Posted on 10/27/2004 8:35:49 AM PDT by Timeout
With the election less than a week away, the interest in the latest polls is intense. The number of polls is increasing every day.
Given that, can we please agree on some guidelines for posting POLL threads? If I may, I have some suggestions:
1) ALWAYS do a search on the poll name b/4 posting.
2) ALWAYS put the "release date" in the title.
3) ALWAYS put the poll NAME in the title (e.g. "Rasmussen").
4) ALWAYS indicate if it's a STATE poll...in the title.
5) Use KEYWORDS. I.e.: "poll", [individual states], poll subject, etc.
Hopefully, this would reduce the number of duplicate threads and ESPECIALLY keep some from posting yesterday's polls today (or 3 days later!).
OK, fire away!
ALWAYS include a link.
DON'T just post a thread "X IS Up!". Be informative. Provide the data, using the original article/press release title. If the title does not have the actual poll numbers, consider adding in parentheses the polls numbers such as "(B52% K46%)" after the correct title.
I'll be too busy celebrating on election night to FReep. I suspect it will be the same for others as well.
The only ones left here will be DUmmy trolls.
One more thing:
There are Freepers who have followed the internal data on these polls very closely. [You know who you are!]. They know when the polls are released each day and they watch for them to come out.
I like it when they are the ones who post the thread because they'll usually give a short explanation of what's changed and how it compares to previous days' polls by the same firm or compared to other firms.
My post. 9:30 pm CDT. 11/2/04:
"LOL! Look at that! Rather is crying! He's trying to hide the tears, but his voice is cracking.........I almost feel sorry for the guy. I just turned on CNN and Judy Woodruff can't even speak. She just walked off the set! My, my, my, CNN is somber tonight..........."
We may disagree on that.
I know the admin moderator wants us to use original headlines as much as possible.
Suppose a headline says, "Bush surges in Florida". I would have a problem with using that as the title. It doesn't tell us much. Nor would it work if I did a search on: "Zogby".
I would rather see a title that says:
"Reuters Zogby - 10/27/04 - FLORIDA: B 65%, K28%"
(note that I didn't use the "/" in Reuters/Zogby...for search purposes)
Using Keywords: Poll, Zogby, and Florida.
What say you?
When you dont use the titles it makes it impossible to check for previous postings. 'Barf Alerts' and other minor additional comments dont seem the throw of searches to much.
Why not use: "Bush surges in Florida [Reuters Zogby - 10/27 - FL: B65%, K28%]" -- this keeps the original title and adds the poll data to the headline for searching.
I guess it would work if they include enough info in the title. For example:
"Bush Surges in Florida"--Zogby 10/27, B-65%,K-28%"
I'm really just trying to get people to think about "search-ability" when they title a thread. My main complaint is when they don't put the "release date" in the title, leading to days of confusion as others post the same poll.
LOL!
Consensus!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.