Now the number of polls is getting ridiculous, and I would not be surprised eventually to see them outnumber normal threads.
How about just relegating them to a separate Forum, where those interested could go, and spare the rest of us from being inundated?
I agree. I do not see the point in the polls, and as a matter of fact I think they should be eliminated. I don’t know why they were enabled to begin with. I’d rather they just focus on making the board run, instead of adding a needless feature. This is like putting a new set of hubcaps on a broken-down car.
As a moderator, I agree that the number is (currently) rediculous. The mods/admins as a group talked quite a bit about this before enabling them. Our judgement is that they will be more of a toy at first, then taper off. I certainly hope this is true.
If they ever even equaled normal threads, I’m sure we’d find a way to cut them down.
I don’t think there’s a workable way to put them in one separate forum.
Oh please, both of you.
It’s a fun little feature. The IMHO board is about gathering opinions. The poll feature makes it easy to do so. Getting it turned on didn’t take the place of addressing more serious issues – it’s basically a toggle that was off, and now it’s on.
It’s a new toy, and when the newness wears off, use will die down. Or not. If it doesn’t, what’s the harm in it being there? In many cases the post would still exist, just without handy buttons to click. If being able to answer a question with radio buttons / checkboxes, and then being able to see the total results in a little bar graph offends you … well … wow. Just wow.
If you don’t like poll threads, then don’t open 'em.
To help us all decide I started a poll.
I don’t really care if they’re eliminated or not, but I agree they’re kind of pointless. I read threads because I’m interested in peoples explanation of their opinions, adding a raw count to the top with a poll doesn’t really add anything, IMHO.
I don’t like certain types of threads either. I’m not going to start a thread to get them banned. The people on this board need more tolerance of others, not more clamping down on what individuals don’t like and eliminating it. This is not a post against moving polls to one forum either. I don’t care where they’re used so long as they are not eliminated.
It’s nice to have a new stereo even if it’s a broken down car as was stated. Radio buttons get it.
I say let some time pass so people can become bored with them, and the problem will solve itself.
I agree this is probably going to happen sooner or later. Of course if we enable polls in some other forums, people may get annoyed all over again. 
These two things don’t have anything to do with each other. We didn’t have to write a script to create polls or anything, we just enabled them after getting the all-clear from Ed Zotti. Decisions about getting new servers or making changes in hardware and software and such are not made by the mods and admins, so this did not take away time or effort from anything else.
You can’t please everyone - it really is that simple. When we didn’t have polls, many people lobbied to get them. Now we have them and some don’t like them. I personally don’t care either way.
Troublemaker.
I know. I’m constantly surprised you guys keep letting me post…
Be careful what you wish for …
Needless… in your opinion. You don’t speak for everyone. I’ve enjoyed the introduction of polls. I enjoy participating. I enjoy seeing the results. I take pleasure in the validation of finding that a lot of people share my preference for Coke, Cats, etc. I don’t think I’m alone in this.
I agree the board should run better. But that is a well-flogged dead horse around here.
I’ve never seen a message board do so much collective hand-wringing and Chicken Little-style panicking over mundane new features as the SDMB. :rolleyes:
Can you imagine the furor there would be if there text formatting wasn’t enabled, and someone suggested adding BBcode to post italic and bold text?
Just echoing the other mods, that we are hoping that the poll-furor will die down. When we first enabled smilie-faces, we had way too many of them, too.
The plan is to open the polling feature in Cafe Society and Game Room. Otherwise, we don’t see any other forums that need polls (or where polls would offer anything positive), and so the concept of a forum just for polls… well, sounds sort of boring.
So how does that fence post feel? I mean, when I sit on fences, I make sure they’re big comfy fences.
BTW, I’m with the others. Once the novelty wears off, there won’t be so many. I mean, how many times can we ask what your favorite football/baseball, etc. team is?
Au contraire-I think the football and baseball polls, to name just two, were very enlightening (and I’m still waiting for the first Angels fan in the latter). We gain something we didn’t have before when we can see the overall tallies (picture worth a 1000 words and all that), tho certainly there’s still a place for the more traditional polls. I don’t pretend that they’re perfectly scientific, but nonetheless useful.
This is a good idea.
Perfect. Thank you.