Pointless Polls

lateagain · Post by **lateagain** » 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

johndibben · Post by **johndibben** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:49 am

I agree, it's become very silly.

Of course, the more we moan, the more polls appear. We're not always dealing with people with the full shilling or of benine charecter.

Other members will form their own opinions of pollsters and respond accordingly.

In that respect it's self governing.

Bulliedline · Post by **Bulliedline** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:17 am

yep ive had to stop deangoods from putting too many polls on

i kinow this isnt the best place to do this but can people put on suggestions for my new site http://www.freewebs.co.uk/bulliedline/

trains2 · Post by **trains2** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:04 am

I would also agree, a lot of them do seem to have no point whatsoever.

Funnily enough I have never ever started a poll on these forums or any other forums, dunno if thats something to be proud of but thats my interesting fact for the day.

I'll go back to sleep now....

Rich

steampsi · Post by **steampsi** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:08 am

Could we have a poll on this please.

dkightley · Post by **dkightley** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:16 am

This thread can only get very silly, and get nowhere......so I'm calling a halt to it.

If anyone wishes to raise a complaint about the content of threads, polls, etc, please PM any member of the moderation team.

Lets keep this section of the forum for general MSTS discussion.

Doug

[EDIT] Forgot to add. If you have any sensible comments, use this thread - http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?t=46428