Spammy polls are popping up daily on the forum and almost all of them are pointless. A lot of members are adding polls to their suggestions for instance with bad questions and even worse answers. Things like ‘Do you agree or disagree?’ with answers Yes and No. It is becoming a bit of an issue to the extent that most poll threads now get more replies complaining about yet another poll than the poll gets actual votes. I suggest that one of three things should happen. 1. Remove the polls from the forum. Not the best solution I admit. 2. Restrict the use of polls for new members or have them be moderator approved to ensure they are useful and make sense. 3. Impose new guidelines and rules for posting polls so that other members can report serial offenders. Polls should only be used when polls are absolutely necessary. This will stop the current trend of polls being added to threads that really don’t need them, repeated opinion polls and general spam, without stopping threads being posted, and in turn improve the experience of the forum for everyone else.
Completely removing the poll functionality would mean useful ones like this will stop existing: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/what-new-country-you-want-to-see-next-in-tsw2.35453/
The polls are really useful, in my opinion, for the following reasons. When making a route suggestion that has different options for the era it's set in (which I encounter sometimes, when making suggestions), it can help players articulate which era they prefer with ease, thus giving a better image of demand. A poll can give a 'no' option. Players might not want to see a feature, and can make that clear this way. A poll can offer more detail than just a like can. For example, some people are willing to pay full price for a suggested route, while others would like the route, but would wait untill a sale. Or players find a certain feature more or less important. A poll can give these choices, a like button can't. A poll can give further indication of demand and it's nature, like in the poll Commiee mentioned: Now, I do agree that the amount of spammy polls is annoying (as are the overly simplistic suggestions that basically say 'this route pls, would be great), but I don't think altering the poll functionality is the most effective solution. I'd rather see 'no spammy polls' added to the forum rules, which can then be (strictly) moderated. The only alteration to poll functionality that I might see as beneficial is to attach an account age requirement (i.e. 'new members' can't create polls, but 'members' can)
I don’t see the reason to remove this feature. In one of my suggestions I wanted a community response to which era they’d like to see first in NEC, but without the polls this wouldn’t be possible. They’re a very useful feature, so I wouldn’t want DTG wasting their time removing it and making the forums even less interactive.
I don't think removing polls is necassary. You don't have to vote in the poll if you don't like the options or ignore it all together
While I agree that this forum gets a lot of sillly useless polls, completely removing the feature would also get rid of any polls that may actually be interesting. This suggestion forum also gets a lot of posts with a simply one line of text, along the lines of "we need this route", without any effort taken to describe why that particular suggestion would be interesting. It annoys the hell ouf ot me, but just removing the option to create new topics isn't gonna work well either :P I think the best thing we can do is just to ignore whatever polls or posts are useless.
I also see a lot of silly polls and what I mostly see is that they are made by new members or members with low levels. So I think about that creating polls (and maybe also other things) will unlock when reaching level X.
Ack...! You got there first with this joke.... ! ;-) This is one of the rare occasions where I completely disagree with stujoy . The polls do not (IMO) need to be removed, restricted, or pre-moderated. Just like any other thread, they: - should be subject to the same rules as every other thread (and post); - will die a natural death, very quickly, if they are pure garbage. And..... if we got rid of polls, we wouldn't know that making train simulators that work is the world's most pressing issue, as can be seen here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...t-floranfauna-nukes-or-train-sim-world.20796/ NB: We also found out that preventing Google's Good Earth from overheating is considered more important than, um... polymer eradication.... and that the nuclear option is of relatively little concern...
Thumbs Up / Down on Steam (and not only) is a Yes / No poll. Do you like this product? Poll. For me, pretty useful, same as here.
If I start a thread like this (something that has wound me up) it is partly to see if others agree with the suggestion or if it is just my perception of it. I was fully expecting replies disagreeing with me and so far all replies are all from people that I like on the forum, and nobody else strangely. The current method of letting a bad post, suggestion, poll or anything on the forum fade away naturally is probably how it is going to stay. This thread shall rightly join those.
I would go further than you do: I don't like the concept of this forum as the official website of the game at all. I wish it was community-driven (unofficial). It is penetrating too much the wrong way right now. Besides, it's a mess here. I used to run my discord once, such a small community for fans of a different kind of simulation - I cleaned so hard and so often that in the end, I threw all the users out of there as well, etc. I'm not competent. I understand your point of view. This is getting out of hand. I experienced this myself and I am terribly saddened today by all this hobby in general. Companies, fans, myself, everything. Possible compromise: separate forum section - polls. Maybe even without the possibility of posting comments. Personally, I am for such a solution.
