Will Polls Be Brought Back?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by BlaringHorn, Apr 27, 2022.

  1. BlaringHorn

    BlaringHorn Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2021
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    479
    https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/temporarily-disabling-polls.51761/
    Curious, it's been almost three months now, and the polls still haven't returned. Although I find it strange logic to disable the feature completely just because someone was "abusing" them, to begin with.

    Maybe they should make a poll asking if polls should be brought back. :D
     
    • Like Like x 3
  2. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2019
    Messages:
    3,177
    Likes Received:
    9,162
    Honestly I don’t really see the need, they were just spammed, and they were mostly useless.

    Not really much point in a forum where most of the conversations are just polls, asking if people would like to see a train or route.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2022
    • Like Like x 1
  3. Tank621

    Tank621 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2020
    Messages:
    800
    Likes Received:
    1,453
    I mean, 95% of them boiled down to 'would you like additional content and/or features? Yes/No'

    No one is ever going to say they don't want more stuff, so for the most part they were completely pointless.
     
  4. highland beastie

    highland beastie Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2021
    Messages:
    261
    Likes Received:
    548
    Yeah, I don't think there's really a need for polls, most polls don't really seam to he that helpfull, as most polls are normally suggesting features/dlc, and they almost always have 80-90% of people saying yes I want that, because why wouldn't people want new features/routes?

    Also I imagine DTG gets most of their information about their player base in the surveys Sam sends out every so often.
     
  5. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2019
    Messages:
    6,478
    Likes Received:
    17,341
    I must say the forum is a much more pleasant place without the polls. The only thing we are missing is the very odd occasion when someone posted an interesting well thought out poll with a genuinely useful result at the end of it. Unfortunately that was rare and quite a few people were posting almost daily polls that were of no consequence just for the sake of posting something and adding polls to suggestions or other threads that didn’t need a poll at all. We are most definitely better off without them.
     
    • Like Like x 5
  6. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 8, 2016
    Messages:
    4,530
    Likes Received:
    10,149
    Agree 100%.

    To say that "someone was abusing them " is an understatement. Several people were initiating pointless polls almost daily. A big part of the problem was that most of them had no idea how to write a truly objective poll question. They asked loaded questions designed to elicit responses that merely served their personal agendas.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2022
    • Like Like x 4
    • Helpful Helpful x 1
  7. Tigert1966

    Tigert1966 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2020
    Messages:
    1,599
    Likes Received:
    2,651
    I also don’t want polls back. To me they seemed either pointless or used as a tool for trolling. I’m quite happy that they remain switched off.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  8. Michael Newbury

    Michael Newbury Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2016
    Messages:
    4,026
    Likes Received:
    3,260
    I agree since the polls were turned off things here have been some much better. I can live without as well.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  9. BlaringHorn

    BlaringHorn Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2021
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    479
    I guess the "people have spoken". :D Though I'll still miss the option, it would be useful for some threads I think.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  10. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2020
    Messages:
    11,736
    Likes Received:
    17,949
    Without poles, what will the strippers dance on?

    Oh, right. Never mind....
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. Calidore266

    Calidore266 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2021
    Messages:
    1,198
    Likes Received:
    1,721
    You know, that's probably a good term for finagling polls toward supporting the pollsters' desired viewpoint rather than actually learning the respondents' opinion--poll dancing.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  12. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2019
    Messages:
    4,369
    Likes Received:
    7,214
    Would I want to see polls return? (Options below)

    1. No


    ______________________________________________________________________
    Personally I was bored shipless by :

    Should this be added?
    Do you think xxx should be improved?
    Do you think xxx was messed up?
    Is this a pointless poll?
    Should Sam rule the world?
    Is Matt actually a train computer?

    I’m not sure my forum etiquette can support 5 polls a day about my opinion on game sounds
     
    • Like Like x 2
  13. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2019
    Messages:
    2,662
    Likes Received:
    3,955
    I have to confess I used polls more than I should, but as soon as I realised they were not welcome I stopped, and to be honest I don't miss them.

    The main rationale for using polls for me was to make it easier to express your opinion, for example even a "pointless" poll could have 50 votes but only 10 people that comment on your post, not a justification just my thought process for using them perhaps more than I should have.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2022
  14. WonterRail

    WonterRail Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2018
    Messages:
    764
    Likes Received:
    3,495
    I've wanted to make a comment here because I have some stuff to say on all this matter regarding polls being removed from this forum, I don't know how this will go down so... here goes nothing (or something I hope)...

    ...I would consider myself hypicritical If I just came here and stated 'I hated the poll feature, I'm so glad it's gone, blah, blah, blah', because I know very well that I have used the poll feature quite a few times in the past. But despite that, I would like to think that I was using the poll feature in order to ask in my eyes, a interesting question that I want to ask you all. Probably the most prominent example being the thread I did in the weeks leading up to the release of the first 'Rush Hour' route, where I talked about a bunch of routes that I feel like could make a great 'Rush Hour' route, then put all the routes I talked about in a poll at the top of the page where you could vote for which of those routes you would most like to see in TSW2. It still remains one of my favourite things I've put up on this forum (outside of obviously making pdf timetables and putting them up for download on this forum) as I found it faschinating into not only find out which of those routes people would most like to see in TSW2 (which later determined the order in which I would go on to do more indepth suggestions on those routes), but also offered a faschinating insight into what peoples preferences are when it comes to TSW2 routes. Even when doing an independent suggestion on those routes later on, I did do a poll in one of them (The East Coast Main Line one to be precise) but that was a case of chosing what the loco options should be for that route (which again I found the results rather faschinating).

    The only case that would say that I did a poll to the standard of what was generally done here was the one time before TSW2 when I did ask about where should I post timetables on TSW going forward, but the way I did that poll was simply a case of 'What should I do regarding posting timetables on this forum? Keeping posting them on the same thread or start a new one?' and while I the majority did go the way of posting them on the same thread, It was atleast helpful in terms of figuring out what do regarding posting timetables in the lead up to TSW2's launch.

    So yeah, I am disappointed that the poll feature is gone because, even if I did use it frequently, I was atleast trying to ask geniuely interesting question, whether that would be finding out what routes people most want to see in TSW2, or just generally finding out peoples preferences into what content should come with said route (or at the very least, I would like to think that way).

    However.... I completely understand why DTG had to disabled it.

    Because you know what, when people used the poll featured on this forum, it wasn't for the sake of asking an interesting question, it was for the most part, for the sake of either the following:

    A: A pointless Yes/No question that, 9 times out of 10, people would generally vote one way or the other.

    B: An incredibly biased poll that is more about asking how much do people agree with this persons opinion here.

    Maybe there are more examples that I'm sure have already brought up here (and I'm not saying every poll was like this, as sometimes there would be the occasion poll that was actually trying to ask an interesting, unbiased question) but those are the main examples and couple that with people doing this several this on an daily basis, you can see that this got really annoying after a while (I'll even admit that myself). You know this got so bad that at one point that I remember one user having to make a thread simply about how to do a proper non-biased poll. Oh, and for good measure, you also had these situations here people would take the same poll and spam it everywhere across all avenues of discussion on the forum (a situation like that was what utlimately got the poll feature disabled in the end).

    So yeah, I do understand why the poll feature was taken down, and the be honest, I can't see it ever coming back, because you know what would happen if it was ever brought back, underless it was heavily moderated, people would just start posting the same yes or no/bias that we saw constantly before the feature was taken down, I know DTG said it was just a temporary disabling and that would be coming back the following month, but I feel like they only said that because it was a nice way to put it so not that many people would get upset over it, as it's now been 4 months since the poll feature was disabled and it still hasn't come back.

    So that brings us to where we are today, and I want to end this by asking this question, and this is admittedly more aimed at the DTG community team than the general members here, because I want to ask the following...

    ...if I was a post a thread, that contained a link to a poll that was on another poll site (like say Survey Monkey, Strawpoll, etc) that was actually trying to ask an interesting, unbiased question (Not just another yes or no/bias poll), would people be generally okay with that? ...and more importantly for the community team, would that allow on this forum?

    I not planning anything in particular that would involve something like this, I'm just pondering the idea about whether this would be possible or allowed, and seeing if anyone wouldn't actually mind the idea to begin with, that's all.

    Or maybe we just leave polls off this forum for good, something that's probably for the best.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2022
  15. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2019
    Messages:
    4,369
    Likes Received:
    7,214
    I became fed up of the non bias polls loosely based upon

    Should DTG have done this?
    Are DTG ending the world because of this?
    What day of the week is it today?
    Did DTG make enough effort on sounds with…

    I don’t really miss them, objectively thinking I wonder how many polls shaped a DTG decision, that would be the decider on their value
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2022
  16. DTG Protagonist

    DTG Protagonist Has left the building Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2020
    Messages:
    1,331
    Likes Received:
    7,877
    The problem was that for every poll that had any value, 10 were worthless (eg. 4 options, yes, sort of yes, yes but more vigorously, you're an idiot for picking no) or simply stating the obvious. The low value polls simply acted as bait for a ton of argumentative comments where, rather than arguing the topic users would just argue with each other. If you've learned anything by now you'll know that's the fast way to get a post removed - never attack another user.

    File polls as a case study in "why we can't have nice things." Same as downvoting.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  17. Tank621

    Tank621 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2020
    Messages:
    800
    Likes Received:
    1,453
    It's the polls that asked 'Would you like this shiny new piece of content? Yes / No' that always made me laugh, I mean who on earth is going to say no to more stuff?
     
  18. Commiee

    Commiee Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2021
    Messages:
    523
    Likes Received:
    559
    We have worthless threads with or without polls, I personally didn't see the latter creating a special degree of uselessness or arguments. At least the actually important and interesting ones had already been started before this change, so those can still be used.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  19. dhekelian

    dhekelian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2020
    Messages:
    2,054
    Likes Received:
    2,671
    Seems strange that when someone criticises the game or a particular DLC they get jumped on by people saying, 'you don't have to buy it you know' or similar so why when there is a poll feature 'it must be banned' Polls are not compulsory, if you do not like them do not take part in them, use the ignore feature so that you do see them, it isn't that hard.

    Some of the polls were a bit a fun, what is the harm? I didn't take part in all the polls, the ones that didn't interest me I ignored, nerves of steel eh? lol. I even did the odd poll because I thought it would be interesting to get a snapshot of what people think without having to read a lot of posts. Does it really mean that much to you when others enjoy them? Seems a bit petty to me but each to their own.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2022
    • Like Like x 2
  20. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2019
    Messages:
    4,369
    Likes Received:
    7,214
    Incidentally I think the poll function I saw earlier is functioning still in the ts one
     

Share This Page