"Should confusing poll options be limited to “no opinion”?" Topic

I'm specifically talking about options like:
Not my cup of tea
Not my genre
Not my period
Not my scale
And ANY OTHER CHOICES that do nothing but confuse the results.

If you don't have an opinion, you don't have an opinion. I see no need for obfuscation.
Yes, all those silly alternate options were voted in. Now that we have had time to see what they do, let's vote them out.

"Hey OFM! Why are you trying to interfere with democratic polls?"
Well, we have elections for Congress every 2 years you, Senators must run again every 6, and Presidents every 4.

So, furst "none of these/no opinion" should be split into "none of these" and "no opinion". None of these means you actually do have an opinion.

NMCoT is fine to go. And NMG/NMP could be lumped into one, say "Not my milieu". Or those and "Not my scale", could just be "Not what I play".

Fi\undamentally, I know the topic, but don't care about your piddly little world view of things is different than I have no interest in the topic.

How about just this: Huh?

John makes sense to me. Some of the differences in the choices seem to be, "how do I want to say 'no opinion'?"

etotheipi has a good point. Sometimes I really don't have an opinion but I do want to see the results. Other times, I have an opinion that doesn't match any of the choices given. Of course, Other covers that option.

Also, the No Opinion answers shouldn't be counted in the totals.

I agree with Etotheipi

I think you could take the "no opinion" out as well. If you want to see the poll results wait until it's over.

I don't believe we currently use "Not my period"

How about "This is ridiculous "?

Simply, get away with polls; they are mostly not representative (max 100 votes, mostly less), are often non-wargaming oriented and some totally silly and no use at all

Keep them all.

Seriously, of what value (in the sense of contributing
to miniatures gaming) are the polls ?

I can see polls asking opinions on adding/deleting
topic areas or polls affecting TMP (structure, organization
etc) but many or most are not of that sort.

No!

I vote stick with ridiculous whimsey!

You just need one option – 'none of the above'.

That covers both 'no opinion' and 'my opinion doesn't fit with any of the options provided.

Meh…

I agree with John.

Seriously, of what value (in the sense of contributing
to miniatures gaming) are the polls ?

I just ignore the ones whose results I disagree with, and think people who voted the wrong way are stupid.

I love the thought that some people might see real import and merit in TMP Poll results.

If we all vote that Phantom Menace was the best Star Wars film that won't make it true (it won't make it untrue either).

What we need is for someone to spend five minutes reading an "introduction to poll design" web page.

I'm a bigger fan of individual liberty every day, so you could keep everything. But when you present *results* show the raw results, as we do now, but then drop NMCoT, "This is Ridiculous", etc., and show a set that just shows the positive choices, perhaps along with "none of these" if we make it clear that "none of these" means "other – this is my cup of tea, I care, I have an opinion but it is not among those listed." Currently variations of "I don't care but I want to click something" which I cannot really discern among are so numerous as to wash out any useful or interesting info that might be in there.

BEST OF ALL would be writing the software to allow write-ins. That way people can specify when their choice is not offered.

And if we had perfect polls….what would happen?

Would all Tea become Tetley tea?

Would we finally really know why painted miniatures are not collectible?

Would it become a recognised historical fact that the Romans fought the Chinese in 36BC?

And would it really be true that Sgt Rock would become my favourite WWII comic, rather than Warlord and Battle?

I think not M'lud and I rest my case.

I've noticed that a lot of "Other" votes do not get described in the comments section. I agree, many of the options are just muddying up the waters. We don't need granularity beyond, "No opinion," in my opinion. Cheers!

yes

So … how does information you are not interested in change the way you view the information you are interested in?