Make polls independent of journal entry

[yvi]

Title:
Make polls independent of journal entry

Area:
Polls

Summary:
Polls should be independent of the journal entry they were first posted in.

Description:
This suggestion is related to both http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/106679.html (Poll answer redirection in the same style) and http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/238527.html (Community polls should not be affected by personal journal bannings), in the way that having this done would probably solve both of these problems. I hope why will become obvious in a minute :)

Right now, polls are a kind of weird hybrid between an independent object and something tied to the poll poster and the entry they were first posted in. Given only the poll ID, *anyone* can repost a poll in any entry. The answers to the poll, whereever they came from, are added on top of each other. However, answering a poll will always redirect you to the entry the poll was first posted in, as also linked in the "Discuss Results" tab on the poll page. And who can vote in a poll is determined by the journal that entry is posted at (including bannings) and by the settings of the entry.

This leads to situations such as the one I encountered today: I wanted to add a poll to an entry. However, polls can only be created by posting a new entry, not by editing an old one. So I posted a new entry with the poll and copied the poll ID and edited the poll into the old entry. I made the new entry private. This, however, led to people not being able to vote because they couldn't access the post. So I made the post public again and backdated it, but now everyone voting for the poll in the old entry gets redirected to the new entry, which is also not really what I wanted.

I propose making polls independent of entries. What I am envisioning is a changed poll creation page on which the poll is actually created, so does not depend on having an entry posted at the same time. You should be able to specify a few options, like who will be able to answer this poll (this would need a very good interface with sensible options for posting to communities etc.) and whether you want other people to be able to repost this poll.

Then, when answering the poll, people should be redirected to the entry they answered the poll in. In the style they viewed the entry in, which is where the first linked suggestion comes in - right now the poll only 'remembers' its original entry, which is also why it never redirects in the style you used to view the entry - the information is just never passed on.

As I said, this would need a good, clear interface. But I also think it would make polls on Dreamwidth better.

Poll #2847 Make polls independent of journal entry

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
40 (83.3%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (2.1%)

(I have no opinion)
7 (14.6%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[eruthros]

I have often wanted something like this!

[ratcreature]

What would happen if you don't arrive to the poll from an entry, e.g. someone links to the poll directly? Where would the discuss link go then? The first entry?

And would there be a way to see somehow where the poll originated? Like someone makes a versatile poll, like, "do mondays suck, y/n?" and allows embedding from anyone, and it spreads, would there be a way to be linked to the owner of the poll, and the entry it first appeared in?

And if they are disassociated from entries, would you be able to embed them anywhere, e.g. a poll you want to always display, you could put in a sidebar module in your journal?

[yvi]

What would happen if you don't arrive to the poll from an entry, e.g. someone links to the poll directly? Where would the discuss link go then? The first entry?

Yep.

And would there be a way to see somehow where the poll originated? Like someone makes a versatile poll, like, "do mondays suck, y/n?" and allows embedding from anyone, and it spreads, would there be a way to be linked to the owner of the poll, and the entry it first appeared in?

Could be, sure! I haven't thought about the details yet.

And if they are disassociated from entries, would you be able to embed them anywhere, e.g. a poll you want to always display, you could put in a sidebar module in your journal?

That's an interesting idea!

[afuna]

Hmm, how should we balance out the ability to post polls into a paid community, from a basic journal?

[yvi]

Hmmm, interesting point. But I think with this it might actually be easier - you could only use [poll] tags in an entry in a paid journal. While right now, you can use them in any journal as long as the poll already exists. Which is... um, not something I am advertising here...

[afuna]

Hehehe, WFM.