I started using them on Twitter back in the day to get a better idea of my audience. That changed when a friend of mine saw a poll of mine and said, I have to get back to my desk so I can vote in your poll.

There's something about polls that encourages engagement, and that's why I was lobbying for it a few years ago. Most of these sites have way more lurkers than posters/commenters, and polls are a good way to bridge that gap. For instance, most of my posts don't get more than 10 comments on average. A poll easily gets 30 votes at least.

Essentially, it's an easy way to get people to not just read, but participate.

personally i find they lower the barrier for people to contribute.

rather than needing to write a full paragraph, people can select an option and be on their way.

maybe SN should surface some more polling data in the “top” menus, because i don’t think the number of comments on a poll post tells the full story.

Dang, could have made this post a poll 😞 lol

Weekly sports polls get fairly good responses in terms of people participating in the poll but generally less zaps and comments than the regular daily post.

I try to make them as creative as possible with not just straight forward yes/no options. Overall I think they are good and I like to use them and participate in them but maybe not the best route to go if your aim is to stack zaps and encourage commenting. I do usually leave an Other (comment) option in my polls to encourage people to engage.

I got the same feeling. Posted a poll today, and nb cares at all. Was thinking about a variety of future polls with some questions in mind, but it's not looking really promising.

Would be also nice if you could connect them with bounties or links also.

I think polls don't give actual statistics even it's fun and interesting .

You didn’t want to make this a poll? Lol

Polls are fun. Hence, they are useful for their inherent utility.

As to whether they're accurate reflections of population averages: no comment ;)

I always tend to vote in the polls that catch my attention, so for my part I do think they are useful, but I don't know if other users use them the same as I do.

The only poll I ever made was a shitpost, so I've never thought about them for utility. In general, polls on social media (and I go back to LiveJournal, but have seen them on Twitter, FB, and other platforms) always seem like something meant more for a combo of fun/generating discussion than anything more. Choices in polls here have character limits, which also makes them tricky if you want to get complex.

That said, I like participating in polls in general (once I'm convinced you're not a fed), whether they're serious or not.

To make the surveys more attractive, you could add the option and why did you select this answer? And thus give your opinion on why you chose that one in the survey

It's a fact that a small number of people participate in most of the polls. This suggests that either the polls are unappealing or the poll content is not interesting enough.

All my poll posts got message like: Nice try, govs

I never got statistics I intended to collect

Polls are fun and interesting

I recently posted a poll about Ukraine.

Not many people voted but the results were interesting.

I was surprised by the number of stackers who have Russian derangement syndrome

Don’t get rid of polls!

I'm not sure polls are useful in terms of getting actual statistics, but I think if you're curious about something, the poll is a highly effective way to generate thoughts and opinions in the comments.

Here are a few polls I started:

I enjoy some posts with polls, depending on the question. I think it's a good way to gauge the sentiment of the Stackers. There have been improvements in one of the latest updates, where it is now possible to set an expiration date. However, I think there is one improvement missing, which is to notify the poll participants when it ends. The way it is now, the poll is forgotten and no one sees the final result.

You're right that polls aren't getting that much audience.

I think, we can make them more popular by adding proper context or story with the poll. This is our responsibility.