Can we please resist the urge to abuse the poll feature of diary posts?
Here is a good use of polls: What is your sexual orientation and abuse history?
and here is a waste of space poll: Best word to describe Faux News broadcaster.
I just tiptoed through the polls and had to through about 50 to get to the real ones. These could be useful features if only we knew how to use them properly and did not clutter the list of polls with junk.
Some do's and don'ts. Or as they say on the Simpsons where Bart is learning how to use a knife: Don't Do What Donnie Don't Does.
1. Don't put your joke in the form of a poll. It's not funny any more.
2. Don't use the poll to continue your diary.
3. Do use a poll if you want to know the readership of your diary and it's highly relevant to know. For example, in a diary about VA-Sen early in the cycle, you might want to ask if the diary readers are VA voters or not (keep it simple, yes/no) to learn whether outsiders are paying attention.
4. Do use a poll if you are eliciting information that cannot be obtained somewhere else. My positive example above was interesting because anonymous self-reports on sexual abuse are hard to come by and related to the poster's point.
5. Don't do an obvious poll that tries out different labels as in George Bush is a) a jackass; b) a dickwad; or c) a really nice guy.
6. Do resist the urge to ask whether your diary is good. (This diary is a) a waste of time; b) the best thing since sliced bread) You can find that out through comments and recommends.
7. Do use mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories wherever possible. (Male, Female, Other; White non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, Hispanic or Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American or Alaska Native, Multiple, Other)
8. If you want to combine two variables, make it transparent and use numbers where possible instead of words (e.g. Male age 0-39, Male age 40+, Female age 0-39, Female age 40+)
9. Do use a poll to measure your readership if you must have a measure that includes those who did not comment, rate you, or measure your recommend, but it would be nice we can standardize this with a one-response poll: ("Check here if you read this diary") But in general, these vanity polls will add to the poll clutter on the site.
10. Do use your polls for interesting questions whose answer is unknown, like your diary readers' ballot preference for truly contested primaries, like the Maryland district that John Sarbanes ended up winning or the Maryland Senate primary.
Thank you for reading. I know that opinions on this topic may vary as it's very subjective -- one person's clutter is another person's feast. And I'm sure there are other tips and suggestions. I'll read the comments to see if people think this is a sensible rant or not or if they have their own suggestions.
Oh, and go vote in the sexual orientation/abuse poll. I have nothing to do with creating it, but I thought it was interesting.
Oh, one more thing. I was kidding about "w/Poll!"