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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
I would have to disagree. They provide, at a glance, the (stated) opinions of those polled, in this case a reasonably sized cross-section of Barrow-Downers.
You can make of such opinions what you will, but they can (depending upon the size and nature of the sample) be of use with regards to these kinds of questions where there is no definitive answer (or no feasible way of determining a definitive answer).
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And of course I would disagree with that, though at this point I cannot even remember the original poll, let alone the question being asked
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In this poll, like many others, we are given limited choices. Assume a poll that asks, "Do you prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream?" with the choices being *vanilla and *chocolate. Where does that leave me, a 'strawberry' fan? I could choose vanilla, as I prefer that over chocolate, but it's not really what I want to choose. Or do I not vote, as my choice is not available? And while I'm on the topic, I'm not even a big fan of ice cream, but prefer frozen yogurt. So if you can consider a preference for strawberry frozen yogurt to be a 'yes' vote for vanilla ice cream, then what is the poll truly measuring?
And actually, I'd pick coffee and a donut if I really had a choice of desserts, and so obviously I should have voted *chocolate.
And in regards to polls being a cross-section of the population, it should be obvious that only people who partake in polls...well...partake in polls, and so we leave a group completely out. Plus I would say that here at the Downs that only
special people participate in these threads, mostly people with high pain thresholds...