on creating polls
Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:23 pm
Just a quick observation... Polls are getting a lot of use on the forums lately, which is nice... but I think the results of these polls would be more relavent, and more people would be comfortable voting in them, if the pollsters put additional thought into how the options are phrased.
Usually the person posting the poll has a strong opinion on the subject, which is what motivated them to post the poll thread to begin with. But if that strong opinion affects how you word the poll, then it can turn off people who might otherwise agree with you. If it's clear by how you phrase things that you're starting with a prejudice, and looking for a statistic, then folks such as myself- and perhaps the folks from Nevrax that read the forums - aren't going to take the poll or the results as seriously as they might have otherwise. If your phrasing gets extreme enough, it can end up being a "push poll" - a trick political operatives use, where they aren't really looking for poll results, they're just trying to affect people's opinions on their issues by how they present their "poll."
So, some suggestions: Try to tone down the rhetoric. If the "I agree with this" option makes it sound like they love that option so much they want to have its love-child, you may want to dial it down a bit. Start off by removing the exclamation marks, perhaps. If your only "neutral" option is "I don't care" or words to that effect - then you exclude the people who *do* care but don't have a strong opinion on the issue, or can see merit in both sides of the argument. Lastly, I think it would help if the pollster tried to think through the range of possible opinions - from strong agreement to strong disagreement - and gave a poll choice for each of these shades of gray.
Usually the person posting the poll has a strong opinion on the subject, which is what motivated them to post the poll thread to begin with. But if that strong opinion affects how you word the poll, then it can turn off people who might otherwise agree with you. If it's clear by how you phrase things that you're starting with a prejudice, and looking for a statistic, then folks such as myself- and perhaps the folks from Nevrax that read the forums - aren't going to take the poll or the results as seriously as they might have otherwise. If your phrasing gets extreme enough, it can end up being a "push poll" - a trick political operatives use, where they aren't really looking for poll results, they're just trying to affect people's opinions on their issues by how they present their "poll."
So, some suggestions: Try to tone down the rhetoric. If the "I agree with this" option makes it sound like they love that option so much they want to have its love-child, you may want to dial it down a bit. Start off by removing the exclamation marks, perhaps. If your only "neutral" option is "I don't care" or words to that effect - then you exclude the people who *do* care but don't have a strong opinion on the issue, or can see merit in both sides of the argument. Lastly, I think it would help if the pollster tried to think through the range of possible opinions - from strong agreement to strong disagreement - and gave a poll choice for each of these shades of gray.
