AreaCode707
Lifer
1. Include options for all relevant choices.
A poll that asks, "Who is the hottest woman in the world?" and has Angelina Jolie and Carrie Fischer listed as choices has an incomplete list. These two selections do not comprise the entire list of possible choices, so your poll will not reflect the polling audience's true feelings.
2. Place clear limits on your question.
One solution to the problem above is to reword the question. If you really just want mustard and mayo as your options, the question should be, "Which woman is hotter?" Without clear limits on your question, the poll audience may not understand your intent and may answer in a way that does not indicate their true answer. Placing limits on your question also allows you to...
3. Limit your answer choices.
Nobody wants to scroll through 4 pages of potential answers (unless you do have the hottest woman question and you're giving AT four pages worth of names to look up). They will likely pick one they spot that approximates their view rather than one that exactly reflects it, which undermines your goal of getting very exact information from your polling audience.
4. Avoid writing answers in such a way that they attract or repell
(THIS IS A BIG ONE ON OT)
Having an answer that insults the person selecting it will make that person more likely to avoid it, and having an answer that is the obvious "right" answer will skew your poll results in favor of that answer. Example: "Is AMD better than Intel?"
A. No, I'm a pansy-ass Intel fanboi.
B. AMD is God and can do no wrong.
5. On ATOT, avoid writing a serious answer that people will use to goof off.
Going back to the hottest woman question, including a poll option of "I'm a girl," is apt to show you that we have 200 girls on OT.
6. On ATOT, put an intentional goof off answer.
I do this for the people who don't want to pick a real choice for whatever reason but still want to click the poll button instead of the "View the Results" choice. "I'm a nef" is always a good option. Doing this prevents these users from skewing your poll, though you will have to recalculate the percentages.
7. Make sure the poll question is consistent with the thread topic if that's also a question.
(Courtesy of dighn) I've seen cases where the poll question is the direct opposite of the thread title...
8. Counting starts with 0
(Courtesy of FrankyJunior) If you make a poll asking how many of something someone has/does/wants/etc, be sure to include a None or 0 option. Not everyone does the same things you do. Not including that means that many people can't vote in the poll as they don't have a correct option.
Anybody else have suggestions?
A poll that asks, "Who is the hottest woman in the world?" and has Angelina Jolie and Carrie Fischer listed as choices has an incomplete list. These two selections do not comprise the entire list of possible choices, so your poll will not reflect the polling audience's true feelings.
2. Place clear limits on your question.
One solution to the problem above is to reword the question. If you really just want mustard and mayo as your options, the question should be, "Which woman is hotter?" Without clear limits on your question, the poll audience may not understand your intent and may answer in a way that does not indicate their true answer. Placing limits on your question also allows you to...
3. Limit your answer choices.
Nobody wants to scroll through 4 pages of potential answers (unless you do have the hottest woman question and you're giving AT four pages worth of names to look up). They will likely pick one they spot that approximates their view rather than one that exactly reflects it, which undermines your goal of getting very exact information from your polling audience.
4. Avoid writing answers in such a way that they attract or repell
(THIS IS A BIG ONE ON OT)
Having an answer that insults the person selecting it will make that person more likely to avoid it, and having an answer that is the obvious "right" answer will skew your poll results in favor of that answer. Example: "Is AMD better than Intel?"
A. No, I'm a pansy-ass Intel fanboi.
B. AMD is God and can do no wrong.
5. On ATOT, avoid writing a serious answer that people will use to goof off.
Going back to the hottest woman question, including a poll option of "I'm a girl," is apt to show you that we have 200 girls on OT.
6. On ATOT, put an intentional goof off answer.
I do this for the people who don't want to pick a real choice for whatever reason but still want to click the poll button instead of the "View the Results" choice. "I'm a nef" is always a good option. Doing this prevents these users from skewing your poll, though you will have to recalculate the percentages.
7. Make sure the poll question is consistent with the thread topic if that's also a question.
(Courtesy of dighn) I've seen cases where the poll question is the direct opposite of the thread title...
8. Counting starts with 0
(Courtesy of FrankyJunior) If you make a poll asking how many of something someone has/does/wants/etc, be sure to include a None or 0 option. Not everyone does the same things you do. Not including that means that many people can't vote in the poll as they don't have a correct option.
Anybody else have suggestions?
