An Historic Look Back Through Forum Zeitgeist

Doing a search for "Poll" in plain text, I uncovered no less than 57 individual polls since the forum was started. This does not include the thorough WesReviews series which the other mods beat me to moving (thanks guys). I'm not sure about the other forums, but it seems like General Discussion* was the dumping ground for polls because most folks read that forum, and there really wasn't anywhere else suitable for the content.

I see the amount of polls created over the last few years as a positive thing. What motivates members to create a poll in the first place is they want to get a true understanding of the forum's thinking. Bearing this in mind, I found it interesting to read back through the offered polls and see what topics folks felt passionate enough about to take the time to craft a poll for. To me, poll topics serve as a reminder of the Zeitgeist of the forum past.

A good poll can help unite members and make them collectively think about a topic. There is an art to making a solid poll. Some members display this (look at some of the older posts I've migrated for stellar examples).

So if you are thinking of making a poll, consider what your poll will look like two years down the road when new users come onto the forum. If you are new to making them, take an historic walk down memory lane and look for those examples that make you think "dayum, that's a solid poll".

p.s. Interestingly there was a request back in 2012 to create this same forum, but the forum was never created because poll counts were too low back then. "Why would we possibly need a sub forum *just* for polls".

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmAWIDI4ZgY

Why were people upset at the polls in the first place?

I didn't see a problem with it. Yeah he made a lot of them, but they were well made.

People who jump the gun and reported it: you actually made it worse. Now there's an entire sub section on the front page for it! Lol. You should have just calmly let the polls run their course.

Anyways, MontanaFrank made an excellent suggestion on how to handle it here: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ial-polls-only?p=151148&viewfull=1#post151148

ho hum de doo day

Mark Wyda said:

Why were people upset at the polls in the first place?

I didn't see a problem with it. Yeah he made a lot of them, but they were well made.

People who jump the gun and reported it: you actually made it worse. Now there's an entire sub section on the front page for it! Lol. You should have just calmly let the polls run their course.

Anyways, MontanaFrank made an excellent suggestion on how to handle it here: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ial-polls-only?p=151148&viewfull=1#post151148

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It was actualy my idea to create this area. My intent was to make it easier for folks to see what polls were active, and what ones were already done.

Because folks are reluctant to use the search function, they may double-up.

I'll be interested to see how this area evolves after the initial derp of making polls that don't relate to TPA.

I actually think its a good idea, saves people the time and trouble trying to find the Top Ten Polls or the Polls that "Centaur"/"Flight 2000" won.

People seem to be under the false pretense that I'm "Against polls"

Or that I was the one who reported all the unofficial polls.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I saw zero problem with any of Wes' polls, nor did I report a single one. They were well made, and I posted in and participated in several.

All my thread was making fun of was the idea of an entire sub-section devoted to one posters polls. That's it. As a joke it's funny, but now that it's becoming a serious part of the forum, called Poll Dancing, on the front page, well, I don't own the forum so it's not my call, I would certainly be embarassed of that, but it's not my call to make, so my thoughts are, good luck with it.

I never cared, and my thread was made as a joke, clearly. I'm sorry I hurt a posters feelings so bad by making fun of it, that he felt the need to make an entire thread snidely attacking me. I hope you can get over that, whoever you are, and I wish you the best.

Mark Wyda said:

People seem to be under the false pretense that I'm "Against polls"

Or that I was the one who reported all the unofficial polls.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I saw zero problem with any of Wes' polls, nor did I report a single one. They were well made, and I posted in and participated in several.

All my thread was making fun of was the idea of an entire sub-section devoted to one posters polls. That's it. As a joke it's funny, but now that it's becoming a serious part of the forum, called Poll Dancing, on the front page, well, I don't own the forum so it's not my call, I would certainly be embarassed of that, but it's not my call to make, so my thoughts are, good luck with it.

I never cared, and my thread was made as a joke, clearly. I'm sorry I hurt a posters feelings so bad by making fun of it, that he felt the need to make an entire thread snidely attacking me. I hope you can get over that, whoever you are, and I wish you the best.

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I guess the name of the sub-forum is up to personal interpretation. Everyone I've spoken to so far digs the name.

As the forum grows, so does the need to revisit the structure of the forum so it remains usable by members. Creating this sub-forum helps users by containing all the polls in one place.

The other sub-forum dealing with FAQs should also help new users understand what has already been discussed before them. We have plenty of collective knowledge about our game in this forum now. Let's use that to our advantage.

jaredmorgs said:

I guess the name of the sub-forum is up to personal interpretation. Everyone I've spoken to so far digs the name.

As the forum grows, so does the need to revisit the structure of the forum so it remains usable by members. Creating this sub-forum helps users by containing all the polls in one place.

The other sub-forum dealing with FAQs should also help new users understand what has already been discussed before them. We have plenty of collective knowledge about our game in this forum now. Let's use that to our advantage.

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Poll Dancing. Like strippers. I'm not really sure how else you could interpret it.

I mean yeah it's hilarious I dig it, I laughed too the first time I saw it, but to make it a permanent fixture instead of a joke... well, again, not a mod nor an owner so, hey all the power to you guys.

I created a bunch back in June of 2012 but I stuck them under the Unreleased section. I guess they're still there because I don't see them here. Doesn't matter anyway because they're probably pretty irrelevant now.

dtown8532 said:

I created a bunch back in June of 2012 but I stuck them under the Unreleased section. I guess they're still there because I don't see them here. Doesn't matter anyway because they're probably pretty irrelevant now.

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Thanks for letting me know. I'll move them.

Mark Wyda said:

he felt the need to make an entire thread snidely attacking me.

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I'd say that's just a tad bit reaching and over-dramatic.

If anything, it was decent sarcasm for all the Poll lovers.