Ruben

craigb

Ruben
 
If new mods can't ban then how will they eliminate spammers?

We can do it now.  Three flags as a spammer and they're gone.  Any abuse of the process is handled by a Cakewalk mod.  

 
IINM, this method only removes one offending post at a time - it doesn't stop a spammer from making more posts. Banning does (to a degree).

 
Not true!  On the third flag the poster is banned until the flagged post can be reviewed by a moderator.  Yes, you'd have to flag each spam post three times for it to disappear (and bump another topic over it so it doesn't show in the main index), but the first priority is to get three flags on any spam post to ban the offender (which is usually a bot).

bitflipper
The #1 feature that's missing here is polling.

 
+1 on polls. 
 

Personally I'm not a big fan of polls as their value in terms of providing any kind of meaningful data is often vastly overestimated.

Anderton

bitflipper
The #1 feature that's missing here is polling.

 
+1 on polls. 
 

I want to know what the other options are before I cast my vote.

drewfx1
Personally I'm not a big fan of polls as their value in terms of providing any kind of meaningful data is often vastly overestimated.

I share your skepticism, Steve. Sometimes all you get is the prevailing whim of the moment, as shaped by marketing, fleeting fads and non-representative forum chatter. Polls can be manipulated, poorly conceived or pre-selective. "Which iPhone beat-generator do you like best?" is pretty useless unless it includes one or more "Fish" options.
 
The key to successful polling is to aggregate a large enough sample set to be statistically significant. If 5 people say "the only feature I care about is the Matrix View", that tells you only that 5 people use the Matrix View, nothing more. You cannot extrapolate that to the other 5,000 registered members and who knows how many unregistered casual browsers. Same if the majority chooses "Fish".
 
Plus it's the only way to engage forum readers who would otherwise not participate by posting. Not everybody's as quick to jump in with an opinion as you and I are. Consequently, a thread that consists of a dialog between just the prolific posters may not be representative of the larger community.
 

bitflipper
The key to successful polling is to aggregate a large enough sample set to be statistically significant. If 5 people say "the only feature I care about is the Matrix View", that tells you only that 5 people use the Matrix View, nothing more. You cannot extrapolate that to the other 5,000 registered members and who knows how many unregistered casual browsers. Same if the majority chooses "Fish".

 
But if you don't do the statistics and whatnot then it's pure pseudoscience - the number is meaningless, but the fact that it's a number seems to add weight to the findings. And if the number is going to be meaningless anyway, why bother trying to quantify it?
 
On top of that, it's often pseudoscience in support of a fallacy when used for anything other than discussions of personal preference. 
 
Do you really want to risk having to argue with the "all knowing" majority in polls on, say, bit depth, sample rate or something like that here?

bitflipper

drewfx1
Personally I'm not a big fan of polls as their value in terms of providing any kind of meaningful data is often vastly overestimated.

Plus it's the only way to engage forum readers who would otherwise not participate by posting. Not everybody's as quick to jump in with an opinion as you and I are. Consequently, a thread that consists of a dialog between just the prolific posters may not be representative of the larger community.
 

I've used polls a lot in the past, but not for statistical purposes due to the reasons Bitflipper mentions. However, it can help set priorities. For example in the tip of the day thread, I would like to have put up a poll where you could choose either:
 
1. Please do more tips about Matrix View.
2. I don't use it, nuke the Matrix View tips.
3. At least do some, I'd like to know more about Matrix View.
 
Now, this would not give me statistics on how many people use or don't Matrix view, but if a lot of people cared enough to post they did or did not want tips, I'd find that helpful.

Anderton
I've used polls a lot in the past, but not for statistical purposes due to the reasons Bitflipper mentions. However, it can help set priorities. For example in the tip of the day thread, I would like to have put up a poll where you could choose either:
 
1. Please do more tips about Matrix View.
2. I don't use it, nuke the Matrix View tips.
3. At least do some, I'd like to know more about Matrix View.
 
Now, this would not give me statistics on how many people use or don't Matrix view, but if a lot of people cared enough to post they did or did not want tips, I'd find that helpful.

But the question is:
 
Is there any need for you to quantify this, and do you get any less info if you just ask the same question without putting in the format of a poll?

drewfx1

Anderton
I've used polls a lot in the past, but not for statistical purposes due to the reasons Bitflipper mentions. However, it can help set priorities. For example in the tip of the day thread, I would like to have put up a poll where you could choose either:
 
1. Please do more tips about Matrix View.
2. I don't use it, nuke the Matrix View tips.
3. At least do some, I'd like to know more about Matrix View.
 
Now, this would not give me statistics on how many people use or don't Matrix view, but if a lot of people cared enough to post they did or did not want tips, I'd find that helpful.

But the question is:
 
Is there any need for you to quantify this, and do you get any less info if you just ask the same question without putting in the format of a poll?

Some people are more likely to respond to a simple poll than post an opinion. So polls do have value in being a quick way to some up a simple opinion. They have their weaknesses but it is probably among those quickest ways to get general overview even if that overview is skewed

dubdisciple
Some people are more likely to respond to a simple poll than post an opinion. So polls do have value in being a quick way to some up a simple opinion. They have their weaknesses but it is probably among those quickest ways to get general overview even if that overview is skewed

Ah, I see.
 
So you're saying that they're an easy way to get lousy data on what people too lazy to even post might think?