The new build of the Fungi Forums has several new, interesting features that make it a vast improvement over the former forum system. One of those I'm sure you've noticed is the ability to attach a poll to a new thread. While a poll provides a nice, easy-to-interpret insight as to what the opinions of the forum's members are, I have noticed a very disturbing trend regarding [ab]use of this new feature. Bascially, people are making a lot of useless polls "because they can." Based on the nature of this sub-forum, many of these new polls are turning up right here. I do not want this sub-forum to be cluttered up with pointless polls, so here are some guidelines I deem important to note before posting a new poll.
1)
Your poll shouldn't have so many choices as to make the poll a mess. What I'm saying is, your poll shouldn't have so many different options that asking the same question as a poll-less thread is more effective. While there is the "other" response on a poll for answers that don't fit the mainstream, but not everyone should need to select it.
As a rule of thumb, if you can't make a poll with fewer than 10 options that less than a 1/3 of the anticipated respondees will select "other" to, don't make the poll.
2)
Your poll should result in somewhat meaningful discussion. Seriously, "Pick a number" doesn't contribute anything. You can't discuss it. Don't even make a thread about it, much less a poll.
3)
Your poll should mean something to the community. If you post something that is so pointless in general that people are asking why it was even made, it will be locked or deleted. If you, say, want to do research for a project in poll form, or something like that, that's fine. If you want to make a poll for no reason, that's not fine.
For an example of a poll that demonstrate what you SHOULDN'T do (It breaks all but the "too many options" guide), click
here.
Just because you CAN make a poll doesn't mean you should. I mean, I know it's natural to want to experiment with shiny new options, but please do so responsibly. Thank you.
EDIT: For reference,
HERE is a link to the official rules of the forums.
~I.S.