The problem is not the presence of polls. The problem is that most people who start polls do not know how to write them. They are often too simplistic, non-objective, use a leading question based on their own biases, offer too few or too many options and sometimes exclude sizable segments of the player base. In addition, many polls are completely unnecessary. In the one mentioned above, "which country would you like to see in TSW2", the 3rd most popular answer was " someone else" (??? ), basically " none of the above". And only a dozen choices were provided. So, why not simply ask the question and allow people to write one word answers? We need to find a way of excluding poorly written polls, rather than eliminating them completely.
Some polls are worded so that the results are skewed so the pollster get the results he or she wants. Those for me are the real problem ones. I don't think banning them would be the right direction as some can give useful feedback.
Well.... this is a really good, well thought out thread/proposal of yours (as usual). And it is worth asking the question, and seeing what opinions are expressed about it. I suspect it will have quite some life. ;-) Anyway.... you could equally say that nonsensical Forum posts should be removed. Or those that are considered nonsensical Forum posters should be removed. I know that is what some (thankfully very few) people believe/want. Maybe the Forum should be a place for fans of TSW and TS2012 to come and listen to DTG, but stay silent, and not ask any questions. "Join the Presentation" could be DTG's new slogan, instead of encouraging "Discussion". But, as it turns out, DTG want the feedback - and a poll is just one of the tools to do that, and it can be strikingly useful as a learning tool (for both DTG and the Community). Sometimes polls won't work out, or carry much meaning (maybe like some of my ones.... LOL....!). The Forum is, ultimately, a Marketing tool - and it is one that DTG invests a lot of real hard cash into, and if they thought that a penny of that was being wasted then they would shut down the Forum, or parts of it, in the blink of an eye. As it happens, most Forum members actually work for DTG's best interests - the discussion itself has its own (mostly positive) marketing value - and that is why they provide the facilities, and (unlike a lot of other software companies), tend to manage and moderate it all quite well. Personally - I think the answer to your issue is given in your comments/motivation quoted above. And that is to not let things wind you up... (easier said than done, sometimes...)..... and that is whether it is content that you do not like or do not agree with, or whether it is content that has been poorly conceptualised or expressed (not everyone has written comms, in English, as a strength.... but some such people might have incredibly useful insight to share anyway.... and others might not....). Another answer would be for one of the lovely Communitying guys at DTG to provide some advice on how to make a poll that has a good chance of being productive. As a company with an immensely strongly resourced set of marketing teams, they must have some expertise in this sort of thing - surely the topic is covered in basic marketing/communitying qualifications....? But if you are not a fan of "Polls" - then.... well... every thread that contains a "Poll" is clearly marked as a "Poll" - so they can be really easily avoided. For me, the thing that I find surprising is that the number of people that answer polls normally only represents about 5% to 10% of the people that view a poll - even a good one (although maybe the "view count" includes multiple views by individuals...?).
Very true. I agree. Why complain about polls, you don't have to participate in them. If you find a poll that intrigues you then by all means participate in it. But all polls in the forums are have the name "poll "in it to identify them. But I do agree - seeing the same polls appearing by the same people and some that do not make sense nor necessary can get frustrating. Maybe an option to report those who use it far too much or make polls that are not necessary. But this is my opinion. Give or take, it's something you might have to deal with, but you don't have to participate in polls. SImply ignore them like I do, and only participate in ones you feel the need to.
I have only seen one or two "bad polls", but it's these polls that can allow us to see what other people think without saying anything.
I don't think there's that much spam on here compared to other communities. IMO, you can usually tell the awful polls based on the title alone, and you can just scroll on by.
Maybe a little thing to add on this: Also make suggesting available when you are level X. You see a lot of stupid suggestions made by new members, which is also very annoying.
I agree , I see lots of suggestions like Dtg please add the west coast mainline to tsw There is no detail in that whatsoever
Yes, I find these more annoying than the polls. Suggestions should give a good impression of the route for those that aren't familiar with the route. Try to convince the reader that the route you're suggesting will be worth their money if DTG ever creates it. I'm not just saying that because I find the short and information-lacking posts annoying, but also because creating better posts will actually help the suggestion get more popular.
