Online polls as a whole are pretty sad! It's not so much the polls themselves as the uses to which they're put -- you know, people like the AFA staggering around saying 99% of Americans believe anyone who sells a condom should be shot, sort of thing. And the other sad bit is that far too many folk are naive enough to believe this -- i.e., to think that an opinion poll is an opinion poll is an opinion poll.
Myself, I like PZ Myers's habit of making fools of such polls by encouraging his readers to go vote for the rationalist option. (He may be why One News Now changed its ways!) In at least one instance a reader discovered that the poster of a poll -- I think it was the AFA -- was using a bot to redress the balance and pretend the religious option was winning.
no subject
Which is sad.
Online polls as a whole are pretty sad! It's not so much the polls themselves as the uses to which they're put -- you know, people like the AFA staggering around saying 99% of Americans believe anyone who sells a condom should be shot, sort of thing. And the other sad bit is that far too many folk are naive enough to believe this -- i.e., to think that an opinion poll is an opinion poll is an opinion poll.
Myself, I like PZ Myers's habit of making fools of such polls by encouraging his readers to go vote for the rationalist option. (He may be why One News Now changed its ways!) In at least one instance a reader discovered that the poster of a poll -- I think it was the AFA -- was using a bot to redress the balance and pretend the religious option was winning.