".
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I once made a poll with the following question:
Do you participate in polls?
1) Yes
2) No
The result was overwhelmingly "No".
Which proved to me that polls are completely useless and I have not made a poll again since then.
Do you participate in polls?
1) Yes
2) No
The result was overwhelmingly "No".
Which proved to me that polls are completely useless and I have not made a poll again since then.
These polls here could help to provide a short overview over the opinions stated in the thread where the poll belongs to. The threads tend to be very long and its tedious to read all contributions. A poll with some questions to the topic would help to gain a hint on the overall opinions.
In other words, if you question the polls in general you can also question this forum in general.
In other words, if you question the polls in general you can also question this forum in general.
Brett C
Frontier
Well I would probably also have voted no just for fun in such a poll.
I should have "written in" some "votes".
Is that a test?
I hope not I forgot to bring a pencil.
Despicable isn't it....
Polls ? An old debate on the forums
95% of polls on this forum are either a joke, or very poorly prepared and set up; so are useless as far as getting any meaningful results. This is typical of that.
However, the remaining 5% are both interesting and meaningful.
So if you're prepared to wade through the 95% to find the 5%, it's generally worth it.
However, the remaining 5% are both interesting and meaningful.
So if you're prepared to wade through the 95% to find the 5%, it's generally worth it.
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Rather more obvious irony, a poll to see if polls tell us anything.
Reminds me of the popular notion that went around Scotland in the late 70s taking the position that they should have a referendum to see if they wanted a referendum.
The Scots have grown up significantly since then.
There was a good poll on the fact of knowing if Elite must be in 32 or in 64 bits. The poll on PVE vs PVP was not bad also. These two polls were generator of heated discussions
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Writing a poll in such a way that it avoids bias is remarkably difficult to do, requiring (among other things) incredibly careful and considered use of language. From that perspective, the vast majority of polls fail in what their authors might claim as their aim. The worst ones are the ones whose authors clearly want to be taken seriously - a threadlock waiting to happen IME. For this reason I very rarely even comment in polls, much less actually vote.
This one's just a bit of fun though, so that's ok. (Still didn't vote though.)
This one's just a bit of fun though, so that's ok.
(Still didn't vote though.)"I refuse to acknowledge that a representative poll exists," says Forum Poll, "for representative polls require better sample size, and without better sample size I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the no option in this poll is a oxymoron, isn't it? It could not proof that representative polls do not exist. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says Forum Poll, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that green is red, and gets killed in the next station letterbox.
"But," says Man, "the no option in this poll is a oxymoron, isn't it? It could not proof that representative polls do not exist. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says Forum Poll, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that green is red, and gets killed in the next station letterbox.
I think we should have a poll tax ,that would be popular wouldn't it?
