Lack of interest [Suggestion] Ability to add multiple polls to a thread & enhancing how poll data is displayed

[DomainArchitect.com]

This feature has been requested ad nauseum on the other site. I actually needed to create two separate polls for one thread on one of my vB powered sites tonight, which reminded me that I should bring it to the attention of my new favorite site! Hence, my late night/early morning appearance. Yesterday, my avatar reflected how I felt after experiencing the botched vB4 launch and everything surrounding it. Today, it reflects how I feel after being up all night working on client requests, so please forgive me if my grammar/punctuation/spelling falls short.

Beyond two polls, having the ability to display the results of a thread in a bar graph, pie chart, or regular graph would obviously be welcomed and heralded by the community once it used the feature. Additionally, it would be awesome to have a poll that allows people to enter a range of allowed numbers thus reducing the need to have multiple numbered poll options. For example, how many modifications have you done to your car? 1-25. How many fish are in your saltwater tank? 1-??? Maybe the software can do the groupings after people have entered in their amounts or tell you certain statistics if people can manually enter in the number. For example, 5 people have between 1-5 fish, 16 people have 6-10 fish, 8 people have 11-15 fish, the average number of fish or modifications is X, the minimum number of mods is X and the maximum number is Y.

I am sure others will have different ideas about how to take the Poll feature to the next level.

 

[Caliburn]

For the majority of forum users, a single poll-per-topic ratio is perfect. What you're suggesting here is bloat in my opinion. Perfect material for a Modification but not for the core package. The same can be said about the poll results and display possibilities. From what I understand, this type of thing can be done by a skilled skinner and some template modifications.

I think the poll feature is fine as-is right now, but that's merely a single person's perspective. I don't support this type of change at the moment. I don't think that I've ever encountered it and in the brief few moments since I started typing this out, I've conjured up roughly ten 'oh god no!' scenarios in my head in which this type of feature was abused.

Quick edit: I came across this article after a brief Google search. Is this something along the lines of what you're thinking?

 

[DomainArchitect.com]

For the majority of forum users, a single poll-per-topic ratio is perfect. What you're suggesting here is bloat in my opinion. Perfect material for a Modification but not for the core package. The same can be said about the poll results and display possibilities. From what I understand, this type of thing can be done by a skilled skinner and some template modifications.

I think the poll feature is fine as-is right now, but that's merely a single person's perspective. I don't support this type of change at the moment. I don't think that I've ever encountered it and in the brief few moments since I started typing this out, I've conjured up roughly ten 'oh god no!' scenarios in my head in which this type of feature was abused.

I do feel that once the power of more than one poll per thread can be felt, you would definitely reconsider.

Quick edit

: I came across this article after a brief Google search. Is this something along the lines of what you're thinking?

Yes. Forums are incredible places where you can gather data.

How many websites do you plan on launching in the next twelve months?
0
1
2
3
4
5+

Of those websites, what types of sites will those be:
Forum
Blog or Similar
E-Commerce
Service
Other

I can go on and on with additional polls in the same thread that would still be very interesting. Heck, it would be awesome if the poll could be intuitive too. So, for example, imagine I selected 0, then the polling ends. Now imagine if I selected 2. Imagine the follow up poll then asked me what type of site I plan to launch for each individual site (not just an option to give an answer that covers all the sites) so the poll is keeping detailed records that will provide valuable feedback to the person who posted the poll.

Maybe it is better as an add-on, I am not arguing for it to be core unless others are in support of it, but making it easy for others to create the add-on code for such functionality in the core software is something I support.

 

[Caliburn]

Sounds more and more like a survey-type-tool. Lol.

 

[DomainArchitect.com]

Sounds more and more like a survey-type-tool. Lol.

Yes, I suppose that is what I ultimately settled on in my subsequent posts, but my original intent of two polls is still relevant to a modern day forum in my opinion.

 

[Caliburn]

What it comes down to for me is the difference between a poll and a survey. A poll is a simple question where-as a survey is a series of questions based on your first answer. I don't think forums need surveys.

 

[DomainArchitect.com]

You have never created a thread and thought it might be nice to have the ability to host two polls?

 

[Caliburn]

You have never created a thread and thought it might be nice to have the ability to host two polls?

Truthfully, no I haven't.

 

[GodForum.com]

DomainArchitect ... I can see very good uses for using multiple polls for surveys or product/service reviews

 

[Brandon_R]

A single poll per topic should suffice.

When we start talking about serveys and consumer reviews etc that's where we need a mod to add those extra abilities.

 

[Forsaken]

A survey mod is likely, or the Forms mod that was released on vBulletin, which has the functionality you want, as well as posting to a specific topic.

 

[Sejper]

This might be something nice but I have never had the need to post 2 polls in one thread and neither has any of my members (atleast not anyone who said anything about it).

 

[Alexander]

I totally agree. I don't know of any forum software that has implemented the poll pie chart as a function, so you would be the first then. Of course there should be the ability to have several polls in a thread.

 

[EQnoble]

I also find multiple polls quite purposeful in the right circumstances and if those circumstances can exist then I can say I support it's implementation.

I would like to further this idea: What about a single/multiple poll that is required to be filled even if one of the fields is opt out or none and upon submitting the poll the thread will be displayed this can be useful to get TRUE opinions that aren't based on bias or influence and the corresponding posts in that thread can discuss and come to consensus.

Quick edit: I came across this article after a brief Google search. Is this something along the lines of what you're thinking?

an offtopic thank you for this link as it will prove useful to me on an unrelated matter

 

[Floris]

I don't mind if it is just one. But I really would not mind if it has the ability to add multiple polls, and that it gets changed to say Survey. Oh boy, I'd love that