# Polling results spread out in election threads **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 19, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484 "2024-09-19T19:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/21 "2024-09-20T13:45:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > (And I’d love to ban the sidetrack of whether Nate Silver has sold out to Republicans. Surely that’s been fully covered.) I thought we did? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/22 "2024-09-20T13:59:24Z")
Hmm, i ran into it last night, but i might have been reading old posts. 🤷‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/23 "2024-09-20T14:07:52Z")
@DSeid, I would considering merging the 3 identified and still allowing polls. @Aspenglow & @raventhief need to weigh in on this also. Someone tried to start a 4th today and I already merged it into the Kamala Harris thread. All 3 of those threads should not have posts about Nate Silver, just post saying what his latest numbers are. I am against closing the 3 threads in favor of a new one. I think that is more of a problem than a cure. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/24 "2024-09-20T14:41:06Z")
Tentative new thread to combine the 3. Open to edits and suggestions. > [@2024 Presidential Campaign thread (Combined) Tentative new thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-presidential-campaign-thread-combined-tentative-new-thread/1007526): > > Three campaign threads were combined here. This thread is for talking about the Harris and Trump campaigns. Polling updates are absolutely allowed. It is not for rehashing old stuff like Sanders, Clinton or the like. It is not for arguments about Nate Silver or 538, though reporting his latest results is of course fine. As only it is OK to attack the content of a post, not the poster. Please avoid misogyny and jokes about rape. Links for Fundraising are not allowed without prior permission … I’m out for the day at this point. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/25 "2024-09-20T15:26:37Z")
> [@2024 Presidential Campaign thread (Combined) Tentative new thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2024-presidential-campaign-thread-combined-tentative-new-thread/1007526/1): > > As only it is As always … Otherwise I appreciate it. I hope others do also. Thank you. Of course no solution will be perfect. FWIW @puzzlegal your skepticism regarding the predictive value of the polls and the forecasts is of course reasonable, but they are the data we’ve got, and they do tell us something, if only relative to their own trends. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/26 "2024-09-20T15:30:57Z")
Yes, that’s all true. I’d just rather be in a conversation that focuses on other things. But maybe I’m an outlier. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/27 "2024-09-20T17:13:23Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I am against closing the 3 threads in favor of a new one. I think that is more of a problem than a cure. I agree with this. My reasons: 1. If I’m discussing Trump and his campaign, I don’t want to trawl through dozens of Harris comments to follow the discussion. Conversely, if I’m discussing Harris, I don’t want to try and follow the discussion through a bunch of Trump posts. Those discussions can go in very different directions and trying to combine them seems like a messy way to proceed. 2. _In future_ (more on this shortly), we could have one thread for in-depth discussion of polls for parsing out methodology and such. However, I think it would be impossible to discuss (or moderate) candidate threads where polls can’t even be mentioned. I would suggest that polls can be mentioned, but more detailed discussions about them should be relegated to the dedicated polls discussion thread. 3. We are less than a month and a half away from this election. To make a drastic change of combining everything for this election now seems chaotic and pointless to me. They are separate discussions and should remain so. Even combining the _How Can Trump Win?_ thread with the _Trump Run up to the Election_ thread at this stage will be confusing for those who have been contributing to those threads in a separate way. In future, we can be more strict about combining threads that essentially discuss the same thing as the two Trump threads herein referenced do. And I think we can agree, this has been an especially chaotic election, generating lots of discussions that in future could be combined with less confusion. 4. We already have a rule that discourages people from making the same post across multiple threads. I don’t really care if people post links to polls in any of the existing threads, but they should do it once in one place and then link to that post in other threads if they wish to. Personally, I would tend to post about the poll in the _Polling_ thread and then link to it in the candidate discussion threads. But however an individual chooses to post their poll link, the link should be one and done, not posted multiple times in multiple threads. This is a rule we can enforce now. 5. Let’s just accept that people process information differently and we aren’t all going to get what we want. Some people like everything all in one place and don’t mind scrolling through lots of unrelated threads. Others like their information segregated into many different topics. There’s a reasonable medium and that’s what I hope we can strive for. TL;dr, let’s keep things as they are through the November 2024 election and make an effort to corral duplicative threads into broad topics in future. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/28 "2024-09-20T17:33:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’d just rather be in a conversation that focuses on other things. But maybe I’m an outlier. I am interesting in polling as its own topic. But I’d rather have campaign threads be focused on the nuts and bolts of the campaign itself. Polling mixed into a campaign thread turns it into a “horserace” discussion of who’s ahead rather than what the campaign is about and what it’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/29 "2024-09-20T17:42:15Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > _In future_ (more on this shortly), we could have one thread for in-depth discussion of polls for parsing out methodology and such. However, I think it would be impossible to discuss (or moderate) candidate threads where polls can’t even be mentioned. I would suggest that polls can be mentioned, but more detailed discussions about them should be relegated to the dedicated polls discussion thread. I endorse this. One poll for discussion about polling, including methodology, reliability, and tracking the polls in detail. And only brief mentions of polls in the main thread. But i agree that it’s chaotic to move stuff and change the rules now. Thanks for considering this. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/30 "2024-09-20T17:51:47Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > All 3 of those threads should not have posts about Nate Silver, just post saying what his latest numbers are. Earlier today, I posted a quote and link to a new _essay_ by Silver, extremely relevant to the particular thread and its ongoing themes. That had better be okay, even though it was not about his “latest numbers.” (I’m sure you all agree it’s fine – it wasn’t _about him_.) > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I endorse this. One poll for discussion about polling, including methodology, reliability, and tracking the polls in detail. And only brief mentions of polls in the main thread. > > But i agree that it’s chaotic to move stuff and change the rules now. Agreed. It’s what we basically do already (with the occasional over-frequent aggregate-based forecast model update in a “main” thread – something I promised to curtail myself, and I have). ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484/31 "2024-09-21T16:39:11Z")
Thank you Aspenglow, this send like the absolutely best path forward, and you detailed it beautifully. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polling-results-spread-out-in-election-threads/1007484.md?page=1)