Polls

The Polls allows you to ask your visitors for their opinions.

To access the Polls, you will want to login to your Control Panel using your administration username and password. Click on the icon that is circled in this image (Polls). Once you have clicked the icon, you will see a menu similar to the one below...

Home This link brings you back to the Control Panel home.   New Poll This link allows you to start a new Poll. You will find: Poll Details Topic:  Do you agree with school uniforms in public schools? The Topic is the question the poll is asking. After typing in your question click the create poll button. Poll: Do you agree with school uniforms in public schools? [Edit] Choice   I Guess So Absolutely New choice: After choosing your topic you will be taken to a page like this. Here you can [Edit] the Poll topic, add a New choice, edit choices, as well as delete choices. To edit the Poll topic click [Edit] after the Poll.   Polls This link brings you to the Polls Control Panel which lists all of the polls. Here you are able to edit a Poll as well as each possible choice for the poll. Chose which Poll you wish to Edit and click on   To Delete a Poll choose When you choose to edit a poll you then are able to edit the poll topic or the different choices for answers. This page looks the same as when you first set up the Poll. Poll: Do you agree with school uniforms in public schools? [Edit] Choice   I Guess So Absolutely New choice: To edit the Poll topic click [Edit] after the Poll. Edits a poll answer. Deletes a Poll answer.

Understanding how the votes are tracked:

Your system comes with two options for allowing voters to place their votes. You can either have the system record their IP address or you can require them to login. There are pro's and con's to each option and no way with either option to completely stop unscrupulous users from abusing the system and manipulating votes.

The option which records their IP address is good as it allows users to vote with literally one mouse click. This makes it much easier for them to participate and people are more willing to place their vote if not required to go through a lengthy process just to vote. Once that IP has been voted with, it is logged to the database and no one else with that IP can vote. The down side to this system is this may block users who are all on the same network (computers within an office building are often sharing a network, as are several computers from the same home). This instance cannot be helped, as it keeps unethical people from voting more than once.

The other drawback would be people using proxy connections, such as AOL, are assigned a different IP address each time they connect to the Internet. In these instances, it could allow for multiple voting.

We understand this system is less than ideal however since we are dealing with an online poll there are few options available to police it to try to keep people honest.

The other option is more accurate for counting votes, yet requires the user to register and login before they can cast their vote. This, too, leaves a margin for cheating however, as users with multiple email address could register multiple times.

In short, the choice is yours and these are the only two options available to allow voting and yet keep the votes as reliable as possible without permitting abuse. If you suspect one of your users is cheating, well, then shame on them. You should decide before beginning a contest how you will handle people who abuse the polls and advise them of the possibility of being disqualified if cheating is suspected.

The point is, you are going to have people cheat from time to time. That cannot be avoided. If you do not wish to deal with this ugly aspect and the few complaints of other users who feel cheated, then I suggest you do not use our polls plugins. There is nothing further we can do to keep people honest and it is an unfortunate fact of life that some people simply have no morals.

These contests are meant for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken to reflect an accurate representation of voting.