What is the point of DUing polls

[Guy_Montag]

surely politicians do real polling & don't rely on polls which they must know are fought over between DU & FR.

So what is gained from Duing polls?

Why don't you write a short e-mail to the relevant politician giving your opinion.

e.g.

Dear Blah,

I notice that such & such has been making the news recently. As a floating, but regular voter, I am just dropping you a line to let you know that I believe that in this instance xyz is the case, for the following reasons:
1)
2)
3)
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my e-mail.

Yours sincerely
Guy Montag.

Don't overdo it, obviously if you send the same thing all the time, they'll get bored of you. Pick your fights, close fights, not lost causes or ones you are sure you will win.

Pick your politician, don't waste your time on politicians who will definitely vote your way (though a thank you note afterwards would be good). Don't waste your time on politicians that will never vote your way. Pick the ones on the other side who you can convince or waverers on the other side.

These are just suggestions, but I think it would be more effective than DUing indicative polls.

[tk2kewl]

1. the point of DUing polls is that they are on the front page of news

sites.

your other point is understood

[LittleClarkie]

2. Online polls aren't really for politicians except maybe indirectly

Mostly it's for the purposes of keeping popular perception from getting skewed. If CNN or MSNBC are going to announce the results on their networks, and if freepers are going to freep the polls in their direction, then we have to hold our end up and keep things relatively even.

[zanne]

3. Because it's fun.

And harmless. There's nothing that cheers me up more.

[MrMonk]

4. It's the "In your face!" factor.

[FrenchieCat]

5. Because "Freepers" freep polls

and so we must "DU" polls for counterbalance.

Note that Internet liberals must do what they can to counter Internet Freeper assholes.

Liberals are being directed to where the polls are....not cheating or anything. What's wrong with that?

[Guy_Montag]

7. Why don't you Freep polls

Make them so one sided the become valueless & companies stop running them. If they keep getting 99.7% in favour of idiotic right-wing option, & 0.3% in favour of common-sense option it might make them reconsider.

Of course this would need to be done, suddenly & with great care, to ensure you don't just end up with 70% in f.o.i.r-w.o. & 30% in f.o.c-s.o..

[FrenchieCat]

9. Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.....

Please rephrase so that I can respond?

Freeping a poll and DUing a poll is the same thing....as far as I know.

Free Republic "Freeps"...and DU, DUs the polls....
meaning the link to the poll is posted on various places so that like minds can attempt to increase participation and therefore increase which question on poll might win.

However because both "Freepers" and DUers do the same thing....it's more a question of who has more Internet "Activists".

Is it a representation of "real" life? Maybe yes...but usually not really, cause there are a lot of non activists who are polled in real life, but who may not be informed or partisan on every question. Therefore, real life polling tends to have some neutrality injected in them.

We can't really force these on-line polls to go away.....and they can have their own effects positively and negatively....depending on if and how the results are reported.

I.E.; on CNN, Wolf Ticket announces the result of on-line polls...which, can, in turn, affect how some viewers who are not on-line and who may not have had a strong opinion. But because many like to be on the "winning" side....the little on-line polls can affect how a non internet or non-activist viewer may react if he/she is ever called by a polling company and asked a question on same subject.

[TalkingDog]

6. For fun AND profit. n/t

[smartvoter]

8. Balance: the public reads them and skewing them is a Freeper pastime. nt