Polls: non-members vs members

Hello ATS Staff:

I have been enjoying the polls that S.O. has been posting, but I have a concern regarding the ability of non-members or "annon" persons filling them out.

I would like to find out if the ATS staff are intentionally leaving them open, or is it just something that wasn't considered.

Making them so that you have to be a member to take them might narrow down the ability of "bots" from being able to fill them out; like along the lines with the H.B. Gary software. Thus skewing the polls results, and over-all accuracy.

What are people's and ATS staff's thoughts?

-Cyg

reply to post by Cygnis


You know, I never even considered that possibility. Non-members COULD skew poll results. Perhaps the polls ought to be open only to registered members. Make the ability to participate in the polls a member perk, like the Chat feature.

Or you could always split and show both the results, and show how votes compare between non members and members

Originally posted by lifttheveil
Or you could always split and show both the results, and show how votes compare between non members and members

I think that would be a great idea.

The thing is, you have no way of knowing whether or not a non-member is in fact a member who simply logged off in order to do the poll anonymously. Several have already indicated that that is what they did.

Some members have qualms about privacy; especially given the nature of some of the polls so far. At any rate, it is important to take any and all of these poll results with a large grain of salt. They are not professionally done and some have an agenda with leading questions as we have seen with the last one.

As with the rest of the site they should be seen in the context of entertainment and curiosity only; not scientific studies.

reply to post by Cygnis


I was surprised to see non-member rankings in the recent OBL poll. WTH? ATS definitely marches to a different drummer.

Then again, I've never seen an OP on another site like the 'macho man w/ gun & petite hot lil wife on Harley' that was on ATS days ago, either.

reply to post by wayno


Yeah that is a good point too, I remember hearing some members saying they took it anon.

Yeah these are definitely not scientific poles for sure, just interesting to see though.

Originally posted by LargeFries
reply to post by Cygnis

 

I was surprised to see non-member rankings in the recent OBL poll. WTH? ATS definitely marches to a different drummer.

Then again, I've never seen an OP on another site like the 'macho man w/ gun & petite hot lil wife on Harley' that was on ATS days ago, either.

LOL I know the Mod your referring too. Decent guy..

Glad he's a Mod, and not the other end of the spectrum..

/me waves @ GetReadyAlready!!

-Cyg

reply to post by wayno


It would be interesting to see a breakdown in the actual polls then.. Member vs non-member. Just for the sake of curosity.

I do understand that the polls are non-scientific, but it does gnaw on my brain not having details sometimes.

Either way, not my polls, I be a humble participent in the community. Sooo, I'll just content myself with enjoying the polls and making suggestions..

-Cyg

Rank members and non members separately and mention the possibility the nonmembers could be voting more than once.

I think looking at the nonmember vote is important but then I love Statistics - so I am weird

Originally posted by crimvelvet
Rank members and non members separately and mention the possibility the nonmembers could be voting more than once.

I think looking at the nonmember vote is important but then I love Statistics - so I am weird

So i am another wierdo too then but you definatley have a good point .. I was thinking along the same lines I feel it would make it more Precise as to numbers, also I think it should be only members not guests .. IMO and maybe mention age groups that would add a twist to the results or even include how many ..male or female too

Does it really matter? I was just suggesting an idea for a poll I thought might be interesting but this thread makes me think I am not taking these polls as seriously as I am supposed to or something. Do you really care who is taking an ATS poll? Do the results matter any more than being interesting? Are the results supposed to be something that is a reliable goto so people are afraid it may be skewed to reflect a view not inline with the hoped for outcome? I really just thought they were for entertainment.

disinfo agents doing their job as not giving us the whole picture, yeah would like to see a member poll as for the nonmembers.