Poll question/issue
 

I noticed that with polls, they don't bump up when someone just votes but doesn't post. Not sure if they should, or even if this should be fixed. It just seems odd; a poll could really interest people and be getting lots of votes and still be dropping like a rock on the board. Is "bumping polls" ok because of this?

Here's my opinion on this. How interesting is a poll if it is not generating any discussion? If a poll drops like a rock, it must not be interesting enough for people to discuss the issue. I don't feel that it's ok to bump polls.

Well, actually, some polls aren't intended to generate discussion, per se. But there's 2 ways to measure interest: additional posts, and people continuing to vote. For example, the Demographic poll I posted was dropping, but every time I checked it had more votes than the last time, quite a few more votes. It has over 50 votes, but not many replies, because it wasn't set up as a "reply" kind of poll. However, I think it is interesting to get results in it.

I don't think it's ok to bump polls that aren't even getting votes, but how many polls on Other get over 50 votes? Not a lot.

Polls used to get bumped by just voting. They never left the front page that way and several at a time just drove other treads into obscurity.

The non-bump method was implemented as it was more acceptable. It does seem to have worked well. A poll with some discussion stays around, a poll that nobody is interested in enough to say anything disappears.

But what about the odd poll that's getting votes but not discussion? As noted, mine wasn't the type to generate discussion, just votes. Bushdog's complaints about it aside, I think it could provide useful info about Other (and in fact, I think it already has), without generating discussion in its own right.

I did bump it once, but I don't want to get in trouble for doing so.

That's a tough one. I personally don't mind an occasional bump. But if the thread/poll is truly not interesting to anyone I can see how it would get annoying for everyone to have to see it all the time.

I don't think we're going to be changing the vote-causes-a-bump behavior, maybe we should try a 2 or 3 bumps and then the thread lives or dies on its own (like every other thread that's not sticky) type of guideline.

That's cool; I just want to avoid trouble while trying to gather interesting info...