Posted on April 25, 2006 at 10:39 AM in experiments
Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.
I'm putting this in the "experiments" category because it's a first for the site. Part of my to-do list for Earthling included offering poll functionality so that I can ask you readers what you think of things from time to time.
I looked at three free, off-the-shelf polling options -- Blogflux, Dpolls, and the one you see below, Quimble. I liked Blogflux for its simplicity, but it didn't seem like you could see total number of results, only percentages. DPolls turned me off because it seemed to be offering too much. I'm not looking for social networking, just a poll. It made me choose from a list of categories, and my poll fell into none of them. One thing I like about Quimble is that it allows me to let you create your own options. So if the choices I've offered don't quite cover your opinion, add your own choice in there. You can vote simply by clicking a box, or you can add your own choice by clicking "Discuss the poll at Quimble."
Please vote on whether you'd like the current header image up top (the thing that looks like a surprised robot face) to stick around, or if you're ready for a change. If you have any thoughts about the polling software, or poll suggestions in general, add those in the comments. You can comment here on Earthling or over there. Also please let me know if the software acts funny at all for you -- this is my first time trying it out.
Note: Poll is closed! This is just a screenshot.
Comments
Thanks for great sevice everyday. I really appreciate all Earthlink has done for me, and I hope this business continues a very long time :)
Posted by Rachel | April 25, 2006 5:25 PM
I love taking polls. Do more. And by the way, unexpected changes in design is a great idea.
Posted by Josephine | April 25, 2006 7:51 PM
i would opt for a combo of choice number one and choice number three. keep the robot face and perhaps a bit of random would be nice in addition. perhaps a collection of surprised robot faces
Posted by Ed Dilworth | April 25, 2006 8:10 PM
Thanks for giving Quimble a try. Hopefully it will work out as you hoped!
Posted by Topper | April 25, 2006 9:51 PM
Hm. I clicked on the "No, I happen to like that guy" button and it registered 20 votes. But when I clicked into comments, it went back to 19. Then when I went back to the front page, it was still at 19.
Posted by Jeff Durland | April 26, 2006 11:51 AM
Jeff, maybe someone else was changing their vote while you were voting? It only lets you vote once per cookie, but it lets you change your vote as many times as you like.
Posted by Dave Coustan (earthling) | April 27, 2006 7:53 AM
The poll idea seems nice. Shows the number of votes up front.
If I could vote using Quimble, I'd select Other: Use scenic backgroud headers.
Also, if Earthlink were to incorporate a poll service, having to go to another website for any reason (to me) is a no no. Earthlink should incorporate it exclusively to its domain.
Also, speaking of headers, Earthlink should seriously sit down and redo it's entire site (headers/nav). There too much mismatch! Terrible!
Posted by litew8 | June 1, 2006 2:19 AM
Scenic photos are definitely easy on the eye. I like how 'things that look like robots but aren't' fits into the mission though.
I closed the poll just to be able to make a decision and move on, but I hope you consider voting in future polls (including today's!).
Posted by Dave Coustan (earthling) | June 5, 2006 3:57 PM