Many sites ask for feedback on their knowledge base material. Was this helpful, yes - no - maybe, so it seems that some sort of polling was found to be beneficial by those companies.
 
There's no such thing as too much information when it comes to your customer base. Most quality assurance standards mandate the collection of customer feedback in some form. Surveys and polls are two of the leading methods. Maybe Cakewalk is going for ISO certification to TS16949.

drewfx1

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? 

No, I'm saying that in a forum envirnment, the quality of information will fluctuate anyway whether they are simply responding to poll or giving written responses. I have seen plenty of responses to questions that were just as useless as poll data. You are making the black and white assumption that anyone who does not post a reply is lazy. That is not only false but insulting. Some people come to forum to read but lack confidence among more experienced people to chime in. Some people fear over the top responses from overzealous fanatics on some topics. Some simply are short on time and would gladly check a simple poll. There are infinite possibilities besides laziness. There are advantages and disadvantages to any method of gathering data in an uncontrolled environment. This forum, like most tends to be very top heavy with very vocal, highly opinionated factions. Lots of useful information but also a lot of highly biased gibberish based on emotion too.

drewfx1

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? 

 
I understand, and relate to, your skepticism regarding forum polls. Poll results that are taken out of context, or taken too extremely (like the somewhat recent KVR poll for best DAW), or are misrepresented by fanbois (i.e, again the KVR/DAW poll) tend to exacerbate the skepticism that forum polls can offer any useful data. So while I distrust forum poll data in general, I do think that there can be useful results - Craig Anderton's post (#147) is a good example. His poll example would give him a general "feel" for continuing in a specific direction, which would be helpful to him, without having to worry about whether the results were indicative of the forum population at large. At the very least, the results of Craig's poll would tell him that members who read his tips thread and took the time to respond to the poll would, for example, be interested in more tips about Matrix View. Likewise, the aforementioned KVR DAW poll results relate what I would call "casual data" - for example, that most of the KVR forum members who answered the poll use Reaper. Now that might be a big "so what" to many of us, but it tells the KVR admins (or anyone else who's interested) what DAW is reportedly used by most of the KVR forum poll respondents. I do think it is a mistake to imply that those (KVR poll) results apply to the general forum membership or even to the Pro Audio industry (as some have mistakenly implied) but the responses are useful at a certain level. In these cases, disregarding the poll results as "lousy data" may be short-sighted - yeah, the data may in fact be lousy, but that doesn't mean the data isn't useful.

dubdisciple

drewfx1

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? 

No, I'm saying that in a forum envirnment, the quality of information will fluctuate anyway whether they are simply responding to poll or giving written responses. I have seen plenty of responses to questions that were just as useless as poll data. You are making the black and white assumption that anyone who does not post a reply is lazy. That is not only false but insulting. Some people come to forum to read but lack confidence among more experienced people to chime in. Some people fear over the top responses from overzealous fanatics on some topics. Some simply are short on time and would gladly check a simple poll. There are infinite possibilities besides laziness. There are advantages and disadvantages to any method of gathering data in an uncontrolled environment. This forum, like most tends to be very top heavy with very vocal, highly opinionated factions. Lots of useful information but also a lot of highly biased gibberish based on emotion too.

 
The only choices given were:
 
A) Black
B) White
 
You have to choose one of those two. 
 
If you happen to have an idea other than one of those two, or wish to express an unpopular opinion, it's devalued by the polling process before you even start. 
 
That's the way it works.
 
Please think about it.

Drew..great strawman but it assumes at least two worse case scenarios.

1) All polls will come down to a black white choice all the time.

2) People will be forbidden from chiming in other than selecting a or b.

I highly doubt poll threads will be closed to people commenting, ranting, etc. So far every survey cakewalk has ever sent me solicited commemts in addition to whatvmy choices were.

I want to start a poll to see if this fred needs to discuss polls.
 
Or "Fish".

bapu
I want to start a poll to see if this fred needs to discuss polls.
 
Or "Fish".

The data would be useless so we should start at thread discussing if we need polls and then do a poll as to whether that thread was effective!

Anderton

Ruben
Whoa!... moderators who are non-Cakewalk employees ?!? - This is quite a "first" after over a decade of the "CW employees only" policy! That's a big move. (Insert eye-popping emoticon)

It's already happened. I'm not a Cakewalk employee, and I did not have mod status for quite a while after Gibson acquired Cakewalk. But I'm up at all hours and when the spam was out of control, I asked for mod powers to get rid of it. I was not asked to be a mod, and I'm not particularly sure anyone at Cakewalk wanted to have an outside person be a mod, but they needed help. So I guess I was the first crack in the wall

Yeeeaaahhhh... I don't think so.

Apples and oranges - you may not be a CW employee, but you are an executive (? I think) of Cakewalk's current owner - that puts you in a different class than those of us in the Great Unwashed. You asked for mod powers, including the ability to ban spammers, and CW certainly considered your position in evaluating your request. Until now, that request coming from any other non-employee forum member has been met with the response "No thanks".

However, you may have indeed "cracked the wall" so to speak and been partly responsible for CW new willingness to accept non-employee mods. So thanks for that.

Anderton

Which leads me to a suggestion - start looking for volunteer mods within your beta test group - at least there is a degree of commitment and loyalty (if that's what you want) there among your beta testers.

I would respectfully advise Cakewalk that technical knowledge and commitment to Cakewalk have little to do with being a good mod. Forum moderation requires a unique skill set, a thick skin, a lot of patience, a positive outlook, and understanding/tolerance. A good mod's first impulse should be to clarify a situation, neither defuse it nor squash it. Often clarification is all that's needed to stop problems.

What you say is true, but on the other hand, technical knowledge and commitment to CW does not preclude the ability to be a good mod. I wasn't suggesting that CW get all of their new mods from the beta group (although that may work out for them)... my suggestion was to start with the folks who have more than a casual relationship with CW - IOW, take a look at the beta group and see what you find. Move on if you need to. Rise and repeat. YMMV.
 

So what I think...

Extra mods are fine.

Avoid writing up too many rules and regulations. Most of the time it's common sense.

Avoid mods moderating mods scenario (i.e. the peoples judean front). Instead have a supermod (i.e. Craig), one person everybody can go to in case of problems (dictatorships generally work).

I like the idea of one forum dedicated to the latest Sonar product, however I think the other versions need to be split over two forums... So when X4 comes out we could have an x4 forum, an x1 to x3 forum, and then another forum for anything before that.

I don't care much for community points myself unless it can be converted into cash ;).

Ta...

You might think of reinstating Bub.
 
I think he'd be a great Moderator.  Things would be running like clockwork within short order.