Testing a New Feature

Posted on October 15, 2008    Posted by      58 Comments

WordPress has just integrated the ability to make polls into its backend, so I thought I might test it out now:

So? Like it? Hate it? Want a pony instead?

(Note: No ponies are to be dispensed)

Update: Hmmmm. Not working. Hold on.

Update: Apparently, it works for some people and not for others (including me). I have no idea why, but until the embedding actually works for me, no more polls using this function. Oh, well.

For those of you who, like me, can’t see the actual poll, it’s also here.

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58 Comments on “Testing a New Feature”

  3. Wow. I’m good. I swung 100% of the poll!

    If you give me a pony, I’ll vote for your candidate in the election…

  7. Oh. I see. I was the only one it worked for…voter disenfranchisement and all that. For a moment there, I felt really important :(

    I had to un-no-script both WordPress and Polldaddy, if it’s any help.

  19. Just to muddy the waters…

    Keep getting messages saying “Done with errors on page” with the little caution sign icon every time I go to your page. But there are no visible errors.

    I suspect if you tried adding new toys for us to play with the scripts are trying to run the toys and not finding them.

    Using WindowsXP.

  20. I would like the poll better if there was a choice that was a calm reasoned response, rather than fear on one side or nutcasery on the other.

  25. We’re working on it. The backslashes on the single quotes should be gone and the poll “should” be visible to everyone now. I’m using this post as a test case and everything is looking good now. I’ll watch the comments for any further reports of trouble.

  26. Since I have nothing I’ll get to keep [I’m heading towards homelessness with a cancer diagnosis and recent major traumatic injury], I don’t really care. They say poverty is liberating…

    (please don’t take the wool from my eyes, it’s the only warmth I have)

  27. To answer Marius’ question, in case he really wanted to know, it’s a php issue.

    In some ways of producing text in php, in order to use single and double quotes–which have meaning in php–you have to make a special note that “no, this is really a single quote!” and the powers that be determined that should be with a /

    Does that help, or did you really not want to know?

  30. What does it really mean that the DOW has dropped so much? it means that IT’S ALL ON SALE!!!
    Unless you’re planning on retiring in the next 5-10 years, buy as much as you can while it’s still cheap. This is a prime moment in history for struggling middle class folk (boy, I’d like to be one some day) to get in while the gettings good.
    IF I had a decent amount of liquid assets handy, I’d be taking advantage of the panic and build me up a portfolio.
    Oh well. Hopefully people wont calm down and realize the world isn’t ending before my tax refund shows up.

  32. So to get back to your original question… Not overly averse to the idea, although internet polling is only slightly more accurate than Roman augury; don’t like the implementation (at least as it’s working on my particular XP machine with Firefox 3.0.3). In particular, the questions are running off the bottom of the background, the results are running off the bottom of the background even worse, the results should be sorted in some way (not just in the order of the original choices), the “view results” option should stand out more, if you vote from the top page you should continue to see the results when you go to the individual post page, and the weird green striped bars inlaid in broader constant-length green bars with the choices separating the result bars and the numbers/percentages for each choice inline with the text is among the worst presentation of data possible. (But then, I keep a copy of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information in a place of honor, so I’m kind of touchy about that kind of thing.)

    Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln loved the play.

  33. I’d vote but the poll is missing “Madonna and Guy Ritchie were married??”

    Not to avoid thinking on the question, really.

  35. Hm, I liked the poll. And since I’m already set up with jerky, I don’t even need the pony. :D

  37. Mainly I loaded up on shotgun shells and jerky because I live in SF. We’re ready for the big one. Hahahahahah!

    Also, I’m kinda sorry you didn’t have something about putting more money in. I’ve put more in yesterday and today, and I can’t wait to put even more in. In 5 years I think I’ll be pretty happy I did so.

    If not, well… I have cases of MREs and lots of slugs & 00 buckshot.

  41. @Graeme #37: I live in SF too and I also have stored food etc. 72 hours worth is not enough!

    John, liked the poll.

  45. Works fine here on my TempComputer(TM), a Mac mini, in FF 3.0.3.

    I’d suggest making sure it’s not one of those polling mechanisms made by VERY STUPID PEOPLE that think that everyone has a unique IP address, though I’ve never seen that cause a poll to simply not show up, that’s generally what’s happened when you see a poll for the first time and it thinks you’ve already voted.

  47. I can see it perfectly fine on my Mac OSX with Safari
    =)
    I like polls muchos grandes, although for this one in particular there’s too many hilarious options for one to win outright, you know.

  48. i like the fact that as i was going through school i was constantly told to set away money for retirement while i was still relatively young
    now that i’m relatively young (25), it looks to me that there’s no real point due to the kind of nonsense that can happen

    i’m gonna buy a couple more guns and go hide in the woods

  50. Where’s the “I’ll be fine; it’s my [parents/siblings/friends] that I’m worried about” option?

  51. I’m running Firefox 2.0.0.17, it worked for me.

    Incidentally, my money’s doing OK. About a year ago I split my minuscule 401k funds between precious metals and tax-exempt municipal bonds. I’m down only 9% so far this year. It could be a LOT worse – had I stayed in the stock fund I started with, I’d have lost 30%.

    But do remember that there has never been a 30-year period where people who have money invested in stocks ended up with a negative rate of return, not even in the Great Depression. So if you’re not retiring in the next 3-5 years, calm yourself.

  52. I was expecting a “whatever” option. That’s what I would have chosen. Also, there didn’t seem to be a “pie” option. And you call this an Internet poll. Pshaw!

  54. It seems to work just fine using Opera 9.60, running under XP Service Pack 3.

    With best wishes,
    – Tom –

  55. Works now for me in firefox.

    hmm, my option isn’t up there. Buy buy buy! Retirement is 40+ years away. Stocks have never been a short term plan for us at least :)

  56. Sold out a month ago. Lost my dividend income, but that sure beats the loss those stocks have taken since. The word now is buy. For the super-cautious, wait till after the election. But there should have been a poll option of “run in circles, scream and wail” which is what most are seeming to do right now.

  57. I joked to my friend a little bit ago that I was thinking of stocking up on ammo and Britta water filters.

    He told me I was too late on the ammo, local sporting goods store can’t keep it on the shelves.

    And I thought: Oops.

  58. JW # 57
    You can always give our local Wal-Mart here in Indiana a call. They stock enough ammo to launch an elephant’s ass to the moon. I wonder if the folks from Bentonville, Arkansas are trying to tell us something…………

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