Weekly Polls To Become Sunday Polls
Revised 11/19/14 @ 1pm:
Starting this Sunday I’ll try a poll that will start at 8am and end 12 hours later, discussing the results the following Wednesday.
Original post below:
In February 2009 I introduced the weekly poll on this blog. It’s been a great 5+ year run but every poll the last few weeks has been overrun by a flood of new visitors voting, I’m tired of seeing them flip the natural results to match their agenda. I can’t think of a way to prevent this other than cease doing the weekly poll altogether. Here are the results from last week and this week (1 day):
Q: Should Missouri have a law like Oregon’s ‘Death with Dignity Act’?
- No 201 [71.28%]
- Yes 75 [26.6%]
- Maybe 4 [1.42%]
- Unsure/no opinion 2 [0.71%]
Q: Do you plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day?
- Yes, online & in a store 100 [67.11%]
- No 42 [28.19%]
- I have to work 2 [1.34%]
- Maybe 2 [1.34%]
- Undecided 2 [1.34%]
- Yes, in a store 1 [0.67%]
- Yes, online 0 [0%]
The outcome of both are very different than those who voted in the first 8 hours. I might do a poll within a post, with it ending after 8-10 hours.
For the record I think Missouri needs a ‘Death with Dignity’ act to allow those who are terminally ill to end their lives before suffering. I also don’t think we should be out shopping in stores, if you do please be especially kind to those having to work on Thanksgiving.
I’ll now be posting 5 days a week, Monday-Friday. Maybe an occasional post on a Saturday or Sunday.
— Steve Patterson
Bummer . . . I kinda looked forward to the poll each week, even when I (sometimes) disagreed with the methodology or (sometimes) the results. With a self-selecting sample, I never expected true, “scientific”, accuracy, but it was fun/interestng to see how things fell out, every week. But since you want results to support an agenda, I’m not surprised that you’ve chosen to eliminate polling. Personally, I’d debate the results, based on facts, rather than blame special interests for skewing the totals. The poll results do/did little to either disprove or support any position that you put forward on YOUR blog. Your regular readers are well aware of where you stand, and outliers / newbies won’t be sticking around for very long if they don’t agree.
That said, I’m glad to see you posting less and spending more time growing your marriage. There is a life outside the interwebs, and we all need to live it to the fullest. And if you think “insta-polls” will produce “better” results, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Thanks, again, for all you do to try and make St. Louis a better city and a better region!
I’m considering a Sunday poll that would close around 6pm or 8pm that day.
You didn’t want outsiders flipping results to their agenda… because it’s usually the opposite of your agenda.
Welcome to the Internet.
The natural results over the last 5+ years were often different than my view, that’s ok if that’s how my usual readers feel.
I’m with JZ71, keep the poll. Ya, sometimes it is hijacked by yahoos, but generally it’s an interesting look at what your readership is thinking. If anything the “extra” attention you’ve been getting lately just shows how important your blog is locally.