The obvious (searching for “poll” in the title) doesn’t do it, the little “Poll:” tag doesn’t seem to record as title. There may be another way to search, but I haven’t a clue what it would be.
Since polling is fairly new, and only available in four forums, you could just scrolldown the first bunch of pages – it’s pretty easy to spot the little “Poll:” tag at the front of the title. Of course, this is the old-fashioned manual way of hunting, but what the heck.
Yes – in that poll about 63% were male, about 35% were female, and 2% weren’t saying. Given that the general adult population is about 50/50, there’s a significant gender bias, either in the population of Dopers or the self-selected sample. That’s not surprising. The proportion of gay and bi males looked about right (I would not have been surprised by more, but perhaps it’s just that gay man are much more open about it that thy are on other internet boards), but the proportion of bi females (about 24% of the females responding) seemed very high. I find it hard to believe that reflects the normal population.
However, to reflect that, this board should rename itself the Straight/Bi/Gay Dope Message Board 
Interesting thought, as I had assumed the the Bisexual female population seemed about right if the Dope was made up of a younger crowd- as I’ve noticed when I was in college and a bit out, there there is a greater frequency of females who are bisexual, but tend to date mostly males- but they consider themselves bi. It’s certainly (in my experiences) more common than finding a true lesbian or a true straight female- but I admit those were HIGHLY skewed and biased results as I was in a fairly liberal college, and again- it’s college a time known for experimenting or such.
But still- in my mind, I was surprised by mostly the gender makeup itself, and the Smaller population of gay or bisexual males. I guess just hanging around here during the Prop 8 controversy, I thought there would be more- but perhaps again the one’s who are openly so are more prolific posters?
Anyways, it was an interesting poll and still ongoing.
Thank you for caring.
I have to disagree – a little.
Of course these polls aren’t scientific. Hopefully most people starting and participating in them are aware of that and are doing it mostly for entertainment value.
But I think they can serve as rough measuring tools.
I started a poll in IMHO on religious persuasion in which roughly two-thirds of the respondents chose a non-theist option (e.g., atheist, agnostic). This result surprised some people, probably because in the U.S. (where most of us live), self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics are a distinct minority. But studying the religious threads in Great Debates would confirm that this board does seem to have a high proportion of non-theists.
Similarly, results of a political-alignment poll suggested a significant preponderance members self-identify as liberal, which confirms what many have long suspected.
I would suggest that anyone wishing to draw conclusions from a poll take a few factors into consideration (not meant to be a comprehensive list): 1) Is the poll public or private? This probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference when the question is “How do you like your steak?,” but might influence willingness to respond honestly to “When did you lose your virginity?” 2) Does the poll exclude or prejudge anyone’s choices? If your question is “What kind of car do you drive?” and the only options are “a) electric; b) hybrid; c) hell-spawned gas-guzzling penis substitute,” you’re probably going to skew the results. 4) How many people have responded? A poll with only a dozen respondents probably is meaningless. If a couple hundred respond, that’s a pretty good chunk of the IMDb’s active membership. 5) What are the differences between responses? If 48 percent choose A and 52 percent choose B, that could very well be chance variation. If two-thirds choose A, that suggests a real difference.
Spin it as much as you like, but all you know from your example is that a bunch of people who happened to respond to that poll gave that answer. You still don’t don’t anything about the Board as a whole.
This isn’t a trivial or a pedantic nitpicking. It goes to the heart of what a sample is and what a meaningful poll is. Self-selected respondents are self-selected. You might have hit every single atheist or variant who’s active here. You can’t possibly know anything about the people who didn’t respond. How do you even know that the people who post in that forum are in any way representative of the Board as a whole?
The distinction is vital to understanding why some surveys and polls can be cited and others must be - not can be - dismissed.
I realize it was a poll you started and that probably makes you feel more proprietary. But all polls here are meaningless fun and nothing more. They prove nothing. They don’t even indicate anything.
It’s embarrassing on a Board supposedly dedicated to fighting ignorance to say otherwise. I didn’t express any opinion on whether polls should be allowed because I’m never going to respond to one. But the possibility that people would take them seriously and make claims about the Board because of them never occurred to me. That’s a horrifying thought.
You can’t take a poll here seriously. They are meaningless. They show nothing, absolutely, totally nothing, except that the people who voted in them voted the way the did. They say nothing whatsoever about the larger population. I’m using absolutes because this is one of those rare subject where absolutes are correct. Heck, they’re mandatory.
If I may be a bit Adlerian, I would say that this has been my thousand-fold experience:
[ul]
[li]Politics: 75% far left authoritarian, 20% libertarian, 4% far right authoritarian, 1% authoritarian[/li][li]Religion: 35% some kind of faith from Christian to Wiccan, 35% weak atheist, 25% agnostic, 4% strong atheist, 1% not understanding the concept[/li][li]Race: (75% there’s no such thing as race): 45% Caucasian, 25% mixed, 15% African/African-American, 10% Asian/East Indian, 2% NA Indian, 3% unsure[/li][li]Age: 30% middle-age or above, 60% twenty-thirty something, 10% kids and teens[/li][li]Location: 70% US/Canada, 15% Europe, 10% Asia/India, 3% Central/South America, 2% Middle East[/li][li]Sanity: 95% crazy as a loon, 4% crazier than a loon, 1% drooling knuckle-draggers[/li][/ul]
That shouldn’t have been at all surprising. At least, it wasn’t for me. Maybe that’s just because I’ve been here so long.
bold added.
And do the 1% of the people put up 80% of the posts? 
Authoritarian drooling knuckle-draggers who don’t understand philosophical concepts? You may be estimating conservatively. 
Would you prefer a disproportionate number be dumbasses instead? 
I don’t think it’s either/or. The “smartasses” are dumbasses, but just too obtuse to realize it. And no, I’m not trying to be smart here, I really don’t care for such posts.
[quote=“Liberal, post:29, topic:513240”]
[li]Politics: 75% far left authoritarian, 20% libertarian, 4% far right authoritarian, 1% authoritarian.[/li][/QUOTE]
While I know you were posting in large part tongue-in-cheek, I’ve always had an issue with what folks label “far anything.” Far left to me = avowed Marxist or near equivalent. Far right = fascist or near equivalent. Far is code in my head for extreme and honestly most people don’t have extreme politics, not even on this board.
Also I suspect the board skews a wee bit older than you think it does. Your sanity estimates on the other hand are pretty much spot on.
