FAQ: Key Threads - IMDb Poll FAQs Index

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Polls that are accurate, up to date and complete are more fun and satisfying. It's hard to make a perfect poll and the quality has been tremendous, but errors do slip in. What we are describing below is a process for supporting post launch poll revisions.

Note: if you are looking to close a no longer relevant poll, check this thread: FAQ: Poll Close Requests

If you're a poll author, I would encourage you to revisit your thread and decide whether the post-launch suggestions (or any new ideas you have) are worth incorporating.

Always OK Revisions

* Missing discussion links

* Typos in descriptive text

* Missing an obvious choice (an obvious option was overlooked at the time of poll publish):

These are usually ok to add, as long as it is to the END of the list. It is good form to add the date you added this choice to the description field for that choice. That way someone looking at the results will not be surprised this obvious choice has so few votes compared to the original entries. 

Sometimes OK Revisions

* Missing/weak descriptive text:

Important! Do not change the feel of the poll. If your poll was for favorites,it must stay that. If it's a worst poll it must stay that. Does this make sense? Otherwise you're changing historic votes. That is bad karma. Adding a little color or description that keeps the feel of the poll is ok.

* Changing a poll title:

Mostly discouraged, except for adding a question-mark if appropriate.

* Updating a poll due to new information:

A new creditable entry, not due to an oversight comes up (e.g. a new release). We would generally discourage this if the poll has more than a few hundred votes. You maybe should consider a new poll? 

* Fixing a missing image

Very Rarely OK Revisions

* Deleting a choice

* Re-arranging the order of an option:

These used to be impossible, but they are rarely OK. It is allowable in the case they do NOT affect any live votes and the duplicate choice and ALL items following it in the list have ZERO votes. If you have any doubt, please post to your original thread before making this change; if you do it incorrectly, you will never be able to update your poll again!

* Replacing valid options without votes

How to Proceed 

If you are the author and want your poll re-pushed, make the changes to your original list in accordance with the instructions above, then reply to this post. This gives us (and other users) a chance to see these in a consolidated place and not hunt through threads. If you are not the poll author, you must contact the author in the poll thread.

Please include the poll title and the URL of the list and the poll as well as the reason for the request.

    Poll Title: O',brother,sister, who art thou

    Poll URL: http://www.imdb.com/poll/wvdPChk96q8/

    List URL: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls059040806/

    Reason: Fixing capitalization in title (add as much detail as you like)

Poll board members, please feel free to comment on the proposed revision and offer your support or rejection of the change.

It would be reasonable to cross post to the original poll suggestion thread, but this is optional.

Note 1: here's a useful trick. Can't guarantee this will work forever but it works now. If you want to find the list from a poll, substitute the word "list" for "poll" in the URL and the list id will come up. e.g.

 http://www.imdb.com/poll/wvdPChk96q8/ -> http://www.imdb.com/list/wvdPChk96q8/ will 'automagically' transform to http://www.imdb.com/list/ls059040806/

-hb

(with edits by Dan/Peter)

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If there's still any confusion as to which polls will be re-pushed, please ask so that we can clarify this for everyone as soon as practical.