Anonymity in Best Novel MobileRead Polls

[HomeInMyShoes]

^That convinces me.

[sun surfer]

One more thing to consider -

Originally Posted by pdurrant

No. Those wanting a private poll might not vote if it's public. That's unlikely to be the case the other way around.

I'm not sure that the latter is necessarily true. With an anonymous poll, some people might not think it's worth bothering with anymore since the results would be less meaningful and/or easier to tamper with. Maybe not many, but I would also posit that those who wouldn't vote on a public poll are also not many. So, as far as losing votes with polling one way or another, it may be a wash.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There's a perfectly valid reason to want to know what people's favourite books are. I'm sure that all the regulars in the "Reading Recommendations" forum have come to know whose tastes in reading agree with their own. I know, for example, that if pdurrant enjoys a mystery story then it's very likely that I'm going to enjoy it to, because he and I share the same tastes in mystery books. Speaking personally, therefore, I'd like to know who recommends which book, so that I can judge which recommended books I'm likely to enjoy myself.

Given that the whole purpose of the reading recs forum is to share our reading recommendations with fellow MR members, it seems a little peculiar to wish for anonymity in making those recommendations.

Just my personal opinion, of course.

You are conflating the opinion poll with recommendations. If one wants to publicly endorse a book, one can easily do so. The poll results should be an indication of what the group thinks as a whole.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

One more thing to consider -



I'm not sure that the latter is necessarily true. With an anonymous poll, some people might not think it's worth bothering with anymore since the results would be less meaningful and/or easier to tamper with. Maybe not many, but I would also posit that those who wouldn't vote on a public poll are also not many. So, as far as losing votes with polling one way or another, it may be a wash.

Personally, I won't be voting in any more of the polls. Not because I care in the slightest about anonymity or not, but because what started out as something that might be an interesting and fun exercise has had any semblance of fun leached out of it by the arguments in this thread.

[GA Russell]

When it's all over, if I'm in the mood, I will announce to the world the books I voted for.

You never know. Someone might care!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Personally, I won't be voting in any more of the polls. Not because I care in the slightest about anonymity or not, but because what started out as something that might be an interesting and fun exercise has had any semblance of fun leached out of it by the arguments in this thread.

I'm sorry to hear that. I split this off precisely to try to avoid that - so that only those who cared enough about the subject would have to read about it.

[mandy314]

Good to have this separate thread to let off some steam.

pdurrant who got this thing on the road and does all the work (very much appreciated) has decided to do a non-anonymous poll (his poll - his decision), reacted with changing the configuration of the running polls (not by answering the question - his poll - his decision) after getting some flack for this with the ugly "WHY" question, is now waiting for someone else to supply the killer argument for making the following polls non-anonymous again (your poll - your decision)

okay ...

[pdurrant]

Clearly this discussion is not going to get any further.

Decision: All polls will be anonymous.

Thread closed.