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Polls

A poll is a question for the side with a closing date, like which Saturday, which hanky, or who’s willing to drive. Anybody signed in can start one, and anybody can vote. Some buttons call it a question, like Edit the question.

Voting

Open the poll from the Polls tab, choose an answer and press Vote. While it’s open, you can press Change my vote, or Take my vote back.

Tap anywhere on an answer to choose it, picture and all. Press Full size under a picture to see it properly. In dark mode a picture’s colours are close but not exact, and Full size shows the real thing.

Every poll ends with Abstain, for when you’d rather not choose. Abstaining counts as answering.

Everybody can see who voted for what, unless the poll is anonymous. That’s usually the point: you settle “which Saturday?” by seeing who can do which, not by counting votes.

When you open the app

If there’s a poll you haven’t answered, opening the app shows you that poll first. Vote, or choose Abstain, and the next one appears. Once there are none left, you get the ticksheet.

To get to the ticksheet without answering, press Back to the ticksheet at the top of the poll, or the Events tab. The poll comes back next time you open the app, until you answer it or it closes.

Starting a poll

1. On the Polls tab, press + Ask the side.
2. Write the question, and between 2 and 20 answers to choose from. Abstain is added after them.
3. Add any pictures, recordings or files you want to go with it.
4. Check it all, then press Ask the side. Once it’s asked, only an admin can change it.

Tick Allow multiple choice to let people pick more than one. Everybody hears about a new poll straight away, rather than in the daily round-up, because it has a closing date.

Pictures, recordings and files

Under each answer, Picture or recording adds one to that answer. The answer still needs its words, because they’re what the emails and the result say.

Files to go with it, under the question, adds something to read or listen to before answering. For a video, type its web address into Anything else they need to know, and it becomes a link.

Pictures are saved smaller, and without the details a phone keeps in them, like where they were taken.

When a poll closes

A poll stays open all day on its closing date, then closes by itself. Nobody has to press anything.

The next day, whoever started it is told what it said. Abstain never wins: if 5 chose Saturday, 3 chose Sunday and 6 abstained, most voted for Saturday.

They can then Keep it running with a new closing date, or Put it away. A poll that’s been put away can still be read: press Show the ones put away at the foot of the Polls tab.

Looking after a poll

Whoever started a poll looks after it, from Yours to look after on its page. So can an admin, and whoever holds the office that runs the polls (the offices table says which), for when the person who started it is away.

While it’s open, they can Close it now. They can also remind everybody who hasn’t answered, and only them. The button says how many, like Remind the 9 who have not answered.

A reminder goes by email, notification or both, depending on what each person has asked for. It can go once a day at most.

Remove this poll deletes it, every vote and every file on it, and can’t be undone.

Changing a poll

Once a poll is asked, only an admin can change it, with Edit the question. People may already have voted on what it said. If you’ve made a mistake, remove it and ask again.

Even an admin can’t take off an answer somebody has voted for, because that would delete their vote.

Anonymous polls

Some questions only get an honest answer if nobody knows who said what, like whether the subscription is too high. For those, tick one or both of these when you start the poll:

Keep responses anonymous: Nobody can see who voted for what, not even you.

Hide count: Nobody but you can see how many chose each answer. It can only be ticked with Keep responses anonymous, because while names are showing, anybody could count them.

Neither can be turned off once anybody has voted.

How many have voted still shows: everybody else sees “5 of 22 have voted”, but not how many chose each answer. You can always see your own answer.

Showing what an anonymous poll said

Once an anonymous poll has closed, whoever started it can show everybody what it said:

Show everybody the totals: How many chose each answer, with no names. It’s only there if Hide count was ticked.

Reveal who voted for what: Everybody’s name against their answer, after the totals if they were hidden. It asks first, then shows everybody at once, including the person who started the poll, so nobody gets a private look.

Either can be hidden again, and hiding the totals hides the names too. Neither can undo what people have already seen.

Only the person who started the poll can do this. Neither an admin nor whoever holds the office that runs the polls can.