Sorry, but I'm NOT "DUing this poll." Or that poll Or ANY OTHER poll.

Respondent-selected (versus poller-selected) poll universes are worth exactly, specifically, unequivocally zero.

Sorry to sound hostile to fellow DUers, but do you have any clue how useless it is to "DU a poll?"

Same applies for the freeps. Yeah, so a bunch of you got together and spent an inordinate amount of your worthless time "freeping a poll" so Fox news could announce breathlessly 65% Of American Men Say: Yes, They Would Rather See Ann Coulter Naked Than Be Shot In The Testes With A Spear gun!!!!

BFD. Who cares. We can, us and those assholes, both save ourselves a lot of wasted time by not caring about stupid, worthless polls.

Actually, WE should take the lead and refuse to engage in such a stupid activity unilaterally. Let the ignorant rightwingers keep doing it; it's not like their time is worth anything anyway.

Redstone

:thumbsup:

Redstone

like "It shocks me to find DU supporting" x y or z, would really pare this site down to something much more efficient.

Redstone

Got tired of getting their f'ing spyware on my computer.

Redstone

I've missed you, too. :hug:

Wait, it's summer now. Even in Wisconsin.

But still, you're well these day? I certainly hope so.

Redstone

It almost got up to 70 today. :)

I'm well, thanks... and you?

on their news broadcasts. Newspaper polls can gage what polls cause more hits, and probably cover more DU This Poll topics !?

So you have to ask yourself, why do they make polls ? :hi:

is the point I'm trying to make), unless the pollsters select the universe of respondents (and, of course, do it in a truly random way so they get a real representative cross-section of the populace), then the poll has no validity.

When the respondents select themselves based on a willingness to participate in the poll, then it's only the opinions of people who will go out of their way to make their opinion known, and thus the poll is not representative of what the "American public" really thinks.

Capisce?

Redstone

the point to DUing a poll is that polls do not "find out what people are thinking". What they do, unfortunately, in many cases, is "tell the sheeple what to think".

So how do we make sure that polls are REAL polls?

I don't have an answer. Don't think anybody does.

I'm not happy right now.

Redstone

;)

Redstone

I'd appreciate it if you could elucidate. Really.

Redstone

and propositioned someone else by asking "wanna DU my poll, baby?"

Redstone

Whether they mean anything or not. Or whether or not my vote is really being counted, I enjoy voting in polls. I enjoy giving my opinion.

Have to disagree with you on this one, big guy.

:hi:

poll is valid or not, and why they don't. And he or she was absolutely right in his or her assertions.

Which is even more depressing. I gotta give this some thought.

Redstone

:)

I'm not sure.

Redstone

But I think I am still going to take part in polls because I enjoy doing so.

If I enjoy it, then I will continue to do it because that is what makes me happy! :)

Redstone

because it makes me happy to see the numbers go "our" way. I recognize that it's meaningless but so, ultimately, is the pleasure of eating a hot fudge sundae. I do it anyway.

But not any more. It used to be that Free Republic regularly hit these online polls to skew the numbers and make it look like people agreed with them. So DUers started trying to counter that, to offset the bias. Now, no one pays a bit of attention to the polls, they are poorly written, and judging from the results, even Free Republic has given up on the practice. So now "DUing a poll" means skewing it our way, exactly as the Freepers used to do--which is what we originally were trying to stop.

Sorry for boring everyone. It's the ex-historian in me.

Pedantic, maybe :)

:rofl:

B-)

noncommital.:P

If the reply count is trivial, maybe, just maybe, the media outlets will stop this horseshit.

Biggest waste of time I can imagine.

I did it in fall 2002 when I registered, just to fit in, and say I did it. And I can see dome benefit in a presidential year, regarding debate polls.

But right now what the hell are we accomplishing, other than fruitless finger exercise?

We need your input.

People tend to be influenced by what they think other people think (i.e., the bandwagon effect). And, most people don't really understand that self-selected polls (especially those that allow multiple votes) are worthless. Therefore, someone without a strong opinion on an issue may very well be swayed by hearing that, say, 70% of people responding to a question thought such and such. (Someone with a strong opinion is more likely that not to discount the findings of a poll, even if it is scientific).

Of course, how much propaganda value these polls have is open to debate. They are usually talked about on cable news and how many people without strong opinions are watching cable news? The ethics of knowing trying to use invalid polls to persuade people can also be argued.

you could've DUd in the time it took to type this :D

With you.

LoL

Oh, and by the way, I get to decide if my time is "worthless" or not.

Cuz, I'm the DECIDER!

Hahahahahaha!

No serious statistician will look at an internet poll as realistic or statistically valuable. They're worthless- and staking the results is a waste of time.

back in the old days.

Good on ya, bud...and good to see ya, too.
:hi: :hug: