Inquiring minds want to know.
I’ve never noticed, but how do you tell before you vote if it’s a public poll?
It appears in the header of the poll box (look at the top).
And yes it depends on the subject matter and not so much on whether the topic is embarassing as to whether it should really be relevant or anyone else’s business who is voting for a particular choice.
This poll is a public one. You could be skewing your own results.
You do not know who I am regardless; so why would it matter. I say, “tell the truth and run.”
I rarely vote in public polls. Even if I post a comment to them, such as I’m doing here.
In essence a poll invites me to agree 100% with exactly one of the pollster’s chosen sound bites. A public poll invites me to go on record as agreeing 100% to that sound bite.
I’m much more likely to provide my true attitude via an insightful and nuanced post such as you’re now reading 
For anonymous polls I will vote if and only if one of the sound bites is a real close match to my actual thoughts. If none are close, or I’m pretty evenly split between two choices there’ll be no vote.
My decision to participate in a poll hinges more on whether it’s a topic/question I’m curious about myself. I don’t care what other people do in the shower, so I didn’t even open those threads. But if the subject is of interest or just sounds fun, I may play along.
I generally don’t vote in public polls unless the poll pertains to something specific to the board, like a poll about the age of Dopers or the like. Otherwise, I don’t really see why it matters to anyone who voted which way, and I assume the OP is either trying to be nosy or trying to shoo away people who won’t vote in public polls based on some belief about those types.
I’d be curious to hear from folks who like to start public polls about why they choose to do so.
I avoid voting in public polls. Why would you want to make me do that?
In addition to my earlier post, these exactly.
Something about a public poll makes me suspect the OP has an ulterior motive, perhaps to “out” folks picking his/her idea of the wrong choice.
Obviously if I post at all I’m outing myself with whatever I say since it’s posted under my username.
But something feels distinctly different and off-puttingly weird about public polls. It feels like a loyalty test or those anti-tax or anti-abortion litmus test pledges the Rs seem to want their candidates to sign.
So you think.
My personal policy is never to vote in public polls. Including this one. On occasion, I’ve clicked the wrong choice by accident. D’oh! Then I’m marked for life. Or what if I change my opinion at a later date? Uh-uh, no public polls for me.
Well, since a mod started this thread I would assume that the topic is likely not so contentious that by posting in it, my reputation on the SDMB would be irreparably tarnished. :eek:
I picked the “embarrassing” option, but it’s not so much embarrassment as whether I am possibly willing to defend or explain the position. If a poll is public then there’s at least the possibility of someone saying “Dracoi, why do you feel that way?” and if I don’t feel like answering that question, then I simply won’t vote in the public poll.
So, as an example of a non-embarrassing poll, I would skip public polls on rape culture, police racism and global warming because I know that any such thread will devolve into the same old arguments from the same old people. I’ve already had that argument, I don’t want to have it again and I don’t want my name coming into the discussion.
I went with the “embarrassing” option, but that’s not quite it. It’s just that there are very occasionally questions I don’t want people to know the answers to–mostly because I think it will be used to taunt me later or to start a fight.
Most of the time, when I vote in a poll, I also post to explain my answer. So it doesn’t matter either way in that case. But in the rare cases when I don’t want to do that, I prefer anonymous polls.
I voted for “It depends on how embarrassing the topic is if the results are public” (well, I don’t actually have to tell y’all that, since this is a public poll), but like several previous posters “embarrassing” is not precisely the right way to put it. It might be embarrassment, but as various other posters have said, it could be anything from “It’s none of your business what I personally think on that” to “I really don’t feel like getting into an argument on this particular topic on this particular board on this particular day”.
The last, at least, shouldn’t matter; casting a “public” vote doesn’t require you to defend it.
I can’t respond to this, because I don’t vote in public polls.
One possible reason: to filter out socks and trolls.
Another: to encourage people to pause and consider before voting.
Another: just to know who is willing to stand by this or that proposition.
Why is it “ulterior” to be interested in who thinks what? It’s not any more information than could be divined by ordinary posting and reading (in fact less), it’s just an efficient way to collate a few data points. Provided the poll is written well.
Also, there is not necessarily any wrong choice.
Does too!