Pointless Polls
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:08 am
There seems to have been an outbreak of pointless polls recently?
Opinion Polls are used extensively in all sorts of areas of modern life and almost without exception are totally flawed (at least from the point of view of those being polled) in that they set out to prove a thesis for the poller.
Example.
Do you like:
(a) black or
(b) white?
Many would answer "actually I quite like grey" or "I like both", but are instructed that you can only choose ONE answer.
My response is usually to tear up the form or tell the questioner not to waste my time. A GOG? sure and proud of it..... most of the time.
My point is did we not ought to have some control on the use of polls? I don't want to silence people or stop people genuinely seeking opinion. It's just that I think polls need to be carefully worded to get useful feedback. I also think that more general polls should have a field such as :
"I have no opinion one way or another".
To represent for instance that as a result of the revent poll on activities X% of forum members prefer passenger activities would be rubbish. If the poll had a field that said something like "I enjoy all well written activities regardless of the task" and passenger activities got a resounding majority it might mean something. I'm prepared to bet that my suggestion above would get the majority?
BTW this is not just a dig at the poster of that forum.
It's a point about constructive use of the poll facility and why it should perhaps be submitted for approval before posting just like uploads are?
What do you guys think?
Geoff
Opinion Polls are used extensively in all sorts of areas of modern life and almost without exception are totally flawed (at least from the point of view of those being polled) in that they set out to prove a thesis for the poller.
Example.
Do you like:
(a) black or
(b) white?
Many would answer "actually I quite like grey" or "I like both", but are instructed that you can only choose ONE answer.
My response is usually to tear up the form or tell the questioner not to waste my time. A GOG? sure and proud of it..... most of the time.
My point is did we not ought to have some control on the use of polls? I don't want to silence people or stop people genuinely seeking opinion. It's just that I think polls need to be carefully worded to get useful feedback. I also think that more general polls should have a field such as :
"I have no opinion one way or another".
To represent for instance that as a result of the revent poll on activities X% of forum members prefer passenger activities would be rubbish. If the poll had a field that said something like "I enjoy all well written activities regardless of the task" and passenger activities got a resounding majority it might mean something. I'm prepared to bet that my suggestion above would get the majority?
BTW this is not just a dig at the poster of that forum.
It's a point about constructive use of the poll facility and why it should perhaps be submitted for approval before posting just like uploads are?
What do you guys think?
Geoff
