How should we implement polls?

[radq (Vikhyat Korrapati)]

Now that poll options can contain arbitrary markup what should we do about links? Currently doing a regular click on a poll option link will vote for that option and then navigate away, or possibly not vote for the option depending on your internet speed.

I think disabling regular clicking on a link inside a poll option to navigate to the linked page while allowing opening links in a new tab via Ctrl+Click or middle-click or whatever would work. Thoughts?

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@watchmanmonitor You will need to create a new thread, see:

@codinghorror

I agree with @pyro240 (I think? I had trouble processing that last post entirely) that the correct course of action is

• edit a poll into the first post (if it comes to that)
• link to the first post in the latest post as needed

Polls in the middle of topics feels quite wrong to me.

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

Make the click on a link just go to the link, not cast a vote.

The link may need to be visited to know what you’re voting for.

Folks voting will learn to click on other text or the checkbox/radio button itself.

And folks creating polls may learn to add a little non-link text before any links to make the hit area a little bigger if it’s an issue.

[bobbbbby (Bob Marley)]

This sounds really reasonable. Thanks.

[ampburner]

I really like the markdown approach, it’s simple to use IF you know it

However, if you don’t know about the ‘start a topic with the word Poll’ convention, you’re on your own. I know I was, I had to come here to look it up

Can we get some kind of visual / UX guidance for new users?
Maybe an icon in the “new topic” text editor which, when clicked, prefixes your thread title, inserts an example poll, and shows a tip explaining the markdown convention?

[eviltrout (Robin Ward)]

@codinghorror I think this should be something we prioritize for version 1.0. Polls work decently enough, but they are super hidden to new users.

[tobiaseigen]

Over in another post, I wrote:

@tobiaseigen

That said, I wonder if a pop-up help menu behind a question mark might not be possible - on the top right side of the text box when writing a post.

Don’t know if this has been considered.

An additional idea might be to add a help page directly on the user menu and alongside the FAQ, privacy policy and terms of service. This page would also be editable by discourse admins but by default just focus on a few of the hidden features including polls.

[Air_Cooled_Nut (Toby Erkson)]

I’m in the camp that [poll]...[/poll] be used AND not require the word “Poll:” to prefix the title. Oh, and using “-” for a single-vote only and “+” for multiple-votes makes perfect sense to me and something I like.

[yackscantor (Keirdagh Cantor)]

Why not go creative and markdown styled, (sorry if this is a repeat idea) and just instead of going with UL/OL list types that are denoted by 1. 2. 3. etc. and go with…

1? Poll Option 1
2? Poll Option 2
3? Poll Option 3
4? Poll Option 4

Just an idea.

[meglio (Anton)]

@joshbrodienz

Which steps did you find difficult? 1. Create New Digital Ocean Droplet 2. Access Your Droplet 3. Install Git 4. …

Which steps did you find difficult?

• 1. Create New Digital Ocean Droplet.
• 2. Access Your Drpolet
• and so on

As you can see, your steps have numbers, but you just make this an UL and figurally your bullets will convert to checkboxes.

[meglio (Anton)]

So is there any decision on how to make polls in other languages?
For a single-language forum a configuration in admin panel would do for me.

[cregox (caue rego)]

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to update the topic to reflect how polls are done today? It’s quite messy finding out how to do a poll on the search, imho.

In case someone find this, it’s simple. Create a topic with “Poll:” as first words. Then use the bulleted list.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

Implemented in a plugin, so closing.