On Sat, Mar 01, 2003 at 04:40:14PM -0000, lcs Mixmaster Remailer wrote: > The "polls" done by these news sites are not designed to gain an > accurate, statistically valid measure of opinion, rather they > are designed as "user participation" devices to get involvement > by the user with the web site. Like Rush Limbaugh or Donahue,
Yep, that's about right. One addition is that during the advertising peak, it was also a cheap and easy way to boost revenue. One major news about which I have personal knowledge once decided the best poll questions were Mac vs. PC and gun rights vs. gun control. (Maybe nowadays Microsoft vs. Linux would be up there too.) -Declan
