Loomio

Experiment with some new polling types!

JK James Kiesel Public Seen by 90

Hello product development community!

We've been hard at over the summer, developing up some brand new ways of making decisions with Loomio, which we're ready to release for beta testing. The current additions:

  • Polls Ask users to select one or multiple choices from a user-defined list of options
  • Counts Ask users to respond to a yes or no question

And coming up on the roadmap:
- Dot voting Users can distribute a set number of 'points' amongst a set of user-defined options
- Event planning Find a time that works for everyone (Doodle style)
- Brainstorm Allow users to submit ideas en masse without the need to judge them

I've enabled the new polling features in this group, which you'll see in a card marked 'Decision tools' on the right hand side. We're hoping the functionality will explain itself; if not, let us know!

Imgur

We're very excited about this new step in the Loomio product, and look forward to your feedback. Enjoy!

SP

Sam Parkin Thu 2 Mar 2017 2:09AM

Yes

I like new shinies

JG

john gieryn Thu 2 Mar 2017 2:36AM

Yes

clicking into the poll from my email worked great

F

fauno Tue 28 Feb 2017 6:24AM

great! but how do you enable them on custom installs? i've set the
group to enable experimental features already, but i don't see the card.

RG

Robert Guthrie Tue 28 Feb 2017 8:57PM

You can enable polls from the /admin section of loomio. There is an enable polls button.

GC

Greg Cassel Tue 28 Feb 2017 2:30PM

It's possible to directly access @bobhaugen 's poll without seeing this discussion topic which it's attached to. That was confusing for me as I scanned my new Loomio content quickly this morning.

I think that it'd be fine for polls to be associated with a single comments section for a discussion topic which they're attached to-- if you make the relationship as clear as it is for Loomio proposals. (I can see a discussion topic in a window to the left of each Loomio proposal which I consider.)

With that in mind, please accept this version of the comment which I originally made (in a confused state) in another thread:

It's possible I should give this input on Loomio Roadmap or github, but in case it feels like a discussion "subtopic" to anyone: I think that it's very important for polls to have comments sections.

For instance, @bobhaugen created a poll last night in the Product Development subgroup. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Bob, but I believe that poll is supposed to be intentionally silly in a way which criticizes the perils of poll design.

I don't seem to have any option to comment upon that poll without registering one of the predetermined positions. That's a problem for me, because it would be inaccurate (and misleading) for me to register any of those positions.

I care lots about the potential of good poll design, so I'd like to directly and efficiently give my feedback on that specific poll.

I hope that my comments here seem sufficient to indicate the importance of providing an option to comment on a poll without choosing one or more of its options. Does this make sense @gdpelican and others?

BTW, I love having previous poll results hidden by default, but available to people who haven't voted. :)

BH

Bob Haugen Tue 28 Feb 2017 2:40PM

Please correct me if I'm wrong, Bob, but I believe that poll is supposed to be intentionally silly in a way which criticizes the perils of poll design.

Yes, intentionally silly, but not meant to criticize the perils of poll design. As I wrote in that other thread, I was just trying to test the feature quickly, not design a good poll. I apologize for the silliness. Please design a better poll!

DS

Danyl Strype Sun 9 Apr 2017 6:45AM

Chronological comment threads are a hammer we're so used to online that there's a danger every UX problem starts to look like a nail. I think if the devs have got the range of new facilitation tools right, and the design of each of them right, then they each offer a solution to the many problems we've all had in Loomio group comment threads (eg the infamous Editing Comments' discussion). If this is the case, do you think there's a risk that tying polls tightly to a meta-discussion via a comment thread somewhat defeats the purpose of them?
EDIT: fixed link

RG

Robert Guthrie Sun 9 Apr 2017 12:29PM

I think the question is moot.
The new facilitation tools are not tightly tied to discussion threads. Or groups. They've been built so they can be integrated into any other platform you like really. Check /p/new and start a poll without any discussion thread at all. Much more granular.

GC

Greg Cassel Sun 9 Apr 2017 12:32PM

I definitely do not think that chronological non-threaded comments are the right solution to our online discussion problems. I personally design systems for structured conversation. Nonetheless, I think that having a comments option is generally much better than not having one.

I don't think that providing a meta discussion thread inevitably means that a poll is tied "tightly" to the meta-discussion. The strictness of association depends deeply on social context.

With that in mind, I reiterate part of my earlier comment here:

I don't seem to have any option to comment upon that poll without registering one of the predetermined positions. That's a problem for me, because it would be inaccurate (and misleading) for me to register any of those positions.

I care lots about the potential of good poll design, so I'd like to directly and efficiently give my feedback on that specific poll.

With that additionally in mind, I should point out that IMO, poll creators would ideally have the freedom to enable or disable commentary, just as they'd be able to enable or disable others' ability to add poll options/ categories. However, in a world with such technical freedom and power, people could & should be held socially accountable for any questionable decisions, such as disabling commentary on polls.

FYI this all ties directly with the two key questions I ask of technological design options:

  1. Does this technology create ability for people to communicate or organize?

  2. If this technology restricts ability to communicate or organize, should that be a technical standard or a community standard?

GC

Greg Cassel Sun 9 Apr 2017 12:35PM

@robertguthrie commented while I was typing, such that my last comment is mostly irrelevant now. The granularity/ modularity he refers to is IMO far superior to tying user choices to a monolithic platform.

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