Freeping Polls

[TrogL]

Poll question: Freeping Polls

My definition: Freeping a poll means telling all your friends about a poll who normally wouldn't have encountered it and then making it your life's work to modify its result by whatever means necessary, including voting multiple times.

There have been a whole raft of "DU this poll" posts lately. There's one down below, and another one in Civil Rights. The Freepers, of course, are masters at it.

http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?date=2004/01/22/4

The conservative American Family Association (AFA) said it will not take the results of its marriage poll to Capitol Hill after a majority of respondents favored same-sex marriage, according to a Thursday report in Wired News.

...

AFA representative Buddy Smith complained to Wired News: "It just so happens that homosexual activist groups around the country got a hold of the poll -- it was forwarded to them -- and they decided to have a little fun, and turn their organizations around the country (on to) the poll to try to cause it to represent something other than what we wanted it to. And so far, they succeeded with that."

Matt Foreman, the Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce was dumbfounded. "The abject hypocrisy of these people never ceases to amaze me," he exclaimed.

"They constantly manipulate facts, and when things don't work out as they want, they run to mama and whine."

Does he have a point, or is it the pot calling the kettle black?

[frogfromthenorth2]

1. It makes them look damn stupid.... and internet polls are just a dumb idea

[dsc]

2. I have always refused to vote in those 'polls'

on the grounds that they are actually voodoo polls. I may need to rethink that position. This gives food for thought.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. I just like making them look stupid

It's not a life-or-death issue, and no policy is going to be based on an internet poll.

Might as well have some fun with them.

[Mistress Quickly]

4. Polls are wrong more than right

Questions are phrased to get a certain answer, people Freep/DU them so it doesn't matter, they aren't a true opinion/cross section, people are polled as to certain demos anyway, so the answers come up as wanted.

I would take most polls, even ones that are in agreement with me, with a grain of salt.

Kinda like internet voting results, huh?

[LeahMira]

18. The surprise is on the fundies.

Questions are phrased to get a certain answer

You bet they are! Sometimes, though, I wonder if even some of their own constituents don't disagree with the "values coalitions" more often than not. Don't we all know plenty of people who might feel a bit ambivalent about the idea of gay marriages, but at the same time they certainly aren't opposed to gay couples who live together and certainly aren't interested in denying them employment and health care, etc.?

These "values" groups are trying to pull people over to the right wing with their polls when, fact is, the people are probably a lot closer to the more liberal view. The polls are trying to convince them that a liberal view on homosexuality is not a popular one. Once in a while, seems that trick backfires.

[LoZoccolo]

5. They put the poll there...

...so why do they have a problem when people actually vote in it?

No one's stopping the opposing side from passing it around and getting people to actually vote in it too.

I really don't see a whole lot of talk here about hacking the thing to vote multiple times, and the quotes from the article above don't really accuse anyone of tampering, just getting out the vote.

Plus, now, the Traditional Values Coalition saw fit to put me on their list to recieve unsolicited email, so they are actually causing more awareness of what these activist groups are doing. They act like it was some nefarious act that a link to the poll was forwarded to groups that disagree with them, but they have a habit of emailing people regardless of whether or not they disagree with them.

[TexasPatriot]

6. online polls are absolutely absurd

when someone starts putting a certificate server into the mix... forced registration... an email verification... a 'what does this graphic say'... etc etc into the mix - THEN polls will be worth a damn. Until then, playing with them is good because it messes with the idiot webmaster's sense of self importance.

Eventually - they'll get a clue.

[On the Road]

7. Encouraging Single Votes is OK

There are no controls on the selection of respondents. Everyone knows this.

Voting multiple times is cheating. Groups like FR that openly promote this are encouraging cheating.

To me, "DU this poll" does NOT mean vote multiple times -- it's a way of encouraging everyone to visit the poll and vote once.

If there are any DUers who cast multiple votes, they don't talk about it here and it's not encouraged by the community.

If you want a better view of the community, you might want to run another poll and distinguish the single/multiple vote issue more clearly. I voted "other" because I didn't understand the intent.

[TrogL]

11. We've got somebody bragging on our board

about having voted multiple times

[On the Road]

22. We Should Tell Them to Stop

I'll be glad to IM them if you tell me who. This shouldn't be supported on this board. It looks (and IS) bad for all of us.

[FreeperSlayer]

8. How 3rd grade!

"Everyone else does it, too!"

[karabekian]

9. !

internet polls are worthless and meaningless. It is childish for freepers and DU to doctor them.

[EV1Ltimm]

10. If we somehow degrade the way the public regards polls...

we'll be doing them a favor.

Polls are silly and easily manipulated.

And besides, who the fuck goes to the AFA except for conservative pricks who are against gay marriage? Don't you think their numbers would be slightly skewed since the cross section of the public they're polling is going to be predominantly conservative? They would have paraded those numbers around the news networks proclaiming that the majority of americans are against gay marriage -- even though it would be a majority of their visitors.

We did america a favor by not letting AFA show that horseshit.

[davidinalameda]

12. I go there

because I want to know what they're saying

it's important that we know what they're up to

[EV1Ltimm]

noted...

and since i don't feel like cussing right now, i guess the more appropriate phrasing would have been "And besides, who the *heck* goes to the AFA except for conservative *people* who are against gay marriage and concerned, super-intelligent and good-looking du mods?" :)

But nonetheless, I'm sure the vast majority of people who paruse such a site are supporters of whatever cause they're championing these days...

[camero]

13. They practically admit that they distort discourse.

To achieve a desired result. If that isn't the definition of propaganda I don't know what is.

[Bandit]

14. If anybody will "Freep" a poll they will "Freep" an election.

Freeping a poll is an open admission of fraud. Maybe not punishable fraud but fraud none the less. If they are willing to cheat on a meaningless poll they will cheat on an election and they do.

[0007]

15. The freepers talk openly about freeping polls all the time -

Some of the freeper computer techs talk a good game.

[gold_bug]

16. I think this poll has been FReeped

there's too many votes for item 2. That's fishy.

[PATRICK]

17. They are used, don't ignore

And someday if our numbers deserve to grow, then we could simply overwhelm the online polls honestly.

And they would stop.

[ButterflyBlood]

19. I think it's stupid, but it was justified in this case

to put an end to the AFA's intentions.

aside from that, telling people to vote in a poll is fine in my view, telling them to delete cookies and vote multiple times like the freepers do is pathetic.

[fob]

20. Hell no he doesn't have a point, especially not THIS one,

homosexual activist groups around the country got a hold of the poll

If he is willing to turn his argument over to such a ridiculous statement, then he has NO leg to stand on.

to try to cause it to represent something other than what we wanted it to

If they knew what they wanted the poll to say, why not just put up a story with your pre-determined poll results? We wouldn't want to set up a realistic poll and have our rose-colored glasses smashed to bits when your hypothesis doesn't hold up, would you?

FEH!

Insant Karma's gonna get 'em

[ieoeja]

21. Remember when 1-900 numbers were all the rage?

Just prior to the '92 election a 1-900 poll "proved" that Perot would swamp Bush with Clinton coming in a barely registerable third. What this actually proved was that people stupid enough to pay money for a meaningless poll overwhelmingly supported Perot.

[Cannikin]

23. kick