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%)