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A Poll About Polls

Is the option "other" necessary on every poll?

  • Yes (explain)

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • No (explain)

    Votes: 5 35.7%

  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • THIS is a bad poll (explain)

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • Total voters
    14

Cilogy

Pathetic Douchebag
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Is the option "other" necessary on every poll?


The responses I get to polls I make here got me thinking about certain things concerning poll questions themselves. Maybe I really was doing something wrong after all, or maybe people really are dumb. I don't know.


Mods, please don't remove this thread. I want everyone to know that this is a serious poll and I'm not intending for it to be a mockery or spam or something to that extent. When answering this question, it does not even have to be about a poll on Debate Politics Forums - Powered by vBulletin, it can be about any poll, anywhere, anytime.


I really want to see what people think because the results might even help others when they make polls on this board. It would be interesting to find how the results apply outside of this thread, whether it be a poll concerning politics, social policy, religion, culture, etc.


Answer honestly and put some thought into it.






.
 
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it depends on the poll. most the time if you give Yes and No options, you don't need an Other. if you ask a question like "which is worse, A or B" you should give an Other for people who think they're equally good or bad.
 
me too. because some things are black and white.
 
emdash said:
it depends on the poll. most the time if you give Yes and No options, you don't need an Other. if you ask a question like "which is worse, A or B" you should give an Other for people who think they're equally good or bad.
Click to expand...

Perhaps... but half the entertainment of participating in 'poll' threads is watching all the bickering about how the poll is so poorly constructed. If every poll had an 'other' option, what would be the fun?

:2wave:
 
Few things can be answered with a simple yes or no.
In most cases, "other" or none of the above is necessary.
The idea is to have people think, without controlling them.
 
I voted YES because the failure to list OTHER means the pollster has thought out all possible options when too often they haven't.

Polls often reflect the intellect of the pollster. Failing to include an OTHER option when appropriate is a big tip off to someone who hasn't given the poll much thought.
 

I don't know, I think if there's a straightforward yes/no question with Yes and No options, you don't need a maybe/other. people who are undecided or uninformed about it shouldn't be voting, right? but then, I'm an elitist.
 
emdash said:
I don't know, I think if there's a straightforward yes/no question with Yes and No options, you don't need a maybe/other. people who are undecided or uninformed about it shouldn't be voting, right? but then, I'm an elitist.
Click to expand...

Most of the time you are right but every once in a while someone screws up a poll by thinking an issue is yes/no, black and white, but they haven't thought it through.
 

This is not true.

The only reason I would do this is because I actually HAVE thought about all possible options and then I find that listing "other" is completely useless and makes the poll too generic.

When I make a poll without "other" it is because I think that no one who is smart and truly understands the poll would actually answer "other." If a person votes "other" on this type of poll, then they are either undecided or they have not thought it through enough to make a decision, when in fact the reason they give for voting "other" ACTUALLY falls in to the category of "yes" or "no"; these people should not be voting if they are undecided.

An example of this kind of poll would be:

"Does your right hand have five fingers?"

There are ONLY two possible options and answers: yes or no. In this case you CANNOT have "other" because it does not make sense. If you have only three fingers or even six fingers on your right hand then you would still vote "no." The only reason you would vote "yes" is if you do in fact have five fingers on your right hand.

Unfortunately, bhkad, you answer this question as if every poll is open-ended, when in fact that is untrue. Actually, you're the one looking at polls as black and white.


A message to everyone

If you really think about it, it does not make sense to answer "other" on this poll. How would that apply?

I asked people to explain why they voted "other" and I have yet to see an explanation.
 
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Yes, 'other' does apply.
 
Cilogy said:
You have not explained how.
Click to expand...



Self-explanatory. And no... the answer 'no' is not correct. The correct answer is 'not applicable.'

 
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I voted 'yes': Things that appear black and white are not always so.
 
Grateful Heart said:


Self-explanatory. And no... the answer 'no' is not correct. The correct answer is 'not applicable.'

Click to expand...



Which proves, once again that there are times when the pollster hasn't completely thought the matter through. To get the truth and see all there is to see, it helps to list "Other" as an option.

Not everyone can do polls successfully.
 
bhkad said:


Which proves, once again that there are times when the pollster hasn't completely thought the matter through. To get the truth and see all there is to see, it helps to list "Other" as an option.

Not everyone can do polls successfully.
Click to expand...

Ok, now that you are BOTH wrong, maybe I can address this to a larger audience.

First of all, it is not self-explanatory, and you have yet to explain yourself.

Second, bhkad, there are some questions that are black and white. I am not saying that "other" shouldn't be on any poll, I am saying that some don't need it.


Suppose I ask you if something like:

Is this object yellow?

You cannot select other because it makes no sense. If you do it means you are undecided and using "other" as an excuse for answering the question without putting enough effort into making decision. The fact that something is yellow or not is a FACT, there is no other.

I have given you two examples, the yellow example and the fingers example.
Please explain a reason why someone would select "other" on those questions.
 
Cilogy said:
First of all, it is not self-explanatory, and you have yet to explain yourself.
Click to expand...

Okay, let's go through this step by step.

The question you posed is 'Does your right hand have five fingers?'

You claimed there are 'only two' possible responses to this question.

You claimed there are no other responses that make sense.

What you failed to consider is that not everyone has a right hand.

The man in the picture cannot reasonably answer your question 'yes' or 'no'.

You might argue that since he has no right hand, he must answer 'no', since he does not have five fingers on his non-existent right hand. However, your question presumes he does have a real right hand, not an imaginary right hand. If you suggest that he has an 'imaginary' right hand, then you could 'imagine' any number of fingers on that hand. In that case, the answer could be six, or three or twelve fingers.

The bottom line is that I have provided a very reasonable scenario in which your yes or no question might have some other answer.

 

If the man answers 'no' he saying "my right hand does not have 5 fingers".

You're exactly right.
 

Aah, very good point, I overlooked that. I guess that proves why sometimes you cannot do what I suggested. I made a mistake. You got me.

However, you still claim that every poll must have "other."

Ok so now that I realize I made a mistake, let's say the question were different. What if the question were:

Do you have a right hand?

Also, what about my object being yellow question?
 
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a man without a right hand shouldn't be voting on that poll.
 

You should always have an "other" option because someone may have something innovative to say that you didn't think of.
 
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