"Other"-wise...

STEVIL · September 2017

For you opinion poll makers, please, put in an option for "other" in your poll unless there are literally no answers that could be made that might be worth posting outside of your own list.

Given the world wide span of players it is likely to be that some "others" have different perspectives and may see differently but if no options "other" than yours are listed they may be somewhat excluded.

Thank you!

Morgul667 · September 2017

Ok

KochDerDamonen · September 2017

other

WhiteCoatSyndrome · September 2017

No.

Sorry OP, but if I'm making an opinion poll and the would-be voter doesn't have an opinion...then they shouldn't vote. There are situations where having an 'other' option may be useful, but they aren't universal. And anyway there isn't anything stopping someone with no strong feelings toward the offered poll options from posting their stance regardless.

Runs · September 2017

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

No.

Sorry OP, but if I'm making an opinion poll and the would-be voter doesn't have an opinion...then they shouldn't vote. There are situations where having an 'other' option may be useful, but they aren't universal. And anyway there isn't anything stopping someone with no strong feelings toward the offered poll options from posting their stance regardless.

Not having an opinion and not having one that is listed are two different things, which is why other is needed. It's also why there should be an option for not caring and/or not being affected by any outcome of the poll.

STEVIL · September 2017

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

No.

Sorry OP, but if I'm making an opinion poll and the would-be voter doesn't have an opinion...then they shouldn't vote. There are situations where having an 'other' option may be useful, but they aren't universal. And anyway there isn't anything stopping someone with no strong feelings toward the offered poll options from posting their stance regardless.

Well not sure what the first sentence has to do with you needing to say you are sorry. I did not address posters without opinions at all.

And I never said it was universal. I mentioned that almost literally when I discussed the "unless". I mean, if your poll is very small in scope such as "favorite integer between r and 6" other may not help.

And yes, while folks can enter commentary if there is no poll option that fits, they don't get counted in the tally.

Is this a major world threat? No.

But leaving out "other" just skews the results to make it look like nobody else ever had better ideas. It may be hard to imagine but others may have different perspectives and even better answers than the limited number of ones you first thought of.

STEVIL · September 2017

Runs wrote: »

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

No.

Sorry OP, but if I'm making an opinion poll and the would-be voter doesn't have an opinion...then they shouldn't vote. There are situations where having an 'other' option may be useful, but they aren't universal. And anyway there isn't anything stopping someone with no strong feelings toward the offered poll options from posting their stance regardless.

Not having an opinion and not having one that is listed are two different things, which is why other is needed. It's also why there should be an option for not caring and/or not being affected by any outcome of the poll.

Yup

NewBlacksmurf · September 2017

It's not accurate to put other. It's more accurate to poll within context to the topic.

Other is what makes threads long so it's often used here to keep discussions going that are dead.

Just poll, yes, no, or this, that and the third

STEVIL · September 2017

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

It's not accurate to put other. It's more accurate to poll within context to the topic.

Other is what makes threads long so it's often used here to keep discussions going that are dead.

Just poll, yes, no, or this, that and the third

Accurate in what context? I can poll on your favorite daedra and list Quen and Razzum Dar..
And since other would be added at the initial poll, not sure how putting in other for your new poll affects dead polls/threads.

This, that and the third may be good enough as long as you assume there can't be other answers better than those you yourself thought of already.

I know that as a rule, statisticians or nosologists don't like other when dealing with quantitative elements and classifications but these are opinions polls often about more complex things than which team you play on.