eytanz
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As usual, I'm too lazy to see if this was already mentioned in the long forum suggestions thread -

but if you vote for the wrong option in a poll, there's no way to correct it.

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Schik
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Yeah.... well... Umm. I don't know if we should allow that in general. If it was a mistake, yeah, it sucks. But would we get any "join the winner's team" syndrome? I'd hate for people to change their mind because they see the current results.


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eytanz
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I can't imagine that would be much of a problem - this is an anonymous poll, after all. And if someone really wants to go with the winner, then they can just without the vote until there is a clear winner anyway.

And changing your mind isn't always bad - for silly or fun polls such as the one in the movie thread it doesn't really matter, anyway, and for important threads - lets say if Erik wanted to introduce a new feature and wanted opinions about it - well, if I vote something, then am genuinely persuaded by someone that I was wrong, shouldn't I be allowed to change my vote? After all, what's important most of the tim is what people really think now, not what they thought a day ago or what their initial gut reaction was.

Of course, some polls looks for exactly that - initial, non-deliberated reactions - but in those cases, the person who posted the poll could just ask people not to change their votes.

And of course, there could be other abuses - but if I really wanted to break a poll, I would just register five new accounts and use them to vote. There's really no way you can prevent poll corruption other than the honor system anyway - so why not extend it here as well?

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Mattcrampy
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Make anonymous polls an option - an anon poll you can't change votes, a tracked poll you can. Perhaps, if it's not too much trouble (and ten bucks says it is), in the topic atached to a tracked poll everyone who's voted have what they voted underneath their name.

Matt

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eytanz
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I'm not sure I understand that -

A - polls are already anonymous.
B - Anonymous polls should allow changing opinions. Non-anonymous ones shouldn't. That's because if it's anonymous, there is far less pressure to change your vote to conform with a majority opinion.

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Mattcrampy
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A) Sorry, it was my choice of wording.

B) Makes sense, but how do you remember who's voted, and what they voted? At the moment, I'd assume the db would track only whether or not you voted in a particular poll. If you add a tracked poll option, then changing votes would be trivial.

I don't think people will change to conform to the majority. If all the cards are on the table, people will be more inclined to defend their choice. A tracked poll would most likely stir up more argument if everyone could see what people had voted, which means the options would be discussed more - so people would change their opinions, and this is why the issue's come up.

If this is such a sticking point, why not make two options? Allow vote changes and track votes.

Matt

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