Anonymize Suggestions polls?

[denise]

Title:
Anonymize Suggestions polls?

Area:
Suggestions

Summary:
The suggestions generator and dw-suggestions polls were coded before the anonymous option was enabled for polls. Should we anonymize the responses to the polls in the suggestions community?

Description:
Advantage to anonymizing: allows people to register their opinion without fear of repercussion/negative consequences/social disapproval.

Disadvantage to anonymizing: prevents contextual decision-making and weighting of opinions as registered in the polls.

To expand on that a little: I'm the one who makes the decision on what happens to suggestions (moves to Bugzilla for implementation, declines the suggestion, or defers it for future re-evaluation) and while I am fairly "name-blind" (ask anyone, I don't remember names or usernames at all; there are people who've been coming to our stitch & bitch parties for ages whose names I still can't remember without being reminded!), there are instances where I will give a group of votes more or less weight. For instance, if the only "don't implement" votes are from a group of accounts with little activity (few/no posts, few/no comments, all created recently), I may consider those accounts more likely to be sockpuppets created to "stack the vote" (even though vote counts are not the only factor used in deciding a suggestion's fate).

Anonymizing suggestions polls would keep me from being able to do that. On the other hand, it could also make people more likely to feel comfortable in giving an honest opinion.

I am comfortable going either way with this, so I figured I would toss it at y'all and see what you thought. Should we anonymize suggestions poll votes? If you think we should, vote, 'should be implemented'; if you think we shouldn't, vote 'shouldn't be implemented'.

Poll #9975 Anonymize Suggestions polls?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 86

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
19 (22.1%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
2 (2.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
34 (39.5%)

(I have no opinion)
29 (33.7%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (2.3%)

Comments

[kyrielle]

If there was a way to restrict it so that you could see who voted which way, but the community at large couldn't, that might be a nice middle-ground.

[denise]

Yes, it is possible to restrict things to just the community admin! That would be a possible middle ground.

[thedivinegoat]

+ 1

[pauamma]

Hmm, I think that would also let the suggestion author see nominative votes.

[matgb]

I believe it would, it does on standard polls.

[jumpuphigh]

+1

[cesy]

+1

[pseudomonas]

Perhaps allowing people to comment anonymously instead might be an idea, if that doesn't generate drama, flamewars, and spam.

[denise]

I had comments restricted to logged-in users only for antispam purposes, yes! I would be amenable to allowing anon comments with captcha, now that we've switched away from reCAPTCHA (which is fairly inaccessable and is why we didn't have captchas turned on for official comms) -- in fact I shall go do so right now.

EDIT: i have done so; anon commenting is now possible, if the commenter also fills out a captcha.

[melannen]

Ah! That was going to be my "with changes" - having anonymity for the poll, but two of the options asking for non-anon comments, seemed a little bit off.

And I like the idea of anon to users but not to the admin as a middle ground.

[pauamma]

The main problem I have with this is that it would let people lie about the way they voted.

[shameless2shoes]

Why would that be a problem? Or I guess, who specifically are they lying to? The people who visit dw_suggestions, their friends who would be directly impacted by the change, or...?

For the first, I can't imagine a reason to do so. For the second, that seems to be more or less what denise is seeking to enable. Not lying, but the necessity of answering to someone else for their vote.

[pauamma]

I can't think of reasons why people would do the first either, but then I can't imagine voting against a suggestion that would make an existing feature more consistent and easier to use without cut-and-paste contortions, just because you didn't know about and don't like the existing feature it would enhance, but that has happened.

[shameless2shoes]

If I thought having a person's user name attached would prevent stupidity or pettiness, I would agree with you. But I tend to think of this community as low stakes as it is and, while I would prefer a lack of anonymity, I don't see the harm.

[azurelunatic]

I like being able to see who's voted, especially on the polls for the suggestions that I make, but I would understand if that was changed for the good of the community. (I don't really know whether I think it would be a good move for the community, but I would accept a decision that it was without getting cranky.)

However, I would probably not want notifications of poll votes in that case, and it doesn't seem that it's currently able to be separated like that.

As it is, I make enough suggestions that suggestions poll votes are a nuisance in my inbox, which I put up with because of my curiosity. I could probably set up a rule to keep them out of my inbox, but if I don't get to know who voted how, I don't care to know when the vote has changed.

I don't mind having my position seen by others; I'm not sure whether a change in this direction would lead me to more comment-based +1-ing or not. I suppose I view the poll as a convenient place to put the +1/-1 to help keep the comments orderly, rather than something intended to be an anonymous vote.

[ninetydegrees]

I can't articulate why I'd like to keep seeing non-anonymized polls but what you're saying makes sense to me so +1 ;)

[shameless2shoes]

I'd like to add that seeing how a person votes gives a certain flavor to any debate in the comments, and gives you a very definitive answer on where the person you're arguing with stands.

Still, I agree, if it would free up people to vote, I'd sacrifice that little convenience.

[matgb]

Pretty mucha gree with that.

Plus, there are times when I'm unsure on a suggestion, etc and the opinions of those I know it would affect one way or t'other are more important in many respects, so I do find it useful to know who's broadly in favour of an idea and who would think it causes problems.

I know there are some uncomfortable with having their opinions displayed publicly on issues, I'm the complete opposite to that and it's hard for me to get into the heads of those with that worldview. To me, the current polling system is a useful boon that aids discussion and allows me to give a public opinion without having to actually click in and comment, that's good for me.

[exor674]

No opinion on this, but a note -- If we do go for anon, and this may be too much work to fix it, but add another another poll level, anonymous except to community admins? Anonymous voting, and the ability to filter out badness.

[silverflight8]

I can't really articulate why I want names attached, either, for some reason, but I do think that enabling anon comments is a reasonable compromise.

[montuos]

+1