should members be able to change their votes in polls? page 1

oblivion

16th January 2012, 03:42 PM

In the thread about showing member post counts, Seraph asked the following:

...

Oh, and on a tangent: Can polls be configured to allow revoting?

vanilla vbulletin doesn't have a member-vote-change feature. admins can change the vote tally if a person requests, but it's a manual thing and only affects the count, not the record of who voted for what.


I found a vbulletin hack that allows members to change their votes. It also lets people write-in their own poll options and vote for it. When setting up the poll, it looks like the OPer can decide whether to enable vote-changing or not. An admin can modify this after the fact.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=198535

The hack is for version 3.7, but from reading the replies, people have installed it on 3.8 versions successfully.

Anyway, I figure step one is to talk about whether we'd like this functionality.

ConvolutedLogic

16th January 2012, 03:48 PM

I don't feel the need for such a thing, but I guess some people may interpret not having it as an attack on freedom of speech or some wibble-wort, dumb-ass nonsense. :hmmm:

nostrum

16th January 2012, 03:51 PM

I don't care either way.

ConvolutedLogic

16th January 2012, 03:53 PM

I don't care either way.
You should care-this is vital, a matter of life and death!

nostrum

16th January 2012, 03:55 PM

I don't care either way.
You should care-this is vital, a matter of life and death!

I know. I'm sorry. Someone slap me.

Gonzo

16th January 2012, 03:58 PM

I kind of like the idea of changing votes. I've regretted voting one-way before after some discussion was put in place.

charlou

16th January 2012, 04:43 PM

I'd vote yes to enabling revoting. And I stand by that.

Gonzo

16th January 2012, 05:12 PM

As long as the poll can be set to close at a certain time, I don't see how it would be a problem.

Fuzzy

16th January 2012, 06:47 PM

I would agree to making it an option enable-able by the poll creator, but default to off.

Facetious

16th January 2012, 06:49 PM

agree with fuzzy

Hermit

17th January 2012, 02:51 AM

One occasion in which revoting worked best was a long discussion at the Richard Dawkins Forum regarding the destruction of the World Trade Towers and related events. I was heartened being able to observe the number of votes in favour of the Truthers slowly but significantly dropping over the period of several months. That, to me, was clear indication that people can and do change their minds on issues because of discussions they participated in.

I have also change my vote in more than one poll at Rationalia as a result of what other members posted. To me the revoting feature is a positive thing in almost all polls.

charlou

17th January 2012, 03:00 AM

^ That ... in fact, I'm unlikely to vote in a poll which doesn't allow revoting (unless it's a poll about physical facts like how old we are)

charlou

17th January 2012, 03:02 AM

Polls that allow revoting should include an "abstain" option because a vote cannot be removed from a poll once placed.

MSG

17th January 2012, 07:49 AM

I don't care either way.
You should care-this is vital, a matter of life and death!

I know. I'm sorry. Someone slap me.

:thwack:

that will have to do, until the smilie czar adds this one:
http://talkrational.org/images/smilies/sissyfight.gif

Jerome

17th January 2012, 12:33 PM

As polls are open for more than a short period of time and new information can change what the member thinks, I think members should be able to change their vote. If so, I am leaning to any vote changes being public.

Magicziggy

17th January 2012, 12:47 PM

I can't think of a situation on a discussion board where you would want to lock in a vote.

Agree about needing an abstain option.

Adenosine

17th January 2012, 11:28 PM

Where's the poll?

I want a meta-poll.

Grumps

18th January 2012, 09:05 AM

In the thread about showing member post counts, Seraph asked the following:

...

Oh, and on a tangent: Can polls be configured to allow revoting?

vanilla vbulletin doesn't have a member-vote-change feature. admins can change the vote tally if a person requests, but it's a manual thing and only affects the count, not the record of who voted for what.


I found a vbulletin hack that allows members to change their votes. It also lets people write-in their own poll options and vote for it. When setting up the poll, it looks like the OPer can decide whether to enable vote-changing or not. An admin can modify this after the fact.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=198535

The hack is for version 3.7, but from reading the replies, people have installed it on 3.8 versions successfully.

Anyway, I figure step one is to talk about whether we'd like this functionality.


In effect, you're asking if we shoulde be allowed to change our minds.

Answer is pretty self-evident.

charlou

18th January 2012, 11:03 AM

I think the defaut should be to have the option to change ones vote for as long as the poll is open. If members don't want to change their vote, they're not obliged. :)

charlou

24th January 2012, 02:29 AM

Soooooo ....

oblivion

24th January 2012, 02:33 AM

So, this has been kicked around enough? I just need to find time to review the code and install it. May have time tonight.

Hermit

24th January 2012, 02:52 AM

So, this has been kicked around enough? I just need to find time to review the code and install it. May have time tonight.
Cool. Then you can add a re-vote capable poll to this thread. :D

oblivion

24th January 2012, 04:03 AM

I've added a poll to this thread to test my ability to change my vote and to add a write-in option to the poll. It works for me.

Anyone else want to try it out?

Supernaut

24th January 2012, 04:08 AM

Sweet! Works like a charm!

Hermit

24th January 2012, 04:34 AM

Works as advertised. Thank you. After re-voting it throws you back to the opening page, but I can live with that. The option of it being an open poll where everyone else can see who voted for what is a nice touch too.

oblivion

24th January 2012, 04:44 AM

that option is vanilla vbulletin. Unfortunately, it's not changeable after the poll starts. Or maybe fortunately. If people vote thinking it's not a public poll, there could be occasions when they might vote differently from how they'd vote knowing their name was attached.

Anyway, sometimes people accidentally make polls private and want to change that. The only way to change a poll to public is to "strip" the poll from the thread via the admin panel and add it back, making it public.

Floppit

24th January 2012, 08:28 AM

What about announcing a vote, debating and then opening the vote? Or do a before and after?

If it's a massive board faff then life's to short! I wouldn't want the task of faffing about each time someone changed their mind, actually, I wouldn't want to faff about each time I changed my mind!

Grumps

24th January 2012, 11:58 AM

What about announcing a vote, debating and then opening the vote? Or do a before and after?

If it's a massive board faff then life's to short! I wouldn't want the task of faffing about each time someone changed their mind, actually, I wouldn't want to faff about each time I changed my mind!

But... I like faffing...

Fuzzy

24th January 2012, 02:46 PM

The write-in function for poll options is cool, but it might be a good idea to place an upper character limit.

Fuzzy

24th January 2012, 02:47 PM

Also, as an aside:

Sorry about that :blush:

Gonzo

24th January 2012, 03:11 PM

ban fuzzy

charlou

24th January 2012, 03:17 PM

What about announcing a vote, debating and then opening the vote? Or do a before and after?

If it's a massive board faff then life's to short! I wouldn't want the task of faffing about each time someone changed their mind, actually, I wouldn't want to faff about each time I changed my mind!

The idea is that voters have the option to register a change of mind before the poll closes ... if a closure date is set.


*flicks fuzzy with a rubber band*

Gonzo

24th January 2012, 04:21 PM

This is cool.