Poll User's Guide

From the CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.

A french version of this page exists here / Cette page existe en version française !

Contents 1 Creating a poll: step-by-step 1.1 Poll title, description and general configuration 1.2 Creating the question(s) 1.3 Creating the answer(s) 1.4 Starting the poll 2 After the end of a poll: what to do with the result(s)?

Creating a poll: step-by-step

Polls (or surveys) are now available in CouchSurfing Groups. Group members may participate in polls, but only a group moderator can create them unless (s)he chooses to enable poll creation for all group members in the group's configuration. There are four main steps to poll creation:

Poll title, description and general configuration

1. Login to CouchSurfing and navigate to a Group which you belong to.
2. Click on the Create a Poll link found under the list of message posts and polls located on the left side of the page.
3. A new window should open for managing your polls. Click on the New button and fill out the New poll form.
   • The poll Name cannot exceed 70 characters. It will serve as the title of the poll.
   • The (optional) Description will appear underneath the title. It can include HTML. Use the Description help button to get HTML help in the help area on the right side. You may use the enter key to separate lines. Otherwise, text will wrap around on the poll.
   • The Active field is initially set to no. The poll will not be visible to other group members and cannot be used until Active is set to yes. You can edit the poll only as long as there are no responses to it! So it's always a good idea to wait until you are satisfied with all the questions, answers and configurations before activating the poll.
   • The End date is initially set for 7 days from today. Once the end date passes, no further responses can be made to the poll. The end date determines where the poll will appear in the Messages/Posts/Polls area of the group page. This list is sorted by date, so open polls with future closing dates will always appear at the top of the list, pushing message posts down the list. Please be considerate of other group members: set your end date for the relatively near future and avoid creating frivolous polls.
   • Set the Show individual responses option to No if you do not want the poll responses to be publicly identified with the corresponding group members, as in the case of a secret ballot.
   • Click Save poll to save the poll and return to the previous page.

Creating the question(s)

1. The name of the poll just created should have a radio button next to it on the Manage polls page. If not, click on the name of the poll.
2. Click on the Questions button to create questions and answers for the selected poll.
3. A new page should appear with the heading Manage questions. Click on the New button to create the first question.
4. Another form appears with the heading New question.
   • Enter the question. You may use HTML. Help is available using the Question help button. The enter key may be used to separate lines.
   • The Order field is used to determine the sequence of questions. When changing the order, the number refers to the question after which you want the current question to appear. So, 0 is used to place a question at the top of the list.
   • Answer type is used to select between radio buttons and checkboxes. Use the former when the poll respondent is allowed to select only one of the answers to the question; The latter is used when multiple answers to the same question are allowed. A third option is available to choose from predefined radio button answers that appear in the righthand column.
   • Click Save question to save the question and return to the previous page.
5. Another question can be added by clicking on the New button. Repeat the step before.

Creating the answer(s)

1. Answers can be created for existing questions by clicking on a question and then clicking on the Answers button.
2. A form appears with the heading New answer.
   • Enter the answer. You may use HTML. Help is available in using the Answer help button. The enter key may be used to separate lines.
   • The Order field is used to determine the sequence of answers. When changing the order, the number refers to the question after which you want the current question to appear. So, 0 is used to place a question at the top of the list.
   • Set Default to Yes to make this answer a default answer, which means that it will be preselected on the poll.
   • Click Save answer to save the answer and return to the previous page.
3. Add more answers or click Return to questions to add or edit questions. When adding questions or answers it can be very convenient to use the Copy button to copy existing questions (along with all associated answers) or answers and then edit the copy.
4. When all questions and answers are complete, click Return to polls to return to the top-level page Manage polls.
5. Click the View button to see how the poll will appear to other members. You may edit the poll or any of its questions and answers using the appropriate Edit button.

Starting the poll

1. When you are satisfied and the poll is complete, you can open it for use by activating it as described in the first step above. As soon as you do that, a link to it will appear on the group page. Once it appears, members may respond to the poll. As soon as any member responds to the poll, it cannot be edited. If you decide the poll needs to be edited after someone has responded, and you are willing to lose all responses made so far, you can make a copy of the poll and delete the original.

After the end of a poll: what to do with the result(s)?

1. There is no experience with polls yet, but a lot of good points about usage and interpretation is mention here:
   New feature up for beta-testing: polls (to be transfered to this page).
2. Keep in mind: Polls are nothing more, and nothing less, than a mechanism for structured information collection and presentation. They are a tool, and ideally a tool is meant to enhance and liberate, not stiffle and limit. (MATRIXPOINT)
3. We will have the polls in order to facilitate those cases where we want to collect opinions. Especially in larger groups it's easier to work with polls than trying to count votes from posts. Growing experience may probably allow for deeper implementation of the polls (PROMITHEUS)