Introduction to Polling on ned.com

Polls are useful tools you can use to help make decisions within a group on ned.com. You can find polls in the navigation bar under the title of every group on omidyar.net, between "workspace" and "files."

When you go to the polls page you will see a list of active polls. From this page you can also make a new poll and view completed polls.

What Kinds of Polls are there?

There are two kinds of polls on ned.com:

• Simple polls that offer only two choices.
• Custom polls that offer advanced options, including who can vote, multiple choices, how many feedback bank points it costs to vote, who can see the results, whether the votes are anonymous, etc.

Who Can Start a Poll?

Any member of a group can start a poll, provided that member has at least one feedback bank point to do so. However, if the owner of the Group has specified that non-members can create and edit content, anyone can create a poll (provided they have the feedback bank point).

Who Can Vote in a Poll?

How do I See Who has Voted in a Poll?

If the creator of a poll chooses to protect voter identity, then there is no way to see who has voted in a poll.

• Voting is "anonymous" by default for all simple polls.
• If the creator of a custom poll choses not to protect voter identity, all voters' names will be displayed alongside their votes after the poll closes.

How do I Start a Poll?

To start a poll on ned.com, follow these steps:

• Click the "polls" tab, located between "workspace" and "files" in the navigation bar.
• To make a new poll, click the "new poll" tab in the brown nav bar.
• Select "Simple Poll" or "Custom Poll."
• Follow the directions on the screen for creating your poll.

Can I Cancel a Poll?

Yes, if you started the poll, you can cancel it at any time after it has been created. In addition, any owner of the group in which the poll resides can cancel the poll. Simply click "cancel poll" in the brown nav bar above the poll.

Simple Poll Settings

Simple polls are a quick and easy way to put something to a vote. They are limited to two voting options only. You can enter a title, description, duration (one to seven days)and the two options voters are two chose from.

It costs a user one feedback point to vote in a simple poll.

The default, non-changeable settings for simple polls are:

• Voter can revise vote: no
• Voter identity protected: yes
• Who can vote: anyone
• Who can see results: anyone
• Who can view results before poll ends: no one

Custom Poll Settings

Custom polls offer many options but take more time to set-up. The options you have for creating custom polls are:

Duration of poll

options:	One to seven days in 24 hour increments.
description:	This allows you to control how long you want the poll to last. The poll will automatically expire based on the duration you set, but you can cancel a poll earlier, if you choose.

Number of voting options

options:	One to 99.
description:	This setting allows you to create up to 99 options for voters to chose from. The options should be unique (for example, you wouldn't have two identical choices of "coffee" in your poll about favorite beverages, would you? What have you got against tea drinkers?)

Number of choices a voter must select

options:	Determined by number of voting options.
description:	This setting allows you to set a minimum and maximum number of choices a voter may select in a given poll. For example, in a poll with 20 choices, you can either set the number of choices a voter may select at one or five.

Who can vote in the poll

options:

Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description:

This setting allows you to limit what types of users can vote in the poll you create. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group in which the poll resides can vote. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides can vote. If you select Anyone then any member of ned.com can vote in the poll, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Who can see the final results

options:

Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description:

This setting allows you to limit what types of users can see the final results of the poll you create. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group will see the results. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides will see the results. If you select Anyone then any member of ned.com can see the results, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Who can see results before the poll closes

options:

Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description:

This setting allows you to limit what types of users can see the results of the poll you create before the vote has ended. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group will have this ability. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides will have this ability. If you select Anyone then any eligible member of ned.com will have this ability, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Whether a vote is required to see results before poll closes

options:	Yes, No
description:	This setting allows you to require users to vote before seeing the results of a poll before it ends. If you select yes then a user will not be able to see the poll results until after voting. If you select no then results of the poll are available to users before they vote.

Whether voters can revise their votes prior to poll closing

options:	Yes, No
description:	This setting allows you to permit users to change their votes prior to the end of the poll. If you select yes then a user can change their choice/s as many times as desired prior to the end of the poll. If you select no then a user is not permitted to change their choice/s after voting.

Anonymous or non-anonymous voting

options:	Yes, No
description:	This setting allows you to permit users to vote anonymously. If you select yes then the member's username will appear next to their vote when the poll results are available. If you select no then users voting in your poll do so anonymously and their username is not displayed.

Setting a minimum feedback score to allow voting in the poll

options:	Determined by poll creator.
description:	This setting allows you to limit participation in a poll you create to users with a minimum feedback score that you define. For example, you could limit participation in the poll to all users with feedback scores of 50 or above.

The bank point "cost" of voting in the poll

options:	Determined by poll creator.
description:	This setting allows you to set a "cost" in feedback bank points for voting in a poll you create. When a user votes in your poll, the number of points you set will be deducted from their feedback bank.